The KNetWalk Handbook

# The KNetWalk Handbook

Fela Winkelmolen `<fela.kde@gmail.com>`

Eugene Trounev `<eugene.trounev@gmail.com>`

Revision 3.3.2 (KDE Gear 21.08) (2021-07-26)

Copyright © 2007 Fela Winkelmolen

Legal Notice

KNetWalk, a game for system administrators.

List of Tables

4.1. Shortcuts

Chapter 1. Introduction
Introduction

# Chapter 1. Introduction

### Gametype:

Strategy

### Number of possible players:

One

KNetWalk is a single player logic game.

The object of the game is to start the LAN, connecting all the terminals to the server, in as few turns as possible.

Chapter 2. How to Play
How to Play

# Chapter 2. How to Play

### Objective:

Connect each client with the server, without leaving wires unconnected.

The player is presented with a rectangular grid containing a server, several terminals, and pieces of wire. The object of the game is to rotate these elements until every client is connected to the server, and no wires are left unconnected. Optionally, you can try to get a high score by minimizing the number of rotations needed.

Left clicking on a square rotates it counterclockwise, while right clicking rotates it clockwise. Middle clicking on a square marks it as blocked and prevents it from being rotated unless it gets unblocked by another middle click; this can be very useful for marking squares which are known to be in the correct orientation. The status bar displays the number of clicks so far.

Chapter 3. Game Rules, Strategies and Tips
Game Rules, Strategies and Tips

# Chapter 3. Game Rules, Strategies and Tips

## Rules

- There is only one possible correct solution for every game.

- When playing the Very hard difficulty level, connections can wrap from left to right and from top to bottom.

- The game ends when every terminal and every wire is connected to the server.

- The score rewards the least number of clicks it took to complete the game. The smaller this number, better.

Strategies and Tips
Strategies and Tips

## Strategies and Tips

- Start seeking for squares which orientation can be easily determined.

- Once you are sure of the orientation of a square you can mark it using the middle mouse button. This is particularly usefull in harder games.

- Look for I-shaped and T-shaped wires near the borders, and L-shaped wires near the edges. The position of these squares can be easily determined, unless you are playing the Very hard difficulty level.

- When playing the Very hard difficulty level a good place to start looking is near empty squares, if present, and near regions containing many terminals grouped together.

- Even when playing with the same difficulty level some games are easier than others, restart the game if you want to get a different board.

- If you want to get a good score, only do a move when you are sure.

Chapter 4. Interface Overview
Interface Overview

# Chapter 4. Interface Overview

## Menu Items

Game → New (Ctrl+N)

  Starts a new game. It creates a random board using the current difficulty level.

Game → Pause (P)

  Pauses the game time. Click on the menu item again to make the game resume. Note that the board disappears when the game is paused as it would be unfair if you could search for good moves without the time pressure.

Game → Show High Scores (Ctrl+H)

  Shows a dialog containing the High Scores for the various difficulty levels.

Game → Quit (Ctrl+Q)

  Quits the program.

Move → Solve

  Use it to give up a game. It shows you the solution, but the record will not be considered as a high score.

Move → Unlock All

  Unlock all cells which were previously locked by the player using Space or automatically after checking Auto lock option on General page of Configure - KNetWalk dialog.

Settings → Difficulty

  Lets you set the difficulty level from a sub-menu.

  There are five levels of difficulty:

  - Easy: 5 rows, 5 columns, without wrapping.

  - Medium: 7 rows, 7 columns, without wrapping.

  - Hard: 9 rows, 9 columns, without wrapping.

  - Very hard: 9 rows, 9 columns, with wrapping.

  - Custom: The settings you have configured in the Configure - KNetWalk dialog will be used.

Settings → Configure KNetWalk…

  Open Configure - KNetWalk dialog. Please see Game Configuration for more information.

Additionally KNetWalk has the common KDE Settings and Help menu items, for more information read the sections about the Settings Menu and Help Menu of the KDE Fundamentals.

Game Configuration
Game Configuration

## Game Configuration

To open the Configure - KNetWalk dialog, select the Settings → Configure KNetWalk… menu item.

### General

Using this page you can change the following game settings.

Play sounds

  If checked, KNetWalk game sounds are played.

Auto lock

  If checked, KNetWalk will automatically lock cell after rotation.

Reverse mouse buttons

  If checked, KNetWalk uses the left click for the clockwise rotation and the right click for the counter-clockwise rotation.

Rotate duration:

  Here you can determine the time needed to animate a single cell rotation.

### Theme

To select the theme you want to play, go to the Theme section. The theme is loaded by clicking on OK or Apply. The current game will be ended and a new one started. You can click on the Defaults button to restore the default theme.

### Custom Game

This page can be used to configure custom game settings. You can choose Width: and Height: of the board and check the Wrapping if the board should be wrapped from left to right and from top to bottom.

Shortcuts
Shortcuts

## Shortcuts

The default shortcuts are:

Table 4.1. Shortcuts

Start a new game | Ctrl+N
Pause | P
Show High Scores | Ctrl+H
Quit | Ctrl+Q
Help | F1
What's this? help | Shift+F1
Move left | Left arrow
Move right | Right arrow
Move up | Up arrow
Move down | Down arrow
Turn clockwise | Enter
Turn counterclockwise | Ctrl+Enter
Toggle lock | Space

Chapter 5. Credits and License
Credits and License

# Chapter 5. Credits and License

KNetWalk

Program copyright 2004 - 2007 by Andi Peredri, Thomas Nagy and Fela Winkelmolen `(fela.kde AT gmail.com)`

Documentation copyright 2007 by Fela Winkelmolen `(fela.kde AT gmail.com)`

This documentation is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

This program is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.