Fencer: Looking for a multi-player game where it will not matter if 1 player times out / quits playing.

Multi-Battlebaots

One big board - 15x15

3-4 players - each with lets say 1 "4-long", 1 "3-long", and 1 "2-long" ship.

Computer RANDOMLY places boats on the same 15x15 board.

Each player takes a turn at making 2 shots each. (They see their own boats so they know not to shot themselves). - then goes around to each of the other players.

If someone times out, then they are eliminated from the game with no more shots - BUT any unhit boats still remain hidden and act as "dummy" boats for the other players - meaning if those are sunk, it makes no difference in the game.

grenv: Yes, I can see it too. The same thing happens on the Google translator tools page. I don't know why.

Fencer: Multi-player chess (Bug House) if one player times out the entire team loses. Just be careful who you pick to be on your team.

Goldtoken's implementation of up to 6 player Battleboats works too. (And timeouts don't have that bad effect, mentioned) But, I suppose it would be good to have a version, different from theirs.
On theirs, all the boards are on one page, and on each person's turn, they take one shot on each board (except their own, of course!), and then it moves to the next person.

There are a few ways of dealing with time-outs in multi-player games. One could implement games where "pass" is a valid move (not necessarely a good move), and someone timing out means the person passed. Or, instead of a pass, there's a default move, or the previous move is repeated (ponds work that way, don't they?) For instance, an implementation of 'Uno' might cause a timing-out player to draw a card from the draw-stack, as if (s)he couldn't play a card from their hand.

There are also games where players are eliminated one-by-one, monopoly or ludo are classical examples of such games. In such games, time-outs can be dealt with in the same way as they are dealt with currently: elimination of the player timing out.

But there are a lot of games left I don't see a solution for.

A variation on the Knight membership, for those of us who are too poor to be rooks(and don't play ALOT of games), but want to play more than one tournament of each game type, say can play a total of 5 tournaments at a time, any game...

tinksbell: I love your nick..

ScarletRose: Thanks

Fencer: ty for commenting.to be honest ,I never thought of that.but of course it must be considered.if a player fails to move,possible options:
player loss of turn
player loss of game
and if loss of game,pieces removed / or not.
are there other alternatives?,what do you think is best?

rod03801: re :Goldtoken's implementation of up to 6 player Battleboats works too.
---
yes,truth is I have played it a lot.it moves along surprising quickly with the few I play with.
we usually accomplish this by having a relatively short timeout( 2-3 days),but setting the penalty for a timeout as just loss of turn.
I might suggest if multi players game are implemented at some time here.to consider not allowing tooo long a timeout setting on the games.otherwise a multi-player game could be lengthy.

Silly me, it just occurred to me that there are probably lots of people play here who are from the area hit by Katrina. I heard that goodfoods is and have noticed his automatic vacation days going down on our games....
Question is:
Is there any way we can not penalize those people who "live" in that area? I am sure a bunch have already been timed out of their games, they have far more important things to worry about right now...

tinksbell: Solution might be in an option to "add time to opponents time". That way one could save some games from forfeiting in cases, when one feels a game is very interesting and one is not satisfied with winning such game just plainly on time.

fungame: Or "freeze the time for this game". I'll think about it.

Fencer: I can donate about 20 of my vacation days

It has properly been mentioned before, but how about practice boards, it is sometimes easier to learn the game by playing a computer?

wellywales: What about the practice board where you can learn the moves yourself...

Daniel Snyder: Where is that then?

wellywales: what about just playing unrated and uncounted games here? put such invitations in the waiting room ...

wellywales: Another way is to ask a high rated player if they'd play unrated against you and explain their moves. Not everyone is willing to be a teacher but some are. Stormerne's fellowships (Tablut and Xiangqi (Chinese Chess)) feature learning tournaments in which the players are required/encouraged to explain their reasoning as they go, so both players learn off each other.

I'd be happy to play a couple of tutorial matches in Backgammon. :-)

wellywales: Tablet Reborn Fellowship has a practice page to where you can learn....

I own a real (instead of virtual) Shogi board.
This board is, one may say, divided in 9 zones by using a simple mean.
There are 4 black dots at the intersections of the
- 'b' and 'c' with the '3' and '4' and '6' and '7';
- 'f' and 'g' with the '3' and '4' and '6' and '7'.

The reason why I ask is that in the fire of action, often I miss to see that my pawns and pieces are in the promote zone. The proposal to promote up the board is good but not sufficient for an absorbed (and therefore distract) player as I.
I think this little add could help. I suppose I am not alone in this case?
Of course a solid black line could be the best but the risk is to hurt the purists?!

A perfect solution alerting about promotioncould be to change the color (red?) of the pawn or piece who could be promoted up to the moment we confirm our move.

That could not hurt the purist, I think, because in an online Japanese club we are alerted through a little box appearing on the board

It would be extremely helpful, especially for fresh members, to introduce a mini-FAQ link in some DBs, with topics that usually come up every now and then. Searching through the site causes a lot more server "fatigue" than having a ready-made page with all the answers to such issues.

For example, in the Backgammon DB, the perennial question of "why does only one die get used when the first roll played invalidates the second?" etc. could be put in such a mini-FAQ for everyone to see and noone to wonder about :) OK, the example I gave can always be a point of debate, but at least people wouldn't have to start off without any background :)

But I hope that you get my drift.

Spirou: Do you mean on this site? Everytime I get a piece to where it could be promoted, it is shown at the top of the board and I fail to see how anyone could miss it, though I've had a few opponents not promote when able and it sometimes would have been to their advantage to promote.

Walter Montego: Of course, on this site!

Probably I have a narrow view, because when playing I see only what is inside the board and I am deaf when I play (following my spouse's advice). Aren't we numerous in this case? I think no else the online japanese shogi club didn't had make up for.

After we had both putted our pieces and i had moved once, my opponent deleted the game. I have allready winning position. This is not fair. Deleting should not be possible after putting the pieces. Or what do you think?

Salkkuman: I completely agree with you, but didn't it count as a win when he deleted the game?

Walter Montego: As Fencer don't react, I suppose my suggestions are without interest though I believed they were useful and easy to implement. Never mind .

Spirou: I don't understand what it is that you're requesting. There already is a notification for a possible promotion. The piece is marked clearly right next to the board at the top where it can't be missed. I've also noticed that when this happens a sentence appears in red telling you about the possible promotion. When this sentence appears it also shifts the page slightly and this also makes it easier to notice the possible promotion.

Is what you're asking for something like coloring the actual piece on the board itself? If so, you're probably right that the purists will object. For them, they probably don't like what is done now either, but I get by just fine with how the promotions are handled as is.

Walter Montego: I was asking for the 4 dots dividing the board in 9 zones of 9 squares and coloring the possible promoting piece.

As a kind of this exists on the JAPANESE online shogi club with thousands JAPANESE members, I supposed purists will agree.

Spirou: Ah, the dots would just serve as reference points on the board. I suppose that could help.

Walter Montego: Indeed it help to remember we are crossing the promoting zone.
About color for the piece candidate of promotion, I can't see any objection because Japaneses are using a kind of that in Shogi24 club the well known and I think the sole Shogi online in real time actually.

<"If there is a more specific board for the request, (i.e. game rule changes etc) then it should be posted and discussed on that specific board."
Let's move to the shogi board.
(Spirou> when Fencer doesn't reply in one or two days, I think it's preliminary to conclude he's not going to do anything with it.)

WhiteTower: That's a good idea and one possible implementation doesn't even require Fencer to do anything.

On one of the boards that I moderate I've compiled a list of useful links - those scattered about the board itself and also from the corresponding fellowship (which Pawns can't access). The list has been inserted into very first (last?) post on the board, which I've appropriated from the original poster (fortunately it contained material which became part of the resource. I also asked permission first, though there was no answer). Then I added a note to the board's header information with a link giving direct access to that post. Rooks and Knights can join the fellowship or they, and Pawns, can use the resources message.

The same could be done for any of the game boards if the moderator wants to do it. I hadn't thought of a FAQ but that could be created in another of the early messages.

playBunny: I am planning to set up a wiki. Anyone interested?

i hate wikis, why would we need wikis, i am so glad to be away from them. don't go by me, but i was hoping never to hear that word here, i've been editing and creating wikis for a few yrs at gt. what a pain that was.

ellieoop: centralized information management vs. collaborative wiki way - both with advantages and disadvantages. (in fact I think, a wiki will solve some moderator problems here)

But this is off-topic here. I will set up a wiki and everybody is welcome.

By the way: If I would have done away the logo anf changed the Url and some other things in http://iftomm-rotordynamics2006.mdmt.tuwien.ac.at/wiki/index.php/Main_Page (in progress) - would you see this as "wiki"?

ellieoop/chessmec: whatsw a wiki ?

Jason: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki - another questions and discussions please on the Computer Discussion Board

are those pix a wiki? nothing like i was talking about. those are great:)

ellieoop: Let us say, an amputated wiki ;-) but let stop us here and continue on the Computer Board if you want

Is there anyway to prevent internal SPAM? Someone on here sent the same message to over 60 people today. The said part is only 3 people cared what it said, to the rest, it's just SPAM.

(the most recent part of that thread, of course..)

Backoff: Blocked users

Not blocked users, I only have one or two on that list. I agree with the spammage. Wasnt even from someone in that fellowship :(

should have a name change lol, took me ten minutes to find the news archive

from back gammon race thinking..how about" chess race".
play like regular chess.but play starts with ALL pieces off the board.
each move consists of either:
1-bringing a piece on board into its position or the closest one to it if it is occupied.
or
2- moving a piece.
---
"survivor chess"
a game for 3
play like regular chess.but with these changes:
play starts with a third colour king & queen placed on "setup" by the 3rd player on any free space on the board.
third colour player moves 1st.
then play is by turn for 3.
the 1st 8 pieces removed from the board,become the third players coloured pieces.
these pieces are "off board" but can be brought onto the board in place of a move like "chess race".

I'd like to be able to pick the exact order of the placing of individual games. Not by type, time, or anything like that, just pick certain games and be able to have them appear at the top or bottom of the listing on the main page and the drop down deal on game page. This would be very handy for playing particular games against certain opponents. It would also be very convenient to be able to put a particular short time limit game at the bottom of the list while having the rest of them stay at the top. Every once in a while an opponent of mine will have an emergency and will request me to not make a move until I absolutely have to move or time out. It would be a lot easier to oblige them if their game didn't constantly remain at the top of my list because I don't move in the game and the time ticks down for myself. It would also be handy to move longer time limit games to the top so that I could find them easier while playing with someone that happens to move regularly or is online at the same time.

As an aside to this, let us hope Hurricane Rita doesn't hit Shreela too hard on its path to Houston. I suppose I should check the news, as it might've changed paths in the last few days.

I'm not sure what the best wording would be, but I would like an option added to the "move and go to" drop down menu, that would take me to the next game that doesn't use days off.. (Any game with a red dot by the time left)
Sometimes if I don't have time to make many moves, I would like to move on those first (and fisher clock ones..)

Again.. I don't know what would be the best way to word it on the drop down menu..

rod03801: "red dot game" is simple and unmistakable. "Urgent" or "critical" are possibilities, though they'd hardly apply to a 30-days-no-hols game, lol.