BrainKing - Discussion boards (Feature requests)

Is there any way on this site to distinguish between drawn games and drawn matches?

25. November 2007, 17:42:46

Sending group messages in your fellowship is nice.

I would like the option to send group messages to all my friends online, or all my friends, or maybe there are other lists as well?

For example, I am bored right now, and would like to be able to send out an invitation for a quick tournament to all my friends who are online right now, in one group message.

While at it, maybe also a feature to be able to send out an invitation to a private tournament to all of my friends online, and other lists like that too?

25. November 2007, 17:40:05

Subject: Re: Alternate piece set in Logik

You have the ability to use outside CSS files. Why not out side piece sets? You could do this by adding an extra set that points to a folder on a web server or add style info to the board so the existing CSS files can handle it. Style sheets are best for me as the second would make it a lot harder for me to keep my autoplayer working.

25. November 2007, 17:27:14

Subject: Alternate piece set in Logik

Logik is a great game, but pllllllease Fencer, could we have a piece set with the letters A to H instead of colours ? I thought I was the only one who hardly distinguished some of the colours, but when I asked about it in the Logik board, it sounded like most people had some problems too. If you don't do that, I will need new glasses very soon

As for why letters would be better than figures, imagine yourself thinking about "When I played three fours and two ones, I got one black clue and two white ones, so...".

The "like at home" board with coloured pegs you created should of course stay, but even here it would be a nice addition to use the title attribute of the image in order to display the name of the colour (resulting in a nice popup help in all good browsers).

25. November 2007, 13:19:24

Why couldnt we have a feature similar to the smileys except that it would be a list Like:

Good Game!
Thank You!
Good Luck!
etc...

Maybe even allow us to make custom ones to store in there as well?

23. November 2007, 23:23:15

Subject: Re: To Whip a Dead Horse

TarantinoFan: my autoplayer is available at http://www.mctrivia.com/autoplayer/login.php however a system on brainking itself would be ideal. The code is in java and open source he is welcome to read it and use any code he likes.

23. November 2007, 08:08:42

Papa Zoom

Subject: Re: To Whip a Dead Horse

MadMonkey: I use his autoplayer. works very well. :)

23. November 2007, 01:45:39

coan.net

Subject: Re: To Whip a Dead Horse

MadMonkey: Of course it is still a good suggestions to have a site option for it for those who don't want to put their password on an outside source.

23. November 2007, 01:11:45

Subject: Re: To Whip a Dead Horse

TarantinoFan: Have a word with mctrivia

He has an AutoPlayer program that you can use

22. November 2007, 23:33:08

TarantinoFan

Subject: To Whip a Dead Horse

Autopass in Ludo PLEASE!!!!!!

22. November 2007, 19:23:08

Subject: Trioker-more thoughts

in regular Dice Poker, either single or triple, you score once, and in most cases you push to the last
roll to maximize your score ... in Trioker, it seams at least so, you do not lose your chances too much ...
lets look at the roll 44455 ... when I got this roll in most cases I record it in Full House and my turn ends .. in Trioker I have choices:
1. to record it as Full Hose (in one or more columns)
2. as 3 of a kind (again in one or more columns)
3. as 4's (same as above)
4. as chance (rarely but still possible)
5. not record at all and wait for a next roll ..
Now, let's say I want to play diversified game and
record this score in 4's and make the second roll ...
I keep 444 and try for general (yahtzee) ... I get 44441 ... I decide to record this core in the second column as 4 of a kind ... my option are wider, for example to record 4's in the third column, but I postpone this move and roll for the third time ...roll wasn't succesful, I got 44442 and I lose nothing recording 4's in the third column ...
As you can see on this example, there are plenty of ways to play and score, every roll brings dillema: to score or not to score, if score, what to score, and where to score ...
I would be happy to see Trioker in "print" ...
Regards,
Andy.

22. November 2007, 16:38:24

Subject: Trioker - new idea in Dice Poker

Modified by Herlock Sholmes (22. November 2007, 16:41:42)

Hi, have you ever had the feeling that some scores coudl be recorded in 2 or more categories ? look at 66555 ... does it qualify for 5's, for 3 ok a kind, Full House or maybe even for Chance ? Here is the new idea, actually new dimension in old Dice Poker.
***
All the rules for Dice Poker apply but this time we have 3 columns and the scores are recorded not only at the end of the third roll, but can be recorded during the first, second and third roll in any chosen column and in any chosen category ...
Example: you roll 13556 ... you record nothing and roll the second time, keeping two 5's ... your hand now looks like: 55543 ... you record this roll as 5's in the first column and 3 of a kind in the second column (order of column has no meaning at all) ...
you continue rolling and you got 55561 and you decide to record 3 of a kind in the third column ...
***

after the third roll all three columns should get their score ... of course you can stop rolling after the first and the second roll, but all three columns has to be used during your turn ...
***
Here is the rest of the story ... you play actually 3 games against the opponent ... sort of Hollywood scoring in Gin or Triple Yahtzee ... and you have to win 2 games (columns) in order to win the game...
***
That's it. It takes into account that we have 10 X-of- a kind categories and we can used the scores in different places ... this is quite original idea.
****
Regards,
Andy

22. November 2007, 03:38:24

Subject: Ludammon ?

how about playing Hypergammon but with the mixture of Ludo rules ? same direction of run, no bearing off but finishing like in Ludo ? and of course one die ... this way backgammon board can be used in a new way ..

22. November 2007, 02:12:54

Subject: I tried a few of these small ponds that Kunoichi created while looking for ponds and they weren't all that fun to play - much more random factor than strategy, takes most of the fun out of it in my opinion.

pauloaguia: My opinion is that your opinion is premature...

I think once you played a few of these games that there would actually be more strategy involved, for one reason, since there are fewer turns, there wouldnt be as much chance to make up for any mistakes.

Maybe 5 persons would be too small or maybe not, but the option would be nice!

21. November 2007, 18:42:36

pauloaguia

Subject: Re: HyperLudo ?

dicepro: As to smaller ponds, the only thing against it is the fact that Fencer doesn't want to allow it in the CreatePond form. The site handles this situation very well: Small Pond
I tried a few of these small ponds that Kunoichi created while looking for ponds and they weren't all that fun to play - much more random factor than strategy, takes most of the fun out of it in my opinion.

As to shorter time limits, I think the smallest unit so far is the hour, it would take some coding to add minute timeouts. More than that, the script that checks what ponds should move to the next turn runs hourly.

21. November 2007, 18:13:34

Subject: Re: HyperLudo ?

diogenysos: sure, why not ? let's double everything .. . some of us even have dubya as a president ... but seriuosly, it would work fine with HyperLudo ...

21. November 2007, 18:10:59

saeco

since czuch has requested this like 1.5 years ago...
is there any reason against smaller and faster ponds?

Feature requests (Czuch, 2006-04-29 15:57:53)

21. November 2007, 17:58:29

joshi tm

Subject: Re: HyperLudo ?

dicepro: I already made a proposal for a small Ludo board:

xxxooaxss
xxxohoxxs
xxxohoxxx
oooohoooo
oxxxxxxxo
ooooioooo
xxxoioxxx
txxoioxxx
ttxbooxxx

where:
x: nothing
o: empty square
h: Home black
i: Home white
s: Start Black
t: Start white
a: Arrival space Black
b: Arrival space white

This one should be quicker than normal ludo (the race length is shorther and players have just 3 men).

21. November 2007, 17:50:53

diogenysos

Subject: Re: HyperLudo ?

dicepro: hyper-ludo with doubling-cube ;-)))

21. November 2007, 17:38:20

Subject: HyperLudo ?

only 3 pieces per player ? board something like mancala board, 15 holes on each site ...

21. November 2007, 10:34:54

diogenysos

Subject: Ludo

hello - how about this tiny little change in ludo-rules:
it would be nice to have three rolls again if all your pieces are out and the pieces you already moved to your home-base are all at the "top" - e.g. if you moved two pieces out and they are at position 1 and 3 you will have only one roll - but as soon as you roll another "1" to move the second piece inside the homebase to position 2, youll get three... ;-)

20. November 2007, 11:17:55

Subject: Links

Fencer, A couple of things about links when you have a little time

Could you make the Team Tournament URL (when its copied/pasted) and it translates it for us (rather than doing all the a href= stuff) include the game types as well please.

Attack of the Clones Ludo - like this

And, could you make it translate the Fellowship URL's as well, so if we need to advertise a Team, we can just have the team showing in Fellowship, the Copy/Paste the URL and it will translate it to a clickable link with the correct Team showing.

Also, it does not appear to translate some links in notepad

Thanks in anticipation

19. November 2007, 20:28:48

joshi tm

Subject: Re: Boats

nabla: During Boats a doubling cube... interesting. Well, the backgammon scoring system has also a condition factor, so the BB scoring will be 1 point for each boat left times the Doubling Cube?

16. November 2007, 05:38:43

Subject: Re: Boats

MadMonkey: The three existing ones with a doubling cube - that's three new boat variants !

16. November 2007, 05:21:14

Subject: Boats

Modified by MadMonkey (16. November 2007, 05:22:15)

This was mentioned back in 2004 by rod03801 (also variously by other since then)

We must be due some more boat variants

I posted a link on here the other day, which had many variations, BUT i think the easiest for Fencer to code would be to have a Boat Plus version where they can be placed diagonal, with maybe an even slighlty larger board 12x12 or 13x13

16. November 2007, 04:54:44

wetware

Subject: Re:

dicepro: I've thought a bit more about your comment about "...playing backgammon many times with doubling cube used right away...", which you described as being abusive. Maybe I need to know more precisely what you mean by "right away". If that means "as soon as legally possible", I don't have any strong moral feelings about such players' actions, but I'm absolutely convinced they're committing strategic errors (at most match scores, anyway), by voluntarily giving control of the cube to you without justification by the current game position and match score. Possession of the cube has been described as a tool or a weapon--it's undeniably a thing of value at most match scores. Generally speaking, I'd welcome the opportunity to play someone who wanted every game to be played at double the initial stakes, but with me having initial possession of the cube! In such a case, I'd have to say "Please, let's sit and play--and don't forget to bring your wallet!!"

But if "right away" instead means "very early in the game"...well, I'm not sure what's abusive about that, either. It might feel like one is being pressured earlier than expected, and such decision-making can be quite uncomfortable psychologically, at a variety of match scores. Here, too, the opponent is offering more than a doubling of the stake--they are offering you sole possession of the cube, and the exclusive right to be the "abuser", one might say.

16. November 2007, 04:03:46

Subject: Re:

wetware: Same with me, and the use of a doubling cube would renew my interest in some of the "silly" luck games there are on this site - I thought Dice Chess was one of them, but I might be wrong as I never tested it :-)

16. November 2007, 03:59:35

Subject: Re: doubling cube

AbigailII:The doubling cube is not meaningless when there are draws, one must just decide what to do with draws. I thought that we would simply discard them and count them as 0-0 (like in a n-wins match). Note that it doesn't make draws meaningless. The draw rate gives more incentive to take the cube.

It sounds also possible to count a draw as 1/2-1/2, subject to doubling (a doubled draw would be 1-1, etc.). This raises the question of what to do with the Crawford rule. I suggest that when the first players reaches 1 point or half a point away of the goal, none of the players may double in the next game (note that the leader could want to double if the position is a certain draw, because a doubled draw would win the match). That variant seems to require play-testing, so the simple variant should probably be retained.

16. November 2007, 03:57:08

wetware

Subject: Re:

dicepro: I mentioned the possible use of a doubling cube in dice chess back in August on one of our boards. Back then I was playing a lot of both backgammon and dice chess. I found that some of my dice chess endings could be analyzed in terms of probabilities very similar to those we see in backgammon bearoff positions. Some of my dice chess positions could be viewed as legimitaly being a "double and take", or "double and drop". Never reached the point of being "too good to double", though, as no (back-)gammon possibilities loom in dice chess. :-)

I've gotten to the point that I can no longer bear to play backgammon without the use of the cube. I've been told that it's "not really" part of backgammon, but I'd argue that it's essential to the game, and to what is best about it strategically.

16. November 2007, 03:41:38

Subject: Re:

Modified by nabla (16. November 2007, 03:43:51)

dicepro: I like your idea a lot, but I don't think you fully realize what the doubling cube is about. It is NOT just a matter of rising the stakes. This is not a money site, so there are no stakes, just a match to be won. In backgammon, a match won by 21-0 is NEVER worth more than a match won by 21-20.

The point of the doubling cube is to force oneself to assess the positions in regard to the current score, in order to optimize one's chances to win the match. So if you are playing chess against a much stronger opponent, it is indeed a sensible, and certainly not abusive strategy to double at move 1 in all games (it is probably not an optimal strategy either, but I don't want to get too technical) . By making the match shorter, you will need less miracle wins.

Of course, that example shows a somewhat trivial use of the doubling cube, which means the cube is best used where the level difference is not too big. And of course in games with a random element and/or incomplete information.

16. November 2007, 03:09:18

it makes perfect sense, it only from the surface looks like idiotic situation ... tell me, please, would you rather play 6 hours with a very good players, knowing that you are going to lose, or play 2 minutes and give up ? this is just funny illustration .... but seriously, good player is going to win with you anyway so do not sit to the game
using a doubling cube with this sort of players.
If this is going to be within a tournament, well, you have no choice, you have to accept and fight, and miracles happen, this is your only hope ... when you accept you lose 2 points, if not, you lose 1 point ... you will only shorten your pain by refusing ... another question ? what do you expect
from the player, who doubles the stakes after the first move ? If you know this player personaly, he will not do this, for what ? If you play on-line, you just accept and play . I was playing backgammon many times with doubling cube used right away ... but I wasn't the one who offered it . For me, this abusive use of doubling cube, can happen anywhere with any sort of game ... this is a matter of ethics rather than sportsmanship ...
Regards,
Andy.

16. November 2007, 00:59:00

AbigailII

Subject: Re:

dicepro: So, if I play chess against someone who's stronger than me, and he offers the cube on his first move, I ought to refuse right away, so the game is over before a piece has actually moved?

That doesn't make any sense.

15. November 2007, 23:22:55

for draw situation there is a suggested provision that says: if you offer a double (or redouble or more) and it was accepted and the game ends with a draw
you get no points and the player who accepted the double gets half of the points ... so its obvious that you better play for win if you offer a doubling cube ... read the link I posted below.
Andy.

15. November 2007, 23:00:46

gammon and backgammon and the lack of draw doesn't make this game suitable for doubling cube ... in poker you have a "feeling" that you may win but not only ... you can just trick your opponent ... and then you increase the stake ...
in chess you want to look for a nice combination or threat to call for double ... and scare your opponent ... I think this old "melody" that :
"A doubling cube just doesn't make sense for the other games." doesn't make sense ...
Any competetive activity played for points, money, rewards can use doubling cube ... it's just an old thinking that, because it started with dice game,
it has to be used with a dice game ... only. This is wrong thinking ... look at the game of chess ... I figured out a nice attacking combination and I offer you a doubling cube ... you either see this combination or not ... if you dont, your ignorance may push you to accept my double, if you do, you may risk to accept or knowing a power of this combination, refuse to accept ...
What is wrong with using double cube in these kind of situations ... ? can you make your point ?
Regards,
Andy.

Regards,
Andy.

15. November 2007, 22:45:59

AbigailII

Subject: Re: doubling cube

dicepro: The doubling cube is an integral part of backgammon - multipoint matches are required there to eliminate the luck factor. And, quite importantly, backgammon doesn't have a draw. Furthermore, a backgammon game counts for 1, 2 or 3 points depending on the board situation when the game ends.

This is not the situation with most other games (except for the "draws are not possible" in some games). A doubling cube just doesn't make sense for the other games.

There are many things that could be implemented to speed up games: autopass and autoplay (and then implemented in a useful way, not as done currently), and public shaming of people who play on (delaying their moves consistently till a few hours before their time runs out) in a hopelessly lost situation.

15. November 2007, 21:41:14

Subject: chess and doubling cube

below is a link to very interesting discussion on using a doubling cube with chess, and for that matter with any board game ... it looks promissing, I hope this link will work. Fencer, maybe this discussion will supply some strong points to consider introducing a doubling cube to other games ...
http://www.chesscircle.net/forums/computer-chess/28159-how-about-adding-a-doubling-cube-to-chess.html

15. November 2007, 20:29:36

Subject: too technical ?

let's put the use of doubling cube into the normal language, we would use without using a physical cube ...
"Hey dude, we are playing now for some time (any gamefor example) and I feel like having some advantage over you. We agreed to play to 5 wins but we have no time to sit another hour and play this "lost" game for you. Would you agree to give me 1 point immediately or continue to play for 2 points, which you can still win (God be with you)
or even play for 4 points if I fail to lead this game ...
What do you think, dude ? "
***
OK, this is the working of a doubling cube. It's just a tool that revived backgammon back in 30-ties last century ... I can give you, in any kind of game, an example of situation that doubling cube could be used ... in any game ... no exception.
Andy.

15. November 2007, 20:03:11

Subject: beauty of doubling cube ...

doubling cube has its role in any kind of game ...
in open games like chess, checkers etc, its beauty can be senses from the very first move ... let's say I play chess with nabla ... I know that I have to be concentrated from the very beginning, there is no element of luck so there is no help from random elements ... if I deconcentrate, and nable gets his advantage he will double me, and my only choice would be to resign ... or contiunue this game and lose 2 points ... There is of course a chance, that nable will make a mistake later on, but I cannot count on this like waiting for a happy roll in backgammmon ... so doubling cube is amazing motivating tool to play well ... you can count only on yourself and not only check mate can kill you but a doubling cube as well ...
Andy.

15. November 2007, 19:48:14

thanks for your support, lol ... well, the truth is, we do not play with doubling cube, we use it to add some extra adrenaline to the game ... bridge has it's contra and re-contra , and it works perfect ... I heard of Gin played with doubling cube and cribbage also ... and poker ? can you play poker without ... doubling, trippling etc ?
So, I would suggest just to add doubling cube as an option and try it ... I am the first to try any game with doubling cube ... Fencer, what do you think about this idea ?
Andy.

15. November 2007, 19:06:05

Subject: Re: doubling cube

dicepro: I second that 100% ! The doubling cube would enhance many games other than backgammon, and even if one thinks that there are games that don't play well with it, what the heck ? Just play those without the cube !

The doubling cube is especially interesting to use in games where there is a random element. My first thought is that it would be a bit weird to use the doubling cube in a game of incomplete information like Logik, but after a second thought, in fact it seems a great idea : in Logik, that would force to look at what the opponent is playing, thus bringing real interaction in the game (which for the moment is almost a double solo game).

Another good reason to do it is homogeneity. Rules that apply only to some games are harder to maintain.

15. November 2007, 18:43:51

Subject: Re: Ajax

mctrivia: I am not totally up with Matthew on this (as you know welll lol), BUT if it could help in the long term of page loading / updating it could well be worth looking into further

Maybe you and Fencer should have a talk about it, and it could be your project

15. November 2007, 18:04:18

Subject: doubling cube

I am trying to push for a doubling cube in every game which uses dice ... why only backgammon ?
It can speed up long Ludo sequences, even help speed up dice chess ... I would also try to play regular chess using doubling cube ... why not ?
there are plenty of situations when the opponent has an advantage and may offer you doubling cube and you can accpet it knowing your skills ...
Doubling cube is nothing more than increasing the stake ... why not to use it in any game ?
Andy.

15. November 2007, 17:06:36

Subject: Re: Ajax

Fencer:
1)Yes Ajax is not universally suported but is almost.

2) If you encapsulate the different parts you want to update into there own subroutine then use javascript to update each you can have it put out raw html witch would require few changes to the sight.

3) Overhead of using noscript is very minimal. If they have scripting you put in the ajax code set to run every 30 sec. If not then you are still using the same subroutines to create the page just not adding the extra java script to allow it to reload in the background and using the meta reload instead.

It is a little bit of extra work but the visual improvement of not having to reload the page as well as the bandwidth reduction by not downloading parts not used would vastly improve this site.

15. November 2007, 07:37:36

Fencer

Subject: Re: Ajax

mctrivia: I've been thinking about that a year ago. But:
1) Not all browsers support Ajax and the noscript solution would only make the page code longer.
2) If someone updates only a part of the page (e.g. game board section) and does it continuously for, say, an hour, he would not be aware of other important information like the number of new messages etc.
3) JavaScript based code is much more error prone than a simple HTML, so it would take more time to make it stable. Not to mention other server side changes which are necessary to make it work anyway.

14. November 2007, 20:22:21

Subject: Ajax

Fencer can you look up ajax and use it to update the page. The constant reloads are a pane and you would save a lot of bandwidth only updating the part you need to. A simple noscript tag that saves info in the seesion info would allow you to chose witch method of reloading to use if you want it to work without java

14. November 2007, 00:44:42

Subject: Re: Shut the box

dicepro: I second that. Shut the box is a great fast game

We play it in the pub all the time for the odd penny or two

13. November 2007, 23:10:45

Subject: Shut the box

I would like to see a new addition to our dice games ... just an old , fast, an easy (fairly) game
called shut the box ...
here is teh link:
http://www.mastersgames.com/rules/shut-box-rules.htm
http://www.mindgamesdirect.co.uk/images/shut%20the%20box.jpg

13. November 2007, 12:09:45

Jaak

Subject: Re:

aNiMaL: If you open the tournament that you created then you can see Signed players and by the side of this list you see "Remove player:". It is easy to remove or exclude players but I recommend to use this droit very seldom. F.e. if you see a danger of deleting your tournament! http://brainking.com/en/ReadBug?bgi=1061 - this bug maybe not solved.
If you like fast moving players then it is better to vary your time control. I like to create my tournaments with Fischerś clock http://brainking.com/en/FAQ?ht=24 - it is good to play fast and don´t bring a timeout if you some days have not access to internet.

13. November 2007, 10:37:02

Fencer, i know this has been requested before, but it will not hurt to mention it again.

Could the Tournament Board either be divided in 2 or another created just for Tournament winners

Lots of us post the winners of Tournaments there, but it does get annoying going there to just read about winners, rather then to sign for new Tournies

13. November 2007, 10:35:07

pauloaguia