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Arimaa >> Site Discussion >> Movement problems
(Message started by: tremor on Feb 1st, 2007, 6:10am)

Title: Movement problems
Post by tremor on Feb 1st, 2007, 6:10am
http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/6737/moveproblem1dy4.jpg
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/3200/moveproblem3cn4.jpg

Yes, this time I was playing on Windows.

Title: Re: Movement problems
Post by PMertens on Feb 1st, 2007, 5:38pm
I encountered this kind of problem during my last game against Fritzlein.
I had a very unstable connection with many disconnects and the interface did often not load completely.
Some pieces were missing and some moves were not allowed ... just like you demonstrated in your screenshots.
Reloading helped eventually .. but is no fun at low timecontrol.

What kind of connection do you have ?

Title: Re: Movement problems
Post by tremor on Feb 2nd, 2007, 2:06am
The game was played with 2Mb network connection. That's why I suppose it's rather not connection problem (at least from my side). Client was quite responsible, but didn't allowed some legal movements. I thought it's a client bug first, but I don't know if it's client responsibility to check valid moves (it should be IMO).

Title: Re: Movement problems
Post by Fritzlein on Feb 2nd, 2007, 8:38am
It is the client responsibility to check moves.  Issues with the Flash client are the number one problem holding back the gameroom, in my humble opinion.

Incidentally, you don't have to use the arrows to move the pieces, you can also click and drag the piece itself.  I don't know if the interface would have accepted the move if you had entered it that way, but it might have.

Title: Re: Movement problems
Post by IdahoEv on Feb 2nd, 2007, 1:11pm

on 02/02/07 at 08:38:32, Fritzlein wrote:
It is the client responsibility to check moves.  Issues with the Flash client are the number one problem holding back the gameroom, in my humble opinion.

People say this, but I find it odd.  I've essentially never had problems with the client, myself.   Maybe twice in a year of playing I've had a single problem.  (In both cases it was the client did not register that my opponent had made a move, so my time was counting down but it did not show it on my screen.)

But that's only two issues in 500 games...  Do other people really have a dramatically worse time of it than this?


Title: Re: Movement problems
Post by Fritzlein on Feb 2nd, 2007, 5:45pm

on 02/02/07 at 13:11:19, IdahoEv wrote:
But that's only two issues in 500 games...  Do other people really have a dramatically worse time of it than this?

I certainly had a dramatically worse time.  When I first discovered Arimaa, I couldn't play on-line at all.  The pieces would never fully load.  All I could do was replay other people's games, and play against the version of Bomb I bought from Fotland.  Eventually I figured out a combination of Flash update and browser update that usually didn't crash, but I still had frequent issues, and once declared that I would quit because of the rating points I was losing due to interface-related timeouts.  :-[

Even today, on a fast connection and a new computer, I occasionally have to close and re-open the game window.  Just two weeks ago I lost game 46445 to chessandgo because I didn't have enough time on my clock to complete the close-and-reopen maneuver.  It's just a hassle.  Omar has created such a great site, and such a great game, that I'm never going to be driven away by interface issues, but I wonder how many people have been driven away before they ever experience the joy of Arimaa.

Title: Re: Movement problems
Post by tremor on Feb 3rd, 2007, 8:06am
At home I have 512kb/256kb connection. I don't think that playing Arimaa requires broad network connection. After loading client (that takes 5-15s for me) sending few data in both directions is necessary. So I guess it's server load  + server bugs + client bugs + that can cause troubles I met so far like:
- broken connection (client reopening required, sometimes impossible)
- movement problem (that was really odd)
- starting timer before I could actually do anything. This is annoying in 30s per turn games. Sometimes I could start when 1 or 2 minutes of my time already passed.
But for most (at least 80%) games I had no significant problems.



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