manual.txt

NAME
	stratego - Interface to manage games of stratego between AI programs and/or human players
	
WARNING
	This program is still a work in progress. Consider it a Beta version.

SYNOPSIS
	stratego {[-gpirb] [-o output_file ] [-t stall_time] [-m max_turns] {red_player blue_player | -f input_file} | {-h | --help} }

DESCRIPTION
	stratego manages a game of Stratego. It stores the state of the board, and uses a simple protocol to interface with AI programs.
	By itself, stratego does not "play" the game. An external AI program must be used. stratego is intended to be used for the testing of 
	various AI strategies, written in any programming language. It will be used for the UCC Programming Competition 2012.

	Unless the -h (--help) or -f switch is given, both red_player and blue_player must be supplied.

	red_player
		Should be either a path to an executable file which will control the Red player, or "human".
		If set to "human", stratego will request the user to make moves for the Red player using stdin.
		NOTES
			1. There is no plan to support AI programs named "human". Deal with it.
			2. The graphical interface for human players is... basic. Deal with it.

	blue_player
		As red_player, except for controlling the Blue player.
	
OPTIONS
	-g
		By default, graphics are disabled. If the -g switch is present, stratego will draw the game as it is played using SDL/OpenGL
		
	-p
		By default, even if graphics are disabled, the board state is not printed. If -p is present, the board will be printed to stdout.
		If the system supports colour, the characters will be in colour.
		Yes, If -p and -g are both present you will see both behaviours (overkill)!
	-i
		By default, stratego will exit if a move which is deemed "illegal" is made. If the -i switch is present, illegal moves will be ignored.
		That is, the move will not be made (effectively the player making the illegal move loses a turn).

		NOTE: If -i is not given and a human player accidentally(?) makes an illegal move, they will be asked to make a different move. The game will continue.
		This is intended to prevent fits of rage due to the horrible graphical interface causing humans to make illegal moves.
	-r
		By default, the identities of all pieces are shown. If the -r switch is present, and graphics are enabled, red pieces will be disguised.
		If graphics are disabled, the -r switch has no effect.

		Pieces which have previously taken part in combat (and survived) will be revealed.
	-b
		As -r, except blue pieces will be disguised.
		NOTE: Both -r and -b may be used together.
	-o
		By default, stratego does not log moves. If the -o switch is present, the result of each move is printed to a file. 
		If output_file is "stdout" then stdout will be used instead of a text file.
	-t
		By default, stratego executes moves as fast as they are recieved. If the -t switch is present, a delay of stall_time will be introduced
		between each move.
		
		If stall_time is negative or "inf", stratego will wait for the user to press enter before moving to the next move.
		
		It is tentatively planned to allow the user to enter various commands to alter the game or proceed to specified turns.
		However this is slightly complicated. So it might never be done.
	-m
		By default, the game is declared a Draw after 5000 turns have ellapsed.
		Use this option to change the maximum number of turns.
		To play for an infinite number of turns, supply "inf" as max_number. This is not recommended for obvious reasons.

	-f
		By default, stratego requires red_player and blue_player to enact a game.
		If this option is supplied, a file previously produced by using the -o switch is read, and the game reenacted.
		All switches function as normal with -f.
		NOTE: It is recommended that -g is used with -f.

	-h, --help
		If the -h switch is used, this page will be printed and stratego will exit.
		
		

GAME RULES
		Each player controls up to 40 pieces on the Board. The pieces consist of the following:

		Piece	Name		Rank	Number	Abilities
		1	Marshal		1	1	Dies if attacked by Spy
		2	General		2	1	
		3	Colonel 	3	2	
		4	Major		4	3	
		5	Captain		5	4	
		6	Lieutenant 	6	4
		7	Sergeant   	7	4
		8	Miner		8	5	Destroys Bombs without being killed
		9	Scout		9	8	May move more through multiple empty squares
		s	Spy		10	1	If the Spy attacks the Marshal, the Marshal dies
		B	Bomb		NA	6	Immobile. If any piece (except a Miner) encounters an enemy Bomb, both pieces are destroyed
		F	Flag		NA	1	Immobile. If any piece encounters the enemy Flag, the controlling player wins.

		Additional pieces, not controlled by the player:
		Piece	Name			Number	Notes
		+	Obstacle		8	Immobile. Do not belong to either player. Can't be passed through.
		#	Enemy Piece		0 - 40	Indicates that the position on the board is occupied by an enemy piece.
		.	Empty			NA	Indicates that the position on the board is empty.
		
		Players take turns to move their pieces. RED begins the game.

		Pieces may only move one square horizontally or vertically unless otherwise stated.
		Pieces may not move through squares occupied by allied pieces, or Obstacle (+) pieces.
		Pieces may move into squares occupied by Enemy Pieces (#), in which case the piece with the lower rank (higher number) is destroyed.

		Each player's pieces are hidden from the other player. When two pieces encounter each other, the ranks will be revealed.

		The objective is to destroy all Enemy Pieces (#) or capture the Enemy Flag (also #).
		

PROTOCOL
	In order to interface with stratego, an AI program must satisfy the following protocol. 
	Each query is followed by a newline, and responses are expected to be followed with a newline.
	The queries are recieved through stdin, and responses should be written to stdout.
	
	1. SETUP
		QUERY: YOUR_COLOUR OPPONENT_ID BOARD_WIDTH BOARD_HEIGHT

		RESPONSE: 4 lines, each of length BOARD_WIDTH, of characters. Each character represents a piece. The characters are shown above.

		RED's pieces are placed at the top of the board, and BLUE's pieces are placed at the bottom.

		An AI program does not have to place all 40 pieces, but must at least place the flag ('F').

	2. TURN
		QUERY: 	START | CONFIRMATION
			BOARD_STATE

			On the first turn, "START" is printed to the Red player.
			On subsequent turns, the CONFIRMATION of the opponent's last turn is printed (see below).

			BOARD_STATE consists of a BOARD_HEIGHT lines of length BOARD_WIDTH characters, each of which represents a single piece
			as described in the GAME_RULES section. Each line ends with the newline character.
			

		RESPONSE: X Y DIRECTION [MULTIPLIER=1] | NO_MOVE
			X and Y are the coords (starting from 0) of the piece to move
			DIRECTION is either UP, DOWN, LEFT or RIGHT
			MULTIPLIER is optional and only valid for units of type Scout. Scouts may move through any number of unblocked squares
			in one direction.

			The AI program should print "NO_MOVE" if it is unable to determine a move.
			This will typically occur when the only pieces belonging to the AI program are Bombs and the Flag.

		CONFIRMATION: X Y DIRECTION [MULTIPLIER=1] OUTCOME | NO_MOVE {OK | ILLEGAL} | QUIT [RESULT]

			OUTCOME may be either OK, ILLEGAL, KILLS or DIES
				OK - Move was successful
				ILLEGAL - Move was not allowed. If stratego was not started with the -i switch, the game will end.
				KILLS ATTACKER_RANK DEFENDER_RANK - The piece moved into an occupied square and killed the defender.
				DIES ATTACKER_RANK DEFENDER_RANK - The piece moved into an occupied square and was killed by the defender.

			Most turns will be confirmed with: "X Y DIRECTION [MULTIPLIER=1] OUTCOME"

			A confirmation of "NO_MOVE OK" occurs when the AI program made no move for a legitimate reason.
			"NO_MOVE ILLEGAL" is printed if the AI program made no move for an illegitimate reason.

			If both AI programs successively make a "NO_MOVE" response, then the game will end.
			The player with the highest piece value will win, or a draw will be declared if the values are equal.

	3. END GAME
		If the CONFIRMATION line is of the form:
			QUIT [RESULT]
		Then the game is about to end.
	
		If present, RESULT will be a direct copy of the message to stdout described in the EXIT/OUTPUT section below.
		
	
	4. TIMEOUTS
		If a program fails to respond to a query within 2 (two) seconds, the game will end and that AI will be sent the ILLEGAL result.
		Human players are not subject to the timeout restriction.
		
			

EXIT/OUTPUT
	If the game ends due to a player either winning, or making an illegal move, stratego will print one of the following result messages to stdout.

	NAME COLOUR OUTCOME TURN_NUMBER OUTCOME RED_PIECE_VALUE BLUE_PIECE_VALUE

	Where:
		NAME is the name of the player on whose turn the game ended,
		COLOUR is the colour of that player,
		OUTCOME is one of the following:
			VICTORY - The indicated player won
			DEFEAT - The indicated player lost
			SURRENDER - The indicated player surrendered
			DRAW - The game ended in a draw because neither player moved
			DRAW_DEFAULT - The game ended in a draw because the maximum number of moves was exceeded
			ILLEGAL - The indicated player loses due to an Illegal move/response
			DEFAULT - The indicated player wins by default due to the other player making an Illegal move/response
			BOTH_ILLEGAL - Both players made an Illegal move/response. Usually occurs due to simultaneous setup errors, or bad executable paths.
			INTERNAL_ERROR - The game ended, even though it shouldn't have.
			
		TURN_NUMBER is the number of turns that elapsed before the game ended

		RED_PIECE_VALUE and BLUE_PIECE_VALUE are the summed piece values of the pieces of RED and BLUE respectively.
		Bombs and Flags are worth zero, and the ranked pieces (Spys -> Marshal) are worth (11 - rank).
		So the Spy is worth 1 point, ... the Marshal is worth 10.

		(The initial piece values can be determined by running with -m 0)
		

	stratego will then return exit code 0.

	If an error occurs within stratego itself, an error message will be printed to stderr and return exit code 1.
	If possible, stratego will print the message "QUIT" to both AI programs, and they should exit as soon as possible.
	

BUGS
	WARNING:
	stratego has been observed to segfault occassionally after the end of a game. It is not yet known what is causing these errors.
	They appear to occur most often when the result is a draw, however they have been observed to occur under all exit conditions except the Illegal case. The result is still printed to stdout. However this bug _must_ be fixed before stratego can be used by simulation scripts.	

	stratego is still a work in progress. Report another bug to the AUTHOR (see below).

AUTHORS
	Sam Moore (for the UCC Programming Competition 2012) <[email protected]>

NOTES
	0. This program is still a work in progress and subject to changes.
	
	1. UCC Programming Competition 2012 Description
	   http://matches.ucc.asn.au/stratego/

	2. UCC Programming Competition 2012 Git repository
	   git://git.ucc.asn.au/progcomp2012.git

 
	3. IRC Channel
	   irc://irc.ucc.asn.au #progcomp