Comments by TonyQuintanilla

Corrected!

The special capture, drawing a piece into the hole, is very clever and innovative. It should add very interesting tactics to the game. Since this special move can be done in addition to normal captures by replacement it adds more effective power to the board. This is an effective approach to provide more options in a small game.

That sounds fair. The system is much the same as is used in the Internet Chess Club under certain options.

A very creative solution. Thanks!

The new time controls now provide all the timing flexibility needed. If one is playing a long term game or a 'live' game and one wants time limits this provides the ability to select any time conditions wanted. Very nice!

Impressive and original. I can't claim to have absorbed all the rules and permutations, but it certainly sounds neat.

Right! Un-ready Chess? Well, I thought about it and liked calling the pieces that cannot capture Ready instead of Un-ready. They are ready, just resting!

I second Michael Howe's comments. Excellent is for the tournament and Fergus' outstanding work and continuing improvements to the Game Courier. I tried the new time controls in a test game and they work very nicely, giving players a current time balance. The Game Courier has done for game play on the Chess Variants Pages what the Comments system did for discussion. Both are great additions to the game description archives. Its nice to see so much activity on the game log page! Yes, the tournament will be a little demanding, but very much worth it, and enjoyable. Sign up!

Ben, I ran into this problem. I resolved it by placing the ZRF in the main Zillions directory rather than in the Rules sub-directory. The images go in the Images folder as usual. I am not sure why this occurs.

For some reason, I have not been able to implement the flipping feature in the preset with Shogi-style images. So, I changed the images to be all right-side-up instead of Shogi-style. <p>If anyone can point out my error in the original file that would allow flipping, here it is: <pre> &lt;? $dir = 'http://www.chessvariants.com/graphics.dir/gifford/'; $pieces = array( 'a' => 'cpawn_b.gif', 'A' => 'cpawn_r.gif', 'b' => 'wbishop_b.gif', 'B' => 'wbishop_r.gif', 'c' => 'cannon_b.gif', 'C' => 'cannon_r.gif', 'd' => 'promoted_lance_b.gif', 'D' => 'promoted_lance_r.gif', 'e' => 'elephant_b.gif', 'E' => 'elephant_r.gif', 'f' => 'promoted_sbishop_b.gif', 'F' => 'promoted_sbishop_r.gif', 'g' => 'guard_b.gif', 'G' => 'guard_r.gif', 'h' => 'promoted_silver_b.gif', 'H' => 'promoted_silver_r.gif', 'i' => 'promoted_sknight_b.gif', 'I' => 'promoted_sknight_r.gif', 'k' => 'king_b.gif', 'K' => 'king_r.gif', 'l' => 'lance_b.gif', 'L' => 'lance_r.gif', 'n' => 'wknight_b.gif', 'N' => 'wknight_r.gif', 'p' => 'wpawn_b.gif', 'P' => 'wpawn_r.gif', 'q' => 'queen_b.gif', 'Q' => 'queen_r.gif', 'r' => 'wrook_b.gif', 'R' => 'wrook_r.gif', 's' => 'silver_b.gif', 'S' => 'silver_r.gif', 'u' => 'promoted_spawn_b.gif', 'U' => 'promoted_spawn_r.gif', 'v' => 'promoted_srook_b.gif', 'V' => 'promoted_srook_r.gif', 'w' => 'sbishop_b.gif', 'W' => 'sbishop_r.gif', 'x' => 'sknight_b.gif', 'X' => 'sknight_r.gif', 'y' => 'spawn_b.gif', 'Y' => 'spawn_r.gif', 'z' => 'srook_b.gif', 'Z' => 'srook_r.gif' ); $flipped = array( 'a' => 'cpawn_b_rev.gif', 'A' => 'cpawn_r_rev.gif', 'b' => 'wbishop_b_rev.gif', 'B' => 'wbishop_r_rev.gif', 'c' => 'cannon_b_rev.gif', 'C' => 'cannon_r_rev.gif', 'd' => 'promoted_lance_b_rev.gif', 'D' => 'promoted_lance_r_rev.gif', 'e' => 'elephant_b_rev.gif', 'E' => 'elephant_r_rev.gif', 'f' => 'promoted_sbishop_b_rev.gif', 'F' => 'promoted_sbishop_r_rev.gif', 'g' => 'guard_b_rev.gif', 'G' => 'guard_r_rev.gif', 'h' => 'promoted_silver_b_rev.gif', 'H' => 'promoted_silver_r_rev.gif', 'i' => 'promoted_sknight_b_rev.gif', 'I' => 'promoted_sknight_r_rev.gif', 'k' => 'king_b_rev.gif', 'K' => 'king_r_rev.gif', 'l' => 'lance_b_rev.gif', 'L' => 'lance_r_rev.gif', 'n' => 'wknight_b_rev.gif', 'N' => 'wknight_r_rev.gif', 'p' => 'wpawn_b_rev.gif', 'P' => 'wpawn_r_rev.gif', 'q' => 'queen_b_rev.gif', 'Q' => 'queen_r_rev.gif', 'r' => 'wrook_b_rev.gif', 'R' => 'wrook_r_rev.gif', 's' => 'silver_b_rev.gif', 'S' => 'silver_r_rev.gif', 'u' => 'promoted_spawn_b_rev.gif', 'U' => 'promoted_spawn_r_rev.gif', 'v' => 'promoted_srook_b_rev.gif', 'V' => 'promoted_srook_r_rev.gif', 'w' => 'sbishop_b_rev.gif', 'W' => 'sbishop_r_rev.gif', 'x' => 'sknight_b_rev.gif', 'X' => 'sknight_r_rev.gif', 'y' => 'spawn_b_rev.gif', 'Y' => 'spawn_r_rev.gif', 'z' => 'srook_b_rev.gif', 'Z' => 'srook_r_rev.gif' ); $flip = true; ?&gt; </pre>

Thanks to Antoine for the rules enforcement.

Combined setup and flipping has been fixed.

I found the same thing. However, XP seems to have this problem only with archived ZRFs that are named something like, something_chess.zrf instead of something.zrf.

The set images are now posted! Very nice indeed.

Jared, this is an interesting game. <p>For a preset the limitation is the number of discrete pieces that will be present in the game. The practical limit is 52, the number of letters in the alphabet x 2 (small and capital letters). I did a quick run down and it seems that a preset is not practical, unfortunately. <p>How many distinct pieces can be formed in this game, including all colors? More than 52, it seems. <p>Another route would be to assemble pieces by making each hexagon a composite of different levels, so the assembly of each piece is done on the board using separate layers. How many discrete piece components (Queens, Drones, Pawns) are there? I count 27. <p>How many possible layers of piece components are possible? If a Wizard has 5 health Pawns, that's 7 layers. A Cleric with health and spells could have 9 layers. 44x9 cells is not practical to implement as separate layers. <p>Another option would be to designate stacked Pawns and Drones by number, P1-P5, D1-D4. How many combinations are possible? I count 8x5 for Pawns and 8x4 spell Drones. So that's 72 Pawn and Drone assembly combinations and that totals to 81 piece components. That's not possible to implement. <p>Additional clarification on how pieces are assembled and what they do may help. Are 'clear' and 'translucent' synonymous? Does 'opaque' mean anything but 'clear'? What does 'orientation' mean? How many Pawns and Drones can be stacked?

I have posted a basic Game Courier preset, without rules enforcement.

Jack, have you considered using a Dymaxion projection to project the geodesic sphere to 2D and make a Game Courier implementation possible? The geodesic sphere is a very appealing concept for a board.

As far as playing, a quick look at Kriegspiel did not show any innovative ways to avoid the referee. The only other option, I think, would be the 'honor system', whereby players exchanging moves by e-mail would not only exchange visible moves, but also masked moves using three separate text files, one for each board. The masked moves files, though, would be 'off-limits' to the opponent (unless he cheats) until the end of the game. At that time, both players can verify that all the masked moves were executed correctly. The other option would be to record the masked moves without exchanging them, trusting that the players will not alter the files surrepticiously. Of course, if you can't trust your opponent, why play chess, right? That's the beauty of chess! FIDE not withstanding!

Well, I am going to break the mold here. I don't think its fair to the game to let a 'poor' rating dominate. There is justification for some of the comments, such as a lot of power for a small board; an odd-shaped board; a lot of board edge changes; and the possibility of 'stereotyped' play. However, the game should be played first before relegating it to the 'poor' bin. There are some good points: the use of Knight moves mitigates against the odd-shaped board; the higher power density provide more options on a small, restricted board. In fact, the odd-shaped board provides some of the interest, as the name implies. The game will probably be very tactical and very exchange driven. I think it would be fairly enjoyable. Give it a chance!

The sets of these variations appear trully very nice indeed. Take a look at the site. Hopefully, the rules can be posted soon too. Stay tuned!

The editors received this response from Mr. Spratt: <p>Dear Tony, and Mr. Howe, if you are attending: Thank you for your comments on my games; you're right on all counts except perhaps the 'outrageously expensive' part, at least pertaining to IMPERIAL and CHESS FOR THREE. The playing pieces for those two games are small, I can cast a whole team at once so the colors match, the molds have no parting lines to clean, so all I have to do is sand the bottoms flat; accent detailing with model car enamel makes the pieces more easily identifiable, and felting the bottoms makes for a nice quiet game and protects the board, which takes several tedious careful hours to hand-paint. I have on hand maybe a dozen sets of those two, and if anyone wants a set of the pieces, somewhat cleaned and bottom-sanded, to hand-detail and felt themselves, I'll let them go for $l per player; the se (2-3') pieces are designed for play, but properly detailed with a nice matching board they look pretty sharp. I don't think that's outrageously expensive for limited custom items, but I admit that 'expensive' is a relative condition, and I can't do them for less without getting into mass production; I will try to post some better photos as soon as possible. <p> On JETAN: I had a chat with Danton Burroughs, proprietor of the ERB legacy, about selling the JETAN sets back in ('96?) when I made them, and he said that a few sets for the fans would be okay, but don't go overboard; I guess I sold half-a-dozen, maybe, and the molds were starting to wear out anyhow. These pieces are five to seven inches tall, very detailed, cast one-by-one, chased, sanded, tediously hand-painted in many colors, and yes, I admit you might call them expensive. Not for everybody, sad to say, but I can't do them for nothing, and they do take time, materials and long experience. The same is true for SARANG, and more so; there are ninety-six players in the set. I was able to pour four complete sets and some spares before the molds were shot. This is how you establish limitedness--the molds get rough and after a while at the same crazy-making tedium, Meester Arteeste does, too. <p> My website is fairly new and I'll be posting a price sheet, bio and credo sometime soon, as well as the rules to these games and explanations of the players/pieces. Be patient, and know that I do appreciate your attention. <p>Thank you, James Killian Spratt, m.sc.