Spring 2022 Update

Please note that while the choice of colors in the cover image is of course intentional, it is absolutely not an attempt to capitalize on current events. Stop war!

Interface Translations

• For now only English, French and German. Maybe more will come.

• The game will use the same language as your Steam client by default, but it can be changed from the properties dialog that is accessible from your Steam library.

• Everyone is welcome to point out bad translations and to post corrections on the forum! You are also even more welcome to contribute translations to other languages. It's about 250 words.

Improvements

• The Snail/Master CPU player was completely re-invented. Quality improved and nodes per second more than doubled. Its play style feels somewhat different and less predictable.

• Graphics processor usage reduced to absolute Zero when the image is still. For laptop and tablet users this means that the battery lasts longer, the device runs cooler and the fans are quieter.

• The auto-finish function is now better at detecting when both players have run out of meaningful options. There is still room for improvement.

Fixes

• Fixed AI getting interrupted when switching between nature and classic modes.

• Fixed accidental double clicks with touch input by ignoring touch input for a short duration after first click.

• Fixed a bug that caused the auto-finish button to remain hidden when it shouldn't.

• Fixed a bug where an achievement would not unlock when in classic mode.

• Fixed black/white flower not updating when background is updated.

More About the AI Upgrade

The previous AI was built by labor-intensive cycles of making fine adjustments to its code, benchmarking them and then deciding whether to keep or discard the changes. Over and over again, for weeks. Naturally this approach had its (human) limitations, so a completely different one was tried: Let the computer learn the game completely on its own by playing against itself, without any prior knowledge except the rules of the game and without any human interference at all. Surprisingly, after only a few hours (!) of learning, the new AI surpassed the previous hand-crafted one.