In important BrainKing.com news, did you see someone finally got this Achievement?

https://brainking.com/en/Achievements?p=1&aid=26

.... yea, it was me!

Marshmud: Yes, a 2 dice Ludo with a 1 or 6 out of base would be GREAT (plus I would think easy to program since the game is already there.)

Scrabble and Words games are always tricky - so many words, versions - of course languages, and then it is the person cheating or just good at word games.

I have suggested a couple variants to Logik - maybe with 6 or maybe the addition of a couple more colors - as I would think it would be a some-what easy to program as the main Logik game is already working well.

speachless: I did 5 per team not to long ago for a cloning gammon tournament, and got 7 teams - so 5 sounds good. Done. Stuck it in to start in October!

Marshmud: Yes, I will keep making them - usually I have more up before they last ends, but have been busy - I will sit down and get them made soon.

SUGGESTION TO BIG BOSSES: As fellowships are having a harder time getting teams together, if you have a popular fellowship, with many extra members on your teams - maybe look at being a partner with another fellowship, or even encourage some players to spread out to other fellowship teams. Since we have been having a harder and harder time getting enough teams to enter (sometimes even the popular games are only getting 4-5 teams to enter, which if there may be enough players for a few more teams if we work together.) I know if won't be easy, or kind of defeats the purpose of building a big powerful team, but the more teams we can get, the better the team tournaments are! Just a thought.

I'll try to post some site team tournaments soon - sorry, just been busy. I'll most likely just pick some of the more popular games and make many stretched out for a few months..... and as always - ANY SUGGESTIONS OF GAMES you would like to see?

Marshmud: Actually it does look like a bug, the S-B should be 33 for both. Ratings don't matter for the S-B.

S-B is just you add the points for each win they have.

Each players had 1 win against a player that had 9 points.(x1 = 9 points)
Each player had 2 wins against a player that had 6 points (x2 = 12 points)
Each player had 2 wins against a player that had 4 points (x2 = 8 points)
Each player had 2 wins against a player that had 0 points (x2 = 0 points)
Each player had 2 wins against a player that had 2 points (x2 = 4 points)

So each player should have ended up with a 33 S-B rating.

We do have a board here dedicated to other game sites:

http://brainking.com/en/Board?bc=54

In that board, I've posted links to some other turn-based game sites - as more are suggested, I will update the list.

yurkin: You are looking at the bad side... look at the good side... Fencer is editing & coding the site! YEA! :-)

moistfinger: You can not delete an account, as this site using all games played in the archive in ratings and standing and such, so to delete accounts just start to mess with the database.

As others said, if you can't just not visit, then change the password to something forgettable, and then you shouldn't be able to get back on.

Brian1971: Even though I can't speak for Fencer, or his future plans for Brainking, I know a few years ago his "life focus" has been his family, and Brainking took a back seat to that - so not much new programming, but he does still maintain the site & work when something needs fixed.

I personally think at some point he will start to have more free time, and in that case hopefully the "Brainking bug" will hit him again and he will do some more "new" things here - but for now, he has more important priorities.

(my opinion)

And when Fencer reads this, and wants a quick project to jump back into things - "quick Logik" with only 4 guessing spots, and "Extreme Logik" with 6 guessing spots would be nice variants that shouldn't be too hard to program.

thechosen0ne: Yea, the owner has been spending more time with "real life", so programming & this site has been put on the back burner. Now he still fixes problems and bugs, but not much on "new programming" for awhile now. I hope and think at some point if he doesn't sell the site, he may get board and do some new programming.

As I'm sure he will read this, maybe some easy game variants - like a large logic game with extra color/spaces - or an "express ludo" game with 2 dice instead of 1.... stuff that should be easier to program as he can copy most of the code from the original..... I can hope.

Roberto Silva: And to me, I would love to see a compramise. If someone does not want to use auto-pass, and want's to click "pass" every single time - let them. But on the flip side, if you don't have a move, then auto-pass should happen with the game going back to the other player right away.

The ONLY argument that I've heard is that if the other player is using auto-pass, then if the non-auto pass player wants to send a message with each turn, then some message might be missed or something stupid like that. SOLUTION: Have all the messages turn up once they are able to move. And if it's a big enough problem, then have an auto-message of "Opponent did not have a move, so auto-pass brought the game back to you" message so the non-autopass player who don't understand will then see that the other person has not played, hence have not seen the message.

Anyway..... long argument short: I also don't understand why we don't have a good auto-pass in play.... and let each player decide how they want to play, don't make others force their opinion on them.

Hey Fencer - since you are playing around with the code, you could always throw out a couple of quick new games. Here are a couple of variants that I wouldn't think would take much work, but should be just as popular as the current games.

#1: Logik-6: Logik-6 is the same game as the popular Logik game, but with 6 spaces instead of 5.

#2: Ludo Express: Ludo Express is the same as regular Ludo, with the following changes: (1) Get out of the start with either 1 or 6, (2) Roll 2 dice each turn... double mean nothing special, (3) Each dice is separate - like Backgammon, you first make your move with one of your dice, and then the other - with the same or different piece.

Ludo is already a popular game, and quicker games are always popular - so making Ludo an ever quicker game would work very well.

(Can't blame me for always trying for a new game here and there! Merry Christmas!)

BrainKing has a lot of running tournaments, so as El Cid said, it might take too many resources to run every hour - but to save a ton of programming, I think the idea that a user can "ask for next round to start" button where someone who knows how to see if the results could re affected by current games could then manually assign the winners from each section to start next round (and let remaining games that don't matter to the tournament to continue) - it might be a solution to help with the amount of programming to calculate if the results can be different.

One of the great things about BrainKing is Fencer never tried to "compete" with other game site, even having a discussion board that is dedicated to Other game sites. Hopefully this site will continue with that - just making a good game site, doing it's own thing, and like always - let the players decided where they like and play on the sites they like best.

List of Turn Based Game Sites

For many years I played on 5-6 games sites at once, these days as I have less time I focus on just 2 sites (here & GT), and occasionally jump on Dragonheels Lair and YourTurnMyTurn for a few games. The main "down side" of BrainKing as of late is Fencer just doesn't have the time to invest in the site, to keep adding/improving the site.

My wish list: New games/variants, a better auto pass/auto play system, multiple ranking systems for different games ("luck" based rating systems for more "luck" games, and current "skill" based rating system for more "skill" games).

Bernice: Looking at your games, I see 2 games that you are playing which are non-tournament games.

Since you have 12 games total, could it be that possible you only choose to see 10 games on your main page, and these other 2 games were on page 2 of the game list maybe?

ThunderGr: I think the limit is 50 in the "Waiting games" area - once a game is accepted, I think you should be able to then make another "Waiting game", up to 50.

The Col: I'm number 437. Hum.... how did that happen?

There may be a bug then. I know in regular tournaments it will kick them out, but single elimination tournaments were created after the "normal" tournament, so possible that pawn/free game "check" isn't there.

I know Fencer hasn't been in the programming "mood" lately, but I'll make sure he know about this bug, maybe there will be a quick fix that he can make.

furbster: Have they just recently downgraded to a pawn, or have they been a pawn for awhile?

Emerald00671: As the tournament starts, the system checks to see the status of the player & should kick him out of the tournament since he will not have enough free game slots left.

Since he signed up for the tournament while he was a member, it will still show him in there - in case he does get a membership before the tournament starts, it will still start as normal.

One of the "bonus" of being a member is you can continue to play in all games/tournaments already started when your membership goes away, but NEW tournaments should not start.

Marshmud: That is why I keep mentioning it every once and awhile - I know he is busy with real life, but you never know when he might feel like sitting down for awhile and doing a little programming of a new game. Something like this, or maybe a 6 color logik game variant would be something he can do some-what easily.

crosseyed: I would love to see Fencer add Express Ludo to the site - the same game setup, with the following changes:

You can take a piece out of your home area with a 1 or 6

You roll 2 die EVERY TURN, and only 2 die - doesn't matter if you get a 6 and get an extra roll - just 2 roll each turn.

You can also use the 2 rolls like gammon - can use each die for different pieces, or same piece, in any order (but like gammon - have to use both if possible).

For Ludo being one of the most popular games on the site - and people liking games that are quicker - think it would be a very popular variant (and hopefully not very much extra programming.)

thechosen0ne: I just look at my own profile when I need to see how much vacation time I have left.

For you, it has:

Vacation days left: 24 days 22 hours - using the automatic vacation

What happens now is when a game runs out of time, it adds an hour to the game and takes 1 hour at a time away from your vacation time.

joshi tm: Does it give you a message on why you can't join? Maybe something like "already belong to another team" ---- just wondering since it might be maybe you belonged to a fellowship team, and the fellowship got deleted, and it still in the background has you "locked" in there and not able to join (in which case, Fencer would probable have to fix.)

Doris: Sometimes spammers slip in. Even though they probable won't be back on with that account to spam more, they have been banned from sending new messages.

How I try to remember it - as long as you get 3 of each in Triple Dice Poker (3 one's, 3 two's, 3 three's, etc...) then you will get the bonus. (So if you get 4 six's - you know you have 6 additional points to play with... so for example, if I have 4 six's, I know I can get away with only 1 three - as long as I have 3 of each other dice.)

... And then in the 6D version - you need 4 of each dice instead of three.

Might not be a solution for people - but for myself, I've just set the time as the same as the server time (GMT +01:00...) .... just seemed to make things easier for me.

Bernice: He was a rook helping on the Czech side of things - apparently they haven't needed any more help to replace him since he is inactive now.

Gabriel Almeida: I can try to get some new team tournaments set up this weekend - any suggestions on games? I usually try to mix it up with popular are not-popular games, but always open to suggestions.

You can go to the players list: http://brainking.com/en/PlayerList?a=ap

There, you can click on the headers and easily see how many people have logged into the site in the past XXX time frame

Roberto Silva: I agree it would be nice if the site could determine a winner of a section even before all games are done. Another idea would be to make it a way for a few "tournament masters" or something - people who understand tournament scoring could "mark" winners of a section so the next round could start before all the games are complete.

It would be some more "manual" work, but honestly it would be what - one or two tournament a week at the most that would need winners marked so the next round could start. (I would volunteer for the job.)

Of course both solutions would include additional site programming, but would be a nice addition to the site.

Thad: It could be a script that runs just once a day, and hasn't run yet.

MadMonkey: You could start with 1 day per move - and then give a bonus of say 1 day - and then put the MAX at something like 4 or 5 days. That way people would have to play a lot of first, but if they play quickly - can store up to 4 or 5 days

Yea, only Fencer can create new site-wide boards - usually when a topic is warranted or enough interest on a subject.

Out of the 85 moves I've made today, about 5 of them were a little slow with the graphics loading - and 1 of them the graphics did not fully load, but a quick refresh of the page brought them all up. (waiting on the i.brainking.com to load images)

I use Firefox which does start to show the page BEFORE all graphics are loaded - some other browsers will first download ALL graphics BEFORE showing the page, so will be a "white" page since it may be trying to download graphics.

I also use the very minimal of graphics on this site - the "no font" mode, and have most all other features that could cause slow loading turn off, so for the most part - very quick for me overall.

crosseyed: Sorry I don't have any suggestions since "everything" has already been done on the users side.

With a site change, when the IP address moves with the site there should be even less issues - but something issues with Cache pointing to the "old" place can cause issues with a site only 1/2 working... but with that already done, I guess that will not work.

Also using different browsers to see if the issue is with the browser and not the site or computer would be another suggestion - but since that was already done, I guess that was not it.

Also having the user log in from a different computer (if possible) to see if the issue is with the account or computer is another suggestion - but since that was already done, I guess that was not it.

And of course the suggestion already made to try to log in to a BrainKing domain they normally do not use (which will hopefully be "new" to the DNS and retrieve all the new & correct information to the computer.)

... it's hard to try to help once everything has already been tried.

For me, I haven't seen any slowness.

okjb: I'm not sure all that has changed, but I think time when a game is due is still done when opponent completes their move, and adjusts for weekend days a player has choosen.

But lets say a person has Sat & Sun as weekend - and a game is set to time out on Friday - if the auto-vacation kicks in on Friday, then when Sat & Sun comes along - it will still add hours, but without using weekend days.

I would guess the correct way for the system to handle that would be to when the weekend comes along, only add hours to those games that are to time out (not all games since the rest should have already been adjusted for the weekend) - then when the weekend is over and if vacations are still being used, then adjust all games and not just the times out games.

MadMonkey: There you go! (I'll try to add a couple more for January here soon.)

NOW HURRY - Only 12 days until start! (of course it will start next year if you want to wait awhile...)

I really like the fact that is will add 1 hour to ALL GAMES - and not just the ones that timed out.

Even though it hasn't been a problem for me for awhile since I got my game count down - when I had 1,000+ games and something would come up and I was unable to play for a few days - having the time only added to games that timed out mean all my games suddenly had less then 24 hours to play... meaning sometimes it would take me a couple extra vacation days to "catch up" to normal play.

Mélusine: Once any fellowship tournament starts (team challenge or site team tournament) - you can LEAVE that team at any time and join another fellowship's team. There is nothing keeping you on that team once the tournament starts.

I just tested it - I was in one fellowships for the Knight Fight team - I had already removed myself from that team (continuing to play the games for that tournament), and joined another team. Not sure about the issue when a fellowship is deleted, probable just a bug in programming, but for normal running fellowships, you shouldn't be trapped and should be free to join another team if you want.

Gouwe gozer: I agree - I only stay in teams that I'm a captain... so when team tournaments come up, I will sometimes join the team and just hope that I'm not put into a tournament with a time control I can not play... and then remove myself from that team. A solution (lots of work for Fencer) would be if each person could choose the types of tournaments they can be put into to. Since there is a lot of different options a tournament can be ran with, there would be a lot of option a person can choose - by default everything turned on like it is now - but for example, I don't play red/green dot games so I would remove those so I could not be put into those... and same with anything less then 3 days. And of course if that happened, the team captains & Big Bosses would have to be able to see those also so they know why they can't get someone signed up. Of course as I said, my simple solution right now is just remove myself from any team that I don't captain. (Plus I've also tried to make clear for those that I do captain that I would not sign anyone up for anything with red dots and/or less then 3 days and/or without vacation days without first asking each person.... but I know many captains who will just sign up everyone to anything without thinking.)

Another idea might be whenever a fellowship challenge is signed up, the tournament stays in a "waiting" status for 24 hours before starting. During this time, each player chosen for the tournament on each side is left a message allowing them to STOP the tournament. If any ONE player does not want to play, the game challenge goes back and the captains can then choose other players if needed and start it back up. If someone just does not reply within 24 hours, the tournament just starts (like it does now.)

Fencer: The reason I could think that a team might not have a captain is if the BIG BOSS does not play that certain game type, and none of the players want to be captain, so having the BIG BOSS be able to sign up a team could be helpful in those situations.

Fencer: I'm one of those who hate all the "system" messages, but I'm also lazy/don't have a lot of extra time - so I have TONS of Message box messages I need to go through and delete.

Any way to sort the message box by subject or from? I would make grouping and mass deleting a lot of message.

MadMonkey: Wow, an old post. Just to put that post into context, that was BEFORE the current system of brains was in place where they are used to buy "REAL" things like membership.

An overview of the post - have a game site, a fake "currency" that people can earn - and then use that fake "currency" to buy special things - special things that would not take any actual money away from the site owner (like lost membership), but other little perks here and there - like maybe the ability to post in color for a week being something that can be purchased with the fake currency.

Behemoth Chess - Other then knowing basic chess skills to keep your king safe from your opponent, when I'm stuck playing this game - my only strategy is to keep my king safe from my opponent and hope the Behemoth takes my opponents king first.

Hyper Backgammon - just for the fact there only one 3 pieces, it's hard to use any sort of "blocking" or "attacking" strategy - just deal with what the dice give you.

Ludo - It can have some strategy if you can get more then 1 pieces on the board at a time, but the majority of the time it does not have much strategy at all - just move the only piece you can (or pass). [Can't wait for Fencer to bring some "Hyper Ludo" to the site - get pieces out of "home on a 1 or 6" - and you roll 2 dice EVERY ROLL, and like Backgammon, can use each dice for a different piece if you want - will get more pieces on the board, allow for more strategy - and speed up the game.] *HINT HINT FENCER* - Ludo the most popular game, to make a quicker version would probable be very popular.

alexlee: I would guess it was like the last update with the "Castle" - even though all the games played the same, some people just don't like change and will hate it just because it changed.

.... even though I would not say I hate the Castle and other visual changes that happened awhile back, I did not like them and use my own custom .css file to help make the site look more like the very old. (Of course if I just took 2 days and played with the "new look/current look", I would probable get use to it pretty quickly.)

Artful Dodger: ... and then we need a dislike button... and a report button for when people post back things, and a report button for the like/dislike, and the ability for someone to remove someone else's like since there are people on this site that would be offended if certain people "like" their posts... they will be paranoid and think it was done to bait them, and then we need off topic button so, for example, a moderator can "off topic" my post here.

Wow, congrats. I remember when I got my 2,222 moves in one day back in 2004, and thinking "Yea, that should put me in the top 50 for a long time"

.... or course it didn't and quickly went down the top 50 list, and is now off the list by about 800 moves, so 10,000 moves is a great achievement.

Fencer - Guess it's time to create the 15,000 moves in one day achievement!!!