Drop all the restrictions on the set piece set ...

Just tried my first set piece in ages... new set up system is very annoying, would not let me create a game which is illegal.

kept getting annoying holier then thou messages like:-

'Too many white pieces' Or 'Too many black bishops'

If I am setting up an interesting chess problem that last thing i want to have to do is fight the machine during set-up or indeed be restricted from creating a position that could not be achieved in a normal game (in many cases that is the point and what makes it interesting and unusual).

Sorry RHP by restricting my freedom to create situations that can not exist in the real chess world you have slammed the door or a whole alternative universe of fun.

What does anyone else think?

How many bishops are you trying to create? Surely you should be allowed 2 plus however many you could have promoted from pawns - maximum 10 I would have thought. That should be enough bishops for anyone!
I do think you are right about the freedom of this facility - it shouldn't be restricted. The games can not be rated after all, so there is no advantage to be had from be sneaky with set up. I'd love to have a go at one of your off the wall chess games

Permitting this facility would probably require more effort that just getting rid of the legality check. Even though RHP doesn't actually choose moves itself, it needs a chess engine which understands enough to know stuff like when your move is legal, and when the game is won or drawn or a draw can be claimed. This is a non-trivial coding exercise. Probably, the code will be written to accommodate legal positions - for example, it will allocate enough storage to accommodate 16 pieces each, but probably not more. Of course this could be changed, but anyone who has ever worked in programming knows that changing things like this usually has far more knock on implications than you first expect. So it could be done, but it would probably be a lot of effort so you would need to justify this by demonstrating widespread demand.

Originally posted by Deepfault
Just tried my first set piece in ages... new set up system is very annoying, would not let me create a game which is illegal.

kept getting annoying holier then thou messages like:-

'Too many white pieces' Or 'Too many black bishops'

If I am setting up an interesting chess problem that last thing i want to have to do is fight the machine during ...[text shortened]... ve slammed the door or a whole alternative universe of fun.

What does anyone else think?

Why not post some of them in the "Posers and puzzles" forum?

Originally posted by d36366
Permitting this facility would probably require more effort that just getting rid of the legality check. Even though RHP doesn't actually choose moves itself, it needs a chess engine which understands enough to know stuff like when your move is legal, and when the game is won or drawn or a draw can be claimed. This is a non-trivial coding exercise. Probably, ...[text shortened]... obably be a lot of effort so you would need to justify this by demonstrating widespread demand.

This would be the case yes....

Except these restrictions are new... i used to be able to, a year or so back create any set piece i wanted, so i think it is a case of removing the extra checking rather then programming a way to accept unusual set pieces.

After there is no game logic here just a series of simple rules to be checked.

I've never tried a set piece game, but it would be nice to have no restrictions.