📝Joe Joyce wrote on Wed, Oct 18, 2006 06:48 PM UTC:
Thank you all for the comments. We really appreciate them.
The impetus for this article is contained in Claudio's statement that a
shortrange piece 'Never crossed my mind'. Often these pieces seem to be
used as filler or fancy pawns. Both of us believe they deserve more, and
conceived this project to encourage others to design variants that
actively use shortrange pieces. So it's gratifying to see Greg and David
intending to do so. David, as he has so often done to me in our games,
has
left me in a sticky situation by carefully not mentioning my use of the
Squire/Swiss Guard/Mammoth in 2 designs, forcing me to claim what is now
the 3rd independent invention of Claudio's man-Alibaba piece, and
relegating him to 5th place. Shortrange pieces have been around forever,
but invisibly. Maybe that will change. [Use the pieces, Claudio, please!]
Gary, thank you for the reference to Taikyoko shogi; it has an amazing
number of different shortrange pieces, and is quite a source for ideas.
It
also illustrates one main reason why this article deals with
Western-style
pieces, and that's for simplicity. The Eastern short-range pieces are
often quite complex, gold and silver being 2 common examples which fall
outside the scope of the Piece Builder. Instead of 2 directions,
orthogonal or diagonal, these pieces require the definition of 8
directions. Or at least 4, ortho, diag, forward, backward, the last two
of
which are relative to the player and not the board. Attempting to include
this type of piece was not even considered, as the complications would
make a relatively simple system practically unmanageable, and certainly
expand the article into novel size.
Doug, it's true all the pieces discussed capture by replacement, but
that
is the default simplest method of capture. In that sense it's
deliberate;
but this article discusses movement rather than capture, and certainly
any
of the pieces created may capture in Ultima-like ways or any other way
one
could devise.
Ha, this comment is getting to be article-length. Again, thanks all for
your interest. Enjoy. Joe [As it's now about 3:30 a.m. in Australia,
Christine won't see this for a while. Hope she doesn't mind I took the
liberty to speak for both of us.] BTW, the games listed should be coming
out
in Zillions over the weekend. Then I'll try to use my slash-and-burn
method to make presets for CV.
Thank you all for the comments. We really appreciate them. The impetus for this article is contained in Claudio's statement that a shortrange piece 'Never crossed my mind'. Often these pieces seem to be used as filler or fancy pawns. Both of us believe they deserve more, and conceived this project to encourage others to design variants that actively use shortrange pieces. So it's gratifying to see Greg and David intending to do so. David, as he has so often done to me in our games, has left me in a sticky situation by carefully not mentioning my use of the Squire/Swiss Guard/Mammoth in 2 designs, forcing me to claim what is now the 3rd independent invention of Claudio's man-Alibaba piece, and relegating him to 5th place. Shortrange pieces have been around forever, but invisibly. Maybe that will change. [Use the pieces, Claudio, please!]
Gary, thank you for the reference to Taikyoko shogi; it has an amazing number of different shortrange pieces, and is quite a source for ideas. It also illustrates one main reason why this article deals with Western-style pieces, and that's for simplicity. The Eastern short-range pieces are often quite complex, gold and silver being 2 common examples which fall outside the scope of the Piece Builder. Instead of 2 directions, orthogonal or diagonal, these pieces require the definition of 8 directions. Or at least 4, ortho, diag, forward, backward, the last two of which are relative to the player and not the board. Attempting to include this type of piece was not even considered, as the complications would make a relatively simple system practically unmanageable, and certainly expand the article into novel size.
Doug, it's true all the pieces discussed capture by replacement, but that is the default simplest method of capture. In that sense it's deliberate; but this article discusses movement rather than capture, and certainly any of the pieces created may capture in Ultima-like ways or any other way one could devise.
Ha, this comment is getting to be article-length. Again, thanks all for your interest. Enjoy. Joe [As it's now about 3:30 a.m. in Australia, Christine won't see this for a while. Hope she doesn't mind I took the liberty to speak for both of us.] BTW, the games listed should be coming out in Zillions over the weekend. Then I'll try to use my slash-and-burn method to make presets for CV.