Fencer: I tried yesterday to play on here through the Nintendo DS Opera Browser - I was able to make 1 move, but after that I gave up - just so much information that loads was slowing it down and making it hard to scroll to the place I needed to be to make the move.

I'm not sure if the site recognized it was a mobile version or not...

Idea: Go and register BrainKing.mobi - and then make a mobile version of BrainKing that has the very basic of information. Then you don't have to worry as much about having the site try to recognize which person is viewing the page from a mobile device or not.

Gammonator: I posted an explanation in the Dice Poker Discussion Board: Dice Poker (coan.net, 2008-02-01 16:05:04)

rednaz23: I would hate to see a limit of 10 tournament waiting at a time, since when I make a batch of my "fast start" tournament, I will create up to 30 tournaments...... of course 50% of them will start within a day - with the rest within 5 days (so not increasing the tournament list too much)

I mean right now I have 2 prize tournament sitting waiting for signups, so that would leave me with only 8 "fast starts" to create. Anyway, I would support a limit - but would rather see it at something like 30.

But what annoys me about tournaments are the ones with long wait times after tournament start ("in the red") - I mean I see it being good for 1-5 days after the start - but from what I can tell, if after 1 or 2 days after the start, chances are you are not going to fill it up. (Plus the tournament creator can still change the start date to a later date if needed). Anyway for that, 30 days is way too long. 7 days (week) would be a better limit in my opinion.

But overall - with the nice filters on the tournament page, honestly the total and "in the red" amounts don't bother me too much.

MadMonkey: BK Tip #47: It does not matter who asks about a site enhancement, it matters when it is asked. (And since Fencer had been doing other small BK fixes here and there, it could mean he is in the "programming" mood and hence - a good time to ask)

BK Tips brought to you by the former BIG BAD WOLF now known as coan.net

MadMonkey: On the subject of Message Box - I LOVE the different folders in my notepad - I finally had time recently to "clean" up my notepad - and now I have things separate in different folders so I can find things really quickly.

I would LOVE to see something like that in the message box - the ability to add some folders so I can archive things in different folder.

rednaz23: That would be an interesting idea. Something like:

2 or 3 EUR for a change to a different color for 1 month

or

10 EUR for a change to a different color for 1 year


.... or possible do something like above for "basic" colors like red, blue, purple, pink, etc...

Then do an "advance" one for some "special" colors for even a little extra money - like Gold, or even a "multi-color" rook.

I think it is a great idea - plus a way to get the site a little extra money.

mctrivia: After reading what was below, you said what I was thinking.

It would take some planning, but first you could figure out what is time sensitive vs. what is not.

Waiting room & such can be time sensitive, so if someone was hooked with the #2 server, it would take a little extra time to perform those operations since it would need to check with #1 server first.

Things like discussion boards are not. That is lets say someone posts a message on a discussion board on server #2. At first, give it a temp # (so you don't get a message on both servers with the same ID), then server #2 sends that over to server #1 where it gets the "real" post #. So possible at the most there would be a deal of 10 seconds or so between time the post is made and is viewable to everyone on both servers - but that would not be an issue. (live chat might be - but we don't have that here)

Most games would not be an issue - even though I could see a small issue with those who like to try to play "live" games with very short time limits like 1 hour total time with Fischer clock and such.

Thing is, 95% of the things most players do (play games, read discussion boards) do not require that the main server know about it immediately. That is most everything could be played on the #2 server while it is updating itself with the main #1 server in the background. It could work - but some good planning would be needed.

Andersp: There's autopass on this game site?

redfrog: As long as there is an option to turn off them message like in "all fellowship" messages, then I have no problem with it. I read tournament discussion boards & read main fellowship discussion boards - so I don't need to get the same message through private PM's

MadMonkey: I second that idea - that is a very good idea. Just like adding a game to the waiting room, a fellowship captain can put up a team challenge in a team challenge "waiting room" for another captain to accept.

AbigailII: As I stated before, the problem how I would see it is having to check the database on every game to see if there is a note on the game or not - so if you have 1000 games on your main page, that is 1000 more times the database has to be accessed to load the front page - so for that, I could see not only taking more time to load the page - but depending on the equipment - slow down the database for others who are trying to access it.

Maybe it is set up differently where it does not need to do that, but that is how I image it setup.

mctrivia: Yes, second that.

rednaz23: To have the system check the database on every game to see if a recent message was written every time the main page loads would take a lot of extra time in my opinion. It would be neat, maybe even as an option that some can turn on if they don't have a lot of game (as long as it does not slow down the rest of the site) - but I think a striped down version that makes as little as possible lookups to the database & such would be the best....

rednaz23: That would be cool, but would make the image twice as big - and it is already very big (for a smiley). That is is 34.15KB in size - which is basicly 20 images set to rotate. To add add an image in between each to make it look like he puts the sign down, for the next one to be raised with new image would double that - which taking a quick look, most smileys are under 1 KB - with the biggest at 17.72KB (but there might be others that big - I did not look at each one.)

I just hope I got all the languages correct - which I just copied from http://brainking.com/en/Languages, so hopefully those are correct.

Fencer: Should be cleaned up now - on this file: http://coan.net/bk-smile/coan-made/good-luck5.gif

Fencer: I can clean those 2 up tomorrow (don't have access to the computer I made it on until then - and should be easy to clean up once I get back on it.)

Well Fencer, how about a 20 language smiley:

http://coan.net/bk-smile/coan-made/good-luck4.gif

(or if you have a very fast eye.... which I made before I figured out how to slow it down):

http://coan.net/bk-smile/coan-made/good-luck2.gif

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.

Why don't we move this discussion over to http://brainking.com/en/Board?bc=136 board.... with of course the original feature request of having more options on what to show on the page without having to use the style sheets as still a good request.

TarantinoFan: On the http://brainking.com/en/Board?bc=136 board, if you read down far enough you will find some talk about style sheets.

Simple version - you can use different style sheets to change the way the page is viewed. Like the Castle View, no font view, etc... those use different style sheets.

In Settings , you can put an external style sheet in the External style URL: area, and click the "Activate external style" button next to it.

For example, if you put in: http://coan.net/coannet3.css which is what I use, it will display BrainKing in more of a "classic" view - with many of the same classic colors and such before the castle theme was introduced. You will also find the "Move" button near the top of every page, and in Dice Poker - the dice near the top so you don't have to scroll down every dice roll you take. (It may not be very pretty - but works VERY well for me.)

Anyone is free to check out that style sheet. If you don't like it, simply go back into setting and uncheck "Activate external style"

http://coan.net/coannet3.css - what I use, explained above
http://coan.net/coannet2.css - same as above, but dice poker roll are back in "normal" spot
http://coan.net/coannet.css - um... been awhile since I used that - forget what the change was between that and #2. But when I make a change, I keep the old version in case others are using it.

- - - - -

As a side note about the Right Hand Column, there is a setting in Settings called:

Show menu column on game pages

That will remove the right & left hand columns on the game pages which speed up the page load a lot for me.

joshi tm: resigning is a hard thing to do in a multi-player simultaneously played game (like ponds & suggested Strategy War)

My opinion: Proper way to do it in a pond is to just bid 1, but do not tell anyone. Do not post that you are doing that, just do it and move on. Telling anyone, even posting it in the game discussion board - I also agree is cheating. For example, I usually play my ponds as soon as they are on my game sheet. So if I make a move, and then someone else comes along and posts that they are bidding one - then all the other players will have information that I did not have - hence, cheating. So again, best thing to do in my opinion is just bid 1 and don't say anything.

Nothing else would work. I've heard some suggest just take a person out of the game where there bid does not count. The same issue as my example above comes into play. Lets say I see someone with 1 point left, so I bid 2. Then they come along, resign so there bid no longer is good. Then all of a sudden my safe 2 bid would be the losing bid - and I never had a chance to know that information.

There are probable some complex things that could be done, all with problems of one sort or another - so again, easiest is for the person to bid 1, not say anything, and move on.

Now the questions - what to do with someone who wants to resign a game of Strategy War. Well my suggestion is to have a "resign button" - then from that point on, have that person "auto-timeout" - that is their highest card "points" are donated to the pot for the rest of the hands. They no longer win or gain any points.

Vikings: yea... If a player times out, they do not actually play in the round - and they can not win any points - but that players highest card is just thrown in the pot to give whoever else wins those points - so in hence, punishes them for timing out - yet still letting them continue the next round.

Fencer: The only thing that I can think of which would make some people happy is to have the ponds (or similar multi-player games) be defined with the option of "move to next round when possible"

And that would be when everyone has made their pick, even if there is time left, go ahead and move to the next round. Possible after someone submits the move in a pond (or similar), have system check to see if all other moves have been made - it so, move on - it not, wait.

I say that it should be an option for the creator to pick since I know some might like to be able to change their pick after they already made one - plus lets say I'm going to be gone for 3 days, I know I can "survive" a 2 day pond since I know from the start of round 1, to the end of round 2 - I will have 4 days - time for me to make a move in both rounds - and if round 1 ended early, I could time out in round 2. Very picky I know - but just a reason why it should be an option to choose and not default.

Czuch: As AbigailII said, just flipping cards over randomly like the original war game would be some-what boring, at least for a turn based game site.

When I designed Strategy War, it was somewhat based on the old War card game - but designed in a way that would (1) make it less random, hence the name "strategy", and (2) work with multiple players - similar to the current pond system here - where all player make their turn simultaneously - with the results shown at the same time.

Each player gets 1 suit of cards - 2 through ace (13 cards) - and on each turn, you get to pick which card to play. In the main game (non-dark variant) you can see what your opponents have left - so even though there will still be a lot of "luck" in the game in guessing what your opponenet will play, you can use some strategy to try to figure out what to play and keep which will help you in the long run.

AbigailII: As for the time out rule - how ponds work now, if a player times out during 1 round - they just get the same bid as last turn - and if they are still in, able to come back. This is an important feature for ponds since it is a game where vacations do not come into play. That is why the "time out" rule was put into this game - so if someone does have to miss a turn for some reason, they will lose their biggest card, but would be able to come back and still play. They can't win anything in the round the timed out in, just sacrifice some points to the game.

Time outs would not extend the game at all. If the game has a 1 day time limit, like ponds - everyone has 1 day to make their move. If they don't, they lose their best card - but can still play the next round. Like ponds, weather they play or time out - the round time limit would still be the same.

- - - - -

Now if it was just a 2 player game, then I think a time out would be lose of game. I never really designed the game as a 2 player game.... even though I did mention that down below. But after thinking about it for a few minutes, if a 2 player "regular" game was also introduced, then my opinion is a time out would be lose of game.... since vacations could then be used in that game situation.

Czuch: The game I mentioned, Strategy War works like a pond does - with each making their pick whenever they want - and then when the time limit comes, all players "flip" their card over to see who wins. (Like the card game war - which is what this game is based from)

Fencer: Strategy War would make a nice multi-player game.

Maybe make a 2 player game available to everyone, and then make a 3-10 player pond-type version of the game that can have the same membership restrictions as ponds do.

juls31: If you go to your profile, and go to the Tournaments tab - there is a drop down box to change to see different things.

Running (defualt) - current tournaments running - you could already be done with your games, but the tournaments are still running.

Open - these are tournaments you are signed up for - but have not started yet.

Cubs93: He does not make it public - I haven't seen it either, just something I know he has talked about wanting to do.

Cubs93: I remember reading that a scrabble type game is on Fencers to-do list, so hopefully it will be a game we see on this site at some point. As long as there are free to use dictionaries in different languages - I don't think he had a problem making the game with them - that is the users would just need to pick which dictionary they are going to use before the game is started (English, Spanish, etc...) I'm not personally aware of how many different language free-to-use dictionaries there are to use - I know of a couple of English ones, but that is about all. (again, probable more - I'm just unaware of them)

Anyway, point of the post - A scrabble type game was on the to-do list of Fencer at one point - so hopefully that will be a game that we can see on this site some day.

Eriisa: strange.... I don't have that marked either, but I get them...... Maybe I'm just special... but I don't want to be - I already get enough spam, don't need to know about BK when I'm not signed on....

Eriisa: It does for me - that is whenever there is a reply to one of my bugs, or if I reply to another bug (and others reply to a thread I replied in) - I get an e-mail message about the bug being updated.

... which of course when I read e-mail, I'm not on BrainKing and don't care about it - so would be much better if those messages were sent to the BK Message Box.

You don't get any e-mails? Is your e-mail address in your profile correct?

First request: Would like an option to turn off the e-mail notification when the bug tracker is updated. I don't like getting e-mail's when it is my turn, nor do I need e-mails when the bug tracker is updated.

Second request: What would be helpful is a private PM when the bug tracker is updated with a bug that I have submitted or commented in.

wetware: it shouldn't - but the ratings take many things into consideration - your current rating, opponents current rating, amount of games you've played, amount opponet has played. But I don't claim to be an expert on the ratings or anything.

tonyh: The more completed games you have, the more stable your rating will be - which in turn, if by the time that pond is over, if you have already finished a few others - your rating change will be less.

gogul: I know some sites, the moderators are "hidden" and such - but at least for myself personally, I don't plan on doing anything on-line that I will every need to hide from - if it is something I would not want to say or do myself, then it is very simple - I just don't say/do it.

nodnarbo: Actually if I remember correctly, Fencer liked the idea to make scrabble - well not scrabble, but a scrabble-like word game.

languages & dictionaries would not be that hard of an issue - I know in at least English, and probable other languages - there are "free" dictionaries that can be used. Basically at a start of a game, someone would just have to choose which language/dictionary to use. (So you would have to play someone with the same language.)

Of course I'm not sure if Fencer is planning to make this game or anything, but just remember he liked the idea of the game.

gambler104: Yup, just a totally fun luck game. Probable not for everyone - but after seeing other luck based dice games on the site be pretty popular, we would probable be surprised at how well this would do also.

OK, a lot of players like dice games - and chance games - well here is an easy one.

Even-Odd

Game is played with 2 dice, to 10 points.

Game starts.

Player 1 picks either even or odd

Dice are rolled

Add the total - if player 1 was correct, they get a point - if wrong, player 2 gets a point.

Next turn - Player 2 picks either even or odd

- - Repeat until someone makes it to 10 points.

Simple easy chance game - and even though it probable sounds stupidly silly to some, some of the most popular games on the site are (1) Simple, (2) Easy, and (3) are chance games.

redfrog: Having different groups within the friends list would be a nice addition - since as a global moderator, I will also sometimes put "trouble makers" on my friends lists so I know when they are online.

As a side note, if you ever want to know if a global moderator is online - check out the staff page that is linked at the bottom of every page: http://brainking.com/en/Staff A green dot is above a picture of someone who is on-line. Of course the last 2 on the list are not English global moderators. Liquid is basically behind the scene and helps take care of the servers and does not get involved with the boards much at all. But is a quick way to see which globals are on-line.

Fencer: Oh.... Fencer is in a "maybe" mood - better try to take advantage of it.

Hey, can we have Dark Ataxx: Ataxx (coan.net, 2007-05-01 17:21:09)

Hey, can we have Frog Legs (Frog Finder co-op): Frog Finder (coan.net, 2007-06-12 17:04:15)

(added because I forgot it)

Hey, can we have Double-Choice & Triple-Choice Backgammon: Link to site here

Summertop: Well in the tournaments page, you can choose "Created in last XX days" - to for example, see all the tournaments created in the last day.

grenv: I thought all bad banner ad's were already removed: http://brainking.info/archives/299-BrainKing-is-safe-more-than-before.html

Did Fencer bring them back?

Chaosu: Best place to post that is in the Bug Tracker: http://brainking.com/en/BugTracker

Even though Fencer tries to read this boards, if for some reason he gets behind - he may miss certain messages. So for a bug where it looks like you should have already won, posting it in the Bug Tracker will allow him to see it, and hopefully figure out what caused the bug and try to see that it does not happen again. (along with fix the game)

Fencer: Yes - option 3 of making tab skip over them works great also!

Thanks!

When I type a message on the boards, I usually write the subject, then tab down and write the message.

But now there are 6 different things I need to tab through before finally making it to the message... many times I will be writing to only find out I did not tab enough times.

With all these "short-cut" options being added to the page, could we either (1) make them optional to show up or (2) move them above the Subject box - that way there are still there to click on, but will not get in the way of writing a subject/message.

6 dice version of Dice Poker (And Ultimate Triple Dice Poker)

Board:

ones (total of 1's)

twos (total of 2's)

threes (total of 3's)

fours (total of 4's)

fives (total of 5's)

sixes (total of 6's)

BONUS - if above adds to 84 points, then 50 bonus points (Since extra dice, everything a little higher then the 63 from original)

Three of a kind (total of all dice - three must match)

Four of a kind (total of all dice - four must match)

Five of a kind (total of all dice - five must match)

4-in-a-row (1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-5, 3-4-5-6) (30 points)

5-in-a-row (1-2-3-4-5, 2-3-4-5-6) (40 points)

6-in-a-row (1-2-3-4-5-6) (55 points)

[for the next section - I'm debating if I like the set value for these, or if it should be "sum of dice" for each of them - any opinions? The more I think about it, the more I like the "sum of all dice" for each of them]

Two Pair (2+2 - example 2-2-1-1-6-5) (20 points)

Full house (3+2 - example 6-6-6-2-2-4) (25 points)

Three Pair (2+2+2 - example 4-4-5-5-2-2) (35 points)

Tri-Tri (3+3 - example 4-4-4-2-2-2) (35 points)

Four+2 (4+2 - example 2-2-2-2-1-1) (40 points)

ALL 6! (75 points)

Chance (sum of all dice)

So for single version 19 moves per game. For triple version, 57 moves per game

I've mentioned this idea before, and with Dice Poker & Triple Dice Poker very popular games (5th & 3rd popular per current games going), I think a bankroll version of the game would be an interesting variant to the game.

Dice Poker: In a normal game, you can get up to 39 rolls (13 rounds/moves with up to 3 rolls per turn).

What I would like to see is for each of the 13 moves, you get 1 roll. Then after that, you have a "bankroll" of 26 rolls to make in the game when every you want. (So if you want to take 20 rolls on the very first turn, and then leave 6 extra rolls to use in the next 12 moves - then so be it.) Once you run out of rolls, you will be forced to take whatever the first default roll is for each turn.

So if you take only 2 rolls per turn, it will be like a normal game. But sometimes you roll the large strait on the first roll - so now you have a couple extra rolls in which you can go for that 5-of-kind which is so close.

So for programming - each first turn gets a default roll - then a simple countdown of 26 rolls that can be used whenever they want.

Triple Bankroll Dice Poker: Same as above, but 78 bankroll rolls to use.

joshi tm: I had to stop playing Ice Age Chess - since it is impossible to know when the 20th move is when you have notations turned off. Still have a request to put some sort of notice above the board (like gammon cube stats) to show what move you are on and/or how many more moves for an ice age.

SafariGal: yea, that is how that site does it. Just about anything will be better then how the autopass is working on this site now... which is in my opinion is basically useless in it's current form on this site.

How about this for an idea.

Lets say a game is sent to you where you have to pass, have a prompt that says "Do you want to continue to pass until you can make a move?" yes/no

If you choose yes - it will continue to pass until you have a move to make. If you say no, the game will come back to you the next move.

If the player says yes, then have a small note go along with the game to the opponent which says "Your opponent choose to automatically pass his moves until he has a move to make. So any messages you write them may not be read until they have a move to make." That way the opponent knows the message isn't being read AND it gives each user the CHOICE to use or not use autopass.

SafariGal: Correct - as long as you click and start the process while that bulb is out - and pay within 2 days i believe.