Check out Symmetric Chess, our featured variant for March, 2024.


[ Help | Earliest Comments | Latest Comments ]
[ List All Subjects of Discussion | Create New Subject of Discussion ]
[ List Earliest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]

Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Earlier Reverse Order LaterLatest
Sac Chess. Play classical chess along with classical compound pieces: amazons, chancellors, archbishops...[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡Kevin Pacey wrote on Tue, Dec 15, 2015 06:32 AM UTC:
Thanks for putting together a Game Courier version of Sac Chess, Carlos. I didn't guess a variant of mine would be on Game Courier so soon (if ever).

I'm still new to the Chess Variants Page, and I've been shy about trying out the Game Courier. I tried email chess games years ago and found it a bit taxing (computer engine assistance and use of books were allowed, too, not such a problem for a lot of chess variants I suppose). I also tried reading some of the lengthy documentation for Game Courier a while ago, and though it looks daunting I can probably get a handle on the most essential parts to know as far as playing any game by email, when I feel like trying it out (by the New Year, if not sooner). I'll keep you in mind as an opponent at Sac Chess or any Hexagonal variant(s) if you still wish.

Earlier today I saw a diagram for the Sac Chess starting position on Game Courier invitations (I happened to check for any Sac Chess games being played there), and it looked much nicer than my attempt at a diagram in my submission for Sac Chess on the Chess Variants Page. Thanks again.

Kevin

📝Carlos Cetina wrote on Tue, Dec 15, 2015 01:49 PM UTC:
You are welcome, Kevin. A little contribution of mine to your idea. I like it. Introducing into the classical chess gameplay the 6 primary, basic compound pieces.

Unfortunately, there is a bug in the preset: if you click in the menu Related --> Rules for Sac Chess, it appears this message: "The Chess Variant Pages: 404 Error - Page not found." Hopefully Fergus or Ben can fix it.

I encourage you to playtest Sac Chess with me as soon as posssible... I'm anxious to see how its game plot would evolve!

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Tue, Dec 15, 2015 02:19 PM UTC:
You entered the URL to the rules as a full URL without the http:// prefix. Without that prefix, it treats it as a path name to a page on the Chess Variant Pages, and that's what happened here. So, you should either add the prefix or remove the domain name. I recommend the latter.

📝Carlos Cetina wrote on Tue, Dec 15, 2015 02:30 PM UTC:
Ready! Problem fixed. Thanks, Fergus.

📝Carlos Cetina wrote on Tue, Dec 15, 2015 02:57 PM UTC:
I'm close to enforce the rules for this preset but something is wrong. Fergus: could you please have a look at and test it here? Apparently the code doesnot recognize neither dragon king nor dragon horse nor knight/guard as pieces. Thanks in advance.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Tue, Dec 15, 2015 03:59 PM UTC:
It looks like your Post-Move code was copied from one of my presets without adapting it to this particular game.

📝Carlos Cetina wrote on Tue, Dec 15, 2015 04:39 PM UTC:
Just adding the labels of the new pieces in the corresponding lines of Post Move boxes

elseif match moved Q R B N A M O .RF .BW .NGU:
elseif match moved q r b n a m o .rf .bw .ngu:

the problem remains.

Do you think the following definitions are right?

def O checkride #0 #1 1 0 or checkride #0 #1 1 1 or checkleap #0 #1 1 2;
def .RF checkride #0 #1 1 0 or checkleap #0 #1 1 1 or checkleap #0 #1 1 0;
def .BW checkride #0 #1 1 1 or checkleap #0 #1 1 1 or checkleap #0 #1 1 0;
def .NGU checkleap #0 #1 1 2 or checkleap #0 #1 1 1 or checkleap #0 #1 1 0;
def OL merge rays #0 1 0 rays #0 1 1 leaps #0 1 2;
def .RFL merge rays #0 1 0 leaps #0 1 1;
def .BWL merge rays #0 1 1 leaps #0 1 0;
def .NGUL merge leaps #0 1 2 leaps #0 1 0 leaps #0 1 1;

def o checkride #0 #1 1 0 or checkride #0 #1 1 1 or checkleap #0 #1 1 2;
def .rf checkride #0 #1 1 0 or checkleap #0 #1 1 1 or checkleap #0 #1 1 0;
def .bw checkride #0 #1 1 1 or checkleap #0 #1 1 1 or checkleap #0 #1 1 0;
def .ngu checkleap #0 #1 1 2 or checkleap #0 #1 1 1 or checkleap #0 #1 1 0;
def oL merge rays #0 1 0 rays #0 1 1 leaps #0 1 2;
def .rfL merge rays #0 1 0 leaps #0 1 1;
def .bwL merge rays #0 1 1 leaps #0 1 0;
def .nguL merge leaps #0 1 2 leaps #0 1 0 leaps #0 1 1;


🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Tue, Dec 15, 2015 05:11 PM UTC:
Your code is gone, and I don't know what each of those pieces are supposed to be.

📝Carlos Cetina wrote on Tue, Dec 15, 2015 05:28 PM UTC:
The code is not gone, the link to the "enforced" preset is this.

O is amazon
.RF is dragon horse = rook or ferz
.BW is dragon king = bishop or wazir
.NGU is knight or guard

Testing the preset by the "MOVE pieces by yourself" resource, looks like the code doesnot recognize such pieces as own for any determined army.


📝Carlos Cetina wrote on Tue, Dec 15, 2015 05:41 PM UTC:
Sorry, .RF is dragon king and .BW is dragon horse (from shogi).

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Tue, Dec 15, 2015 06:46 PM UTC:
For the Dragon Horse and Dragon King, where you have a checkride, you don't also need a checkleap. But this is just redundancy, not anything that would break these functions. The *L functions don't have this redundancy and seem alright.

When you say the code does not recognize these pieces, please be specific about what you're doing, what you expect to happen, and what happens. The pieces are not objects that are either fully recognized or fully not recognized. I could move these pieces, but I could not see legal moves displayed for them. Also, other pieces on the same side could capture them.

I think both problems are due to the piece labels not being purely alphabetical. With piece labels that have non-alpha characters in them, you cannot rely on islower and isupper to tell the sides apart, and you cannot rely on onlylower and onlyupper to provide a list of all pieces belonging to one side. You will have to rewrite any code relying on the assumption that piece labels are purely alphabetical. Alternately, you can use a smaller set that does use purely alphabetical labels for pieces. I never use the Alfaerie: Many set and do not encourage its use.

📝Carlos Cetina wrote on Wed, Dec 16, 2015 02:10 PM UTC:
OK, following your advising I changed the Piece Set. The starting setup looks thus: <p> <img src="../membergraphics/MPsacchess/sac_chess.png"> <p> The preset is now working fine except by 2 things: <p> 1. It's not possible to promote pawns because appear a message noting: "This webpage is not available. DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN." <p> 2. When you click on the Amazon or on the Centaur (placed on a2/a9, j2/j9) its legal moves are not displayed, and when you click on the destination square it appears a JavaScript window saying: "This move is not marked as legal. Do you still want to try it?", followed by the "Cancell - Accept" alternative links. After clicking "Accept", the move is completed normally. <p> Remember the link for the encoded preset is <a href="/play/pbm/play.php?game=Sac+Chess&settings=default">this</a>.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Wed, Dec 16, 2015 02:56 PM UTC:
> 1. It's not possible to promote pawns because appear a message noting: "This webpage is not available. DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN." 

That's an unexpected message. It is not programmed into Game Courier, and I don't know what could be responsible for it.

> 2. When you click on the Amazon or on the Centaur (placed on a2/a9, j2/j9) its legal moves are not displayed, and when you click on the destination square it appears a JavaScript window saying: "This move is not marked as legal. Do you still want to try it?", followed by the "Cancell - Accept" alternative links. After clicking "Accept", the move is completed normally. 

The *L functions for these two are trying to merge three arrays with only one instance of merge. Merge takes two arguments, not three. To merge three arrays, you should first merge two, then merge the merged array with a third array. You would have to use merge twice to do this.

📝Carlos Cetina wrote on Wed, Dec 16, 2015 04:15 PM UTC:
>That's an unexpected message. It is not programmed into Game Courier,<br> >and I don't know what could be responsible for it. <p> I think it is related with the change of domain from .org to .com because the same happens with the chess preset; so unless you fix this, it won't be possible to promote pawns in games that have enforced theirs rules. <p> >The *L functions for these two are trying to merge three arrays with<br> >only one instance of merge. Merge takes two arguments, not three. To<br> >merge three arrays, you should first merge two, then merge the merged<br> >array with a third array. You would have to use merge twice to do<br> >this. <p> Ready! I made it. Problem solved. Thanks.

14 comments displayed

Earlier Reverse Order LaterLatest

Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.