An early test version of this is now available. I will be making it accessible to everyone expressing an interest above shortly.
Notes :
The "conditional moves" button is available above the current board.
Once clicked, you will arrive at the conditional move recording page.
This has two modes :
"Quick mode"
"Deep mode"
These are both similar except :
"Quick mode" attempts to streamline the process of moving an opponent's piece, responding, and then saving. It is possible to continue with a line, if required, by recording subsequent moves.
"Deep mode" allows you to set up the board however you want, before explicitly requested to record a move.
The important thing here is the state of the board, not the last move. Therefore, you can set up responses to any position that may occur within the game.
The last condition recorded is always shown. It can be removed from here, or alternatively, click the 'conditions queued' link to delete individual conditions should there be many.
Played conditional moves cannot be removed.
When recording a condition, checking the "Accept draw if offered" will result in the move not being made and a draw accepted, should that board position occur. If the "Accept draw if offered" checkbox is not checked, the move will be made as normal.
If a message has been sent when a conditional move is played, a PM message notification will be sent repeating the message content with a link to the game. The message will be available in the message log, as normal. It is not carried forward for the next time you move. (Messages remain married to moves as they are made)
The interface for making moves is very flaky. Recorded moves are verified, moves for your opponent are not. You must also make sure you move your opponent's piece before your own! If you get into problems, just link back to the main board, and then back again.
Responding to a castle or an en-passant capture will require both pieces to be moved. (Deep interface required.) Pawn promotion is not supported.
So, for the future, the flaky interface when recording moves obviously needs attention. This will include validating moves when moving your opponent's pieces in quick mode. If, when released, this feature becomes heavily used, further optimisations will be needed, but that can be dealt with in the future if and when.
One more thing, conditional moves must be recorded before your opponent moves. This may sound obvious, but there is a delay between your opponent moving and the conditional move being applied. (Up to 10 minutes)
-Russ
Just had a very brief play. If you submit an "Invalid move submission", then you are unable to move your opponent's piece before moving yours in Quick Mode. Also, if you have recorded 1 condition, then you can't properly record subsequent conditions (for the same reason as before, ie: not being able to move your opponents piece first) without going back to the main board and then back into conditional moves. You can however record a conditional move, without having moved your opponents piece first.
Will play some more later.
I'm a bit worried that while I'm playing with it, my opponent may make a move, and the sketchy interface may do something that I don't wish to do.
D
One more point, although right now I can't think of an example where it would be anything other than theoretical.
From the interface, it looks like you can only set up a conditional move based on piece position. How about en-passant and castling rights? Theoretically, it could affect your move decision based on whether these rights are available. Or going one step further, how about draw by 50-move or by 3-position repetition?
What would happen if two players playing each other have a conditional move loop where they keep repeating each others conditional move?
In Quick Mode - but not in Deep Mode - I can see two pieces on top of each other when I make a move, and after that click on another piece. The piece I repositioned in my move stayed at its new position, but a piece I took was put back on the same square too.
Safara 2.0.4 on Mac OS 10.4.10.
Originally posted by RagnorakForgot to say I'm using latest version of FF on Windows 2000.
Just had a very brief play. If you submit an "Invalid move submission", then you are unable to move your opponent's piece before moving yours in Quick Mode. Also, if you have recorded 1 condition, then you can't properly record subsequent conditions (for the same reason as before, ie: not being able to move your opponents piece first) without going back t ...[text shortened]... y make a move, and the sketchy interface may do something that I don't wish to do.
D
As for the interface, I don't find it all that intuitive. I'd much prefer an implementation using something like the position count on the analyse board screen. Put in the line you expect, and then click record or something.
I don't get why you have to set up a position first (which could be 3 moves ahead), and then make your opponents move. I'd also need to be able to move forward and back to see how I got to the position in question so I knew I was recording the right move.
I have also gotten the piece over another piece as aiko described. I make a few moves, click record conditional move, and go to make another move, and another piece appears.
D
Originally posted by RussJust curious. Why a delay of 10 minutes? That seems too long to me. Does there need to be a delay? How about just 10 seconds or 1 minute?
This may sound obvious, but there is a delay between your opponent moving and the conditional move being applied. (Up to 10 minutes)
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I think it would be a good idea for the 'conditions queued' and 'played conditions' to be cleared after every move.
The only interesting 'played conditions' are the ones that were just played immediately before your current move. Queued conditions, most of the time, will become redundant after an unexpected move. Not only that, they could theoretically create problems if later on the piece positions are the same but en-passant or castling rights have changed as I stated above.