This is a console application that implements the Tru'ng AI Bots for the board game Fire In The Lake, designed by Mark Herman and Volko Ruhnke and published by GMT Games. The Tru'ng Bots were designed by Bruce Mansfield.
You can use this link to download the latest release: Version 1.21
This will download a zip file called fitl-x.x.zip (where x.x is the version number).
Extracting the zip file will create a folder called fitl-x.x.
If you are upgrading to a newer version you can continue any games that you started with the previous version. To do so, simply copy the games folder below the older fitl-x.x directory to the new fitl-x.x directory.
This is a Scala program, so you will need to have the Java JVM installed and make sure that
the java command is on your PATH.
There are two scripts provided that will start the program.
fitl
- A bash script used on Mac and Linux
fitl.cmd
- A Windows command file
When you first run the program, it will prompt you to enter:
- The scenario that you wish to play
- Whether or not you will be using period events.
- Which faction or factions will be played by human players.
- A name for your game so that your progress can be saved.
Your game is saved after each turn or Coup! round is completed.
The next time you run the program, it will ask if you want to resume a saved game and will list all of your saved games. You can pick one or start a new game.
The program does not maintain the deck of event cards. You must setup and shuffle the deck and then tell the program which card has been drawn. You will be prompted to enter a card number each time a new event card must be drawn.
The Trung deck is maintained by the program. You will see messages indicating when a Trung card is drawn but you do not need to use the physical Trung cards.
Use the help command to see all of the the available commands. You can get further help for
a specific command by typing its name after help. For example for help on the show
command type help show.
The show command allows you to inspect the current state of the board, game status, etc.
The history command allow you to review the log for the previous game turns. Each time the
game is saved, a new entry is added to the history. With no parameters the history command
will show the log for the most recent save point.
The rollback command will let you restart the game from the beginning of any turn.
When it is a Bot faction's turn to play you will use the bot command. The results of the Bot turn
are displayed so that you can follow along and update your physical game board.
When it is a human faction's turn to play you will use the act command to take your turn. The program
will then ask you how you wish to proceed.
During your turn you can enter abort at most prompts if you wish to cancel what you have done
and start your turn over. This will take you back to the start of your turn. And any changes
needed to the physical game board will be displayed so you can keep your physical board in sync
with the software.
If you enter abort while you are conducting a Special Activity only the
special activity is aborted. This allows you to change your mind and select another special activity,
or to not perform a special activity at the current moment. Once you have backed out of the
special activity, you can enter abort again to abort the entire turn.
All commands can be shortened to the prefix of the command name that is unique. For example hi
is shorthand for history.
In fact this use of abbreviated prefixes works at every prompt in the game. For example, if you are
executing an operation and the software prompts you for the space in which to perform that operation
you could enter sai to indicate Saigon. (You do not need to distinguish between uppercase and lowercase
letters)
If you were to enter an ambiguous prefix such as quang, then the software will display a menu to
allow you to clarify which space you wish to select.
'quang' is ambiguous. Choose one:
====================================================
1) Quang Duc-Long Khanh
2) Quang Nam
3) Quang Tin-Quang Ngai
4) Quang Tri-Thua Thien
5) None of the above
----------------------------------------------------
Selection:
Also, when at a prompt, you can see all of choices that are valid for the current operation by entering a question mark ?.
For example if you are playing the VC and are prompted to select a space to Terrorize, you could enter ? and you
will see a list of all valid spaces that can be terrorized by the VC faction. Then you will be prompted
again to enter a space.
Terrorize which space: ?
Enter one of:
Binh Dinh, Binh Tuy-Binh Thuan, Kien Giang-An Xuyen, Kien Phong, Pleiku-Darlac, Quang Duc-Long Khanh, Tay Ninh, or abort
Terrorize which space:
The names of LOCs are quite long as they include all endpoints of the LOC.
In the software the name of all LOCS begin with the prefix LOC
For example:
LOC Ban Me Thuot -- Da Lat
Remembering and typing the entire unique prefix for an LOC would not be very easy since there are many LOCs coming out of the same endpont. So when selecting an LOC you can simply enter "LOC" as the prefix and the software will provide a menu of all LOCs that can be selected for the current game function. You can then simply enter the number next to the LOC that you wish to select.
Terrorize which space: loc
'loc' is ambiguous. Choose one:
====================================================
1) LOC Hue -- Da Nang
2) LOC Saigon -- An Loc -- Ban Me Thuot
3) None of the above
----------------------------------------------------
Selection:
In the above example, only the LOCs with underground guerrillas are included in the list.
Copyright (c) 2023 Curt Sellmer
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
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