lukulus: Aren't there dictionary files that can be used for the different languages?

Summertop: I don't know whether this is the biggest problem, but there are also different letter values in different languages. In English it would be strange to use K=10, W=10 like we do in French.

Horseman: Cool game. I've played the game that your variation was based on...much harder. There was no concept of an all powerful queen. In fact, there wasn't a queen.

ajtgirl:
I love scrabble too...but scrabble or a clone like it = a no no...hasbro is serious about maintaining its copyright over scrabble.
e-scrabble had to close because of it.
-
IYT sucks big time...its chock full of: trojans,worms,spybots,keystroke counters & popups..and oh yes it is..fixed to many computers re IYT users.
-
if you like word games,try the golem word game at:
www.littlegolem.net
its unique

Summertop: Only common scrable like game is Zatre which is played with numbers, but it is also copyrighted game.

It would be good to see the tournaments start time on the pages of all tournaments and finish times for archived pages. I think that this times are in the database and it can be modified only for pages. Thank you.

could it be possible to send a message when declining all game invitations ?

at the moment i can only send a message when i decline 1 invitation

i want to decline all with the message that i wont accept any new until i am back from my holiday :)

Hrqls: Try it now.

Mr. Shumway: Yes, someone shouted it was requested a year ago, so I finally did it.

Marfitalu: Good news - the Finnish localization of BrainKing is almost finished. Bad news - it's just the game rules which are not translated yet.
Please ask your friend if she wants to help with it, I am sure it would make things much faster.

TC: I must check if these times are really stored in the database. Actually, they should be but I am not sure because they were never used.

Fencer: thanks :)
i cant test it now as i declined all already this morning .. but i guess i can send a message now :)

quick and effecient as always :)

hehe .. thanks whopper & marfitalu .. its was indeed nice and very effecient :)
i dont need any more invitations for chess ;)

How about some team tournements, it's been a while

Vikings: It might be better after the summer holidays.

Fencer: Who's on holiday? Teachers I guess.

grenv: And students.

Fencer: sounds good, oh yeah, vacation, my work made me take one last year, they told me I had to take one every 5 years weather I wanted to or not

grenv: and bfs of teachers :(
i wish i could go on holiday out of the high season .. but my gf is a teacher .. its bad especially there are lots of places where we want to go to which have their rain season in our holiday times .. :)

nobleheart:

Thank you for that information
I know that Hasbro has a real tight grip on the scrabble TM  or is it Milton Bradley?
That is why IYT changed the format a little and changed the name and it works pretty well

But IYT is a minor fraction of the site that Brain King is.

The luckiest day I ever had was when IYT crashed last summer for weeks and I searched for a replacement.
Voila.... BK came to my rescue.

For life!

I was on vacation when

Action Points

was introduced, but I would like to add these comments.

I think it is a pity to reward people for the absolute number of moves per day. This encourages players to sign up for more games than they can possibly complete in a reasonable time, simply to ensure that they can continue to make moves all day and accumulate competition points.

I am playing in one Backgammon tournament which at the current rate will finish about 2010 - and there is no guarantee that I will be alive then. (What happens in this case - would I "time out" - in more senses than one? - or does Branking have a web site in heaven where I could continue to play for eternity?) The slowest player in the afore-mentioned tournament is logged on most times when I view active players, yet he/she makes a move in the tournament about every 10 days. This is NOT a fun way to play.

Could I suggest that a new bonus be introduced. Perhaps a snapshot of waiting games, where it is the players turn to play, could be taken at say midnight GMT. If a player makes a move in all of those games in the next 24 hours, he/she could earn bonus points - of say 20 for a brain pawn, 100 for a knignt, and 1000 for a rook. This might encourage players to sign up only for games which they have a reasonable chance of finishing before the end of the year - let alone the decade!

Marfitalu: The absolue number of moves is not the problem. It's just ridiculously slow players!

pgt: How about a system along the lines (counting for action points or not - you decide)
When the game is over you win a number of points that equals the number of moves divided by the sum of all the time it took for you to make each move in that game (maybe take out a couple of the slowest moves to balance things when you go on vacations and such).
It would give you a "moves per hour" type of statistic that, if published seperatly, could help others choose between slow and fast moving players as well. It wouldn't also matter weather you have many open games or not - your overall "moves per hour" rating would be more established if based on 10000 games, but would be just as meaningful if only based on a couple of games per month.
Of course, it it added up to the action points, the more games you finished, the more points you'd win ;)

pauloaguia: Yes, something along those lines would be worth following up.

pgt: I am all in favour of awarding Action Points, based upon how quickly players make their moves. And in any formula, vacation days should be deducted.

tonyh: An algorithm of calculating a speed index of each player is already being developed.

Fencer: Well done!!! That might make for interesting reading!

pgt: of coarse you realize that slow players probably could care less about action points and therefore wont speed there play

Vikings: of course. But fast players, may want to check their opponents "speed" before accepting a game with them.
Heck, it may even be a filtering factor when creating a new game "Accept only players that make at least 1 move per day"

Vikings: Problem is not slowness of play, it is usually number of open games. With 1000 games open it's almost impossible to play quickly in an individual game.

regardless of action points- i'd like to see 'hours per move' in 'waiting games' and profiles... per game category-
[some games take longer- i suspect thinking games, like chess, have NO players vying for action points prizes, compared to the far less challenging games like ludo;]

although i'm still playing one of my original breakthrough games... started 2006/05/03, 01:18:47- the worst was paying 40 points [offered draw] to get out of a game that my opponent took 19 days to make 3 moves...
[lets see- 19 X 24 / 3....;]

hours- per move- per category
at least in profile....

then in waiting games where slow players suck in newbies who've played fast games with SOME members...

finally, maybe a filter option- for creating games and tournaments... [i'm in another i'm beginning to regret;]

pgt: I like this daily "snap shot of waiting games" idea. Awarding a bonus for moving in every game that it was your turn at the start of the day would be a neat way to get a move in each game. I think a point for each game so moved in would be a good bonus. That way those with 15 games would get 15 points and those with 900 would get 900 if they could make at least one move in every game that day.

Walter Montego: *nod* i like it as well to give extra action points for players who have 0 left i which its their turn to move

(i will almost never win those points though as i often leave a difficult position wait for when i have more time (usually in the weekend ;)) .... but that wont be with any gammon type ;)

i also would love a time per move per game type statistic .. would be a very interesting statistic which can be used in various ways

Marfitalu: :) thats nice as well .. it would mean you get more points when you have more time left in the games when you make your move

its slightly bad though .. as it will give a LOT of points of players joining tournaments which give 30 days per move .. while fast players who usually join faster timed game will earn less points per move

Marfitalu: Why does everyone complain about slow players? If you have a problem with someone taking 5 days to make a move sign up for a game with a 3 day limit. This will put your games at the top of your oponents list causing them to play you more often.

People generally play within the time constraints and generally play the simple games and games with little time left first then the harder games and games with lost of time left later.

I know people with over 1000 games active and they don't play slowly. If you are playing a game with 1 day limit they will play every day and if you play with 1 week limit they will play every 4 to 7 days.

Conclusion the only reason you are fining slow players is you are playing games with to large a time limit.

mctrivia: my slow players are the ones in the tournament i am in i am waiting for 3 players to finish they are all playing over 100 games

mctrivia: What you say may well be true, but I like the idea of having some type of speed rating or average. The amount of games a player has going at one time is not a consistant indicator of how often they make a move in a game. A speed rating would at least give you an indication of how often they move if it is something that is important to you that your opponent moves regularly in a game with you. People that move at a slower speed than a person wants to play at would be avoided in this manner. The slow person loses nothing when their opponent moves fast, but the fast person does if they want the game to progress everyday day or so.

As for the "clearing your games each day" bonus that pgt thought up, this would incourage those interested in the action points to move at least once in each game that day to get the bonus points. One move a day is a pretty good pace on a turn based site and I think the idea warrants looking into.

juls31: Look at your time limits on some of your games. Most of them are 7 days with some being 14 to 30 days. As for your tornement it is also 5 day limit with weekends so 1 move per week needed. Sign up for games with 3 days or less and they will go much faster.

Walter Montego: True there is nothing wrong with a speed rating.

Marfitalu: True if the person is online at the time and playing the game is done extremely quickly. But in general if you shorten the time limit the game will finish faster.

As for fast movers I think in general the people at the top of the Most Active Users List are pretty quick players.

Marfitalu:Sorry but there is really nothing to see with the time limit
Exactly! if UNDER Time control in Waiting games- there were (average wait @ move)-

Everyone could *see* the big difference between some fast players at a 7 day control, and some slow players with a 1 day control...

The idea is to help players to find someone else who correspond more to play with.
Good idea! average wait per move would enable players to match-up speed wise.

juls31: my slow players are the ones in the tournament i am in...

THAT won't change anytime soon! [Upgrade;]

...i am waiting for 3 players to finish they are all playing over 100 games.

i am new, and having been toasted, i choose my opponents more carefully, [although it would be a LOT faster with 'average WAIT per move']. have had many fast games with members playing about 2-400 games...;] good luck!

while something is better than nothing... and the 'simple' formula would be to just take the total days/hours to complete a game and divide by the number of moves-

the math should take into account the time remaining for each player-

so in one case where my opponent took 19 days to make 3 moves... i am sure it took me < 4 days to accomplish the same...

however- rather than nothing- please do simple first! ;]

When you accept a game invitation and you're the starting player, is there anyway to stay on that game to make the move right away?
If not, could there be?

pauloaguia: Could there be.

Fencer: :)
Ok, I'll wait for it to be then.

Marfitalu: Good idea. I think it can be done.

Marfitalu: It might be better to do it as the smiley popup windows works. It would open a small box with a table of two columns - your language and the selected language - and you would click on a chosen phrase which would be added to the text area.

En-passent is in effect in Anti-ches but it is not in the game rules...

Marfitalu: Alot of Chess players That I have played do not know of the rule for En passent...