BGA Connect Four was developed a year ago, so there were rooms for improvement here and there.
Recently I took over as the maintenance developer to fix bugs and add highly requested features.
- Confirmation
Confirm/reset buttons are displayed after placing the disc.
Even a player places 4 discs in a row, the player must confirm the move to win the game.
Red actions (confirm and swap) are irreversible.
Confirmation uses BGA undo framework, so placing a disc and retracting it later will be displayed to the opponent while they are online.
Many abstracts implement confirmation through BGA undo and I hardly see major objections.
Players can switch this option from player preference panel below game screen. The default is 'No' now.
If this option is off, placing the last disc of a turn (equals every disc except swap rule's first two discs) is also irreversible.
- ELO bug of drawn games
ELO did not change in drawn games for some reason. Fixed it.
- Concede
After enough moves progression rate is set to 50%, so the game will allow players to resign after that point.
- Opening rules
Two opening rules are added.
Pie rule: the second player can switch colors after the first move of the first player.
Swap rule: the first player places 3 discs (one red, one yellow, and one red), then the second player can switch colors or keep playing yellow.
- Board sizes
8x9, 9x9, 10x10 are added. 6x7 is still the default and is available in normal mode.
- Statistics
New statistics regarding swaps and win ratio of each board size are added.
- Arena mode
From now on 6x7 will be removed from Arena mode indefinitely, due to the solver issues.
Opening rule is locked as swap, which balances the game and allows more openings to be played (like Soosorv-8 of Renju).
That leaves the board size option for the next Arena season undecided. So I opened a poll for it!
'Free choice' means players may choose the board size they prefer in the lobby setting menu.
Edit: Replaced 8x8 into 8x9 to prevent db solver uses. Sorry for inconvenience but please vote again.
Recently I took over as the maintenance developer to fix bugs and add highly requested features.
- Confirmation
Confirm/reset buttons are displayed after placing the disc.
Even a player places 4 discs in a row, the player must confirm the move to win the game.
Red actions (confirm and swap) are irreversible.
Confirmation uses BGA undo framework, so placing a disc and retracting it later will be displayed to the opponent while they are online.
Many abstracts implement confirmation through BGA undo and I hardly see major objections.
Players can switch this option from player preference panel below game screen. The default is 'No' now.
If this option is off, placing the last disc of a turn (equals every disc except swap rule's first two discs) is also irreversible.
- ELO bug of drawn games
ELO did not change in drawn games for some reason. Fixed it.
- Concede
After enough moves progression rate is set to 50%, so the game will allow players to resign after that point.
- Opening rules
Two opening rules are added.
Pie rule: the second player can switch colors after the first move of the first player.
Swap rule: the first player places 3 discs (one red, one yellow, and one red), then the second player can switch colors or keep playing yellow.
- Board sizes
8x9, 9x9, 10x10 are added. 6x7 is still the default and is available in normal mode.
- Statistics
New statistics regarding swaps and win ratio of each board size are added.
- Arena mode
From now on 6x7 will be removed from Arena mode indefinitely, due to the solver issues.
Opening rule is locked as swap, which balances the game and allows more openings to be played (like Soosorv-8 of Renju).
That leaves the board size option for the next Arena season undecided. So I opened a poll for it!
'Free choice' means players may choose the board size they prefer in the lobby setting menu.
Edit: Replaced 8x8 into 8x9 to prevent db solver uses. Sorry for inconvenience but please vote again.