Again problems with Google…

Hactar go is not available in Google Play for time being. Again, it is unclear if it will come back.

I am considering moving Hactar Go permanently somewhere else. One option would be Aptoide (https://en.aptoide.com/). If you have experiences on it, please let me know!

Why this?

Google has decided that I must verify my identity for merchant account. But at the same time they have taken care that I cannot do it. And there is no way to fix it (according to Google).

So Google instructs me that I should create new google account, then create google play account etc. Quite bit of work, but ok, I did try it.

Unfortunately google blocked the new google account after creation, citing policy of not allowing multiple accounts!

Quite a catch-22 (perhaps Google-22?), all by Google!

Update 2026-04-07

Google is progressing slowly, there are quite many steps where google takes their time to require appeal or verify something etc.

Attempt to publish in Aptoide did hit an unexpected problem: They do not recognize me as a valid application owner for Hactar go. So one more appeal in process. This is not very good start to publishing in Aptoide…

Change of the Engine

For a few years Hactar go has used my self-trained AI model to play at human levels in 19×19 board.

Now I am changing to the Katago human engine. The playing engine is same as with the strong Katago, but the AI network is separate from the strong Katago network.

There are few things that may change due to this.

Human Katago may have little different strength calibration. Thus Hactar go opponent that was impossible to win in past may be possible to win now. Or other way around.

Also Human Katago may have different style than Ai network I have trained. I do not expect big style differences based on my own testing.

Tournament Mode

Hactar Go is often used to record a tournament game. Typically a player keeps a phone in the table, and records a move after playing them to the board.

Many players have commented that they are bit afraid they might accidentally start AI analysis when recording their tournament game. This would create rather unpleasant situation, even if one stops and disposes the analysis immediately.

Latest update of Hactar go adds a tournament mode. This mode disables and partially hides all analysis tools form game recording. This mode is a bit experimental, as there are many details that could be done better.

The tournament mode can be activated and deactivated only from the Hactar go settings. This is a bit temporary, I plan to make make a better UI for this. Also I will implement a history of tournament mode changes, so that one could show that the mode has been continously on during the game.

In the tournament mode Hactar go changes the toolbar color to the board color. This is intended to make it clear that Hactar go is in the tournament mode. If the phone is in the table, even the opponent can see this.

If someone is determined to cheat, tournament mode does not prevent it. Tournament mode is more against accidents and opportunistic cheating.

Go OmniBot

New go game engine Go Omnibot is now available as a beta version in Hactar go. The engine allows free selection of color, handicap, and komi, so you can find opponent for any purpose.

By default, the maximum strength of Omnibot is 1 dan. Any subscription rises the maximum strength to pro-level. Supporter subscription makes the strength far above pro-level.

The Omnibot is still being tuned, so strength adjustment may be a bit off from actual strength. Well, there is no right strength for certain rank, as strength of certain rank varies quite a lot between ranking systems. So it is more about making strength to match average expectation.

The engine uses multiple neural networks to provide this scale of opponents. At the moment only bot strength can be selected. In future I hope to be able to provide more tunable aspects for the play.

Edit 2024-12-26: Hactar go lite version of the bot is not available right now, but will follow shortly. Hactar go lite version version is now available. The Omnibot is available along with any subscription. But note that Hactar go lite is not available anymore for new users due to google decision.

Sad news about Hactar Go Lite

Update 2024-07-18: Hactar Go is normally available. Hactar Go Lite is not available to new users, and will never be. Existing users of Hactar Go Lite can use Lite as long as they have it installed.

Update 2024-07-15: Google has reinstated the Hactar. Now Hactar Go can be installed again. For Hactar GO Lite I am not sure yet, I hope it will also be available for new users.

Original:

Google has suspended both Hactar go and Hactar go lite as of 2024-07-12. This means that Hactar is not available from Google Play for new users, and I cannot manage the applications in any way.

Google seems not to approve having essentially same application as free and paid. As result BOTH are now suspended as “repetitive content”.

And impact to users? Those who have existing installation of Hactar can continue to use it, but installing to a new device is not possible. All subscriptions will work until next renewal, but subscription renewals will not happen.

Funny thing is this is that Google instructs me “Action required: Publish a new compliant version of your app”. But they have removed my ability to do any changes to the applications!

If Google does not change their mind about the suspension, Hactar will never be available in Google Play. Also it is highly unlikely that I would publish any new go related application in Google play. Perhaps Hactar may re-appear in some other app store, or be available as side-loadable application. Only time will tell.

New Atarigo bot

Do you think you are good at capture go (atarigo)? It is an easy game for beginners, right?

Now even a strong player can test their real skills at atarigo. Hactar go has got renewed server-based atarigo bot, “Capture GO master”.

“Capture GO master” bot has been trained using reinforcement learning, so the same technique the alphazero used. It is quite strong. To be honest I don’t know how strong it is, as I have not won the released version…

A new atarigo bot may not be world-shaking news for most of us. But internally it is a big step in creating new Hactar tools and renewing some of the old infrastructure.

Update to Katago networks

Distributed Katago training (https://katagotraining.org/) has produced a new improved network a while ago. The network is known by nice name “b18c384nbt”. I installed the network to Hactar servers a few days ago, and they seem to work fine.

Networs are about 20% faster than old ones used in Hactar server. At the same time networks are stronger that old networks. So Hactar should be now both a bit faster and a bit stronger!

Improvement in the network is due to a new structure of the network. New network is still learning faster that old network was, so I will probably update the network once their learning speed has settled.

Better 19×19 engine

Hactar is finally retiring well-served Pachi engine for 19×19 boards. The Pachi engine cannot meet modern expectations, where AI easily beats humans. The 9×9 and 13×13 bots are still be Pachi-based, they will be converted to new AI engine later.

New engine is combination of katago engine and a custom model for human-level play. This allows the bot to play very human-like game.

The custom model is trained using human games. As most games were bit older, it mostly plays with somewhat older style. The model seems to be quite good at tactics and ladders. So even if it is weaker than katago, it is not easy to trick.

I will be adjusting the engine further in following days.

Let me know how the new engine feels!

Update: The new engine still bit bad with white and high handicaps. So Pachi is still doing the job for high handicaps.

GOWrite facelift

GOWrite has been looking quite dated for many years. This may not impact the way GOWrite can be used, but it definitely makes it less enjoyable.

Now I have integrated new skin to GOWrite, and this makes GOWrite look reasonably modern again!

There are also new icons, also much more modern than the inconsistent set of old icons. As the new icons are purely vector graphics, they also scale properly in different displays.

Below is sample of the new look.

Hactar Go Update

During last 3 months I have pushed out series of improvements to Hactar GO. Main improvements:

  • Now I consider Ai analysis to be of production quality.
  • SGF editor screen layouts are better in almost all screen sizes.
  • Partial localizations have been improved, now most important texts should be there.
  • Board graphics are more readable.
  • Game score is cleaner and more readable.
  • Stability is a lot better now, ANR problems should be solved.

If you are interested in improving a localization or creating a new localization, some instructions are in https://gowrite.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=898. To minimize typing, I have integrated DeepL and google translation engines. Their proposals can be used as a starting point. And don’t hesitate to contact me, I am happy to help!

For a while there was a bug in Hactar Go Lite which prevented use of Ai. This is now fixed and Ai is quite usable also without any subscription in Lite.

From this I will continue to make minor improvements to Ai and graphics. And in parallel I will continue to work for new, interesting features!