Development:
- Updated Qt to 6.8.0 RC
Engines:
- Fixed crash when AI pondered cube actions in a backgammon game
GUI:
- Added new menu item "Analyze From ID" to Game Menu
- Fixed result and message when player drops the cube
- Fixed XGID visual issues in analyze window
- Changed name of "Tapa" variant to "Start with 3 stacks"
- Changed names of Tavli AIs in start game dialog
General:
- Fixed bug: Language change was not applied at next startup
- Fixed bug: Error in .tavli file when saving game with manual dice and start player is CPU

Engines:
-added Narde NNs (Narde-1, Narde-2)
-fixed bug: wrong 3-ply evaluation when terminal moves exist
UI:
-added Narde analysis
-add highlighted color to options
-analysis window visual improvements

<Engines:
-Added match play
-Added Tavli variant
-Added Backgammon variant
-Added 3ply search
UI:
-Export positions to XGID format
Other:
-Updated Qt to version 6.8.0 beta 4
-Many bug fixes and performance improvements

Engines:
-New move generation method for Plakoto. Up to 3 times faster than old one.
-New pruning method for 2-ply. Moves are expanded to 2-ply only when
1-ply value difference with best move is greater than some value
(Default = 0, no pruning due to value diff)
-Fixed bug: program crashed when Plakoto pin databases where not loaded
and a position included in the databases appeared.
UI:
-New board rendering, now extends board according to window size.
-New option: Board background color.
-New options: Color of points.
-New rounded dice, now pseudo-roll.
-New option: Legal movement can be highlighted. Player can move only
to/from highlighted points (Default: Enabled).
-New option: Automatically roll player dice (Default: Enabled).
-New option: Automatically roll computer dice (Default: Enabled).
-New option: Automatically play forced player moves. Replaces “Auto
Checker Move” (Default: Enabled).
-Option “Player moves must always be legal” is temporarily disabled. It
will be replaced by a position setup system.
-Fixed bug: games were automatically saved even when the respective
option was disabled.
Other:
-Updated Qt libraries to version 4.8.5

Engines:
-Neural Network implementation now uses the Eigen library and SSE2 intristics. Up to 3x faster Neural Network computations, up to 2x faster in actual play.
-Palamedes may not run on old processors that do no support the SSE2 instruction set. Processors newer than 2006 should be fine.
-Fixed bug in Narde’s move generation: Incorrectly allowed primes in opponent’s home board when the point right before the home board is occupied
UI:
-New option enables the computer opponent to resign a double game when it detects that there is 98% or more probability of losing a gammon. (Default: Enabled)
-Fixed bug: when in automatic playing mode and the user resigned a game while moves where played automatically, the game was not stopped.
-Files with .tavli extension are now associated by default with the Palamedes program. This means that when a user double clicks a .tavli file in Windows Explorer, Palamedes will be launched and the corresponding game will be loaded in the scoresheet.

Engines:
-Added Hypergammon variant. Up to 6 starting checkers supported. Portes NNs are used for AI opponents.
-Added Nackgammon variant. Portes NNs are used for AI opponents.
-Added Takhteh variant. Portes NNs are used for AI opponents.
-Added several optional rules for Portes variant:
  • Egyptian Rule,
  • Nackgammon start position,
  • No pip wastage in bearoff
  • No hit and run in player home board
UI:
-Program now displays the following information on the blue bar of the main window:
-Filename of current game
-Gametype of current game
-New Statistics dialog. Statisitics are updated by gametype and AI opponent after the end of a game.

Engines:
-Added Narde variant. AI opponent can be a Fevga neural network for now.
-Fixed bug in Fevga’s move generation method when in a special case of the Fevga Start rule.
-Optimized Fevga’s move generation method by 15%.
-Added rules for subvariations of Fevga, Plakoto.
-Added pin databases for the Plakoto variant. These databases play perfectly when both players have pinned each other in the home board and all their checkers are inside the home board.
UI:
-Simplified start game dialog.
-Simplified options dialog.
-Added options for Plakoto, Fevga rules.
-Added 4 pseudo-random dice generation methods with seed support.
-Fixed crash when loading game files with errors.
-Loading a game file now displays the last position of the game.
-Fixed bug: Pipcount text was not updated after clicking a position on the scoresheet
-Fixed bug in non-automatic playing mode that resulted in wrongly continuing the game after clicking the dice area.
Other:
-Nullsoft Installer now uses modern UI
-Build with Qt 4.8.3

Engines:
-Added Plakoto-5, Fevga-6 engines. These engines are stronger than the previous ones.
-Removed some weak engines.
UI:
-New option: change checker color.
-New option: automatically check for new version at startup.
-New option: faster play and automatically play forced moves.
-New option: select program language. For now english, greek and german are supported.
-Pipcount can be viewed in the toolbar.
-Added program manual in english.
Other:
-Program now installs using NSIS Nullsoft installer.
-Fixed program icon (special thanks to Evridiki Papahristou).

Engines:

-Portes/Backgammon can now use a special 2-sided endgame database. This DB is loaded on startup if it exists.

UI:
-Added option that prunes the move list keeping the x best 1-ply moves for expansion to 2-ply. When set to 0 all moves are expanded.
-User can now remove the remaining moves of a game starting from a selected position on the scoresheet.

© Nikolaos Papahristou, All rights reserved