SMFChess

[MinasC]

i finally managed to install it and looks great but when i try to challenge a member it searches without giving any results ! at the same time at the bottom left corner of my browser i got an "error on page" message ! any ideas why ?

thnx a lot in advance !

[feeble]

I think it sends the pm after making a move, pretty late. I mean once you make the move, person gets the pm after 3-5 minutes maybe even more. It maybe my servers or themes fault but i have tested this. it goes after some minutes.

Hmm bit odd, I haven't seen this issue on my test site.
Are you referring to a PM on the forum or an email?

also, instead of just a little scratch on top of the chessboard, it would be better to show "Whose Turn is it now"

Whos turn is listed on the right.
If you would like, I can change it to display "Yours" when its your turn similar effect like on "My Page"

what is the difference between quick match and a regular match?

Not much, its alot more intuitive now.
I just called it Quickmatch, because I was bored at the time.
Basically, if you dont have anyone in particular to challenge, you can select quickmatch, and an opponent will be found for you.(basically how it works in the public build, is that the next person to click on quickmatch, is matched up with you)
Works alot better now thou, think Creating and Joining Matches.

when undo/resign/draw requested, i think it would be good to have that posted (or logged) somewhere on the game page, so people can see how many times the opponent has asked for undo and we accepted/refused.

It will be like that eventually, everything hopefully should be logged soon. The current implementation is just a test to see if it worked ok.

There should be an option to set a limit for undo/draw/resign request.

To be honest, you are probably correct. Except I dont think you can put a limit on resign or draw.
For Undo, ill need to add another column to store it, but what limit would be best?
This value could differ per game.....Ill look into.

It think it would be nice if we had an option to resize the chess board.. but of course this request can be done later on. im just getting so spoiled cause Feeble does all the requests to the mod.

lol, I don't really mind.
You can actually already do this in the admin area under "Set Chess Board Size:"

i finally managed to install it and looks great but when i try to challenge a member it searches without giving any results ! at the same time at the bottom left corner of my browser i got an "error on page" message ! any ideas why ?

Thank you for trying the mod, if you have any suggestions, feel free.
Anything being displayed in your forum error log?
Any chance I could jump onto your forum and take a look? url? IE doesn't give to many hints when it comes to javascript.

[PLAYBOY]

Hmm bit odd, I haven't seen this issue on my test site.
Are you referring to a PM on the forum or an email?

you r right. its normal. i thought it sends it late but i tested in another computer and its all good. nevermind.

Whos turn is listed on the right.
If you would like, I can change it to display "Yours" when its your turn similar effect like on "My Page"

its up to you. anything would be better than just a scratch.

For Undo, ill need to add another column to store it, but what limit would be best?

i think it should be an option. admins should be able to set the limit of undo request for match-s

Except I dont think you can put a limit on resign or draw.

I think you can. if a person ask to draw the game and you say no. he can ask again and again and again... so i think there should be a limit for that too which admins can set.

And a new BUG. this needs to be fixed pretty quick because it effects my matches....

when a member who has a long member name; watching the game, "Watching" column pushes other columns and chessboard on the side but the pieces stay at where they are. so  what i am trying to say is when a guy who has a long membername watching the game this is what happens to chessboard...

[Talia]

Thank you very much for this great mod. It looks wonderful. I've tried it on my site with no errors so far.
However, I have one question. Does the Auto (dynamic) refresh affect in any way the server load or resources, If I am using a shared host? If yes, how can I disable it?

[t0AsD]

Thank you very much for this great mod. It looks wonderful. I've tried it on my site with no errors so far.
However, I have one question. Does the Auto (dynamic) refresh affect in any way the server load or resources, If I am using a shared host? If yes, how can I disable it?

Certainly loading a page affects your server load, but I think that a dynamic update of a (lightweight) XML-page (like this mod does it) causes much less load then if you had to refresh the whole page all the time.

The autoupdate time is adjustable in the admin menu, and you can set it to about 20-40 seconds if your players don't usually move very quickly and your serverload is high

Don't forget to adjust the value for the chat update too. Also lower timeout values for the autoupdate could help if you experience problems.

[MinasC]

i finally managed to install it and looks great but when i try to challenge a member it searches without giving any results ! at the same time at the bottom left corner of my browser i got an "error on page" message ! any ideas why ?

Thank you for trying the mod, if you have any suggestions, feel free.
Anything being displayed in your forum error log?
Any chance I could jump onto your forum and take a look? url? IE doesn't give to many hints when it comes to javascript.

i'll pm you the url . thnx for the effort !

[MinasC]

i just need that i have to thank Feeble for his support ! you really rock man ! 

[feeble]

its up to you. anything would be better than just a scratch.

Ill look into this

For Undo, ill need to add another column to store it, but what limit would be best?

i think it should be an option. admins should be able to set the limit of undo request for match-s

Except I dont think you can put a limit on resign or draw.

I think you can. if a person ask to draw the game and you say no. he can ask again and again and again... so i think there should be a limit for that too which admins can set.

It is suppose to be a honorable game, so I hope people aren't doing this.
But, I'll look into a way to get this done.
As if they do abuse at the start, how will they use it once they actually need it.

And a new BUG. this needs to be fixed pretty quick because it effects my matches....

when a member who has a long member name; watching the game, "Watching" column pushes other columns and chessboard on the side but the pieces stay at where they are. so  what i am trying to say is when a guy who has a long membername watching the game this is what happens to chessboard...

Fixed in a new build I just uploaded, give that a try.

Im at odds thou as how this is affecting the board.
Can i just ask, is the watching column next to the chat, or next to the players avatars?

Thank you very much for this great mod. It looks wonderful. I've tried it on my site with no errors so far.
However, I have one question. Does the Auto (dynamic) refresh affect in any way the server load or resources, If I am using a shared host? If yes, how can I disable it?

As t0AsD said, it shouldn't be to much strain if you have the correct timeout and update intervals.

I have been likening to about 10-12 second interval, and about 20min timeout.
You shouldn't see any noticeable difference with those settings.

I only have it to a quick update interval when I'm testing/making changes.

i just need that i have to thank Feeble for his support ! you really rock man ! 

Apologies I couldn't solve it for you thou, let me know how you get on with it.

[feeble]

New Build out, Contains alot of bug fixes, overhauls and new features.

Most notably
Basic Move Clock is now added. It will improve in future version, but I thought I might just add something basic in then improve in the future

Pawn Promotion is now possible, Mystify your opponent by promoting to a Bishop and join the 0.2%

Castling now available in New Chess960 games. Its not 100% just yet, but its almost there. Want to thank t0AsD for working out the adjustments require to handle Chess960 Castling, and spending a couple of hours testing to make sure it all works. Thanks Mate.

Can now remind your opponent after 4 days, Link to remind is on "My Page". Requested by Brianw.
Do you think you need this delay as a admin setting? only reason its 4 days is to coincide with the move clock.

Oh yeah, ELO rating is now available with Leaderboard. And new Interface for Quickmatch. Limited to 1 day joining and 1 day creating.

Package is for 1.1.2 and 1.1.3.
If you installed the last package, you will need to uninstall that before going ahead with this version, I've kept the packages the same and version as well, to keep you from doing this.
Download here
Preview Here

Languages: If you do not see your language here, please follow this link
NOTE: As with the main package, these language packs are not final, and will need to be uninstalled at a future date. What this does however, its stop language errors in your forum log regarding missing languages.
NOTE: If you have installed one of the language packs already, dont worry about uninstalling, the new build will not affect any of the language packs.
German
Thai UTF-8
Croatian UTF-8
Portuguese
Turkish

Quickchange Log:
25/08/07
-Added yours and meaction to turnname
-watching now is accurate to 20 seconds
-limited watching name to 10 chars
23-24/08/07
-Added basic move clock
-Added Upgraded Quickmatch to Challenge Page
-Move ControlMsg to below board, so that its easier to see with Board Chat
-Changed text to flip board
-Castling now avaliable in Chess960, great thank you to t0AsD for providing pretty much everything to accomplish this
22/08/07
-Select Pawn Promotion added as per request
-Can now remind(4days late)
21/08/07
-Admins can admin their own games
-Added ELO rating, starting point is 1200
-Added My Stats and Top Players on My Page
-Fixed bug with admins and finishing games
-Pieces now move back to original position if move was illegal

[brianjw]

I have another feature request -

The undo command should not have to be approved by the opponet, however so the opponet doesn't get driven nuts the limit will be set to 2 and can be changed via administrator panel.
Just so you can change the move right away and only get a limit of # changes.

--Another feature request--
the LIVE game -- When you go to challenge a few radio buttons should appear (the kind that only one can be selected at a time for). It will allow you to select the new feature "Quickmatch", "Normal/Choose Member", and my request "LIVE Game".

The live game can only be played when both members are there facing the board so they can play one nice live game of chess. The rules would be if they exit or leave the board at anytime then it would count as a truce/draw/resign or whatever the word is lol . It would be a nice way to play chess almost right there with them

[Godsongz]

The undo command should not have to be approved by the opponet

Most tournaments I play in follow touch rules.  There's just no such thing as "undo".  An honest mouse-slip is one thing, but otherwise you should commit to a move before you touch a piece.  As an option, sure, if feeble feels like it and has time, but as a rule no.  Undo's need approval.

I love the "live game" idea.  Once the points and clocks (I did hear feeble say recently he was working on the clock, I think) are worked out, then I can easily see people setting aside an afternoon to play chess on their favorite forum and using this for hours straight.

[PLAYBOY]

Can i just ask, is the watching column next to the chat, or next to the players avatars?

on the right side of avatars.


I installed the new version but my winner section is still showing wrong. If you want i can copy any file here so you can work on the codes. maybe you can help me more like that.

its ok for the new games but old ended games are still showing the wrong winner on the Winner column.

It really hurts especially if you won all of your games but some of them still says YOU LOST.

please look into this. im having a really hard time about it.

[PLAYBOY]

maybe it could be fixed by "Declaring The Winner by Admin" but i need to have that option for the "Finished games"

[PLAYBOY]

nevermind, i got it.

I thought you were telling me to try forums error fixing feature. I didnit think you were talking about chess error fixing. Everything works perfectly now.

But we still need a full language file. That is the only problem i have right now.

[feeble]

The undo command should not have to be approved by the opponet, however so the opponet doesn't get driven nuts the limit will be set to 2 and can be changed via administrator panel.
Just so you can change the move right away and only get a limit of # changes.

Most tournaments I play in follow touch rules.  There's just no such thing as "undo".  An honest mouse-slip is one thing, but otherwise you should commit to a move before you touch a piece.  As an option, sure, if feeble feels like it and has time, but as a rule no.  Undo's need approval.

To be honest, I think you are both correct.
I was thinking of implementing a handicap system based on your ELO rating(still working out the details)
For example, if you ELO rating is above 1400, Undo is disabled
If you ELO rating is below 1200 and your opponent is not "Watching", Undo is instant
Else its on a request basis.

Would that be a good enough solution?

--Another feature request--
the LIVE game -- When you go to challenge a few radio buttons should appear (the kind that only one can be selected at a time for). It will allow you to select the new feature "Quickmatch", "Normal/Choose Member", and my request "LIVE Game".

The live game can only be played when both members are there facing the board so they can play one nice live game of chess. The rules would be if they exit or leave the board at anytime then it would count as a truce/draw/resign or whatever the word is lol . It would be a nice way to play chess almost right there with them

I love the "live game" idea.  Once the points and clocks (I did hear feeble say recently he was working on the clock, I think) are worked out, then I can easily see people setting aside an afternoon to play chess on their favorite forum and using this for hours straight.

I think its a good idea to, but again the details are still a little vage.
The only problem I can see atm is that it sort of defeats the point of a playing of a Forum.
There are also a few other issues as well, such as much up. I was thinking of Locking the game until both players are Watching, and then moves are based of a clock. (2min or 5min move time).
This way, you can still browse the forum without losing your game.

nevermind, i got it.

I thought you were telling me to try forums error fixing feature. I didnit think you were talking about chess error fixing. Everything works perfectly now.

But we still need a full language file. That is the only problem i have right now.

Glad its sorted, I was getting worried it still wasn't working correctly.
Ill get rid of the name length limitor as it doesnt affect the board at all when its displayed next to the chat.
Im working on the language files now, it should be the next big update.

[Godsongz]

The only problem I can see atm is that it sort of defeats the point of a playing of a Forum.

Not at all...  the biggest point of playing on a forum is physical distance.  We can be all over the planet, but still play a live game in our favorite forums.

Having an odd bug here though with the new version (and remember, I have to do all mods manually so it's very possible that I just missed something).  After installing the new version, when going to the Challenge screen, I get the database error "Unknown column 'true' in 'field list'" in Chess.php line: 642.  Any thoughts?

NOTE:  Feeble solved this bug with a simple edit to the chess.php file.  It was due to my mysql version being 4.1 or less (my host is running 4.0.26).
Chess.php line #636

Replace

Code Select Expand

THEN false ELSE true END AS is_chess960

with

Code Select Expand

THEN '0' ELSE '1' END AS is_chess960

You probably don't want to change this unless you're having the bug I had.

[t0AsD]

I don't like the idea of a "live game" too much, as feeble says it almost defeats the purpose of having a chess game on a forum. Playing on the forum is the perfect balance between a live internet game (where you usually have a real-time move clock and as drawbacks cannot have your internet disconnect, the server reset and can't take a call etc.) and e-mail games that are cumbersome and slow.

You can already have live games, you are on a forum. Go make a thread and invite the people for a game, stating the rule that you want the game to be not interrupted if possible.

Regarding the undo without confirmation, please either don't implement it at all or make it admin or per-game togglable. As we say in German: "berüht - geführt (touch - move)", if you touch a piece you have to make a legal move with that piece (see FIDE rules chapter 4 (.3)). So in internet chess, if you make a move you should be commited to it unless you have a very good excuse for wanting to undo, like a software error or that your mousekey slipped while drag+dropping the piece. In my opinion everything regarding undo is fine at the moment.

And for the limitation of undo, etc. requests, I think that these things should simply be brought to an admin's attention, so he can warn the offending member about it or take further action if neccessary (giving a default loss, revoking the members rights to play chess).

[PLAYBOY]

Ill get rid of the name length limitor as it doesnt affect the board at all when its displayed next to the chat.

its good now. Because you put the watching column to the bottom of the page.

ELO (whatever that means) doesnt count the old game, which had been played and finished before this version. I have played lots of matches but my elo is 1200 just like everybody else.

[flame baiter]

Oh, now that the beta is out for charter members...any chance to update this mod for smf 2.0?

[feeble]

ELO (whatever that means) doesnt count the old game, which had been played and finished before this version. I have played lots of matches but my elo is 1200 just like everybody else.

You can read more about ELO here

What this means thou, is that your W/D/L's are separate from your ELO rating. Essentially the rating is designed so that you could possibly predict the outcome between two players.
I probably explained it incorrectly, so just read the wiki

Also I've started the default at 1200, which was probably a bad thing to do, as it will probably cause more confusion.
If you would like your forum to be restarted to 1000. Send me a PM.
I forgot to discuss this before I put out the new build, so my apologies in regards to this.

Oh, now that the beta is out for charter members...any chance to update this mod for smf 2.0?

I haven't actually got my hands on a copy of SMF 2.0, so at the moment no.