Cooperative games:

I would love to be able to play cooperative games
(or, to put it another way: games without opponents).
That means 1, 2, 3, or 4 players play the same colour
and try to build the longest line/the biggest loop.

The game is kind of a merging of the strategy game and
a longest lines/loops puzzle for one colour.
I have played it numerous times on the table.
It would certainly be a valuable addition to Tantrix.

By ddyer on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 03:52 am:

One tile rack only:

In this variation there would be only one tile rack, shared by
both players. It might have a few more tiles than the standard 6.
Each player would select a tile and play it and all forced moves,
just as in the standard game.

This would be an easier game to learn and less complex to play,
since you wouldn't have to scan as many tiles, and planned
forced sequences couldn't be disrupted by unfortunate draws.

By zorpolotta on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 03:54 am:

2 sets variation:

Each player has a bag of 56 tiles and they draw from their own bag instead of both getting tiles from the same bag.

By Bastet on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 04:01 am:

Doubles variation:

When playing doubles games, you end up having 24 tiles 'out' of the bag at all
times (until they run out of course) which makes a lot of tiles to scan through
and I think slows down the game, as everyone works their way though the
consequences of moves. It also means that the restriction rules are lifted when
there are nearly half the tiles still to be played. My idea is to have only 12
tiles out (six in each 'hand') and you and your partner take turns playing from
the same hand (I.E. alternate players of the team get the 'play' message).

Doubles Variation 2:

How about having doubles games with TWO sets of tiles (the second set being
brought in when the last tile of the first set is drawn). At the moment doubles
games seem to have hardly got going before the restrictions are lifted and I
think it would make the game much more interesting to play. Double Doubles
Tantrix so to speak

By Puddleglum on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 04:04 am:

Go loopy! - Playing tantrix to make small loops:

Some players, for fun, like to play a game where you make the most (small) loops
either of your own colour, or forcing your opponent into small loops. It would
be fun to have a room or two where players could do this and the score is the
number of loops made. Games would not change rankings.

By Helly on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 06:03 am:

Double-games could be much more interesting if there is two tile set used in the game. As we (just like now) use only one set (56 tiles) the game is over before it has even started. Using more tiles (112 tiles) would allow the players use more strategy skills in the double games too, as they do in normal games with only 2 players. Also it could be fun to try to play a doubles game with 3 or 4 teams, not just 2 teams what is right now. But if there is 4 teams it really should have the double amount of tiles too.

By tizz14 on Sunday, July 13, 2003 - 06:20 am:

Why not have games where each player plays as two colours? The scores from each
players two colours could be added together to give an overall score. Even if one
person got a big loop the other would know they still had a chance. I think this
could prove to be very challenging.

This could also be applied to doubles games where each pair would have two colours.
Doubles games are currently not very popular and maybe this would be a way of
encouraging people to play them.

By Sirpi on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 01:43 am:

"alternate color tantrix"

I heard this idea from Helly, and it appeals to me very much. Almost
all rules are the same as in normal tantrix, except one: red must
touches only yellow and vica versa, and the same for blue and
green. One player gets the "orange" line to build (alternate red end
yellow segments), the other gets the "aquamarine" (by blue and green
segments). The aim is a longer line or a larger loop than the
opponent's.

The beauty in this variation is:
- a line or a loop can intersect itself
- a corner can't be force-looped
(all loop consists of an even number of tiles)
- no "neutral" colors
- line length is up to 84
- a loop can worth even 168 points!

By Frogzone1 on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 06:14 am:

I can understand wanting to make sure the official game is the one people learn as "Tantrix", but i think it would be nice if players can play variation games with an open or variation room online.

I think it would be good (but maybe difficult to set up?) if we had a room where we can set the rules...this could perhaps be used to play all kinds of variations.

So for example, we can set...

ordinary game rules- on/off,
score- loops/ordinary,
tile matching- red to yellow/ordinary,
see all tiles- yes/no... etc

If we call this room a Variation (or even deviation! ;-) ) Room, it should be pretty clear that the game is not supposed to be played in this way, and you could put a message in the chat area explaining it is a variation and not the official rules game when the game opens for spectators.

Alternitavely, we could have an open room. This would be something like the applets used for the discovery puzzle, in that it would just be a playing area, but a tile would be drawn when a tile was played. This way, the tiles would be unrestricted in where they would be played, so any variations could be played, but the score and forced spaces would have to be manual.

A room like this could also be used for table tantrix practice (although we already have that mode, it would be good to know both players were playing table mode, and we'd have to spot our own mistakes and forced spaces as the room wouldn't forbid any move.)

By Helly on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 03:30 pm:

I have played tantrix a lot. Online more than 5000 games and offline very very many games too. First tantrix seemed to be interesting and having an infinite number of different games. It is that there is no 2 equal games to be played immediately after each other.... BUT after 3000 games I started to feel that "I've played this very game earlier" and soon after that I got bored.

The thing that got me interested about tantrix again is the variations of the game. We have played many different variations with my friends, and it is a good way to play with tile set if the normal game does not feel nice at that point. It is surely better to play with tantrix tiles than totally chance to another game? One variated game every now and then and everybody are happy...

And I think I learned to play tantrix better with these odd games, because it helped me to see tiles in another point of vue and construct wider scale of strategy and moves to make.

Now I must remind you that in every game and variation we use the BASIC RULES of tantrix. It is: forced spaces, 3 phase of your turn, restricted area etc. In other "tantrix-like" games that is not the case. In Psyche-paths, Kaliko, Bombay Bazaar etc the rules are very different even the tile's outlook somehow remind the tantrix tiles. I am not interested of those games because it will not help my tantrix playing skills. The variation is good as long as the basic rules are not changed too much, and it still reminds more tantrix than other games.

All puzzles with tantrix might help you in playing the game because you get more and more familiar with the tiles each time. And that interest should not be discouraged.

By Frogzone1 on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 05:33 am:

I agree with you Heli, when you say the variations improve play.

I've played a few "little loops" co-operative games, and I found them very useful in games when I want to force-loop my opponent. These moves seem to be a lot easier for me to spot now, so I think variations can definately help with improving player skill level.

By melinda on Saturday, September 13, 2003 - 02:43 pm:

I've been playing quite a lot of chess variants. What makes a good chess variant is usually a very simple change in the rules, easy to learn, with far-reaching effects, so that you have to re-examine your strategy and think creatively. I imagine the same would hold true for Tantrix. It's quite easy to think up very complex variants, but much harder to make a small and elegant change which results in a good game.

Also, some chess variants are fun just because they are crazy. There is a time and a place for those too!

Melinda

By Anonymous on Wednesday, September 08, 2004 - 02:16 am:

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