Ever since the beginning of AFK Chess there has been one feature that has been requested above all others: to actually be able to play the chess battles yourself instead of the AI. Well, since today you will finally be able to, introducing:
:pawn:Chess Mode!:pawn:
I have to admit that for the longest time this was a bit mind-boggling but having played a few rounds of non-AFK Chess I can see the appeal. For now the mode is only playable in Arena if you enable the "Chess Mode" option before starting a game.
Some details:
- There are no time controls, you can take as much time as you want and the enemy AI responds instantly.
- In Chess Mode the AI difficulty is decreased to 1000 ELO. In Hard mode the AI ELO is maxed out for a brutal challenge.
- In Chess Mode, during a Battle, you can click "Ready" and the AI will take over, returning it to an Auto Battle for that round.
Having said all this the mode is quite experimental, enough has been done for it to be playable but there are still weird behaviours, popular UX features such as pre-moving have not been implemented and not to mention the game was not designed around long battle phases at all. However, if there is interest in the mode more will be done to make it more playable.
This is not only an experiment in whether people want to play chess in AFK Chess but also whether extra interactivity is desirable. Perhaps we will find that playing all the battles yourself is a bit too much interactivity but there may be some more mechanics worth exploring to make the regular version of Arena/Versus a bit more interactive, something between an auto battler and a more tactical experience? We'll see what happens!
Please do share any thoughts you have on this direction and whether you'd like to see similar things to it!