Mr. King's repositiory on gitLab has the following files: fiar_test_runner.py fourinarow.py

These are mirrored in this repository.

Mr. King's repositiory on gitLab has the following README:

FourInARowBotFramework

What is this?

This project is a framework within which you can create a bot to play four-in-a-row (much better known by a trademarked name).

The idea is to clone or fork the repository, write a bot to choose each move, then run the bot against other bots to see which is more effective at winning the game.

The game rules

In this version of the game, the 'board' can vary in size from 6 to 10 columns and from 6 to 10 rows (both inclusive).

All the main principles are the same as the trademarked-game-that-shall-not-be-named:

• 2 players (one with red pieces, the other with yellow)
• the current player chooses a column in which to place their piece (red goes first)
• the piece will fall to the bottom-most empty row in that column
• when a player gets four of their pieces in an uninterrupted line horizontally, vertically or diagonally they win!
• if the board fills up with neither player getting a row of four pieces, the game is a draw
• if the game is not finished, the other player now takes a turn

The Python Files

fourinarow.py

This file contains the actual game logic. You will need this file in the same folder as your bot script, but you will not need to refer to it directly.

fiar_test_runner.py

This is the file you will need to import to run games with your move-chooser bot.

To compare your move-chooser bot against one which randomly chooses an available slot, you would use code like this:

import fiar_test_runner

def my4InARowBot(boardGrid, colour):
	# your logic here
	
	return <your choice between 0 and len(boardGrid)-1>

fiar_test_runner.runAgainstRandom(my4InARowBot)

Writing a Bot

To write a bot, you have to write a subroutine which takes two parameters: boardGrid and colour.

boardGrid is a 2D list of board spaces. It can be different sizes each game but will not change once a game has started. It has 6-10 columns (inclusive) and 6-10 rows (inclusive) A space's value is accessed by: boardGrid[columnIndex][rowIndex]

rowIndex zero is the bottom row of the board.

colour is the colour your bot is currently playing as: 'R' or 'Y'

Example Bots

One example bot can be found in fiar_test_runner.py:

def randomMoveChooser(boardGrid, colour):
    possibleChoices = []
    for colIdx, column in enumerate(boardGrid):
        if "" in column:
            possibleChoices.append(colIdx)
    return choice(possibleChoices)

Four example bots which keep state info can be found near the bottom of fourinarow.py:

dumChooserInfo = { "R":0, "Y":0 }

def horizontalChooser(boardGrid, colour):
	choice = dumChooserInfo[colour]
	dumChooserInfo[colour] = (choice+1)%len(boardGrid)
	return choice

def verticalChooser(boardGrid, colour):
	choice = dumChooserInfo[colour]
	return choice

def diagonalHLtoLRChooser(boardGrid, colour):
	choice = dumChooserInfo["R"]
	dumChooserInfo["R"] = (choice+1)%len(boardGrid)
	return choice

def diagonalLLtoHRChooser(boardGrid, colour):
	choice = dumChooserInfo["R"]
	newChoice = choice-1
	if newChoice < 0:
		newChoice = len(boardGrid)-1
	dumChooserInfo["R"] = newChoice
	return choice