I need some help understanding win conditions for this game

[kalbano1]

I have played 3 games against the ai so far. The first on the easiest difficulty i of course won. Then the next game as well as the game I am just currently played I played against the ai on the 2nd level of difficulty but got stuck when put into check. I exhausted all my playable boards. But was unable to submit my move or continue in any way other than undoing my moves. I am unsure what to do. Maybe i am understanding some core concept of the game to do with check and checkmate incorrectly. I know when i won the first game I was told I won at the end. But received no message of victory or stalemate the last 2 games so ended up quitting. I posted a screen shot recently on the games main page. of the 2nd game i played.

[Perseus]

Sorry, but i can''t find the screenshot, are you sure you set its visibility to public?
Alternatively, you could post the link to it here.

Without the screenshot, i can only guess, but you probably could have used a piece on an unchecked board to travel back in time, which, if you didn't create more timelines than your opponent, would have brought the present back to that point in time.

[kalbano1]

i just saw the guides section game. I now know the condition i was in those times is called soft mate. The same thing that that in other games is called soft lock or more specifically in this case being forced to undo moves until you reach a condition allowed by the game. Like you guessed I was in check or checkmate in the past and played moves in the present that did not get rid of my check condition. I had not realized until now the game expects the player to be forced to use the undo function in regular game play. I had assumed it was an add on and the solution must be something else.

[kalbano1]

by the way how would i post a screenshot on this part of the forum? I have been trying to see if i can figure out how but if i copy the image the paste feature doesn't work here. I had mistakenly not set its visibility to public before. I had assumed that was automatic. I guess ive made number of wrong assumptions today. And we all know what people say about those who assume to much.

[Perseus]

From your screenshot and descriptions, i see a few things things that might be worth mentioning :
-Like you said, you can and should undo moves. This game is complex, so being able to better planify and visualize what you're going to do without having to actually do it is helpful. The only "point of no return" is when you click "submit moves".

-You only need to play on boards that are in the "Present" (the black/white vertical line with "The Present" written on it), and only on active timelines¹.

¹A timeline is placed on its creator's side of the board.
Both sides can only have one more active timeline than their opponent. Any extra timelines will be inactive, at least until balance is restored by the opponent creating more timelines.
A timeline being inactive means that you don't have to play on it.
(You can tell whether a timeline is active or inactive by looking at the colour of the large arrow line under it. If it's purple, it's active. If it's the color of the player who created it, it's inactive.)

-In the screenshot, it seems like you clicked the red exclamation mark of the top timeline, before playing some other move. Just to be clear, clicking red exclamation marks shows how and which pieces are checking kings, and pressing the undo button is required to get back to a playable state.

Originally posted by kalbano1:

by the way how would i post a screenshot on this part of the forum?

When making a post, a "formatting help" button is located to the left of the "post comment" button, which describes how to do a number of things, such as how to include screenshots.
For screenshots, you can just copy/paste the link to them, like so :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971364001
(the above didn't work because i used the noparse formatting tags)
Which makes a widget like this :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2971364001

[kalbano1]

thank you for all the help Perseus. What you said is very helpful. I only just figured out many of the things you mentioned in the last couple days after having played about a half dozen games against the ai. I have always been the type of person to first briefly read over the instructions and watch a tutorial video then need to try out the game multiple times before making more progress in my understanding. I find this applies to most thing for me not just games. I find without a back and forth between reading up on new things while also actively participating in using the skills learned I learn it better. Which is why I was able to go so many games without an in depth understanding. So far I find games in which I win to be much easier and shorter than games in which I lose so far as well. Which is different than when I play normal chess. But that is another matter. Anyways thank you again after practicing more and reading your advice I have a better understanding of this game particularly in regards to check and checkmates.