ScaryMonster: Thank you. But how does the duck move? Can it jump to any empty square?

ScaryMonster: I can't find the rules for duck chess.

I request a random number generator based on a cryptographic hash function, for example SHA-1, using the ready-made PHP-function sha1().

Every game is assigned a secret key. The key is concatenated with the move number and input to the hash function. The dice rolls are determined from the hash.

The advantages:
1. this will create random numbers with very good statistical properties, practically as good as real random numbers.
2. Predicting the dice rolls is infeasible when the key is secret, even if the algorithm is published.
3. After the end of the game the key can be revealed, so that everyone (or at least programmers) can check if the dice have been rolled correctly. The players need no longer be sucpicious if the random number generator is bad or buggy.

Fencer: Oh, I only saw the "offer draw" link and overlooked the check box appearing after entering a move...

Now when I think of it, I mean I have already used it but have forgotten about it

Thanks

I wish that offering a draw was programmed differently: a draw is offered together with making a move, then it's the opponent's turn and he/she can decide to accept the offer or make a move instead.

The BK method has two drawbacks: the game, after a draw has been offered, is not on the opponent's "your turn"-list, he/she must read the messages (or is it events?) to see the offer. Second, it is still the offerer's turn, who must care not to forfeit on time, and may accidentaly make a move, thereby cancelling the offer.

grenv: Maybe you are right. Here are some game numbers from my sample I had downloaded, where the first two rolls are equal:

3661393
3661396
3663115
3664961
3665093
3665242
3667535
3667537
3674420
3674422
3674426
3674427
3690264
3690269
3690297
3690298
3690766
3692509
3692512
3692513

Fencer: Maybe we are talking about different things. The bug I mean is: the first rolls of the two players are too often equal. E.g. white starts by moving 5 and 3, and black, in the directly following move, rolls 3 and 5.

I and others have tested this with a high number (hundreds) of games, and it happens about 4 to 6 times as often as it should.

It is a statistical thing, and one cannot give a single game that was affected. It are all games where the opening rolls are equal, so to say.

I agree that BK is a great site, though not perfect. Nothing in this world is or can be perfect, but this is no reason not to try to improve things.

A good way to improve BK further would be to fix the opening-moves-bug in the backgammon variants. here is a collection of links on the topic. Fencer, are you going to fix this also before BK 3.0?

rabbitoid: I think that "move and autopass" would tell the server that the player won't double in the next turn. So if he can't move a checker then, the server will autopass instead of giving him the opportunity to double.

Good idea, BTW.

tonyh: and without "you resigned the game" events as well.

There should be a button "move in every game where is only one legal action". This occurs frequently e.g. in backgammon and dice chess.

Bring the number of games where it is your turn from, say, 856 down to 819 with only one click

MadMonkey: Did Fencer actually say that he is totally against auto-pass / auto-move?

If a player uses auto-move (if the server allows it), it need not concern the other players or the webmaster (at least if the server does not force the players of a game to agree on both using or not using that option, as it is currently (and I can only wonder why it is so)).

A player may not easily recognize the game situation after some automoves in a row. But that is the player's own business; he may switch automove off. And the server could, preferably, support a better solution: display the game after the last move made explicitely, together with a replay button to go through the following moves.

Another point is what happens if the opponent has sent a message together with a move, and the reply-move is done by the server. Possible solutions: don't automove in this case, or notify the opponent that the move was done automatically and the player has not yet seen the message.

I just can't understand why it is not mandatory.

to a message sent to the opponent in a game, not only date and time should be given in the list of messages, but also the move number.

Sometimes a message refers to a move, and afterwards it can be difficult to find out which move it was.

AbigailII: This is a good idea I want to support, and suggest the following details:

1. only the timeout in a tournament game should trigger the removal from tournaments.
2. A player should not be removed from a tournament which starts in a short time. The player should have enough time to sign up again (say twice the time to make a move in a game of that tournament).
3. The player should receive a message telling him/her from which tournament he/she was removed.

diogenysos: maybe something like a swap rule: the first player makes the first three (or so) moves (moves for both sides), then the other player has the right to swap sides.

Pedro Martínez: It is about improving the ergonomics of the user-interface

Sometimes i want to stay at the game in particular game types, e.g. in Battleboats to see what I have hit, or in Backgammon with autopass when the opponent is on the bar and likely to stay there. But in other game types I want to go to the list of games to decide which to play next. Then I must always change between the two options.

I'd wish to have (at least) two different submit buttons: "submit and go to list of games" and "submit and stay here".

This can be set alredy, but only one action can be saved as default; if you want to do the other, you must first change the setting from the default.

It would be much more convenient if one had two buttons and could choose which to click. This needs only one click in any case.

Or even better: choose a die with the mouse button:

clicking a piece with the left button moves it by the left (higher) die number, clicking with the right moves it by the lower number.

(But I don't know if this is technically possible)

I want to second proposals already made by others:

swap the dice in backgammon automatically if the player clicks a piece that can't be moved by the first number, but by the second, and

order the dice so that the higher is always first.