Great Pack but the Chess is woefull

[Rocky]

I liked the idea of this pack and the interface is awesome, and works great on a Palm Treo. The only thing stopping me from buying is the Chess which is extremely poor.

In easy mode the AI made the same move 3 times in a row at opening, moving a rook left, right, left right etc etc.

In hardest mode it gave up it's Queen in the opening and let a novice like me win in under a dozen moves.

There's something not right about the AI for the chess :o(

[Kirsten]

Hi Rocky,

Thanks for trying it anyway, I'm sorry you feel the chess let the pack down. If you're looking for a chess game that will challenge you more, this is definitely not the game for you.

Our AI is designed to be easy enough for anyone who is competent at the game to be able to win even on the hardest setting. I'd guess you hit lucky with the hard game, I've never been able to persuade it to give up its Queen that early on! The easiest setting is designed with the aim of children being able to play and it be fun, so yes, it is sometimes *very* stupid. ;)

Can I ask which treo you're using? The 'hardness' of the AI does somewhat depend on the device and its processor speed, as we gave it a time limit for thinking ahead - simply so you wouldn't spend ages staring at the screen while it ran through all the possible moves. :p

[Unregistered]

Hi

It's a Treo 680 I am using.

[betsys]

Me too. I'm pretty poor at chess but I beat it on "hard". It would be cool to have the easy and medium be easy but put some teeth into "hard".

Same with backgammon. The AI relies too heavily on point count and will double and redouble from a poor position. I've gotten as high as 64 on the cube. It's a really pretty game and I'd pay money for backgammon just by itself if the AI were better.

Also there's a bearing-off bug in the backgammon game. I think my position was like this: I had four men on my five point, opponent had two men on my one-point. I rolled double four. AI insisted that I bear off the men from the five point, when they should have been blocked. I also suspect there's a bug involving whisking men out of the inner table in the endgame but I haven't quite nailed it down.

(I also think I caught ludo allowing yellow to pass a doubled piece, with the game set to doubled piece blocks, but again I haven't managed to replicate it)

[zire71man]

Hey,

I too think that chess is too easy. I beat it the same exact way in easy, medium and hard. You do not have to think to beat the computer...Just do the same exact move each time. I am also noticing this trend with the rest of the games. At times they let you win. I don't like that.