the borders are different colors....on the anti games...

Hey Fencer... I have a feeling this site is going to become huge... You should consider at some point making a brainking store. Maybe selling Brainking t-shirts, hats, coffee mugs, etc... I know I would definitely buy these things. I'm so excited about this site, and want to spread the word.
:)

I agree with Emma... I think that would be a huge help..

great site Fencer! :-)

Hi,Fencer,not sure if this has been requested before but was wondering if it is possible to make anti reversi board different colour than regular reversi board (this could apply to anti backgammon too)to help distinguish the games:)thanks if you consider it:)

I've seen it 13x13 more places than IYT! :-)
But you could be right.

Kevin & Dave: You are talking about the go-moku version which is played at IYT (13x13 board and 2nd player winning when board fills up), not the "real" or "official" go-moku.
15x15 is the official board size and 2nd player doesn`t win in case of a draw.

is played on a 19X19 board...

is played on a 15X15 board...

this is the current 5 In A Line

is played on a standard 13X13 board...

There actually is one more difference between the current version and regular go-moku. In go-moku, when the board fills up the 2nd player wins because of the advantage to the first player. (I guess i'm assuming it will be a draw when the board fills up here. On boards bigger than the usual 13x13, the board filling up is very rare anyways).

Would it be possible to show how your rating change in the "Message box" message when you win or lose a game?

I mean the rating is already being calculated right then anyway - so a simple "Your Rating was: XXXX" "Your Rating now: XXXX"

The reason this would be nice is I just won a game, and I believe my rating droped (but I'm not sure) - which if how the ratings are calculated, I may stop playing people who will drop my rating even if I win... :-)

Right :-)

Sundance: Thanks for the explaination.
I know about the more than 5 in a row rule, maybe Fencer only needs to change that, that was the only difference i could see between the normal games.
When i read that Fencer was working on Go-Muko, i just thought it odd lol.
So is all he needs to work on is the Pro Version which i love playing as well.

MadMonkey & Fencer: Maybe I should answer that question, because I was the one requesting PRO go-moku in the first place.
Between the REGULAR go-moku and this site`s 5-in-line, the only difference is that in go-moku overline (more than 5 in-a-row) doesn`t win. That difference has not much effect to the game.
However, if the game in development is PRO gomoku the difference to 5-in-line is significant. In pro gomoku there are 2 restrictions to the white (starter):
1. The first move must be in the center of the board.
2. (much more significant than 1.) White`s second move must be outside the 5x5 square around the 1. move.

The 2nd move restriction takes away some of the white`s advantage and makes the game quite different.
The most important thing being that in pro gomoku there is not a sure win situation for the white in the beginning of the game, as is the case in regular gomoku (or 5-in-line) on a 15x15 board.
Not all but quite many of the advanced players prefer the pro version (some are actually waiting for it before they start playing here): it is an even more complex game. Important thing is also that in pro almost every game is unique, which is in contrast to regular version where the same moves are played over and over.

MadMonkey: That's a good question ;-)

Fencer: Is there any great difference between Go-Muko & the current 5 in a row game that seems fine ?
Battleboats :-)))

I am currently developing several games at once - battleboats, pente, keryo pente, go-moku and sabotage.

I was wondering when sabotage and battleship games will become available. IYT this week announced membership price increases. Also non-members who cant afford right now to become members, are being cutback to 25 moves per day. So it would be more advantageous to play those games here. Please respond when you can. I really love spending time playing on this site.

I agree that there are people who play way too many games at once. In a tournament I am in I looked at an opponent profile an the opponent was playing almost 190 games at a time. That is just insane. If a person can handle it that is fine but how about the opponents who have to wait for long stretches to play moves with these people. I love the site however.

I very much agree with Harley on this, why make other players wait for their turn when they should have the equal treatment as other shorter time games. If, people are so worried about timeout then they should set the time limit at a higher days. Just remember this is still a time-base game site not a live back-and-forth rush gamesite like Gamezone and whatever. I myself play what is next down the list instead of playing the least of amount of time....it is more fair to other players. :^)

I'm about to make myself very unpopular now!! I would suggest that people having a problem with which games come up next, because of timeouts etc... play fewer games then it wouldn't be a problem! Or.. play more often.
I dont accept games I think I may timeout in, or have so many games that they timeout before I've got through them.
Its just a case of game management.
I'm not wanting to sound patronising here, it just seems that the problem is with the member, not the system. No matter which way it goes there will always be people wanting it another way. I prefer it how it is because I'm not keeping people waiting for me to move longer than necessary, but I can see the other side of it too. :o)

IYT seems to manage with no problems because they probably run their site on much faster computers :-)

IYT seems to manage with no problems, but I know they dont have vacation days and flexible days off there. Cant it be done just to bring up the next match as listed on the main page? This I think is all we are asking for right now.

Sure it can be done. I'm not sure how Chad at Goldtoken has given the order to the system, but here Fencer uses the timestamps on each piece of data (one thing that i remember Chad saying he should have done but didn't know to when he created it). The way it is done here (which is a much more efficient manner) it will greatly slow down the server to have to calculate the time remaining with days off, vacations, and holidays. With the number of games i have, my main page loads VERY slow compared to the game pages, which still have the list of the games :-)

They have that system on Goldtoken, so it can be done?

I agree that the next game should be the next one in time-out order, but this problem was brought up ages ago & Fencer did explain that he understands the hassle, but it will take alot to sort the games like that.

I agree with wolf, it takes ages to go back to the main page. Surely the games could be listed in the same order when you click go to next game as they are on the main page? I often sit down with only a few minutes wanting to play the games most likely to timeout.

Fencer: Great stuff with the (*) to let us know which are Tourny games :-)

yea... I need to go through all the past messages some day to see what has been brought up before... :-)

Well I don't want to bog down the server with any extra calculations.... at the time it just seemed like a pain for me to play a game, go back to main screen, and then click the next game. (I now just open each game in a new window - so I have found a "workaround" for my own problem) :-)

This button goes to the next game according to when they were sent by your opponent, so it will take you to the game that has been waiting the longest. Fencer has said that going to the next game according to time will greatly slow down the site because of all the calculations that would have to be done with time left, days off, vacation, holidays, etc.

How does the "Submit and go to next game" work? I guess I was thinking that it would just go to the next game with the least amount of time left, but it seems to be random?

I was only going to be online enough to play a few games - so I wanted to get the few with the least time so I do not time out. Instead of going to the game with only 16 hours left, it went to my 20th game with 2 days left.

Suggestion:

How about having these 4 options:

Submit and go to next game (acourding to time)
Submit and go to next tourny game
Submit and go to main page (already there)
Submit and stay here (already there)

I use the "Note (visible for you only)" option in a few of my games - mostly spider stack4 when I have a win planed for the next 4-5 moves.

But the only problem is that the note is near the bottom of the page. Is there a way to possible put the note near the top of the page? Since most people probable do not use the note feature, it would not affect too many people.

Along those same lines... It would be very helpful on the profile page where it lists all the tournaments that you have joined.. to have something there to denote which ones you are still an active player... thanks Fencer for all you do... you have a great site here ...

TinMan: Yes, that's a good idea! I'll do something like that :-)
Hannelore: Okay, I will think it over.

I find myself going in to the Tournament page a lot. What I find time consuming is going into each tournament to see if I signed up. There are so many new ones starting all the time and I am doing a lot of searching all the time. Any Ideas to shorten my stay on the tourney page? I still find I miss certain ones.

Instead of trying to highlight a list with bold or a different color, you could use another indicator, such as an asterisk before the names of the tournament games.

Shows what I know about drop down lists! I just tried to bold an entry on a drop down list on one of my sites.. DUH.. I thought you could bold a line. 2 lists isa bout your only option as you say Fencer!

Well I did not mean "problem" - I meant to say "request"... sorry! :-) (I think it is a good idea also.. it would speed things up)

Not a problem BBW - just trying to speed things up a bit for everyone :-)

How about having the option of "going to next tourny game" in the drop down list? Would that solve MadMonkey's problem?

Fencer: What a quick reply :-)
Good Stuff AGAIN ;-)

Kevin: I will probably add a new menuitem in the left column.
MadMonkey: The problem is in the drop-down list component itself, you cannot highlight some lines in HTML. Maybe I cound split it to two drop-down lists instead ;-)

Oh I like that idea alot.. even if they were bolded to stand out better!

Fencer: would there be anyway to hi-lite in our drop down list in our do to next move which games are tourny games, so that we can try and play them off first to speed things up a little :-)
Monkey :-)

Yep, sounds like broadband, I'd love to have that but firstly my PC can't handle it (not enough memory or thingies or wotsits!!) and secondly I just cant afford it yet, its loads more expensive than AOL. So you'll all just have to put up with slow old me!! LOL!
Thanks for the info though, always handy to know.

Great idea Kevin, I've noticed its easy to lose track of tournaments started. How about a little icon at the side too if they haven't started yet? Then we wont forget about them!!

What about a list on the left (at least it's the left in column layout!) like the existing ones (friends, fav boards, etc) for tournaments we created. It would save having to go through the tournaments page (which often loads quite slowly!!)

Thanks!
Kevin

Harley,

If your connection is slow it's not your PC. AOL is slow because it's using a phone line. Cable can be as much as 50x faster depending on where you are.

yes better known as High speed access. Its the bestest way to have internet! and you dont have to worry about the phone ringing cuz it has nothing to do with your internet provider so talk an surf at the same time.. or talk and play BK!

yes something like broadband..get my internet access from the cable company and not the phone company..

Eddie, what do you mean by 'cable access'? (Keeping in mind I'm a Brit!!)
Is it like broadband? Cos I'm on AOL, and its slow, but thats as much my PC's fault as the provider!