What's a chess player without a coach, eh?
I'm wrapping up this feature. I wanted to share the news. It ended up a lot bigger and better than I imagined. It was considerably harder to implement as well so it's only fair that I'm quite happy with how it turned out.
It's going to come to beta branch soon. Join the Discord if you have any question or just want to chat with us: https://discord.gg/HYV8Zz8V2Q
What makes me happiest is that Jonathan Schrantz allowed me to use his name and likeness as one of the coaches. His videos on the Saint Louis Chess Youtube channel that I watched 10ish years ago provided me with chess knowledge to achieve the greatest feat I could imagine: beating my dad at chess.
What's so cool about it?
...I hear you ask. Say no more! There's 2 new training modes:
- Positional Analysis (5k of them)
- Studies (472 of them)
Both bring a new dynamic to the game. While positional analysis allows you to sharpen your intuition and decide the objective evaluation of given positions; studies are quite more hands-on and make you play out a position to its maximum potential: be it a draw, retaining advantage or checkmating your opponent.
If your eyebrow is raised disapprovingly now, don't worry - your choice of coach allows you to switch up which training modes you get. Every coach has a different training regiment and every month you're allowed to pick your training.
What's next
I'll release this feature to the beta branch quite soon. Meanwhile, I'm testing it and starting work (again) on my nemesis - Openings feature. Yes, it's in the game now, but we all know it's not up to the task. It doesn't synergize with the rest of the game. A lot of reviews mention it as a problem - rightfully so.
But giving it justice isn't easy as I thought. I've had 2 attempts already and gave up. This time I've planned it out better. Third time's the charm!
Some smaller fixes are coming as well:
- In game save (adjournment)
- Smaller game size as I've reduced the DB size considerably
- Fix some crashes with the chess engine search
- Improve draw offer criteria
- Small AI improvement around recapturing
And many smaller fixes I've not been smart enough to record. So that's what's up. I've been working considerably slower these past few months, but I think I'm getting back into the groove.
Hope you'll have a lovely month!
BRANE