The current double-3 rule prevents a player with two 2-piece-long lines put another piece on their immediate converging point even when it's needed to block an advancing 4-piece by the opponent. This isn't necessarily a bug as the double-3 mechanism here wasn't, in design, tweaked for this situation, but here's the case for why there should be an exception to the double-3 rule where double-3s would be legal when it is the only way to block a 4-piece line. 1. The punishment should go to the player setting themselves up for a double-3 situation. The rule was originally put in place because an open ended double-3 is auto-win for whoever places it first - the purpose was to prevent exploitation of an easy auto-win move. But, the double-3 rule as it currently is allows a player to deliberately set their pieces in a way where an advancing 4-piece can only be blocked at the opponent's 2x2 convergence, thereby disabling any defense from the opponent. The double-3-rule exception above would allow the defending player to legally to prevent an advancing 4 but would not structurally disadvantage the aggressor because they can just place a piece at the 2x2 convergence point instead of at another spot where the winning 5th piece would have to land at the convergence point. In fact, that's just the smarter move for the aggressor in that situation because it would block 2 ends of open-ended 2-piece lines while still forcing the defender to waste a turn blocking (what still ends up being) a 4-piece. 2. Other servers use this double-3 exception, which proves that competitive omok would still be possible post-tweak. An explanation/example of this mechanism that I came across on another MS private server thread - http://bellocan.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=159. Obviously this situation is super rare but it'd be nice if the rules on this were clear (and hopefully changed) before more people started running into this issue. Creds to @Sophia for the omok pics and to the nubs who complained abt it: @Kristy @cadence
Nice, this time its something important to report *cough (buff fart mages)* T Thnx for the shoutout u nub
Realistically speaking, because the situation is so rare, I don't see it as an issue. In an actual game of omok, the chances of running into this problem is high. There are also factors of whether or not your opponent has pieces placed next to or around your placed Double 3's, which would allow you to block their next move.