Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

115. Lynx. Somehow I'd thought I'd shared this one already, but going through my list I'm not seeing it. The Lynx moves with a (1,2) leap, but cannot capture that way; it captures with a two-space leap either orthogonally or diagonally. (mKcAcD)

My apologies for the confusing diagram; Musketeer's board painter is rather limited in ways.

I finally tracked down where first I found this piece proposed: A CV subreddit thread proposing it (and its inverse) among several others. The name ‘Nabber’ is not terribly inspiring though (and confusingly similar to the proposed names for the other related pieces). And it turns out to have the mFmAcWcD you asked about too, though again ‘Stuffer’ is perhaps not the greatest of name choices

Yeah, those names are no fun at all (though this person did come up with some winners in that aspect).

As for the mFmAcWcD, I ended up calling it the Ayatolla or Qayin depending on my mood.

Ayatolla is too much connected with some particular fundamentalism not to say worse, at least in my country. Whatever the official definition. I wouldn't go in this direction.

It somewhat carries that association here as well, especially those of us old enough to remember the hostages held during the Carter Administration. That's why I'm maintaining the Qayin name (which was the original). I mainly use Ayatolla when the religious title is more appropriate.

116. Chinchilla. This is the flipside of the Lynx: it leaps two spaces orthogonally or diagonally, but cannot capture that way, instead capturing with a Knight's (1,2) leap. (mAmDcK)

I don't recall why I chose this name for the piece (which I actually decided on before Lynx), other than wanting to embrace the fun absurdity of animal names for pieces.

Well, that and the ears.

I've managed a rather large third set of SVG icons (including a few that should've been in the second, like the Rose, Soldier, and Pegasus, as well as a couple more backdrop modifiers), and even a separate file with the Tifinagh letters that I've been experimenting with.

Since it's clearly (and understandably) taking a while to get a folder set up for them all, I'll now be going back over the first three to make sure everything's correctly centered and free from unwanted artifacts.

117. Teutonic Knight (Ordensritter) and 118. Calatravan Knight (Caballero). These two are another rotary pair fitting for a weekend.

The Teutonic Knight, or Ordensritter, first appeared in Jörg Knappen's Teutonic Knight's Chess. In addition to a Knight's move, it can also move like a Wazir or Camel. (WNC)

For a rotary companion, I thought to take a cue from how the Templar and Hospitaller are also rotary pairs, naming it after another of the Catholic Church's five military orders. The remaining two were the Order of Calatrava and the Order of St. James, and between the two the Calatravan Knights seemed most fitting. Since their home country was Spain, the Spanish word Caballeros is as fitting for this piece as the German Ordensritter is for the Teutonic Knight.

The Calatravan Knight, in addition to the native Knight move, can also move like a Ferz or Zebra. (FNZ)

I'm also wondering what I would call the compound of both of these (KNCZ). Outside this context, I'd go with something like Buffalo King or Crowned Buffalo, but I'd like something related to these special Knights as an alternate name.

119. Mongoose. Maybe someone else has already invented a rotary counterpart to the Snaketongue, but I haven't been able to find it. Since mongooses are notorious foes of snakes (thanks in no small part to Rikki Tikki Tavi), I figured that would be a fitting name for the piece that moves one space sideways (instead of forward or back) and then proceeds outward diagonally like a Bishop. (sWsyafsW)

Of course, on a chessboard a Mongoose and Snake would be about evenly matched.

And yes, this piece does look like the more-familiar meerkat. The two animals are of the same species family.

I like the idea of Mongoose, linked with the Snake!

Hopefully I'll get to see it in a game of yours somewhere down the road. ;)

Fergus & H.G.: I goofed with the Axe and Berserker icons, and added a Vivi, so there's a new ZIP file for those changes.

(I'd been going to wait on the Vivi, but I had to update the other two anyway, so I figured, while I was at it I might as well.)

EDIT: Preparing icons for Vanguard Chess and Short Sliders, I've found a few others that somehow didn't make it into the initial ZIP files, and a couple more that need to be fixed. I'll post that file too when I'm sure it's all cleared up.

120. Frog. This piece is probably already familiar to most of you, since it's been a part of fairy chess problems -- not to mention a few games -- for a while now. It's considered the simplest amphibian piece -- that is, a piece compounding two (or more) rather limited moves that make up for one another's weaknesses, making a whole that's greater than the sum of its parts. The Frog, specifically, can move one space diagonally or leap three spaces orthogonally. (FH)

In play, I can imagine that this piece could bring out a few surprises.

(One surprise, admittedly, would be if anyone actually likes the physical piece design. But hey, at least it's distinctive from others in my collection while still fitting in with them.)

Concerning the physical design of the Frog, I would start from the one used in: https://musketeerchess.net/p/tools/boardpainterV2/ which is really well designed.

It totally is. Translating 2D into 3D is a major challenge, though, especially with Tinkercad as the main tool.

Really, it's the lower face that bothers me on this one.

121. Basilisk (Jesus Lizard). The name Basilisk has appeared for fairy chess pieces before, most notably in Dragon Chess and (unsurprisingly) Basilisk Chess. This version is a rotary counterpart to yesterday's Frog; it steps one space orthogonally, or leaps three diagonally. (WG)

When I created this piece, I'd been unaware of Basilisk Chess, and only knew of various efforts to represent the mythical basilisk's deadly gaze, generally a rifle capture along Queen lines. While such an ability could be added to this one (caibQ), this is intended to represent the real-world animal with the ability to run along the surface of the water. That ability has earned the genus (a group of four species) the nickname of Jesus lizard; the piece may also go by that name, especially in a game where another type of Basilisk also appears, or in any other situation where the change can prevent confusion.

@Fergus & H.G.: With this set (which includes a couple of fixes), I should be able to use this set for IDs for Vanguard Chess, Hundred Acre Chess, Short Sliders, and about half of Dealer's Chess (the starting cards plus the first Expansions for the Pieces and Pawns, and the Spears set I'm planning on next).

I think I'll need to work up a few more for the remaining already-posted Expansions, and any further ones; also, there probably are at least a couple that need to be fixed (I just saw an unwanted hole in the Mongoose). But all that can wait.

I also found an extra dot in the pause.svg (making it pause..svg), so if you could fix that I'd appreciate it.

Fergus, I think you said something about creating a script to generate the cards? I'm hoping they can look something like this (as opposed to what's illustrated on the Dealer's Chess page as an example):

The small diagram is hard to read, and it might not be necessary with Game Courier, as long as it is programmed to enforce rules and display legal moves. One alternative would be to make the diagram larger, but we do want to keep cards small enough to fit a hand of them on the screen.

One more thing a card will need is an ID. While physical cards don't need IDs, Game Courier needs to give each one an ID so you can tell it which cards to play or discard. The ID is also useful for shuffling cards and for distinguishing duplicate cards. While the piece name could work as an ID, it would work only if you had only one card for each piece. In the card decks I already have, the cards are stored in an array, and the IDs are the array keys.

In some games, cards also have values. I'm supposing that's not a detail of the cards in your game.

Okay, I added the new pieces and renamed wpause..svg.

The cards to have values, after a fashion; they go into three separate decks (four if Spears are used). Still, I get the suspicion that that's handled differently.

Since only one piece of each type can appear on the board at once, I think the Piece ID should be sufficient for the Card ID. Given the sheer number of possibilities, some IDs may have three letters (or characters, if I add numerals and punctuation).

I'll figure out the name, icon, piece ID, and move description for each of the card groups, and put it all in a .txt file; and come up with something better for the GC card design.

Once again, you have my thanks for all this.

I'm also working on a display page for all these icons, so others can more easily use them.

It is more a matter of making the diagram clearer. If the moves are indicated by fat symbols almost occupying an entire square (and the location of the piece as well), I think the current size would be fine. Of course some space can be saved by omitting the edge with the inscribed coordinates; this serves no function here.

Actually, I agree with Fergus on this one. With the GC diagram able to show current legal moves, the text description should suffice for that part. (Plus, unless there's some way to automate the process, new diagrams would take such a long time to do.)

121. Caracal. A caracal is a long-eared feline living in Africa and southwestern Asia, and seemed to me a good representative for a piece combining the Ferz, Knight, and Camel (FNC).

Of course, I'm sure someone will come along and point out how someone else already has a piece with this move, but I couldn't find one and I wanted one.

Besides, I think the piece design came out relatively nice.

122. Hyrax. A hyrax is an order of mammals living in Africa, looking like very large rodents but actually more closely related to elephants.* I don't recall my thinking at the time I created the piece, but it did seem like a good candidate to be the rotary counterpart of yesterday's Caracal, combining the moves of the Wazir, Knight, and Zebra. (WNZ)

As a colorswitching piece, it's probably slightly less powerful than the Caracal, but I still made them both the same height.

Given their move combinations, I imagine that the Caracal and Hyrax could also be the Wizard Knight and Sorcerer Knight (respectively), with completely different piece designs and icons. I only wish that I had such piece designs, but that thought only occurred to me about ten minutes ago.

*See? Chess can be educational!