Encoding Nine Men's Morris board game

[muk]

Hi, I have been given an assignment which is very difficult and I do not know where to begin!!

The Aim is as follows:

"To develop a data structure & algorithms for a database of Morris positions. The data will be stored in an array. The point of the database will be to keep information about the occurence and strategical value of each position in the game per player."

An initial encoding is given which is not very efficient and I have to design my own. However I do no know where to begin and would be grateful if anybody will provide me with some sort of assistance.

If needed I have the original instruction sheet which is more detailed.

Thank You

[D_Drmmr]

To store the occurrence of the pieces, you need to store for each position on the board if it is occupied and, if so, by which player. Alternatively, you could store the positions of the placed stones for each player.

Concerning the strategy, you could use a system that I used for 3D four-in-a-row (in a cube of size 4). There, I assigned a score to each empty position that was equal to the sum over all possible directions through that position, of the 'strategic value' of that position. So for each empty position, I looked at all directions in which you could make 4 in a row and added the 'strategic value' of the position in that row to the score of the position. With strategic value I mean: how much would I gain from placing a stone in this position, given the other stones (in the row under consideration).
Maybe you could translate this to something usefull for your problem. ;)

[muk]

Thanks for your reply, it was very helpful.

And sorry for the late reply (I thought I had replied but found I did not!!)

:)