patrickduncan / 2me3_six_mens_morris

Assignment for 2ME3/2AA4

						 	 		   	 			 _____ _       ___  ___           _      ___  ___                _     
													/  ___(_)      |  \/  |          ( )     |  \/  |               (_)    
						    						\ `--. ___  __ | .  . | ___ _ __ |/ ___  | .  . | ___  _ __ _ __ _ ___ 
						 	 			 			 `--. \ \ \/ / | |\/| |/ _ \ '_ \  / __| | |\/| |/ _ \| '__| '__| / __|
													/\__/ / |>  <  | |  | |  __/ | | | \__ \ | |  | | (_) | |  | |  | \__ \
													\____/|_/_/\_\ \_|  |_/\___|_| |_| |___/ \_|  |_/\___/|_|  |_|  |_|___/
                                                                   
                                                                   
		The following is a guide for Group 15's assignment, Six Men's Morris. It will cover the flow of gameplay, explanation of inputs, gameplay, as well legal moves. 

---

---

| __ || |/| |_ |] | || _/
|] | | | | |_ | |___ | | |

---

As soon as the game starts the user will be offered two options, either 'New Game' or 'Edit Game'.

If they choose the latter, the board will be put into edit mode. Here the users can setup the board however they want, without worrying about taking turns to place their discs. When finished, the user will press "Analyze". The board will be checked for a legal setup; there may be no more than 6 discs of one colour. If there are, they will be hihghlighted with a yellow square and gameplay will be restricted until these discs are removed.

If "New Game" is pressed then the users will take turns placing discs until they both have 6 discs placed. The leading turn will be randomly generated and no discs may be placed over the other. Once all the discs have been placed, the players can begin sliding discs to adjacent spaces.

At any point of the game, the "Restart" button can be pressed to reset the board back to a blank state and restarting all gameplay/edits.

---

---

[__ | | | |/ | |\ | | __ || |/| | | |
] | || | \ | | | |] | | | | | |___ |___

---

Once the game enters the phase where discs can be moved, mills can be scored. A mill is when a player aligns three discs of their colour in either a row or collumn. When a mill is scored the player can remove an oponnent's disc from the board. They can choose any disc as long as it is not apart of a mill itself. Also, a player must move to an adjacent position for it to be legal (they cannot jump across corners), nor can they move to a point that already has a disc on it.

The game will end under two conditions; either a player is reduced to two discs, resulting in the other player's victory, or reaching a point where a player has been completely blocked in and can no longer move. Upon victory, the board can be clicked anywhere to clear it and reset the game.

---

---

| \ |___ | |___ | | |\ | | __ || | \ | [ |
|/ |_ |___ |___ | | | | |] | | |/ | ] |

---

A disc can be deleted in two different ways.

If it is during the "Edit Game" process, the disc must deleted by pressing down your mouse on the disc for 1 second and releasing. If it is directly after scoring a mill during the "New Game" process, the user only needs to click the oponent's disc once to remove it.

---

---

[__ | | | \ | |\ | | __ || | \ | [ |
] | | |/ | | | |] | | |__/ | ] |

---

A disc can be slided in a way similar to the way it is deleted in the "Edit Game" process.

To move a disc, click your mouse down over top the image. Now, slide your mouse to an adjacent point while holding down the button. If the position is legal (stated above), upon the release of the mouse button, the disc should be moved.

---

---

[__ || | | | |\ | | __ || |\ | | \ | | | || | \ | |\ | | __ ] | | / | | | |] | | | | |/ |__ || | | |/ | | | |__]

---

During any point of the game, either user can click "Save". This will record the current state of the game in a text file. This save can be overwritten as many times as possible, and will also save if the program has been closed down.

On the beginning screen, rather than pressing "Edit Game" or "Play Game", the user can choose to press "Load Game". If this is selected, the state of the board will be changed to the state saved in the text file. This saved state will default as a blank board, in case "Load Game" is pressed before "Save".