Hi!
Backgammon Studio keeps improving and today I have updated the version number to 3.6 with these fine improvements:
Backgammon Studio 3.6Improvements since 3.5:
- New actiontags:
- Slot the 7 point or not.
- Outfield slot or not.
- Opponent outfield slot or not.
- New training tracks:
- No hitter! You are far behind in the race (>40) and now you can hit! Surely you must hit! Or?
- Ante up! The stakes (cube) just got raised even more! Perhaps not part of the plan but what to do?
- 10 new timed training tracks.
- Layout overload! You can now put together the home screen in any way you like with most sections available on Backgammon Studio.
- Week in review! Upload your most recent matches and get a quick look at recent errors.
- Edit/delete buttons are now visible in comment areas.
- You can now choose between 4 different cube graphics. Amazing! :-)
- You can now see if any live matches are being played (observe option not included yet..)
- Backgammon Studio now uses its own alert/confirm dialogs to prevent blocking of cube handling if user has disabled all browser popups.
- You can now copy text from friend chat dialogs. Suggested by tnt-foxtrot.
- Server statistics section have been 'dialogified' and also shows number of completed online matches.
- Friend section has been 'dialogified' and friend requests have been made easier to handle.
- Easy access to users list and serverchat from the header on the home screen.
- Easy swap between users list and friends list.
- Champions seciton has been 'dialogified' and also added average PR highscore list.
- You can now see details on how many online matches are played each day on Backgammon Studio.
- Rematch button - suggested by EbiKord, NCMC and others.
- Match/Duel challenges now expires after 3 minutes. Suggested by Hall.
- You can now disable the chat notification as it seems to be a problem on Mac/Safari.
- Add a note directly when bookmarking without leaving challenge.
- Showtime! section was renamed to 'Online matches!' as the old name was perhaps a bit obscure. The section is a bit obsolete as you can access the same info in the header. But it has been updated with more info making it more useful again.
- Black&White board graphics support.
- Completed online matches dialog now also contains how many completed matches you have. Suggested by Hall.
- Missed cube EQ is now added after each game instead of at the end of the match.
- You can now get an overview of which training tracks you have tried and which you have yet to try in my performance section. Suggested by Torkel.
- Bugfixes:
- Pick&pass wasn't displayed correctly when displaying answer in challenges.
- Online matches longer than 7 points didn't work.
Some images(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/AnteUp.png)
New training tracks are always fun to try out! Recube action (Ante up!) was suggested by Daniel Sørensen. Thanks!
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/NewLightHome.png)
The light home looks deceptively similar to the old one but it has learned a new trick which you can uncover with the cogwheel icon in the bottom left corner.
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/SelectSegment.png)
What is this then? You can now change what is displayed in each quadrant (non premium users can't change the last quadrant.). Click on one of the buttons that identifies one of the quandrands and you'll see:
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/SelectSection.png)
a lot of different sections you can place in this quadrant. This is also a nice overview of the different sections of Backgammon Studio although not all are included.
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/SelectLayout.png)
You can even go one step further and select what kind of layout you like. So what can you use this for? Well, perhaps I went a bit overboard when I got this idea and you probably shouldn't need this level of customizability (I can't imagine any other site has done this!) but if you're primarily interested in playing online matches you could change the home screen to look something like this:
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/LiveMatch1.png)
or if you don't care much about the latest news you can get rid of it and expand the bottom chat area instead:
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/LiveMatch2.png)
And if you're interested in other aspects of Backgammon Studio you can play around with other alternatives.
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/WeekInReview1.png)
In your private database there is now a Week In Review section where you can quickly take a look at your most recent errors.
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/WeekInReview3.png)
You can also exclude correctly answered positions and just focus on the ones that you haven't managed to answer correctly.
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/HiddenSections.png)
Some sections now display information about the hidden sections you will get access to as a premium user.
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/PremiumSections.png)
Always nice to know what you are missing out on! :-)
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/MyTrainingPerformance.png)
There is now a new subsection in the my performance section that will give you an overview of all training tracks and your performance in these:
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/MyTrainingPerformance2.png)
It is currently a bit slow so I have to look into speeding it up.
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/SearchRelativePipcount.png)
It is now possible to search for positions with a relative pipcount. If you enter a negative value in the pipcount section along with a larger sign for instance >-40 then this says you should be more than 40 pips behind in the race.
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/LiveSection.png)
The live section has been brushed up a bit with some additional information making it more interesting.
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/HeaderButtons.png)
There are now a few more header buttons which will give you easy access to the users list, server chat, and the live match section.
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/CompletedMatches.png)
It is now possible to see how many matches are completed per day (last 50 days) and also how many matches you have played. The numbers aren't very high yet but I am optimistic they will increase once more backgammon players gives it a try. The running PR and error highlighting is probably something that isn't found on any other play site to my knowledge. Pretty cool stuff! :-)
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/DirectNoteFromBoard.png)
You can now attach a note to a bookmark you are adding directly from a challenge without leaving the challenge. Nice to attach some newfound enlightenment while it is still fresh and still be able to continue the challenge.
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/CopyTextFromChat.png)
If you see some text which could be worth saving you can now copy text from friend chat dialogs.
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/RematchButton.png)
Can't start a rematch fast enough? There is now a rematch button that will quickly put you into action again!
(https://www.backgammonstudio.com/images/MessagesOnLogin.png)
Messages are displayed on login along with friend requests.
In other newsThe number of matches just went past 5700! Thanks a lot to everybody who sends me matches!
If you have any problems registering/logging in don't hesitate to contact me directly (terjepe@gmail.com) and I'll help you out!
https://www.backgammonstudio.com (https://www.backgammonstudio.com) The swiss army knife of backgammon!
Best regards,
TP