new Twixt server REAL TIME & FREE TWIXT PP

28 replies. Last post: 2004-11-29

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new Twixt server REAL TIME & FREE
  • David J Bush ★ at 2004-03-19

    Check out http://www.k2z.org/k2z_en.html for a free realtime Twixt server. They are not fully Twixt-compliant yet, but this coming Sunday they should be one step closer, with the swap rule implemented. The server is online all the time, but players tend to meet at approximately 2 pm to 5 pm Eastern Standard US time, which is the same as 8 pm to 11 pm Central European Time. Sundays at 3pm EST / 9 pm CET is the “official” weekly meeting time. They have a downloadable client for Windows, and a Java client for (hopefully) everyone.

    Once the swap rule is in place, just one more hurdle remains: Link removal. I will announce here when that is accomplished. In the meantime, I'm sure they would love to see more players show up there. I hope you can get there this coming Sunday! My handle there is twixter.

  • David Milne at 2004-03-19

    Well I signed up and had a quick look at the site. I connected but saw nobody else about. I looked at a saved played game. The game review screen had the size of a postage stamp and had a very eccentric and unpleasant appearance. I hope that actual live game playing screen looks very different. Otherwise I will be totally uninterested in playing here :-((

  • David J Bush ★ at 2004-03-20

    I assume you are talking about the Windows client. The game board window can be maximized inside the K2z window. If you click on the View menu and then unselect “server bar” (or press F9) then there will be more room for the board window. If you click on Settings->Board options… then unselect “crossing lines” the board won't look like graph paper any more. The client doesn't have any Help menu, but if you try the different menu options you can find out for yourself what you can do. For example, you can change the colors of the pieces if you wish. When examining games, the board has a green background. But when playing a game, the board has a white background with a “textured” effect. You can choose whatever colors you want for the pieces, to show up well against these backgrounds. The default colors are not bad.

    Although the complete ruleset isn't yet implemented there, other features are already in place. Row handicapping is available. A rating system is in place. You can set a time limit for each player to make all the moves of the game. The default value of 300 sec (5 minutes) per player is a bit fast for a full size board. I recommend at least 900 seconds (15 min.)

    Based on the time of your post, David, I'm not surprised no one else was there. But I hope you can be there at 3 pm EST this coming Sunday. You may want to download the new client which should be in place by then, which will have the swap rule implemented.

  • Flemming Jensen ★ at 2004-04-19

    Hi all

    David writes:

    “Check out http://www.k2z.org/k2z_en.html for a free realtime Twixt server.”

    I have checked it out and find it most promissing. Realy a nice interface. And only so many features, that makes it possible to use and play.

    I hope some of you guys will join the server, so we can have some games over there.

    My username there is FLMZ. Give me an email, and we can make a game-date.

    BTW: I have asked for a international clock-feature and a

    forum to make game-dates. Let's see.

    regards Flemming

  • Dan Mircea Vasilescu at 2004-04-21

    great; the link does not work for me

  • Dan Mircea Vasilescu at 2004-04-21

    It worked with http://www.k2z.org/

    I played already 2 games with juha

  • Juha at 2004-04-21

    Hi Dan, where did you go from there k2z? Or does it not work very well?

  • David J Bush ★ at 2004-04-21

    Apparently the website is now located at http://www.k2z.org/. I hope more and more players will meet there. In general, around 2 to 4 pm East Coast US time is a good time to meet. But maybe other times are good also.

    Link removal is still not implemented, but I'm sure they are working on it.

  • Dan Mircea Vasilescu at 2004-04-21

    I will try to stay on the server as long I am in the office (7AM-17PM GMT)

  • Flemming Jensen ★ at 2004-04-21

    David writes:

    “Apparently the website is now located at http://www.k2z.org/. I hope more and more players will meet there. In general, around 2 to 4 pm East Coast US time is a good time to meet. But maybe other times are good also.”

    The time difference is +6 hours to your times. So it sounds resonable. Mayby prolonged to 2 to 6 pm

    2 to 6 pm East Coast US time is evening, 20:00 to Midnight in Europe.

    Weekends are much better, with a US-morning/Europe-Afternoon scenario both Saturday adn Sunday.

    Regards Flemming

    PS: I have had my first games at K2Z, and found it most thrilling.

  • na_wspak at 2004-04-23

    we can expect twixt on kurnik soon! after implementation of 4 new games webmaster got enough free time to work on twixt!

  • David J Bush ★ at 2004-05-31

    LINK REMOVAL is almost ready for public consumption on K2z!! This is the LAST HURDLE to reach complete rules compliance. The K2z server already has lots of nice bells and whistles:

    \* row handicapping option

    \* timed games

    \* a rating system is in place

    \* different board sizes are possible

    \* games can be saved and examined with the client

    \* Windows or Java client, both free for download

    \* chat and whisper commands possible

    \* The user can set the colors of the pieces

    \* up to 4 observers are allowed to watch a game

    I believe some sort of link removal-compatible client will be available by this coming Sunday the 6th of June.

    I am personally available most evenings during the week, and almost any time on the weekends. I live on the East Coast of the US. Just let me know when you want to play!

  • David J Bush ★ at 2004-09-23

    Link removal has been implemented! (For the Windows client, anyway.) The client has access to online help pages as well. Players can analyze their game “post mortem” on the client after the game ends! You can even back up and make alternate moves! And there are the usual bells and whistles: row handicapping, user-selectable time controls, and several display options.

    Philippe has devoted an incredible amount of effort to making his server work well. And he is quite a strong player! I hope you will log on some time soon and play!

    Around 9-10 pm Central European time, which is 3-4 pm East Coast US time, is when players tend to meet. There is a new feature available which may help players to connect. When you click the red icon in the taskbar to log off, you can leave a message if you intend to return soon. Players who log on can see a list of logout messages over the past six hours. So, if you just missed someone, you may still be able to meet them a little later.

    K2z kicks butt!!!

  • Philippe Van Schendel at 2004-09-26

    hi there,

    thx a lot David for the promotion :)

    yesterday i met Tim, we played 3 games, that was cool.

    I invite people tonight at 9pm. i usually try to gather people

    on sunday evening at 9 continental european time.

    Version 1.3.10 is under beta test, it will be released soon

    with cool new features.

    see u there.

  • ypercube at 2004-09-26

    Nice work philippe. I'll try to be there tonight. If my wife lets me.

    Anyone interested in meeting me at hours 6 - 12 GMT (London time) ?

  • Philippe Van Schendel at 2004-09-27

    new 1.3.10 version available !!!

    \* list of moves diplayed while playing or replaying a game

    \* full support of removed link for replay games (no crossing)

    \* easy right click menu to configure board, colors…etc

    \* new board menu to create an empty board, to analyse openings, copy move sequence to clipboard, etc (link remove supported)

    \* easy screenshot feature from board right click menu

    i hope you will enjoy

  • ypercube at 2004-09-28

    Nice work Philippe. Here is a direct link so that anyone can download the latest version 1.3.10.

    I wa sgoing to make a complain about the time shown in the messages of the logged out players. Then I realized time is shown in my time zone. Actually the server translates the times to one's time zone. Great job!

  • ypercube at 2004-09-28

    Another thing that could be implemented in the next version is : swap allowed at unrated games (of equal sizes boards).

  • Philippe Van Schendel at 2004-09-28

    yes it would be easy to allow swap for non rated but square games.

    But i will have to rebuild the opening database of my bot :)

    About the time zone..thx for the compliment, but i think i dont deserve it.. i did not know the time was translated into the player time zone… and what about the server time displayed in the status bar ? is it coherent ??

    may be its the library i use that does the time zone translating.

    Anyway, version 1.3.10 is really pleasant to use. i can see

    an increase of the number of games played every evening.

    I hope k2z will reach the critical mass soon.

    if you have ideas or suggestions, please visit k2z forum:

    www.k2z.org/forum

    cya all

  • Philippe Van Schendel at 2004-09-30

    how about a TWIXT evening on K2Z Sunday October 3rd ???

    nothing serious, just to have fun playing TWIXT.

    9pm central european time (GMT+1)

  • Pawel Grabowski at 2004-09-30

    good idea. it would be nice to meet over 10 players at real time twixt server at the same time. count me in :)

  • David J Bush ★ at 2004-09-30

    “yes it would be easy to allow swap for non rated but square games.

    But i will have to rebuild the opening database of my bot :)”

    Ssssss, stupid fat hobbit bot. Tricksy! False! Won't let the second player swap. Ought to wring its filthy neck! Gollum! Gollum! But we beat it anyway, didn't we precious. Oh yes we did, my love…

  • ypercube at 2004-10-01

    Another Tolkien fan revealed. :)

  • Philippe Van Schendel at 2004-10-01

    lol David… are you feeling alright ???

    This site should be renamed LittleGollum ;)

    It would be cool to see 10 people online on real time TWIXT.

    Did you notice my bot learned to speak ?

    cya

  • Pawel Grabowski at 2004-10-01

    yes i've seen already your bot has AI, he told me that i needed more training ;) he is also very smart, he don't give me a chance to swap ;). next time maybe i could talk with him about weather?? ;)

  • Philippe Van Schendel at 2004-10-27

    12 games have been played last night on K2Z server.

    I think its one of the best number.

    Too bad some players have missed each others by a couple of minutes.

    you can find players from 8pm to midnight european time, almost every day.

    what about a big get together next sunday 31th of october.

    Halloween on K2Z.

    Keep fighting.

    \pvs

  • Philippe Van Schendel at 2004-11-26

    Hi there,

    K2Z client version 1.3.12 is ready and available for download.

    A lot of bug fixes, and some more features.

    This client can read and replay SGF game format (from LG)

    Game database feature to easily access your games (offline)

    Come and have fun

  • Philippe Van Schendel at 2004-11-29

    199 players registered so far and more than 30 games played during the week end.

    K2Z is slowly becoming popular.

    Thx to those who came last night and saturday, it was fun

    and very interesting to see high level games.

    Cool to be able to analyse online the game just after it is finished. Comments from very strong players like Twixter, Tim and Alan are usefull and help to improve.

    thx to you and cu soon :)

    \pvs

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