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Sorry, King!. Two parallel games of Chess and Sorry (Ludo) influence one another. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sat, Mar 16, 2024 03:25 PM UTC:

This is certainly a novel idea. However, I would like to throw in a few important points:

Each player has a complete set of Chess pieces and seven checkers, or pegs.

  • No more than 5 checker pieces per player are allowed on the board at the same time. 

If no more than 5 checker pieces can be on the board at the same time, then just have the players start with 5 checker pieces each.This eliminates the need for the 5-checker limit in the first place.

Players will get an extra point if the checker piece that is to be moved stands on a row/column in which that player has superiority. 

The superiority of a row/column is determined by adding together the value all chess pieces of the same colour and compare it to the enemy pieces. If the points ratio is at least 50% + 1 that player controls that row/column.  In this case, the standard chess values are used.

This rule seems to be a random addition, and appears to have little impact on the game, except for adding an extra bit of distance to a checker's move. It seems to be a lot of effort to calculate something that wouldn't impact the game all that much. Plus, I don't imagine many Chess players enjoy doing math.

Checker pieces, when captured by other checker pieces, will move to the starting position. If that square is already occupied they will enter the game on the next turn. 

Do you mean that they will enter the game as soon as their red square is not occupied by a friendly checker if one is available? This would line up with what you say in the Rules section.


A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sun, Mar 17, 2024 02:53 PM UTC in reply to Florin Lupusoru from Sat Mar 16 05:04 PM:

I have moved the standard piece values to the Notes option as an additional variant to make it clearer which value set you are using.

red square. The checker pieces have to make a complete tour of the board. Their

I have removed the underlined sentence, as it doesn't really say anything.

  • At least four checker pieces per player make a complete tour

I probably should have touched on this earlier, but I think this rule seems like another random addition. However, I do think it can work with the right tweaks.

First, the checkers should ideally have two sides, like with some checker sets that use a star for a Checker King. That way, you can flip the checker (or "promote" it, so to speak) when it makes a complete tour around the board.

Second, if a promoted checker gets captured, it would make more sense to keep it promoted, since otherwise, this condition is too unlikely to happen.


A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sun, Mar 17, 2024 05:55 PM UTC in reply to Florin Lupusoru from 04:52 PM:

In that case, the two sided checkers would still be helpful, as they tell you which checkers are out of the game, by having the checkers that have completed the tour have one side up, and all other checkers having the other side up.


A. M. DeWitt wrote on Fri, Mar 22, 2024 07:36 PM UTC in reply to Florin Lupusoru from Sun Mar 17 08:49 PM:

I am mostly referring to the physical game.

My reasoning is that if the two sides are indistinguishable, or there is no other way to tell which checkers have made a complete tour, then a player could easily mistake a checker which made a complete tour for one that had not and bring said checker back into the game.


Zen Zebras. A team for Chess with Different Armies based around the moves of the Zebra. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sat, Mar 23, 2024 04:42 PM UTC:

I guess the ASCII diagrams aren't terrible. The interactive diagram helps a lot.


Neohex. Chess variant on irregular hexagons. (Cells: 60) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sat, Mar 30, 2024 07:26 PM UTC:

This sounds like a neat idea, but I struggle to make sense of the board directions even with the diagram showing where the orthogonals and diagonals are.
 

Resignation is not allowed if one of the opponents (or both of them) doesn’t accept it.

This seems rather arbitrary.

Otherwise, the page is good enough to be approved.


A. M. DeWitt wrote on Mon, Apr 1, 2024 03:17 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from Sat Mar 30 10:11 PM:

Resegnation is a fact of life that cannot be prevented by any rules. The best rules can do is put a sanction on doing it, and the worst imaginable sanction is an individual game is that you would lose. Which is exactly the idea, and thus has zero value as a deterrent. You will have to find a better solution for when one of the palyers forfeits (e.g. loses on time because he simply walked away).

I have edited the resignation rule to remove the constraint on resignation.


A. M. DeWitt wrote on Mon, Apr 1, 2024 03:20 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from Sat Mar 30 10:11 PM:

Resegnation is a fact of life that cannot be prevented by any rules. The best rules can do is put a sanction on doing it, and the worst imaginable sanction is an individual game is that you would lose. Which is exactly the idea, and thus has zero value as a deterrent. You will have to find a better solution for when one of the palyers forfeits (e.g. loses on time because he simply walked away).

I have edited the resignation rule to remove the constraint on resignation.


Sloppy Slippers. An army consisting of slip-pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Wed, Apr 3, 2024 08:25 PM UTC in reply to HaruN Y from Sun Feb 18 08:51 AM:

Generally, the best practice for assigning names to pieces is to make them easy to pronounce (or fun to say, as in bifferbubberz).

So Sloppy Knight would work better.


Heavy Shako. 10x10 variant inspired by Yangsi, made by Eric Silverman. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sat, Apr 6, 2024 03:56 PM UTC in reply to Jean-Louis Cazaux from Tue Apr 2 07:45 AM:

As you've seen I'm not a very good player.

Well, at least you put up a decent fight.


@ Fergus Duniho[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Fri, Apr 12, 2024 07:08 PM UTC:

Since I am an editor now, I should be able to update my set files for the Seireigi games myself (I am in the process of updating the larger games for the final time).

However, I am not sure where these set files are stored, nor am I sure how to upload the new versions to the site. Any help for future uploads would be greatly appreciated.

For now, here is the .zip file with the up-to-date files:

/membergraphics/MSchuseireigi/seireigi-graphics-set-files-gc-final.zip


A. M. DeWitt wrote on Fri, Apr 12, 2024 09:50 PM UTC in reply to Fergus Duniho from 07:57 PM:

They are stored in

/home/chessvariants/public_html/play/pbm/sets/

Thanks.

Do you know how to use SCP or SFTP?

Do you still have the passwords I sent you by email?

I have not used either SCP or SFTP before, but I should be able to figure out how to use WinSCP.

I still have the passwords you sent me. I figured out pretty quickly that it was best to save the email.

Edit: I have updated the set files, and now know the basics for uploading via WinSCP.


Chu Seireigi. Variant of Chu Shogi playable with drops. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Tue, Apr 16, 2024 02:19 PM UTC in reply to François Houdebert from 09:28 AM:

As far as I can tell, the only typo I made was not changing Great Stag to Treacherous Fox in the move description.


💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Tue, Apr 16, 2024 02:29 PM UTC:

@François Houdebert,

I saw your Jocly implementation for Chu Seireigi. It works much better than it used to.

I went through and tested everything, and here is a comprehensive list of all known errors that I found:

-------------------------------
Piece Movement/Promotion Errors
-------------------------------

Ram's-Head Soldier and Prancing Stag are not forced to promote when reaching the last rank (these pieces must promote on last rank)

Strong Bear (Starting and Promoted) still has its old move (should move one square diagonally or sideways)

Whale is missing its forward orthogonal step

Flying Swallow is not forced to promote when reaching the last two ranks (this piece must promote on last two ranks)

White Golden Bird is missing its sideways orthogonal leaps, Black Golden Bird is missing its (1,-2) leap from White's perspective

Kirin promotes to Lion (should promote to Bishop) and White Kirin moves has extra (2,2) leap in all directions (should move as in Chu Shogi)

Phoenix promotes to Queen (should promote to Rook)

-------------------------------
Board Setup Errors
-------------------------------

There currently aren't enough spaces in the hand to accommodate all the droppable piece types (there are 19 in total). You will need a second column of hand spaces on each side to account for this.

Black Running Leopard and Black Running Wolf are swapped from where they should be in the initial setup.


💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Thu, Apr 18, 2024 08:59 PM UTC in reply to François Houdebert from Wed Apr 17 07:38 AM:

Thanks. Hopefully we can also upload your implementations of Hectochess and Seireigi to the site soon.

I have tested the new moves and will update you on bugs to be fixed. Here are the errors I found as of the writing of this comment.

-------------------------------
Piece Movement/Promotion Errors
-------------------------------

Whale is missing its backward slide

White Golden Bird is missing its sideways orthogonal leaps

For some reason Flying Swallows that are dropped from the hand (not the ones present initially) have their move reversed

-------------------------------

As for the trouble with the hand spaces, maybe ask H. G. Muller about that? He is the one who made the original model if I remember correctly. It shouldn't be that hard for him to figure something out.

As far as I can tell, you should only need a second column of hand spaces on each side, but of course, it's probably not as simple as I am making it out to be.

 


💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Fri, Apr 19, 2024 08:00 PM UTC in reply to François Houdebert from 09:22 AM:

Looks like you fixed everything, save for the hand spaces of course, but I won't bother you on that too much until you are ready to test the solution.

I would at least like the ones for Hectochess and Seireigi. Ideally, the files should be placed in such a way so that I know which files go where.

You may include Chu Seireigi if you wish, but I am doing one last update to make it easier to defend against a Lion:

  • Renaming Prancing Stag to Running Rabbit (fBfR), which promotes to Prancing Stag (fBsRvW)
  • Strong Bear moving the same as Chu Shogi Drunk Elephant

I had your Jocly implementation play out several games, and even though it played rather poorly (for obvious reasons), it was clear that there needed to be more defense.

P. S. I'm surprised you changed the Whale's symbol to a trident. I guess it makes sense if you take into account Greek mythology. I think the whale tail symbol you used before would look more accurate, but it really comes down to personal preference here.


Hibernian Chess. Members-Only Missing description (14x14, Cells: 196) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.

Chu Seireigi. Variant of Chu Shogi playable with drops. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sat, Apr 20, 2024 02:11 PM UTC in reply to François Houdebert from 06:18 AM:

Here's a link to the jocly seireigi and hectochess implementations. It would require to code evaluation function to improve the level of the engine  which still needs to be done, and will probably require some expertise. Personally, I don't mind the computer being beatable.

The link is broken, it seems... Actually, do include the Chu Seireigi implementation. Testing with it will be valuable.

In general, I try to associate a visual with a movement whatever the game in jocly. I don't know if it's the same for everyone, but I have to adapt a lot when the movements of a known piece change. That's why I used the trident that had been envisaged for the whale in chu shogi. I realized that the movement differed from that of the whale in chu shogi when I was making the documentation, and it seemed preferable to me to avoid confusion.

Okay, makes sense.

It would be interesting to add mnemomic sprites as an alternative. I don't know if you'd be interested in making such a file.

Here's an SVG seireigi set if you want to test the creation of a physical game. Example in plywood (compact / cheap and quick to make but rather simple), the color code for laser cutter is red/cutting, blue engraving recto, yellow engraving verso.

Maybe, once I finalize everything.

I am currently testing the KNAD move for the Lion. Unfortunately, I am no carpenter, but your set looks good (though you did forget the Coppers in the plywood example.)


💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Mon, Apr 22, 2024 02:38 AM UTC in reply to François Houdebert from Sun Apr 21 08:39 AM:

I actually found a better replacement for the Old Kite with the Running Rabbit (fBfR).

Thankfully, this is the last time I will need to make any changes.

Here are all the errors I found in your draft:


Piece Movement/Promotion/Drop Errors

Old Kite should be replaced with Running Rabbit, which slides in any forward direction (fBfR)

For Pawn, Lance, Ram's-Head Soldier, Running Rabbit (currently Old Kite), Knight, Flying Swallow, White's promotion is always forced, while Black's promotion is never forced

When captured, White Kirin is not being placed in Black's hand


Board Setup Errors

White King and White Great Elephant are swapped from where they should be in the initial setup.


Other

The grid seems a little off, but you probably already knew that.


💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Mon, Apr 22, 2024 12:55 PM UTC in reply to François Houdebert from 08:45 AM:

The forced promotion issue is fixed for White's forward-only pieces (Pawn, Lance, Ram's-Head Soldier, Running Rabbit, Knight, Flying Swallow) but not for Black's.


💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Mon, Apr 22, 2024 03:12 PM UTC in reply to François Houdebert from 03:00 PM:

Much better.

The only improvements I can think of are reintroducing the 3d pieces, naming the game Chu Seireigi instead of Chu Seireigi Shogi (for the same reasons as with normal Seireigi), and maybe having the hand spaces all colored solid brown. But for the latter the wood is colored similarly enough that it doesn't really matter whether you do it or not.

Also, could you update that SVG for the laser cutter? I might want to make a plywood set in the future. But for now, the cutouts I made will do.


Play Chess Variants with Jocly. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Mon, Apr 22, 2024 10:33 PM UTC:

I have uploaded François Houdebert's files for the Hectochess implementation to the site. I guess now it's just a matter of waiting for the server cache to clear, unless I need to do something else when uploadnig a new Jocly game to the site.


A. M. DeWitt wrote on Tue, Apr 23, 2024 10:37 AM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from 07:31 AM:

You also have to add a line to /play/jocly/dist/browser/jocly-allgames.js to make Jocly notice the files that you placed in /play/jocly/dist/browser/games/chessbase/.

I've done that. It shows up on the Other Jocly games panel, but when I try to load it, it doesn't work. I get the following error:

hectochess-model.js:257 Uncaught (in promise) TypeError: JocGame.LetsTwist is not a function
    at ZobristInit (hectochess-model.js:257:20)
    at Model.Game.InitGame (hectochess-model.js:354:3)
    at JocGame.GameInitGame (jocly.game.js:3:7385)
    at JocGame.Init (jocly.game.js:3:1572)
    at e (jocly.core.js:1:1233)
    at eval (jocly.core.js:1:2511)


Chu Seireigi. Variant of Chu Shogi playable with drops. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Tue, Apr 23, 2024 10:47 AM UTC in reply to François Houdebert from Mon Apr 22 05:00 PM:

I saw you added the 3d Kanjis back to Chu Seireigi. I went through and tested everything, and here are the errors I found

Incorrect 3d Kanji Readings

  • Unpromoted Great Leopard (should say 大豹)
  • Promoted Knight (should say 天馬)
  • Promoted Silver (should say 走狼)

Other

  • Promoted Lance, Gold seem to crash/softlock the game
  • Promoted Copper General (大豹), Promoted Running Wolf (奔猪) assets doesn't load
  • Promoted Kirin (角行), Promoted Phoenix (飛車) indistinguishable from unpromoted counterparts (kanji should be colored red)

P.S.

I was surprised that they didn't have the same movements. I wondered whether a different adjective might be better to distinguish them: e.g. cunning fox and vigilant rabbit, Same for the whale with chu shogi.

That was because I found the Wa Running Rabbit to be too similar to the Lance, and knew that it would add too much defense after testing with the Old Kite. So I gave the Running Rabbit the ranging moves from its Taikyoku counterpart while omitting the stepping moves. The reason it has the same name as the Wa Running Rabbit is because it is one of only two Taikyoku pieces to be a rabbit, and I thought the running kanji fit better. As for the whale, its backward bias was a problem, so I replaced that move with the current one.


Play Chess Variants with Jocly. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Tue, Apr 23, 2024 12:25 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from 11:21 AM:

Hectochess now works, albeit with a few sprites missing. I just need to upload the sprites and diffusemaps for the Chanpion and Wizard.

Edit: Also, Hectochess doesn't have the 3d Queen, Marshall, and Cardinal for some reason...


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