Thank goodness, it isn't just me, then. I am getting very frustrated, myself!

all my battleboats games do the same thing ~ I think it is due to the curent server problems.

Pedro Martínez: I can make my move but the board disappears. This is on regular battleboats. Very frustrating.

Everyone else...:D

Happens to me with regular battleboats too, anyone else?

Erinity: neither can I

Same thing here - can't play my dark battleboats!

rod03801: not sure .. yesterday evening i had the bad performance ... this morning the perfomance was ok again .. except in my games of battleboats which didnt show the board after i made my move :)

Probably has to do with the "bad performance" mentioned in the server news.
Just a guess..

i had the same problem ... but it seems to be fixed now

if now ... please post it in the bug tracker as well :)

Ditto. I can play the first shot, but when the game refreshes after the shot, the boards aren't there.

i need help,, dark battleboats the game comes up,but it will not let me finish it..

will not let me put my game thru

Czuch Chuckers: she has already paid for a membership but that is under another name LOL
It's BerniceC chuck

The Raven King: Delete the game instead? Or maybe buy a membership?

Skyking: Of course they won on their merits, they used their brain whereas and studied their opposition. You think an army goes into battle unprepared?

pauloaguia: An easy way to represent that variant you describe is to use the windows mines program where you can tag a square with a "?" when you are not sure if a mine is there or not.

Instead of the square turning orange or blue as is the case now, it would be a "?" and only with subsequent tries could you determine if it was a hit or not

The Raven King:
I can understand you , but I don`t think it`s nice ,,,,

i resigned my last game (unplayed) in an attempt to open another game slot. any suggestions?

*nod* sounds great anf might even be quite fast :)

(would this require 'autopass' between the moves ?)

anti battleboats actually sounds like quite a fun game to play. I'd definately give it a go if it was to appear here.

BIG BAD WOLF:
Outline Battle Boats: Anti-battle boats - the object is to not hit your opponent boats... 5 hit chances..
Miss Fire... Shoot until you miss... On the Electronic handheld is a very hard game... I have played many times and the computer keeps coming back... You can hit all your opponents boats and not even let him have a chance...

lol true :)

Ah yes, that would be possible - lol :-)

Kevins - I believe hrqls's comment was about my Dark BB+ variant I was describing a few post before, not the current version.

In dark battleboats both players get 3 shots per turn regardless of how many boats left.

in the dark bb+ version it could also be so that you dont have to use all your available shots

suppose your opponent has placed 3 shots in a row .. he can then think he sank your boat .. when you dont use all your available 5 shots (as it he only got 3 of the 4 spots of your 4-size boat) but only use 4 and pass on the 5th

I say, Super Battleboats...

the boats can go diagonally too.. i wouldnt recommend this with regular battleboats, but it would be fun with battleboats plus...

I like all the battleboats version ideas. In my opinion, more options for the better. All game sites of the basic games that we have here but the more interesting and fun variants we can have on those games is what will intrigue new people to check out this website.

Brian1971 - The only thing Fencer does not want an autopass for is Backgammon, and I don't think that is a reason why he does not want your version of the game (or to even say that he does or does not want your version of the game)

I have posted many versions of games, from battleboat variants to backgammon variants. Many others have also posted game idea, and many many variant ideas, so it would be impossible for Fencer to implement them all.

Also Fencer once said he would prefer to work on new games then work on variants of current games, but that's not saying he won't introduce new variants.

But lets start taking a vote from everyone, Fencer does look at these boards and if he see's enough interest in new game ideas, he may work on them.

Bonus Battleboats - One shot each turn, if you get a hit when you hit "submit this move", the game is back in your hands to make another move.

Outline Battleboats - A sort of "anti-battleboats" - goal is to outline the boats without hitting them. 5 hits and you lose. My question: What is an outline - just the 2 sides, and above - or the 4 corners also? And if it's near a side, you just need do the 3 sides?

HexBoats - Game is played on a hex/honeycomb type of board - So instead of a boat being about to be placed either up&down, or left&right - it will be able to be place 3 different ways.... making the game a little more interesting

Dark battleboats Plus - You start with 5 shots each, but you lose 1 for each of your ships that are sunk. Not only do you not see which ships you sunk, you DO NOT see your own board either! (This is to solve the problem of seeing your opponent shooting 4 shots and hence knowing you sunk a ship that way)

Feel free to vote for any of those - those last 2 are ideas I have had for versions of the game also. Plus other ideas or comments about these versions will be welcomed also.

that seems like a twist on battleboats Daniel. I also have a variant on BB that seems to be avoiding Fencer's attention or interest. It is Bonus Battleboats. You get one shot per turn. However if you get a hit on that turn the game would pass on your opponents turn and you would get another shot. You keep shooting until you get a miss. Of course to prevent cheating you would have to submit the move after each shot. However if you get the game would AUTOPASS your opponent it would still be your turn. I know this is ignored because Fencer doesnt want such type of autopass feature at brainking. however you are missing out on a fun version of battleboats.

That's why all my games are private

although i have never looked back at anybodys previous games,it would be foolish to keep using the same set ups all the time.
they are asking for it if you ask me?

I have fun playing A new version of Boats... It is call outline... Trying not to find the boats... Each person gets 5 accidental hits...
I know it is long but it is fun... It is the anti Battleboats game...

No, Ellie

can we now see our opponents boat board setups when the game is over? we never were able to.

I just asked and found out all the public can see all the tournament games

no way is that cheating..it's SMART!

Sunfire over on the tournaments board asked if that is posible..So let me rephrase it. I don't even know if the tournaments are public always. LOL Ask Fencer

good point.... Are all tournaments public?

Guess Fencer should have an automatic private game for all Battleboats versions. But what do you do about the tournaments that are always public?

I think they did win on their merits. hey figured out your tactic or strategy and beat you. Its not their fault that you are so predictable.

I think that battleboats is one of those games where you should only play private games if you want to be really good at it. Then the only person who could learn anything from your play would be the person you are playing, and rightly so. But they would have to beat you to actually know your placement for that game. And would have to play you often to figure any patterns. And you could always mix things up once in a while. if you think they are playing against your tendancies.

Yep they didn't win on their on merits

Its not cheating at all, but if a person decides to use an old game set up (as saved in the game editors) it is up to them.
If there opponent then looks back through games and sees what they think maybe the same game, they will win of course, BUT then what is either person getting out of it.
Is all the winner would get would obviously be a win, but using no tactics at all apart from looking at old games that there opponent had played. The loser would just have proved there is little point having Battleboats in the game editor now we have a Random placement option.

Of course its not cheating. Studying how your opponent plays is a wise thing to do in any type of game.

Is looking at your oppenets past Battleboat games cheating?

My short opinion: no

My longer opinion: I think of it like football coachs looking at the other teams past games. Things you can learn from looking at your oppenets past games:

1) How they setup the board - After looking at a few games, you can usually tell if the person likes to place boats around the edge, maybe 4 pieces near one side with the 5th on the opposent side. Maybe they have a habit of putting all the pieces next to each other, or maybe never have any pieces touching - all good tips to help play against the person.

2) How they look for ships. If their first shot is always A1, and the B2, and then C3, etc... well then you know exactly where you can put boats so your oppenet will take a long time to hit any of your ships.

So my suggestions:

1) Use Random setup. It's cool that BrainKing now has this, so use Random - and if you want then change 1 or 2 of the boats.

2) NEVER use saved boards. OK, you can possible use some saved boards, but be warned not to use the same board very often.

3) Never look for your opponenets boats the same way. If you always use the same searching pattern, they can easly place their boats off of your pattern.

Personally I have not used the option to look at opponenets games for a couple of years now - when i was back on IYT and had more time, but if I had more time - I personally believe it is just a way to improve yourself to study up on your opponenets past games.

What do others think?

I've recently won a prize tournament, but I really don't need the prize - so why not create my own tournament to give away the prize!

Tournament: Battleboat Plus

Prize: 6 month knight membership (Fencer already has waiting for winner)

Format: 2 games per player since white does have an advantage

Time: 4 days per move

Start Time: September 15, 2004

Where to signup: SIGN UP HERE!

Other rules: No cheating, and have fun!

LOL - I am glad it is not just me. I reported this weeks ago when it happened in a couple of games to me, but when myself and Fencer tried to make it happen, it wouldn't.

Well I have just went through 3 games where I sunk a ship before hitting submit, and have not seen the same bug. I will still watch my games closly to see if I can see this.