[ANN] Checkers now at Vying Games

[eki]

Hi, I posted earlier in the Questions from a programmer thread that I was working on Checkers. I just wanted to offer another round of thanks to everyone who was so helpful. This morning I finished up my work, and you can see the results here:

http://vying.org/games/checkers

Click the 'play' link to start a game against the computer. Or, if you create a login you can play with other people. It's easy to setup an account (you only need to provide a username and password, I don't collect email addresses or anything like that). If you want to play me, my username is 'eki' and I accept all invitations. You can go here to invite me to a game:

http://vying.org/user/eki

Vying Games is similar to GoldToken, which many of you are probably familiar with, though much younger and not as far advanced yet.

I'd love to hear opinions and thoughts from anyone.

Thanks,
Eric

[Palomino]

The board is set up backwards, when playing red, red is at the top and I'm having to move from white's side. -"Pal" Bucker

[eki]

Hi Pal,

Some players have mentioned recently that they'd prefer to have their pieces always at the bottom of the board (for games like checkers)... is the board otherwise correct? In other words, it just needs to be rotated 180 degrees?

I can add this to my todo list. I can make it a higher priority if this is something that checker players expect (demand?) from checkers software.

Thanks for trying it and giving me some feedback!

Eric

[Palomino]

Yes, it is important that you be facing your opponent with your own pieces on your side of the board. This is a must for me anyway. -"Pal"

[Palomino]

Eki,

The first game I played (yesterday) I didn't pay much attention to the color I was choosing, when the board loaded with red at the top and white at the botton I assumed I would be playing the white side. I waited for red to make the first move which didn't happen. Thinking that maybe it was mistakenly set up to have white move first, I try to move a white man, it wouldn't move. I finially figured out I was red and that I had to reach across the board and move backwards (so to speak). I didn't like this and only made a couple of moves untill I abandoned the game thinking (please take no offense) "this is junk".

Anyway I came back and played two complete games this morning and this time I made certain I was choosing the white side. I first played a game with VegaBot (Medium) and easily won. The second game was palyed with SirusBot (Hard) I also won this game easily (and I'm that good of a player). I think the bots need to be more challenging.

(keep in mind I'm partway green/red color blind) I see no difference between the green Square and the red pieces and were it not for the border design around the edge of the checkers I would not see them at all, therefore I would like more contrast between the green and red. Maybe darker green and lighter red or darker red and lighter green. For me it is like playing with black men on a black square which is very much like playing at the sites which use red/black boards with red/black pieces.

Another thing I believe needs to be changed is the chess notation of the board, checkers players prefer, for the most part, draughts notation for recording of games.
(please note: red always has the first move of the game and starts on squares 1-12 and white always has the second move of the game and starts on squares 21-32.)


Also I went to the archive of games and found that I had to scroll back up to a control panel and click "next" move and then scroll back down to see the board and the movement of the piece for each move, that was annoying to me.

These are only my thoughts.

Respectfully - "Pal" Bucker

[eki]

Eki,

The first game I played (yesterday) I didn't pay much attention the the color I was choosing, when the board loaded with red at the top and white at the botton I assumed I would be playing the white side. I waited for red to make the first move which didn't happen. Thinking that maybe it was mistakenly set up to have white move first, I try to move a white man, it wouldn't move. I finially figured out I was red and that I had to reach across the board and move backwards (so to speak). I didn't like this and only made a couple of moves untill I abandoned the game thinking (please take no offense) "this is junk".

No offense taken. : ))

On the contrary, I'm very grateful that you've taken the time write this up... most people don't respond at all when they don't like something, and it makes it very hard to improve when you don't know what needs improvement. : )

Anyway I came back and played two complete games this morning and this time I made certain I was choosing the white side. I first played a game with VegaBot (Medium) and easily won. The second game was palyed with SirusBot (Hard) I also won this game easily (and I'm that good of a player). I think the bots need to be more challenging.

Yes, for many of my games the bots are weak. I want for there to, eventually, be more balance in that regard. Although I greatly enjoy AI programming, I'm trying to focus on player vs player features now. Unfortunately, it comes at the expense of the AI. : (

Most of the games on my site are not well known (certainly no where near as well known as checkers), so the bots are usually to help players get a feel for the game. Since most people are already familiar with checkers, it makes the bots much less valuable...

(keep in mind I'm partway green/red color blind) I see no difference between the green Square and the red pieces and were it not for the border design around the edge of the checkers I would not see them at all, therefore I would like more contrast between the green and red. Maybe darker green and lighter red or darker red and lighter green. For me it is like playing with black men on a black square which is very much like playing at the sites which use red/black boards with red/black pieces.

Wow, this is also very good to know. If I created an alternative green/red-color-blind color scheme (that was a mouthful), would you just want more contrast from the existing colors, or different colors entirely?

Another thing I believe needs to be changed is the chess notation of the board, checkers players prefer, for the most part, draughts notation for recording of games.
(please note: red always has the first move of the game and starts on squares 1-12 and white always has the second move of the game and starts on squares 21-32)

The chess notation is an artifact of the underlying code (because the same generic board is used for multiple games). I can work on changing the UI, though, so it shows checkers notation to the player.

Also I went to the archive of games and found that I had to scroll back up to a control panel and click "next" move and then scroll back down to see the board and the movement of the piece for each move, that was annoying to me.

This is a new one to me. The navigation controls should be in a column on the left side of the page and the board should be just to the right of them (so no scrolling should be required).

What web browser are you using? Is your browser window very narrow for some reason? (If I resize my browser window to make it more narrow, the board does drop down below everything else...) Perhaps you have a smaller monitor than I do... do you know what your resolution is set at?


Thanks again for all the help, Pal. I really appreciate it!

Eric

[eki]

I've updated the code to rotate the board 180 degrees (when necessary) so that your checkers will always start at the bottom of the board and move towards the top of the board.

I'll work on the other suggestions soon! : )

Thanks,
Eric

[Jay H]

Greetings Eki,

Just checked out your site....very cool. I only played the checkers...
You must know that a move is ended when a piece becomes a King. I played a game, and was allowed to keep jumping out of the King row on the same move as becoming a King.
I believe there are certain games where this is allowed. These games have a whole different set of rules.
But, for the game that you are trying to put here, ( GAYP, or Free style) checkers, as played in ACF tournaments, you cannot continue to jump after a piece becomes a King.
The crowning of the piece ends the move.

Hope this helps.
Again, Great Site...!!!!

Regards

Jay H

[eki]

Greetings Eki,

Just checked out your site....very cool. I only played the checkers...
You must know that a move is ended when a piece becomes a King.

Hi Jay!

For people who don't read the forums at Vying Games, this was posted there, too. So, I'll just quote my reply. (BTW, it's only because of that other post that I was able to figure out which games Jay played):

I was a little confused at first, because just yesterday a player posted saying the exact opposite (to paraphrase, "shouldn't I be able to keep jumping after being kinged?"), and I quoted him the rules from the ACF.

I reviewed your games and I think this is what you're referring to:

http://vying.org/review/29548/21#

If you hit "next" a few times, you'll see where you jump to kings row, then white moves a checker, then you jump back out again. White probably moved so quickly you didn't notice it. I'd like to somehow animate the checkers moving, which would help in that case, but I haven't gotten there yet.

Thanks!
Eric

[JR Smith]

I find the kings hard to see, you might consider color the crown white so it shows up better.

[JR Smith]

I find the kings hard to see, you might consider color the crown white so it shows up better.

[eki]

I find the kings hard to see, you might consider color the crown white so it shows up better.

Hi, JR! I'm not much of an artist, but let me play around with it to see what I can do.....

Thanks!
Eric

[eki]

BTW, does anyone else get an error like this every time they post on the ACF forums?

Could not find email template file :: topic_notify

DEBUG MODE

Line : 111
File : emailer.php

[Palomino]

I agree with JR, maybe the crowns could be gold in color or a white crown on the red checkers and a red crown on the white checkers

Regards, "Pal"

BTW:

How do you get a game with a human opponent?

[eki]

I agree with JR, maybe the crowns could be gold in color or a white crown on the red checkers and a red crown on the white checkers

Hi, Pal, those are good ideas... I'll see what I can do. : ))

BTW:

How do you get a game with a human opponent?

In the upper-right of each page, by your username, click the envelope icon. It'll take your inbox where you'll find messages, invites, a list of your games, etc. It's probably not very color blind friendly, but it turns red when when you have a message or invitation waiting.

I sent you an invite a little while ago, so you can accept that one to get a game going. After you accept the invite, you can find the game in your inbox.

Also, the second icon by your username, the envelope with an arrow on it, will turn red when it's your turn in any of your games. If you click on it, it'll cycle you through those games.

If you want to invite someone to a game, just click on their username and then "invite _____ to a game". You can find lists of other players from your inbox or the ratings / records pages.

I'm also working on tournaments, but that's not quite done yet...

There's a page explaining it all here:

http://vying.org/play-by-mail

I'll have to read through that again, it's been a while since it was written, and I'm still changing things around to try to make everything more user friendly. (I've still got a was to go...)

Thanks!
Eric