[Abandoned] - Chess

[sam_levi_11]

the army numbers are blocked off at the edges it seems, or the font is a bit odd.

[john9blue]

Not many changes here.

Large

Click image to enlarge.

Small

Click image to enlarge.

Large with embossing

Click image to enlarge.

Changes:

- Added a line of text specifying attack routes
- Embossed pieces in a third draft

Let me know what you think of the embossing. Vote in the poll!

[Incandenza]

Thanks for your indulgence, john. Now I present you with a shiny bauble:

[the.killing.44]

Nice!

Just a quick graphical thought: how would adding a 2px stroke on the red arrows in the chess board key look? It's a bit hard to see atm.

I don't have much else here, great job!

.44

P.S. I voted no emboss.

[n00blet]

WOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[john9blue]

Thanks for your indulgence, john. Now I present you with a shiny bauble:

My preciousssss.... *stamps proudly onto first post*

[samuelc812]

You can put [GP] in the title as well

Congrats it's a nice map

[samuelc812]

Hi john

This map is looking very nice, very clean, clear, legible and is also very well layed out graphically. Well Done on your hard work

wcaclimbing and i will be stamping this map for graphics just to let you know

So to start here a a few nitpicks and suggestions i have to keep you busy:

• I do like the emboss on the pieces and voted "yes" because it's as if they are on top of a chess board like proper playing pieces which is good. Without the emboss they look like they are built in to the playing board. However i would soften the emboss if i were you.
• Perhaps you could play around with a drop shadow on the playing pieces and see how that looks, you mite be able to get the effect that the pieces are actually sitting on a chess board, which would look awesome IMO.
• I'm not a fan of the Army Square/Circles, the way they fade out at the sides yet they don't fade out top and bottom. Looks a bit strange to me is all, perhaps some experimentation with some other styles?
• I'm thinking it would also look more like a Chess board on a table if the whole Chess board itself somehow popped out.
• There is a Black Knight in the legend? Yet there is no Black Knight on the board itself?
• This map is shaping up well, can we also see the emboss on the small map please

That's all i have for now Keep up the Good Work!

samuelc812

[john9blue]

Okay, I did some messing around with the shadows. There are 2 types of army shadows, and there is 1 type of piece shadow. Vote once more to let me know which types you think are best. If you vote "modified" tell me what exactly you think it should look like. I will test a stroke on the red arrows next draft.

[Hopscotcher]

Sorry to step on any toes, BUT....

I've been eagerly awaiting a chess map on CC and this is what I'm going to get stuck with? The attack lines are cool, but can my bishop attack through my territories? because it should be able to... the threat should extend outward each time I attack.

I was brainstorming today (not knowing this was out here) and here are my ideas for a really cool chess map.

Everyone starts at a pawn. So in an 8 player game, you get only two terts. Everything else starts out newtral. Pieces autodeploy according to their point value in the game. Pawns are 1, Knights, Bishops 3, Rooks 5 (might be 7. I'd have to look it up) and Queens 9. This is also the same amount of neutrals on the piece to begin with except for pawns of course. You have some captured pieces on both sides of the board and a pawn on the eighth rank on both sides of the board. There's a boundary with oh.... 3 neutrals between the ninth rank pawn and the outskirt pieces. Pieces attack like they move. Empty squares I think should give a -3 deployment because really... they shouldn't be part of the game, but we have enough 16 tert maps. Kings aren't actual terts, but to win, you have to own all pieces that threaten a particular color king for a round or beat out the competition.

Just some ideas I'm sure will go to waste because looks like I'm going to have to play on this thing instead...

ttfn,
Hops

[john9blue]

Sorry to step on any toes

Don't worry, a few people have come in here wanting a more "realistic" chess game. The fact is that this isn't chess, this is Risk, and we can only go so far before this has so much chess that it makes a bad Risk game. Like, how would pieces attack? What about the pawns that start closest to the queens? If one person wipes out all the queen's neutrals, then it's easy for the other person to capture it. And getting 9 armies per piece, on a piece that can cover such a huge area of the board, is way too good.

If you want pure chess, you're going to have to go to a chess site.

[Hopscotcher]

Sorry to step on any toes

Don't worry, a few people have come in here wanting a more "realistic" chess game. The fact is that this isn't chess, this is Risk, and we can only go so far before this has so much chess that it makes a bad Risk game. Like, how would pieces attack? What about the pawns that start closest to the queens? If one person wipes out all the queen's neutrals, then it's easy for the other person to capture it. And getting 9 armies per piece, on a piece that can cover such a huge area of the board, is way too good.

If you want pure chess, you're going to have to go to a chess site.

I'm not here to argue, John. I just feel you haven't done any merit to the game. When people map out a battle like Waterloo, it is very intricate and involved. There are different movements for different pieces, different bonuses. WWII Ardennes. Again. A very real map based on a very real battle.

Your version of the chess map is a slap in the face to anyone who takes the game seriously. That's all I have to say and I won't post in this forum again, nor will I read any responses so feel free to talk about me behind my back.

ttfn,
Hops

[n00blet]

Sorry to step on any toes

Don't worry, a few people have come in here wanting a more "realistic" chess game. The fact is that this isn't chess, this is Risk, and we can only go so far before this has so much chess that it makes a bad Risk game. Like, how would pieces attack? What about the pawns that start closest to the queens? If one person wipes out all the queen's neutrals, then it's easy for the other person to capture it. And getting 9 armies per piece, on a piece that can cover such a huge area of the board, is way too good.

If you want pure chess, you're going to have to go to a chess site.

I'm not here to argue, John. I just feel you haven't done any merit to the game. When people map out a battle like Waterloo, it is very intricate and involved. There are different movements for different pieces, different bonuses. WWII Ardennes. Again. A very real map based on a very real battle.

Your version of the chess map is a slap in the face to anyone who takes the game seriously. That's all I have to say and I won't post in this forum again, nor will I read any responses so feel free to talk about me behind my back.

ttfn,
Hops

*Sigh*

Chess and "Free Online Games with Strategy and R*sk" are two very different games. Just because you know how the pieces move does not make you a grandmaster. I've been playing chess since kindergarten, and I find john's rendition to be perfectly adequate, if not genuinely inspired.

Of course, feel free to continue to sit on your high horse with your thumb up your ass, because obviously none of us mere mortals could possibly understand the subtle intricacies and infinite contingencies of chess as well as you.

[n00blet]

Personally, I find the piece shadows to make them look kind of ghostly
Any news?

[john9blue]

:-^

Personally, I find the piece shadows to make them look kind of ghostly
Any news?

I would agree and that seems to be the majority- no piece shadows. Brown army shadows doesn't look popular either. Now we have to choose between white and none at all. New poll time.

[Echospree]

No shadows fits the style much better, looks more like just a clean chess board.

I imagine they will, but have you checked no shadows with all the colours to insure legibility?

[Mr_Adams]

I am liking map. when does it go into Beta stage?

[whitestazn88]

so i haven't been checking this map out in a while, but it looks great.

the gameplay seems to be balanced, i didn't totally look at where all the pieces were placed, but i'm sure they're fine at this point in the foundry process.

i voted for no shadow though.

[oaktown]

I imagine they will, but have you checked no shadows with all the colours to insure legibility?

Yes, it would be nice to see the No Shadows option with colors other than blue... the blue is going to be the easiest color to read against the light backgrounds without shadows so additional colors - and blue numbers against the black pieces - would give us a better sense of what we're voting on.

I always like punctuation: the last line of your legend info has an exclamation point, so the others should have periods or semi-colons.

Other than that this is looking good to play, and the graphics are very clean. Nice work.

[john9blue]

So I have a copy of Photoshop now. Here's pics of 3 colors with and without shadows.

Click image to enlarge.

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Starting a new poll.

[AndyDufresne]

The darker colors have a tendency to get lost a little in the black pieces they overlap, when viewing without the army shadow. Hm,


--Andy

[thenobodies80]

I voted for army shadows, altought circles are almost invisible on light squares.
Very nice and tidy work

[MrBenn]

This is a bit picky, but the bevel on the playing pieces differs from that of the title - ie they are using different light sources (unless the title is actually embossed )

Gimil posted a nice tutorial for how to make text etc look metallic, that could probably be used to enhance the title... he posted it in the Poland thread <goes to look for it> ... http://www.rnel.net/tutorial/Photoshop/12609

[samuelc812]

Looking good here john It's getting down to the picky stuff here i'd say you're pretty close

[wcaclimbing]

I prefer the one with army shadows.
Without them, some of the numbers (especially blue) are very difficult to see against the background chess pieces.