

Show HN: Axis - a React.js multiplayer math game - zan2434
http://www.axisthegame.com

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gamerDude
It would be nice to have a beginner version where we can choose functions from
a menu and get an idea of what the curve looks like. Then, once I am back up
to speed I can play for real.

~~~
akst
If you have OS X, you could probably pop open Grapher and try a few curves
there. But if you don't, I'm sure there's some web app for visualising curves
as well.

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cardigan
Wrote a script which you can use to kill all your opponents in one turn.

[http://pastebin.com/FYXcdmpi](http://pastebin.com/FYXcdmpi)

:p

\- Shariq

~~~
madez
In the general case that is not possible. If there is a block vertically in
between of two opponents you can not destroy both in one turn.

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krat0sprakhar
Fantastic. Awesome game!

Few suggestions:

1\. Show me a ghost path for the previously fired missile

2\. Have a library of functions to choose from with an idea of what the curve
looks like

3\. Reduce the waiting time.

or add some documentation in your readme / some contribution notes and I'll be
glad to send in PRs

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xinkr
4\. Add a 'team' option

Great game!

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captaintacos
Just played this and it is great. However the other player (in the chat) was
saying that he could not fire sometimes.

And later on I was also unable to both post messages and to use the FIRE
button. Never recovered. Server problem perhaps?

In any case I will be bookmarking this. This would work wonders to explain
math :)

~~~
chm
You might have been playing with me. I hit you with an exponential function?

I think the game crashed when I hit one of your locations.

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captaintacos
ah yes! :) Sounds like it was you.

Oh by the way. I think I had 2 players and you had one because you could have
hit your other one since the beginning. After you hit one of mine, it was
disabled and I was just with one playable Player left.

~~~
chm
Yes, it took me a while to figure it out!

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chromakode
This is awesome. I wish turns were simultaneous, so that there was less time
spent waiting.

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zan2434
source here:
[https://github.com/igul222/Axis](https://github.com/igul222/Axis)

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stephentmcm
Should probably put a license, readme and maybe some contrib guidelines up.

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madez
I was surprised to see that many people didn't know how to define a step
function. One way to do it is: size_of_jump*max(0, sign(x-position_of_jump)).
Also, max(0, sign(x-position)) allows you to switch on and off other parts of
your function like a high frequency sine that can spray an area.

~~~
bandwevil
Yeah, step functions really break this. I think I was in a game with you or
some else with the same general idea, they won on the very first turn with the
sine wave trick.

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readerrrr
Agreed, functions should be continuous and no step functions.

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madez
Even heavily restricting the function to only use addition and multiplication
doesn't solve the problem.

~~~
readerrrr
But it almost impossible to write a polynomial in under 60 seconds without any
tools, that follows the desired path.

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madez
I assume it to be not doable but that in no way fixes the problem that its
easy to write a tool that plays perfectly.

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readerrrr
There are simple ways to make that very hard. The first one is to remove copy
paste.

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madez
You can just analyze the graphical output of the browser and hence make your
hack useless. The underlying problem of this game is just too easy to solve.

~~~
madez
@readerrrr: I'm commenting here because HN doesn't let me comment your
comment.

> You can always make the game itself harder on top of all the anti-bot
> tricks.

You are implying two things here. Firstly, that its' always possible to make
the game harder and, secondly, that anti-bot tricks can solve this issue.

I'm skeptical about the first part and strongly disagree with the second.

In regard to the first part I'd say that it's hard to make the game harder
without making it unenjoyably to play. How'd you integrate a sufficient amount
of complexity into this game without ruining the fun? That it's in principle
possible shows Go. Interesting problem.

In regard to the second part I say that it's just adding (futile) noise and
not tackling the fundamental problem. The player has to see at least the map.
He then draws a graph in a program that produces a function that has nearly
that graph and gives a string defining that function. The user just copy and
pastes it into the game.

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readerrrr
Copy paste is disabled remember...

As for the rest, that is up to the developer with more resources than his
opponents.

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madez
> Copy paste is disabled remember...

s/The user just copy and pastes it into the game./The user emulates his
keyboard typing that string.

I don't see the point in this. It's just adding noise instead of talking about
the real problem.

> As for the rest, that is up to the developer with more resources than his
> opponents.

If it were like that, I'd be happy. Right now it's trivial to completely solve
the game.

Even though the game is not suited for competitive gaming it is great to teach
some math.

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readerrrr
Just impose rules that are trivial for humans to solve reliably and not for
computers.

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madez
Can you give an example for such a rule?

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cbab
Very nice concept. Reminds me a lot of my TI-83 graph calculator days with a
small dose of Scorched Earth :).

~~~
madez
Yeah. I loved playing with the graph function. I felt so powerful to define
curves and can see them being plotted.

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akst
Looks like it's gone :( but it was great fun

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readerrrr
It is crashing all the time, it should be back soon.

Even with all that I still keep coming back.

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readerrrr
Really great idea, too bad it freezes almost every game.

I think it just died...

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kolbe
Good job. I played this game way more than I should have last night.

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Cogito
Great concept, but it takes too long to plan shots. It means that people drop
out of games quickly.

Having a library of functions available would definitely help with this.

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NH_2
Someone just rocked me with a step function. I'm intrigued.

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dmak
I am not sure if this is a step function, but I saw someone pretty much do an
octagon shape to hit someone. How?

~~~
madez
(x+1) * max(0, sign(x)) * (1-max(0, sign(x-1/sqrt(2)))) + (1+1/sqrt(2)) *
(1-max(0, sign(x-1/sqrt(2)-1))) * max(0, sign(x-1/sqrt(2))) + (-x+sqrt(2)+2) *
max(0, sign(x-1/sqrt(2)-1)) * (1-max(0, sign(x-sqrt(2)-1)))

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djsmith42
As odd as it sounds, I think this game caused my Mac to run out of memory.

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joshdance
Looks great but neither buttons start a game for me.

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Aeolun
It appears some of my functions just vanish?

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tiglionabbit
Is there a link to the source code?

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galapago
An error occurred in the application and your page could not be served. Please
try again in a few moments.

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zan2434
just added function previews to make playing easier!

~~~
chm
Remove it!

At the very least give us the option to create games with/without previews.

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bcohen123
This looks awesome!

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nutate
awesome!

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jastr
and it's down

