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Ultima Universe[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Johnny Luken wrote on Wed, Oct 17, 2012 07:07 PM UTC:

Just a run down of some of the Ultima piece ideas I've had. Too many to put in at once, so I'll update it as I go. Most of the ideas are pretty fundamental, often following on directly from existing ideas in one way or the other, but are still interesting to contemplate...

I'd ideally like to introduce them in the form of actual variants rather than just as a comment, but shoehorning them all into custom variants is a slow process, and not really practical for so many piece types. My preferred variant would be in the form of "universal" variant anyway, in which case, after laying down the framework, it would come down to the same matter of listing out various pieces. So may aswell just start that here...[note; all pieces unless otherwise stated have queen movement, and are generally adjusted to have similar performance on a 64 square board, LOS=line of sight, ie squares that can covered by a piece by one queen move]

Absorber; adopts ability of any enemy piece it is in the attack range of.

Agitator; can force any enemy piece in LOS, or any adjacent piece on immediate arrival, to capture a specific piece from your side, even if doing so causes them to lose the game.

Ambassador; adopts ability of any friendly piece it is in the attack range of.

Anchor; friendly pieces in LOS cannot be moved.

Approacher; captures by halving distance between it and a piece.

Bully; can remove all enemy pieces in a surrounding 5x5 square, provided those pieces are outnumbered.

Collider; knocks pieces back in direction of its movement on collision. Each piece on its collision with the next piece stops and carries the movement onto the next piece, until the edge of the board is reached. Move also carries "momentum", in that enemy pieces affected may not immediately contradict with other movement than along the same direction the collider sent it on.

Crazy hopper; captures a piece by landing an equal number of spaces behind it as it was in front of it. Can continue in a straight line or turn 45 degrees and continue for further captures. Can also hop over friendly pieces.

Despair; royal piece. If enemy loses sight of this piece, you lose.

Driller ; can perform series of displacement captures, starting with adjacent piece.

Hope ; royal piece. Lose sight of hope and you lose.

Hunter; captures nearest piece. If it has more than one nearest piece, then it can't capture.

Huntress; like hunter, but captures most distant piece.

Isolator; if any piece in LOS becomes isolated, through the isolators movement or that of a friendly piece, it is captured. If a piece is already isolated, then it can use rifle capture.

Martyr; royal piece. If the enemy captures it, they lose.

Mixer; can trade places of all pieces in LOS in any way it likes.

Overseer; any piece in overseers LOS cannot be captured provided it is in the attack range of another friendly piece.

Pacifier; any enemy piece within 2 squares of pacifier cannot capture, or act.

Puller; pulls any number of pieces as far as it likes, regardless of distance of pieces in the series from eachother. Enemy pieces may only move directly towards the puller on the move directly after.

Pusher; pushes any number of pieces as far as it likes. Enemy pieces may only move directly away from the pusher on the move directly after.

Retreater; captures by doubling distance between it and a piece.

Skewer; can capture a connected linear series of pieces, landing immediately behind the last piece. The 1st piece can be any distance from the skewer.

Skipper; can capture a linear series of pieces, by performing a series of hops equal in size, regardless of whether there are other pieces in the space inbetween. Must be able to finish by landing on an empty space. In the same family as the long leaper, crazy hopper, and skewer.

Spy; adopts ability of any enemy piece it is in LOS of.

Tracker; captures by landing on the last square a piece occupied.

Trapper; restricts all enemy pieces in surrounding 5*5 square, to movement within that square.


Johnny Luken wrote on Thu, Oct 18, 2012 09:29 PM UTC:
#PART II#

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ABOMINATION: any piece in LOS (ie enemy piece-these pieces never negatively
affect own side) within 3 squares must move directly away.

ACCELERATOR: forces any piece in LOS to move the furthest number of squares
it can. If tied between 2 options must take diagonal, if still tied then
has a choice.

ALICIAN PIECE: any piece-any piece at all-in LOS behaves like piece from
Alice chess.

AMPLIFIER: increases the ability of any friendly piece in LOS in a
predefined fashion.

ANDERNACH PIECE: any piece in LOS that makes capture is converted on doing
so.

ANTI-MAGNET: like the attractor, but repels enemies and attracts friends.

ATOMIC QUEEN: from atomic chess, if captured or making a capture, queen and
all adjacent pieces are destroyed.

ATTRACTOR: from gravity chess, on making a move, 1) if making diagonal, all
orthgonal pieces in LOS are attracted, 2) vice versa for orthogonal
movement. Effected enemy pieces may not move directly away on any move
after until either piece moves again.

CATCHER: any piece that passes within 2 linear squares from the catcher are
unable to move further at that exact point for that turn.

CLOAK: a la kriegspiel, the cloak and any friendly piece in LOS are
invisible to the enemy.

COMBINER: friendlies on opposite sides of the combiner along its LOS merge
abilities with eachother. Also have the ability to use both
simultaneously.

CONTROLLER: as a move can make any enemy piece in LOS move, in order to
attack own side, or otherwise.

DEFLECTOR: captures with displacement, after colliding with a piece and
continuing past the piece at 45 deg angle.

EQUALISER: any enemy piece in LOS that makes a capture is immediately
captured in turn or made subject to its own effect, same for any pieces
that capture friendly pieces in LOS.

GIANT QUEEN: the bigger they are the harder they fall-if any of the 4
squares it occupies is attacked, then the giant queen is captured. Can also
capture on all 4 squares simutaneously.

MAGNET: like the attractor, but repels friendlies and attracts enemies.

MISSIONARY: if friendly piece in LOS captures or if enemy piece in LOS is
captured, then conversion occurs instead of normal capture. If displacement
capture, then placed on adjacent spot.

MUTUAL ANNIHILATOR: any piece in LOS, or with one intervening piece, can be
captured with both pieces destroyed. If captured itself, the enemy piece is
also captured.

NIGHTBRINGER: like in dark chess, enemy can't see beyond their own capture
range (not movement range as in dark chess). If the nightbringer is
captured, then the curse is lifted.

QUADRANT: remote captures on 3 squares that mirror the stationary position
of the quadrant along the 4 fourfold symmetry of the board. Can capture on
all squares at once.

RECYCLER: any friendly piece in LOS thats captured is returned to starting
square, but only if that square is occupied, in which case it is captured.

REPELLER: a la antigravity chess, the final part of the family of
attractor, magnet and antimagnet, repels pieces.

RESURRECTOR: can bring captured friendlies back onto the board onto
adjacent squares, but not from the comfort of its own half of the board.

RETRACTOR: captures adjacent pieces by moving 45 deg away from relative
position of pieces. Can capture 2 pieces in this way.

SIREN: any piece in LOS must move towards the siren until adjacent.

SUPPRESSOR: any piece in LOS is restricted in movement proportional to its
proximity-eg if adjacent can only move 1 square.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Any questions/feedback/suggestions welcomed, part 3 to follow...

Charles Gilman wrote on Wed, Nov 21, 2012 07:06 AM UTC:
Another interesting idea would be to have Ultima-style pieces on a board with directions marked on the squares in the style of Take the Brain. After all, both types of game differentiate pieces in ways other than direction (the Take the Brain type most extensively in Storm the Ivory Tower). Has anyone considered this combination before?

Johnny Luken wrote on Sat, Nov 24, 2012 06:17 PM UTC:
Charles, I think you should extend your nomenclature and categorisation to
Ultima pieces. They're a bit "wilder" than Chess pieces, so its a bit of
a bottomless pit in a way, but it would be treading fresh ground. I'd
help...

Charles Gilman wrote on Wed, Nov 28, 2012 08:36 AM UTC:
Currently my Man and Beast series takes names such as "Advancer", "Withdrawer", "Chameleon", "Coordinator" as qualifiers for basic piece names, specifically for Queen in the case of square-cell variants using these pieces. On hex boards, Toccata establishes that such names would generally qualify Rook. Giving a distinct name to every combination of direction set and capture type would require several times as many names as Man and Beast currently has. For this reason I consider it best to stick to the qualifying name followed by the name of the piece whose direction is used. Thus a variant might have an Advancer Queen, Advancer Bishop, Advancer Rook, Withdrawer Queen, Withdrawer Bishop, and Withdrawer Rook. This could also apply where noncapturing and capturing directions differ, so that a piece moving like a Rook without capturing, but capturing like an Approacher Bishop, would be an Approacher Stewardess.

Johnny Luken wrote on Wed, Nov 28, 2012 11:21 PM UTC:
I don't mean just movement differentiated variants of the few existing
"accepted" Ultima pieces. I mean the categorising and nomenclature of the
extended set of pieces with homogenous movement (typically queenlike)
differentiated by effect/capture method. 

Such as some of the pieces I've introduced on the subject you're
commenting on right now...

Charles Gilman wrote on Sat, Dec 1, 2012 07:54 AM UTC:
Well you've got quite a list of names, some of which I or others have already used for other pieces. The Ambassador is the Planar piece Attendant+Engineer+Tactician, the Cloak a forward-only 3:1:1 cubic leaper, the Hunter Wing+Mitrecoward, the Huntress Hunter+Rookfiler, the Missionary Mitre+Horn, and so on. For me, remembering a large number of different ways of capturing is a lot harder than remembering a imilar numbewr of examples of the coordinates of a leap or a mixture, or even alternation, of radial moves. The Advancer, Withdrawer, and Coordinator at least have names clearly describing their means of capture. It would be interesting to know what other contributors think.

Johnny Luken wrote on Sun, Dec 2, 2012 10:37 PM UTC:
Well in Ultima and like games theres always a split between using passive
and active noun in naming them-(Queen, King, Shield, Magician vs Swapper,
Advancer Withdrawer, Immobiliser etc). I mixed both to avoid being
repetitive, and to ease the search for finding the most appopriate word for
a piece, without being contrived.

Attaching -er suffix might help brand them as Ultima pieces and avoid
"encroaching" on existing Chess miscellany, but in any event the logic
behind names such "Ambassador", and "Cloak", should be pretty clear if
you read the piece descriptions...

Not so much the hunter/huntress pieces. Perhaps "proximator", and
"aproximator", would be more accurate. "Bully" could be a
"numerator", perhaps.

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