Backgammon NJ: How to Play Checker Movement Your checkers are black and move clockwise around the board by default. To Play Tap the dice to roll. Tap a checker to move. Tap a point to move to. After you have made all of your moves, tap the dice to end your turn. Tip: It isn't necessary to tap exactly on a checker to select it. Tapping anywhere on or near the point that the checker sits on will select the checker, depending on whether there are other valid selections nearby. Rules This game follows standard backgammon rules. More information can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/backgammon Advanced Options Tap the arrow button at the upper left corner of the screen to access the advanced options menu. Resign Select this to resign a game. Auto Finish Select this to have the computer automatically play out the rest of the game. It will make the best moves for you, according to its AI. Online Play Select this to play online using Game Center. Invite a friend to play a match or be auto-matched with a random player. Match Files This allows you to e-mail match files (.mat) for the last 10 matches. These files can be imported into GNU Backgammon. GnuBG ID This displays the GNU Backgammon position and match ID for the current match in progress. You can copy the ID and paste it into another app or email the ID. This is used to export positions to GNU Backgammon. Equity Estimated points that the player will win for the current position. (Negative equity = points computer will win.) Status Meter Shows the chance of each side winning. (For example, full black = 100% chance for black to win.) Hint Makes the best move for the player. If the Hint button glows blue, it means you have made a bad move and should consider making a different move. If Cube Tutor Mode is turned off, tapping the Hint button during a cube decision will show you the correct action to take. Undo Reverts player position to start of turn or replays computer's moves. Online Play Backgammon NJ is Game Center enabled. You can play online with a friend or be auto-matched with a random player. In order to play online, you'll need to create an account on Apple's Game Center if you haven't already done so. To access the Online Play settings, select the Advanced Options menu by tapping the arrow button at the upper left corner of the screen. Settings Enable Game Center This setting must be turned on in order to play online and send/receive invites from friends. Online Match Select "Invite Friend" to invite a Game Center friend to play a match with you. Select "Auto-Match" to be automatically matched with a random player. When Auto-Match is selected, Backgammon NJ will search for an online match for you and will do so each time you run the app. You can use the app normally while you wait for a match. Select Off to turn Auto-Match off. Preferred Match Length Select the match length that you prefer for your online match. When you are matched with another player, your preferred match lengths will be compared, and the shorter of the two will be selected for the match. Long Matches Only When on, you will only be auto-matched with opponents who prefer match lengths of 3 points or longer. Turning this option on may increase the time it takes to find a match. Chat Mode Off - turn off chat Friends Only - enable chat for your Game Center friends only Everyone - enable chat for all opponents Leaderboards View the Game Center leaderboards: Online ELO Rating Matches Completed - This can be an indication of player/connection reliability, as players with good internet connections who regularly complete matches will be ranked higher. Completed matches are ones that have been played to completion without being aborted by either player. Features Chat Tap the Chat button at the top of the game board to chat with your opponent. The Chat button will glow when you have received a message. Abort Match Select "Abort Match" from the Advanced Options menu to abort an online match. This can be used if you or your opponent have a connection problem and are unable to finish the online match. Please try not to abort matches without cause, as you are playing another human player, not a computer AI. Important Notes: In order to play online, you must: In Backgammon NJ, set "Enable Game Center" to "On." Create an account on Apple's Game Center. Log into your account and connect to Game Center on a Wi-Fi or 3G network. To receive invites from friends, you must: Set "Allow Game Invites" to "On" in your Game Center account settings. Turn on Game Center push notification Alerts in your device settings. Troubleshooting - If you can't connect to Game Center, start an online match, invite friends, or be auto-matched with a random player: Check that your router, firewall, or other software is not blocking access to the ports required to run Game Center. Public Wi-Fi spots will most likely be behind a firewall. Thus, it may be difficult to play online at these locations using Wi-Fi. Try using the 3G network if you're not able to connect using Wi-Fi. Internet connectivity is highly dependent on the reliability of your Wi-Fi or 3G connection. If either you or your opponent have a weak connection, it may cause your online match to lag or disconnect. There could be an issue with Game Center. Try fixing the problem by doing the following: Run the Game Center app Select the "Me" tab Tap your e-mail address Sign out of your Game Center account Sign back into your Game Center account Run Backgammon NJ and set the Online Match option If the above solutions don't solve your problem, please contact us directly with detailed information about exactly what is occurring in your situation and what solutions you have tried. The more detailed the information that you provide us, the easier it will be for us to resolve potential issues. Troubleshooting - If you're not able to create a new Game Center account, try doing the following: Run the Game Center app Select the "Me" tab Tap "Create New Account" After you have created your account, run Backgammon NJ Under Advanced Options: Online Play, set "Enable Game Center" to "On" Online matches are standard backgammon games with the doubling cube enabled. During online matches, the following game features are disabled: equity, status meter, hint, move tutor, cube tutor, auto finish, ability to view/modify RNG seed, manual rolls. If the Automatic Bearoff option is set to "Best Move," it will default to "Greedy" for online matches. If you don't want to play in Greedy mode for online matches, you must set Automatic Bearoff to "Off." Aborting or disconnecting during a match will result in a partial change to both your and your opponent's ELO ratings, depending on each player's current equity in the match. When you start an online match, your current offline match is saved and will be resumed after your online match is finished. When viewing the Online ELO leaderboard, view Today's leaderboard to see more up-to-date ratings. The current version of Apple's Game Center is unable to effectively display downward fluctuations. As a result, only the highest ELO ratings achieved are displayed for each time period. Viewing Today's leaderboard will display ratings from today and will be more up-to-date than viewing leaderboards for longer time periods. Your current Online ELO is displayed in Backgammon NJ under Advanced Options: Online Play. Checker Play Skill A measure of how well the player or computer is playing, given in two statistics, ER and Percentage. Note: Doubling cube errors are not computed and do not contribute to these statistics. ER: The error rate measured in millipoints per move. The lower the error rate, the better. The chart below shows estimated error rates for various playing levels. ER Title 0-3 World Class 3-5 Expert 5-8 Advanced 8-11 Intermediate > 11 Beginner Percentage: This statistic ranges from 0% (playing moves at random) to 100% (playing the best move every turn). Unlike ER, forced moves and moves using hints are excluded from the Percentage calculation. ELO Rating A running measurement of your playing skill when playing against the computer. Your ELO rating is initially set at 1500. It will increase when you win a match and decrease when you lose a match. The amount of rating change depends on the rating of the opponent you are playing, the length of the match, and the total number of matches you have played (i.e., the FIBS rating formula). Detailed information on how the rating is calculated can be found here. Note: Easy level has an adaptive AI with an indeterminate rating. Playing Easy level will not affect your ELO rating. The chart below shows estimated ELO ratings for various playing levels. ELO Rating Title > 2000 World Class 1850-2000 Expert 1700-1850 Advanced 1500-1700 Intermediate < 1500 Beginner Settings Gameplay Skill Level Easy, Medium, Hard, Expert Match Length Play single games or a match up to 25 points. Doubling Cube Play with or without a doubling cube. Computer Resignation When on, the computer will resign when it is certain to lose. Game Type Play Standard Backgammon or Nackgammon. 2-Player Mode When on, two human players can play against each other on the same device. An arrow at the center of the board indicates which player's turn it is and the direction of play. Display Checker Color (Human) Select the checker color for the human player or player 1 (2-player mode). Checker Color (Computer) Select the checker color for the computer player or player 2 (2-player mode). Board Design Select the board design. Checker Movement Move your checkers clockwise or counter-clockwise (reverses board direction). Lock Orientation (iPhone version only) When on, the screen orientation will be locked in its current orientation. Show Possible Moves When on, points will be highlighted to show possible movement options. Display Pip Count Turn the pip count on or off. Display Equity/Meter Turn the Equity and Status Meter on or off. Options One-Tap Moves When on, the higher die will be displayed on the left. Tapping on a checker will move it using the left die if possible. If not possible, it will move using the right die. Tapping on the dice will swap the positions of the left and right dice. Autoplay Forced Moves When on, the computer will automatically move for the player when there is only one possible move. Automatic Bearoff When on, the computer will automatically move for the player in a bearoff situation without opposition. When set on Greedy, it will choose the move that bears off as many checkers as possible, as long as there is only one such move. If there are multiple moves of this type, then Greedy mode will not activate. Note: the Greedy move may not always be optimal. When set on Best Move, the computer will choose the best move according to its AI. This is equivalent to pressing Hint. Checker Speed Select the checker movement speed. Auto Finish Speed Select the speed at which Auto Finish plays. Move Tutor Threshold When on, the Hint button will glow blue when you make a bad move. The threshold level that you select will determine what is considered a bad move. Cube Tutor Mode When on, the doubling cube will glow when you should double. Also, when your opponent doubles you, the Accept or Resign button will glow to tell you which action to take. When off, you can tap the Hint button during a cube decision to see the correct action to take. Confirm Doubles When on, you will be asked to confirm when you double. This is used to prevent accidental doubling. Sound Turn sound effects on or off. Manual Rolls When on, you can roll real dice and enter the rolls into the game. This option is used to prove that the computer does not cheat. Random Number Generator (RNG) RNG Seed Select the random number generator seed that determines the list of dice rolls for the current session. Setting the seed to a particular value will reproduce the same list of dice rolls. This seed can be used to print out and analyze upcoming dice rolls. To do this, click here. Next Roll Number Select the next roll number to use, ranging from 0-99999. While the seed determines the list of dice rolls, the next roll number determines which roll in the list will be used next in the game. You can set this along with the seed in order to replay games. For example, if you start a game on roll 40, then after the game, you can set the roll number back to 40 in order to play a new game with the same dice rolls. Save RNG Seed When on, the RNG Seed and Next Roll Number will be saved across sessions. When off, the RNG Seed and Next Roll Number will be reset each time you restart the app. Note: The saved roll number is limited to 99,999 rolls. If the limit is reached, the RNG Seed and Next Roll Number will be reset the next time you restart the app. Swap Opening Rolls When on, the dice for the opening roll will be swapped. This will result in the opposite side winning the opening roll, and thus, all subsequent rolls in the game will also be swapped. For example, if the opening roll were 6-1, normally the player would move first because the player uses the first die (6), and the computer uses the second die (1). If the Swap Opening Rolls option is turned on, the opening roll would become 1-6, and the computer would win the opening roll. This option can be used in conjunction with the previous two options to replay a game where each side receives the other side's dice rolls. NJ Apps