Comments/Ratings for a Single Item
While I'm not familiar with what convention there might be, what I consider logical is to checker it in a way such that anytime a Rook makes a one space move, it changes color. So, 2D sections of the board would alternate their checker pattern in what is itself a checker pattern. This checkering pattern would also keep Bishops on the same color.
The Unicorn piece you're using is for David Paulowich's Unicorn, which moves as a Bishop or a Nightrider. That's why it combines the Bishop and Nightrider images. It does not represent the 3D Unicorn. The Unicorn in the Alfaerie set would be better suited, because it is just a horned horse.
Hi Fergus I couldn't somehow see at all which option possibly corresponded to a Unicorn (or 'horned knight') in the Alfaerie set as given, if I'm using the Diagram Designer right, though I'm not sure what you meant by 'horned knight'. However, in choosing 'Cazaux Graphics' as a setting for the 'Set' field in the Designer, I found what I thought were nicer images for both the Unicorn and the Balloon, for within what I gave as a second Diagram Designer diagram for the start position of 4*Chess (in the Setup box) of my once again edited submission for it. I left in my first Designer generated diagram, using the Abstract pieces and different 2D Board checkering patterning (for purposes of comparison), for the time being. Regretably, my earlier 20 or so crude diagrams all have the checkering pattern I initially preferred for 4*Chess, though I imagine it won't be too much trouble to compare them with any future Diagram Designer diagrams that I add to my submission, if I leave in all or some of the crude diagrams indefinitely.
There are so many Alfaerie pieces, you won't find them all in the same set unless you use a really large set, such as "Alfaerie: Many" or "Auto All Alfaerie". The Unicorn can be seen in the "Alfaerie: Animal Pieces" set, though I don't think anyone has added a Balloon piece to the Alfaerie set.
Refering to my last post, what I chose to represent a Unicorn seems fairly okay to me, as the animal (whatever it is ) at least shows one pretty straight looking horn as far as I can tell, though at the least the head is rather thick for it to be horse-like - but possibly this is a blessing when trying to tell the piece easily apart from a knight in a given diagram. In any case, I saw that the Diagram Designer setting (for 'Set') that is 'Small pieces for large boards' actually has a Unicorn (knight with one horn) perfectly represented (but nothing available resembling a balloon). Out of curiosity mainly, can you tell me if there is a simple way to include (on one or more cells represented within a single diagram generated by the Diagram Designer) just one fairy chess piece type's image from one setting for 'Set', besides using all the other fairy chess piece type images from one other setting for 'Set' (e.g. to switch just the piece image I used to represent Unicorns with the Unicorn image from 'Small pieces for large boards', if I decided to)?
I have now replaced most of the old crude diagrams in my 4*Chess submission with Diagram Designer generated ones. That is, except for leaving in the one for the Setup position (now with appropriate alternating square colour patterning), and leaving in the ones illustrating legal moves by individual pieces on a vacant 4D board (these are also corrected for patterning), as a possible aid to the viewer. I may have missed how, but after some reading of the documentation I could not see a way for the Diagram Designer to show non-piece symbols on the actual board cells in a generated diagram, such as showing a letter 'X' (e.g. I used such in my crude diagram of a 4*Chess King's legal moves), though using the Designer for this purpose was not much of a priority for me. In addition, I have slightly altered the 4D board notation system I used for the diagrams, in attempting to improve them in this regard.
Earlier I wrote: "...what I chose to represent a Unicorn seems fairly okay to me, as the animal (whatever it is ) at least shows one pretty straight looking horn as far as I can tell, though at the least the head is rather thick for it to be horse-like - but possibly this is a blessing when trying to tell the piece easily apart from a knight in a given diagram." Fwiw, in looking up the mythical animal 'Unicorn', I discovered that sometimes one can be goat-like (instead of horse-like): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn An example of a goat with a beard, such as what might be shown by the animal symbol I used to represent a Unicorn in my diagrams, would be an Irish white goat. That's if ignoring the possibly single horn in my chosen animal symbol (to perhaps tell better if a single horn is the case, I think I can actually make out part of the animal's far eye by looking closely, in the case of a White piece version at least). Within the following link besides the Irish white goat I also noticed examples of another breed, namely a mother with her kids, which had both thick heads and thick necks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat#Anatomy_and_health One more thing I came across elsewhere on the web was a mention that the length and thickness of a Unicorn's horn can vary. Disconcertingly for me, all this seems to go against a convention in fairy chess circles to show Unicorns as horse-like. That is, as Knights with long thin single horns that are as long as, e.g., from an eye to the mouth. However, I was happy to have any sort of moral support for my depiction of a Unicorn (aside from a Balloon) in my diagrams, with the available Diagram Designer piece sets that I had to choose from. :) [edit: in checking the 'Properties' of the animal image shown as a Unicorn in my diagrams, it's used to represent a Gnu normally it would seem. Joke's on me. :) ]
A belated thank you to Fergus for your considerable work on your example (for me) of a 4D variant diagram generated by the Diagram Designer (I may have been pretty tired that day). I'll try to eventually get around to various edits to some of my past submissions that were accepted, e.g. to show definite Abstract: All piece set Centaur piece symbols in diagrams for my Sac Chess entry.
I've now removed all remaining unwanted primitive (ASCII) diagrams from my 4*Chess submission, replacing them with Diagram Designer generated diagrams that still show possible legal moves on an empty 4D board by all the various piece types.
I've now added some justification for my chosen values for the pieces in this variant.
As an observation for Fergus, lately some of the diagrams haven't been showing up properly when I've visited this game's webpage (the many diagrams all used to do so at times in the past, and I haven't changed any of them in any way). Also, I've noticed that when a 'Comment' is posted re: anything, at the same time the main Chess Variant Pages webpage indicates that some item has been 'Rated', too, which is not the case.
Another note to Fergus: when viewing this webpage's many diagrams from my laptop, i.e. with a more modern Firefox browser, I can now see all of the diagrams (unlike from my desktop computer, with its old browser). The same goes for Comments for Circular Chess' webpage when viewing from my laptop (i.e. the error message I see when using my old desktop is no longer there). However, the problem I mentioned about the Chess Variant Pages main webpage is real enough regardless.
Perhaps your old browser is so old it doesn't display PNG images.
Hi Fergus
My old browser did show me many (but not all) of the diagrams (PGN ones, I guess) for this variant's webpage, as I alluded to earlier. I find my old desktop computer more comfortable to use, especially if for a long time, with my neck & back troubles, but when I once tried Firefox with this computer, it caused crashes for it, for whatever reason. So, I'll use my laptop (with Firefox) when I wish to do more things with the Chess Variant Pages, or Game Courier.
Btw, I'm not moving from my apartment in Ottawa, for this year at least, so I feel more free to play online slow games if I wish to again. I'll study Game Courier's time control features at some point, as I couldn't understand them all when looking at the instructions briefly, at least. I felt comfortable playing Carlos with the unlimited time allowed to move time control, anyway (don't know if there was a finite number of days/weeks that were alotted before a player forfeited all the same, though).
My old browser did show me many (but not all) of the diagrams (PGN ones, I guess) for this variant's webpage, as I alluded to earlier.
The script will display a diagram as either a JPG or a PNG file, depending on how many colors the image uses. But your browser would have to be very old, such as Internet Explorer 6 or earlier, to not display PNG images. In case you aren't sure whether you have PNG support, check whether you can see the diagram on the Gross Chess page, which is a PNG file. If you are able to view PNG files, then it might be a problem with your internet connection.
Hi Fergus
Using my desktop's old browser (Windows Internet Explorer [can't figure out what version], as used on Windows XP), I suppose can see all of the diagrams (the diagram with abstract pieces, and the photos of real-life sets) on the Gross Chess webpage (which, due to my old browser has a fatal error message at the bottom of it, preventing me from viewing or making any Comments).
I'm hesitant to experiment with any of my desktop's settings, since I can just use my laptop with Firefox on it instead when I see I'm missing something I should see on the Chess Variant Pages. I'm still pretty much all thumbs with modern computers, and it took my old man some time to fix my desktop after I tried Firefox with it before. Still, I can try to provide more info if you're curious.
I think you can find a version number by looking at the About item in the Help menu.
Hi Fergus
After your advice, I see that my desktop's old browser is Windows Internet Explorer, Version 8.
Wikipedia says that Internet Explorer 8 supports PNG but has still some issues with it. Unfortunately, IE8 is the latest version you can run on XP. If Firefox is not working out for you on XP, you could try Chrome.
At the end of the Notes section I've now added a setup diagram for an alternative 4D variant that I've suggested that's called "Slim 4*Chess", which has the same rules as 4*Chess, except it uses slightly less pieces (i.e. 80, instead of 96).
Your current set-up can be described as the following: an architect’s plan for a four story building, and there are four such buildings. My question is this: imagine these four buildings lined up next to each other as they would be in the 3D modeling of your game, in addition to this, could we quadruple the entire set up so that there were, for the sake of example, 4 rows of 4, four-story buildings? If we did create what would be 5D spatial chess, what would the initial board set-up look like? What would the new 5th dimensional piece be called? Thank you so much for your effort on these variants.
Thanks for rating this CV. While I've seen the 4th dimensional piece called a Balloon in more than one source in the past (the Unicorn is the 3D piece), I'm not aware if anyone has named the 5th dimensional piece. Former CVP editor Joe Joyce is knowledgeable about higher dimensional CVs (i.e. 3D and beyond), and he may know if such a 5D piece already has been given a name.
edit: here's a link to a six-dimensional CV, for the curious:
I recently edited this CVs Rules Page by correcting formatting changes that resulted from a systemic change to CVP site long ago. The spacing of many of my rules pages went off as a result, so I used HTML coding ('(p)' and (/p)) in places with edits to correct all that (instead of '()' think <>). A total of 11 of my rules pages needed editing, it seems, including Sac Chess' Rules Page (I did other editing for that one too, such as some deletions).
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