Saturday, December 25, 2010

Updates complete!

So yesterday on Christmas Eve I put live all the fixes and updates I have been working on for the past several weeks. These fixes and updates are all 'behind the scenes' and the games themselves have remain unchanged.

My motivation behind these changes were fix a growing problem over the past several months, the fact that sometimes statistics were not being recorded correctly. This should now be fixed.

The 'Timeline' part of the statistics is gone and likely not to return. It wasn't all that informative and I think I can use this part of the screen to put more interesting statistics and data. If anyone has any suggestions as to what should go in this area, please feel free to either comment or e-mail me your ideas to robert@cosmicrealms.com

The 'Largest Size' card option was missing for a day or so, but I have restored this option. The site was defaulting to 'Auto Play Obvious' for new visitors, which upset a few people so I've changed this it to default to 'Auto Play When Won' for new visitors instead. Remember, you can always set it to 'Do Not Auto Play' if you don't want any auto playing and this option will be saved.

I hope everyone is having a great holiday :)

65 comments:

BBB said...

Good job!! Thanks for all your hard work! :)

Anonymous said...

Wow! Stats are running smoothly! I like the way the Leaderboard is updating in real time.

Thanks for all you've done! Marjorie (Certhia)

Anonymous said...

In the "Placeholder" slot for "Your Statistics," how about a "Personal Best" slot for "Shortest time to win" and "Fewest moves to win"?

Marjorie (Certhia)

Anonymous said...

last day or two having a difficult time logging onto WOS... times out. thoughts?
thx!

Robert said...

@Anonymous:

I've only had one other report of login problems and it works ok for me here and others.

Please e-mail me at robert@cosmicrealms.com

Let me know which web browser you are using. Including any screenshots of the time out would be helpful as well.

Anonymous said...

I enjoy playing solitaire on your site. Thanks! One problem/request. I often play Double Klondike (Turn One) because it's easy to win. Before you fixed the statistics problems 'Your Statistics' used to show that I won more games than I played and showed a winning percentage of over 100%. So I had purposely 'lost' two games in order to correct my percentage to 100%. Now that you've fixed the problem my stats show those two 'losses' and my percentage has now dropped below 100%. I can't think of any fair way for you to credit those two losses but at least can I reset my statistics to start over?

Robert said...

@Anonymous:

Providing a way for users to reset their statistics is high on my To-Do list.

In the mean time you can register a new account using the same e-mail address as your current one.

I'll also be fixing a bug today that shows greater than 100% hands won on the leaderboards.

Anonymous said...

About the "Reset Your Statistics" button--does this happen just for that one game? Or does it reset all of your game statistics under that user name?

A great feature--as is the "Undo Move" button at the bottom of the screen.

Marjorie (Certhia)

BBB said...

I love having the Undo Move button on the screen also! Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me. It doesn't 'depress' when clicked-- it does nothing. Just sits there lookin' pretty! :)

Robert said...

@Marjorie:

It resets your statistics for all games. I've just updated the site so a 'Tooltip' appears when you mouse over the button that tells you what it will do.

@BBB:

I've just fixed the problem where you couldn't click the Undo Move button. If you re-visit World of Solitaire it should now be clickable for you :)
Thank you for letting me know!

BBB said...

Yay!!!! It works!! Thank you so much! :))

Anonymous said...

thank you Robert. Great site.amazing really.

Julian said...

Hey Robert, the offline download link is not working.

Great game by the way.

Robert said...

@Julian:

Fixed the offline download link. It now points to the correct place.

Note: This offline version is very old :)

sparesman1 said...

thank you for the chance to play my favourite solitaire game :-)

thank you for all the work done to improve the showing of stats etc :-)

monnie said...

love the new "undo move" button; thanks for all your work - it is appreciated ~

Exaspera said...

I love the improvements. Thanks for all of your hard work. I love to play here. :-)

Anonymous said...

I love the new 'Undo Move' button.
Could we have a 'Deal Again' next to it??

Anonymous said...

Re putting a "Deal Again" button next to the"Undo Move" button: Noooooo!

Unless you put in a warning ("Your current game will be abandoned. Are you sure you wish to Deal Again?") players like me--glancing through the bifocal line--will hit the wrong button, and register a loss by accident.

I love the way the "Undo Move" button is so far away from other choices--except, of course, redeals within a game, which can be reversed with "Undo Move."

Marjorie (Certhia)

Anonymous said...

Now that you've fixed it so that players cannot just keep playing until they're in an obvious "win" situation and THEN login, are you going to also delete all of those false 100% win stats and start over so that everybody - especially those who play FAIR - get a chance to get on the leaderboards????

Anonymous said...

For Anonymous (last post):

Your right, some people are on the leaderboards unfairly, duw to the late login thing. How can someone tell unfair players from honest players with good stats?

I don't think you can reset everyone to 0. Imagine the player (not me!) who has 47,000 total wins?

Benjamin McLean said...

Can you add a double or triple TriPeaks?

Linda said...

I appreciate all your work. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

A pause button would be so nice when an unavoidable interruption occurs.

Anonymous said...

Have you changed the solitaire? It seems like it's suddenly much harder to play. I haven't won in days. Neither has my husband. I was just curious.

Robert said...

@Anonymous:

Hello. I have not changed anything dealing with the way cards are dealt or games are won in a very very long time.

It's possible that you and your husband are running into a spell of pretty bad luck.

What cards are dealt is random and based on the random numbers your own web browser generates. Older browsers such as Internet Explorer may not be generating consistently random numbers, although I have no proof of this.

Still, if you'd like to ensure there is no problem there, you can install and use Google's Chrome web browser.
It's an awesome web browser that is super fast. It loads all web sites like Facebook and Amazon super fast. It also plays World of Solitaire amazingly well.

You can download it for free here: http://google.com/chrome

Anonymous said...

Love the fact that you can undo move and the many choices.....played a lot of klondike (turn one) and all of a sudden when the cards are dealt, the cards are not all turning face up. It seems to have happened after trying out the Auto Flip Cards option. You can tell what the card is by reading the bottom left corner, but it is not much fun when you can't see what the card is just by looking at it! Any ideas?

Robert said...

@Anonymous:

Please contact me at: robert@cosmicrealms.com

mcovey said...

I'd like to see CTRL+Z mapped to undo move.

My girlfriend thinks im cheap for undoing but I think its a critical part of the game, otherwise its pure chance with no skill.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much Robert,
You have the very best Solitaire site. Maybe I haven't worked out the larger image , however, I would love it if the cards were larger as my eye site isn't what it used to be.
Anyhoo, I LOVE this site and appreciate your effort and the gift.

Isaluna

BBB said...

Ditto what Isaluna said!! Love the site!! But, when using the larger card feature, they are still small on most games. Poor eyesight here, too, even when wearing my glasses! But that's not your fault, you do a great job with this site! :)

Robert said...

@Isaluna and @BBB:

I'm glad you are both enjoying the games! :)

You can get larger cards if you use a browser that has space for larger cards.

Google Chrome has the most space available and thus you get larger cards in Chrome compared to other browsers. It is also super fast and loads other websites quick. It can be downloaded from here: http://google.com/chrome

BBB said...

Thanks for the tip, Robert! Will try it! :)

BBB said...

Just discovered that if I turn off some toolbars, in Firefox while playing, the cards do load larger. I can just turn the toolbars back on when I'm done playing! Cool!

Anonymous said...

what about RAINBOW CANFIELD

Anonymous said...

Great job!!!!

What about having some keyboard shortcuts to some menu items. for example CTRL + D to deal new cards

Anonymous said...

Hi Robert,
Overall, I love the site!

One small bug...In Klondike, turn three, the stack flips over 3 and shows them overlapped, as it should.

However, when you draw a card from the stack, instead of now showing only 2 cards, it slides another one over (the top card from the previous 3 already drawn), so it still shows 3 flipped over. in fact, it always shows 3 flipped over. This gets very confusing!

I use a Mac, if that makes a difference.

Thanks, Philip

BBB said...

Per Philip's post:

It sure does do that! I play it every day and have never paid attention to that. :)

Anonymous said...

BBB,
It's not a major thing, but it does make a slight difference.
Sometimes, with turn 3, if you are trying to bring into play a card further down in the stack, you need to count whether you have played one or two cards in a particular turn of 3.
And if you are busy moving other cards around in the columns, you forget - or at least, I do! :) Philip

Anonymous said...

Hi. Thanks for the site and for the game!

I noticed that since I updated my browser (firefox), when I right click to send a card to the top, the context menu comes up.

Not a big thing, but it does get irritating. any chance of a fix?

thanks again.

Robert said...

@Anonymous:

Hello

That's very strange. I have the latest version of Firefox and I don't see the context menu on right-click of a card, it's correctly hidden. Perhaps switch to Google Chrome? http://google.com/chrome

HHL said...

Thanks for replying. I'm using Chrome to play right now. Amazing how much faster it is on your site than is firefox. (though I use firefox for most everything else, and it is nice to have the game opened in a tab rather than in another browser.)

but anyway, the firefox problem may be because i use the NoScript add-on. I did click the "allow all scripts for this page" option, but didn't fix it like before.

Anyway, thanks again! I'll continue playing on Chrome.

Anonymous said...

I'm hoping (wishing?) you're developing an iPad app! Or functionality with the touch screen. Love the play on this site and would like to be able to use it with my iPad.

Alaska Annie Two said...

Dear Robert;
I can see from you notes that you have a passion for this project. Just keep up the great works and see you in Alaska some day! :+}
Annie

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary!
Four years old today!

I really enjoy your site and hope it's around for a long long time,
I'll need a long time to get on the Leaderboard!!

Ambassador Spock

Anonymous said...

I'm loving it - especially the feature that recognises a won games and helps you finish it!

Danny Keith James said...

Thanks for a great game! And Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas 2011!

Anonymous said...

what about the game telling you when there is no more moves?

Anonymous said...

Have been enjoying your Solitaire site for some months now, and just wanted to let you know how much i like it. Have even won "Aces Up" a couple of times, which i have always found a difficult one to win.
Phyllis Ann Karr (author IDYLLS OF THE QUEEN, FROSTFLOWER & THORN, etc.)

Anonymous said...

Would like to see the orginal Solitaire games from one to 3 suits

Anonymous said...

I have liked your game room since I found it almost a year ago, Keep up the great job, I love that I can hide the ads and change the backgrounds and games very quickly. jessevens

Anonymous said...

hi Robert, I use your site every day and love spider solitaire ! I've noticed recently that there seems to be a bug in the 5 of clubs - it doesn't load properly. I use firefox / mac.

Any ideas ?
Thanks
Michelle

Robert said...

@Anonymous:

When a card doesn't load right, it can usually be fixed by clearing your browser cache.

In Firefox choose the menu 'Tools->Clear Recent History'. Select 'Everything' next to 'Time range to clear' and click the arrow next to Details and ensure only 'Cache' is selected then click 'Clear Now'

You can also try changing to a different deck using the 'Decks' menu at the top.

Either of those should fix the problem :)

Anonymous said...

hi Sembiance, thanks for your tips - changing the deck has fixed it :) :)
Michelle

Benni said...

Robert, have you considered adding Cribbage Solitaire to the selection of games? Is that do-able?

Anonymous said...

Nice pumpkin!

Anonymous said...

The challenges are fun but does anyone check to see how one person holds the record on all games...there is no way he or she is doing it in that many moves

Robert said...

@Barbara Baskin:
I've added it to my list of games I want to add :)

@Tom De:

When I first designed World of Solitaire, I never envisioned having leaderboards or challenges, so the site wasn't designed to prevent all possible cheating.

So sadly, it's possible to cheat using two different techniques.

To re-design it to entirely prevent cheating would be a VERY big undertaking and take a lot of time to do which I just haven't found the time to do.

Sorry I don't have a nicer answer :(

Despite these problems, I hope that you can continue to enjoy playing.

Earle said...

Hello Robert.
How about putting in a "No more moves available", or some such response from your games when there are no more moves left in a game? I'm wasting my valuable time when I have lost a game and I have to continue to look for a move to continue the game. We simply don't have that kind of time to waste in our lives.

Robert said...

@Earle:

Adding a 'No More Moves' message is something I certainly want to do some day. It's a bit trickier to do than it may seem and it would require some different coding for each of the different games, but it's certainly very high on my to-do list.

Anonymous said...

Robert,
Thanks for all your hard work.
Happy new year!!

David Fusco said...

I love the site, the most elegant, the most fun to play. However, I'm currently enjoying La Belle Lucie, and the last hand had no ace of clubs- no wonder I can only manage about 6% success!
I thought I was going crazy, but I've checked this over again, and taken a screenshot if anyone wants to see it. Maybe the cat knocked it off the baize while the cards were being collected.......

David Fusco said...

Dammit! it did it againI only 51 cards dealt? this time I noticed because one of the three card stacks was only two nines- La Belle may have a glitch? DF

Robert said...

@David Fusco:

Try resetting the browser cache. You can learn how to do that here: http://www.refreshyourcache.com/

That should fix the problem.

Radioman 1952 said...

I really like the Clock game ( I know, it's mindless but it's fun and very fast) But how in the world have players gotten 100% on a game like this? I play fair but it seems some people think the only way to win is to cheat.
And that's too bad....
Keep up the good work....some many games and so little time!
...Jim