I'm changing the way I report on updates to make it a bit more readable - so here's the first bunch of bundled up features, bug fixes and changes:

New Features
Added Chat feature
Added options to customise which icons appear in top right toolbar area
Added open tournaments to front page (customisable via preferences page) + hide icon as per games
Added message notification column to 'My Tournaments' list

Changes /  Enhancements
Player bar and game lists now show player status in Light Fog games
Player's own ranking record row is highlighted in Rankings table and page number is also highlighted
Direct link ranking position added to player profile page
Added alternating colors and updated row hover highlighting in Rankings table
Tournaments out of Beta - thanks all for suggestions and bug reports

Bug Fixes
Updated rounds per tournament calculation for 3 player Round Robin games
Added check to see if board is still Live when completing a game before setting the Unreviewed property
Fixed bug where player status was visible in foggy tournament games
Fixed bug in game image embedding code
Fixed bug where transfer window appeared when the target territory was already full (Duck Hunt / Darts)

Designer v1.2.6
Added alternative Attack / Fortify border display option
Increased 'bonus per x territories' option to max 30 territories

Player v1.7.6
Added support for alternative Attack / Fortify border display options
Clicking on a Player or Team name in the Info box highlights all the territories they occupy (Premium Only)

Changed behavior: when selecting territories - previously when selecting a territory to attack from, if you changed your mind and decided to attack from somewhere else you had to first click back on the selected territory to deselect it. Now it will change your selection immediately when you click on the new territory.

Fixed bug: "In a game with return to placement enabled, I noticed that if you place units and switch to Attack without Accepting the unit placement, the unit count remains visible on the board.  However if you try attack from the territory with the phantom units, you cannot use them.  The territory unit count displayed is only updated if you return to placement, place additional units on the territory and then Accept."
 

AND FINALLY.... one more super special bonus feature that really should have been there a year ago... Mark Read for the forums

AWESOME JOB TOM!  I like the small fixes/changes more than the big stuff :)  Very nicely done!

New Features

Added open tournaments to front page (customisable via preferences page) + hide icon as per games

When Show is present it only shows the default number (15) of Open Tournaments rather than personal settings, is that intended?  Seems OK, although you wouldn't see newest tournaments opened without resorting by date, then it does look a bit weird since different tournaments show up in that list.

Changes /  Enhancements

Player's own ranking record row is highlighted in Rankings table and page number is also highlighted

Direct link ranking position added to player profile page

Very cool!

Added alternating colors and updated row hover highlighting in Rankings table

I like it A LOT!  Nothing for Work Mode though?

Something seems wrong for the following tables though:

Player Profile>>Player Stats>>Overall Stats and Board Ranking list on that tab.  The colors aren't alternating.  Same for Boards>>Board Information and Design Information tables.  Should the table on the first Player Profile page being alternating/highlighting as well?

Still No on being able to sort Country/Games Played/Won/Lost/%/LastPlayed on the Rankings tab?

Tournaments out of Beta - thanks all for suggestions and bug reports

When's basic tournament brackets coming?  :D

Player v1.7.6

Clicking on a Player or Team name in the Info box highlights all the territories they occupy (Premium Only)

Looks great!!!

AND FINALLY.... one more super special bonus feature that really should have been there a year ago... Mark Read for the forums

Pffft, lazy noobs, just read them all

The "Create Game" tab is on a 2nd row of tabs and it annoys me. Is there any reason for that tab and the Boards tab? Don't they both basically do the same thing?

P.S. Very Nice work, tom!

New Features
New chat client added - now using Cometchat which is a Facebook like chat client allowing instant chat between online members and allows chatrooms for games and anything else to be created on the fly. There is a single permanent chat room called 'Lobby' for use as a general meeting area. If you prefer not to use Cometchat it can be turned off via your Preferences page.

Added Board Export to XML / Import from XML feature to board designer page - this allows you to back up all your boards to XML and edit offline if necessary.

Added Board Restore feature - all board designer data writes are now written to file so it's possible to retrieve a board at any stage in the development process going forward.

Changes / Enhancements
Skip placement phase when you have no reserves and no card set to trade
Added messages column to board designer game list

Bug Fixes
Terminated games count for 1/2 a point in tournaments
Updated board save code to improve reliability - each section of data is only overwritten if valid data has been received by the server
Updated board load code to improve speed for boards with lots of borders (>10x faster)

tom wrote:

New Features
New chat client added - now using Cometchat which is a Facebook like chat client allowing instant chat between online members and allows chatrooms for games and anything else to be created on the fly. There is a single permanent chat room called 'Lobby' for use as a general meeting area. If you prefer not to use Cometchat it can be turned off via your Preferences page.

Added Board Export to XML / Import from XML feature to board designer page - this allows you to back up all your boards to XML and edit offline if necessary.

Added Board Restore feature - all board designer data writes are now written to file so it's possible to retrieve a board at any stage in the development process going forward.

Changes / Enhancements
Skip placement phase when you have no reserves and no card set to trade
Added messages column to board designer game list

Bug Fixes
Terminated games count for 1/2 a point in tournaments
Updated board save code to improve reliability - each section of data is only overwritten if valid data has been received by the server
Updated board load code to improve speed for boards with lots of borders (>10x faster)

This collection of changes / features is probably the best yet.

This is a excellent list of changes and fixes.

Updated board save code to improve reliability - each section of data is only overwritten if valid data has been received by the server

Updated board load code to improve speed for boards with lots of borders (>10x faster)

Tom is my hero.

Changes / Enhancements
Improved speed of history generation code
Updated top tool bar arrangement for easier access

Bug Fixes
Very large boards caused an overflow in the database field that stores the board state - field size increased.

tom wrote:

Bug Fixes
Very large boards caused an overflow in the database field that stores the board state - field size increased.

Ok,  that's a no-so-veiled reference to my monster..

Yep you broke lots of stuff!

Glad to be of service. I do what I can.

Enhancements

H Rating replaces G Rating (see http://www.wargear.net/help/display/Rankings for detailed info). This was introduced after flaws were found in the G Rating formula such that it did not correctly account for different game sizes. This affects the Rankings and player profile info.

Minimum games played has been updated to 10 to get on the Global Ranking scoreboard and you can also change this minimum if you wish via the select box.

All the toolbar icons are now configurable for display / appearance via the layout tab (http://www.wargear.net/settings/layout).

Toolbar now appears at top and bottom of page for convenience.

Preview of board image to be used appears when creating a new game.

tom wrote:

Preview of board image to be used appears when creating a new game.

Without the snazzy expanded Flash Browser when clicked on...booooo!  :p

It does now :)

tom wrote: It does now :)

You're good!

It does say "Untitled" in the expanded Flash Browser...that's odd

Fixed :)

While I'm at it... the link to the Board Browser (under the Select Board) pulls up a window with all the boards in it and if you click on a board image it takes you to the full preview on a white background, so the background doesn't look all that good when there is transparency on the board (and white is horrible!). Would the Flash Browser work in that scenario too instead of the page with a full preview (and then having to go back to click on the board name)?

when changing the new icon preferences to "icon only" the icons disappear. they are still there and clickable, but invisible. this is in both work and non-work mode.

weathertop wrote: when changing the new icon preferences to "icon only" the icons disappear. they are still there and clickable, but invisible. this is in both work and non-work mode.

Mine seem to work...although what do you mean they are there but disappear and invisible?

I wouldn't mind seeing tooltips for the Icon Only piece if it's simple to do (I don't really know why, I'm just a fan of the tooltip thingies now though )