I now put an interface for defining a row of the capture matrix (together with the morph board and other properties of a piece) in the new Play-Test Applet. It doesn't really create a capture matrix yet; so far it is just a test for judging if the interface is convenient, or not. It only would allow defining what happens for capture of enemy pieces; friendly capture seems to rare a feature to worry about at this stage.
I was thinking, though. Chess Variants typically have a few pieces with special properties. Defining the capture matrix per row is good for pieces that promote on capture, and allows you to diversify based on what they capture. But there are also pieces that are exhibiting their special nature when they get captured. (E.g. contageous or iron pieces.) For such pieces entry per row is quite cumbersome; you would have to indicate the special behavior in the row for every piece that captures it. Defining the capture matrix per column would be much easier for that case.
So perhaps I should put a switch there for selecting whether the promotions you entered are for a row or a column.
Currently the capture row is a bit far from the piece table, so that you might have to scroll to place pieces there. I must put it in a place where it can get very wide if there are many piece types, though. Perhaps there is too much text above it to explain how it works, but I am not sure people could figure out how to use it without that text. Of course I could put a clickable link 'hide explanation' with the text, to reduce the distance to the table?
I now put an interface for defining a row of the capture matrix (together with the morph board and other properties of a piece) in the new Play-Test Applet. It doesn't really create a capture matrix yet; so far it is just a test for judging if the interface is convenient, or not. It only would allow defining what happens for capture of enemy pieces; friendly capture seems to rare a feature to worry about at this stage.
I was thinking, though. Chess Variants typically have a few pieces with special properties. Defining the capture matrix per row is good for pieces that promote on capture, and allows you to diversify based on what they capture. But there are also pieces that are exhibiting their special nature when they get captured. (E.g. contageous or iron pieces.) For such pieces entry per row is quite cumbersome; you would have to indicate the special behavior in the row for every piece that captures it. Defining the capture matrix per column would be much easier for that case.
So perhaps I should put a switch there for selecting whether the promotions you entered are for a row or a column.
Currently the capture row is a bit far from the piece table, so that you might have to scroll to place pieces there. I must put it in a place where it can get very wide if there are many piece types, though. Perhaps there is too much text above it to explain how it works, but I am not sure people could figure out how to use it without that text. Of course I could put a clickable link 'hide explanation' with the text, to reduce the distance to the table?