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Interactive Diagram Piece Sandbox

For several of my own variants, I used a custom-built Piece Lab for testing pieces for Interactive Diagrams. I figured I might as well make one for the general Diagram-using public. This Interactive Diagram lets you create your own pieces using Betza's funny notation and test them out before you include them in your own games.

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Piece Lab


files=16 ranks=16 promoZone=0 maxPromote=0 royal=13 enableAI=0 holdingsType=1 graphicsDir=https://www.chessvariants.com/membergraphics/MSinteractive-diagram-piece-sandbox/ whitePrefix=w blackPrefix=b graphicsType=png?nocache=true symmetry=mirror firstRank=1 borders=0 squareSize=40 rimColor=#000000 coordColor=#FFFFFF trackPieces=9 trackedTypes=2 spell=burn spellZone=K blastZone=K atomicCapture=0 newClick=1 captureMatrix=/"8/@14/.@13/@14 1-Ball:Y:K:1ball::100 2-Ball:B:K:2ball::100 3-Ball:R:K:3ball::100 4-Ball:P:K:4ball::100 5-Ball:O:K:5ball::100 6-Ball:G:K:6ball::100 7-Ball:O:K:7ball::100 8-Ball:C:K:8ball::100 Spellcaster:S:K:spellcaster::2 Spellcasting Nuke:U:K:spellcastingnuke::2 Capture-Only Nuke:A:K:captureonlynuke::100 Nuke:N:K:nuke::100 King:K:K:king::100
Current Spellcaster Spell is: Burn
(An enemy piece landing in the spell zone disappears instantly)
Current Spellcaster Spell Zone is: K
Current Nuke Blast Zone is: K
Current Nuke Blast Effect is: Capturing Nuke has Blast immunity
All other pieces in Blast Zone are instantly captured
Click on the move of the piece you want to change, in the table below, to give it the values you set in the following text fields:
XBetza move description:
New piece name:
New piece ID:
(Leave empty to keep old)

Info for selected board piece

How to use

Basics

To place a piece on the board, click its image in the table and then click on the desired destination square on the board. The piece can then be moved around in any way you want.

To reset the board, right-click it.

Click Enable/Disable Position Setup Mode to toggle the Position Setup Mode, which allows for easier setup of positions.

Clicking Hide/Show Piece Log toggles display of the piece tables.

Clicking 'Click on piece to toggle its moved status' in the move table switches highlights between markers and background color.

Clicking a piece name in the piece table shows its move on an empty board.

Clicking the 'move' header in the piece table toggles between displaying the XBetza notatons and the estimated values of each piece.

Clicking Hide/Show Piece Dashboard toggle display of the controls used to alter pieces.

Clicking Hide/Show Debug Log and Hide/Show Game Log toggles display of the corresponding text logs.

Navigation

The Flip View button flips the board.

The |< (to starting positon), < (one move back), > (one move forward), and >| (to current position) buttons display different positions in the game without altering the current position.

The >> button plays back moves starting from the current position.

Pieces with Influence

The diagram also includes some special pieces for testing pieces with influence.

  • Pieces with wizard hats in their images cast spells around them when they are not moving.
    • The Change Spell button cycles the particular spell used between the following:
      • Burn - an enemy piece landing in the spell zone disappears instantly.
      • Freeze - an enemy piece standing in the spell zone cannot move at all.
      • Charm - an enemy piece standing in the spell zone cannot capture.
      • Hide - sliders can hop over friendly pieces in the spell zone.
      • Protect - a friendly piece in the spell zone cannot be captured by the opponent.
      • Brake - enemy pieces cannot move through or out of the spell zone.
    • The Change Spell Zone button cycles the spell's area of effect between the following:
      • K - All adjacent squares
      • W - Orthogonally adjacent squares
      • F - Diagonally adjacent squares
      • N - Squares that are one Knight's move away
  • Pieces with bombs in their images blast (instantly capture) surrounding pieces after moving.
    • The Change Blast Zone button cycles the blast's area of effect between the following:
      • K - All adjacent squares
      • W - Orthogonally adjacent squares
      • F - Diagonally adjacent squares
      • N - Squares that are one Knight's move away
    • The Change Blast Effect button cycles the blast's effect value (N) between 0 and 13. 0 makes the capturer immune and blasts all enemy pieces, and all other values of N give the first N pieces in the table immunity to the blast, while all other pieces, including the capturer are blasted.

If a piece casts spells and blasts surrounding pieces, when the spell is set to Burn, the spell takes priority over the blast.



This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.


By A. M. DeWitt.

Last revised by A. M. DeWitt.


Web page created: 2024-10-07. Web page last updated: 2024-10-07