David,
I agree. I'm working on a better solution, this is only the first try. I find most 3d chess variants too complicated, I simply was trying to make gameplay easier. I am (like I said before) working on - my new version (not posted yet) has got 48 pieces, that is 15% (still too low) and it has got the mace, the mace-bishop, mace-rook and the rook-bishop.