All Rules regarding the Never-Ending Infinite Sandbox Game
Link to main game thread in the Chess Variants section.
Link to all existing events and their rules.
Link to loads of position examples and conditional examples.
- To join this game, a spot needs to be opened up, and you must be 1st in queue. Request to join the queue on the main thread. Once you are secured a spot, I will message you telling you you can join, and you will have 3 days time to join before your spot may be given to someone else. You first must pick a color from the available colors, which are shown in the 1st post of the main thread. Your joining move must be the placement your king (i.e. +K(X,Y)), you may NOT place your king on any square that is being covered or attacked by an opponent, UNLESS that player gives you permission. You will not be able to change your color without first dying and re-joining so choose wisely!
- Game updates come at a minimum of 1 day (or 23 hours)! Upon the update, every player that has submitted a move since the previous game board update will have their move accounted for! This method means there is no turn-taking, no waiting weeks for your move, everyone moves logically at the same time! This game will not stop for players stalling to move. If you don't check in any time before the next game board update, then gameplay will continue without your move.
- Here is the format for how you must submit your moves:
All moves must be submitted on the main thread or they will be invalid! If your move is submitted anywhere else but there, I will not accept it!
First, include the letter representing the kind of piece your selecting (the list of all pieces and their corresponding letters can be found here at the bottom of this blog). Next, contain in parenthesis the x and y coordinates you'd like to move the piece to, separated by a comma , Example:
N(37,3)
this will move your knight to the coordinate (37,3) (if you have a knight that can move there). If you have multiple knights that can move to the square you must also specify what coordinate the knight starts on-
N(35,2)-(37,3)
where the 1st coordinate is the beginning square, and the 2nd coordinate is the landing square.
If you'd like to expend health to generate a new piece on the board, you must also include a plus + sign before the letter representing the kind of piece you're generating. Example:
+Tt(-384,-12)
will subtract 12 health and generate a new time thief on the coordinate (-384,-12).
You have to include with your move the coordinates you're moving the piece to. I will not accept moves like this: "push pawn" or "NxG".
Any typo you make can render your entire move ILLEGAL! So always double check when you're submitting your moves that you have the numbers correct so you don't waste your move. If your typo turns out to be legal then you will make a move you didn't mean to.
If you would like your move to be private, then you must submit on the main thread “Pm'd move”, then you can message me your move. If you would like your move to be hidden even from me (the game creator), then you can submit your move as “Pm’d move”, and then message me your move.. but this time you highlight the text of your move *white* so I can’t see it without highlighting it with my mouse. Here is an example- “Naviary, my hidden move is: +B(382,523)”. If you will do that, then I will refrain from viewing your move until I lock the moves (including my own). If you're pm'ing me your move you still MUST submit on the main thread that you've "pm'd move" or I will NOT accept it!
If you accidentally make an illegal move, then that update your move will not be accounted for. You are allowed to fix or change your move before the next game board update, BUT you must re-post it, because if you just edit your original comment I may not see the edit! There are no pre-moves allowed. You are the only one who can control your own army, there is no controlling others' armies, each player can only control 1 army.
- Moving at the same time means it's possible to dodge captures, which can make it very hard to make a capture without it failing and you wasting your move. That's why:
- You have the ability to include certain conditionals only when you attempt a capture. Let's say your preferred move is to capture an enemy piece, but you don't know if they're going to dodge or not and you don't want to waste your move? Then you can include this type of conditional- "Attempt this capture, if it actually fails, then instead go for this other move." There are tons of examples of correct and illegal conditionals located here.
- If you threaten to capture an enemy piece, then that piece will get 1 chance to move out of check, otherwise, 4 black triangles will reveal around their piece for 1 move that signifies the piece is "capturable". A "capturable" piece is allowed to move, but NOT allowed to dodge captures, this is so the attacker is guaranteed the chance to make the capture. The capturable timer can be reset by first leaving the victim out of check, then re-putting it in check. If you have a "capturable" piece and would like to move it, but you don't want your move to be canceled/wasted if it actually turns out to be captured, then you can submit this kind of conditional- "Move my capturable-piece here, if it's actually captured, then do this other move instead."
- The same story go for moving a piece to a square covered/defended by an opponent. If you move a piece to a square covered by an enemy, your piece will become capturable for 1 turn giving the opponent a chance to capture you. However, if you capture a defended piece at the same time the defender moves away, then your piece will not become capturable.
- Capturing an un-defended piece at the same time it is defended shouldn't come at the expense of the capturer. How could they be expected to predict if the piece will be defended or not? That's why if you capture an un-defended piece at the same time it is defended (or you move to an exposed square at the same time it is covered) your piece will not become capturable and will have the chance to escape! ...So pieces will have to be pre-defended, or they'll have to resort to dodging!
- If 2 pieces move to the same square the same time, then they will both occupy it simultaneously and that square will become an implosion square. This means that any pieces still on the implosion square by the next update will be annihilated, EVEN if there's only 1 piece left!
- Each player has a health ❤️ bar. If your king happens to be captured, you will stop generating health until it is replanted. Your current health is posted with each game board update. Example: “12. Holo (Purple): 36 --- Health: 19 💖” All players have a base health regeneration of +0.4 ❤️ per update. Beginners receive a buff, starting out with 4.0 ❤️ health, and +1.2 regeneration per update for 20 updates. Beginners also continue to generate health, even when their king has been captured. Example: "11. Aidan (Crimson/Yellow): 18 --- Health: 15.3 💖 +1.2 Regen until Update #111" The hidden Green Flag of Regeneration can double your regeneration rate! Beginners are also allowed to place pawns/pillars anywhere on rank 0 without the need to be covering the square. Beginners are also allowed to generate new non-pawn/pillar pieces within 4 tiles of any friendly piece, even if they are not covering the square!
- You can gain health faster by capturing enemy pieces. For every piece you capture, you gain exactly half that piece’s cost in health! Capturing a rook worth 7 points would increase your health by 3.5. The hidden Red Flag of Offense can increase your capture reward from 50% to 75%!
- You can expend health to generate new pieces on the board (see the piece cost/strength list below), more powerful pieces costing more health. You may ONLY generate pieces on squares you are covering/attacking, the only exceptions to this is you may place any piece within 4 tiles of your king, even if you're not covering the square, also pawns/pillars may be placed directly adjacent of a friendly piece appropriately. The notation to expend health to generate a new piece on the board is like follows- add a plus + followed by the letter representing the kind of piece you’re generating, followed by the coordinates! Example: “+P(107,0)” will subtract 1 health to generate a new pawn on the coordinate (107,0). You cannot generate new pieces on any occupied squares! Pawns and Pillars can only be generated directly adjacent of a friendly piece, pawns only below rank 0, and pillars only above rank 0, this is to prevent cheap 1-point attacks. If you spawn a pawn/pillar directly on rank 0 though, you only need to be covering the square, don't need to be adjacent. Newly-generated pieces are disabled for 1 move (shown with a black/white outline). Disabled pieces can move, but are not allowed to make a capture, and don't provide any special effects (i.e. the freezing effect of the zombie, or protection effect of the angel, or the transparent spells of the witch!)
- Pawns are allowed to promote at rank 6 (and subsequently, pillars at rank -6) into any piece, but only up to as powerful as a queen. You can also choose to promote into energy, where your pawn will gain a rainbow aura around it, signifying that the following update it will burst into +8.0 health (but they cannot dodge captures in this manner). Pawns with rainbow aura's around them are worth 8 points and capturing them gives 4 health.
- If you would like to promote your pawn to an angel/harpy/dragon, then you alternatively have the choice to not promote, and march your pawn up to rank 10, where you are allowed to promote into higher-tiered pieces IF you also pay half price. For an example, you want to promote your pawn at rank 10 into an angel.. then you must also pay 10 health to do the job (Because half of an angel's 20 point-worth is 10)! You cannot change your mind half-way marching to rank 10, you are not allowed to promote on ranks 7, 8, or 9. If you don't promote at rank 10 your pawn will be forced to gain a rainbow aura and burst into +13 health the following update. A rank-10 rainbow-pawn is worth 13 points and capturing one gives 6.5 health.
- The latest leaderboard is always posted with each game board update. You are considered the king if you have the strongest army! Here’s an example of the #4 player with 107 points: “4. hitthepin (Green): 107 --- Health: 27 💖“ The number of points you have is determined by adding up each piece’s point-worth/strength in your army. A list of all pieces and their strength can be found below. There is also a statistics section in the 1st post of the main thread that currently tracks how many days each player has been king, the record for greatest army size and record health amount, and also includes a link to a graph showing how the board has been progressing!
- If your king happens to be captured it is not guaranteed elimination, rather you will be punished in the form of lost health. For every time your king is captured you will lose 4 ❤️ plus 10% of your total worth. Your total worth is calculated by your score plus your health. 100% of that goes to the person who captured you. You will also cease generating health while your king is off the board. Example: "11. Aidan (Crimson/Yellow): 39 --- Health: 12 ❤️ +0 Regen, No King" However, beginners upon their king being captured will only lose 10% of their total worth, and they will continue to generate health even with their king off the board. If you happen to fall below 0 health, then pieces of your army, chosen at random, will disintegrate, being converted into 50% health, until you reach positive health again! Run out of pieces and you are eliminated from the game! You cannot rejoin for at least another 7 days, and a minimum of 3 updates. If you lose your king than you have the choice to respawn your king where you like (absorbing your move), or if you wait, then on the 3rd update your king will automatically try to respawn where it died (NOT absorbing your move), if that square is occupied then it will try to respawn randomly within 1 tiles of the square.. if all those squares are occupied, then within 2 tiles of the square, etc..
- If a player decides to resign, all their pieces will vanish into thin air, but they cannot dodge captures in this manner. A player can also be kicked for inactivity. If there is at-least 1 player waiting in the queue, then if you haven't logged onto chess.com in 2 weeks or you haven't made a move the past 4 game updates, you will be notified and have 4 game updates to move before you will be automatically eliminated. If the queue is empty, you will be notified after 3 weeks of not logging on or 6 game updates and have 4 game updates to move before you will be eliminated. Exceptions will be made for those going on a trip where they won't have a connection.
- After every 14 game board updates, a new random event will be triggered! Read about all the possible events and their rules here! Each event will last for precisely 14 moves until a new event is activated. Once an event has been activated, the same event cannot be activated again until at least 2 other events have been activated (or a period of 42 updates).
- There are 3 hidden flags. From the time they spawned on move 100, they were generated randomly 35-76 tiles from any existing piece (excluding nukes, obstacles, and voids), but not closer than 35 blocks to any piece (excluding nukes, obstacles, and voids). The 3 flags are:
- The Green Flag of Regeneration - Doubles your regeneration rate!
- The Red Flag of Offense - Increases your capture reward from 50% to 75%!
- The Blue Flag of Promotion - Discounts the cost of promoting your pawns into dragons/harpies/angels at rank 10 by 5 energy!
Until the flags are found, they will be completely invisible, hidden! Even I, the creator, do not know the location of the hidden flags, my program on my computer will only know the true location of the flags, and will give me an alert once a flag has been found! The compass helps you find a hidden flag (details shortly). The location of a flag is revealed once any piece comes within 5 tiles of it! Once a flag has been revealed, it’s location is ALWAYS known, even when it has been captured. The flags can never move on their own.
To capture a flag, just slide a piece over it, the flags by themselves will not stop your slide. After someone discovers a flag, no one else may capture it for 3 moves but the PIECE that is holding the compass. After that, if 2 people attempt to slide-capture a flag simultaneously, the person who started closer will get it. And if they're the same distance, the more powerful piece will get it. And if they're the same piece, no one will get it unless 1 person stops on the flag. If both people stop on the flag it'll become an implosion square anyway and both pieces will have to move or face being incinerated, the flag will remain on the implosion square (and might I add... will not be incinerated).
Any piece can hold a flag, even a piece holding a nuke, or a paint-nuke, or a piece possessed by a spirit holding a paint nuke! One piece cannot hold multiple flags though. The flags may be passed to any adjacent piece friend or foe, but not on empty squares. The passing of a flag absorbs your move. Flags may be stolen by capturing the piece currently holding a flag.
There is 1 compass in play, spawned randomly, it location is always visible, visually it looks like sound waves emanating from a square. The compass has the same capture rules as flags, you can capture by sliding over it. Any piece can hold the compass. Same passing rules as flags. If the player with the compass moves their piece currently holding the compass, it will give a public notification whether it is closer to a hidden flag, or further away. When a flag is discovered, no one and no PIECE but the piece holding the compass may capture it for 3 moves. After that it is anyone's game. A piece cannot hold a flag and the compass simultaneously. When they capture a flag, they will drop the compass in it's place.
Eventually, when all 3 flags have been discovered, the compass will vanish, and a new event will be added to the event list, and, upon the random event of activation, will reset all the flag locations, effectively ripping them from their holders and spawning them all over again at hidden locations, and respawning the compass!
List of all Pieces with representative letters, cost, strength, pictures, and custom rules for this game. Pieces rules highlighted red can be found on the List of Pieces used for Bulldog and Infinite Chess thread. Musketeer piece rules highlighted green can be found here.
Pawn (P) - 1 Point 
Pawns are not allowed to move 2 spaces their first move (it would be difficult to keep track of that info). Can only be placed on rank 0, unless you place it adjacent of a friendly piece, only then can you place pawns below rank 0. Cannot be possessed by a spirit.
Pillar (Pi) - 1 Point 
The upside-down version of the pawn. Moves downward instead of upward. Promotion ranks at -6 and -10. Can only be placed on rank 0, unless you place it next to a friendly piece, only then you can place it above rank 0. Cannot be possessed by a spirit.
Knight (N) - 3 Points 
Guard (G) - 4 Points 
Hunter (Ht) - 4 Points 
Bishop (B) - 5 Points 
King (K) - Free, but worth 5 Points. 
Forced to have 1 king on the board. Your king is the source of your health regen, no king = no health generated. If you lose your king and choose not to respawn it yourself, then on the 3rd update it will automatically respawn where it died, or if that's occupied, then within 1 square of it, if all's occupied, then within 2 squares of it, etc.. Kings are immune to paint nukes. Not prone to check, you can put yourself in check all you want.
Leopard (L) - 5 Points 
Zombie (Z) - 5 Points 
Zombies will not freeze other zombies.
Spirit (S) - 5.5 Points 
Spirits ARE capturable in this game to prevent use as shields. They do have the ability to exit pieces they're possessing. And cannot capture enemy pieces if they're alone. Pawns and pillars cannot be possessed by spirits.
Elephant (E) - 6 Points 
Hawk (H) - 6 Points 
Unicorn (U) - 7 Points 
Witch (W) - 7 Points 
Cannot allow pieces to travel through voids.
Rook (R) - 7 Points 
Spider (Sp) - 7 Points 
Archbishop (Ab) - 9 Points 
Paint Can - 9 Points --- Must be immediately added to an existing nuke in your possession to turn it into a paint-nuke! This ABSORBS your turn! Paint nukes are like regular nukes except they don't actually explode in a 3x3 box centered on the holder, rather, they splash paint in a 3x3 box centered on the holder, dying the surrounding pieces the color of your own army, effectively giving you control over them! Paint nukes cannot change the color of enemy paint nukes, rather, they will chain react! Kings are not effected by paint-nukes.
Dwarf (D) - 10 Points 
Must be attacked by 2 pieces opponent pieces to be captured, they do not have to be the same color. A nuke explosion counts as 1 attack, thus an explosion alone cannot kill a dwarf, only paired with an additional attack. Same for paint-nukes, must be attacked by an additional piece for him to be painted.
Chancellor (C) / (Ch) - 11 Points 
Time Thief (Tt) - 12 Points 
When capturing, does not rewind the entire board, rather it undoes the effects of the move caused by the piece captured.
Queen (Q) - 13 Points 
The remaining cannot be generated using health, rather, can only be acquired by promoting pawns at rank 10 and paying half price for them.
Harpy (Hp) - 16 Points 
Can only drop pieces within it's own movement range. Pieces *tossed* by a harpy are NOT disabled a move. Harpies have up to 4 moves to toss the piece beneath them before they are crushed and converted into 50% health. Harpies cannot capture pawns, if they attempt to then the pawn will be instantly converted into 1 health.
Dragon (Dr) - 17 Points 
Angel (A) - 20 Points 
Angels do not provide immunity to other angels.
The Barrier cannot be acquired by any other way other than the Walls Come Up event.
Barrier (Bar) - 15 Points 
Whilst the Walls Come Up event is active, rooks will take the form of Barriers. Capturing a barrier will still only yield 50% of a rook's points.
All rules are subject to change to make gameplay more fun and creative. For rules discussion go here.
