| What is Animenopoly? | | Animenopoly was a board game invented by Chris Plaice and friends, for one of the Aya conventions. It is based upon the well known game of Monopoly, but with an anime twist. This is an on-line version where you can play against lot of other players simultaneously. Obviously there have had to be some changes in moving to an on-line format. Most notable of which has been the elimination of "taking turns". Now the game is based around time, where you are allocated a certain number of turns per day. You may use these how you wish, or even trade them in for a little more "money". |
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| How do I play? | Firstly you will need an account on anime.org.uk. If you don't already have one then pop over to anime.org.uk to create one. Once you have an account you are all set to play.
The next step is to register. Select the Avatar that you wish to represent you on the system, and wether you want to be notified of game updates. The update is simply an email report of your status on the game.
When you start you will be given an initial amount of tapes - the currency within the game. This amount varies depending upon when you join the game. If you join the game early, then you will have a lesser amount than if you join late. |
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| How often are the games? | | There is one game every calendar month. The game resets itself at about 00:01 on the 1st of the month. All previous teams and players are removed and the licenses reset. |
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| How do I move? | | If you have turns available to you then all your available options are listed on the webpage. You take a turn by selecting what you would like to do. To "Move" select "Take a turn" and dice will be thrown for you. You will then move those number of places. If you land on a Chansu or Anime Comminuty Chest card then a card is taken for you and the effects applied directly. |
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| How do I buy a License? | | If you land on an unowned license, and you have available tapes, then you may buy that license. NB. This also takes one turn. That license then becomes yours and you automatically charge other players rent when they land on it. |
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| How do I collect the Rent? | | To collect the rent you must re-visit your license and collect it. Rent is not automatically paid directly to you. You must play the game to collect it. |
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| Can I make other players pay more rent? | | This is done in two ways. As you buy more of either a Company or a Club, increasing rents are charged automatically. To increase the rent on anime title licenses, you must first buy all the licenses of the colour group. Once you have obtained all these then you may buy an upgrade in the license. Normal rents are 20% of the cost of the license. By buying a VCR license, you can charge 50% of the cost. When you have a DVD license you can then charge 100% of the cost. A VCR license costs twice as much as the original rent. A DVD license costs 4 times as much. |
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| What happens if I'm already on a license and somebody else buys it? | | You were there first. OK, they may own it, but you don't get charged rent. Of course if you were to travel around the board and land on it again you would get charged. |
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| My score went negative! Why? | | Because this game does not have the immediate interaction of buying, selling and trading that a table-top board game does, certain liberties have been taken. One such is that your score may go negative (ie. you are charged rent which is more than your existing funds). As such, as soon as that happens you cannot move further within the game until you have paid off that debt. Either by trading in turns, or by selling one of your licenses. This may happen quite a bit, but after Day 10 things change. |
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| Why? What happens after Day 10? | That is when people can start getting kicked out of the game. You can be kicked out in two ways.
1) By getting a negative score. Keep a careful track of your score. If you get dangerously close to zero, then try forfeiting your turns to build up some tapes. If you go into the red you will be elminated.
2) By not moving enough. Each day you must have moved a number of positions. If you have not achieved the days target number of moves before midnight then you are eliminated. Each day it gets harder to achieve the moves, but you can take some moves before hand to build up a cushion against standing still. On your status screen you will see a little icon of traffic lights. If you're on Red then there is a very good chance that you will be elminated at midnight.* If it's amber then you are safe, but you need to move a little more tomorrow. Green means that you are perfectly OK and can even take a day off to rest if you so wish.
Remember it gets harder and harder to stay in the game, as time progresses, and players begin to take over sections of the board and improve the rents.
* - it's not exactly at midnight. You do get a few minutes grace as a last chance to get back into the game. The actual elimination takes place at around 10 past midnight. |
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| What happens to my licenses, and rent if I am eliminated? | | You licenses become unowned, and any other player may then take control of them. Any rent that is outstanding is lost. |
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| What about team play? | | If you feel that you really cannot survive in the game without a little extra help then create or join a team. Teams may only come into existance after day 10. Through the use of teams you can share licenses and tapes with other members of your team. When you join a team, any licenses owned by you become the property of the team. You, or team members, are not charged rent on any licenses owned by the team. Also if the team owns all the licenses of a single colour group, then any team member can improve them. |
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| Do I need to join a team? | | Not at all. If you feel that you can survive the game without the need of help then you may go it alone. Of course you could always create a team of just yourself if you so wish. |
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| What happens if a team wins? | | Only teams, and not their individual members, are listed on the score board. If a team obtains a winning position then the Zigs that are awarded to the team are distributed equally to all surving team members based on the total number of team members. ie, if you had three members, and the team comes in first then that is 100 Zigs divided by the three members = 33 Zigs to each surviving player. |
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| Can you still be eliminated if you are a member of a team? | | Yes. If you get a negative score or have not moved enough, then you are eliminated. If you are the last member of the team and get removed, then the team is also removed. Any licenses owned by the team are then changed to un-owned. |
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| What do I get if I win? | Zigs! A total of 260 Zigs are given away every month based on the outcome of the game.
| First Place | 100 Zigs | | Second Place | 60 Zigs | | Third Place | 40 Zigs | | Fourth Place | 30 Zigs | | Fifth Place | 20 Zigs | | Sixth Place | 10 Zigs |
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| Where am I on the Hall of Fame? | The Hall of Fame displays a running list of all previous winners. However, unlike the Olympics where ranking is strictly in order of positions won, the number of actual games survived plays a factor in calculating your position. So a person who has played three games and obtained 5th position in each is ranked higher than a player who has only played once - even if they got first place.
Team Play also comes into effect. You earn a higher score if you survived on your own than you would if you joined a team.
The actual maths behind the rankings is 1st place * 7 + 2nd place * 6 + 3rd place * 5 + 4th place * 4 + 5th place * 3 + 6th place * 2 - No. of Team Games * 2 |
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| Draft: How do I program AnimenopolyBots? | AnimenopolyBots are automated players. They are controlled not by the player entering options, but by a small program. The Bot moves similar to AutoMove - but each time it is activated it analyses it's command set and determines which command to actually do. Like a player, a Bot may be eliminated from the game if it has a negative score, or runs out of moves.
Command Syntax
The command structure is essentially a mathematical formula that must return a text string which is the actual command that a Bot then performs. It is in the form of a series of conditional steps which if true then the immediate command after it is used, otherwise it will proceed to the next step which can be an actual command or another conditional. It is written as "@If( condition1 ; action1 ; condition2 ; action2 ; ... ; condition99 ; action99 ; else_action )".
For example:
@if((Price<Tapes) and (Price>0); "Buy";
(Rent>100); "Collect";
((Status=-1) or (Status=0 and Day<28)); "Move";
"")
This program will tell the Bot to buy the licence it is currently on, if it is available for purchase and the Bot has enough Tapes to pay for it. Failing that it will look at it's current location and if the amount of rent that can be collected is greater than 100 then it will collect the incurred rent. If this command is not used, it will progress on to the next commands which state that if the Bot's status is Red then it will Move, or if the Status is Yellow and there are still three more days left in the game then it will move. Otherwise it will do nothing (the empty command ""). By building a series of commands a Bot can get quite sophisticated.
Commands
- "Move"
The Bot will move a random amount. NB. If the Bot has a negative score then it will not move, even if the command keeps on telling it to.
- "Collect"
The Bot will collect the rent on the licence that it is located. If the Bot is not on a licence that it owns, then a move is wasted.
- "Buy"
The Bot will purchase the licence on which it is located, providing a) It is available for purchase, and b) The Bot has enough Tapes to buy it.
- "Sell"
The Bot will sell the licence on which it is located, providing that it is located on the licence.
- "Forfeit"
The Bot will spend a turn, and gain 10 tapes.
- "Upload"
The Bot will upload 50% of it's tapes to the team.
- "Download" The Bot will attempt to download upto 100 tapes from the team.
Unlike Human players, Bots will never be able to remote collect rent, or to be able to forfeit 10 moves at a time.
NB. If for any reason a command is given to the Bot which it is unable to do, such as moving when it has a negative score, then that move is WASTED.
Variables
Variables help the Bot to determine it's surroundings, and the game status. These are vital to the actual decisions that it will take.
- Tapes
How many Tapes the Bot has got.
- Rent
How much rent the Bot can collect from it's current location. NB. If the bot is on a licence that it does not own or a licence which does not have a rent facility (such as Chance or Free Drinks) then it will have a result of 0.
- Day
What day of the month it is.
- TeamTapes
How many Tapes are in the Bot's Team's possession. If the Bot is not part of a team, then this returns a value of 0.
- Status
Returns a value of 1 for Green, 0 for Yellow and -1 for Red.
- Price
Returns the price of the Licence that it is located on - if it is for sale. If the licence is not purchaseable (such as Chansu) then it will return a value of 0.
Operands
- and
A logical and of two values. This will be true only if both of the tested values are true. It is possible to logically and on numeric values but it is not reccommended as it could have unpredictable results.
- or
A local or of two values. This will be true if one or the other or both are true.
- =
Equals. True if one numeric value equals another.
- >
Greater Than. If one value is larger than another.
- <
Less Than. if one value is smaller than another.
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