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Hello, David Cannon. I took the liberty of grabbing your general comments
on 3D chess from a rating you gave someone else's game. Higher-dimensional
chess is something I've been fascinated by for a long time, and I've made
a couple tentative forays into the field. Let me preface the replay of your
comment by saying that I'm glad to have found someone to argue the other
side of the design questions for at least 3D chess, and maybe higher
dimensions, if I'm lucky. Your critique could be taken, with an exception,
and applied to my recent posting, 3D Great Shatranj. Following is the text
of your comment, slightly edited to remove a name:

''Poor	I don't regularly comment on others' games and when I do, I hate
to give a negative grade. However, as there are already quite a number of
3D variants, I can only compare this game to some of them.

1. 3D chess creates extra paths on which pieces may move. The most obvious
of these is the so-called 'trigonal' path (like a diagonal path, but not
colour-bound); various variants have introduced a UNICORN or a MACE as a
line-piece to move on this path. A variant that misses this is really
lacking something important, I feel.

2. One weakness with the starting position is that a couple of simple moves
by the Rook or the Queen can check the opposing King. As white moves first,
this gives quite a head-start to white, which is not fair.

3. The piece density is too low. FIDE chess has 32 pieces for 64 cells
(50%); Shogi has 40 pieces for 81 cells (almost the same, although Shogi's
pieces are somewhat weaker). Changgi (Korean Chess) has a lower density of
32 pieces for 81 points (40%). Now, there's nothing sacred about these
percentages, but they have stood the test of time. Having designed quite a
few games and playtested them on Zillions of Games, I've found that
Changgi's 40% density is close to the lower limit at which one may play a
satisfactory game. With too low a density, the players just chase each
other around the board forever. (My own Diamond Chess 306, whose Zillions
file you can download from this site, has a 38% density, but in two of the
variants each piece is really a three-piece compound that can be
unpackaged). The popular 5x5x5 variants have a 16 percent density, which I
find too low. Your own 32 pieces per 320 cells is only a 10 percent
density. You've got to be joking. 

Now, some suggestions ... 1. Either borrow a Unicorn/Mace-like piece from
other variants to ride the Trigonal path, or modify one of the existing
pieces to utilize it. 2. Give us something most of the existing 3D variants
haven't got. Leapers, for example. Most existing variants simply
extrapolate the Knight's move (one orthogonal step plus one diagonal step)
to the 3D board. How about bringing in some new leapers that cover the
orthogonal plus trigonal, and diagonal plus trigonal, steps? 3. Increase
your piece density! Either reduce the size of the board, or increase the
number of pieces. (I know the solution is problematic - I'm working on the
idea myself, and it's tying my brain in knots - but we've got to
try).''
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