For those not using docker, it would be nice to have a .nvmrc file that gets picked up by fnm/nvm so the app can run locally and ensure I'm developing with a compatible version of node. Likewise, the Dockerfile which currently has a node version hardcoded could instead use the .nvmrc file too along with fnm to automatically install the correct version of node during container setup.

Selected cards have a different border color, but being the border is small it is difficult to tell which card was selected. A few suggestion would be applying a css outline in addition to the border:

Or simply changing the background color:

Hello, your website has been a great training tool for me and and also an efficient way to play matches with distant friends. As a lover of this game I would like to ask if there are any plans to add the cards present in the sensei path expansion.

Promo Cards:

Currently don't know of any other way to play the expansion with friends without a physical version of this game so I believe it would be a great addition.

Thank you very much for your work.

In 2022 Arcane Wonders produced the promo pictured above for Tabletop Scotland.

It's quite unique in its asymmetric pattern and physical copies are incredibly rare, so including it in the web app as an option would allow many more players to experience it.

Hello.

First of all, thank you for this beautiful little app. I love playing it againsta bot on occasion and it's great to show a friend with the local multiplayer.

I found this issue on mobile (aka, when the screen size is too small to have the middle card beside the board). In this case, the middle card is placed in the opponent's zone but still in the opponent's orientation. This messes me up often because I have to rotate the card in my head to find out what my hand will be next round. I was able to test this on desktop just by icreasing the zoom level until the layout changes, you can see the middle card flip from my own orientation to the opponent's.

I highly suspect the coding to put the card in the opponent's orientation when it is in the opponent's zone. So I see two ways to fix the issue.

A: Code a way to flip the middle card in the opponent's zone
OR
B: Move the middle card to the player's zone and identify it as unusable for this turn (greyed out?).

I have zero experience in the languages used in this repo, so I apologize for not offering a pull request instead of an issue ticket. Hopefully it is a simple fix for you. Cheers!

Please add hint option. AI can be great learning tool, but it is hard without undo and hint options.

Currently game over message covers the game board and it is impossible to the last move.

When playing on large screens, 5th card is very far away from the board. It can be placed same distance from the board as other 4 cards, just to the left or to the right.

Please add analysis mode. When game ends one can start the mode and look back into the game. The mode would show couple of best moves from AI point of view and allow to re-play the game. Good example of the mode can be found in Lichess app.

These four promos are based on cards from the first edition of the game. They would require additional functionality to work properly since the move you can make with your Master is different than with your Student.

Hey bro,

Can I ask what were the technical resources you used to implement the AI algos?
Also I'm very interested to know how did you rank your AIs? Did they battle against each other? What are your findings?

I want to make AIs fight to death on this game (in Rust), started reading your code! Playing with friend on your website gave us the idea :)

Thanks

PS: Do you plan to implement the extensions?

I lost my first match and chose to start a rematch. The board looked like this:

Thanks for releasing this browser version of Onitama!

I had trouble introducing people into the game online however because of the difficulty in landing in the same game.

More specifically, it was very hard on phones to get the same game because you find yourself trying to send screenshots and dealing with intermittent disconnects. After several attempts my friends gave up because of the hassle.

I would love to see the option for either, a private only game or password protected game.

The Light and Shadow expansion adds hidden information and asymmetric forces to Onitama. It adds two new Ninja pawns, a hidden Ninja board, and four Lantern tokens used by a special action to try to reveal opposing Ninja(s) that are hidden. The full rules are available in this pdf.

Adding this expansion to the web app would be a great boon to those interested in playing with it since it has a lower amount of favour amongst perfect information abstract strategy fans that are the general audience for Onitama. It also would eliminate the need to trust your opponent's moves on the hidden board. Personally I look forward to playing this variant against the AI especially.

I think it's important that in addition to making it optional to force either game mode, we also add it to the default random play experience, even if we add a toggle to turn it off. For that I suggest a 5% chance of the random game being either Light or Shadow, and then within that a 70% chance of Shadow (where each player has a Master, two Students and a Ninja) and a 30% chance of Light (where one player has only two Ninjas and the other player has a standard Master and four Students).

As for the Ninja pawn icon itself, I think a traditional Chess Knight would be most appropriate. Unlike the physical game there is no reason the Ninja's colour should not match the colour of the player who controls it.

Also, in the case of currently unimplemented Student/Master promotional cards, we need to either decide how the Ninja should move (since there is no official guidance at this time) or exclude those cards from games where the Ninjas are used for now.

• Add Ninja pawns
• Add support for Ninja pawn movement (ie, use the same Movement card twice or pass)
• Add hidden movement tracking
• Add Ninja reveal when capturing
• Add Ninja captured message when another pawn captures one
• Add Ninja capture attempt option for each Ninja
• Add Ninja placement step to game setup
• Add Lantern counter
• Add Lantern special action and visuals
• Add Way of the Shadow game mode toggle
• Add Way of the Light game mode toggle
• Add the ability to force which player is the Ninja player in online multiplayer
• Add Light & Shadow to random games

Obviously this is an even more intensive addition than Way of the Wind, but I think they both merit inclusion in the web app. Adding support for these options could be useful for future game additions that may come as well.

The Way of the Wind expansion involves a neutral Wind Spirit pawn that either player can move instead of (or with some cards, in addition to) one of their other pieces. It also has the ability to trade places with a Student pawn if it lands on one, but can never land on a Master pawn. The full rules are available in this PDF.

Here are images of the Wind Spirit move cards.

To implement this, I would suggest allowing players to choose to enable the Wind Spirit at the beginning of the game, and then allow them to choose a number between 0 and 5 Wind Spirit cards to be force included in the draw. 2 is the default number for a Way of the Wind game, and a random amount between 0 and 5 would also be a nice option but not strictly necessary.

It could also be interesting to allow for the Wind Spirit to be included at random in quick play games. I suggest this is handled by including the Wind Spirit 25% of the time. To handle the number of Wind Spirit cards, I would suggest the following distribution: Zero (10%), One (15%), Two (35%), Three (15%), Four (15%), Five (10%).

For the Wind Spirit's icon I suggest a traditional Chess Queen in some type of grey colour.

The Wind Spirit itself and the Wind Spirit cards require some additional functionality not currently present but could be useful in the future.

• Add Wind Spirit neutral pawn
• Add Wind Spirit game toggle
• Add Wind Spirit move card functionality
• Add Wind Spirit move cards
• Add # of Wind Spirit move cards selection
• Add random # of Wind Spirit cards option
• Add the Wind Spirit to random games.

AI often seems to be able to make impossible moves. I'm new to the game but I'm pretty sure it can't make that "knight-move" shape from the cards available.

Hi,

thanks for the nice implementation of Onitama!

I noticed, that the hornet is not symmetrical to the centipede. I looked it up on BGG and found that it indeed should be symmetrical to the centipede.

Another thing:
I always win against the easy ai while almost never winning against the medium ai. I don’t know, how the difficulty is implemented, but maybe it’s easy to add a difficulty between those?

Please add undo option. Maybe even back and forward. It is OK to have this only when playing with the AI.