Traffic Tango

Main Match 6: Traffic Tango

Summary:

Players will take on the roles of both traffic control workers and speedy delivery drivers in a city where everything has got to be fast. Players will place traffic signs into a city that dictate the movements of vehicles, then will then try to form a route by which they can complete their delivery the fastest while avoiding collisions with other vehicles. The players that complete the fastest deliveries will take the win!

Gameplay:

In this game there are two phases, the Traffic phase and the Delivery phase. These phases will overlap where each Delivery phase occurs during the submission after its Traffic phase. There will be 4 of each phase, and thus there will be 5 rounds in total. They will be as follows:

Day 1: Traffic phase 1

Day 2: Traffic phase 2, Delivery phase 1

…

Day 5: Delivery phase 4

The game will be played on a 5x5 grid representing the city. Players will have a starting area in one of the 4 corners of the city and they will have a delivery area in the opposite corner. Your goal is to form a route that allows you to complete your delivery faster than the other players.

During the Traffic phase, you will select one of the following traffic signs to place in the city on a tile of your choice. It will not be announced who has placed each sign.

One Way - When exiting from this tile, you can only go in the direction that the sign is pointing.

Yield - If you are about to collide with a player on the next tile you are entering, you will stop at this tile for 1 step to avoid the collision, then proceed. If the following step would cause a collision as well, then this will repeat and you will wait longer.

Roundabout - It is not possible to have any collision on this tile.

Toll Road - You will gain 2 additional gas costs if you pass through this tile.

Stop Sign - Each player may only place this sign once per game. This tile can not be entered.

Speed Limit 70 - Instead of placing on a tile, this sign can only be placed on either a row or column. When traveling straight along the row or column that the speed limit is increased on, you will move two tiles at a time rather than one. This is not optional - you must obey the speed limit. If traveling at an increased speed would cause you to go off the board, then it results in a crash. For the sake of tracking collisions, you are considered to occupy each of the tiles along the way during this step and can thus crash with another vehicle during any of them.

You may not place a sign on any of the 4 corners of the city. You may not place a sign on a tile where there is already a sign. Speed Limit signs do not occupy the 25 city tiles, and instead occupy a space indicating the row or column which they belong to.

When placing signs, it is not legal to create a combination of signs that would make it impossible for a player to complete their route. Speed Limit signs are considered in this calculation as well if they would create an impossible route. If the placements of two or more players are about to form a blocked route, then all of the signs involved will be ignored and fail placement. You will be told that this occurred.

If two or more players put a sign on the same tile in the same round, then all of those signs will occupy that tile. If there are multiple One Way signs when this happens, then they will form either a Two Way, Three Way, or Four Way sign. When two or more Speed Limit 70 signs are placed simultaneously on the same row, they will instead form a Speed Limit 105, 140, or 175 sign. This increases the number of tiles traveled proportionally to either three, four, or five. If it is five, it will result in a guaranteed crash if you attempt to drive on this row or column.

During the Delivery phase, you will create a route that your vehicle will travel on by naming all of the steps involved in your route via coordinates. You should include your starting square and ending square in your steps.

If your vehicle enters the same tile as another player, or if you pass through each other's tiles going in opposite directions, then a collision will occur and both vehicles will become debris. You will be privately notified that you collided, which player it was with, and which square it occurred on. Other vehicles can also collide with the debris, and they will also be part of the notification to all involved players.

You will earn a number of gas costs equal to the number of steps it takes to reach your destination. If you are involved in a collision, then you will automatically be assigned 17 gas costs for this round.

The routes that the players travel on will not be public. Each update will only show the updated map of the city and every player’s number of gas costs.

Each round, you will earn a number of garnets equal to the inverse of your placement with regards to how fast you were. In other words, the 1st fastest player receives 4 garnets, and the 4th fastest player receives 1 garnet. However, if you are in a crash, then you will receive 0 garnets instead. If two or more players are tied for speed in a round, then they will each be reduced to the next tier. Thus, if 3 players are equally the 1st fastest, they will instead be each considered as the 3rd fastest and receive 2 garnets each.

During the Traffic phase, you may spend garnets to place an additional sign. This cost reduces by 2 every round, starting at a cost of 8 garnets in the first Traffic phase. Thus, the cost progression over 4 rounds is 8 - 6 - 4 - 2. The sign which you place must be on a different tile from your other placement, and it must be a different sign type.

During the Delivery phase, you may spend 5 garnets to speed. This causes you to skip over a step in your route. You must still indicate this step in your route, and you must still obey signs with one exception: If you are speeding, the toll booth cannot charge you and so you pass through for free. When calculating collisions, you are considered to occupy both tiles during this step.

Note 1: If there are two Yield operations that happen at the same tile at the same time, they will cancel each other out and the collision will occur. In other words, if two cars attempt to yield to each other simultaneously due to Yield signs in adjacent squares, then they will crash.

Note 2: If a Stop Sign is on the same tile as any other sign, the Stop Sign will always take precedence and it will not be possible to enter the tile.

Note 3: A Yield or a Roundabout will only prevent a collision if the two vehicles are entering the same tile at the same time. They will not prevent a collision where two players would pass through each other simultaneously, unless there are two adjacent Roundabouts.

Note 4: Your starting and ending tiles are both counted as steps.

Note 5: The terms ‘crash’ and ‘collision’ may be used interchangeably, but they refer to the same event.

Results:

The player with the lowest gas cost will earn a Token of Life. If 2 or more players are tied for lowest gas cost, then no player will have a Token of Life.

The player with the highest gas cost will be the Elimination Candidate. If there are 2 or 3 players tied for the most gas cost, then the winner will choose which tied player is the Elimination Candidate. If all 4 players are tied in gas cost, then the player with the fewest garnets will be Elimination Candidate.

The two players with the lowest gas cost will both earn a bonus of 5 garnets. If there is a tie within the top two lowest, then the tied players will receive 3 garnets instead. If all 4 players are tied, then every player will gain 2 garnets instead.