October 8, 2010: Revised version, after a talk with Vasya. Old version here.
I suggest that we use the following format for RU[simpletext]:
RU[Tag1=value1,Tag2=value2,...]
Tag: Punish Value: 0 or 1 Meaning: Specifies if there is a punish for surrounding own dots (0=no, 1=yes) Notes: This option is present on szkrab.net.pl, but almost nobody uses it. Tag: Holes Value: 0 or 1 Meaning: Specifies if holes between enclosures are allowed (0=no, 1=yes) Notes: On szkrab.net.pl it is always Holes=0. Tag: AddTurn Value: 0 or 1 Meaning: Specifies if there is an additional move after surrounding some enemy dots (0=no, 1=yes) Notes: This option is present on vkontakte.ru Tag: MustSurr Value: 0 or 1 Meaning: Specifies if the surroundings (enclosures) are obligatory (0=no, 1=yes) Notes: 1. This option is typical for the Russian rules. 2. When MinArea=1, then surroundings may be made automatically. Tag: MinArea Value: 0 or 1 Meaning: Specifies if the surroundings (enclosures) should always have minimal area (0=no, 1=yes), taking the value of Holes tag into account. Notes: 1. This option is typical for the Russian rules. 2. When this option is on, then there is no need to save enclosure information in move properties, and it is ok both to save this information or not in this case (for example, eidokropki.reaktywni.pl saves it, and VPoints does not). Tag: Pass Value: 0 or 1 Meaning: Specifies if pass is allowed (0=no, 1=yes). Notes: When one player passes and then the other also passes, then the game ends. Tag: Stop Value: 0 or 1 Meaning: Specifies if STOP move is allowed (0=no, 1=yes). Notes: Stop is typical for Russian rules: it has a meaning of 'I pass in this move and all subsequent moves'. So it is not possible to answer next moves of the opponent. Thus typically STOP is used when all player's dots are safe. After STOP, all unsafe dots of the player who STOPped may be captured by the opponent, and this may be done automatically. Tag: LastSafe Value: 0 or 1 Meaning: Specifies if the last dot placed on the board is safe (0=no, 1=yes). If no, this means that the opponent may capture the last dot, although she cannot place any dot due to lack of free space. Notes: 1. This rule is present on szkrab.net.pl (it is always on, cannot be turned off), but maybe this would change to always off someday... 2. This rule only affects scoring, and always at most by 1 point. 3. Turning this on has strange sideeffects to the result of the game, see http://www.kropki.legion.pl/obliczanie-wyniku-t421.html. 4. This option has no practical importance when Pass is allowed (then simply the last player may decide to not to play the last dot). Tag: ScoreTerr Value: 0 or 1 Meaning: Specifies if territory should be scored (0.5 for each place in the territory). Notes: 1. This rule makes sense only when Pass=1. 2. This rule only affects scoring. The combination Pass=1,ScoreTerr=1 gives a score like Pass=0,ScoreTerr=0 up to 1.5 point with LastSafe=1, and a mere 0.5 point with LastSafe=0. 3. I know no application using rules with ScoreTerr=1. 4. A lot of kropki players is against this rule http://www.kropki.legion.pl/obliczanie-wyniku-t421.html claiming that this would make Kropki too similar to Go, however this is a rather irrational fear because of note 2. above. Tag: InstantWin Value: 0,1,2,... (nonnegative integer) Meaning: If equals n>0, then capturing at least n dots more than the opponent results in an 'instant' win. When n=0, then the game is played to a natural end. Notes: 1. On szkrab it is usually InstantWin=15 (but may be also 0 or 30).Note that (hypothetical) komi could be stored in a KM property.
RU[Punish=0,Holes=0,AddTurn=0,MustSurr=0,MinArea=0,Pass=0,Stop=0,LastSafe=1,ScoreTerr=0,InstantWin=15] -- for standard szkrab rules (for rules with punish, just change 'Punish=0' to 'Punish=1') RU[Punish=0,Holes=1,AddTurn=0,MustSurr=1,MinArea=1,Pass=0,Stop=1,LastSafe=0,ScoreTerr=0,InstantWin=0] -- for Russian rules without an additional move after making an enclosure (for a variant with additonal move, take 'AddTurn=1' instead of 'AddTurn=0') RU[Punish=0,Holes=1,AddTurn=0,MustSurr=1,MinArea=1,Pass=0,Stop=0,LastSafe=0,ScoreTerr=0,InstantWin=0] -- for standard rules on kropki.dl.pl (like Russian, but without Stop - this is a major difference in fact, because it is still possible to 'play for territory' on kropki.dl.pl)