wish i could slowdown the playback from the game annotation. i can't follow it when it's going that fast and i don't have time to think about what's happening.

one other possibility: they could be added to the game status window as a branch of one of the moves.

it's kind of strange when it has already analyzed a game, and said i have a forced mate opportunity.

then, when i take the move that leads to getting checkmate, the blunder alert comes on. There's no better move than a forced checkmate, yet it tells me:

Leads to 53.c4-c5 d2-b2+ 54.b3-a3 b6-b5 55.c3-c4 b5-b4+ 56.a3-a4 b2-b1 57.e5-b2 e2xb2 58.g5-g6+ h7xg6 59.g3-g4 b2-a2#, which does not exchange any material. Unfortunately, there is no better move.

How is that unfortunate?

Improved PGN tools. I have tried without much success to copy PGN-files (which includes a few different versions of different moves).

Features for generating HTML, RTF etc would be nice.

quote:

Originally posted by CM10Support:
From now on, all the patches that will be released for Chessmaster 10th Edition will only address existing bugs - no new features will be added.

This thread was created to let you tell us what features you want to see in the next installment of the series. It might seem early, (and yes, it is... ) but we needed to clarify this issue.

So, please tell us what do you want to see in a future Chessmaster game.

Thank you for your support,
The CM Team

I would like to see any future versions of CM fully compatible with the DGT board.

Thanks Jaimes

I've been through many gaming communities, since 1999, and only once have I seen game developers ASK people, what would they like to have in the next version of the game. (to mention, that one time, what we asked for in a game, wasn't granted by any way)

So already, you guys are amazing. Respect, Ubi.


So I guess I would like to share my opinion about Chessmaster as well:

What in my eyes makes Chessmaster outstand from other chess games/engines:


Firstly - the looks. It's main menu is already a nice place to be, it's also cleverly sectioned, easy to navigate. 10/10

Secondly - Josh Waitzkins and other Academy lessons are really amazing, this makes the game really shine at it's best. AND - it's really nice to sit down late at night, with a cup of tea, everything silent around, listening to some Grandmaster tell you about a famous/annotated game with detailing. 10/10 ( in the next version add much more annotated famous games with voice recordings - explanations why when where, it's really astonishing experience having that in a chess game !! )

Thirdly - all the lessons were fabulous. I've improved a lot, thanks to Chessmaster. 10/10

Fourthly - the search engine, it really is fantastic - easy to use, easy to group what you've found, easy to find exact of an exact...10/10

Things to improve on:

I'm listing all of things below with a thought in mind, that people nowadays have much better hardware, and you guys really don't have to hold yourself back on making a complicated environment - our PCs will manage.

Firstly - Chessmaster10 is already good - looking game, really, that makes it outstand out of others, but...Somehow those quod-rantic windows make it look somewhat too 'programish'. I personally think that it would be even more successful if you guys made it more - eye candy...

By saying that, I mean - imagine what a nice place it would be to be at, if the main menu, and overall, all the sections were theme-animated...Something alike with 'World of Warcraft'...There could be a Techno theme (lets say everything robotic-looking, all kinds of wires, small flash lights flashing, everything looking LIVE), Middle-Age theme (with a knight standing somewhere on the left, with a nice scenery in the Alpes), Egyptian theme (a desert, ruined Pyraminds, also few people travelling on camels somewhere far away, everything sandy, beige), also something like a Rainforest theme (with a view somewhere in the middle of the forest, deep, only few glimpses of daylight, few cute frogs on big leaves, maybe a colourful bird somewhre in a tree, a nicely skinned snake twined around a branch)...

and also all kinds of sounds co-operating with the whole scenery...it's not that hard to make, some nice highly-detailed models, few wallpapers (or even live modeled sceneries instead of static pictures), and it's more than promisable, that such a game would truely succeed.

Secondly - chess sets. Already you guys have done a great job on it, I could even say that there are too many skins and chess sets. But there was one single flaw with Chessmaster 10 - while being able to select different chess sets, one could not select chess pieces and chess boards separately - for instance - if i want Old Wood Chess pieces and some Egyptian chess board, I cannot have that due to lack of game's ability to let one personalise it.

Also, I think you guys should not strain yourselves with making many themes of animated 3D chess sets...It really is not needed..People don't use them anyways, it's just for the fun of it. So here's what I humbly suggest - make 2-3 animated chess sets instead of 10, but animate them with much much more detail and effects, with much richer surrounding, so that it had a feeling to it.

(oh and by the way - I had been to the theatres when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone came out, and the only thing I can recall from the movie today are those 2 chess games: The Wizard chess (which were actually Lewis chess) and the chess game at the end of the movie, with those huge statues, and all the effects they had (dust, sounds, surounding, flames around, detailing, dusk, atmosphere, animation, overall - everything). SO, it would be really really great if these chess sets (animated) were in Chessmaster 11th edition, I actually bought the Chessmaster 10th with hopes to see something alike, but I was a little disappointed, but neveremind )



So there, that's about it...I honestly wish you guys the strength and good luck, heck - I know what kind of pain game developing can sometimes be.

honestly, i still can't really read chess notation that fast. I wish for the analysis and auto annotation, where it gives the score like:

Score: -0.46 6.d2-d4 e6-e5 7.d4xe5 e7-b4+ 8.b2-c3 b4xc3+ 9.b1xc3 d7xe5 10.f3-f4 e5-g6 11.f4-a4+ c7-c6 12.g1-f3 O-O 13.O-O-O (Time = 3:17, Depth = 3/12)


I wish i could click play and see how that looks.

would like for the game annotation to give annotation on the last move played in an unfinished game. right now it just says "game ends with no result."

It would be nice to have "Opening Repertoire" as part of the personalities to some degree.

wish i could get all the good game analysis when i analyze a game I load from PGN file, then analyze as i can when i play ranked computer players.

like, for example, the graph, telling me what my best move was etc.

also, when a PGN file is messed up, many times it doesn't tell you the right line number and character number for where the mistake is. It's waaay off. That should be corrected.

video conferencing so you can see and chat to the person you are playing.-if you want to!

SUPPORT FOR DUAL AND QUAD CPU

OPTIMIZE FOR AMD ATHLON™ 64 / FX X2 DUAL-CORE AND INTEL CORE™2 EXTREME PROCESSOR,

I WOULD LIKE TO SEE POSITIONS PER SECOND AND TOTAL POSITIONS SEEN. GOOD FOR BENCH MARKS.

SOME KIND OF BENCH MARK TEST...

KICK UP THE HASH TABLES, 2 GIGS OF RAM IS COMMON NOW…

If Ubi had a brainstorming session, at this point with all the information they have, there would be a new chessmaster game. Maybe Ubi is waiting for de Koning, because the engine is hard or impossible to improve. The way that windows XP changed to windows Vista is what Ubi should take notice of and maybe use those elements in the interface. I think the interface accomodates the most people possible but that doesn't mean certain things can't be added. It would be nice to hear what's been happening with Chessmaster, I'm tired of marketing. Blizzard never talks about Diablo 3, though they damn well know that people are begging for it. I think a new edition of Chessmaster isn't desired or even needed as much as a new Diablo, but if things can get better than they are now it would be great. I still really enjoy 10th Edition.

Well, I suppose that the CM team could improve the engine a bit but that would probably not change the "selling potential" very much. I think the team needs to focus on tutorials and imporved database options and target on the "Eager to improve population".

Oh, it would also be nice to have the following option when playing thru Master Games:

"Guess the next move"

The software could keep track of stuff like "number of correct moves", "deviation in evaluation (i.e. how much my suggested move would differ in evaluation from the game move)"

would like to see suggested opening moves for both black and white. especially when reviewing a game i have played. why do i have to choose only one?

ok, an easy one. how about a save and save as button available for when you are analyzing a game. of course the save button will just save it as the same filename as before, where the save as button would give you a choice.

To me, this would be very useful.

One thing that would be nice is to be able to play thematic tournaments or games.

CMX rocks, so lets try to help make an even better Chessmaster 11.


1. Many of us have dual core/quad core PC's. 2GB RAM+. Keep in mind in the future while Chessmaster 11 is used for 3+ years we'll have 8 cores, 16, 32, 64, etc. Make the engine use all these cores for better power. Use better hash tables and use our RAM. Improve the engine any way that is possible.

2. bring back 2D wood pieces. Most importantly make better looking and more detailed Staunton pieces.

3. I love the tutorials with Josh Waitzkin and Christiansen. More more more more more tutorials with any GM would be amazing. This cannot be stressed highly enough. I learned a lot from their games and tips.

4. I want the CMX game analysis to be more interactive. CMX doesn't tell us why a move is good or bad most of the time. Sometimes I'm not a good enough player to see why a move was bad or good. I would like CMX to offer alternate moves that could have been played instead of just saying that is agreed with 93% of my moves.

5. my biggest goal with playing CMX is to get better at the game so when I play in real life I can beat my opponents
Thus tutorials, more helpful game analysis, better help/suggestions from CMX are at the top of my list.

6. Seperate time controls in rated games!!!!!!
VERY IMPORTANT. If you're not playing the Chessmaster itself then it makes no sense to use the same time controls for me and the AI player. WHY? No point setting it to say 45secs/move if my opponent isn't the chessmaster, since this AI opponent will just make blunders, not make the best moves. They don't need a whole 45secs to find the best move and then not play it. This makes me wait 45secs of time while the AI essentially is just killing time when it already has a move picked out. This gets even more annoying if you play very long games. Would be nice to have me set to say 45secs/move while the AI has to move in 20secs. It can beat me either way if it wanted to + it doesn't need that much time if it's not the chessmaster + it saves me time!

Thank you, and CMX is awesome!

Chess set: I would love to have a set like the one pictured on the cover of Tal's "Life and Games of Mikhail Tal" from Everyman Chess.

Also I think it would be nice if there was a window or something that easily allowed you to see the bio for the personality you are currently playing. I don't think there is a way to do this other than going into the personality dialog.

1) You should work on a new improved engine!
2) Please cut many of those virtually unusable 3D styles and focus on the engine!

Bye.

Yes, seriously... the Bauhaus, Mechanica and Modern chess sets are doing nothing but taking up space. If you want to add some fancy new 3D sets, please do some user-testing to make sure players won't have too difficult a time distinguishing between the pieces!

When you bring up your history against a player (clicking on player in the offline part of the player stats window), it would be nice to be able to click on the game and load the gamescore so you can review it from there.

zugzwang hit it on the head!
The King is dead. Please resurrect him!
The King only did good with the 3 chess engines at the bottom, not good.

Kill the useless 40 chess sets nobody uses because they look absurd and every piece looks the same and focus on the engine. Also, gives us more tutorials and analysis from Grandmasters.

thx!

I just bought CMX, and I'm relatively new to chess. For CMXI, I suggest (as others have mentioned):

- A complete redesign of the window skins - they are just plain ugly; they look like the interface to a kid's educational software.

- Custom avatars. I understand the need for "safe" images online, but if the selection is only the default avatars, they need much better art.

From a visual point of view, that's what I've seen so far Now to play the game!

ok, here's another one.

Say I just played some one and I have the game in PGN format.

I should be able to load that game, analyze the game then say whether I was playing black or white.

What would happen next is that it would show me the position for all the moves I made major errors on, then have me try again, and tell me if I am right or wrong.

That way it would give me a chance to play those moves that I messed up on again, and try to correct myself instead of only telling me the answer in the analysis window.

1. fix the "bug" that makes the program use 100% of the cpu all of the time and not only when it's actually needed.

2. focus on extending the academy with new material whether it be josh or some other IM or GM.

3. add more sound themes for the different boards

Some more thoughts about Chessmaster 11th Edition:

* Chessmaster on MacOS, Linux, PS3, XBox/360.

User Interface:
* Subwindows that sits in the background like expandable tabs.
* Subwindows automatically fit to the board.
* More animated pieces.
* Support for for chess variants by editable rules files even if without engine support or specific engines written by others.
* Highlight the whole piece when in a place to grab it.
* Personality editing more easily done (inferior interface at the moment). Allow editing of other engine personalities. Flag personality to indicate which engine and add picture. A editable configuration file could be used to decide how to present each engine's configuration style.

The Play:
* Again, the computer must have the clock ticking while moving the piece and a bit after to simulate the clock handling process.
* Touched piec