H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, May 18, 2023 03:45 PM UTC:
I am still in doubt wheter I should add an air-lift move to the Knight as well. As it is also of range 2, it deserves to have one. But there doesn't seem to be a natural choice for it. With the FA and the WD I could use diagonal and orthogonal slides, respectively. Then these pieces can already reach the first to squares on the path. By using a move that stops just in front of the nearest piece, rather than hopping over it and landing immediately behind it, there will only be extra moves when the nearest piece is 4 or more squares away. This does not give much extra value, especially not for a non-capture-only move.
If I give an air-lift move along an orthogonal to a Knight, though, it has no targets in common with the original move pattern. There are already extra moves whenever that direction is not completely blocked, so the effect is similar to adding a mW or mF, which adds about half a pawn to the value. And I don't want the value to be too high, to prevent harrassing by a Vao.
Perhaps it is an idea to give the Knight hippogonal air-lift moves, in the vN directions to have only 4 of those. Then it least has the first square in common with the original moves, so that there are only extra moves when the nearest piece is 3 or more knight jumps away.
I am still in doubt wheter I should add an air-lift move to the Knight as well. As it is also of range 2, it deserves to have one. But there doesn't seem to be a natural choice for it. With the FA and the WD I could use diagonal and orthogonal slides, respectively. Then these pieces can already reach the first to squares on the path. By using a move that stops just in front of the nearest piece, rather than hopping over it and landing immediately behind it, there will only be extra moves when the nearest piece is 4 or more squares away. This does not give much extra value, especially not for a non-capture-only move.
If I give an air-lift move along an orthogonal to a Knight, though, it has no targets in common with the original move pattern. There are already extra moves whenever that direction is not completely blocked, so the effect is similar to adding a mW or mF, which adds about half a pawn to the value. And I don't want the value to be too high, to prevent harrassing by a Vao.
Perhaps it is an idea to give the Knight hippogonal air-lift moves, in the vN directions to have only 4 of those. Then it least has the first square in common with the original moves, so that there are only extra moves when the nearest piece is 3 or more knight jumps away.