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ramlyon Not Diamond — new SOTA meta-model

Super cool to see this on HN. Saw Tomas demo an early version of it last year. Very neat work and the team behind it is brilliant.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

That's a pretty interesting perspective given that all pieces in EC follow standard chess movements and capturing mechanisms. It's certainly a variant, which makes it more interesting imho. In the puzzle world you could refer to such a game as a chess-like.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Makes sense

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Yeah I tried experimenting with that a bit at the beginning. For some reason it kept looking too '3D-ish' compared to the rest of the flat material design. Do you have any visual examples you've seen of something closer to what you have in mind? Would be super helpful, thanks.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

That's a great idea too. Thanks guys, please keep the suggestions coming if you have other thoughts.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Thanks so much for reading this beast of a tech article haha! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm surprised people are actually reading the whole thing lol. Thank you for the kind words.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

All fully resolved now :) please see here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39840172

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

FYI if anyone temporarily experienced a missing puzzle yesterday, I'm sorry this is the first experience that you were welcomed in. The HN hug is real.

Had to run around switching servers asap but thankfully the rest of the puzzles and Zen Mode stayed intact and playable.

Everything is back up and running right now on https://echochess.com/

If you're still experiencing a missing puzzle situation, please try clearing your browser cache and reloading if possible (if you had installed the app locally on your device, re-installing should do the same).

If any issue remains, please let me know and I'll be fixing it ASAP. Will also push a new release very soon with many of the early fixes identified by the community.

Thank you all for bringing so much love and passion to echo chess. How'd you do on the Classic today? :)

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Thanks for the helpful input on this. Concerning the zen mode constraint, do you feel like the countdown timer is what's feeling off-putting to you, or is it the combo reset on shuffling?

Many players who love this mode are also fans of blitz chess. Curious if you're into rapid/bullet modes in general or that's not really your cup of tea.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

wait o.O are these real chess facts or some meme hypotheticals? if the former then that's a huge TIL.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it and really grateful for the support

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Yep! It's accessible from any device/browser on echochess.com

you can actually install it locally on any device straight from there too (e.g. on iOS if you're in Safari you can tap share > add to Home Screen)

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Thanks edanm, really glad you're enjoying echo chess! Very good point, will iterate on that. Would it help if the obstacle squares had some pattern/texture in them or something like an 'x' inside instead of simply being a different color?

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Hey gverrilla, looks like you tried the game when the traffic was at the peak and the server crashed temporarily. If you'd like to give it another try, we're fully live again online.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Thanks, that's helpful

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

First time I see that! Not the most intuitive interactions imho but fun game to try.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Good point otteromkram. Thanks for the input

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Great points, thanks for sharing the feedback. Noted for #1. For #2, did you mean separately from the results screen you get at the end of a daily puzzle? That screen shows a move efficiency bar at the bottom with something like

"Only 12 moves! Best is 10"

Granted this will be displayed in a much better way over time.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

I feel you haha. Don't worry though, in Echo Chess a king is pretty much equivalent to a queen given that it's always your turn. Obviously move counts are different and the struggle in Zen Mode is real.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Thank you dang for your support from the earliest days of this game. Very thankful for welcoming me into the HN community with echo chess.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

TIL this song exists and my life has already improved. Thank you for this hidden gem.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Site back up online! Thank you everyone for bearing with me on this and sorry for keeping you waiting with the wrong daily puzzle config. You guys literally broke the game. GG HN. GG.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Hey guys, super fair feedback, sorry for missing the mark on this as I was trying to keep the login flow convenient for mobile users through Twilio Verify code. See more here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39831178

Really appreciate the callout. Very fair point. Will change this for sure to email/username or similar. Will keep improving on the game thanks to you guys' input. Thanks!

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Hey TheRealPomax, just reading this. Super fair point about the phone number. It was only meant to be there for keeping the login convenient for mobile users through Twilio verify. Totally see your point though and I can see how this could be interpreted instead. Will be changing this to email/username instead. Really appreciate the feedback, it's incredibly helpful. Thank you.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

That's very nice to hear, thank you vlw. I think there is a good argument on both sides. This is one of those areas where I will definitely be making improvements down the line with a proper settings menu for sounds, visuals, etc. Really appreciate the feedback!

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

100% fair. Sorry about that quantxx. The mobile login was only meant to facilitate the login for mobile users through quick Twilio verification. Will move that to username or email instead. Really appreciate the feedback.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Thanks guys, super helpful feedback! Sorry about that, the Twilio phone login was meant to make it more convenient for the mobile users to keep going with a direct code. I can totally see how that's perceived though, you're 100% correct. Will be changing the auth to username or email instead.

Very helpful feedback, will get this right. Thanks again for the feedback guys.

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

FYI - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39828765

Fixing this asap. Thanks for reporting ddejohn!

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Makes total sense, very helpful nuance. Will keep that in mind!

ramlyon Chess puzzle, but you are what you capture

Trying my best to fix this asap guys. Hugging you all back, thanks for all the support.