Lets' say I have a published board and I want to create a scenario.   If I "copy" the board, say from v.3 to v.4 (v.3 being the published version).  Does v.4 become the new published version, or is that my mod?

v.3 remains the published version. v.4 becomes nothing automatically, but if you publish v.4 it will replace v.3 as the published version. All games currently on v.3 will remain on v.3 until they are done, new games will start on v.4.

Rankings will remain the same.

New versions are mainly for bug fixes, board image replacements, or changes to a map deemed necessary because of flaws discovered after a large number of games are played.

There is no real support for mods at this point.

I hope I got all that right... can someone else 2nd that?

I think IRoll11s has it right.
you can "back-door mod". if you create a different version and you don't publish it, you can release it in public beta and just post a link on your profile or in the forms then play beta games on it. there wont be any rankings for the "back-door mod" version

Right, I understand that there's no such thing as a public mod, but If I want to start my own game with a different scenario, say for Fall Of Rome, then my copy of 1.0 will be 1.1, which is for my own private ues, and 1.0 will be the version everyone still sees and uses..

But let's say I just want to change the fog from light to medium. If I do that to 1.0, does that effect games in play? Will it effect future games, or is 1.0 locked?

I would go with creating a Copy and clicking New Board instead of New Version so you avoid any confusion, but I think you have to republish in order to for any live or future games to be affected.

Making a New Board copy will let you mod away for personal use without changing the underlying published board in case you need to make changes to the published board later.

I haven't done anything yet because I don't want to mess things up. If I understand you correctly, ..If I make a "New Version", nothing is affected until I hit a "Publish" button? So, though theoretically I could use "New Versions" for personal mods, I might confuse them with the current public original. Thus "New Board" is best used for private messing around as well as for mods that I can back-door to the public.

I should reserve New Version for actual fixes or permanent alterations to the public board.  Am I getting this clear as mud?

New Version for actual fixes/permanent alterations = Yes. Current games on the Live Version (ie 1.0 currently) will be unaffected unless someone with Board Admin Privs changes (tom and I) that Live Version (this can be utilized for missing borders or continent errors that are affecting Live games). Once the new version is Published (ie version 2.0), then all games on 1.0 stay as they were, and any new games (on 2.0) will have the 2.0 changes.

New Board if you want to play around with Rules/Scenario, mostly for Private but as KrocK said, there are ways to make it Unranked Public.

I just tried three times to change Fall of Rome to medium fog ..with no joy. Every time I go back to the edit page it is set at light. (yes, I hit save all three times.) Do I need to make a New Version? ..or can you do this?

M57 wrote:

I just tried three times to change Fall of Rome to medium fog ..with no joy. Every time I go back to the edit page it is set at light. (yes, I hit save all three times.) Do I need to make a New Version? ..or can you do this?

You just want to change the Default, as it has Fog Override Enabled so anyone can change the Fog at game creation, so just out of curiosity there.

But Yes that type of setting would be best with a New Version so as to not affect Live games.

I think tom is working on making multiple scenarios available.

Yertle wrote:

You just want to change the Default, as it has Fog Override Enabled so anyone can change the Fog at game creation, so just out of curiosity there.But Yes that type of setting would be best with a New Version so as to not affect Live games.

Yes.   Override enabled is important, but it seems to me that most people start games with the default fog setting.  In my mind, I keep on vacillating between light and medium. I really like the look of fog on the board, and people won't see it in light fog. On the other hand, I'm not convinced that medium is best for play.  I'll probably sit on the decision all day and if I decide to change it, I'll make a New Version and set that as official..

If you want to get really fancy (labor intensive) you could create a whole mess of view-only borders so you could effectively end up with a Light/Medium Fog combo.

Like, I dunno, designate one of the neutral-starting territories in each civilized continent the "Diplomat" territory (avoid "Capital" word choice so as to prevent confusion with the Capitals game element), and let it have vision to all the other "Diplomat" territories on the board, or even all the other civilized territories on the board (probably too strong), or go the other way and give it vision to all the barbarian territories on the board (maybe better for game balance/visual effect but less germane to the board theme), or all the border territories, or something.

Anyway the point is, come up with a way to make the board default Medium Fog because it looks better but still keep the superior game balance elements from Light Fog.

EDIT: If you don't care for "Diplomat" you could call it the "Herald" territory or... I dunno, something else you like better.