[pbmserv-dev] Cathedral Suggestions

[Randall Bart <barticus@att.net>]

I would like to suggest two changes to Cathedral:

1)  Advance moves

When playing Cathedral face to face, the last few moves are done quite 
quickly.  Though the moves are rarely forced, there's no suspense, no 
strategy.  These are pieces placed in safe territory, and often some 
Taverns and Stables placed in plentiful small spaces.

Therefore, allow a player to specify many moves in one command.  Eg:

cathedral board 101 user pass inwg3 stna4 stwd10 sqni1

The first move is the current move.  The remaining moves are queued up to 
be subsequent moves.  When it's the player's move again, take the first 
queued up move.  If it's illegal (it's now occupied), just go on to the 
next queued move.  (You don't need to flush the queue; trust me.)

2)  Paired games

The biggest problem with Cathedral is that the player who places the 
Cathedral has a big disadvantage (as I've demonstrated to Richard in game 
107).  Playing without ratings, you just play as many games as you play, 
and the results are a meaningful as you think they are.  But in a rated 
environment, we need a way to equalize the opportunities.

The solution is to play two games and add up the scores.  Add a switch on 
the challenge (how about "-pair") that starts a pair of games.  When the 
first game ends, it doesn't affect the ratings.  When the second game ends, 
add the scores for both games, and determine win, lose, or draw.
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