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ChessRally
2.5 Released (Build 875 - January 10, 2007):
-
FIXED - Due to inherent limitations in the older
versions of the Microsoft API functions for memory
checking, ChessRally 2 was in previous versions
unable to recognize more than 2 GB of RAM on a
computer, thereby failing the minimum memory check
when the software is first run, thus preventing
people with that much memory from running ChessRally
2 at all. This has been fixed by utilizing the
new Microsoft API calls that recognize 64-bit memory
sizes. On a fun note, since it now recognizes
full 64-bit memory employment, it means that it will
recognize up to about 18 EB. An EB is an
"Exabyte". 18 EB ~ 18 billion
Gigabytes. Unfortunately, that kind of memory
capacity won't be seen by PC users for about 68
years or so, according to Moore's Law.
ChessRally
2.5 Released (Build 873 - February 5, 2006):
-
FIXED - Some players using Windows 95, 98, and ME were
having difficulty using any of the Internet related
features due to a prior change to multi-threading in
our Internet
communications library.
This issue has now been resolved, and was out for
beta for about a month, and users of any of the
Windows platforms from 95 through XP should now have
equivalent performance.
ChessRally
2.5 Released (Build 865 - April 6, 2005):
-
FIXED –
Players
of email
games were running into oddities upon game loading,
such as a series of castling moves when they received their
opponent's email. This occurred because of
fundamental changes to the startup sequence within
ChessRally between versions 2.49 and 2.5.
This issue has now been resolved.
-
CHANGED
- The way ChessRally manages running multiple
copies of ChessRally has been updated, so that
subsequent copies not only notify the user, but will
automatically close themselves if the user doesn't
respond to the notification within about 10
seconds. This was done to prevent the Rally
Rooms anti-cheating protocols from catching
unintentionally loaded secondary copies of the chess
game.
ChessRally
2.5 Released (Build 850 - July 27, 2004):
THERE
WERE SO MANY CHANGES TO VERSION 2.5... that the list
had to be broken into sections. Each section
heading appears in Yellow.
ALSO NOTE that you may have heard of some changes that
do not appear in the list. Due to security
reasons, what you see here is a fraction of the actual
release notes. The more detailed version of the
release notes is not available for public
review. The sections are as follows:
SECURITY
& LICENSING
-
GENERAL
SECURITY UPDATE – Many enhancements and revisions were made to
the various security protocols throughout the
program, and while most items in the list of
security changes is certainly interesting to read,
for the sake of security, they will not appear in
this list of revisions for the Version History.
-
ADDED
–
Because of the many changes in this version, and for
security reasons, the version of the ChessRally
Protocol has been updated, so the ChessRally 2.5
end-user software will not be able to connect to any
Rally Rooms whose software version is less than 2.5,
and ChessRally clients older than 2.5 will no longer
be able to connect to 2.5 or higher Rally Room
Servers.
-
ADDED
– The Rally Room Servers now automatically
record/log all activity… logins, disconnects,
communications, game invitations, game completions
(with results), etc.
This was a big issue for us, as it could
create some questions about our privacy practices.
To be absolutely clear, we are 100% committed
to user privacy at all costs.
The only reason we have added this feature to
our server software is to have an indisputable
reference available when there is a dispute over
claims of abusive behavior in the rooms, etc.
This allows us to enforce the ChessRally EULA
more accurately and fully without penalizing
innocent users unfairly.
Notwithstanding, with the exception of using
as a reference to solve disputes and enforce EULA
violations, the records are not viewed by anyone,
and are securely maintained at the server.
-
ADDED
– Room Operator warning messages now also sound
audibly to alert the user to the warning on the
screen… in case they’re not paying attention.
-
ADDED
–
Room Operators can now ban for specific periods of
time, denoted by seconds, minutes, hours, days, or
weeks, such as “/ban h=1 {playername}” or
“/ban d=2 {playername}”.
This will help the Operator create reasonable
bans without having to manually monitor the amount
of time assed and then manually unban them.
This automates that process.
-
ADDED
–
Room Operator actions are sent as a notification to
other Room Operators, so there isn’t a mass of
actions taken with different ops not knowing what
the other is doing.
-
ADDED
– For the Public Rally Rooms only, we have better
automated and streamlined the Player unban & IP
ban/block request process for offenders.
Players that are banned or had their IP’s
blocked were always told they were banned/blocked
when they logged in, and to be unbanned/unblocked
they needed to contact support@ingenuware.com.
Now, they will be told why they were
banned/blocked, and can fill out a comment form
requesting to be unbanned/unblocked, submitting
their name, email address, player names used,
stating their case, and apologizing as necessary.
This, combined with the newly required reason
entry for all kick/ban actions, when performed by
Room Operators, will streamline the normally lengthy
process of emailing back and forth. (Getting an
email requesting an unban, asking for their PUID,
then checking for a reason why they were banned,
writing back asking for their side, then unbanning.
This makes the whole process faster and more
reliable.) For
Private Rally Rooms, the old basic ban screens are
still in effect.
(The reason for the difference is because the
Public Rally Rooms have added security protocols
that the Private Rally Rooms software does not
have.)
-
ADDED
–
Provided a method of moving license keys from an old
computer to a new one, completely removing all
references to the license key on the old computer.
This helps Gold Edition licensed users in
complying with the license agreement, which states
that they may only use one idividual key on one
computer at a time, in a “forward-only” fasion.
(Not switching back and forth.)
-
ADDED
–
Added /svrmsg parameter “@” where “*” could
go, so people with /svrmsg access can address all
ops/admins with server messages.
-
ADDED
–
Added an optional “@” parameter for the /msg
command, so users can address all operators in
private message by typing “/msg @ some
message…”.
-
CHANGED
– Room Operator powers given differently.
In previous versions, Room Operators were
given the same powers as each other at all times.
(The configurable settings applied to all
Operators) Powers
(rights and privileges) are now given on an Operator
by Operator basis, allowing us to take on
“trial” Operators with limited powers, or to
restrict specific powers for specific operators if
need be, in order to make them more efficient, or to
encourage other choices for actionable offenses.
-
CHANGED
–
When silencing, Room Operators can now give a
reason, to be displayed to the user being silenced.
-
FIXED
– License keys (and Temporary keys) were not being
saved properly if the user’s computer was running
Windows 2000 or XP, and the user account being used
to run ChessRally was not an Administrative account.
As a result, on those systems, ChessRally
would always show either an expired temporary key,
or no license key.
The licensing process was revised to
eliminate this issue.
-
FIXED
– In previous versions, Room Operators were
restricted from kicking/banning anyone while they
were playing a game.
The intended functionality was only that they
could not kick/ban their opponent without resigning
first, while they could kick/ban anyone else at any
time. This
is now fixed.
-
FIXED
– In previous versions, spectators would be
prompted to resign from a game if they attempted to
leave a room or close the program while they were
concurrently watching a game.
Since they were not a player at the table
they were watching, they should not have been so
prompted. This
has been fixed.
ANTI-CHEATING
TECHNOLOGY & UPDATES FOR RALLY ROOMS
-
ADDED
–
Anti-monitoring devices have been employed
throughout the program to prevent application memory
based cheats. (This
is a similar concept to the PunkBuster anti-cheating
service for other online games, although the
specific technology is different and entirely
unique.)
-
ADDED
–
The server now maintains a list of branded cheaters,
so everyone in the Online Rally Rooms will always
see a Computer icon for a “buddy” icon in the
Player List, and their Buddy Comment on the Player
Info screen will say, “This player is suspected of
cheating using a computer program or other means.”
This is intended for repeat and confirmed
cheaters that refuse other forms of correction.
-
ADDED
–
When a player joins a table where their opponent has
been branded for being suspected of cheating, the
player is warned in red lettering in table chat.
Also, when a player gets an invitation from a
potential opponent that has been branded for being
suspected of cheating, they are notified of such
branding on the same screen as the invitation.
-
ADDED
–
Created new anti-runner technology for the Online
Rally Rooms. The
Room server now remembers game and rating
information for games where a player is unexpectedly
disconnected (or has “run away”).
If this happens, the next time the player
logs into any of the servers, the server deducts the
appropriate number of points from their rating, and
also notifies the user of the deduction as the
points they lost from resigning. It was originally planned that the disconnected player would
be given a specific number of minutes to return to
finish the game, after which, their opponent would
be given the win, and they, the loss.
That is now planned for version 3.0, whose
protocols will be more accommodating of such a
change.
-
ADDED
–
ChessRally now detects the use of computer programs
to play in lieu of honest game play in the Online
Rally Rooms, so if a player gets caught running
another chess program capable of playing human vs.
computer games while in the middle of a Rally Rooms
game, then the player must close the program
immediately, and not reopen it, or be automatically
resigned from the game, giving their opponent the
win.
-
CHANGED
– Disabled the ability to create untimed rated
games, and now offer warnings on timed rated games
with time control settings in excess of 30 minutes
for all moves, and in excess of 10 minutes for
repeated time control, as the case may be.
(In the case of a mixed time control, such as
“10 minutes for 10 moves, then 30 minutes for all
moves”, for the sake of the warning system only,
it is treated as a 40 minute for all moves, since if
the player makes the initial 10 minutes, it becomes
a “time limit for all moves” type of game.)
The reason for this chance is because untimed
rated games were used by some to “squat” without
moving, forcing their opponent to resign from sheer
boredom, giving them a cheap and undeserved win and
ratings boost, while their opponent unfairly
receives the loss.
-
CHANGED
–
If a player is stuck waiting for the table host to
set up the table while waiting for table entry, they
are no longer ushered directly into the game when
the host is done without prompting them with the
table’s rules.
The player is now prompted with the new rules
once ushered into the game, where they have the
opportunity to back out of the game before they move
any pieces, if they don’t approve of the rules.
This was done to avoid unscrupulous table
hosts intentionally hanging onto the table setup
screen until another player is committed to the
game, so the other player gets into a game they have
had no opportunity to review the rules for.
-
CHANGED
–
In previous versions, when a new game was started,
and the player with white moved, and the player with
black left the game before they had actually made
any moves (which is allowed), ChessRally would
prompt the table host to set up a new game.
However, this was optional.
(Or the player could “stand” to watch
without leaving the table, and in that case, the
table host would NOT be prompted at all.)
As such, it was possible for two conniving
and dishonest users to set up a table where they’d
start a game, white would move, then black would
wait until there was only a couple of seconds left
on their clock, then leave the table (or stand to
watch). Because
this was legal, the player with the black pieces was
off the hook (as far as ratings go), the game was
still in progress (albeit paused), and so the host
would then choose to not set up a new game.
Then, the host would invite a third (and
unsuspecting) player to play a game.
The new player then arrives to the table with
only a second or two on their clock, leaving them
with not enough time to play a game (or to make a
single move for that matter), nor enough time to
stand up from the game (or leave the table), and
would therefore unfairly lose the game.
This has been changed so that when a player
leaves before making a move, the table is REQUIRED
to be set up fresh and new, so any new players come
into the game with the game (and their clock)
completely fresh and new.
-
CHANGED
–
Better clarified the anti-cheating warnings and
auto-resign notices so players will KNOW it’s NOT
a cheat-catching system, but a cheat-prevention
system. (This item was entered from the 2.5 betas.)
-
CHANGED
–
Users cannot any longer log into the same Rally Room
server multiple times with multiple copies of
ChessRally running on the same computer at the same
time, unless they are a Room Operator.
This was done to prevent cheating by way of
playing rated games in a particular room, using
multi-user Windows environments such as Windows ME
and Windows XP, that allow you to have multiple
users logged in at the same time on the same
computer, from different profiles.
-
CHANGED
– In previous versions, in the Online Rally Rooms,
it was possible for two players to set up a new
game, customize the board position so one player is
guaranteed a win on the next move, then the other
player would sit to watch, and both would then wait
for a new player to join the table, mid-game.
The new player would then be instantly
checkmated, losing points.
This was changed so that you cannot enter
board setup mode at all during a rated game, nor can
you switch to a rated game from board setup mode,
and you must resign from loaded games (even if you
haven’t technically made any moves).
It is still possible to do this for NON-rated
games, but with no points at stake it’s
inconsequential.
In short, it is no longer possible to create
a custom board setup on a rated game.
One can still load previously saved rated
games to play, but they cannot have resulted from
board setup mode, but rather from game play.
-
FIXED
–
Offering a draw while in the middle of a turn,
before hitting finish turn, and having the draw
declined, reset the board, still allowing you to
press finish turn.
This resulted in weird conditions, like
capture-able kings (assuming you were in check),
etc. This
has been fixed.
TOURNAMENTS
-
ADDED
–
A “/tournament” command has been created for the
creation, management, and participation in
tournaments. This
command is a root command, where sub-commands are
parsed and validated at the server only.
(This is so we can support the Tournament
interface in this version, without having to fully
implement it. This
way, when we implement it, it will be done on the
server only, so the clients do not have to upgrade
to a new version to participate.)
The suggested sub-commands are:
-
info
– Used by anyone to view the type, enrollment,
and status of a current tournament.
-
register
– Used by players to enroll in a tournament.
-
withdraw
– Used by players to withdraw enrollment from
a tournament before it begins, or to forfeit a
tournament while in progress.
-
create
– Used by the tournament host to create a new
tournament, and establish its rules.
-
edit
– Used by the tournament host to edit
tournament parameters.
-
conclude
– Used by the tournament host to end a
tournament (with a winner.)
-
cancel
– Used by the tournament host to cancel a
tournament (with NO winner.)
-
schudulematch
– Used by the tournament host to schedule
matches in the tournament.
-
game
on|off – Used by the tournament host to establish whether or
not a game is to count towards tournament
results.
-
forfeitplayer
– Used by the tournament host to remove a
player from a tournament for not showing up to
matches and/or for misbehavior during a match.
-
ADDED
–
Added a “/forceresign” Room Operator command
which will allow selected Room Operators to serve as
a judge in a game, and cause a the targeted player
to forfeit by being automatically resigned.
(Any game, including tournaments.)
-
ADDED
–
Added a “/forcedraw” Room Operator command which
will allow selected Room Operators to serve as a
judge in a game, and cause a the targeted table to
immediately end in a draw.
(Any game, including tournaments.)
-
ADDED
–
Added a new Gold Trophy type Player Icon for
Tournament Winners.
This can be granted as a prize for
tournaments.
-
ADDED
–
Added a new Room Operator/Admin command, “/trophy
set|clear {playername}” to allow Tournament Hosts
(which must be Room Operators, by definition) to set
or clear the Winner/Trophy status of a specific
player.
PARENTAL
CONTROL
-
CHANGED
–
All relevant activity, not just chat messages, is
now recorded to the player’s chat logs (if they
have them turned on), and preceded by date/time
stamps. The
purpose of this is to have a more exact reference of
what happened, and when it happened. This feature is particularly useful for parents that wish to
have greater control and observation of whom their
minor children are in contact with.
(This has always been the intention of the
chat logs… that is why the option is on the
Parental Control form.)
CHAT
-
ADDED
– Added to letter translation list within language
filters, so “|<” is treated as “k” (how
the HECK did we miss that one before?), and “L”
is treated as an “i”
(so lowercase L can't be used for an I in the
word S***)
-
ADDED
– Added new words permanently to the language
filters that had become a necessary part of the
filter list on the servers.
-
CHANGED
–
Made heuristic language filters multithreaded,
dramatically increasing performance of the server
(especially if we can get our hands on a
multi-processor platform!), which results in fewer
“unexpected disconnections”, with a tradeoff in
slightly slower chat message return times.
Note: the multithreaded filters feature is
optional, and does not exist on Windows 95, 98, or
ME.
-
CHANGED
– Users that are silenced may now send private
messages to Room Operators, and also can now enter
chat commands that won’t be displayed on
another’s screen.
(i.e. – “/help”, “/quit”, etc.)
However, they still may not make game
invitations, chat in the open, or send private
messages to a non-Room Operator user.
This was done to allow silenced users to
still use other commands that aren’t interactive
with other users, and also to allow them to discuss
their behavior with an on-duty Room Operator.
-
CHANGED
–
Some users were taking advantage of line wrapping in
the /me command in the chat windows of the Online
Rally Rooms, making the beginning of the wrapped
line show another player’s name, resulting in the
appearance that both they and the person they
targeted used the /me command separately. This led to people believe that the targeted player for this
abuse was saying something with the /me command, and
it caused several arguments, and raised concerns
over manipulating the system.
They would type something like “/me likes
donuts”, followed by many, many spaces, then
“OtherPlayerName thinks you all stink.”
The result was that it would look like two
separate lines, the top reading “PlayerName likes
donuts” and the second line reading
“OtherPlayerName thinks you all stink.”, leading
others to believe that the targeted person (OtherPlayerName)
actually said they thought everyone stunk.
This has been made impossible by wrapping
player names in “/me messages” with double angle
brackets, like “<<OtherPlayerName>>”.
-
CHANGED
– Table chat text no longer disappears on the
table window when all players leave, letting you
continue to read was said at the table until you
join a new table, start a new non-Rally Rooms game,
or close the program.
-
CHANGED
– Auto-silence feature be triggered under “false positive”
conditions under stressful network conditions.
To prevent unfair auto-silencing
(anti-flooding/scrolling feature), all chat messages
and other “auto-silence” trigger-able protocol
components are now marked with built-in marker to
help determine time of entry/transmission, rather
than time of arrival at the server.
-
FIXED
–
Silence feature was unfairly silencing some players
for ridiculous periods of time, for example,
2,353,234,253 seconds!
The silence feature has been revamped to
eliminate this problem.
-
FIXED
– Fixed the language filters so "grass"
doesn't get filtered when it's the first word (in
version 2.45 and earlier, saying "that's
grass" was OK, but saying "Grass is
green" was not, and got filtered.)
-
FIXED
– Player quotes were not getting filtered properly
(profanity/language filters) for players with their
filter settings to “off”, and Chat Filters were
enforced at the server.
If a player had their chat filters set to
“on”, regardless of the server setting, they
would previously work, however, the idea of
“enforced” chat filters is that all
inappropriate language is to be filtered.
This has been fixed.
RALLY
ROOMS
-
ADDED
– Added a “Buddy” feature that allows you to
specify a buddy’s “friendly name”, and whether
they are a friend, enemy, lover, or suspected
cheater, etc. This
way, even if a buddy (or enemy!) changes their name,
you can see that it is them when they log in.
The Buddy feature also allows you to assign a
category icon for other users, among which are:
“Coolest Friend” (smiley face w/ shades),
“Friend” (smiley face), “Indifferent”
(serious face), “Enemy” (angry red face),
“Lover” (heart), “Competitor” (trophy), and
“Cheater” (computer).
-
ADDED–
Added new option when searching for a player in the
rooms to search by Buddy Name.
The option is located in the “Locate
Player” screen from the Rally Rooms Selection
screen, and is titled, “Search using Buddy
Names”.
-
ADDED
- Created
the “/cmd” generic command interface for
entering any new commands that are introduced since
the last version of the client software.
Command syntax is: “/cmd /othercommand
parameters”, for example, “/cmd /kick JohnDoe
Kicked for being rude to people.”
This allows us to create new commands at the
server level, and have it available through this
interface, before the new client with the new
commands is released.
(Note: Generally speaking, existing commands
that are available directly in the client are not
supported through this interface.)
-
ADDED
–
Created new /idle Room Operator command to see how
long a player in the Rally Rooms has been idle.
This is useful for determining why a person
may not answer private messages, etc., and also, in
the event that the room is full, and 10 people have
been idle for an extremely long period of time, the
Administrator can politely kick those users to free
up space.
-
ADDED
–
Created new /ping command to allow players to see
how long data takes to move from their computer to
another player’s computer and back again.
-
ADDED
–
Added new right-click context sensitive menus on
Player List in the Rally Rooms with a series of
shortcut commands for commonly used commands, plus
several fun new commands!
-
ADDED
– Added a “note” to the Room Kick & Ban
confirmations for Room Operators that tells them if
the player is currently in a game.
This may help them decide to postpone an
action for minor infractions until the player has
concluded their game.
-
ADDED
–
Auto-Away feature added, so inactive users for 15
minutes or more are automatically set to Away, then
set back to normal when activity resumes.
(Manual selection of Away status still
requires manual deselection.)
-
ADDED
– Made
a new “cancel” button to cancel room logins that
take too long.
-
ADDED
–
Added the ability to sort players by rating, table,
or name in the player list on the main Rally Room
window. (In
all previous versions, the player list always sorted
by player name only.)
-
ADDED
–
Made Room Operators’ names changed in color to
appear in royal blue in the player list on the main
Rally Room window.
This helps new players identify who is in
charge. Similarly,
Ingenuware personnel appear in green.
-
ADDED
–
Created a new service class of user for volunteer
chess tutors. Volunteer
chess tutors appear in Purple in the player list on
the main Rally Room window.
-
ADDED
– Reserved names now can exist for the Online
Rally Rooms. To
reserve a name in the Public Rally Rooms, you must
be a Gold Edition customer.
To support this new feature, we added new /reservename
and /unreservename commands to the server.
-
ADDED
– Added a new “Ready” player status type in
the Player List in the Rally Rooms screen.
Previously, a player’s status could be
“Table X (Play)”, “Chatting”, “Away”, or
“Ignored”.
Previously, if a player was sitting at a
table alone, it would still read “Table X
(Play)” in spite of the fact that a game was not
actually in progress.
The new Ready status was added to that list
to indicate a player sitting at a table waiting for
an opponent to join the game.
It now reads “Table X (Ready)” instead of
“Table X (Play)”.
(Note: Players actually in a game still read
“Table X (Play)”)
-
ADDED
–
Added a new /leavemsg Room Operator command to leave
messages to other users for the next time they log
into the Rally Rooms.
Syntax is “/leavemsg <{PUID}>”.
-
ADDED–
Added new /give general purpose command for the
Online Rally Rooms.
A user can enter “/give {playername}
{gift}”, and everyone will see “<POOF> As
if by magic, {gift} from {giver} appears for {playername}.”,
or some other random “fun” message of a gift.
-
ADDED
–
Added four new chat commands for pulling up the End
User License Agreement: “/eula” or
“/agreement”; and for the specific area that
relates to Rally Rooms Terms of Service: “/tos”
or “/termsofservice”.
-
ADDED
–
Added new /playercount Rally Room command for
showing how many players were in the room.
-
ADDED
– Added new /time command to let Rally Room
players know when they logged in and how long
they’ve been on.
-
ADDED
– Added new “{player} was kicked|banned by
{operator}” messages to the Online Rally Rooms, so
users would know that the Operators were doing their
job, and the offender didn’t just leave.
This will hopefully be a good deterrent for
potentially abusive users that witness it.
-
ADDED
– Added new /resetrating command for
Administrative users (or Room Operators with access)
to reset ratings and game stats for specific
players. This
feature works by having the Admin or Operator
initiate the command, then the user is prompted if
they wish for the rating and stats to be reset.
If they agree, then the rating and stats are
immediately reset to the default.
As an optional parameter for Admins only, an
Admin can FORCE the rating and stats to be reset. This is to be handled with extreme care, and must ONLY be
forced on users for which there is sufficient
evidence to prove that they’ve tampered with the
ratings system.
-
ADDED
–
Created a new Room Operator command, “/tablekick”
to allow Room Operators to kick a player (Other than
their opponent) from a table that they do not
control. (This
will allow them to kick a player from hogging a
table while idle for extended periods of time.)
-
ADDED
–
Created a new Room Operator, Tutor, and Admin
command, “/announce” to allow Room Operators,
Tutors, and Administrators to send a red
announcement to everyone in the room.
-
ADDED
– A new “Adjourn / Postpone Game” menu item
(under the “Game” menu) has been added for Rally
Rooms games. This
new feature saves the game, gets permission from the
opponent of the person that initiates the
“Postpone Game” command, and if approval is
given, then temporarily ends the game without rating
or otherwise completing the game (such as a
resignation), allowing the players to temporarily
quite the game in order to reload it at another time
and resume it.
-
ADDED
–
Added a new Gold Star type Player Icon for VIPs.
This is used for fee-based tutors (FIDE
Masters, Grandmasters, etc.), and for Special
Guests.
-
ADDED
–
Added a new Room Operator/Admin command, “/vip
set|clear {PlayerName}” to allow the setting of
VIP status to specific players.
-
ADDED
–
Tutors divided into two categories based on Free and
Fee based lessons.
Fee based lessons are given by FIDE Masters
and Grandmasters for a fee, and Free lessons will be
given by individuals who have shown themselves able
to teach, but do not have a Master or higher FIDE
rating. The
Fee based tutors are branded with a VIP Gold Star
player icon with their name showing up in purple,
and the Free Tutors are not branded with a special
icon, but do show up with their name in purple.
(NOTE: As far as paying the fee-based Tutors
(the FM/IM/GM type), this may be handled by
Ingenuware, or it may be done as a private
transaction between the players and the tutors.
This can change at any time at Ingenuware’s
sole discretion.)
-
ADDED
–
Added a new Room Operator command “/gamestatus”,
which allows an Operator to view the current game.
Specifically, it creates a ChessRally saved
game in the “Game Status” folder for them to
review, with complete information.
This will help Operators find clock abusers
that just sit there, hoping to bore their opponents
into resigning.
-
ADDED
–
Rally Rooms Server software now displays number of
connected users from the Windows task bar for easy
reference, and also contains system tray context
menus for shutdown, etc.
-
CHANGED
–
In previous versions, the way time (and timeouts on
events) was managed on the server was done with the
system clock. This
has been changed to maintain times by the High
Performance Counter.
The HPC is more precise than the system
clock, and is not subject to changes of the clock,
such as when the clock is changed for Daylight
Savings Time.
-
CHANGED
– In previous versions, when exiting a Rally Room
by way of quitting ChessRally (closing the program),
the user was prompted TWICE, once to log off, then
once to close ChessRally.
This was a little burdensome, so it was
condensed to one confirmation.
-
CHANGED
–
When a player asked for permission from the table
host to join their table, if permission was granted
while the player that asked for permission cancelled
the request, the permission is now held is being
“granted” for 30 seconds, so if the player tries
to enter within the 30 seconds, they are given
permission. This
corrects the problem of people canceling and upon
retrying, being greeted by an automatic refusal,
which looked like the host was being hostile.
Note: if the table host does not grant
permission, no such “extension period” is
granted.
-
CHANGED
–
In previous versions, the main Room Screen would
minimize when a player sat at a table to play or
watch. This
has been changed so the Room Screen is just hidden
behind the Main game/table screen.
This was done to work around a glitch in
Visual Basic (the programming language that
ChessRally’s user interface was created in) where
showing a modal dialog box when a window was
minimized, then clicking on the minimized Windows’
task bar item, would cause ChessRally to appear
non-responsive.
The game is still responsive, however, one
must click on another application’s window (or
task bar button… the “Start” menu works fine
too…) to reset the focus within the program to
normal.
-
CHANGED
–
Circular symbols (and very tiny characters), such as
© and ® no longer allowed in the beginning of a
player name in the Online Rally Rooms, to avoid
confusion with the Room Operator symbol of @.
-
CHANGED
– Changed ratings icons (the icons next to player
names in the Online Rally Rooms’ player lists) to
have a farther reaching, and more natural spread,
allowing lower rated players to shed their pawn
icons earlier on, while making the highest icons
(queen and king) still difficult to achieve.
The old spread was <=1599, 1600 to 1749,
1750 to 1899, 1900 to 2149, 2150 to 2299, and
>=2300. The
new spread is <=1399, 1400 to 1549, 1550 to 1749,
1750 to 1999, 2000 to 2299, and >=2300.
-
CHANGED
– Changed the order of the ratings icons (the
icons next to player names in the Online Rally
Rooms’ player lists) from position that they
appear on the board (“pawn”, “rook”,
“knight”, “bishop”, “queen”, “king”)
to position of power, based on points (P) and the
most squares it can possibly control (S).
The new order (in P:S) is: ( “pawn”
(1:2), “knight” (3:8), “bishop” (3:13),
“rook” (5:14), “queen” (9:27), “king”
(200:8).)
-
CHANGED
– Room Operators are no longer allowed to enable
the Ignore Private Messages feature.
For Room Operators, the Ignore Private
Messages checkbox is now disabled and permanently in
the unchecked state.
This was done to prevent users from not being
able to get help from a Room Operator if what they
needed help for required the discretion of private
messages.
-
CHANGED
– When a player is Ignoring Private Messages or
Ignoring a player that is also a Room Operator, if
the Room Operator is active, any private messages
from them have always been allowed to go through
regardless of those ignore settings.
However, when the private message came
through regardless, being preceded with “JohnDoe
(Privately):”, led some players into believing
they were hacked or the game wasn’t working
properly, which was not at all true.
To alleviate those concerns, the private
messages from active room operators, that would
otherwise have been ignored, are now preceded with
“JohnDoe (Privately from Room Operator [Overrides
Ignore]):” (“JohnDoe”
is just an example… replace it with the Room
Operator’s actual player name.)
-
CHANGED
– Players are no longer allowed to ask for a new
game, to setup the board, to load a saved game, or
to import a game into an existing Rally Rooms game
more frequently than once per move.
This was done to prevent harassing one’s
opponent with such requests.
-
CHANGED
– The “In Game/Table Rules & Options”
screen has been modified to also be the ”Really
Play This Game?” screen, replacing the previous
basic message box query for “Really Play This
Game?” This
allows the user to more easily see what game
they’re getting into.
It now displays to the player that is not
hosting the table on ALL new games, no matter
how they entered the game, even if they are already
at the table and sit to play from a spectator
position. This
will help the user back out of a game they don’t
want to play, so no one will feel they were duped
into playing a game with undesirable house rules.
(Also, the screen now notifies the player
that they can back out of the game once it’s
started without penalty if they haven’t yet made
any moves, but once they have made a move, they are
committed to the game, and must resign if they wish
to leave.) This
screen now displays all game info, and offers highly
visible warnings for non-standard rules, and a
summary line which may read, “Warning: Unusual
Time Control Settings”, “Notice: Odd House
Rules”, “Rules fully comply with the FIDE Laws
of Chess”, etc.
-
CHANGED
–
In previous versions, when playing at a table, the
table host was required to get their opponent’s
permission to set up a new game. Once their opponent granted permission to set up a new game,
the game automatically started when the new game is
set up, without the opponent having the opportunity
to preview the new rules prior to approval.
Now, the table host first sets up the new
game, the parameters of which are sent to their
opponent for approval or decline.
If the opponent accepts the new game/new
rules, the new game begins.
However, if the opponent rejects the new
rules, the current game then resumes, and the new
game is cancelled.
This was done to prevent unscrupulous hosts
from taking advantage of the fact that some players
may be assuming the rules are the same as the
previous game, and changing the rules (such as long
game times for “squatting”) so they get an
advantage.
-
CHANGED
–
Made the popup box that tells spectators that they
are waiting for the players to decide whether to
play again an optional screen. It was a generally unnecessary screen, and was distracting
for some players.
This is now an option which can be turned on
or off, at |
