Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

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Thanks for the ratings. I'm especially glad you like the low starting piece density, as that's part of my design philosophy. Either that, or it reflects my inability to come up with more pieces.

Why does 'Mini-Rules' appear in the title of this page? The minirules files are unindexed PHP scripts that briefly describe the rules of a game for display in Game Courier, they all go in /play/pbm/minirules/, and they cannot be created by filling out forms for user-submitted pages. Any true minirules file should be coded by hand, strictly named after the lowercase, underscored, low ascii version of the game's name, uploaded by FTP to /play/pbm/minirules/, and give no more than the rules of the game and notes on notation in Game Courier, not an introduction or a diagram of the setup.

Why 'mini-rules' in the title? Well, there are several reasons. The first is that preset pages done by the editors all have mini-rules included on the page, and I thought it was a very good idea. It is very convenient to have a condensed rules set readily available to the players. Unfortunately, I am not very computer literate. [I admit to being born B.C. - before computers. The slide rule I used throughout my college career I keep under an abacus on my encyclopedia bookshelf.] I got my first home computer [a Franklin Ace 1200] in 1984, and taught myself some DOS, with which I did well, until everything became Windows. So I learned Windows. They changed it. I re-learned Windows. It changed again. I re-relearned it, and it changed again, and again, and yet again. It got tiresome, and went beyond annoying. Eventually my son [soon to be 33] took Computer Science, so I have him do most of the computer work. As he couldn't care less about chess, he does the minimum, for which I am grateful, but this leaves me with no understanding of what he's done. I understand the concept of indexing, but PHP is just random letters to me. It is not worth it to me to keep learning and re-learning something in which I have no intrinsic interest. What I am interested in is game design. Now, I posted Two Large Shatranj Variants without any presets to see how they would be accepted. [Somewhat of a misnomer, as the 'two' refers to the number of different boards used, not the actual number of variants, which number many thousands.] People seemed to have a positive reaction to the games, so I eventually prevailed upon my son to do presets for me. Now, each preset is only a tiny piece of the whole series, so I felt it appropriate to provide an extract from the 2Large rules for the players convenience, rather than having them wade through the entire 2Large posting and try to figure out just which pieces and rules they were using. [For an excellent example, please look at the promotion rules in 2Large and in the presets.] These small subsets of the rules I thought would validly be named 'Mini-Rules', since I believed the term fit standard English usage, and it fits how I see the preset games, as mini-versions of 2Large, as well as following what I took to be common usage on site. Call it designer prejudice. I certainly wasn't trying to be misleading, and I was most definitely unaware of the specific, technical nature of the minirules files. I only knew I couldn't do them the way the editors do, and that they are an obvious plus to any game that the designer wishes to have played. So I had my son create these to my specifications. Now, I will be happy to change the names of the Great and Grand Shatranj preset pages, as long as I don't lose any votes for games to be included in Tournament #3, as Jeremy Good did when he re-submitted his Royal Pawn game [His votes for RP Chess went to zero. I would prefer that not happen to my games just before the end of the voting. Some are doing fairly well.]; and I do not wish to lose the comments and ratings for each one, such as they are. I would suspect that, too, would happen although I have no real way of telling without trying. So, what should I do to rectify this? I am most willing to do whatever is necessary. Just let me know. Joe

Joe: For the sake of logic, if changes are desired I think you should wait until after all the voting is done. Voting ends in just 2 more days. Of course, then there is the second vote. I think it is very risky to make name changes during the heart of the voting season.

I'm unclear on how the Oliphant and the Lightning Warmachine move. When one of these pieces make two leaps in row, do both leaps have to be the same distance, or can one be a one-space leap and the other a two-space leap, allowing the piece to move three spaces? Are these pieces simply short-range riders, or can they make two captures in a move?

Both the Lightning warmachine and the Oliphant may move 1, 2, 3, or 4 squares. They may slide 1 then leap 2, or leap 2 then slide 1 to go 3 squares in a straight line. They may only capture one piece. They capture by replacement, and must stop on the square of the captured piece, making them short-range riders. I am not yet ready to contemplate double-capturing pieces. Thanks for the questions, I will change the rules page to clarify these questions. I suppose this means I need to do the same for Atlantean Barroom Shatranj also. A zigzag general that can capture twice in one move has to be one of the most powerful short-range pieces ever devised. Thanks for the idea, I think. Not sure how or if it might be used, but what a piece! A very scary piece. You will get credit for giving me the idea if I can find a place to use it.

Shatranj meets a 10x10 board in style!

Here's a 10x10 Shatranj-style variant with 4 Kings per side:

4 Kings Quasi-Shatranj

Grand Shatranj D

The AI of this diagram has a slightly imperfect implementation of the rules: The 'Stranded Pawn' promotion option on last rank is always available, and such a Pawn can only promote after it moves. I is assumed this will have no effect whatsoever, because it would never choose to stay a Pawn when other choices are available, and refrain from promoting when there aren't in the extremely rare case it would have such an opportunity.

Grand Shatranj R

The AI of this diagram has a slightly imperfect implementation of the rules: The 'Stranded Pawn' promotion option on last rank is always available, and such a Pawn can only promote after it moves. I is assumed this will have no effect whatsoever, because it would never choose to stay a Pawn when other choices are available, and refrain from promoting when there aren't in the extremely rare case it would have such an opportunity.