Domin

Domin is a competitive game played with two or more players, each competing for control over the board through their strategical placement elements and use of magic. Each player takes turns placing down pieces until the entire board is filled. At the end, the player who scores the most points is the winner.

The Elements

There are four subdivisions of elements: 


    NORMAL:

      Fire, Wind, Water, Ice, Rock, Wood, Metal

    MAGIC:

      Morph, Cross, Season Change

    SCIENCE:

      Xenon, Antimatter, Lightning

    PLAYER:

      Skip, Reverse, Wild, Bonus

NORMAL ELEMENTS

These are the standard, therefore, most common pieces in the game. Points scored for each are listed in parentheses.
Fire(2):
Melts ice.
Ignites trees.

Wind(1):
Freezes water.
* Blows fire.

Water(1):
Puts out fire.
Rusts metal.

Ice(2):
Kills trees.
** Breaks up rock.

 Rock(3):
* Splashes water.

Wood(3):
Grows up from water.
Blocks wind.

Metal(2):
Breaks up rock.
Shatters ice.
+ Conducts electricity.

*
Wind and rock only have this effect when there is an empty space on the other side and it is being put down. This can be used to your advantage near the edge of the board since you can knock some of the other pieces off the board.

**
Ice breaks rock through a process known as frost wedging where, in nature, water will freeze inside a crack in a rock and expand widening the crack.

+
When lightning strikes next to metal it is conducted to all pieces touching the metal.

MAGIC ELEMENTS

These elements are magical in nature and are used to change the balance of power in the game.

Morph:
This element will change all surrounding elements (except for Xenon) around it into another element and give you control over that element.

Cross:
This will let you "buy" a magic spell with some of your element points. Most of these are self explanatory. Unlike most of the other elements so far, this one has to be clicked on directly to activate.

Season Change:
This element is extremely rare. It changes the season affecting most of the elements on the board; however, season changes don't change ownership of the pieces involved as in normal elemental transmutations.
  • Winter - all water freezes
  • Spring - trees grow from pools of water
  • Summer - ice melts
  • Fall - trees die

SCIENCE ELEMENTS

These elements are basically the same as the normal elements but aren't as common and aren't worth any points.

Xenon:
This element is one of the noble gasses. It is indestructible and unchangeable. It isn't worth any points but can be used as a blocker.

Antimatter:
This stuff can destroy any of the normal elements.

Lightning:
Its a big destructive bolt of electricity. It travels through metal, ignites trees, melts ice, destroys rock, changes water into wind, and changes wind into water.

PLAYER

These pieces help aid in game play.

Skip:
Skips next player. (only comes up if there are more than two players)

Reverse:
Reverses play order. (only comes up if there are more than two players)

Wild:
Put this piece on the board and it can become any of the normal elements.

Bonus:
Adds 3 points to your score.

Rules

The basic object of the game is to score more points than your opponent(s). Points are usually scored by placing pieces on the board and changing other pieces into your own. Points can also be scored by getting a cross and gambling or by getting bonus pieces. While the above descriptions of the elements gives the basics of what will happen when you put a piece down next to another, it needs to be accompanied by a few general rules of piece placement:

  1. Only the piece placed down and other elements directly touching it on the 4 sides (NOT diagonals) can change.
  2. The element placed down will first act on surrounding element(s). Afterwards the surrounding element(s) react with it.
  3. Only one element that can react with the placed element. The order of favor is: North, East, South, West.
  4. The element being changed always changes ownership to the player who owns the element doing the changing.
  5. If water is splashed or fire is blown then it will act as though it was just placed if it has free movement to the next square. If its movement is blocked then it will only act on the piece that is in its path. Eg: fire will light up trees and melt ice, and water will extinguish fires and rust metal.

To actually place a piece on the board you must first make sure that the little star is on the corner of the piece you want to use. If it isn't then just click on it (only those next to your name are yours). Then click on the location of the board where you want it.

Pieces that don't need to be placed on the board can only be used by being clicked on directly. Using any of these doesn't interrupting your turn. So for example if you use a cross or a reverse your turn will continue until you actually place an element on the board.

Game play starts with the first player who typed in his or her name and continues until the entire board is filled. If you get confused during game play as to whose turn it is, the inside of the mouse is always the color of the player whose turn it is. The only way that the play order can be interrupted is through a skip or a reverse.

Game Info

This game was originally written in Turbo Pascal version 7 in 1997. With the help of p2c and a bunch of hand editing I converted the program to a working C++ program. I also converted all the Borland's Graphic Interface (crap) calls to Allegro. I also added in the until very recently missing AIs.

I made this project as GPL because I consider code to be an important learning tool for other programmers, and I have learned plenty looking at other peoples code. Also you may just plain hate something about the game or maybe you can think up a more vicious AI.

All that having been said, I do take donations. If you like the game please consider making one. It would help me pay for internet connection as well as act as encouragement for continuing to give away my games (and their source code). It is through Source Forge's donation system and uses Paypal.