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

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.

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: 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!

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.

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.

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).

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

Thank you, Fencer.

Very much ;)

rednaz23: It might be better to make it as an on-mouse-over popup, similar to most recent post previews etc.

Fencer: I like having the right column off, however I like the game notations for some games (like frog finder) on. Having the game notations below the game board eliminates the third column and adds the game notations for quick viewing... that's my reasoning! It's nothing more than an extra two clicks and viewing a few times a game... but it is still extra time... :-) I would love to see it.

rednaz23: No but there is an option to turn it off.

Is there a way to move the far right column to below the game board as an option? Just a thought I had a few weeks ago and after searching the feature request board, I did not find any similar suggestions.

Thanks,

Phil (rednaz23)

AbigailII: All these points should be implemented.
Okay, I send you an invitation.

Fencer: I'm willing to test, although I won't claim I know all the little details of the rules. But I can list the significant rules that are different from other versions of checkers:

1. Capturing an enemy piece is mandatory.


2. If there is more than one way to capture enemy pieces, you have to make the move that takes the most pieces.


3. Regular pieces can capture backwards as well.


4. A normal piece reaching the last line promotes to a queen.


5. Unlike Czech Checkers, if a capuring piece reaches the last line, and it can continue capturing (with a backwards move), the move doesn't end - the piece makes the backwards capture and doesn't promote to a queen.


6. If you cannot make a move, you lose (it's not a stalemate).


7. You cannot jump over the same piece twice.


8. Captured pieces remain on the board until the move finishes.


9. Play is done on a 10x10 board.

Is there anybody who knows International Checkers in all details and wants to test it with me? The game model is already finished but I don't want to release it until I am sure there are no significant bugs.

MadMonkey: Nice. Maybe later.

Fencer, look what i just found, how about a new set of Browser War Checkers

nabla: yep you are right did not think of that posibility. No problems with chess notation I like chess beter then checkers

Fencer:

On this site they explain why:

8. A man or king may not jump over the same opposing man or king more than once.

9. Captured checkers are not removed from the board until all jumps made on the move are completed, and the hand is removed from the capturing man or king.

(It is only in rare instances that rules 8 or 9 affect the play of a game. They can have the effect of reducing the number of captures possible on a move. In most of these cases a king is the capturing piece. On very rare occasions these rules, either separately or in combination, will result in a king being forced to terminate a series of jumps on a square from which it will then be captured by an opposing man or king which itself would have been captured were it not for these rules.)

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Arthur_H_Olsen/intlckrs.htm

mctrivia: I am no checkers players so I could be wrong, but to me it looks like there is a difference. When a queen takes, removing the checkers could allow for a loop which would be impossible otherwise, because there would be two consecutive checkers along the line.

For instance : queen on a1 against checkers on d2-c3-d6-b6 (please pardon me for the chess notation).
By removing the checker on c3 after taking it, the queen could take all pawns : a1-e5-c7-a5-e1.
If the checker on c3 stays, the queen is blocked on a5 by the two consecutive checkers c3 and d2.

Czuch: none. Just a mater of when playing in reality you don't tend to pick them up until afterwards. The game play will work the same if you take them off after each jump.

AbigailII: so what is the purpose of not removing them, if they cannot be jumped twice?

AbigailII: Yes, that's correct.

Just had a though (again lol). These Cheshire games, how about Cheshire Amazons

ok, so we have the three greek backgammon games. you said (fencer said) on the blog site that a traditional match is composed of each of the three games. i think it would be pretty easy to implement a new match type to accomplish that...

Fencer: Yes, but you cannot jump the same checker twice.

joshi tm: Er ... just to be sure - jumped pieces are removed after the move is finished, not during the jumping. Is that correct? I mean International Checkers.

Ceiter: I thought about that also. Another idea is next to total points, put the (xx) number next to the total points to show the points gained in the last move. Of course putting it in the game notation would help when going back multiply turns to review a game, but most of the time it is nice to see what was actually taken.

I have a small request for Knight Fight: to show the values of the previous moves instead of just the locations. So in the game notation on the right, instead of saying "j4", it would say something like "j4 (76)". Or in the case of doubles it would say something like "j4/d7 (55/88)".

The way it is, I find myself going back to previous moves a lot to see exactly what just happened. It's a little disorienting, especially when you're playing many Knight Fight games at once!

Just adding information about the last move would be good, too, if you don't want to change the notation of the whole game.

How about a 3rd party user interface like facebook has so 3rd party apps can be designed more closely with the sight. Would be nice if people could sign up for my autoplayer just by pressing 1 button on your site then disable it also from a button on your site.

joshi tm: I think I know what you mean.

"Do you miss something on BrainKing.com and would you like to see it here? Post your request into this board!
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."



Well, Fencer I still miss International Checkers Can you add that game please?

Snoopy: This is just a temporary solution. Text links will be replaced by images with numbers.

Snoopy: I second that... maybe using a color for the text background, to make sure the foreground contrasts with the background.

Also, is there any chance the "pairs" of the squares we can move to be highlighted as well? It makes it hard to try and find a number between almost 100 others when they're spread out randomly... I remember someone suggesting it using javascript when you over each of the possibilities... butI think it would be fine if the possible pairs were just statically highlighted using plain old HTML... at least they'd be easier to find.

Fencer: "idiots are too ingenious" :-D

Czuch: It would be impossible to make the whole site idiot proof. Idiots are too ingenious.

It would be great if fencer could make this whole site 'idiot proof', but since that is not likely to ever happen, then taking a little more time to pay attention to what we are doing is the next best advice

What is the next feature request?

"The color coded games get me confused, I never remember which ones are what, can you please Fencer make it so when I make a silly move I am asked if i am sure I am playing the game i think I am playing?"

mctrivia: It's done. Thank you, Fencer for your quick reaction!

There is a Rule in my country: all pieces from the first roll must be placed, not moved. It prevents starting player from moving too much ahead and endanger opponent's starting field.

I mean: when the game starts, we have all our pieces "piled up" and then we must "land" all of it into game board according to rolls we get. So you have 2 steps:

1. placing pieces,
2. moving pieces.

While you have that "pile", you can chose to "place" (enter) a piece OR move already placed one. The Rule I was talking says that if one player's first roll is a double, they must place all pieces and move none of them until the next roll.

Here is an example: My first roll is 6-6 and I play 24-18(2) 18-12(2). I.e. place 2 pieces, then move it. This way, I have direct hit upon your field and it is very likely to block your men in the very beginning of the game. This would happen if the Rule is not in power.

What you think guys, should we adopt this rule here on BK as well?

PS. Some part of the above text was Copy&Pasted from one of my games, with a permission from my opponent.

coan.net: I agree. Games with similar boards but very different rules like antichess and chess should have different colours or something to distinguish. Well that is a bad example because antichess does have a nice red boarder to let you know it is different.

coan.net: You are right, we don't need so many colors. I update my request: only for those game types that would be easily mistaken.

Carl: There is nothing written on the left side of my board. I can see what game is displayed only on my browser's title, but "Backgammon" and "Plakato" are spelled very similar in Bulgarian and can be misread.

AlliumCepa: Have you tried looking to the left of the board? It say's what the game is there!

Can we have a colored frame around game board for the new gammon variants? It would be easier to distinguish it. I mean something similar to Anti/Cloning etc.

In fact, can we have different color for all gammon types?   <-- Edit

LionsLair: Once they accept one game from you, then you are already playing against them and they will not see your other invitations!

LionsLair: Yes.

Fencer: will this prevent someone from accepting more than one game?

LionsLair: Have you tried to uncheck "Include players who are already playing *game type* with me" option while creating public invitations?

I would like to see a feature that would limit the # of games that an opponent can accept when you have games in the waiting... I would like to get games from many players when posting games in waiting area(mainly to learn different stategies) but it seems like every time I post games( lets say 9 plakato games) it seems like one user always accepts 6-7 of them and it really irritates me... I think 2-3 is sufficient.
I would really like to see something added that I can block folks from accepting too many of my waiting games! does anyone else?

coan.net: Maybe another set of Japanese pieces would be an idea, with both pictures on them

ColonelCrockett: I do agree, just thought it would be a nice feature and save time for us learners