Chess request...
- Thread starter Fred_Ftang
- Start date
Jeckel
Great Reverend
Thanx for the encouragment guys. It always helps to know people are excited about a mod your making. 
My plans are to first code the mod to work just like a normal game of house chess. To make things easyer I am python coding every thing to only work for 2 players, but once I have the code doing the right things for 2 players I can go back an gernerize the code to work for 2 to N players.
I was playing a few games and I am not happy with the way knights are working. Being Civ4 knights can't move through enemy units like they do in chess, it wants to attack any unit on its movement path. And, more annoyingly, it doesn't want to give an auto path the moves from one tile adjacent to an enemy to another tile that is also adjacent to that enemy.
I am working on some ways around the knight probs, but I have a busy scheduale the next few days and don't know how much acual coding I'm going to get done. So I'm prob going to work on some of the simple screen polishing, TXT_KEY writing, and xml changes.
Will post later with my progress.
My plans are to first code the mod to work just like a normal game of house chess. To make things easyer I am python coding every thing to only work for 2 players, but once I have the code doing the right things for 2 players I can go back an gernerize the code to work for 2 to N players.
I was playing a few games and I am not happy with the way knights are working. Being Civ4 knights can't move through enemy units like they do in chess, it wants to attack any unit on its movement path. And, more annoyingly, it doesn't want to give an auto path the moves from one tile adjacent to an enemy to another tile that is also adjacent to that enemy.
I am working on some ways around the knight probs, but I have a busy scheduale the next few days and don't know how much acual coding I'm going to get done. So I'm prob going to work on some of the simple screen polishing, TXT_KEY writing, and xml changes.
Will post later with my progress.
Jeckel
Great Reverend
Didn't have much free time tonight, but while I was watching my dvr of family guy and american dad I did a little grunt work on the mod.
Here is the change log so far on v0.300:
v0.300
Disabled Dawn of Man Screen.
Added buttons for the Units.
Added buttons for the Civilizations.
Added buttons for the Leaders.
Removed traits from leaders.
Removed flavor growth from black leader.
Removed unneccessary links from Main Pedia page.
Removed Demographics and Top Cities tabs from Info Screen.
Removed Leader Traits, Climate, Sea Level, Start Era, and Game Speed from Settings tab in Victory Screen.
Removed Barbarian button and Combat Exp bar from Military Advisor Screen.
MainInterface Changes:
-Removed Advisor Buttons except Military, Victory, and Info Buttons.
-Removed Strength and Experience from Unit Info Panel.
-Removed Gold Text from TopLeft Panel.
-Added Army Value and Enemy Value Text to TopLeft Panel.
Here is the change log so far on v0.300:
v0.300
Disabled Dawn of Man Screen.
Added buttons for the Units.
Added buttons for the Civilizations.
Added buttons for the Leaders.
Removed traits from leaders.
Removed flavor growth from black leader.
Removed unneccessary links from Main Pedia page.
Removed Demographics and Top Cities tabs from Info Screen.
Removed Leader Traits, Climate, Sea Level, Start Era, and Game Speed from Settings tab in Victory Screen.
Removed Barbarian button and Combat Exp bar from Military Advisor Screen.
MainInterface Changes:
-Removed Advisor Buttons except Military, Victory, and Info Buttons.
-Removed Strength and Experience from Unit Info Panel.
-Removed Gold Text from TopLeft Panel.
-Added Army Value and Enemy Value Text to TopLeft Panel.
Hehe, yea someone will have to mod the chess mod
setting up the FfH civs as playable factions, warriors as pawns, Archers as Bishop, Knights as Knights, etc
Jeckel
Great Reverend
I managed to get a few good hours in coding tonight and really got alot done. I am just heading to bed, but I am thinking I will release a demo version tomorrow night or the next day. It won't have any of the AI stuff in it and the edges will be kinda rough, but those that are interested can atleast get an idea of how the mod is coming along.
Few good things. I got the bugs worked out of knight movement except for the small fact that you could box in an enemy knight if you used enought units, but if you did it you would have to activly not take the unit.
Also I got the system written to determine if the king is in check or not. I have promotions that appear on the king to tell you its status, in check, checkmated, stalemated. It needs a little rewriting, but atleast the basics are down in text.
Anyway, I off to bed.
Few good things. I got the bugs worked out of knight movement except for the small fact that you could box in an enemy knight if you used enought units, but if you did it you would have to activly not take the unit.
Also I got the system written to determine if the king is in check or not. I have promotions that appear on the king to tell you its status, in check, checkmated, stalemated. It needs a little rewriting, but atleast the basics are down in text.
Anyway, I off to bed.
Shiggs713
Immortal
this looks interesting. Sounds good Jeckel, I'll try it out once its done.
IrishDragon
Legend
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2006
- Messages
- 522
This sounds fun and interesting.... .. .. .. . work
Jeckel
Great Reverend
All right yall. I am by no means done, but I have most of the non chess stuff taken out and most the basic chess stuff put in. The edges are definetly rough, but there are precious few glitches.
The only major glitch is the fact that knights can't move through tiles that have enemy units. In play this doesn't accually cause any problems from what I have seen, but it is somthing I will be fixing and am currently working on.
Other then that, the only other real problem is that the current AI sucks at playing chess. It gets the new movement restrictions (though I think the AI thinks Pawns can attack in front of them), but it chokes on the fact that it can only move one unit. Basicly it thinks it can move all its units, but once it moves the first one none of the others are allowed to move. The effect is that it moves the same unit unit its killed or can't move anymore.
This will not be a problem as I am going to cut the Civ4 AI out and instead use a python chess engine to determine moves, but with this current test version it has the effect of making single player games pretty easy and boring.
However the mod is functionally viable and playable as a MP mod and should function just fine as such. I have done some 'basic' (ie half a dozen turns, moved and took a few units) tests on my two computers and I didn't get any OOS errors. The only part I was even slightly worryed about was the on game start and since that worked I don't think there are any parts that can OOS.
Anyway, I'm sure yall are tired of just hearing me talk about the mod and would like to try it for yourself so her is the file.
CivChess_v0.300bts3.13
Please, download it, stretch it, beat it, pull it, abuse it, basicly do whatever you can to break it from in game and let me know what breaks and needs to be fixed.
My next major goal is to get a chess AI moving the non human units. I am going to start working on that tomorrow and will post my progress.
At some point in the near future, prob after I get the first ChessAI implemented, I will make a CivChess thread, but I may do that sooner just to get a centralized place to work on it.
The only major glitch is the fact that knights can't move through tiles that have enemy units. In play this doesn't accually cause any problems from what I have seen, but it is somthing I will be fixing and am currently working on.
Other then that, the only other real problem is that the current AI sucks at playing chess. It gets the new movement restrictions (though I think the AI thinks Pawns can attack in front of them), but it chokes on the fact that it can only move one unit. Basicly it thinks it can move all its units, but once it moves the first one none of the others are allowed to move. The effect is that it moves the same unit unit its killed or can't move anymore.
This will not be a problem as I am going to cut the Civ4 AI out and instead use a python chess engine to determine moves, but with this current test version it has the effect of making single player games pretty easy and boring.
However the mod is functionally viable and playable as a MP mod and should function just fine as such. I have done some 'basic' (ie half a dozen turns, moved and took a few units) tests on my two computers and I didn't get any OOS errors. The only part I was even slightly worryed about was the on game start and since that worked I don't think there are any parts that can OOS.
Anyway, I'm sure yall are tired of just hearing me talk about the mod and would like to try it for yourself so her is the file.
CivChess_v0.300bts3.13
Please, download it, stretch it, beat it, pull it, abuse it, basicly do whatever you can to break it from in game and let me know what breaks and needs to be fixed.
My next major goal is to get a chess AI moving the non human units. I am going to start working on that tomorrow and will post my progress.
At some point in the near future, prob after I get the first ChessAI implemented, I will make a CivChess thread, but I may do that sooner just to get a centralized place to work on it.
It's looking good. One thing I've noticed is that the enemy will sometimes not move a unit during it's turn. I'm figuring that's something the new AI will probably fix though.
EDIT: I may be wrong about that... I wasn't zoomed out enough to see the whole board before, and I've witnessed some units wandering back and forth now. They may have been doing that before, and I didn't see...
I'm kicking butt now... This is a game of chess I can actually win. I'll get my fill before you get the AI in place.
EDIT: I may be wrong about that... I wasn't zoomed out enough to see the whole board before, and I've witnessed some units wandering back and forth now. They may have been doing that before, and I didn't see...
I'm kicking butt now... This is a game of chess I can actually win. I'll get my fill before you get the AI in place.
Jeckel
Great Reverend
It's looking good. One thing I've noticed is that the enemy will sometimes not move a unit during it's turn. I'm figuring that's something the new AI will probably fix though.
EDIT: I may be wrong about that... I wasn't zoomed out enough to see the whole board before, and I've witnessed some units wandering back and forth now. They may have been doing that before, and I didn't see...
I'm kicking butt now... This is a game of chess I can actually win. I'll get my fill before you get the AI in place.
Thanx, glad you like it so far. Yea it is kinda fun beating up on the computer. I tend to lose most chess games I play, but this I can win every time, kinda fun for a change.
Whatever I do about fixing the AI, I'm going to have an option to turn it off so you can beat up on the Civ4 AI now and then. 
Jeckel
Great Reverend
Quick update.
I've done a bit of googling and code scanning.
Bad news, I think it would be more work then its worth to incorp a stock chess engine into Civ4. Then main problem I see is the translating of the civ game into a form the chess engine would understand. To be honest I have only found a thin handfull of python chess engines and those all use bitboards to represent the game. That isn't bad or anything, but coverting the civ state to a bit board is the kind of text parsing mess I'm not wanting to get into.
Good news, I think the chess engines I did find are what I needed to write up some Civ4 python that will make the computer moves its units right... atleast on a basic level..., but I will give more perticulars later tonight or tomorrow after I get some code written.
On a quick side note..
In the next version I should have highlighting of valid move/attack plots done.
I've done a bit of googling and code scanning.
Bad news, I think it would be more work then its worth to incorp a stock chess engine into Civ4. Then main problem I see is the translating of the civ game into a form the chess engine would understand. To be honest I have only found a thin handfull of python chess engines and those all use bitboards to represent the game. That isn't bad or anything, but coverting the civ state to a bit board is the kind of text parsing mess I'm not wanting to get into.
Good news, I think the chess engines I did find are what I needed to write up some Civ4 python that will make the computer moves its units right... atleast on a basic level..., but I will give more perticulars later tonight or tomorrow after I get some code written.
On a quick side note..
In the next version I should have highlighting of valid move/attack plots done.
It's ok if it's not too smart... I could live with that. If you could explain a bit more about bitboards though, maybe someone could figure out how to set the game up to give the right cues for one. I'm assuming it notes which units are occupying which squares, and the engines reads those like the old punchcard chess machines. Close?
I had one bug in this game... The black knight to queens left took one step forward and one right, and joined the pawn in that square... A few turns after that I had my bishop in his starting spot and he took it out, both illegal moves.
Unit wise, you need the units in 2 colors definitely. I was skeptical about your choice for the queen since it was so close to the knight, but it's cool watching her tear it up on the battlefield, so it grew on me. The bishops need an attack... I'll try anims to see which will work. And for the castle, I think a siege tower would be great, and make more sense. I'll set one up and see how it looks. I'm thinking burning oil for that unit.
I could live with that. If you could explain a bit more about bitboards though, maybe someone could figure out how to set the game up to give the right cues for one. I'm assuming it notes which units are occupying which squares, and the engines reads those like the old punchcard chess machines. Close?I had one bug in this game... The black knight to queens left took one step forward and one right, and joined the pawn in that square... A few turns after that I had my bishop in his starting spot and he took it out, both illegal moves.
Unit wise, you need the units in 2 colors definitely. I was skeptical about your choice for the queen since it was so close to the knight, but it's cool watching her tear it up on the battlefield, so it grew on me. The bishops need an attack... I'll try anims to see which will work. And for the castle, I think a siege tower would be great, and make more sense. I'll set one up and see how it looks. I'm thinking burning oil for that unit.
Jeckel
Great Reverend
The AI part will be fine, basicly instead of using someelses chess engine and doing a bunch of work to get it up and running, I'm going rewrite their chess engine using Civ4 python. Basicly instead of using another's painting I'm drawing my own using theirs as the outline. No worries on that front.
The knight movement bug only applys to AI units as the function I use to stop it isn't called for computer units. This prob will be the first thing I teach the AI not to do.
As for units, I also like the archer queen on the horse, but it is not ideal. The problem is there are precious few female units. My only other options were the modern spy (my first placeholder), the female settler, the current queen archer not on the horse, or I think that same unit not on a horse with a sword.
In the Unit Request Thread I posted asking for some classic simple chess pieces and also for a Medieval Queen unit. We will see if any of the unit modelers respond.
As for the rook unit, if you can find a sutable seige engine model I will defenetly add it in.
Thanx for the feed back winddelay, if you find any thing else I'm glad to hear the input.
The knight movement bug only applys to AI units as the function I use to stop it isn't called for computer units. This prob will be the first thing I teach the AI not to do.
As for units, I also like the archer queen on the horse, but it is not ideal. The problem is there are precious few female units. My only other options were the modern spy (my first placeholder), the female settler, the current queen archer not on the horse, or I think that same unit not on a horse with a sword.
In the Unit Request Thread I posted asking for some classic simple chess pieces and also for a Medieval Queen unit. We will see if any of the unit modelers respond.
As for the rook unit, if you can find a sutable seige engine model I will defenetly add it in.
Thanx for the feed back winddelay, if you find any thing else I'm glad to hear the input.
moopoo
King
Posting so I can Keep a track on this thread. You've Piqued my interest.
Ooh actually i have a question. Will you be able to implement difficulty levels?
Ooh actually i have a question. Will you be able to implement difficulty levels?
Shiggs713
Immortal
yes I was actually going to suggest that... maybe snip some code from another chess engine..... I have Gary Kasprov Chess if you'd like... I think its relatively small, so wouldn't be that bad to upload. It has about 30 difficulty levels, the hardest 10 or so, you have to be a chess master to win.
Jeckel
Great Reverend
I got around to creating a thread for the CivChess Project. If you want info on the mod, check there.
Fred_Ftang
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2007
- Messages
- 10
Whoo!
This really seems to be taking off!
Vincent
This really seems to be taking off!
Vincent
moopoo
King
A pawn can Checkmate a King can't it? I'll post this in the new thread as well
Similar threads
