Diamont Chess tuning....

[sythyry]

Terrycloth notes stuff that I interpret as, "the first player has a huge advantage, instantly putting the second player on the defensive." I saw that too: the first player can get an orren in the river instantly, which is a very big deal.

Also, I've found crossing the river to be very awkward. If you put a piece in the river, you're pretty much begging to be forked, since the river itself is attacking the piece that's in it. Also, having an orren in the river is a huge advantage.

1 = hate the idea, 10 = love it.

[Poll #1343679]

Comments

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Maybe, 'orren in the river can't take or be taken because they're in waterform'?

And maybe let all the 'flying' pieces move diagonally? Sleeth already can, but ziri and khtsoyis can't. That'd let them move over the river without stopping without explicitly making a rule about it.

I think the only other diagonally moving piece is the rassimel.

[rowyn]

Or, if you really want to nerf orren: orren in the river can't capture (because they're too small and weak in waterform), but can still be captured.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

That was one of the options from the survey, but it makes the orren pretty crappy.

[solanth.livejournal.com]

I think it's less crappy than it sounds, because you wouldn't really want to capture the orren by spear if it was in the river, since you'd also be giving up the following turn getting the capturing piece back out of the river.

[deor.livejournal.com]

Sleeth can fly?

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Very slowly, yes.

[deor.livejournal.com]

Huh. They probably shouldn't get any special flying advantages then; wouldn't be fair to the Khtosyis and ZiRi

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

Neither of those two naturally move particularly fast in the air either, as I recall.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Sleeth (the people, not the chess piece) can levitate themselves without any trouble or cost.

[otter3.livejournal.com]

Orren can only take each other in the river (or a Zi Ri if they happen to be so inclined)? :)

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

That may be a house rule for Sythyry!

[rowyn]

Hey, is this game supposed to be themed after chess or Xxxenophile? >:)

*laugh*

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

BWAHAHAHA!

Re: *laugh*

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

There's already a xXxenophile game....

[solanth.livejournal.com]

I have a couple suggestions.

1) Take one square off of the river, at either end. This would prevent the Orren from going "all the way" river > city.

2) Regarding the pieces that can fly, perhaps they can optionally fly over the river if they want to cross it, but have to go into the river regularly if they want to capture a piece in the river by spear.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Okay, I playtested with a few of these rules (orren can't capture in the river, lake, move-then-muster). Taking all three of those made the game go on *really long*.

Orren can't capture in the river: They're not totally useless -- they can threaten the city from two different directions, and often fork enemy pieces -- but it means both orren are going to be in the river, since the other orren can't take them out. Well, until someone finally kills them.

Lake: This makes the river a real barrier. Even the sleeth takes a while (at least two turns) to get in position to cross it. Best way of making a beachhead: zi ri!

Move then muster: This did seem to help get all the pieces onto the board, but maybe it was just the lesser threat of instant-sleeth-death that gave the sides more breathing room.

In general... the scariest pieces with those rules are the orren and the herethroy. The khtsoyis is so... freaking... slow... that they'll never get a kill unless they were the ones in position to accept a sacrifice play. The sleeth's diagonal movement goes from 'super scary' to 'this is really hard to use'.