Three Dimensional Connect Four - could it work

[Some Android]

So Connect Four is a game where you have to create a line segment made up of four discs - either red or black. The game is basically played on a two dimensional plane. There's no depth. You can only connect four vertically or horizontally along the x or y axis. But what if you combined multiple boards(?) of Connect Four incorporating depth and could connect four along a z axis? I've yet to try this, but does it sound like something interesting?

[Iruka]

It's pretty neat. You can find some implementations of it to play online, like here (https://www.mathsisfun.com/games/connect3d.html).

[Some Android]

It's pretty neat. You can find some implementations of it to play online, like here (https://www.mathsisfun.com/games/connect3d.html).

Wait the concept already exists?:smallconfused: I thought I was being original.

Oh well. Are there any other methods to add more dimensions to previously existing games?

[Wookieetank]

Wait the concept already exists?:smallconfused: I thought I was being original.

Oh well. Are there any other methods to add more dimensions to previously existing games?

There's Multidimensional chess (https://www.brookstone.com/pd/classic-games-collection---strato-chess/772799.html?bkeid=compare%7Cmercent%7Cgooglebasead s%7Csearch&gclid=CJHp4-f5tdwCFVEDgQodTIYNow&gclsrc=ds) and circular chess (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_chess). Haven't played either since I'm not a huge chess fan, but they look neat. I'd be interested in a multidimensional othello game, but according to the googles its not a thing (and it'd probably be needlessly complicated to boot).

[Eldan]

WE once tried three-dimensional tic tac toe and it took us one game to find out that the first player always wins.

[Some Android]

circular chess (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_chess)

Woah! That looks trippy. Might have to try that out someday.

[Rodin]

WE once tried three-dimensional tic tac toe and it took us one game to find out that the first player always wins.

Both tic tac toe and Connect 4 really lost their shine for me as a kid once I realized perfect play (a.k.a. solved game) exists for both of them.

[Eldan]

At least the Perfect Game for Tic Tac Toe is a guaranteed draw, not a guaranteed win.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Wait the concept already exists?:smallconfused: I thought I was being original.

Oh well. Are there any other methods to add more dimensions to previously existing games?

Multidimensional battleship is great. The most dimensions I've played with is 5*, but the rules, at least the ones we used, really stop being a lot of fun by that point***, 3 dimensions is the most fun.

*When playing 3 dimensional we noticed that we were using different notations. I was using a 2D field and putting Greek letters** in every square for the height positions I'd guessed and/or hit, the other guy was using several fields in a row. We realized that if we combined those notations we could play in 4 dimensions. A 5 dimensional field is a field of fields, and every square in those fields gets Greek letters for the positions guessed. While you don't have an idea of how these dimensions relate to each other, each single dimension has a consistent direction where you can always tell which position borders which others and where you get by continuing in the same direction. For instance, you could have a "Jesus cross" shaped ship. It's four long in any one dimension, and at position three there are two blocks sticking out in opposite directions in any other single dimension. You can even describe 4 and five dimensional shapes, like the same cross with extra arms, or a hypercube that's just 2 long on four or five sides.

** Because of the rapidly growing amount or fields in a multidimensional game a 2D match is fun at a 10*10 field, but for 3D 5*5*5 is optimal. Hence Greek letters working for that notation. The ones later in the alphabet all sort of start blurring together. 4D and 5D we played with 4*4*4*4(*4) I think, the game doesn't really work smaller than that.

*** We played with the rule that ships cannot touch each other, so you can better use your previous guesses to find out what shape the ship has. I think we allowed diagonal touching, but still. A ship of a single block in size blocks 10 squares that border it directly in a 5 dimensional game. But even without that rule, if you found one block and you're looking for a two block ship worst case scenario you're looking at 10 guesses before you get it, which slows the game down. Battleship just wasn't designed for 5 dimensional play.

Something like connect 4 probably requires too much insight to play in more than 3 dimensions well, but battleship was actually playable, if getting kind of long winded.

[Eldan]

I'd probably be up to trying 4D battleship, but 5D, especially with ships that aren't just linear, sounds like it would break my brain.

I'm with you on the tedious, though... I mean, you hit space C3-3-Gamma and it's a ship, you then have to check 8 other neighboring spaces to find out where the rest of the ship is... no thanks.

[Rodin]

I'd probably be up to trying 4D battleship, but 5D, especially with ships that aren't just linear, sounds like it would break my brain.

I'm with you on the tedious, though... I mean, you hit space C3-3-Gamma and it's a ship, you then have to check 8 other neighboring spaces to find out where the rest of the ship is... no thanks.

The really hard ship to hit is the TARDIS. It's easier if you try and hit the inside first.

[Eldan]

The Tardis would be a kind of hypercube that stretches in all five dimensions? Doesn't sound harder to hit, just taking longer to finish. Unless we give it special rules, of course, but at that point, it heals itself and moves around fivedimensionally and becomes impossible to kill.

[Some Android]

Both tic tac toe and Connect 4 really lost their shine for me as a kid once I realized perfect play (a.k.a. solved game) exists for both of them.

I think tic tac toe needs to be more than three symbols in a row and the grid needs to be bigger. I'm not sure if this would just end in infinite draws but how about something like a 20x20 grid and you have to get 5 in a row? Of course these are just random numbers I pulled out. Trying to determine a right amount of symbols in a row and the dimensions of the grid could take some trial and error.

[Wookieetank]

I think tic tac toe needs to be more than three symbols in a row and the grid needs to be bigger. I'm not sure if this would just end in infinite draws but how about something like a 20x20 grid and you have to get 5 in a row? Of course these are just random numbers I pulled out. Trying to determine a right amount of symbols in a row and the dimensions of the grid could take some trial and error.

I just remembered a marble version I played in one of my math classes way back when that was played on a 4x4x4 grid. Seems it was also known as Qubic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_tic-tac-toe), neat.

[Eldan]

I think tic tac toe needs to be more than three symbols in a row and the grid needs to be bigger. I'm not sure if this would just end in infinite draws but how about something like a 20x20 grid and you have to get 5 in a row? Of course these are just random numbers I pulled out. Trying to determine a right amount of symbols in a row and the dimensions of the grid could take some trial and error.

That exists, it's called Gomoku, or Gobang.

[Some Android]

That exists, it's called Gomoku, or Gobang.

Huh? Are those Dragon Ball (Z) OCs?

Dumb joke aside I will check those out.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Hasbro used to publish a variant of gomoku called "Pente", it was pretty neat.

[gomipile]

I used to play a 4x4x4 version called Match 4:


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/03/92/71/039271b1332183583dbc311b1ce0f0b6.jpg


There are larger wooden versions now:


https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0496/0085/products/3D-Connect-Four-WG-213_8ed31bbc-5e50-47ad-bdeb-791df6c2c3dd.jpg

[keybounce]

3D tic-tac-toe on a 4x4 grid, or 3d connect 4, can work. But you need the "switch sides" rule.

One player places a piece. The next player decides which of the two players placed that piece as move 1.

Play in the center? Too strong, player 2 says "I'm playing that".

Play in a really bad spot? Player 2 says "That's your play, here's mine"

Reminds me of "Hex". The only good "first placements" are either 2,2 or 3,1. (That's near a corner of an 11x11 board.)

[Rockphed]

Klutz press used to make a book of boardgames, including 3D tic-tac-toe (that was indeed a 4x4x4 grid). It didn't have a "player 1 plays, player 2 decides whose move it was" rule, but I also never played it enough to have any idea of how well balanced it was.

If you have an infinite board for tic-tac-toe, the shortest winning path that is non-trivial is 5-in-a-row. There may be perfect games for that, but, just like chess, they are not easy to deduce.

[Algeh]

There's also Ultimate Tic Tac Toe: https://mathwithbaddrawings.com/2013/06/16/ultimate-tic-tac-toe/ , which is kind of fractal tic tac toe.