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Enable computer players and sound effects for the wargame Viktory II on the GamesByEmail website under the Preview tab - http://GamesByEmail.com/Games/Viktory2#Preview - plus features like dark mode, touch screen support, a custom board builder, and support for large maps, allowing multiplayer games, locally or across the web, with up to 8 players.
For anyone who hasn't played before: Viktory II looks a bit like Civilization or Catan, and it plays like a speedy game of Risk or Axis & Allies. After reading the simple rules on GamesByEmail, you can try to conquer this Viktory II Komputer, then play versus friends, on a real board, with coffee, or via free matches online, also with coffee (not included). Here's some of what you can do:
Build your capital, towns, and cities on newly explored land - command infantry, artillery, cavalry, and frigates - fast travel by roads and ferries - get supplies based on terrain - bombard from a distance or advance on the enemy - fight or retreat - defend the high ground and passes - charge cavalry over rough terrain - land amphibious invasions - siege towns to slow enemy forces - maneuver troops for attack vectors and use combined arms for stronger assaults.
Special thanks to the GamesByEmail Viktory II author and to the original Viktory II board game inventor for their encouragement. Much thanks also to the FreeSound.org community for the sound FX source material. After some editing, even a shopping cart can sound like artillery! As a single American hobbyist developer in Japan, I've tested this extension locally and do hope it works well - any mistakes are my own.
To use:
Just add to Chrome, and it'll be ready anytime the Preview tab is open. To see a Preview of more local players or fog-of-war darkness, click the "New Game" button, next to the Board Builder toggle, and select your options.
For multiplayer across the web, click the "Start a New Game" tab to start a game by email. After starting the game, with one or more extra players, press the Chrome Extension (puzzle-shaped) Button next to the Chrome address bar, then click the Viktory icon. This adds Komputer controls, which you can use for a computer player, or just for dark mode and sound effects.
Uninstall, disable, or manage by going to chrome://extensions. The code can be viewed by right-clicking on the Viktory Preview page and then "Inspect" or via my GitHub:
https://github.com/Stephen-Montague/ViktoryII-Komputer
If you'd like to code your own version, give ideas, or share war stories - please feel free to contact me, until this extension gets so extraordinarily popular that I can't keep up. See below on this page - Details - Developer Email - to drop me a note.
My free time for nearly a year was dedicated to build this and so to help people learn a beautifully made, relatively new board game - Viktory II. The original board game creator gave far more time and effort, though, and it's a cool story, which you can read here:
https://www.viktorygame.com/viktoryiihistory
One of the coolest parts of the above story for me came when I read that Alan Emrich volunteered to rewrite the rules for clarity - this is the same guy who made known the term "4x" in the 90's for games like Master of Orion and who continues to develop games even today.
The GamesByEmail website, now running for 2 decades, has cool backstories as well. The site has dozens of classic board games and clones, including for Risk, Diplomacy, and Axis & Allies - mostly done by one man. There's even a story (with video evidence) that he built a huge mechanical dice tower, with cameras and (I believe) convolutional neural net image recognition to capture "real" random dice rolls so the thousands of visitors who play on his site wouldn't complain about bad dice - or if they did - he could melt one down and mail it to them.
About the AI - originally, I planned to create an opponent using the MCTS-PUCT algorithm, which I tested on GamesByEmail checkers; however, for now I've gone with a more traditional style Utility AI. Each turn, the Komputer may look at 1,000's of hand-crafted conditions to guess a good move and will often try different ideas.
On security - after install, Chrome gives a message that the extension can read and change data from GamesByEmail (which is true, to play the game) and read tab browsing data, which is also true - only in that it waits for the correct GamesByEmail URL in the address bar, via the Chrome tabs API, and then loads this extension.
Have a good one.
*** FreeSound.org Credits ***
Artillery Carts : David Feroli & Enric592 Land & Frigate Battles : Craig Smith Footsteps : Little Robot Sound Factory Horses : Ciapaqua, Foxen, Maugusto, Shadowisp Lost Game "Last Post" Bugle : Sgt Codie Williams, US Marine Corps Band New Game "God Save the King" : US Navy Band New Game "La Marseillaise" : French Republic Band via Kevin Luce (kevp888) Infantry March : Stib Ocean : InnoRecords, Profispiesser Saw & Hammer : SoundsLikeYukon Sail in Wind : Codefhd Ship Bells : Benboncan Town Bells: Dnlucex Win March : Alienistcog
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