joshi tm: That was the easy part. The Italian variant gives me a hard time.

On a tournament page you can see the list of game types allowed in that tournament.
It seems to me (though I may be mistaken) that that list is sorted by game type and then by game id.

The problem is there are 120 games (and counting). On tournaments where the creator selects all game types it can become hard to find your favourite games to sign up for... Worse, if (s)he selects all but a few it can become hard to find out if you don't find the games you want in a list of over 100 because they aren't there or just because they're so in front of your nose that you can't see them. Here's some possible implementations that I think could help with this:

1. Sort the games by game type and then alphabetically (and not by id)
2. Add a search field to that page - type in a search and only the corresponding games are displayed
3. Create a feature like "automatically select these games when I sign up for a tournament". When coming in to a tournament page to sign up, the corresponding check boxes would be checked automatically (the user could uncheck them before signing up, or sign up for others, of course).

pauloaguia: I agree that some sort of new orginization of games is probable needed.

So maybe AFTER Fencer gets tired of created new games (since we don't want to stop him from doing that!).

Some quick thoughts - any type that has more then 20 should be split up - and any that have more then 6 probable could use their own game type.

My quick thoughts (sorry if I skipped one or misplaced one - just did a very quick run through looking at the games)

Checkers (8x8 boards) (#1):

Checkers
Anti Checkers
Brazilian Checkers
Czech Checkers
Gothic Checkers
Russian Checkers
Thai Checkers
One Way Checkers
Parachute Checkers
Turkish Checkers

Checkers (non 8x8 boards) )#2):

Alquerque
Breakthrough (moved from other)
Canadian Checkers
Corner Checkers
Halma 10x10 (moved from other)
Halma 8x8 (moved from other)
Hawaiian Checkers
International Checkers

Chess 8x8 (#1):
Chess
Anti Chess
Atomic Chess
Behemoth Chess
Corner Chess
Cylinder Chess
Dark Chess
Dice Chess
Extinction Chess
Fischer Random Chess
Loop Chess
RecycleChess
Three Checks Chess

Chess 8x8 (#2): (non-traditional play/setup)
Amazon Chess
Ambiguous Chess
Berolina Chess
Cheshire Cat Chess
Crazy Screen Chess
Fortress Chess
Horde Chess
Ice Age Chess
Knight Relay Chess
Knightmate Chess
Legan Chess
Majarajah Chess
Screen Chess

Chess non 8x8 (#3)
Capablanca Random Chess
Chinese Chess (Xiangqi)
Embassy Chess
Grand Chess
Janus Chess
Japanese Chess (Shogi)
Los Alamos Chess
Mini Shogi

Pente (since there are 6 versions, give own heading)

Pente
Keryo Pente
Small Pente
Small Keryo Pente
Open Pente
Open Keryo Pente

maybe even split off the 4 Lines of Actions - or maybe even split the "place" type of lines (5-in-line, connect6) and the "drop" type of lines (line4, spider linetris)

Then to split up the "others" some.

Move Halma's & Breakthrough to the Checkers area since they are similar to checkers

Possible move Knight Fight to Chess #3 - maybe move Cheversi to Chess or reversi?

Dice Game:

Ludo
Dice Poker
Triple Dice Poker
Dice Poker 6D
Triple Dice Poker 6D

Other (now down to only 15):

Amazons
Anti-Froglet
Assimilation
Ataxx
Big Jungle
Frog Finder
Frog Legs
Froglet
Jarmo
Jungle
Logik
Mancala
Sphere Froglet
Tablut
Tank Battle

Card Games:

OK, no card games yet - but that would be cool to have some!

.... again, just what I quickly seen as a way to reorginize the game list. As pauloaguia suggested, sort alphabetically would help find certain games. (for for Chess, first game list Chess since that is the main - then after that, start with the A games, etc....) Of course I guess the issue with this would be the list would be different for each language so now as I write this, alphabetically sorted might not be the best.

But anyway, again - just quick thoughts.

I think we should start slowly with cards ... their nature is completely different than open board games ... for the start it would be nice to have Poker Squares (though I think that Cribbage Squares are much better) . Cribbage is virtually unknown in non-English speaking world ... but it;s a great game and this card game requires no memorizing the cards ... so it's an excellent choice for turn-based site ...
Andy.

coan.net: I don't like moving Halma and Breakthrough to Checkers or moving Cheversi to Chess/Reversi, because that's not were I'd be looking for them. But it might be an idea to list them there and under "Others" redundantly?
But the rest of your suggested categorization: Chapeau!

Gordon Shumway: Plus something that pauloaguia sort of hit on - possible even have a toggle where you can sort the games by 1 of 2 ways:

Games by category (like listed)

All games alphabetically listed (that way if you are looking for "Fevga" and don't remember what category it is in, a list of all games alphabetically ordered might be easier.

But again, just quick thoughts. Having a lot of games is great - but so many does start to get harder to organize.

coan.net: While I agree that a new setup of the boards is something to desire, I don't think your suggestion makes sense. In fact, I rather prefer the current setup over your suggestion.

IMO, related games ought to share a board, games that are not, or just vaguely related should not share boards.

Your suggestion splits a large class of related games (checkers) into 2, purely based on board size, and adds in totally unrelated games (breakthrough/halma).

If I were to split up the boards, I'd give the checkers variants the following boards:

1. Checkers


2. International Checkers, Czech Checkers, Russian Checkers, Canadian Checkers, Thai Checkers, Brazilian Checkers (they all have related rules, and have queens, not kings)


3. Gothic Checkers, Turkish Checkers (checkers variants that use all the squares on the board)


4. Anti Checkers, Corner Checkers, One Way Checkers, Parachute Checkers (variants)


5. Alquerque, Hawaiian Checkers (very different rules than checkers; perhaps Hawaiian Checkers shouldn't even be listed as a Checkers variant)

If traffic is low enough, one might want to combine boards 3 & 4, and maybe 1 & 2.

dicepro: I agree...this is allready the best site for board based games...it can be the best card based game site as well...there is so much that can be done to corner both markets

Mike

Now that so many new games are added it may be the time to implement a long requested change to our beloved Ponds - customizable game parameters:

• amount of points to start with
• amount of the bonus
• minimum number of players

This would make Ponds more interesting and exciting!

AbigailII: You may have something - probable better to sort them by more how they are played then just board size/setup like I have.

rednaz23: I'd also like to see something like that. Playing Logik with the notation at the right is a little annoying. The content jumps around a lot as the page loads, so you need to wait for the entire page to load to click, otherwise you're bound to make misclicks frequently. This isn't a problem for most games, but since Logik requires so many page loads per move, it can be a hassle.

Because of Logik, I generally keep the notation off. But really, I prefer to have it on for almost all other games. Putting it at the bottom would be a good compromise. Adding game-specific settings would be good, too, but I'm not sure if that can be implemented sensibly.

Ceiter: I would LOVE to see game-specific settings to either show or not show the game history/move list.

I do like it on the right - nice to see the board & notation on the same screen - but for 90% of the games, I would love to turn it off (since it does mess up the page loading and such and makes me mis-click often)

But for some games, the notation is handy (like Dark Chess, Battlboats), and for some games it is absolutely needed (Frog Finder, Ice Age Chess to figure out when the next ice age is going to happen).

If it was possible to have it only show on certain games - that would be an improvement I would LOVE to have for this site.

Gordon Shumway: just curious, how would you sort the ratings,? I mean a pond that starts with 150 points is a completely different game than we have now

everyone who posted before me: Within a long list of items, I use my browser's search feature invoked by pressing CTRL+F

In the new checkers variants, captured stones remain on the board until you've hit "move". This is according to the rules, but it still startles me each time it happens to me (probably because it doesn't happen in regular Checkers).

Would it be possible to mark captured, but not removed checkers? For instance, with a red (or some other distinctive colour) around the stone, just as we have blue squares indicating the start and end square of the moving piece.

AbigailII: That could be done.

Fencer: That would also help to visually understand why you can't capture a specific piece because usually you can't capture the same piece twice. If it's highlighted somehow then you immediately know why.

pauloaguia: You immediately know why because BrainKing does not allow you to do so and good users don't think about BrainKing's system decisions.
You are right, of course.

Fencer, (just a small thing) is it possible to add the mini game board used for inviting people to a game, to the names on the top right of the screen(Friends online), beside there message envelope ?

Just, most people that i invite to a game are friends, and that is the quickest way to see you friends are here

Vikings: To be honest - I don't really know. But isn't a Pond with 16 players and 20,000 points a very different game from one with 160 players and 20,000 points? And wouldn't the latter be more similar to a 16 player pond with 2,000 points?

Also I don't think 150 points is a very smart number to go with. There was a post of BBW which Fencer seemed to like: Run around the Pond (coan.net, 2005-01-11 16:04:41), which suggested a set of predefined values. Of course it might be sensible to set an upper boundary for the bonus dependant on the starting points.

Anyway - I don't know if and how to adjust the rating for those Ponds properly, but I'd rather have those options with no extra rating than be bound to the fixed parameters.

RIP Gary Gygax

How about honoring his memory by introducing Dragonchess at BK. It's a three dimensional chess variant Gygax invented. Its played on three 8x12 boards representing the sky, the ground and the underworld.

More info: http://www.chessvariants.org/3d.dir/dragonchess.html

puupia: Have you played it? Is it playable? How would you present the 3-D game on a 2-D medium?

Is this possible to add?
I have a 4 player chess board here at my house and its fun.

or2ak.com: I have never played 4 player, but have played 3 player Chess, and that was fun

BrainKing is getting great with all the 2 player games and MANY variations, but sadly we seem to be stuck there. Many of our rival turn-based game sites now have 3 & 4 player board games and have for ages now (excluding Ponds of course).

I wish we could concentrate on 3 and/or 4 players games here soon, some great ones we have here are already lend themselves so well to it, e.g. Chess, Assimilation, Ataxx, Ludo, Scrambled Eggs, Froglet, Dice Poker etc.....

Now they would be awesome

or2ak.com: What should happen to a 4 player chess game if one player times out (or resigns)?

Many multiplayer games don't work well on turn based sites because there's no good way of solving timeouts/resigns.

AbigailII:

<<What should happen to a 4 player chess game if one player times out (or resigns)?>>
I would have to find my instruction booklet (or google it) But I think the opponents pieces would just stay on the board.  Dead pieces if you will, cant be used (taken).

As MadMonkey said, there are many games which 3-4 player games would be very very very very very cool!

It would take some extra programming work by Fencer, but I would not think it would be too hard. (The hardest part might be trying to figure out how the ratings are calculated).

Time outs - for some games like chess, that would be hard since what do you do with the timed-out users pieces. Do you end the game for everyone (The people who did not time out co-winners) - what if player 3 is in a very good attack position towards player 4 - but player 3 times out - do their pieces stay on the board (limiting player 4), are they removed, which hurts player 2 since he was "attacking player 3 and now his pieces are not in a very good position", etc.....

But other games would be perfect for 3-4 players - Dice poker, boats, etc... And my favorite - the game that WAS MADE to be played with 3-4 players, Frog Finder.

I'm sure it would take a lot of work to get it made, but having the ability to play games between 3-4 players would be very cool.

As for the ratings - that is where it can get tricky - since many times, the game is played totally different between 2 players and between 3-4 players. I know other sites just clump all the ratings together.... which at that point, some avoid the 3-4 player games since it hurts their ratings too bad. Maybe a way to have 3 ratings for 1 games.

Over all rating

Rating on 2 player games

Rating on 3+ player games

I am in the Checkers Family said Cube Checkers

I did send you a message ages ago about this version Fencer , ifs Fun. Please can we have it

The big difference is that you use cubes (shock there) instead of disks and the cube sides are numbered 1 to 6.
ALL cubes start with 1 facing upwards.
After each non-jumping move, a player may turn a different one of his cubes to its next highest number, thus increasing its power and preventing it being jumped by a lower numbered cube.
A cube that becomes a 6 either by turning or reaching the opposite side of the board is deemed a king.
AND thats it, just played like normal Checkers, BUT with those differences.

I would like to see Star Trek Chess on here

http://www.chessvariants.org/3d.dir/startrek.html

not sure how you would lay out on 2d display but would be fun to play on here

On an chess server I used to play, I liked to play "wild chess" (to be pedantic, "wild chess style 3", as it has several different variants, all called 'wild chess').

The rules are as follows:

1. Pawns start in their normal position (second row for white, seventh row for black).


2. A random set of 8 chess pieces is generated, subject to the constraints that the set includes exactly one king, and no pawns.


3. This set is placed randomly on the first row for white; blacks setup mirrors white (just like in regular chess).


4. There's no castling.


5. All other rules are the same as regular chess.

In this game, it might happen that you play with three queens, or four rooks.

One might even think of a 10x8 wild variant, where the set of pieces to choose from includes the Marshall and the Cardinal. (Or even the Amazon).

See also the wildchess wiki (style 3).

AbigailII: Yes, that does sound quite cool, specially on a larger board with the chance of having a couple of Queens, Marshalls, Cardinals or Amazons

Fencer,

is there any chance of seeing a Facebook application that can display a player's games (on turn) to him/her and a nice little banner to anyone viewing his profile?

ColonelCrockett: If someone creates it, why not. I don't know Facebook API and have no time to learn it.

Is there any way to search the forums to find something? Like you enter in a key word(s), and it finds forums/posts with that word(s).

killerchipmunk: haha, never mind! i just found it!!!

If you used ajax to check if a game was updated every second and return a boolean yes no value. You could refresh the page only when the game board has changed quicker with less bandwidth used then doing the full page every 30sec. Does not work for mobile or webtv users but if you autodetect or make it an option could be a great feature. Real time game play could be possible with minimal code changes.

This game im noticing more and more is determined my blind luck than skill, so to avoid this i suggest have a larger amount of frogs on the board. perhaps 20 -25 frogs! Plus this will speed up the game considerably.

Nothingness: Yes, it is. I know people who like to play with a blind luck. Give them a chance.

Nothingness: Jump on over to the Frog Finder board - we have been discussing some ideas on the game. (maybe if there is a good enough idea, maybe we can get another version of the game on the site)

Can there be a hierarchy table for jungle next to the game board?

joshi tm: That is a GREAT idea, more people may play it then

Is is possible to have the option of "Add All" As well as "Add a team"?
If I want to create a tournie with a new game we have to add each team one by one before we can go to "define new tournie" to play the new games.
Or maybe it could be included somewhere in "define new tournie"?
Doe this make sense or am I talking double Dutch? lmbo!

Mousetrap: No you are not talking Dutch unless you say something like this:

Is het mogelijk om de optie "Voeg alle teams toe" bij "Voeg team toe"?

Wanneer ik een toernooi wil maken en we moeten alle teams er een voor een inzetten voor we een nieuw toernooi definieren om de nieuwe spellen te spelen.
Of kan het bij "Definieer nieuw toernooi" bijgesloten zitten?

Heeft het zin of spreek ik Nederlands?

joshi tm:

Has anyone played Tiers?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiers

Ok the real time chat at the top is cool but you lose what you were typing when the page refreshes. My proposed dynamic refresh would fix this.

Feature requests (mctrivia, 2008-03-07 17:16:50)

I have two feature requests about checkers:
1) post the rules... preferably with a short description of the main features in each one and not based solely on references like "same rules as Internacional checkers but with a larger board". With so many similar variants being able to find the basics of the rules on a first click is a must

2) make a different border color for Czech Checkers and Corner Checkers (and possibly others). I just found myself playing CornerCheckers thinking I was playing Czech Checkers...fortunately by the time I noticed it I was winning already

mctrivia: Well, I can disable automatic refresh when the chat box is enabled. That should be the easiest solution.

Fencer: true easiest. but refreshing only when needed will reduce likely hood of the problem and still allow current game list to show. In case you are waiting for a game to play

Marfitalu: how about fencer make some kind of encoding system like [add checker rules here] so instead of seeing like checkers but ... you see all the checker rules in a little box labeled checker rules.

This way all 22 languages or so can very easily refrence other game rules.