Joost Brugh wrote on Mon, May 9, 2005 11:17 PM UTC:
I haven't thought about notation while creating the game. Zillions'
notation is clear. But one might want a more beautiful notation.
Position naming: My Zillions file uses a 21x11 grid (a..u by 1..11,
lefmost cell is a6, three adjacent cells are b5, c6 and b7, etc). Naming
by segments or roads is probably more elegant. The position names should
have the same symmetry as the starting position.
Piece abbreviations: Zillions uses the whole piece name. It's possible to
abbreviate it to a letter and one might even use no letter for a Pawn. To
prevent ambiguity, use a T for Star, M for Pawn Master and an R for Prince
when using the letter P for Pawn.
Triggered effects: A Pawn Master creates Pawns. A King can create a Pawn
Master. The Disruptor, Star and Elephant can capture more pieces. Choose
whether or not to notate the effect.
Promotion move: In Zilions, the promotion move is executed by dragging one
invading Pawn to the Pawn Master and choose the piece. The Pawn captures
the Pawn Master and becomes the promoted piece and as an extra effect, the
other invading Pawns are removed. This creates ugly moves like 'Pawn p5 x
r5 x n5 = Disruptor on r5'. A promotion move can be notated by naming the
segment and the promoted piece.
Wizard move: In Zillions, a move caused by a Wizard is notated like
'PawnMaster g4 x i2', which looks very strange, especially when you move
an enemy piece. Notation should indicate that the move is caused by a
Wizard. Also a good idea is to notate whether the moved piece is a
friendly piece or an enemy piece.
Check, mate, stalemate: Can be done like in chess.