Anyone interested in helping test a Draughts/Checkers playing program?

[ad1mt]

Are there any Draughts/Checkers (or Chess) players interested in helping test a Draughts playing program?
I'm interested in usability/coding suggestions; and also suggestions for algorithms and playing strength.

[Thaddy]

Yes, I would
My late mother in law (Birutė Kazlauskienė, the elder) belonged to the world top, Russian rules. Won the Olympiad.
I have some basics (code). Have to look it up, though. It is a couple of years old and does not contain computer play.
Designed for on-line two player game.
Note verification logic is Russian rules, not international rules.

(Exclude facebook entries, she was never on facebook)

[Josh]

hi

there is a topic a few ago, maybe worth lokking at
https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php?topic=58651.0

[Thaddy]

Thanks. I miss her.

[ad1mt]

I have been working on this Draughts/Checkers program for many years, but it has always been a command-line program, so I've decided to create a nice GUI for it.
This is my first big GUI program using Free Pascal, and its taking so much work to write the code, I am not able to do as much testing as I would like. So I am posting the program for people who are interested in the game of Draughts/Checkers to help with testing.
The playing engine has been thoroughly tested over many years, so most of the bugs will be in the UI code. However, the engine is much weaker in the endgame, and I intend working to improve this once the UI is finished.
The UI is still in the early stages of design. I want to make it as simple/minimal as possible; not because of laziness, but because I find that a cluttered UI is distracting when playing the game.
Some features that are coming soon in the UI, but not implemented yet are:
1. Moving the pieces using the mouse.
2. Adjusting the playing strength of the engine (currently fixed in the code).
3. Turning learning mode on/off and loading/saving the learning database (currently off).
4. Automatic self-playing mode for use in unattended self-learning (currently off).
These features are in the engine, but I need to write the code to make them available in the UI.
There is an outstanding UI bug that I have not yet been able to fix: if you go back and then forward some moves, the position sometimes becomes incorrect around capture moves. If this happens, a workaround is to go back to a non-capture move, and resume playing the game from that position.
If you wish to adjust the playing strength, edit the unit_engine.pas file, in the initialization section, and change the value of the MAXLEVEL variable to a higher or lower number. A higher number searches further ahead & plays better.
I am doing a lot of work on this program; if you download it, please come back often to get the latest version.
I have request: if you discover a bug, please save the game, and send the game file to me. This will help me to find bugs.
Many thanks.

[ad1mt]

Version 7.1N
Improvements in the UI

[speter]

Ad1mt, I am posting another Draughts game. I am posting it to (hopefully) give you some ideas about the UI.

The computer's game play is poor.

But, I think your UI is a bit too minimal! I could not even work out how to start a game.

Good luck with further developing your game.

cheers
S.

EDIT: One extra comment, my project may need some tweaking to get working in a non-Windows environment. It creates two folders: "data" and "data\SavedGames" in the executable's folder (it does use the "DirectorySeparator" constant, but if the EXE is in a ReadOnly folder, the program will get upset.

[TBMan]

The buttons on the form that allows a player to start a new game, etc, should be wider (I'm using a large monitor).  I haven't played checkers since I was a child and I lost to your code, lol.  I thought it was good, but my first impulse was to select a piece to move by using the mouse. A left click could select a piece. A right click anywhere on the board could create the menu form to appear. Also, instead of a form for the menu, maybe a menu bar would be better? The old "File", "Options" sort of menu bar.

One more thing, maybe the default square to highlight for the player to decide his next move should be in the center of the board, instead of the lower left.

One of the reasons why I like using old school graphics (PTCGraph) is that I have full control of what things look like without having to wrestle with the Windows stuff, but the scalability of the Windows graphics is appealing.

[Nitorami]

Ok, compiles and runs.
As others said, mouse control would be more convenient. And since it's a long time I played this game, I got an "invalid move" message quite often and then need to confirm. I would prefer if you simply highlighted the possible fields a chosen stone can be moved on, and ignore invalid moves, or play a sound, something I don't need to confirm.
For keyboard control, I suggest to allow the space bar as alternative to enter.

[ad1mt]

Version 7.1N

I've made more improvements in the UI. And you can now set playing strength. Please download v7.1N again.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will take note of them in the next version.
Unfortunately, I currently don't have access to Linux on my PC. If I have time, this might change, but my priority is this program.
However, suggestions for the Linux platform are still welcome.

[ad1mt]

mouse control would be more convenient. And since it's a long time I played this game, I got an "invalid move" message quite often

It's difficult enough to make a Draughts or Chess program play well, and I've put a lot of work into that. Making the program teach people to play would a lot of effort, which I am not interested in.
I'm interested in the algorithms that make the program play well, and also in making the program learn from its mistakes during play.

Mouse control was always on my list and is coming next. Then I'm going do board editing.

[ad1mt]

Version 7.1O
Improvements to the UI, and bug fixes.

[ad1mt]

Version 7.2A
This has moving by mouse, other UI improvements, and bug fixes.

[ad1mt]

New version 7.2B
Bug fix; end of game not detected correctly.

[ad1mt]

Version 7.2C
Bug fixes in going backwards and forwards.