Comments by catugo
I've made the script chages as you've said. I'm still trying to run 5.0b. I redownloaded from the same link, pasted over what there was with copy and replace in both game directories and double pawn move doesn't work, I think because I'm not running 5.0b. Still working on that.
Actually 5.0b is installed, but not working in winboard!
Now I get it, It is fairy-max 5.0b, but when I paste the new inital position pawns loose their virginity!
It says 5.0b. I think I haven't dowloaded the proper version, I'll retry!
I haven't downloaded the proper version and I don't know how to do that!
This link:
http://hgm.nubati.net/Fairy-Max.zip
provides only FairyMax 5.0b, not Fairy-Max 5.0b2. I'm sure of that. I'm not sure where should I find Fairy-Max 5.0b2.
?t=l worked I got the new version but I have no some trouble with the antivirus after I solve those I see no reason why winboard wouldn't run the new version!
H.G.
It now works pawns and everything, but here is what I've done I hope not to cause you any trouble.
After download in the initial run of the fairy-max5.0b2 avast antivirus started a scan and I interupted it abruptly. I think it has thought that your program did and now it says avast has this program under scrutiny.
Don't worry about me I just abort the antivir and is fine. Fairymax works.
I honestly hope I haven't caused you any trouble.
Actually for now I'm enjoying the fruits of my and especially your work H.G. . Apothecary 1 is quite slick and interesting from the games I see it has an interesting assortment of minor leapers, and the aanca and griffin are quite new on the play field. Apothecary 2 is a bit more stale with not so interesting leapers and usual power pieces. Tomorrow I'll be starting serious work.
H.G. I understand that the power of Aanca and Griffin are virtually unknown, so there is research to be made, but I have to take care of both of my twins so we could see a game with 5 elephants versus 6 zebras or something of sorts. I initially gave more points 3.7 vs 3 to the elephant as the just move enhancement works very well with the rest of the powers. Now I think it's a bit much.
About the promotion rule, I'm not that sure that you are correct, waiting 1 turn to get a rook is a big deal, what can the oposite bishop do in 1 turn to turn the tables. A rook can win you the game. Also now you have to pay 1 turn from rook to queen but I don't think this will come into play unless very weird situations like many pawns vs minor piece and the rest of pieces the same, although the rest of the pieces will be used to capture/block pawns!
I left Fairy-Max at 15min+15secs incr. twice, once with each initial position and not that 2 points are statistically relevant but the game seems to last 70-80 moves ( maybe a bit more for apothecary 2 that is the slower game), so not that bad.
If I decrease the time that much Fairy-Max runs out of time all the time(! and - signs). I also wanted to see how stronger games go, because all the games I've seen so far were pretty imbalanced to a lesser degree the 2 pairs of games at 15 min. The real tests will be at shorter time spans in order to make more points on the graphics.
Also I have a slow computer. Just a probook Laptop.
KPvsK still a win, I forgot about it, and is very important. It seems my rule devalues promotion rather than giving extra options as it was intended. It could work if you fine tune a variant just for it. It is not the case here. I think postponing for a rook could still work in many cases, I just don't see postponing for a queen happening to soon.
I must say I'm pleasantly surprised by the way Fairy-max handles openings. Being said that I used a generous time counter 15mins+15secs, I've seen pawn sacs and fianchetto bishops..
A weird thing is not until now there were no draws in 4 games of each incarnation. Fairy-max usually avoids repetition draws, which is also cool.
I have completed my general view on the 2 twin games:
There were six games of apothecary 1 and six games of apothecary 2.
Scores:
Apothecary 1: white 3-3 black no draws
Apothecary 2: white 2-4 black no draws
Length:
Apothecary 1: 50-80 moves
Apothecary 2: 70-90 moves
Piece values used by Fairy-max:
Apothecary 1
pawn:85
knight:272
bishop:286
wizard:258
champion:272
rook:510
aanca:612
griffin:748
queen:816
Apothecary 2
pawn:85
knight:231
bishop:286
elephant:251
camel:218
zebra:204
rook:510
archbishop:680
marshal:748
queen:816
The high rook was an accident It was supposed to be 493, but I won't redo this.
Now I'm starting the serious experiments. I'll use values normalized to a pawn of 60 as H.G. suggested, and the rook lowered acordingly.
Here are the result of some preliminary experiments I've done:
bishops in aancas white:1.5
bishops in griffins black:4.5
1 draws (draws enter in the points above)
knights in aancas white:4
knights in griffins black:2
0 draws (draws enter in the points above)
bishops in griffins white:5
bishops in aanca black:1
0 draws (draws enter in the points above)
knights in griffins white:2.5
knights in aancas black:3.5
1 draws (draws enter in the points above)
total:
games 24 from which draws:2
aancas poins:10
griffins points:14
[edit:]
Here I pited an army with 2 aancas against an army with 2 griffins.
the promotion rule was rook at 8 rank.
So the total number of wins for griffins is slightly higher but not convincingly. Now I believe that the difference between them is less that a pawn. I think I have to continue the experiments as things don't seem to go any particular way, yet. If the 41% wins for aancas hold then the distance between aanca and griffin is probably small then a pawn. I'm not sure though. Then I'll do something else maybe take a pawn from the griffins or give a pawn to the aancas.
On second thinking I should find out how much a pawn translates into a win, in both apothecary games!
The difference between aanca and griffin is much smaller than I expected indeed!
I use as time control 2 mins for 30 moves as my computer is rather weak but it has 2 procs indeed.
How can I setup experiments over night or while I do other stuff? I have to copy paste the initial position everytime anyway and the game does not just restart, Also if I could restart it how do I get hold of the results?
H.G.
I think fairy max has some clock problems, it runs out of time on ocasions. Is that normal?
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I managed on my own the easy task of rewriting the weirdPromotion script:
<script>function WeirdPromotion(x1, y1,x2, y2, promo)
{
if((board[y1][x1] & 15) != 1) return promo; // moved piece is not a Pawn
if(y2 == 9 || y2 == 0) return ((promo & 15) == 1 ? 9 : promo); // on last rank: cannot stay Pawn
if((y2 == 7 || y2 == 2) && ((promo & 15) > 6))return board[y1][x1]; // rook or larger than Rook: remains Pawn
if((y2 == 8 || y2 == 1) && ((promo & 15) > 7))return board[y1][x1]; // larger than Rook: remains Pawn
return promo; // choice was acceptable
}
</script>
<script>function WeirdPromotion(x1, y1,x2, y2, promo)
{
if((board[y1][x1] & 15) != 1) return promo; // moved piece is not a Pawn
if(y2 == 9 || y2 == 0) return ((promo & 15) == 1 ? 11 : promo); // on last rank: cannot stay Pawn
if((y2 == 7 || y2 == 2) && ((promo & 15) > 7))return board[y1][x1]; // rook or larger than Rook: remains Pawn
if((y2 == 8 || y2 == 1) && ((promo & 15) > 8))return board[y1][x1]; // larger than Rook: remains Pawn
return promo; // choice was acceptable
}
</script>