So I joined a Mall of the Dead game, but it was all modded out.

http://www.wargear.net/games/player/89260

More than twice the number of starting units AND a defense bonus for Mall Entrances. The About mentions that there are more than the usual starting units (and neutrals) but no mention of the other change(s).

It's a completely different board strategically however.

yeah i was going to PM yertle about the description. see if he wanted to edit the alternate scenario. even with 'starting scenario' tab i couldn't tell what was what, nor did the board details indicate defensive dice. this could be an artifact of how the scenarios are handled tho. i ran into some weirdness with the scenario descriptions when making alternates for my boards.

I added a tidbit to the Scenario Board Description about the modifiers to the starting territories.  This Board Description is only available in the Flash Player of a game (unless you go the long manual way to it) though.  Ideally this would be more prevalent. 

Thanks!

I don't know if this has been suggested before, but I think there should be an additional "Scenario" column on the "Join Games" page.  If there are no named scenarios, the field would be left blank ..or be filled with something like "Standard", or "Default".

M57 wrote:

I don't know if this has been suggested before, but I think there should be an additional "Scenario" column on the "Join Games" page.  If there are no named scenarios, the field would be left blank ..or be filled with something like "Standard", or "Default".

In the effort for keeping a concise and clean table, I'd suggest having a "mod icon" similar to the fog icon.  If no icon it should be assumed the game is Default.  If present then you could hover over the icon and it would display the mod/scenario name.

I like your suggestion, Attila. I like mods but I don't like being ambushed by them.

The problem with the mod icon is that if there are multiple mods, you still have to look them up.  Perhaps an icon with an Initial or Number in it.

M57 wrote:

The problem with the mod icon is that if there are multiple mods, you still have to look them up.  Perhaps an icon with an Initial or Number in it.

This has me a bit confused, just trying to understand.  I understood from the previous posts that there was confusion when looking at games on the "Join Game" tab w.r.t. which scenario the game was.  Meaning since only board name is displayed, there's no easy way to distinguish which scenario it is by looking at the Join Games list.

The scenario/mod icon would be just like the icons that show Teamplay, lightning, fog, simulgear, etc.  So when hovering over the icon the name of the scenario would appear and it would be easy to see.  Absence of an icon would indicate the default scenario.

So what would you need to look up?

My bad..  I didn't see the hover part of your post.  I like it!

I don't think that which scenario qualifies as the 'default' is well defined right now, so Tom would probably have to add that ability & then someone has to go and pick a default scenario for all the already published maps with scenarios.

Ozyman wrote:

I don't think that which scenario qualifies as the 'default' is well defined right now, so Tom would probably have to add that ability & then someone has to go and pick a default scenario for all the already published maps with scenarios.

I just checked my design page and it looks like this shouldn't be a problem.  

 When a player "creates" a game and there are any scenarios, they must choose a scenario.   There is no "default".  Attila's suggestion should work perfectly.   If there are no scenarios, there will be no icon. If there is more than one scenario, the designer can name one of them "Default", but this would be a misnomer. Default implies that you don't have to "choose".  "Standard" makes more sense - but hey, they can name it whatever they want.

The only anomaly would be if a designer created a single scenario.  In this case, when a player creates a game, they would have to "choose" from the list (of one scenarios), resulting in there being an icon. There's no reason for a designer to create a single scenario.

So any board that has multiple scenarios would have the icon on the join game list regardless of which scenario is actually being played?  It seems a little weird for the icon to be tied to a board instead of a specific game like the rest of the icons are.  An alternative could be that when a board with a scenario is used, under the 'board' column it would list 'boardName:ScenarioName' or something like that.

M57 wrote:

 There's no reason for a designer to create a single scenario.

Unless the designer wants a different image or something to display in the Boards tab.

Yertle wrote:

M57 wrote:

 There's no reason for a designer to create a single scenario.

Unless the designer wants a different image or something to display in the Boards tab.

Good point.  So Tom could make it such that if there is only one scenario., a "Scenario" icon doesn't appear on the Games List.  And just to keep things clean, when a player creates a game from a single scenario board, that scenario is automatically selected.  I.e., there are no choices, so it's invisible to the game creator and players.

I lean towards a column with the name of the scenario rather than just an icon.  Many boards have wildly different scenarios, and knowing which scenario is being played easily is what I think we are after.

Also it would be great if you could click on that scenario name and pull up a description written for that scenario.

Just need the same thing in the Boards list that is on the Tournament info page for a board with Scenarios.

Yertle wrote:

Just need the same thing in the Boards list that is on the Tournament info page for a board with Scenarios.

guess i don't know what you mean here. i don't think i see anything about scenarios on that page either.
or do you mean the individual tourney page that gives its information (host, rounds, etc)?

Amidon37 wrote:

I lean towards a column with the name of the scenario rather than just an icon.  Many boards have wildly different scenarios, and knowing which scenario is being played easily is what I think we are after.

Also it would be great if you could click on that scenario name and pull up a description written for that scenario.

The presence of an icon would merely indicate that the game was being played in a non-standard scenario.  It's similar to viewing the Fog setting without having to go into the game player.  Hovering your cursor over the icon would display the name of the scenario.  I'm sure there could be an option to click on the icon and have the scenario description pop up...this is a good suggestion.

I still believe having an icon is cleaner and simpler than dedicating a column to scenario name.  My take has always been that that is the purpose of the icons.  Otherwise, each fog setting, teamplay, simulgear, etc. would have a dedicated column and the Join Game list would be very cluttered.

Ozyman wrote:

An alternative could be that when a board with a scenario is used, under the 'board' column it would list 'boardName:ScenarioName' or something like that.

This is good compromise solution.  No need for a separate column, and it would be very clear when there's a scenario ..and what it is.

M57 wrote:

Ozyman wrote:

An alternative could be that when a board with a scenario is used, under the 'board' column it would list 'boardName:ScenarioName' or something like that.

This is good compromise solution.  No need for a separate column, and it would be very clear when there's a scenario ..and what it is.

I agree this would be a good compromise.  There are, however, a few exceptions that might cause confusion.  For example, the board "Project:Oblivion."

If a game was setup with the Madness scenario the Join Game page would show it as "Project:Oblivion:Madness". This would probably not be a problem for 99% of boards, however board designers would have to know to not name their boards Anything:AnythingElse in order to avoid that conflict.