Advanced Programming Techniques
COSC1076 | Semester 1 2021
Assignment 2 | Implementing Qwirkle
Assessment Type Assessment contain both group (Milestones 1 & 2) and individual (Milestone
3 & 4) components. Clarifications/updates may be made via announcements/relevant
discussion forums.
Due Date Milestones 1 & 2 11.59pm, Friday 14 May 2021
Due Date Milestones 3 & 4 11.59pm, Friday 28 May 2021
Silence Policy From 5.00pm, Thursday 27 May 2021
Weight 45% of the final course mark
Submission Online via Canvas. Submission instructions are provided on Canvas.
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Contents
1 Introduction 3
1.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Group Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Learning Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 Base Program Game play & Functionality 4
2.1 Launch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 Main Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3 Base Gameplay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.4 User Prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.5 Rule Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3 Deliverables 12
3.1 Mandatory Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.2 Milestone 1: Test Cases (Group Component) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.3 Milestone 2: Basic Qwirkle Implementation (Group Component) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.4 Milestone 3: Enhancements (Individual Component) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.5 Milestone 4: Written report & Demonstration (Group + individual Component) . . . . . . . . . 14
4 Suggested Enhancements for Milestone 3 16
4.1 Minor enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.2 Major enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.3 Milestone 2 Code with Significant Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5 Managing Group Work 17
5.1 Group Work Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
5.2 Suggested Weekly Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.3 Group Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.4 Notifying of Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
6 Getting Started 18
6.1 Designing your Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
6.2 Starter Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
7 Submission 19
7.1 Silence Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
7.2 Late Submissions, Extensions & Special Consideration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
7.3 Group Work Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
8 Marking guidelines 19
9 Academic integrity and plagiarism (standard warning) 19
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1 Introduction
1.1 Overview
In this assignment you will implement a 2-player text-based version of the Board Game Qwirkle.
(a) Qwirle box and pieces (b) Example game state
For an explanation of the rules and gameplay:
? TableTop rules explanation of full game: https://youtu.be/Hp3IwPbZYSE?t=60
? Rules: Available on Canvas (https://www.ultraboardgames.com/qwirkle/game-rules.php).
However, this assignment will use a modified version of the rules, detailed in Section 2.5.
In this assignment you will:
? Practice the programming skills covered throughout this course, such as:
– ADTs
– Linked Lists
– Pointers
– Dynamic Memory Management
– File Processing
– Program State Management
– Exception Handling
? Practice the use of testing
? Implement a medium size C++ program:
– Use features of C++14
– Use elements of the C++ STL
? Work as a team
– Use group collaboration tools
This assignment is divided into four Milestones:
? Milestone 1 (Group work): Test Cases, to be developed to ensure your Qwirkle implementation is
correct.
? Milestone 2 (Group work): A fully functioning implementation of the base Qwirkle game play, which
pass Milestone 1 tests. The group work (milestone 1 & 2) is worth 30% of the course mark. The group
component (M1 & M2) is due 11.59pm, Friday 14 May 2021(Week 10).
? Milestone 3 (Individual work): You will individually extend upon your group’s implementation with
additional functionality (called enhancements). The individual work is worth 15% of the course mark.
The individual component (M3) is due 11.59pm, Friday 28 May 2021(Week 12).
? Milestone 4: Written report & demostration. The report analysing the design and implementation of
your software, and the use of your test cases. You will demonstrate your group and individual work. This
is where your final work will be graded. The report is due 11.59pm, Friday 28 May 2021(Week 12).
Group Progress Update (Group work): Your group will provide regular updates on your progress in this
assignment to your tutor during your weekly lab classes. This will require your group to have completed a list
of activities. Group Progress Update will not be marked directly, however, this will influence the final grade.
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1.2 Group Work
The group work must be completed in groups of 4.
1. You may form groups with any student in the course.
2. We strongly recommend that you form groups from within your labs, because:
? Your tutor will help you form groups,but only within your lab.
? You will have plenty of opportunity to discuss your group’s progress and get help from your tutor
during the rest of the course. It will be extremely helpful for your whole group to be present, but
this can’t happen if you have group members outside the lab.
Groups for Assignment 2 must be registered with your tutor by week 8 lab1
. Your tutor “register” your
group on Canvas. If you are unable to find a group, discuss this with your tutor as soon as possible.
If at any point you have problems working with your group, inform your tutor immediately, so that issues may
be resolved. This is especially important with the online delivery of the course. We will do our best to help
manage group issues, so that everybody receives a fair grade for their contributions. To help with managing
your group work we will be requiring your group to use particular tools. These are detailed in Section 5.
There are important requirements about keeping your tutor informed if you have been unwell or
other wise unable to contribute to your group. Remember your actions affect everybody in your
group.
1.3 Learning Outcomes
This assessment relates to all of the learning outcomes of the course which are:
? Analyse and Solve computing problems; Design and Develop suitable algorithmic solutions using software
concepts and skills both (a) introduced in this course, and (b) taught in pre-requisite courses; Implement
and Code the algorithmic solutions in the C++ programming language.
? Discuss and Analyse software design and development strategies; Make and Justify choices in software
design and development; Explore underpinning concepts as related to both theoretical and practical
applications of software design and development using advanced programming techniques.
? Discuss, Analyse, and Use appropriate strategies to develop error-free software including static code analysis,
modern debugging skills and practices, and C++ debugging tools.
? Implement small to medium software programs of varying complexity; Demonstrate and Adhere to good
programming style, and modern standards and practices; Appropriately Use typical features of the C++
language include basic language constructs, abstract data types, encapsulation and polymorphism, dynamic
memory management, dynamic data structures, file management, and managing large projects
containing multiple source files; Adhere to the C++14 ISO language features.
? Demonstrate and Adhere to the standards and practice of Professionalism and Ethics, such as described
in the ACS Core Body of Knowledge (CBOK) for ICT Professionals.
2 Base Program Game play & Functionality
The base Qwirkle program implements a 2-player text-based version of Qwirkle, using a reduced rule-set. In
the base game, the players take turns placing tiles from their hand onto the board. The rule changes for the
base Qwirkle game are described in Section 2.5.
This section details the behaviour of the base Qwirkle program. What is presented in this spec is a description
of the main functionality of your Qwirkle program. Some parts are left open for you to decide the best course
of action.
This spec does not give the rules of Qwirkle. Canvas contains a link to the rules.
!
Aspects of this specification are flexible and open to your interpretation. In general, where there is
flexibility, it is up to you to determine the best course of action. You may ask questions on the forum
for clarity. Make sure that your tests are written to ensure your program works correctly based on any
decisions you make.
2.1 Launch
Your base Qwirkle program will be run using the following terminal command:
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If your group spans multiple labs, have one of your tutors register the group.
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$ ./qwirkle
On launch, the program should display a welcome message:
Welcome to Qwirkle!
-------------------
Following the welcome message, the program should continue to the main menu.
2.2 Main Menu
The main menu shows the options of your Qwirkle program. By default there should be 4 options. The menu
is followed by the user prompt.
Menu
----
1. New Game
2. Load Game
3. Credits (Show student information)
4. Quit
>
The user selects an option by typing a number, and pressing enter. Each menu option is described below. The
user prompt is described in Section 2.4, including what to do for invalid input.
2.2.1 New Game
The program should:
1. Print a message for starting a new game
2. Ask for the player names
3. Create a new game of Qwirkle,
4. Proceed with normal gameplay.
As an overview, this process may look like:
> 1
Starting a New Game
Enter a name for player 1 (uppercase characters only)
> <user enters name>
Enter a name for player 2 (uppercase characters only)
> <user enters name>
Let's Play!
<normal gameplay continues from here>
The players should only consist of letters (no numbers or symbols). Your program should validate (check) that
the player name is valid.
The Qwirkle gameplay is described in Section 2.3. Make sure you take note of the requirements for starting a
new game, described in Section 2.3.10.
2.2.2 Load Game
The program should first ask the user for a filename from which to load a game.
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> 2
Enter the filename from which load a game
>
The user enters the relative path to the saved game file, and presses enter.
After the filename is provided, the program must then conduct two validation checks:
1. Check that the file exists.
2. Check that the format of the file is correct. The format for saved games is described in Section 2.3.7.
If the filename passes both checks, the program should print a message, then load the game as described in
Section 2.3.12, and continue with normal gameplay as described in Section 2.3.
> <filename>
Qwirkle game successfully loaded
<game play continues from here>
2.2.3 Credits (Show student information)
The program should print the name, student number, and email address of each student in the group, separated
by new lines. Note that you should replace <full name>, <student number> and <email address> sections
with your full name, student number and student email address.
After printing the student details, the program should return to the main menu.
> 3
----------------------------------
Name: <full name>
Student ID: <student number>
Email: <email address>
Name: <full name>
Student ID: <student number>
Email: <email address>
<Student 3, etc.>
----------------------------------
<main menu>
2.2.4 Quit
The program should print a goodbye message, and safely terminate without crashing.
> 4
Goodbye
2.3 Base Gameplay
During base Qwirkle gameplay, the 2 players take turns placing tiles from their hand onto the board.
At the start of the player’s turn, the program should show (in order):
1. The name of the current player
2. The scores of both players
3. The state of the board
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4. The tiles in the current player’s hand
5. The user prompt
The current player may then take one of two actions:
1. Place a tile onto the board
2. Replace on tile in their hand
Once the player successfully takes their action, their turn ends, and the other player’s turn starts.
Alternatively, the player may perform one of two game functions:
1. Save the game to a file
2. Quit the game
Below is an example of a sequence of actions and game functions for two players, named A and B. The next
sub-sections, describe the individual aspects of the base gameplay.
< previous output >
A, it's your turn
Score for A: 6
Score for B: 6
0 1 2 3 4 5
-------------------
A | | | | | | |
B | | |B4|B6|B5| |
C | | |R4| | | |
D | |Y1|Y4|Y2| | |
E | | |P4| | | |
F | | | | | | |
Your hand is
Y5,G5,R5,O2,B1,P6
> place G5 at C4
B, it's your turn
Score for A: 8
Score for B: 6
0 1 2 3 4 5
-------------------
A | | | | | | |
B | | |B4|B6|B5| |
C | | |R4| |G5| |
D | |Y1|Y4|Y2| | |
E | | |P4| | | |
F | | | | | | |
Your hand is
P2,P3,O6,G1,Y4,B2
> replace G1
< gameplay continues >
2.3.1 Tile Codes
Tiles are represented by a 2-character code:
<colour><shape>
To make it easier to visually differentiate tiles, colours are represented by letters, and shapes are represented
by integers. The codes are given in the table below
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Colour Colour Code Shape Shape Code
Red R Circle 1
Orange O 4-Star 2
Yellow Y Diamond 3
Green G Square 4
Blue B 6-Star 5
Purple P Clover 6
For example, the Yellow Square tile is represented by the code: Y4
!
The Start-up code provides useful #define statements for these codes.
2.3.2 The Board
The display of the game board consists of two features:
1. Tile Display
2. Grid Co-ordinates
The board is a 2D grid of tiles, up to a maximum size of 26x26. However, some locations of the 2D grid may
be empty, meaning that no tile has been placed there. When the board is displayed, all locations that contain
a tile are filled with the tile code, and empty locations filled with two-spaces.
!
The examples is this spec use an expandable board (see the Minor Enhancements in Section 4.1). That is,
the board is only as large enough as necessary, and expands as the players add tiles.
For the base game-play you may use a fixed size board.
The grid co-ordinates use:
? Uppercase Letters for rows
? Integers for columns
Board locations are always referenced in row-column fashion:
<row><column>
For example, the blue square is at grid co-ordinate B2, and the yellow circle is at grid co-ordinate D1.
0 1 2 3 4 5
-------------------
A | | | | | | |
B | | |B4|B6|B5| |
C | | |R4| | | |
D | |Y1|Y4|Y2| | |
E | | |P4| | | |
F | | | | | | |
You could store the board as A vector of vectors of Tiles
!
In your implementation you must use a vector to store the board.
2.3.3 The Player’s Hand
The player’s hand is an ordered linked list of tiles.
!
In your implementation you must use a linked list to store the tiles in the player’s hand. You must
implement your own version of a Linked List.
The player’s hand is displayed as a comma separated list of tiles.
Your hand is
Y5,G5,R5,O2,B1,P6
The order of tiles in the player’s hand is important for testing purposes!
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? When adding a tile, it is always added at the end of the list.
? When removing a tile, the remaining tiles stay in the same order.
2.3.4 The Tile Bag
The tile bag, contains the rest of the tiles that are not on the board or in player’s hands. The tile bag must
be stored as an ordered linked list. The contents of the tile bag is never displayed to the users. However, the
contents of the tile bag is stored in the saved game file.
!
In your implementation you must use a linked list to store the tiles in the tile bag. You must implement
your own version of a Linked List.
The order of the tile bag is determined when generating a new game. When a tile is drawn from the bag, it is
taken from the front of the linked list. If tiles are added to the bag, they are added to the end of the linked list.
2.3.5 Player Action: Place a Tile
The current player may place a tile onto the board using the command:
place <tile> at <grid location>
The command contains two elements:
1. A tile to place
2. The grid location to place the tile
For example, using the above hand and board, if the player performs:
> place G5 at C4
This results in the board:
0 1 2 3 4 5
-------------------
A | | | | | | |
B | | |B4|B6|B5| |
C | | |R4| |G5| |
D | |Y1|Y4|Y2| | |
E | | |P4| | | |
F | | | | | | |
After the command is given, the program must:
1. Check that the command is correctly formatted.
2. Check that the placement of tile is legal according to the rules of Qwirkle.
If the player’s action is legal, the program should:
1. Place the tile onto the board
2. Update the player’s score
3. Draw a replacement tile from the tile bag and add it to the player’s hand, if there are available tiles
4. Continue with the other player’s turn
2.3.6 Player Action: Replace a Tile
The current player may replace one tile in their hand using the command:
replace <tile>
For example, using the above hand the player may take the following replace action:
> replace P6
After the command is given, the program must:
1. Check that the command is correctly formatted.
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2. Check that the tile is in the player’s hand.
If the player’s action is legal, the program should:
1. Remove the tile from the players hand and place it in the tile bag. (If the player has two tiles with the
same code, the first tile in the list should be replaced)
2. Draw a new tile from the tile bag and add it to the player’s hand
3. Continue with the other player’s turn
2.3.7 Function: Saving the Game
The current player may save the game to a file using the command:
save <filename>
The program should save the current state of the game to the provided filename (overwriting the file if it already
exists). Then the program should display a message and continue with the gameplay. The current player does
not change, so that a player may save the game and then take a turn.
> save savedGame
Game successfully saved
>
If the program has problems saving the file, it should display a message, and continue with normal gameplay
without crashing.
The format of the saved file is as given below. Each item is saved on a new line.
<player 1 name>
<player 1 score>
<player 1 hand>
<player 2 name>
<player 2 score>
<player 2 hand>
<Current board shape>
<Board State>
<tile bag contents>
<current player name>
The format for each of the items is:
? Name: ASCII text
? Score: Integer
? Player hand and tile bag: comma separated ordered list
? Current board shape: Height, width
? Board State: All tiles currently placed on the board should appear as a list of tile@position.
For example, if the game in Section 2.3 was saved the saved game file will look like:
A
8
Y5,R5,O2,B1,P6,Y3
B
6
P2,P3,O6,Y4,B2,O3
6,6
B4@B2, B6@B3, B5@B4, R4@C2, G5@C4, Y1@D1, Y4@D2, Y2@D3, P4@E2
P2,B5,.....
A
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2.3.8 Function: Quit
The program should quit without crashing, as per the instructions in Section 2.2.4.
2.3.9 Special Operation: QWIRKLE!
If the player scores a Qwirkle (see the game rules) on their turn, then the program should print out an additional
message, before displaying the game information. Remember to update the player’s score accordingly.
> place .. at ..
QWIRKLE!!!
<display game>
>
2.3.10 Special Operation: Starting a New Game
When a new game is started, a special sequence of operations must be conducted:
1. Create the ordering for the tile bag
2. Set up the initial player hands
3. Start with an empty board, with player 1 as the starting player
You will need to devise your own algorithm to “shuffle” the bag of tiles to create a “random” initial order. This
is left up to your own invention. The lectures will talk about randomness is C++ programs.
Then the initial tiles are added to the player’s hands. 6 tiles are drawn from the tile bag and placed in the 1st
player’s hand. Then 6 tiles are drawn from the tile bag and placed in the 2nd player’s hand.
Finally, the board starts with no tiles placed, so that when displayed, it should be empty.
2.3.11 Special Operation: Ending a Game
The game ends when:
1. The tile bag is empty, and
2. One player has no more tiles in their hand
If the game ends, the program should:
? Display the end game message
? Display the scores
? Display the name of the winning player
? Then quit, according to Section 2.2.4.
For example:
Game over
Score for <player 1 name>: 000
Score for <player 2 name>: 000
Player <winniner player name> won!
Goodbye
2.3.12 Special Operation: Loading a Game
To load a game from a saved game file, the program should read the contents of the saved game file, and update
all data structures in the program using the information in the saved game file. See Section 2.3.7 for the format
of the saved game file. Specifically, the program should take note of:
? The player’s name and scores
? The tiles in each players hand
? The state of the board
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? The order of the tiles in the tile bag
? The current player - the next player to take a turn
Once the game has been loaded, gameplay continues resumes with the current player.
2.4 User Prompt
The user prompt is displayed whenever input is required from the user. It is a greater-than symbol (>), followed
by a space. It is assumed that all user inputs are provided as a single line of input.
When shown the prompt, the user should see in their terminal window:
> v
If at any point the user enters invalid input, or the validation checks of the input fail (see each section) then
the program should print Invalid Input and re-show the prompt.
> qwerty
Invalid Input
> v
2.4.1 EOF Character
If an any time the user enters the EOF (end-of-file) character, the the program should Quit, following the
procedure in Section 2.2.4. That is:
> ^D
Goodbye
This behaviour with the EOF character is necessary to ensure your program terminates at the end of every test
case.
2.5 Rule Changes
For the base Qwirkle implementation, the following rules have been modified:
? A New game always begins with Player 1 and an empty board
? Tiles are placed one at a time.
? Players can only replace one tile at a time
? Maximum board size of 26x26
? There are only 2 tiles of each type (rather than 3 of each type). This makes it highly likely the game will
fit within the 26x26 board, and reduce the complexity of your test cases. The modified game will have 72
blocks, in 6 colors and with 6 different shapes and 2 of each type.
For your Milestone 3 enhancements, you may restore some or all of these rules to their original form.
3 Deliverables
3.1 Mandatory Requirements
As part of your implementation, you must:
? Implement your own Linked List
? Use your Linked List implementation to store the player’s hands and the tile bag.
? You should use vectors to store the current board state.
? You may only use the C++14 STL. You may not incorporate any additional libraries.
If you fail to comply with these mandatory requirements, marks will be deducted.
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3.2 Milestone 1: Test Cases (Group Component)
For Milestone 1, you must develop test cases for your Qwirkle implementation, including your enhancements.
These test cases will help ensure that your Qwirkle implementation is correct.
A single test case consists of 4 files, 2 mandatory and 2 optional.
1. <testname>.input - Input to provide to the Qwirkle program via stdin
2. <testname>.output - Expected output from the Qwirkle program on stdout
3. (Optional) <testname>.save - Input save file to provide to the Qwirkle program if required by the test.
4. (Optional) <testname>.expsave - Expected output saved game file.
A test is run using the following sequence of commands.
./qwirkle < <testname>.input > <testname>.gameout
diff -w <testname>.output <testname>.gameout
if [-e <testname>.expsave] diff -w -y <testname>.expsave <actual_gamesave>
If this command displays any output, then the test has failed. Testing uses the diff command. This
command checks to see if two files have any differences. The -w options ignores any white-space.
To make testing reliable, you should note if the test evaluates the saved game output, then ensure the test uses
a suitable filename in place of <actual_gamesave>.
!
The Qwirkle program has some degree of randomness due to the random ordering of the tile bag. To
overcome this issue when testing, when appropriate, you may start your test with loading a saved game
(will contain the ordering of the tile bag, hence the execution from that point is deterministic).
3.3 Milestone 2: Basic Qwirkle Implementation (Group Component)
For Milestone 2, your group must implemented the base Qwirkle program as described in Section 2.
Section 2 lists the components that your group must implement. Generally, it is up to your group to decide the
best way to implement these components. However, there are some important requirements that your group
must satisfy.
Aspects of this specification are flexible and open to your interpretation. It is up to your group to determine the
best course of action. You will need to analyse and justify your choices in the report.
3.3.1 Requirements
Your group will implement a game of Qwirkle that:
? Is a 2-player game.
? Both players are “human users” that play the game by interacting with the terminal, that is, through
standard input/output.
? Using the Qwirkle board of fixed size.
You will implement a simplified version of Qwirkle. These changes are listed in section 2.5.
Your implementation should provide the following functionality:
? A main menu, that allows users to perform actions such as setting up a new game, loading an existing
game, showing “credits” (details of the people who wrote the software), and quitting the program.
? Save a game to a file.
? Load a previously saved game from a file, and resume game play from the saved state.
? A way to represent and display the Qwirkle board and player hands the user.
? A User prompt for entering all commands from standard input.
? Base gameplay functionality as described in Section 2.3.
? The program should terminate without crashing if the EOF character is given on standard input.
? Completely error free. Your program must not crash, segfault or otherwise contain logic errors.
Your group will also need to consider the data structures that are used to represent aspects of Qwirkle, and
functionality. It is up to your group to make this decision provided that you meet the requirements in section
3.1. In your report your group will be marked on your analysis of the above choices.
Finally, remember to do the the group contribution spreadsheet described in 5.3.
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3.4 Milestone 3: Enhancements (Individual Component)
In Milestone 3, as an individual you will make signification expansions(s) to the functionality of your group’s
Qwirkle program. This milestone is your opportunity to showcase to us your skills, capabilities and knowledge!
You will select your enhancements from the provided options in Section 4. Additionally, if you
group’s Milestone 2 solution has significant errors or is significantly incomplete, please read Section 4.3.
Milestone 3 is a very open-ended. You are given some directives, however, there is a lot of room for you to make
considered choices. However, this showcase of your skills is not just about “making the code work”. A major
focus is on how you choose to implement an enhancement, and the justifications of the reasons why you chose
a given data structure, class hierarchy, language feature, or algorithm to name a few examples. Enhancements
are classified as minor or major. Enhancements must be substantially functional to get marks.
To get a higher grade you will need to implement one or more minor or major enhancements. This is described
in the marking rubric.
3.4.1 Configurable Enhancements
Where reasonably possible, your enhancements should be configurable. That is, it should be possible to enable/disable
each enhancement at run-time (not through compilation). In particular, this means your enhancements
can be “turned-off” so that your program runs the same as Milestone 2 (verbatim).
3.4.2 Changes to Saved Game file
Some enhancements may require you to modify the format of the saved-game file. However, it is recommended
that your program with enhancements still supports loading games from the default saved-game format used in
Milestone 2.
To distinguish your new saved-game format from the “default” milestone 2 format, we recommend adding a
special code at the start of your new saved-game format, such as:
#myformat
<initial tile bag>
...
3.5 Milestone 4: Written report & Demonstration (Group + individual Component)
3.5.1 Written report
Your group must write a report, that analyses what your group has done in this assignment. Additionally,
each individual must write a short report that analyses their individual enhancement(s). The group should
combine the group report and the individual report and one group member should submit it via canvas. The
combined report is due at the same time as the individual submission (11.59pm, Friday 28 May 2021).
? The report should be A4, 11pt font, 2cm margins and single-space.
? The section of the report describing the group’s work must be no more than 4 pages.
? Each individual must add 1 additional page about their enhancements.
? Thus the final report must not exceed 8 pages for a group of four.
? Only the first 4 pages (group), and 1 page (individual) will be marked.
? Modifying fonts and spacing will count as over length.
? Figures, Tables and References count towards these page limits.
In this assignment, you are marked on the analysis and justification of the choices you have made. Your report
will be used (in conjunction with the demonstration) to determine the quality of your decisions and analysis.
Good analysis provides factual statements with evidence and explanations.
Statements such as:
“We did <xyz> because we felt that it was good” or “Feature <xyz> is more efficient”
do not have any analysis. These are unjustified opinions. Instead, you should aim for:
“We did <xyz> because it is more efficient. It is more efficient because . . . ”
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We are asking for a combined report as it keeps the context of each individual’s enhancements with the whole
group’s original implementation.
3.5.2 Group Component of the Report
In the group section of your report, you should discuss aspects such as:
? Your group’s use of at least one linked list, and the reasons for where the linked list is used.
? Your group’s choices of ADTs, and how these leads to a “well designed” program.
? The efficiency of your implementation, such as the efficiency of your use of data structures.
? The reason for each of your tests.
? Your group co-ordination and management.
3.5.3 Individual Component of the Report
In the individual section of your report, you should discuss aspects such as:
? The design of your enhancements, including any changes (and additions) to the data structures and ADTs
you had to make when enhancing your group’s implementation.
? The efficiency of your enhancements, such as the efficiency of your use of data structures.
? Limitations and issues that you encountered with your group’s implementation.
3.5.4 Demonstration
The demonstration will be conducted virtually. More information on the demonstration and how to conduct it
will be provided in week 11.
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4 Suggested Enhancements for Milestone 3
4.1 Minor enhancements
Minor enhancements are smaller in scope, and require only a small modification to your software design.
4.1.1 Help!
Whenever there is a user prompt, the user may type “help” and the program should display some text to help
the user determine what they commands they may execute.
4.1.2 Better Invalid Input
Whenever the user enters invalid input at the user prompt, the program should show a useful error message to
explain why the input was invalid.
4.1.3 Colour
Use colour to display tiles on the board and in the player’s hand. The Linux, Mac (and most similar) terminals
support the use of colour through the use of escape codes. A simple internet search will show you tutorials for
working with escape codes.
4.1.4 Unicode/Emoji Tile Symbols
Use Unicode or Emoji for displaying tiles when printing information for the users to stdout. You can embed
Unicode symbols or Emoji symbols directly into C++ files when used for writing information to output streams.
Most modern terminals also support the display of unicode symbols and emoji.
However, the saved game file must still be plain-text, and use the tile codes listed in Section 2.3.1.
4.1.5 Simple Hints
Provide a hint to the user of where a given tile could be placed on the board, and how many points the user
will score. You will need to invent your own command so the user can ask for a hint.
4.1.6 Expandable Board
The board should only display enough rows and columns to fully show the board, plus one additional empty row
and column around the edge of the board. Any additional empty rows and columns should not be displayed.
4.1.7 High Scores
The program maintains a list of high scores achieved by any player who has played your game of Qwirkle. You
will need to devise a way to save, load, and display the high scores.
4.2 Major enhancements
Major enhancements are large in scope, and require significant modifications to your software design.
4.2.1 3-4 Player modes
Implement the 3 or 4-player mode of Qwirkle. You will need to change the number of tiles in each player’s hand
according to the rules of Qwirkle. This will also affect the format of the saved game file.
4.2.2 Place Multiple Tiles
Allow a player to place multiple tiles. You will need to invent your own command(s).
4.2.3 Write an AI
It would be nice to play Qwirkle in a single-player mode against the computer. This enhancement requires you
to develop an AI (Artificial Intelligence) so that your program can be used in single-player mode, and a person
can play against the computer AI. When it’s the AI’s turn, it should make its move automatically without the
user having to input a command.
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An AI implies intelligence. An AI doesn’t take random actions. It uses logic and heuristics to determine a
“good” move, and hopefully the “best” action to take. Heuristics are ways to “guess” or “estimate” if an action
is good or bad. Thus, your AI needs to have “intelligence” to figure out a good action to take on its turn. You
may not be able to decide the “optimal” action, however, the choice must be better than a random action.
For this enhancement, you may wish to consider:
? You may need to redesign and change the data structures that are used to represent Qwirkle. However,
you must still meet the mandatory minimal use of each data structure as given in Milestone 2.
? The AI should not take a long time to calculate its move.
? You will need to modify the saved-game format to record if an AI is being used.
In your individual report you should justify why your AI has a “good” heuristic and is intelligent. You should
also describe any significant changes to the choice of data structure(s) describe and justify any other necessary
changes to your group’s Qwirkle program.
We recommend that the AI is enabled using a command-line argument, such as:
$ ./qwirkle --ai
(Note two dashed are used in due to the Unix command-line argument styles for multi-letter arguments.)
4.3 Milestone 2 Code with Significant Errors
This section is a general statement. This is provided as a starting point from which to approach your tutor.
This option may only be used if you have discussed the matter with your tutor.
It is possible that your group’s Qwirkle program may contain errors. If the errors in the your group’s Qwirkle
program are small, while you should fix these in your individual work, they are not considered a significant
change.
However, if your group’s Qwirkle program has significant errors or is missing significant functionality, then
you may be able to negotiate with your tutor to fix these error as a minor enhancement. As each group’s
program is different, this will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Please note that this does not excuse you from failing to make sufficient contributions to your group. While you
may be able to “make-up” some functionality in this milestone, you should not use this as an excuse to make
an insufficient contribution.
5 Managing Group Work
This group assignment can be conducted entirely online, without you ever meeting your group members faceto-face.
This isn’t a problem, with the available online tools. The challenge for you will be using these tools
effectively. You will need to make extra efforts and be very dedicated and diligent in working with your
team members. This will include setting up dedicated times for meetings and group programming sessions.
5.1 Group Work Tools
To help manage your group work, and demonstrate that you are consistently contributing to your group, we
are going to require you to use a set of tools.
5.1.1 MS Teams
Each group will be required to create a team on the RMIT MS Teams platform. Your group must add your
tutor(s) to your MS team2
.
Your MS team will be the only official communication platform for the assignment. This means you must:
? Only use the MS Team channels for group chats
? Hold all team meeting through MS Teams and record all team meetings (except for the conversations in
the lab sessions).
? Store any group files (not in Git) in the MS Team
2
If your group is from multiple labs with different tutors, add all of your tutors to the MS Team.
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If there are disputes, we will use the record on MS Teams as the source of evidence. You may not use other
platforms (including Discord) as we cannot verify the identify of the users.
5.1.2 Git Repository
Your group must have a private Git repository that hosts your group’s code. This may be on BitBucket
or Github. Your group must add your tutor(s) to this repository3
. This git repository will be used as the
evidence of your individual contribution to your group.
For the individual component you should copy/fork the repository before commencing your individual work.
5.2 Suggested Weekly Schedule
On Canvas, we have provided a spreadsheet that contains a schedule of the suggested tasks your group should
finish each week. Additionally, in the labs your tutor will compare your group’s progress to this schedule. The
tasks are flexible if your group runs into issues, such as a student being sick. However, you must inform your
tutor of any issues so that you can negotiate with your tutor to rearrange the tasks.
5.3 Group Contributions
For Milestone 1 and 2 you will need to provide a record of your contribution to your group. This record is also
contained on the schedule spreadsheet which has a location where each student can record their contributions.
You should also note any issues that your have encountered on this spreadsheet.
!
Include the filled-in weekly group schedule spreadsheet with your Milestone 1 and Milestone 2 submissions.
5.4 Notifying of Issues
If there are any issues that affect your work, such as being sick, you must keep your group informed in
a timely manner. Your final grade is determined by you (and your group’s) work over the entire period of the
assignment. We will treat everybody fairly, and account for times when issues arise when marking your group
work and contributions. However, you must be upfront and communicate with us.
If you fail to inform us of issues in a timely fashion and we deem that your actions significantly harm your
group’s performance, we may award you a reduced grade. It is academic misconduct if you are deliberately
dishonest, lie to, or mislead your group or teaching staff in a way that harms your group.
6 Getting Started
6.1 Designing your Software
This assignment requires you and your group to design the ADTs and Software to complete your implementation.
It is up to your group to determine the “best” way to implementing the program. There isn’t necessarily a single
“right” way to go about the implementation. The challenge in this assignment is mostly about software design,
not necessarily the actual game-play.
Trying to solve the whole program at once is too large and difficult. So to get started, the best thing to do is
start small. You don’t have to figure out the whole program at once. Instead, start with the smallest working
program. Then add a small component, and make sure it is working. Then keep adding components to build
up your final program.
You can get help about your ideas and progress through the lab updates. This is where you can bring your
ideas to your tutor and ask them what they think. They will give some and ideas for your progress.
6.2 Starter Code
The start-up code is very limited. It contains the following files:
3
If your group is from multiple labs with different tutors, add all of your tutors to the MS Team.
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File Description
TileCodes.h Header file that give #define statements for tile codes
Tile.h/cpp Skeleton definition of a tile
Node.h/cpp Skeleton definition of a Linked List of tiles
LinkedList.h/cpp Skeleton definition of a Linked List of tiles
qwirkle.cpp Empty Main function
Makefile Simple Makefile for compiling
7 Submission
Follow the detailed instructions on Canvas to complete your submission for Assignment 1.
Assessment declaration: When you submit work electronically, you agree to the assessment declaration.
7.1 Silence Period
A silence policy will take effect from 5.00pm, Thursday 27 May 2021. This means no questions about this
assignment will be answered, whether they are asked on the discussion board, by email, or in person. Make
sure you ask your questions with plenty of time for them to be answered.
7.2 Late Submissions, Extensions & Special Consideration
Late submission accrue a penalty of 10% per day up to 3 days, after which you will lose ALL the assignment
marks. The late penalty for Milestone 1, 2 is applied to the group component of the assignment mark. The late
penalty for Milestone 3, 4 is applied to the individual component of the assignment mark.
Extensions will not be given for this assignment.
Where special consideration is granted, generally it is awarded on an individual basis, not for the entire group.
Extensions of time will not be granted, instead an equivalent assessment will be conducted which may take the
form of a written and practical coding exercises. This equivalent assessment covers the non-group components
of the rubric. The group-work component will be assessed on your group participation for the duration of
Assignment 2 for which you were unaffected and able to contribute. This will take into consideration how well
you kept your group informed of your ability to work and contribute to the group.
7.3 Group Work Penalties
In severe cases of poor group work:
? We may apply an individual mark to any or all categories of the rubric.
? We may file a charge of academic misconduct if we determine that a student has been deceitful or untruthful
in a manner than has a severe adverse academic impact on the other students in the group.
8 Marking guidelines
The detailed breakdown of this marking guidelines is provided on the rubric linked on Canvas. The marks are
divided into the following categories:
? Group Component (30/45):
– Qwirkle Implementation: 15/45
– Test Cases: 5/45
– Analysis & Design: 5/45
– Group Work: 5/45
? Individual Component (15/45):
– Individual Enhancements Implementation: 10/45
– Individual Enhancements Analysis: 5/45
9 Academic integrity and plagiarism (standard warning)
CLO 6 for this course is: Demonstrate and Adhere to the standards and practice of Professionalism
and Ethics, such as described in the ACS Core Body of Knowledge (CBOK) for ICT
Professionals.
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Academic integrity is about honest presentation of your academic work. It means acknowledging the work of
others while developing your own insights, knowledge and ideas. You should take extreme care that you have:
? Acknowledged words, data, diagrams, models, frameworks and/or ideas of others you have quoted (i.e.
directly copied), summarised, paraphrased, discussed or mentioned in your assessment through the appropriate
referencing methods
? Provided a reference list of the publication details so your reader can locate the source if necessary. This
includes material taken from Internet sites. If you do not acknowledge the sources of your material, you
may be accused of plagiarism because you have passed off the work and ideas of another person without
appropriate referencing, as if they were your own.
RMIT University treats plagiarism as a very serious offence constituting misconduct. Plagiarism covers a variety
of inappropriate behaviours, including:
? Failure to properly document a source
? Copyright material from the internet or databases
? Collusion between students
For further information on our policies and procedures, please refer to the RMIT Academic Integrity Website.
The penalty for plagiarised assignments include zero marks for that assignment, or failure for this course. Please
keep in mind that RMIT University uses plagiarism detection software.
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