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Topic: Some suggestions (Read 2718 times) |
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Swynndla
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Arimaa player #1821
Posts: 235
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Some suggestions
« on: Apr 20th, 2006, 4:26pm » |
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These suggestions are all about newbies really ... 1) The very first time I started to play arimaa in the game room, when I was gold, believe it or not, I was sitting there wondering why the game didn't start, until I figured out that I'm meant to click on "Start". It seems so obvious now that it's almost too embarrassing to mention. But I've since come across other people who had the same problem, and who overcame the confusion after just a little while. But some people may not figured it out quickly, and may get frustrated and leave. Take amca for example ... I started a game for anyone to join, and amca filled the seat, but didn't click Start, and left, and hasn't been back (this is one of my live postal games). I don't know the solution to the Start issue not being as obvious as we may think, but I thought I'd "swallow my pride" and point it out. 2) Also, the thing about that game with amca, because amca didn't click on start, I can't get rid of that game from My Current Games. No clock has started, so it won't time out, and also I can't resign. The time limit isn't 0/0/0/0/0 so it won't be caught in the monthly auto-cleanup (or what ever it is that I've been told that gets run). It was suggested that I point this out on the forum, as it could affect others too. I'm not sure of the answer here either ... whether the solution is to start the clocks automatically (like in the postal tournament) or to add these sorts of games to the monthly auto-cleanup? 3) When I play someone new, I try and chat to them and be nice and polite so they'll come back again. Some people are chattier than others, and some others may not be confident to chat in English if it's their second language. Now when they do a bad move, they may see and click on the "Takeback" button ... now I'm not sure what the rules are here, but I do know (through experimenting) that in a rated game, takeback isn't allowed (I'm not sure about unrated). The problem is, that if the newbie clicks on the takeback button, I don't get any message at all, and neither does the newbie get a message that takebacks aren't allowed (and the takeback button isn't greyed out to begin with), and so my opponent may think that I'm being mean and competitive because the newbie sees me doing my next move instead of allowing the takeback (and there may also be a message saying that the takeback was allowed, even though it wasn't). So the newbie may think that takeback is allowed (since it's not greyed out) but that I'm being mean, and they may not think that this is the friendly community that it is. So I guess the simple solution is to grey out the takeback button when it's not allowed? Maybe some of the solutions to these problems will make the newbies first experience to this "strange" game easier
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IdahoEv
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Arimaa player #1753
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Re: Some suggestions
« Reply #1 on: Apr 20th, 2006, 4:45pm » |
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Another little suggestion that might be easy: make the default silver position not put the elephant opposite the default gold position's elephant. (or in fact, perhaps detect the position of the gold elephant and if it is on file D or E, start with the silver elephant on E or D, respectively.) This would save almost every silver player 5-6 seconds in initial setup. Evan
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chessandgo
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Arimaa player #1889
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Posts: 1244
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Re: Some suggestions
« Reply #2 on: Apr 21st, 2006, 10:57am » |
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Yeah, the silver elephant in a plausible line would be great, and even greater to get rid of that takeback button ... as Nathan said, when clicking it, one gets the message : your takeback has been allowed, but play goes on ... that' embarrassing ... Or maybe really allow takeback even in rated games would be ok ? In other games it is ... Jean
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omar
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Arimaa player #2
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Re: Some suggestions
« Reply #3 on: May 5th, 2006, 10:33pm » |
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Great suggestions guys. I've made a note of them. There are actually a bunch of changes I need to make to the client. Hope to make them this summer.
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IdahoEv
Forum Guru
Arimaa player #1753
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Posts: 405
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Re: Some suggestions
« Reply #4 on: May 6th, 2006, 5:50am » |
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Three minor website suggestions - just personal preferences / UI tweaks. If you decide to incorporate them, Omar, I'd be happy to help with the coding. 1) I tend to prefer when websites do not use linking with target="_new" too much. On the Arimaa site, if you visit the front page, click "play now", then "forum", you already have three windows open. Click a game, you have a fourth... nearly every link spawns a new window. I prefer it where for the most part the links are standard links, allowing the user to select non-default behavior (new window or new tab) they want via right-clicking. 2) In similar vein, I think it would be nice if the pop-up client window was resizable, and had normal scrollbar behavior. It can be extremely hard for a web designer to guarantee that his content will fit a certain size window, and so fixed-size non-scrollable pop-ups often end up hiding content from the user when the page does something the web designer didn't expect. An example case where this fails: if I switch to email in the middle of a game and click on a hyperlink, the default behavior for firefox is to open that link as a new tab in my most recent web window. So I get a pair of tabs in my tiny, non-resizable non-scrolling Arimaa client window. This both makes that new document unreadable, but also the tab row pushes down the arimaa board content so that the chat entry box is off the bottom of the window. The only solution is to close my game and hope I can open a new one before it's my turn again. General rule of thumb: the web page should not disable any user adjustments, because you can't predict what adjustments the user might need or how a target browser might behave. 3) Last, the refresh script that reloads the gameroom page every few minutes shouldn't force it to come to the foreground. This can pull a user away from other pages they are reading if they have left the gameroom open in one of several tabs. In both firefox and safari, the gameroom forces itself in front of all other tabs every few minutes. See news.google.com for an example of an auto-refreshing page that doesn't force to the foreground.
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« Last Edit: May 6th, 2006, 7:08pm by IdahoEv » |
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99of9
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Gnobby's creator (player #314)
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Re: Some suggestions
« Reply #5 on: May 6th, 2006, 8:51am » |
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I fully support all of Swyndla's suggestions. Those features all annoy me too. Since I enjoy arimaa so much I have developed habits to get around them.
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« Last Edit: May 6th, 2006, 8:52am by 99of9 » |
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chessandgo
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Arimaa player #1889
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Re: Some suggestions
« Reply #6 on: May 6th, 2006, 1:47pm » |
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I completely agree with you Evans. first time I came, I didn't realize that Swynndla was wanting to play with me, as my firewall blocked this kind of pop-up ... it would be great if the site had less of them ...
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aaaa
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Arimaa player #958
Posts: 768
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Re: Some suggestions
« Reply #7 on: May 6th, 2006, 6:53pm » |
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During setup allow a player to directly swap two major pieces by moving one on top of the other.
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leo
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Re: Some suggestions
« Reply #8 on: May 6th, 2006, 7:16pm » |
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There is so much work to be done that I'm thinking of the idea of raising funds to help Omar improve the server and site. What do you all think of that?
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Fritzlein
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Arimaa player #706
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Posts: 5928
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Re: Some suggestions
« Reply #9 on: May 6th, 2006, 10:44pm » |
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on May 6th, 2006, 6:53pm, aaaa wrote:During setup allow a player to directly swap two major pieces by moving one on top of the other. |
| That wouldn't be the top of my priority list, but it is a nice refinement. Many's the time I have had to make three moves when I wanted to swap two pieces; it would be cool to be able to swap in just one move.
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Fritzlein
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Arimaa player #706
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Posts: 5928
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Re: Some suggestions
« Reply #10 on: May 6th, 2006, 10:49pm » |
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on May 6th, 2006, 7:16pm, leo wrote:There is so much work to be done that I'm thinking of the idea of raising funds to help Omar improve the server and site. What do you all think of that? |
| Who are the target contributors? All of us players? If we're going to donate money, I'll bet Omar would like to receive it in the form of pledges the annual Challenge fund. If a dozen people would pledge towards the Challenge, even if only $20 each, that would be a huge boost for Omar in his efforts to raise money from corporate sponsors. He could pitch potential underwriters on the size of the Arimaa community that doesn't think the bots can win, and the number of people with a vested interest in beating the bots.
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leo
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Re: Some suggestions
« Reply #11 on: May 6th, 2006, 11:50pm » |
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on May 6th, 2006, 10:49pm, Fritzlein wrote: Who are the target contributors? All of us players? |
| Well, yes We are the ones who enjoy the game, after all... Quote:If we're going to donate money, I'll bet Omar would like to receive it in the form of pledges the annual Challenge fund. If a dozen people would pledge towards the Challenge, even if only $20 each, that would be a huge boost for Omar in his efforts to raise money from corporate sponsors. He could pitch potential underwriters on the size of the Arimaa community that doesn't think the bots can win, and the number of people with a vested interest in beating the bots. |
| That's a very good idea!
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Swynndla
Forum Guru
Arimaa player #1821
Posts: 235
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Re: Some suggestions
« Reply #12 on: May 7th, 2006, 5:03am » |
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Fritzl, is that the one where we only lose the money in the challenge is won? (ie a bot beats the humans?) ... and that we can pledge for just one year if we like? (ie we can specify the time period that the challenge must be won by ... eg someone can pledge $20 but only for the 2007 challenge?)
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Fritzlein
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Arimaa player #706
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Re: Some suggestions
« Reply #13 on: May 7th, 2006, 7:31am » |
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That's right, Swynndla. If you pledge to the Challenge fund, you only lose your money if the bots win. Otherwise you pay nothing. Also you can sign up for just one year if you like, instead of through 2020. I already pledged $600 for the coming year only, but I'm starting to feel that it would be cheesy of me to pledge a big dollar amount each year when I was confident of not losing it, then pull it all out some year if a new bot looked threatening. As of next year, I'm going to switch to a smaller number, say $50, but pledge it through 2020. Putting $50 on the line for twelve Challenges is approximately the same risk to me, and it just seems better advertisement if the money is committed for years in advance. I can write it off right now as a pure donation, send the money in to Omar immediately, and if humans prevail in the end, it's like a $50 time capsule gift back to myself. Furthermore, I reiterate that the number of people contributing is more important that the dollar amount. If a bunch of us each send Omar $20 today, pledged to the Challenge fund through 2020, the promotional value of each vote of confidence is much greater than the dollar value of the gift. It's the kind of money that tends to attract more money. I'm so psyched by the idea that I will immediately match any new "through 2020" donations, up to $50 total, while leaving my $600 pledge intact for this year only.
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« Last Edit: May 7th, 2006, 7:34am by Fritzlein » |
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unic
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Arimaa player #1878
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Posts: 63
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Re: Some suggestions
« Reply #14 on: May 8th, 2006, 9:14am » |
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A few random suggestions regarding the game-room and the client: When observing a game, let me choose which side is at the bottom. (Right now it seems to be random...) Stability - the server seems to go down fairly regularly as things are now. Adjourning and resuming games - allow games to get adjourned and saved (for example when the server goes down or a player gets disconnected) and later resumed. Kibitzing (i.e. allowing observers to comment on a game). Being able to see who is currently observing a game. Less clumsy chat - personally, I would be inclined towards something IRC-compatible, so that people who want can choose their own client. There exists java clients out there for IRC which could be used from the web page. Of course, even better would be if the chat was somehow integrated with the rest of the gameroom. Remembering whether I set my status to "don't invite me" - right now, I rarely want to be invited (as I'm mainly watching Fairy), but often forget to change my status. Especially as the gameroom automatically logs me out after a while (which is annoying in itself). I've had a challenge from lelievre on my gameroom screen for ages - when I try to decline it, nothing happens. Perhaps challenges for non-postal games ought to automatically go away when the challenger goes offline? Being able to see more information when watching a game replay - like time used for the various moves.
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