Ratings & Comments
📝Greg Strong wrote on Mon, Dec 5, 2022 02:58 PM UTC in reply to Aurelian Florea from Sat Dec 3 11:54 PM:I just posted a new build: ChessV 2.3 RC4
This will be the final pre-release build before I officially release version 2.3 by Christmas. It addresses a number of things you've asked about.
There is a new evaluation for the Joker to make it's value proportional to the average value of the enemy's pieces. This will not be reflected when looking at the Joker's properties. The built-in material value can't change but the evaluation will scale them up or down as appropriate. (Much like the Pawn's properties don't reflect evaluation changes related to pawn structure.) To use this in a custom game, you'll need to add the evaluation: AddEvaluation( JokerEvaluation( Joker ) ); (where "Joker" is the name of the piece type to receive the evaluation adjustment.)
You can pause or change the clocks. This will let you play a game with a time advantage. Just click in the clock panels when it is your time to move and the clocks will pause and it will give you a dialog box allowing you to resume and/or change the times. But it must be your turn - clicking on the clock panel when it's the computer's turn won't do anything.
The maximum number of directions has been increased to 72.
The <1, 2> direction notation has been standardized. Now in all places the file offset comes first and the rank offset second.
Lots of improvements to the scripting language. Many things have been cleaned up to require less code. New capabilities have also been added, such as allowing piece shuffling by custom logic which will be mapped to position numbers. (See the include files for Arktur or Massai for examples.)
There were a couple of breaking changes to the scripting language. If you email me your include files, I'll update them. They could use an update anyway. Looking at the code you posted there is a lot of extraneous stuff. There is no need to define PieceTypes outside of the game. Games can define custom types on-the-fly. And there is no reason to specify all the specific movements except in very unusual circumstances (e.g. Osprey). In most cases you can just set the XBetza property.
Tamerlane chess. A well-known historic large variant of Shatranj. (11x10, Cells: 112) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Are there no promotions in this version? Where is the prince and adventitious king?
Chess. The most popular of Chess variants, Chess itself. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This is a freshly written Chess page using the membersubmissions forms. It may or may not eventually replace the other Chess page. I may add more details as time goes on, such as a section on notation.
Tamerlane II. Modern variant based upon ancient large chess variant. (11x11, Cells: 121) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]all editors here are experts and skilled in computer science.
You are an expert in Chess variants, and not all editors are skilled in computer science. As the webmaster, I have to know my way around computers, but when it comes to editing pages, that doesn't require any computer skills.
To start with SCP or SFTP are completely unknown to me.
SCP and SFTP are just modern alternatives to FTP, which you must have been using when you were an editor before. SCP stands for Secure Copy Protocol, and SFTP stands for Secure File Transfer Protocol. Each works the same way as FTP and just requires you to use a program that supports it.
It will be a pleasure if it could help but I'm afraid it won't. The reason is that all editors here are experts and skilled in computer science. Often, I don't even understand what you are talking about. To start with SCP or SFTP are completely unknown to me.
To come back to my question, we had the same discussion sometimes ago for Shako (see the comments at this page). Ben Reiniger helped for that. You were speaking of a "migration" then. It would be nice if authors of ancient pages could edit their pages without passing by the step of being editors of the CVP.
Thanks
Fluidity Chess. 
No displacement capture, all non-royal pieces take by cutting through or bypassing. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]H. G. Muller wrote on Sun, Dec 4, 2022 06:08 PM UTC in reply to Bn Em from 04:32 PM:OK, that makes sense. So it is not (caf)6mkB, but (caf)6mBkB, etc. I adapted the Diagram accordingly, putting k mode only on the direct (single-leg) move.
Of course the article should be adapted to make this clear.
Crouching Stepper, Hidden Rider. Xiang Qi pieces' moves lengthen and shorten with location. (9x10, Cells: 90) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The bug was in the trim_lines() function. I corrected it and another bug to make sure it doesn't make any changes except the removal of whitespace at the beginnings of lines.
Borderline. Without pawns, with only one king, capturing opponent's pieces is omitted. (7x7, Cells: 49) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I'll give it another try - even if that should mean a crack-up.
I have changed the rules, made it playable - hopefully!
It is not a 'big' game, a game for the short moment, something to exercise!
Whoever has improvements to contribute is very welcome.
Fluidity Chess. No displacement capture, all non-royal pieces take by cutting through or bypassing. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Bn Em wrote on Sun, Dec 4, 2022 04:32 PM UTC in reply to Greg Strong from 01:41 PM:He [i.e. the king] is royal, but can't be captured by displacement, he simply must avoid check.
Presumably this precludes Qe8; as I understand it, the proposed defense thus prevent capture of the defending piece on e7 (which could also be a knight) by having the square after it not be vacant (it's occupied by the king) whilst blocking the check (which is “as in chess”) as a Chess rook would be unable to capture the king.
Iow one can't ‘displacement‐capture the king’ (for the purposes of calculating Check) and capture anything else in the same move (except with a knight).
This whole checking‐differently‐from‐capture business is rather confusing
Greg Strong wrote on Sun, Dec 4, 2022 01:41 PM UTC in reply to Diceroller is Fire from 11:22 AM:As I understand the rules, neither of these helps. 2. Qe8 capturing both king and the piece on e7.
No, it’s not easy win, black can easily block the path of check by 1.…Be7 or 1.…Qe7 after 1.Qe2
So it’s not required to add interactive diagram for THIS variant. But if it will be in online chess resource, thank you.
Crouching Stepper, Hidden Rider. Xiang Qi pieces' moves lengthen and shorten with location. (9x10, Cells: 90) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I was able to replicate what you described. It's an unusual bug, and I will look into it tomorrow. In the meantime, I added the ability to reinstate a previous revision.
Forwards Chess. A variation of FIDE Chess where pieces only move forward. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg Strong wrote on Sun, Dec 4, 2022 12:27 AM UTC:This is similar to Brickchucking Chess except that pieces aren't allowed to move sideways either. Also, in Brickchucking Chess, when a pawn promotes, it is oriented to move in the other direction. In this game, a pawn that promotes is forever stuck, and would be useless except for it's ability to check backwards.
ChessV
. Program for playing numerous Chess variants against your PC.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]📝Greg Strong wrote on Sun, Dec 4, 2022 12:06 AM UTC in reply to Aurelian Florea from Sat Dec 3 11:54 PM:Probably. The antelope and giraffe aren't adding any new directions but the camel and zebra are.
I still don't understand why adding antelope or giraffe powers work but zebra or camel do not. Is that because of the Vulture?
📝Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Dec 3, 2022 08:53 PM UTC:Yes, I know what that's about. For efficiency reasons, there is a maximum number of directions that can be used in a game. It was 48 but I have increased it to 72. I'll post an update soon.
Crouching Stepper, Hidden Rider. Xiang Qi pieces' moves lengthen and shorten with location. (9x10, Cells: 90) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Dec 3, 2022 06:12 PM UTC in reply to Fergus Duniho from 05:44 PM:I log on, open the page of the article to which this is a comment, and click the link 'edit contents' at the bottom. The last sentence in the Rules section is "As in Xiang Qi ...". It is followed by a line with </p> (which I added for repairs). Delete that </p>, and press the 'send' button. Click the link 'View Submission' on the page that appears. The article now no longer contains the sentence "As in Xiang Qi ...". Click again 'edit contents'. The sentence is no longer in the Rules text area of the submisison form.
Well, it is NOT.
I just ran some tests with a test page, and my updates were saved whether I updated it as the author or as an editor. So, please run some tests and let me know the specifics if anything isn't working right.
Tamerlane II. Modern variant based upon ancient large chess variant. (11x11, Cells: 121) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]You can if you become an editor, as it will require SCP or SFTP access to the site. Since you are one of the earliest editors for this site and a published author on Chess variants, I have no objection to reinstating you as an editor if you so wish.
Crouching Stepper, Hidden Rider. Xiang Qi pieces' moves lengthen and shorten with location. (9x10, Cells: 90) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Dec 3, 2022 12:01 PM UTC:That should be fixed now. When I switched member submissions and revisions to using Format, I neglected to modify database-funcs.php to recognize Format as a column in the MemberSubmissions and Revisions tables. I have now corrected this omission. So, what was going on was a database security precaution that hadn't been updated with new information about changes to the database.
Well, it is NOT. In this article the last paragraph of the Introduction and Rules sections disappeared when I saved it after editing the Setup section. Fortunately the edit form with the original text could still be recalled through the browser back button, and I have appended </p> tags to those sections now, and saved again, to repair the damage.
Only heaven knows how much damage was done to the few dozen articles that I have been editing this way, the past two weeks. I only tested my edits by ascertaining the setup section displayed properly with JavaScript on and off; I never payed any attention to other sections. I only noticed it in the Centaur Chess article because there was so little text there that the entire article except my modification disappeared, section headers and all.
Of course older articles that are not stored in the database, which I edited through WinSCP would not have suffered any damage. But I estimate that this was only about half of my edits.
ChessV. Program for playing numerous Chess variants against your PC.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Hello Greg!
I have encountered a very weird bug. It happens when I try to add a piece that has camel or zebra moves to a new fairy piece. Curiously is that when deleting the AddPiece from the Siege elephant or Mamluk the problem goes away and everything is going according to plan. Also adding Giraffe or antelope works fine all the time. The error message is index out of bounds. Any Idea?
Tamerlane II. Modern variant based upon ancient large chess variant. (11x11, Cells: 121) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Although I am the author of this page, as it is an old one I have no possibility to edit it. May I be given the right to do so by Fergus or an editor? Thanks a lot.
Centaur Chess. Pieces move backwards as Knight. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]When I pasted the missing text at the bottom of the Rules text entry in the submission form, it again consistently disappeared on saving the submission.
That should be fixed now. When I switched member submissions and revisions to using Format, I neglected to modify database-funcs.php to recognize Format as a column in the MemberSubmissions and Revisions tables. I have now corrected this omission. So, what was going on was a database security precaution that hadn't been updated with new information about changes to the database.
Enchanted Forest. Members-Only Chess Variant with fairy pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]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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Thank you very much!