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Play-test applet for chess variants. Applet you can play your own variant against.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
adella hardy wrote on Mon, Mar 4 01:33 AM UTC in reply to HaruN Y from 01:05 AM:

HaruN Y, Thank you so much. you are great nice person. best wishes to you. . sincerely, Adella.


HaruN Y wrote on Mon, Mar 4 01:05 AM UTC in reply to adella hardy from 12:56 AM:

You can click the word "revised" in "Last revised by H. G. Muller" to see the previous version.


adella hardy wrote on Mon, Mar 4 12:56 AM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from Sat Mar 2 09:49 PM:

_____ @ H.G.Muller, Could you keep both the previous version, and the new

version ( if you like it), on Playtest Applet page? Could you

show two links: Functional efficiency previous version, and 2.0 version? That will be wonderful. Keeping previous version's fast efficiency and great functionality and beauty. Meanwhile, use new version to do some testing.
_____ Thamks again, respected h.g.muller. sincerely,

Adella.


adella hardy wrote on Mon, Mar 4 12:42 AM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from Sat Mar 2 09:49 PM:

================== @H.G.Muller,

Respected H.G.Muller, Your Playtet Applet new version is

not working well, or if I could modestly say, it destroys a lot of

stuff, which took me so much time to compose and attention on

it.

       Could you do me a favor, by reverting to the previous    

PlayTest applet version, which is fast, efficient, and functioning

stable?

 Thanks so much.   Thanks for your contribution to  the  

playtest applet work. Could you write the link or applet page to me , that will be

greatly helpful.

Thank you. sincerely, Adella


💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Mar 2 09:49 PM UTC:

The spells do not work yet in the PTA itself, because this is still using betza.js instead of betzaNew.js, and spells are only supported in the latter. Bot they do occur in the spell description that appears when pressing the Show HTML button, so this could be used with betzaNew.js. I will upgrade the PTA to using betzaNew.js shortly.

What is worse is that the interface doesn't allow you to specify spellZone and blastZone yet.


HaruN Y wrote on Sat, Mar 2 04:14 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from Sat Feb 24 10:07 PM:

I like that bug.


🔔Notification on Sat, Mar 2 04:00 PM UTC:

The author, H. G. Muller, has updated this page.


💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Mar 2 03:33 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from Sat Feb 24 10:07 PM:

I have now upgraded the content of this article to the new version, which also allows you to define morph and captureMatrix by filling the corresponding cells with pieces from the table. Other differences with the previous version is that under "Specify more rules" you can also define what are the royal types, and select a spell.

Note, however, that the generated GAME code does not support capture matrices or spells yet, and morphing only to other piece types. (No confinement or win squares.)


💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Feb 24 10:07 PM UTC in reply to HaruN Y from Sat Feb 17 01:02 PM:

Interesting. This is probably a bug; it should not be able to 'pick up' empty squares, but the highlighting might create the impression that the square is not empty.

BTW, I did some more work on the Play-Test Applet 2.0. It is now possible to also place win squares on the morph board (through the red and orange buttons). And I tried to make it clearer through background coloring what elements on the page belong together.


HaruN Y wrote on Sat, Feb 17 01:02 PM UTC in reply to Gerd Degens from 11:23 AM:

Move a piece then click the square which the piece is moved from then click the piece you want to remove.


💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Feb 17 11:27 AM UTC in reply to Gerd Degens from 11:23 AM:

You can move pieces from the table to occupied squares, to replace what was there. If there are too many pieces in total, you could capture the surplus. But only through legal moves on the board.


Gerd Degens wrote on Sat, Feb 17 11:23 AM UTC:

Is it possible in the PTA to remove pieces from the board that have been moved from the table to the board?

And another question: Is it possible to start the PTA with an empty board (without kings)?
Thanks.


💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, Feb 12 02:26 PM UTC in reply to Kevin Pacey from 01:50 PM:

It appears that trajectories that go temporarily off board (the XBetza o mode) are not yet implemented in the GAME code. And the Advancer is defined through such a trajectory, as a multi-leg move that first overshoots its destination by one step, and then takes that step back. This as part of the test that there is no enemy there that should be removed; empty squares, friendly pieces and the step going off board would all be OK; they are not enemy pieces. But the GAME code does not implement the off-board case, so the furthest destination of an Advancer move that hits the edge would not be considered valid, as there is no room for the extra back-and-forth.

In the context of the Interactive Diagram this was easy, as squares are specified by coordinates, which automatically describe an infinite plane. In the context of GAME code this is a bit harder, as squares are specified by arbitrary labels, and there are no labels for 'virtual locations' beyond the board. So there is no instruction for stepping back onto the board, because there is no way to specify from where you should step back.

This means I can not literally translate the JavaScript code of the ID that handles this to GAME code, in order to fix the problem. A work-around would be to have the GAME code process the step-off, step-on legs at the end of the Advancer move as a pair instead of one by one: if it sees that the first of these allows o mode, and would stray off board, it should not try to make the step, but look ahead one leg, combine the two steps (which then should lead to an on-board square), and take that to continue.

This is not a trivial fix, so I will think more about it when I return from shopping.

[Edit] OK, I made a temporary fix, which allows you to fully use the Advancer: I made the betza.txt include file assume that any attempt to step off board by a move with o-mode would be the first leg of a back-and-forth step at the end of the move, and approve the move to the start square of that leg. This obviously would not work for cases where the move travels further, such as a reflecting Bishop.


Kevin Pacey wrote on Mon, Feb 12 01:50 PM UTC:

@ H.G.:

Joe Joyce, my opponent, reported he made a move, but first tried to make a legal advancer move (to e10) that was refused by the preset:

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Butterfly+Chess&log=panther-joejoyce-2024-10-868


Bob Greenwade wrote on Sat, Feb 10 04:08 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from 04:01 PM:

When you talk about changing the notation I suppose you mean that in the article.

Yes, in the article proper, so it shows up in a search. :)


💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Feb 10 04:01 PM UTC in reply to Bob Greenwade from 03:17 PM:

On a separate note, I've discovered (somewhat to my surprise) how to create the Zigzag Nightriders, as seen in Nachtmahr.

There was already an Interactive Diagram in the Comments to that article; I think the notations I used there were somewhat more compact, because they exploit the default assignment of oblique moves as l or r. In fact the 'repeat parentheses' in XBetza where implemented just to make that Diagram.

When you talk about changing the notation I suppose you mean that in the article.


Bob Greenwade wrote on Sat, Feb 10 03:19 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from 03:16 PM:

Yeah. But it isn't very urgent...

Agreed. :)


Bob Greenwade wrote on Sat, Feb 10 03:17 PM UTC:

On a separate note, I've discovered (somewhat to my surprise) how to create the Zigzag Nightriders, as seen in Nachtmahr.

  • Diagonal Wide Crooked Nightrider ((1,1)-Zigzag Nightrider): Nabl(abz)N
  • Straight Wide Crooked Nightrider ((2,0)-Zigzag Nightrider): Nabr(abz)N
  • Diagonal Narrow Crooked Nightrider ((3,3)-Zigzag Nightrider): Nafr(afz)N
  • Straight Narrow Crooked Nightrider ((4,0)-Zigzag Nightrider): Nafl(afz)N

I just thought it'd be good to post them somewhere. :)

Maybe Jörg or an editor can go into that article to change the notation.


💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Feb 10 03:16 PM UTC in reply to Bob Greenwade from 03:09 PM:

Yeah. But it isn't very urgent, as in the PTA the definition aid only serves to fill the Betza text entry, and you can type anything that the aid cannot make directly there.


Bob Greenwade wrote on Sat, Feb 10 03:09 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from 09:51 AM:

[Edit] While at it, I also expanded the capabilities of the Move-Definition Aid to understand leaps to the 4th ring. (As I already did yesterday in the Checkmating Applets.) Originally the 4th ring was only there for seeing when you had defined a rider, or for cutting the range of a slider. Perhaps I should increase the size of the panel, so that you could also see or enter 5th-ring moves.

Given my love of Fifth-ring pieces, I'd consider this a boon. ;)


💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Feb 10 09:51 AM UTC:

Umm, I see now what the problem is when you try to paste a Diagram specification directly from the Page Source into the PTA. It contains a lot of HTML tags that do not produce any visible output, which I could make show up by first replacing the < character by the escape sequence for it. I then got this as the pasted definition against which the PTA complained:

<span>satellite=conquer
<span id="line401"></span>files=9
<span id="line402"></span>ranks=8
<span id="line403"></span>maxPromote=0
<span id="line404"></span>promoZone=1
<span id="line405"></span>promoChoice=NBRQ
<span id="line406"></span>graphicsDir=/graphics.dir/alfaeriePNG/
<span id="line407"></span>squareSize=50
<span id="line408"></span>graphicsType=png
<span id="line409"></span>symmetry=none
<span id="line410"></span>baring=0
<span id="line411"></span>pawn (nasty neighbours):P:fWfcnD:pawn:a2,c2,e2,g2,i2,b7,d7,f7,h7,,b2,d2,f2,h2,a7,c7,e7,g7,i7
<span id="line412"></span>double knight:N:N2:knight:b8,h8,,b1,h1
<span id="line413"></span>double step bishop:B:nA7:bishop:c1,g1,,c8,g8
<span id="line414"></span>double step rook:R:nD7:rook:a1,i1,,a8,i8
<span id="line415"></span>double step queen:Q:nD7nA7:queen:d8,f8,,d1,f1
<span id="line416"></span>king:K:KisO3:king:e1,,e8
<span id="line417"></span></span><span></span>

I suppose the best counter measure would be to scan every line for the occurence of the substring 'span>', and then retain only everything that is beyond the last occurrence of that. I do that now, and it appears to solve the problem: I can directly copy-paste Diagram definitions from a Page Source. I also improved the error reporting: when the Diagram script gets a specification it does not understand, it will now first replace all < caharacters by their HTML escape sequence, so that the browser will no longer recognize any HTML tags in it, and display these as encountered in the error message.

[Edit] While at it, I also expanded the capabilities of the Move-Definition Aid to understand leaps to the 4th ring. (As I already did yesterday in the Checkmating Applets.) Originally the 4th ring was only there for seeing when you had defined a rider, or for cutting the range of a slider. Perhaps I should increase the size of the panel, so that you could also see or enter 5th-ring moves.


Bob Greenwade wrote on Thu, Feb 8 03:51 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from 06:38 AM:

It actually was specifically because of this lack of clarity that I created my own, distinctive High Priestess icon for Alfaerie:

I have a very similar icon (which I only just now realized is upside-down) in my SVG set.


💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Feb 8 02:46 PM UTC in reply to Kevin Pacey from 02:36 PM:

I still don't like it. The problem of poor visibility of the thin lines has been addressed here by changing the fill color, but this is out of style with the rest of the Alfaerie set.

If such different coloring were to be used, I would want to reserve it for indicating divergency (as I believe the pieces in Desert Pub do).


Kevin Pacey wrote on Thu, Feb 8 02:36 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from 06:38 AM:

@ H.G.:

The Alfaerie:Many piece set is at least one set that has the High Priestess with a Ferz symbol on it, so there is room on such an image (in this set it's labelled with _CBJ_HPF):


💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Feb 8 06:38 AM UTC in reply to Kevin Pacey from Wed Feb 7 10:07 PM:

Well, the SVG pieces are a 'work in progress', and if there is demand for Alfaerie pieces that have not yet been converted to SVG, we usually add those. In particular, putting a cross on an existing SVG piece is almost no work at all.

And once the piece exists as SVG we render it as 50x50 and 35x35 PNG to expand the repertoire there too. And whatever appears in those directories, will automatically appear in the auto sets; that is why they are called auto sets.

[Edit] The existing High Priestess image seems wrongly labeled, because (as you say), there is no Ferz cross on it. By Alfaerie logic it should thuse be a representation of the NA, and the High Priestess (which is FAN) should get a symbol with diagonal cross. But there seems to be no room for the cross. (Which is of course the reason it isn't there in the first place.)

In fact, I don't like this kind of symbol at all, with a demagnified version of one piece inside another. (And in this particular case, to a needlessly small size; the Knight could have been at least 50% larger.) Especially when there was no effort to preserve linewidth, and it was demagnified together with the overall size, so that visibility really suffers if the entire symbol gets rendered at a small size like 35x35. If it was up to me we would get rid of such symbols.

Now the fen2.php renderer used by the Diagram Editor with Scalable Graphics allows you to create on-the-fly compounds of two existing SVG images. So I did not even have to make new SVG pieces to create these:

I added those to the alfaeriePNG and alfaeriePNG35 directories under the name b/welephantknight.png . I checked that they also appeared in the corresponding automatic sets, with the name ELEPHANTKNIGHT / elephantknight. I picked these rather than those with the Knight in front, because the Elephant is wider, so that it covers the place where the bottom of the Knight image was cut off; with the Knight in front the bottom of the Elephant would stick out in an ugly way.

I like this way of combining pieces better, and it is more in line with what we do for BN and RN. I think the High Priestes symbol should really be replaced by this with an extra cross; the ear of the Elephant provides ample room for that.


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