As you may already know, the event we've been waiting for has finally happened! While some haters do their work because of feeling uncomfortable in a new environment, we, custom positions (hereafter, variants) fans, are happy to see the new version of four player chess. However, if some are still not excited of the changes, let me introduce you to the new world of variants and show what you should like it for.
Remember to check our PINNED forums which detail how to submit positions, what we're looking for, guides, and more!
New Features
Let's start with the most sweet part of the update – new game rules. We've got such new cool things as Atomic, Fog of War, Capture Anything, Sideways, Torpedo, Racing Kings, Allow Passing, Fatal Capture, Bare Piece. The Allow Passing rule doesn't need any introduction as the name speaks for itself. Players can skip their turns. In case each player skips his turn 2 times in a row, the game ends in a draw (everyone gains 10 points if it's Game of Points). According to the Fatal Capture rule, all pieces except pawns die when they capture. However, its combination with Atomic makes pawns die too as all exploded pieces die, rather than disappear. With the Bare Piece rule, players with only one remaining piece automatically lose (resign). There are also some insignificant rules such as Opposite Castling, Self-Check and Pieces Face Center. The first rule prevents players from castling to the same side as the opponent, and the third rotates the pieces according to who these pieces belong to.
In addition to the new rules, we also got 4 new pieces—the xiangqi horse, dragon bishop, transparent brick, and duck (acts like a brick). You have no longer ask us to make walls invisible as you can now customize them yourself, and even combine visible bricks with transparent ones (and ducks)! Isn't that cool? Moreover, now you can also set promotion to bricks, both visible and transparent!
Another exciting innovation is the ability to expand the board to a size of 14x14. There will no longer be annoying fixed 3x3 corners that do not allow us create positions we need. Small positions can now be full screen as the board size is also customizable (from 2x2 to 14x14).
Categories
All variants are now divided into 8 categories:
Most Popular – The most popular variants.
Common – Variants with standard 2P position and some game rules applied.
Extra – Custom 2P variants.
FFA – Custom FFA variants.
Teams – Custom Teams variants.
Featured 2P – The best custom 2P variants.
Featured 4P – The best custom 4P variants.
Giveaway – Variants with Giveaway rule (Antichess).
The best means the most balanced, beginner-friendly, unique, and/or well-made.
To maintain the popularity of custom variants and prevent hours of waiting for a single queue to fill up, we were forced to drop half of the custom variants. Therefore, now the requirements for the new custom variant (NCV) acceptance have grown more than ever. In order not to clutter up the list and keep the balance between the number of custom variants and their popularity, we will no longer be able to accept NCVs just because they are cool. Now they must be made in the best way and be the best among possible alternatives.
More information about the changes of listed custom variants can be found here.
Ratings
This is another amazing thing that makes Variants super cool. We used to have only one rating for all custom variants, and a separate Hyper rating for all games which were played with the hyperbullet time controls (6 and 15 seconds, no increment). Now we no longer need to be afraid to play different variants, as each variant has its own rating! There are two types of ratings: dedicated and composite.
Dedicated ratings can be created by admins and assigned to multiple variants. Each dedicated rating is divided by time control type and game mode. Thus, one dedicated rating defines up to 8 sub-ratings (FFA rapid, Teams rapid, FFA blitz, Teams blitz, etc.) Only "elite" variants use this rating: variants from Common and Featured categories (however with some exceptions).
Composite ratings are based on multiple sub-ratings, such as <custom position> rating, KotH rating, N-check rating, blitz rating, etc. Composite ratings have a custom effect on sub-ratings defined for each variant. In this way, if some variants have KotH that is more important in terms of gameplay than, let's say, N-check, then KotH rating will change more than N-check rating. How much each sub-rating changes in a particular variant can be seen in the player-popup when this particular variant is opened.
Most dedicated ratings, also affect composite ratings, but less. This is done so that variants with certain rules can affect the sub-ratings of these rules.
Another interesting thing about ratings is gameplay type rating. There are 5 gameplay types defined: Materialistic, Tactical, Dynamic, Positional, and Strategic. More information about what they mean can be found here.
How the rating system works in general is explained in this article.
What's next?
We've got a lot of new things that will inspire many custom variants creators. However, let's first try to explore all new features and realize what we can actually do, before asking us to make something rated or add something to the WoF rotation.
While creating new variants is very enjoyable and interesting pastime, let's do not forget to play already created variants too! Otherwise we'll need to cut the list twice more :]
Hello custom game creators and players!
As you may already know, the event we've been waiting for has finally happened! While some haters do their work because of feeling uncomfortable in a new environment, we, custom positions (hereafter, variants) fans, are happy to see the new version of four player chess. However, if some are still not excited of the changes, let me introduce you to the new world of variants and show what you should like it for.
Remember to check our PINNED forums which detail how to submit positions, what we're looking for, guides, and more!
New Features
Let's start with the most sweet part of the update – new game rules. We've got such new cool things as Atomic, Fog of War, Capture Anything, Sideways, Torpedo, Racing Kings, Allow Passing, Fatal Capture, Bare Piece. The Allow Passing rule doesn't need any introduction as the name speaks for itself. Players can skip their turns. In case each player skips his turn 2 times in a row, the game ends in a draw (everyone gains 10 points if it's Game of Points). According to the Fatal Capture rule, all pieces except pawns die when they capture. However, its combination with Atomic makes pawns die too as all exploded pieces die, rather than disappear. With the Bare Piece rule, players with only one remaining piece automatically lose (resign). There are also some insignificant rules such as Opposite Castling, Self-Check and Pieces Face Center. The first rule prevents players from castling to the same side as the opponent, and the third rotates the pieces according to who these pieces belong to.
In addition to the new rules, we also got 4 new pieces—the xiangqi horse, dragon bishop, transparent brick, and duck (acts like a brick). You have no longer ask us to make walls invisible as you can now customize them yourself, and even combine visible bricks with transparent ones (and ducks)! Isn't that cool? Moreover, now you can also set promotion to bricks, both visible and transparent!
Another exciting innovation is the ability to expand the board to a size of 14x14. There will no longer be annoying fixed 3x3 corners that do not allow us create positions we need. Small positions can now be full screen as the board size is also customizable (from 2x2 to 14x14).
Categories
All variants are now divided into 8 categories:
Most Popular – The most popular variants.
Common – Variants with standard 2P position and some game rules applied.
Extra – Custom 2P variants.
FFA – Custom FFA variants.
Teams – Custom Teams variants.
Featured 2P – The best custom 2P variants.
Featured 4P – The best custom 4P variants.
Giveaway – Variants with Giveaway rule (Antichess).
The best means the most balanced, beginner-friendly, unique, and/or well-made.
To maintain the popularity of custom variants and prevent hours of waiting for a single queue to fill up, we were forced to drop half of the custom variants. Therefore, now the requirements for the new custom variant (NCV) acceptance have grown more than ever. In order not to clutter up the list and keep the balance between the number of custom variants and their popularity, we will no longer be able to accept NCVs just because they are cool. Now they must be made in the best way and be the best among possible alternatives.
More information about the changes of listed custom variants can be found here.
Ratings
This is another amazing thing that makes Variants super cool. We used to have only one rating for all custom variants, and a separate Hyper rating for all games which were played with the hyperbullet time controls (6 and 15 seconds, no increment). Now we no longer need to be afraid to play different variants, as each variant has its own rating! There are two types of ratings: dedicated and composite.
Dedicated ratings can be created by admins and assigned to multiple variants. Each dedicated rating is divided by time control type and game mode. Thus, one dedicated rating defines up to 8 sub-ratings (FFA rapid, Teams rapid, FFA blitz, Teams blitz, etc.) Only "elite" variants use this rating: variants from Common and Featured categories (however with some exceptions).
Composite ratings are based on multiple sub-ratings, such as <custom position> rating, KotH rating, N-check rating, blitz rating, etc. Composite ratings have a custom effect on sub-ratings defined for each variant. In this way, if some variants have KotH that is more important in terms of gameplay than, let's say, N-check, then KotH rating will change more than N-check rating. How much each sub-rating changes in a particular variant can be seen in the player-popup when this particular variant is opened.
Most dedicated ratings, also affect composite ratings, but less. This is done so that variants with certain rules can affect the sub-ratings of these rules.
Another interesting thing about ratings is gameplay type rating. There are 5 gameplay types defined: Materialistic, Tactical, Dynamic, Positional, and Strategic. More information about what they mean can be found here.
How the rating system works in general is explained in this article.
What's next?
We've got a lot of new things that will inspire many custom variants creators. However, let's first try to explore all new features and realize what we can actually do, before asking us to make something rated or add something to the WoF rotation.
While creating new variants is very enjoyable and interesting pastime, let's do not forget to play already created variants too! Otherwise we'll need to cut the list twice more :]