rod03801:

I don't regularly play other games besides shogi and chess. I go to Yahoo Pool when I don't want to not think, lol. So, I don't know how this would be used in other games. If you think it is a "feature request" for the site as a whole, please post it there. Another thing to be aware of is, if someone comes on this server to play shogi, it is more likely that they would have visited the shogi forum and have it linked than the feature request forum. In that case, I think it would be beneficial to list non-specific game forums below the banner. If there are too many list, my question then is, does there need to be that many? Is it possible to condense if there are too many?

I thought I should post here instead of the feature request area cause people are more likely to give more pertinent feedback for this suggestion. I hope it's ok, I want to post the same one in the European chess forum also.

I think it would be a neat feature to be able to interact some way. One suggestion I made before was to add chat. Another idea would be to allow "game polling". This would be applied to strategic games like chess and shogi, and NOT to games like card games.

People would NOT be allowed to suggest moves, but they could have an overall vote on the position/progress of the game. A simple example of this would be, "Who do you think has the advantage? Black or White?" Each person has one vote, which is seen anonymously. As the game advances, you may switch your position or keep it if you think the same person still has the advantage.

End result would read something like, "60% think white has the advantage out of 10 total".

Ok, so, I pose the same thing in a different way, is this a good idea or completely dumb? Sorry, you can't be anonymous in this poll LOL

jurek:

"short lines were blue and the long ones red", can you tell me what you mean by that? Lines seem to be the same length, it's just a matter of showing and arrow "->" for multiple squares (rook, bishop move) compared to just a "-" for one square (king, pawn, silver, gold). That already seems to be solved from the wiki page which has a circle instead of a line for single squared moves.

harmy:

If there is interest in learning the characters, I can make something to help learn them. I think that aspect is better to be kept separate from the actual playing of the game.

There could be 2 sets of westernized pieces for Tori Shogi. One set is the same size as the Japanese set, it would have "G" for goose, "E" for eagle. You would be expected to know how the game is played, but not the Chinese characters.

The other set would have bigger pieces and could have the word "goose" under "+Sw", "eagle" under "+Fa" along with movement indicators.

Fencer:

Yes, I can. The question is, what do people want on it? Since there can be letters which aren't as complex, there are more options. I can add arrows also or leave them out if people prefer. Another thing is which letters to use. At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tori_shogi they show abbreviations for the pieces and instead of goose they have "+Sw" for promoted swallow and "+Fa" for promoted falcon instead of eagle.

I haven't played the game, but if it's the same as regular Shogi, I would want to see "G" instead "+Sw" just like I would prefer to see "H" for horse instead of "+B" for promoted bishop. Feedback on this would be appreciated. Another note, do people want the lettering to be capital and then lower case "Ph" or "PH" for phoenix? Since there are two pieces which have "P", I'll keep it to 2 letters for consistency.

portugal:

I like the kanji too, it wasn't centering unless I wedged it up to the top to get space in between. So, instead I made the character for quail smaller and that gave room for the kanji.

I am not sure if I picked the right flag. I am living in Japan, but I am not Japanese. Should I change my profile so it reflects where I am originally from instead?

portugal:

Actually, I am from America (Detroit area), but I am living in Kyoto. When Japanese order at McDonald's, they don't say small and large, but rather the letters "S" and "L". I don't think I have ever heard anyone in America or in London when I was there say S and L. They always said small and large. Another example of abbreviating is "pasocon" which is a combination of "personal" and "computer". A German student in my Japanese class in college was surprised to hear "arbaito" for "part-time job". She would say, "It's arbeit, no o at the end". However, the only consonant Japanese use to end words with is "n". So, I guess, as long as you have a reason you are free to mangle the language to fit your needs LOL

portugal

I think it depends on the person. Someone could be equally upset that we have letters for pieces as the default set. My intention is to make a simplified version for people to learn the game.

Also, there is nothing wrong with what I did. I was referencing the radicals for each piece. They just happen to look like katakana characters as well.

http://japanese.about.com/blkod2.htm - migi
http://japanese.about.com/blkod24.htm - hidari

jurek:

I can make them red. "Typically, the left/right kanji characters are on the back side", but how do you see that while playing a game? Wouldn't it be more convenient to see it on the front?

portugal:

To make space, I moved the main kanji down a bit, and then instead of adding 右 and 左, I put katakana ロand エat the top of the pieces. Same address http://marcuswebsite.googlepages.com/torishogipieces.html

http://marcuswebsite.googlepages.com/torishogipieces.html

I hope I did these right. I don't know the Chinese characters yet of these birds. Please correct me if I made any mistakes. I see only 2 pieces which get promoted. How do you keep track of the right and left quail?

Fencer:
I have done some initial pieces and color adjustments.
http://marcuswebsite.googlepages.com/brainkingwhole.gif

The promoted pawn in the center has a larger character than the one at f2. Personally, I think f2 looks better.
Please compare this with the gold piece on e4. They match in size, but the other pieces seem to have a better look being bigger. I put a matching gold one at f5 for comparison. This would mean the promoted pawns would look a little smaller in size than the rest, but I don't think it will look off. It will be easier to determine if it's up and running.

I put up a light wooden background, but the color could be a default light color. What I was thinking to get the background wooden look with the 4 black circles, was to have an option in settings to choose a background image (people just browse their computer to select it). This could then be set as the background for the table. So, even if you don't like the background I have up (which I would like to tinker with more), you could always add your own. Also, I would like to see the table border color change from grey.

The background color of the pieces match the sides of the site. I have kept the border black look, but if I have time I'll see if I can enhance it a bit.

The characters now are "SimSun", but they could be thicker like the characters at http://www.japanesechess.org/notation/traditional_shogi_notation.html

As for making Tori Shogi pieces, it looks doable. I don't think small pieces will be worth making due to the complex characters involved.

TKR101010:

Does the color of the characters change to red when promoted? Is the background of the pieces off white? I suggest making the pieces look more realistic and less star trekky.

While waiting for my account to be activated, I took a look at Kurnik. I liked their interface, easy to use, but there was no customization or community that I see here. One thing though, they had regular Japanese pieces. I understand that Japanese chess is not well known, and many won't learn the Chinese characters (plus one Japanese character they use when a pawn is promoted). I would like to see brainking.com give an option to choose a piece set which has Japanese pieces.

If you need help making these these, I would be happy to create a set or 2. A general suggestion would be to have the color of the character on each piece red when promoted. Another set could stay black if people prefer. The background color for each piece should be an off white.

If the board size can be edited (which I assume would be applied to both chess and shogi), the bigger pieces could take on a more wooden look.

As for changing the name to Shogi on the front page, I think people new to Shogi won't be able to relate to it as easily. I think it is good to keep it Japanese Chess. I didn't say "kanji" when I mentioned Chinese characters because people may not know Chinese characters are called "kanji" in Japanese. It's harder to relate to. Same with the word "Shogi". Those that do know can just use it in discussions.