Comments by sirius628
I changed it accordingly. Please take another look at the webpage.
A pawn promoted to cat must move off the last rank, then back on to promote. Same if a regular cat declines the opportunity to promote.
Yes, a star cat may capture all, none, or one of the pieces it jumps over.
Don't worry about the half-ducks, it's okay.
I also retried the upload image. It still didn't work.
This game was inspired by "Chess on a Really Big Board"
The intial double step must be two steps in the same direction, and can only capture one piece. The admission of defeat replaces resignation. i.e. you may not resign unless checked. The pass turn isn't hard to make. Just add a hidden piece with the lions ability to make a non capturing move and then go straight back, but no other power.
I simply removed the whole resignation vs admit defeat mess, as well as the abillity to pass. They just had little use. On the other hand, I noticed that the Knight was a pretty weak piece in this game, given that it is short range, and unlike the short-range cat, it doesn't promote to a longer-range piece. So, I added the abillity for a knight to promote to nightrider. With three promoting types, two of which only have one promotion choice, a engine that can play large shogi variants seems to be the way to go. I could also make the pawns all promote to queen, or have a tamerlane chess-like system where the pawns promote to different pieces based on their start position, in order to deal with the promotion choice issue. Woah, that was pretty long.
Wouldn't work with a shogi engine. With shogi, you could have three different piece types. A "left pawn", which promotes to say a knight, a "right pawn", which promotes to perhaps a queen, and a center pawn, which promotes to a cat. Promotion based on it's ending file wouldn't. Let's say an a, b, c or d-pawn becomes a locked promotion of knight, and an e, f, g, or h-pawn becomes cat. Now, imagine a white pawn on d11. Then, imagine that d12 is empty, and e12 has a black rook on it. If it moves straight to d12, it promotes to knight, but if it captures the rook, it is now an e-pawn, which should promote to cat. But it is already set to promote to knight, and can't change its identity. With the tamerlane chess system, this doesn't matter, as its promotion square is irrelevant to the end result. But with the grant acedrex system, it must promote to cat, but since it started on the d-file, it must promote to knight. Those contradict eachother. TLDR: The grant acedrex system doesn't work with shogi pieces.
You appear to have misunderstood me. I was referring to how you talked about using your in development Shogi engine, which you called HaChu to play this game. You mentioned how Shogi games already have multiple promoting pieces, as well as pieces with multi-capture capabillity. Then, you said the only problem was the promotion choice of the pawn. My post was thinking of solutions to such a problem.
Macadamia Shogi. Pieces promote on capture to multi-capturing monsters. (13x13, Cells: 169) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I can't get the wolf to move to the third square cpaturing both the pieces on square 1 and 2.
Thank you for clarifying. Also, what is the image name for the kirin? I've tried "kirin", as well as "goat", which is an alternate name. My version lacks a kirin, but I would like to use the image for a different piece, which moves one square and is called a guard. I know you have an image for the "prince" or "commoner", which moves the same, but the image looks like a bell, which I don't like. The name of the guardian image would help as well.
Chess and a Half. Game with extra leapers.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Yikes! That's equal to or even stronger than an amazon, let alone a "mere" queen! The cat is worth about 7 Pawns, maybe 7.5-8 Pawns when you consider the multi-capture. That's roughly equal to an archbishop, and fit my predictions. A guard is only 3 pawns, oddly. I was expecting it to be closer to 4, given that a king is that strong. Because of all this, maybe I should have two queens and just one star cat per player, instead of the opposite. But wait! HGMuller says that the formula only works for pieces whose furthest move is no further than two king steps away, and the furthest star cat move is THREE king steps away! So maybe it's not as strong as we think.
Okay, let's make a table.
|
|
Betza Formula |
H.G. Muller Formula |
Kevin Pacey's Calculation |
My Own Estimate (mid-development) |
|
Cat Value |
= Archbishop. (about 7-7.5) |
= 7 (7.5 counting multi-capture) |
= 5.75 (6.25 counting multi-capture) |
= 7 to 8 |
| Queen Value | = Standard 9 | Not a leaper (using standard value of 9) | = 10.5 | = Standard 9 |
|
Star Cat Value |
< Amazon. (about 10-11) |
= 12 (13 counting multi-capture) |
= 9.75 (10.75 counting multi-capture) |
= 10-11 |
Hmm, so the Kevin Pacey system and the Betza system both agree with each other and my own prediction on the value of the Star Cat. On the other hand, Betza system agrees with the HGMuller formula, for the Cat and Queen values, which also happened to match my own predictions. However, Betza's system is in complete agreement with my own predictions, which were just minor playtesting.
Sorry to be pedantic, but doesn't a knight have 8 moves, and a cat have 16, not 8? Do you know how I calculated the value of the cat?
Jetan. Large variant from the book The Chessmen of Mars. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Just putting this diagram out there. It assumes that the panthan can go diagonally backwards, just as the gryphon can skip the rook move. I also had to make the "escape move" on available on the intial move of the princess. The pieces are white and black like standard chess, but the board is orange and black.
Chess and a Half. Game with extra leapers.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Metamachy. Large game with a variety of regular fairy pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]There's a problem here. The Pawns and Princes promote only to Queen, and never to Lion or Eagle.
Quinquereme Chess. Large variant with a new piece, the Quinquereme. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I think you should make the part where there is Leeloo, space Pentere, Leeloo become space, Leeloo, Pentere, space. The Leeloo is clearly stronger than a Chancellor (Rook + Knight), and a Chancellor (Rook + Knight) is about as strong as a Queen. Therefore, the Leeloo is stronger than a Queen, so there should just be 1.
Chess and a Half. Game with extra leapers.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Betza Notation. A primer on the leading shorthand for describing variant piece moves.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Would you help me? I'm writing an interactive diagram for beastmaster chess, and don't know how to express the (1,4) and (1,5) leaps of the Pegasus and Wyvern. Could I use the bracket notation of [WL] and [DL], or would that crash it?
Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I have a question. Is there any way to completely delete one of my comments?
Chess and a Half. Game with extra leapers.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Help! My diagram is broken! Would you please fix it? It's turned into a regular chessboard with wierd images on it!
Interactive diagrams. Diagrams that interactively show piece moves.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Hey, my diagram won't work. Could you help me? The code that I used is below. I am using my own uploaded images, just so you know.
<script type="text/javascript" src="../membergraphics/MSinteractive-diagrams/betza.js">
</script>
<div style="float:none;margin:0 40px 20px 0;">
<div class="idiagram">
files=12
ranks=12
royal=5
castleFlip=1
promoChoice=QCRGBN
graphicsDir=../membergraphics/MSchess-and-a-half/
whitePrefix=w
blackPrefix=b
graphicsType=gif
squareSize=51
lightShade=#DDDDDD
darkShade=#B8B8B8
startShade=#0000FF
symmetry=mirror
pawn:P:ifmnDifmnHifmR4fmWfceF:Pawn:a2-c2,e2-h2,j2-l2
knight:N:NimpafN:Knight:b1,k1
guard:G:WF:Guard:d2,i2
cat:C:KADcafK:Cat:e1,h1
king:K:KilO5isO4isO3isO2isO1isO0:King:g1
queen:Q:QirO5isO4isO3isO2isO1isO0:Queen:f1
nightrider:NN:NN:Nightrider:,
centaur:X:WFN:Centaur:,
star cat:S:KADGHcafKcafmpafKmpafcafK:StarCat:d1,i1
kraken:∞:U:Kraken:,
rook:R:R:Rook:a1,l1
bishop:B:B:Bishop:c1,j1.
</div>
</div>
<script>
function WeirdPromotion(x1, y1, x2, y2, promo) {
var typ = board[y1][x1], r = (typ & 1024 ? 0 : 11);
if(y2 != r) return promo;
if((typ & 511) == 2) return 7;
else if((typ & 511) == 3) return 8;
else if((typ & 511) == 4) return 9;
else if((typ & 511) == 5) return 10;
else return promo;
}
</script>
csipgs Chess. Design and buy new chess pieces during play. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I would consider adding a (3,2) leaper as well as a lame modifier.
Apothecary Chess-Modern. Large board variant obtained through tinkering with known games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The champion is pretty strong and should be average.
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Re: Ben Reiniger
I tried to upload the image with the upload files link, but it didn't work. It said I needed to enter a username and password, even though I did that.
I'll explain the rules.
3) Yes, that is what I mean. They can't promote to Star Cat, because that would be an overwhelming increase in power. A Star Cat can be more powerful than a queen in some situations.
4) The multi-capture is similiar to that of a Chu Shogi lion. (That wasn't the inspiration for the name, in case you're wondering.) To be more specific, a car or star cat may capture the pieces on the intermediate squares, as well as the destination square.
5) It replaces resignation, essentially meaning that you can't resign if your king isn't in check.
I did test a 12x8 or 12x10 board, but I couldn't find a good setup. The Cats are meant to take a long time to get across the board. That's why they promote. The Star Cats take 4 moves to get across the 12x12 board. That's just as much a FIDE Knight on an 8x8 board.
The Star Cats have little to do with the Half-Ducks. Half-Ducks only have some of moves that Star Cats have. In fact, Half-Ducks have exactly half the moves of the Star Cats. I guess I should've called the Star Cats by the name Ducks instead. Well, I didn't know about Chess with Different Armies when I first created it. However, this game was based on a different game made by Ralph Betza.