Messages

Alright, so here is the audio file.

http://chaos.foxmage.com/iso/Other/+ve F.ogg

I'll be frank: I went over and listened to the piece over and over again and again for a while now in different circumstances, and it managed to become such a regular part of my brain that it has begun to be slowly digested!

The result is that bits of Positive Force is coming apart, and when that happens, I can slowly recompose it into a format that I'm comfortable with.

Sheet music.

In a way, it ś a transcription: I try to faithfully copy every last instrument in the original. But due to a strange quirk of the sheet music program that I use (MuseScore) it only allows orchestral instruments. So what I did was to map each bit of the piece to an instrument, add in a couple of embellishments and tweaks, and voilà, the transcription has become a remix. Instruments used are piano, drums, cymbals and a string quartet.

So, that's what happened. The transcription is named "+ve F⃑", which, you'll be glad to know, is pronounced exactly the same way as the original.

(If you can't see it, there is a small one-sided arrow pointing to the right ⇀ on top of the F. In Unicode parlance, it's a harpoon; in physics and maths, this represents that the F is representing a vector. F⃑ is a shorthand for "force" or "applied force".)

I'm not nearly done with it yet (this is a long piece!) but I'm making steady progress.

Unfortunately, the image files are very big so what I am going to do is to upload a single .mscz file. This is the MuseScore file I am writing this piece with and as such I will continue to update it from time to time. The best thing is that it is teeny-tiny at 17 kB.

PREDIT: wait, zip only? Well then, a .mscz inside a .zip then. It should be 16 kB.

Oh, all I have is my ears. I have nothing else to base it on, so errors are going to be there. This includes volume errors (which given the environment is inevitable) and simply mishearing or not hearing certain notes. I will soon include an audio file, but not now.

I will also include the sheet music, but instead of hotlinking them I will simply link them. Watch out though, they're still 200 kB monsters and not something to be trifled with. They're high-enough resolution to print.

http://chaos.foxmage.com/iso/Other/+ve F-1.png
http://chaos.foxmage.com/iso/Other/+ve F-2.png
http://chaos.foxmage.com/iso/Other/+ve F-3.png
http://chaos.foxmage.com/iso/Other/+ve F-4.png
http://chaos.foxmage.com/iso/Other/+ve F-5.png
http://chaos.foxmage.com/iso/Other/+ve F-6.png

Okay, so I'm about to begin a sample game for you to see what's going on. I'm making the board (just the spikes and holes; I have got a general-purpose board) and the pieces (just the Spearmen, because I already had the Chancellor, Archbishop and the FIDE pieces.)

I'm going to use the beginning board.

I will notate the game in Algerbraic notation (Ce6, Rxb6, you know those things) and they will be in list format.

If it's screenshots you're after, don't forget to PNGCrush the images before attaching. If you don't include the chrome (especially if you're on Windows Vista+) a full screenshot can easily be smaller than 10 kB.

Yehe, everything is coated in lots of oil and grease.

I like how you changed the room names too. Some of those in the prototype were a bit short/not clever enough.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hea

Basically, they hang around doing nothing in particular. What meaning three letters can convey!

They hea. That's right, they hea.

I will assume that you can simply insert the BBCode...

Code Select Expand

[SIZE=1]I will assume that you can simply insert the BBCode...[/SIZE]

Oh good one, disallowing all the non-integer values and setting the rest to render the same size.

Still, it might be better if smaller sizes are available.

[Spearmen]

I don't usually count the missing compounds (RN, BN, QN) as new, as they are used over and over in fairy chesses anyway. They are also relatively easy to pick up to one who is used to FIDE Chess (if I remember correctly, if you replace White's Queen with a RN then it is the "Introduction to Fairy Chess" Chess).

I admit that it does sound a bit cheaty and such.

More pressing are the Pawns, which are replaced with Spearmen (the shield and spear graphic). Because of the nature of the boards, FIDE Pawns get a very short stick: their momentum can very easily carry them to the edge of the board or into spikes. Thus this piece has to be introduced. I presume it's still difficult to rescue spearmen from their inevitable death at spikes, but I'll test them out later on.

Spearmen move one square in the direction they point in. They can either point straight ahead, or they can point to either side of that square:

\	----a----	----b----	----c----
3	·	°	·
2		Sf
1

\	----a----	----b----	----c----
3	°	·	·
2		Sl
1

\	----a----	----b----	----c----
3	·	·	°
2		Sr
1

They both move and capture in that direction. At the beginning, they all point straight ahead.

Spearmen can change their direction any time they like, without costing a move. They can do it before or after they move.

They promote on entering the last rank.

Hey guys, I made the complete starting array. I decided to keep it simple, so no scary new piece types to remember.

[Pieces: 2: The Rook]

Pieces: 2: The Rook



The Rook may move any number of squares horizontally without momentum, or any number of squares vertically with momentum.

You can't beat my pronunciation: "Voiced Fricative Overload".

[Pieces: 1: The King]

Pieces: 1: The King

The King has a jetpack. He does not have momentum, vertical or otherwise.

The King has a jetpack. He moves one square in any direction, orthogonal or diagonal.

The King has a jetpack. He is the only one who can float in midair.

One of the Rooks made the jetpack. The bearing of this fact of the game is up to the player, and will be dealt with in the Rook section.\

The King starts on g1 and g12.

(He's very braggish about the jetpack.)

Anyway, the only reason why I gave the King a way to cheat the gravity-flipping system is because the game gets confusing otherwise.

The lack of momentum of the King is also useful for stopping other pieces from falling too much, e.g. into spikes.

And here's my try.

::MCQs::

1. C;
2. D;
3. A;
4. D;
5. C.

::LQs::

(Confidence levels are indicated by stars in <angle brackets>. <*> Means least, <*****> Means most.)

6. Frown Upside Down <***>
7. Viridian <****> and Vitellary <**>
8. The Tower <*****>
9. 19.99999999999... whoops I meant 20.0000000.... <*****>
10. The one 1 square left of the teleporter <***>

11. Victoria <**>
12. I... have no idea. <>
13. Skip. <>
14. No idea. <>
15. Verdigris? <*>

16. No idea. <>
17. Antenna? <*>
18. Swoop and doomS. <*****>
19. By combining together into a massive thingy that breaks walls. <*****>
20. 9.99999999999... whoops I meant 10.0000000.... <*****>


(You have to highlight the text to read it!)

Yes. That's right.

Now, I'm thinking about the pieces. In the meantime I'm making a small presentation about the spike/momentum mechanic.