Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

@H.G.. 
Can a figure be displayed in a third color (not white, not black) in the Play Test applet (without separate programming)? Thanks in advance.

In the ID you have to specify the image file for each piece. What color the pieces in these images have is entirely up to the creator of the images. You could make a rainbow army if you wanted.

The ID does assume there are only two players, and that the names of the images for one player start with the whitePrefix, and for the black player with the blackPrefix. It doesn't know neutral pieces. If you don't use the AI that is never a problem, as turn order is not enforced, so each piece can be moved at any time, no matter which player the ID thinks it belongs to. So you can just define an extra piece type, e.g. only existing for white, and put that on the board.

For the AI it would be a problem, though. With extra programming one could alter the AI's functions that perform and take back the move such that they would also flip the ownership of the neutral piece, such that the player on move will always be allowed to move it. (And use the same image of a deviating color for both the black and the white player.)

At first sight: I haven't understood it yet and will think about it. Thank you in the meantime.

"Black Holes"

 - on Game Courier / Invitation here

Note that fWfnD is the same as the more compact fW2.

"Black Holes II"

 - on Game Courier / Invitation here

@ H.G.
I would like to declare files (in my case 'a' and 'i') as a promotion zone for pawns. Is that possible?

@Fergus
Is it possible to prevent the board from flipping in Game Courier? With 'Crossfire 90 Degrees' the board rotation doesn't seem to be particularly necessary.

Thank you both.

Is it possible to prevent the board from flipping in Game Courier?

Yes, each player or observer may choose the orientation he wants to see the board in. When programming a game, you can use setsystem to change the value of $orientation to either first or flip instead of its default value of auto.

I would like to declare files (in my case 'a' and 'i') as a promotion zone for pawns. Is that possible?

It is. Set maxPromote=0 to suppress normal promotion, and immediately after the Pawn definition line write

morph=*.......*/"/"/"/"/"/"/"/"

This declares the 1st and 9th square of the first rank to squares where Pawns will promote with chess-like choice, and then repeats that for the next 8 ranks. You might consider rotating the diagram 90-degrees, though...

@ H.G. or/and Fergus
The following HTML code does not seem to be translated correctly into GAME code for Game Courier. In the Play Test Aplet everything works fine, in GAME Courier the promotion zones of the files 'a' and 'i' are not recognized. There seems to be a problem somewhere. Can you please help!

<script type="text/javascript" src="/membergraphics/MSinteractive-diagrams/betza.js?nocache=true"></script>
<div class="idiagram">
files=9
ranks=9
promoZone=1
promoChoice=SNBRQ
graphicsDir=/graphics.dir/alfaeriePNG/
squareSize=50
graphicsType=png
symmetry=none
lancer (vertical):P:fmFfWfnDfcnH:pawn:d1,e1,f1,,d9,e9,f9
morph=*********////////
lancer (horizontal):S:rmFrWrnDrcnH:berolinapawn:b2,b3,b4,b5,b6,b7,b8,,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,h7,h8
morph=*.......*/*.......*/*.......*/*.......*/*.......*/*.......*/*.......*/*.......*/*.......*
knight:N:N:knight:a3,a7,,i3,i7
bishop:B:B:bishop:a1,a9,,i1,i9
rook:R:R:rook:a2,a8,,i2,i8
queen:Q:Q:queen:a4,a6,,i4,i6
king:K:K:king:a5,,i5
</div>

Thanks again!

Although the GAME-code include file betza.txt now has some support for morph boards, it does not support the * for out-of-zone promotion choice. Only morphing into a predetermined type.

And even then the regular Play-Test Applet does not support the conversion of the Diagram's morph parameters to GAME-code. Because I was not able to edit it. (Although I think that problem now has been solved; it was just a matter that it was stored as the wrong type, HTML vs text, at least that was the case with the Diagram Editor.) So instead I started a new Play-Test Applet as a HTML page somewhere. (I forgot the link, but since morphing with choice is not supported yet in the GAME code itself, it would not be useful to you anyway.)

It will take some time to implement promotion-support per square; the automatically generated GAME-code currently only supports promotion on entire files.

So instead I started a new Play-Test Applet as a HTML page somewhere. (I forgot the link...)

I have it right here. :)

"Crossfire 90 Degrees"

 - on Game Courier / Invitation here

Promotion of the lancer on ranks 1 and 9.
Promotion of the double dart does not take place. 

"Angular"

 - on Game Courier / Invitation here

Sry your Conquer GC preset supports checkmate or nope? Which version of Conquer it supports?

Hi Lev,
I must try to understand your question.

Which version of Conquer it supports?

There is only one version of 'Conquer'. Which versions do you mean?

Sry your Conquer GC preset supports checkmate or nope?

Of course checkmate is the goal. But our game shows me that the problem of perpetual recaptures hardly ever leads to a result. The diagonal capture possibilities of the pawns are particularly annoying. I have to improve this somehow.

If you agree, I'll finish the game and get back to you with an adapted version that avoids the perpetual recaptures. I fear that this cannot be fully achieved.

Of course checkmate is the goal. But our game shows me that the problem of perpetual recaptures hardly ever leads to a result.

I warned against that! The Diagram's AI also crashed on these perpetuals, as it always searches recapture, and has no repetition detection..

@H.G.
I tried to solve or avoid the problem of perpetuals in my variant 'Conquer' by changing the pawn move. I couldn't get it to work for the ID, but it seems to work in GC.
Such perpetuals have not occurred in my tests so far, which does not mean that they are still possible. 
Could you please have a look at this - 'Conquer II' on Game Courier.
Thank you.

Hi Lev,
I have revised my variant 'Conquer' and made it to 'Conquer II'.

I think I have defused the perpetual recaptures by changing the pawn move. Perpetuals can't be completely avoided, but we can deal with them 'intelligently'.

What do you think about giving it a try? You can find an invitation here.

Greetings

@Editors,
I would like to discreetly point out my variants that are still in the queue:
Kings Castle, Queenmania, Pattern Chess, Masquerade.
Thanks for your attention.

Can anyone tell me how to update the 'Whats New Text' in the 'Index Information'? It seems that the old text cannot be changed even though the new text is included in the text line. Or can only an editor change this?

Are you sure you mean the What's New text, and not the Item Description? The former only shows up a few places, most notably the What's New page, while the latter shows up in most index listings, content headers, etc. You can modify What's New text in the index information and while updating the text, but for now updating the Description has to be done by an editor.

The description for Conquer II currently looks like this:

'https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Conquer+II&settings=conquerii. (8x8, Cells: 64)*.
(I have no idea why that is!)

It should look like this:

'The goal of the game is to conquer the opponent's army and to add it to your own army.'

Could you please change that, Ben? Thank you very much.

@ Editors

Could you please publish my variants 'Conquer II' and 'Corossfire'.

If something is missing please let me know.

As I have not received a response, I would like to follow up again and ask about the current status. Do my suggestions have any disadvantages compared to other publications or open ends? I would be happy to help.