Farkle Help

Installation

Download farkle.tar.gz to /tmp or any place appropriate on your system.
Unpack the distribution: gzip -cd farkle.tar.gz | tar -xf -
Enter the distribution directory: cd farkle
Build the executable: make
Install the executable: make install
Note: You'll probably have to be root if you want to install to one of the standard system locations - the default location for the binary is /usr/local/bin and the resource directory is /usr/local/share/farkle. You can change these locations in the Makefile to provide an alternate directory.

Installation tips for Linux:

The make process will probably not work out of the box for Linux distributions. However, the fix is simple: edit the Makefile and replace all occurrences of $> with $^ . The reason for this is that BSD has a different default Makefile specification and the distribution is written with this specification in mind, since the author's system is FreeBSD.

Starting a game

Type farkle
Choose the number of human players. Farkle is a hot-seat multi-player game, but can easily be played with just one human, too.
Choose the number of AI players. The higher the number of AI players, the longer the game will last.
Enter the names of the human players. Each name can technically be 81 characters, but if you'd like the entire name to be displayed on the score list, choose one that is 11 characters in length or shorter.
Choose the number of points to play to. This also greatly affects the length of the game. The lower the number, the faster the game will go.
Start playing!

Game play

Game play begins with the first human name which was entered. Farkle rolls the dice for you, tells you the current score, and asks what you'd like to do. The options are as follows:

f - Forfeit. This option, followed by a yes/no verification, opts a player out of the game completely.
i - Invoke the Farkle Gods. Invoking the gods sends a prayer to those who look down on lowly farkle games and beseeches their blessing before a roll of the dice. Usually this has no effect at all, but consequences can be negative or positive. Note: This option may or may not be available, depending on whether the game was compiled with the CAN_INVOKE_GODS option enabled. This option is enabled in the default Makefile. Enabling or disabling the -DCAN_INVOKE_GODS property of CDEFS in the Makefile will toggle this ability.
q - Quit. This option quits the game completely, after verification, for all players.
r - Roll the dice.
s - Stay. This option is only permitted when more than three dice are held. If a player is not "open", 500 points must be held in order to stay, as well.
? - Help. This brings up a very brief help menu with a listing of these options.

Typical game play consists of rolling (r) or invoking the gods (i), until a point where it is prudent to stay (s). The basics of scoring are explained in the farkle introduction and won't be explored in much detail here. The cardinal points to remember are that the AI and other players can profit from your losses, and that you can exploit theirs as well. Keep in mind that all the scores can be reset to zero if a farkle returns to the player who initially rolled it.

Notes on the AI

The AI names are contained in a file named farkle_AI_names and it can be edited any time the game is not in play. The restrictions for AI names are the same as for human names, as stated above.

The AI's behavior is devious, and perfectly logical. This means that they will usually win. The algorithm which describes the behavior of the AI is as follows:

The AI makes basic checks to make sure a roll is legal. If there are less than three dice to hold, or if it has fewer than 500 points before being open, it must roll, just as any other player.
If there are six dice to be rolled, roll them.
If the AI's current score, plus the round score is enough to win, it will stop rolling and win.
If the AI isn't open, it will stop rolling at the first opportunity (three or more dice to hold, and more than 500 points).
If the AI is stealing points, if it stands to gain 500 or more points it may choose to stay 50% of the time.
If the AI has a chance to reset the scores, it will try to do this most often if the high score exceeds his own score by more than 1000 points.
If the AI player is in the lead, it will stay with fewer points.
If the AI has quite a few points in play during any one given round (more than 1000), it will stay more readily.
The AI player aggressively decides whether to roll the dice based on the probability of getting a roll which is worth keeping. The more dice there are in play, the better the chance the AI will roll.

Dice in Play

1 2 3 4 5 6

% Chance to Roll 33% 33% 66% 100% 100% 100%

At this point, because of the rules of the game, any rolls with 4, 5, or 6 dice in play must be rolled.

	Dice in Play
	1	2	3	4	5	6
% Chance to Roll	33%	33%	66%	100%	100%	100%