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Game Courier. PHP script for playing Chess variants online.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I have added a new item to the preset editor. This is 'Maximum # of Colors.' It sets the maximum number of colors to use in images created by the GIF and PNG rendering methods. When it is greater than 256, it will create a truecolor PNG image or a 256 color GIF image. This has previously been the normal behavior, and so that no presets are suddenly changed, the default is set to 257. It is useful mainly for creating small palette PNG images or for reducing the number of colors used in a PNG or GIF image. This is useful for reducing the file size. For example, when an image is resized, this multiplies the colors in it. If the original image didn't have many colors, you can often reduce the number of colors in the final image without harming the quality of the image. Generally, when making a PNG or GIF preset, you should experiment with this value and see how low you can get it and still get a good image. It's best to start with 256, then cut the value in half each time, since it's mainly the number of bits used to represent colors that affects file size.
The plain, uncheckered Shogi preset uses PNG rendering, but when I use the wooden Japanese pieces with this preset, the characters indicating promoted pieces show up in a sort of brown, rather than the desired red.
I could fix this right now, but only at the expense of increasing the filesize of all small-palette PNG images. I'll try to find out if there is something else I can do about this.
Time controls are now easier to set. If you have JavaScript, you can use the Auto Set select field to select a set of default time controls. There are different options, ranging from a blitz game to a leisurely email game.
There is a problem with the WildEurasian Qi Preset. On g1 and g10 should be camels, not an additional cannon. I'm playing a game right now and I have been playing as though I would use the extra cannon, but I would prefer the problem to be fixed.
If you want to give the WildEurasian Qi preset a poor rating, please do it on the page specifically for that preset, not on Game Courier itself. Anyway, I didn't write that preset, and I will leave fixing it up to its author.
I have replaced a Cannon with a Camel in both the preset and the game log.
The JavaScript code for automatically selecting time controls was setting the gracetime to 24 days for the email time settings, but that should have been 24 hours. I have now fixed this.
Fergus, point taken, but I didn't want to give Wildeurasian Qi a poor rating, only the preset that didn't match what the rules entailed. Antoine, thank you for correcting that flaw. Actually, I think Wildeurasian Qi is a pretty neat game and may want to rate it excellent but I'll want to play-test it some more. It was a bit hard to learn and I'd like to play it more now that I know the rules better. I'd like to play it with you some time, Fergus, if you'd be interested...
Ratings don't need to accompany bug reports. I will decline your invitation to play the game mentioned, since I am uninterested in it.
I've tried to rename the 'good_chess' directory into something without quotes in case the origin of the problem lied there, but the system keeps answering no such file or directory.
Whoops? I thought it might have been the quotes too so I went back and tried to re-do it without quotes.
Game Courier wasn't broken. It just had a monkey wrench thrown into it. I have deleted the offending 'Good Chess' directory that has quotation marks around it.
When I click on the button for the new 'Dervish Chess' preset, all I get is an empty board.
Jeremy, the Dervish Chess initial setup should show up now.
shay wrote on Wed, Apr 19, 2006 08:01 AM UTC:Good ★★★★its very nice.
i am iterasting about the algorithm of chess game in general.
i see that is working very good over here.
my web
zozo
In my game with Jeremy Good -- Hostage Chess game http://play.chessvariants.org/pbm/play.php?game=Hostage+Chess&log=michaeljay-cvgameroom-2006-93-166 I am having some difficulty transferring freed pieces during exchanges from the grey prison area to free blue area. The system will allow the player on move to drop a piece, but the opponent's freed piece will not move to the blue area, even when attempted manually. As a result, pieces do not appear available to the opponent, even when the potentially-droppable piece is free.
The World 4-Way Chess Championship on-line is starting soon.
tournament info
Has there been any attempt to fix the problem to which Farris referred? (below)? I ended up resigning that game out of frustration, as I recall. Unless the enforcement can be fixed soon, I recommend taking it out for the time being. (I notice that someone has sent out an invite to play this game again today.)
I missed his previous comment, but there is nothing to fix. The problem is nothing more than that he doesn't understand how the notation for the game works. Here's a telling comment of his from the movelist for that game:
9. N !D7-c7 // Hi. Listen, I think maybe this preset might need a little // bit more work to become fully enforceable because it doesn't // appear to allow me to move your knight out of hostage // territory even as I rescue mine. It's miraculous how it // automatically enforces some of the rules. Unless I'm doing // something wrong, it needs work on some other aspects of the // rules.
The move he has written moves the Knight directly from the prison to the board, which is illegal. Judging by his comment, he expects the preset to automatically exchange Knights when he tries to drop his Knight on the board. If he tried 'N*c7' and it didn't work, this is because the Knight is still in the prison, not in the airfield. The preset will not automatically exchange pieces when you try to drop a piece from the prison, because it can't always know which piece you wish to exchange for your piece. Therefore, the exchange must be made explicit before dropping a piece that is still in prison. The legal notation for the intended move is 'n-N; N*c7'. I tested it by substituting it for the original move, and it worked as it is supposed to. Details on the notation for this preset are given in the Notation section, which you will see if you just page down the preset a bit.
Okay, good, so it was just a problem I had with understanding the notation. Thank you! :-) You really went to a lot of trouble to make sure it was working properly. I appreciate that.
Thanks, Fergus, for the modification in Hostage Chess and the clarification for my opponent and me. I had in the past played with the
preset which required the full coordinate notation, which worked
fine--this one you have replaced it with is more like the notation
suggested by the author of the game--very helpful, easy to understand.
Thank you for easing the play of one of my favorite games.
Well done, and it is appreciated.
I was reading the piece descriptions for Chu Shogi and noticed a couple of things that are not as how I learned to play the game a couple of weeks ago. It's probably just a typing mistake, but I want to make sure as I might be playing it incorrectly. The movement description for the Silver General in Chu Shogi is incorrect. The Silver General may move one square diagonally in any direction or one square straight ahead. The description given has it moving like a Bishop and the promoted piece isn't what a Silver General promotes to as it promotes to a Vertical Mover. The Copper General promotes to a Side Mover and not a Vertical Mover. The second column seems to have the promoted piece descriptions line up correctly. The description I'm talking about are in the first comlumn talking about the unpromoted piece. This is in the Latin part of the descriptions.
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