Ratings & Comments
I agree with these comments. There are at least two areas of concern why this page should not be published in its current state: the writing and the graphics.
The bad writing is a straight-forward issue. The author may not be a native English speaker or may just not be good at technical writing. That's ok - that's why we have editors. But editors should not publish something without doing the (sometimes significant) work of rewriting. And content submitters should not be surprised if no editor chooses to take the time to perform the editing - particularly if the content needs a lot of work and/or the idea isn't that good to begin with. The editors are volunteers and choose to work on what they consider to be valuable. I can say that for me, personally, how much work I am willing to put into bringing a page up to publication standards is directly proportional to how valuable I think the content is to begin with. Given that there are now thousands of Chess variants currently, it should be no surprise that, as time goes on, it is harder and harder to develop something new that is noteworthy to the community at large. This website is not a dumping ground for random ideas.
The graphics are another issue, but one that is less clear. I don't like the Galactic graphics but there have been valued members (e.g., Roberto Lavieri) who have chosen to use them as their preferred piece set. I think there is room for debate about what we should ask of submissions in this regard. There are trade-offs. But as I see it, this page has two main graphics problems: (1) There are two completely different sets, neither one of which is standard or recognizable, and (2) GIANT pointless images. This page is an extreme example, but there are lots of otherwise very good pages where the graphics are much larger than they probably should be.
In my view this page should be unpublished unless/until an editor takes the time to correct these issues.
I took the first step of removing the smiley graphics. What I don't like about the Galactic graphics are that they are grainy looking, unevenly colored, and somewhat indistinct from each other. Since they're there mostly by the Diagram Designer, they could be changed to another set with a search and replace. But the question remains what to replace them with.
Back when Roberto Lavieri designed the Galactic set, I let Game Courier include it for those who preferred it, because Game Courier would not force anyone to use them. But the Diagram Designer, which I developed later, is a different matter, because viewers can't choose to just change the graphics for a page they are reading. So, maybe I should restrict the sets it can use.
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Since each player starts with only 16 pieces, it's not clear how any player is supposed to get 20 points.
The graphics on this page could use some work. The piece images are very small and somewhat indistinct. I would recommend using the Diagram Designer and choosing a piece set that suits your game. Most of your pieces can already be found in some sets.
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Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.
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The diffs between page revisions don't seem to work anymore, possibly due to the server move. I get a short part of the introduction and no other text, and generally no highlighted diffs.
A potentially interesting idea, though I haven't had the chance to play it
But the first example is misanalysed: Bf3
is not Stalemate, but rather illegal as it equalises the number of pieces on the e
file, allowing the black queen to move and give check to white.
The assertion about the e
file wrt the f4
pawn is presumably a typo.
Actually I liked the smilies better than Galactic. It is just that these were rendered insanely large. The variant, as I implemented it now in the Interactive Diagram, is not nearly as bad and unimaginative as many I have seen here.
satellite=hori2
ranks=12
files=12
maxPromote=4
promoZone=1
promoChoice=QMZROBN
holdingsType=1
graphicsDir=/membergraphics/MSspiral-chess/
squareSize=50
symmetry=mirror
firstRank=1
lightShade=#A097AF
darkShade=#7D4A95
lightShade=#FFFFD5
darkShade=#527362
rimColor=#833901
coordColor=#FFFFFF
whitePrefix=w
blackPrefix=b
graphicsType=png
useMarkers=1
newClick=0
borders=0
pawn::::e2-h2
warrior::ifmnAfmFfceWfcnD:berolinapawn:c2,b2,j2,k2
shielder::ifmnDfmWsceWfmpafabcuW:shielder:a2,d2,i2,l2
warrior::fmFfceW:berolinapawn:
knight:N:::d1,i1
bishop::::e1,h1
rook::::a1,l1
ox::nDafafsfW::c1,j1
zip::Waf(afz)10W::b1
magician::afyafyafsK:mage:k1
queen::Q::f1
king::KisO3::g1
|
Horizons |
The differences between page revisions was handled by code I copied from another website. Fortunately, with the help of the PHP error log, I was able to fix it.
They are cleaner and more distinct than the Galactic set, but I think something like this would work even better:
It seems that the holdings do not work correctly. Whenever holdingsType is set to anything other than 0, for each piece, it subtracts the amount on the board from the amount present at the start of the game rather than showing the actual amount in the hand. Also, setting holdingsType to -1 does not change the color for Shogi drops like it should.
This is an area where I changed a lot, lately: in the past the AI was not updating the hand at all, and when the MakeMove of the AI was also used for the user move this was no longer tolerable. But to avoid slowing down the AI by figuring out whether to flip color, I now always store captured pieces in the hand of the previous owner. Then for holdingsType -1 the drops (which the AI currently does not consider at all) have to flip the color. Apparently I did not convert the code to this new system in all places. I will have a look at it.
[Edit] Should be fixed now. Turned out I had actually been too enthusiastic spreading around code that would swap the color of the holdings element that was used. Another interesting bug was that the black holdings were increased by concatenation; after capturing two pawns you had 011 in hand! This resulted from applying mirror symmetry to the initial holdings count, where I forgot to swap in the element being copied. Apparently undefined is considered a string in JavaScript, so that undefined + 1 gives '01' rather than 1.
but I think something like this would work even better:
Sure, and it would look even better with the PNG images:
satellite=hori3
ranks=12
files=12
maxPromote=4
promoZone=1
promoChoice=QMZROBN
holdingsType=1
graphicsDir=/graphics.dir/alfaeriePNG/
squareSize=50
symmetry=mirror
firstRank=1
lightShade=#CCCC11
darkShade=#339933
holeColor=#111199
rimColor=#111199
coordColor=#CCCC11
whitePrefix=w
blackPrefix=b
graphicsType=png
useMarkers=1
newClick=0
borders=0
pawn::::e2-h2
warrior::ifmnAfmFfceWfcnD:berolinapawn:c2,b2,j2,k2
shielder::ifmnDfmWsceWfmpafabcuW:sergeant:a2,d2,i2,l2
warrior::ifmnAfmFfceW:berolinapawn:
knight:N:::d1,i1
bishop::::e1,h1
rook::::a1,l1
ox::nDafafsfW::c1,j1
zip::Waf(afz)10W:rhino:b1
magician::afyafyafsK:mage:k1
queen::::f1
king::KisO3::g1
|
Horizons |
But we have no rule here that everyone must use Alfaerie. Many contributions here do use the Small ('Chess Utrecht'), Motif, Abstract or XBoard sets.
One remark: can you watch Magician’s moves and make diagonal-based motion. And small Shielder’s regulation of replacing rules, but it’s not required for now.
Yeah, thank you very much!
Points are accumulating. I’ve written this in the page.
satellite=stone
ranks=8
files=8
maxPromote=1
promoZone=1
promoChoice=MOIR
royal=6
royal=7
stalemate=win
graphicsDir=/membergraphics/MSspiral-chess/
squareSize=50
symmetry=mirror
firstRank=1
lightShade=#A097AF
darkShade=#7D4A95
lightShade=#EDEDED
darkShade=#C1C193
rimColor=#FFFFFE
coordColor=#000000
whitePrefix=w
blackPrefix=b
graphicsType=png
useMarkers=1
newClick=0
borders=0
horse::fN::a2-h2
index::cF2afafsfF:arrow:c1,f1
raven::fDbAfsWbF:bird:b1,g1
ox::cW2afafsfW::a1,h1
policeman:M:mWaflafrafsfWafraflafsfW:guard:d1
king::K::e1
morph=///E
emperor::KafsW:king:
|
Stone Garden ChessTurning the Raven is currently not implemented. The article is not clear enough about how this works. Can a Raven that is allowed to turn immediately move to the second square orthogonally in the direction it turned? The Interactive Diagram could not apply restrictions as 'only once in so many moves' anyway. I assumed Horses promote on last rank to Policeman, Ox, Index or Raven. The article doesn't say anything about that. In what orientation would a Raven obtained through promotion start? |
OK, I overlooked that. The Magician now also moves alongside the diagonal.
It is not clear to me what you mean by "Shielder's regulation of replacing rules". The text in the article is not clear enough. Am I correct in that the Shielder can push 1 or 2 enemy pieces diectly in front of it one step backwards (unless these are both Rooks), if there is an empty square behind those? Currently the Diagram is not capable of pushing more than a single piece. I can make the Shielder push a single piece one square back with its initial double step as well, if you confirm that this kind of pushing is what you meant.
The value of the Shielder probably would have to be increased manually: the fact that it cannot be captured from the front side must be worth a lot, and the Diagram does not take that into account when estimating the value. But I have no idea how much this would be worth.
It is now fixed. However, I also noticed that promoted pieces are affecting the hand when they shouldn't, particularly for Shogi-style promotions (increments original, decrements promotion).
Sorry, if you can, please change THERE moves of Index and Ox. All other is COOL!
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Well, I suppose there is no accounting for taste, although it beats me why anyone would use Galactic when Alfaerie is available. But what disgust me is the lack of unity in the graphics. For no apparent reason the setup is shown twice, once in Galactic, the other in a kind of fantasy theme. And the diagram of the latter is 1.5 times as large. And then there seems a completely pointless display of a subset of the pieces below the large diagram, still at a 3 times larger scale.
The move diagram of the Magician appears twice, one of the two double the size of all other move diagrams, again for no apparent reason. Wording is unclear in many cases: 'passtaking' seems to mean 'en passant capture', and the part about not being able to capture a Shielder when he is watching you is mysterious. Is this just after the Shielder moves? Is the Shielder always 'iron' for attacks coming from the fronst?