Hi!
It has been a while since I posted on this forum. Have you guys missed me? :-)
I have updated the version number to 4.6 with these fine improvements:
Backgammon Studio 4.6
Improvements since 4.5:
- New actiontags:
- Make golden board or not - A homeboard consisting of your 4,5 and 6 point is very strong. Might be worth taking some risk to make?
- Double jump or not - Jump both checker past a prime in a bid to escape to feedom?
- New training tracks:
- Gammon ghosts! You've got two checkers on the bar and you've just been cubed but you're not afraid of gammon ghosts are you?
- Blocking power! Split your back checkers and hit in your homeboard. Is a tempo hit the key here?
- Other improvements:
- New registration process. Your email is validated while you register. Less risk of invalid registrations.
- What happened to my registration? Now there is a chance to find out with a registration query.
- New online match challenge dialog.
- Competition/Practice format. You can now play some practice matches that doesn't affect your stats.
- You can mute players.
- You can ignore players.
- New login screen.
- New introduction pages.
- Rematch isn't blocked by busy flag.
- Browse some tournaments without being logged in.
- Support for premium tournaments (requires premium to join with a first prize!)
- Support for invitational tournaments.
- You can filter videos in the match video transcription section.
- Those who find it hard to locate the right mousebutton on mobiles/tablets there is now a dedicated button for swapping dice order.
- More info when resigning/leaving unfinished matches.
- Poking opponents for incomplete matches now needs approval from both players.
- Going to the match lobby from private database triggers a switch to public db dialog (you can only play matches in the public db).
- Matches can now be manually resolved. If someone left a match that was lost but didn't complete it you can request it to be resolved.
- PR graph now also displays individual values.
- Tournament now displays flags beside usernames.
- Bugfixes:
- When reviewing a match the score is now correct on the board frame.
- Match cleanup is posponed a bit so that you shouldn't have problems getting the last match moves update. I haven't seen the bug myself but the server log suggests that it can sometimes happen.
- Navigation problems from lobby when viewing My matches/My PR graph and going back to lobby.
- Going back from the match lobby on a phone and then rotating screen sent you back to the lobby.
- Some layout problems on mobile on first login.
- Display the site on mobile. Put the phone to sleep. Rotate the device. Turn on phone. Layout was now incorrect.
- Scrolling of the move list on iPad had stopped working. Reported by erroneous.
Some images
New training track! You have two checkers on the bar and have been cubed. Do you see gammon ghosts or is there nothing to worry about?
This one is just as hard as the previous ones! :-) A case in point where the 3 first positions I was faced with were from Mochy, Michy and then Falafel. This is a situation that is not easy to evaluate even for the best players in the world!
It is always interesting to see what kind of positons new actiontags are able to locate. I found this one quite interesting and would have made an even bigger error than Phil here! :-)
New login screen that spills the beans on what I have been working on recently. Backgammon Studio Heroes!
Links to new about pages for both the old and the new server.
An option to check what happened to your registration in case you didn't receive any confirmation email. 100+ users have failed to registered as there were problems with sending the emails.
A new match challenge dialog with some new features. You can mute/ignore other players. On an open server you can sometimes run into someone that isn't as nice as you'd expect.
There is a practice format where no statistics is registered. These matches aren't stored so if you leave such a match in the middle of it the match is gone and can't be resumed. No reason to worry that you'll reach the incomplete match limit with this type of match.
There is now more info when you leave a match before it is over. Rage quitting can sometimes be a problem but this just creates more problems once you fill up your incomplete quota and need to meet up with these players again.
I have added a new registration process which checks the email address you enter while you fill in your other details. If the server fails to reach you on this address (bounced emails) you will be notified and can correct it before you submit the registration.
As you start to reach a lot of matches your PR graph will start to flatten out but now it also contains individual results which gives you additional information even if the graph is rather flat. Looks like I have had a couple of accidents the last month but mostly play at or below my average. Fair enoough!..
Support for premium tournaments. I didn't win my 3months premium! Doh! :-)
Support for invitational tournaments. Could come in handy! :-)
In other news
The other day the number of online matches went past 60000! Awesome! :-)
That is +30000 since version 4.5!
Almost 1300 new users since version 4.5! Not too bad but I am sure there are more backgammon players out there! Spread the word!
The number of matches in the database went past 10000 not so long ago. Pretty awesome! Thanks a lot to everyone who has submitted transcribed matches!
Backgammon Studio The Swiss Army knife of backgammon!
Haven't tried Backgammon Studio yet? You should! :-)
Best regards,
TP