| General and Settings | Board Design Tool | Setup and Scenarios |
|---|---|---|
Who can help me Dev test my new board?
Check out the Development Testers and Review Team thread for a list of players that are willing to help at any point along the Board Design process. Also, check out the Board Designer's Chat forum to ask additional questions or find more information on Board Design!
What is the Actions column?
Right clicking on the Arrow in the Actions column of your My Boards page will open a Menu in which you can Copy or Export boards in a Live or Retired state, or Copy, Delete, Export, Import, Rename, or Restore a board in a Dev state.
What does it mean to Import/Export a Board?
Importing and Exporting of a board is a way in which you can store all the information of a board offline. Exporting will generate an XML document that contains all information about the board. Importing an XML document can quickly create a board or can be used to restore a board to previous settings. The XML document can also be modified offline and once imported the board will contain the new modified settings.
What does it mean to Restore a Board?
WarGear will save the board information at multiple Save Points which can later be Restored via this action. WARNING: All existing board data will be overwritten after choosing the Save Point to Restore back to.
What is the difference between Single Layer and Dual Layers?
Single Layer and Dual Layer settings are available for Fill Mode board designs. Single Layer boards have one Board Image in which both board graphics and player color filled territories are defined. Information in the Getting Started and the Anti-Aliasing Help pages will be helpful in developing Single Layer boards, with an example of Dual Layers Help page will be helpful in developing Dual Layer boards, with an example of New World Gear.
What is Player Border?
The Player Border is the thin black outline border visible in the Flash Player of a game. The player border is merely for graphics.
What is Player Background?
The Player Background is the backdrop of the Flash Player in a game. The backdrop will be seen for transparent areas of the board and will be seen on the Cards and Info tabs. The transparent setting will display the black/grey stripes when in non-Work mode and a solid grey backdrop when in Work mode. The opaque setting will enable a selection of a Player Background Color setting.
What is Border Display?
Border Displays can be set to Arrows or Circles for both Attack and Fortify Borders. This setting will be honored in the Flash Player of a game. A setting of Arrows will set borders to display as Arrows pointing from the selected territory to any territory that can be Attacked or Fortified. While a setting of Circles will circle/highlight territories that can be Attacked or Fortified. One drawback of the Circles setting for Attacks is that it is not possible to hover over a border and display the tooltip with the border type and dice information. The highlighted color of the circle will still honor border modifiers though.
Depending on the number of territories to be Attacked/Fortified from each territory and/or the board's Fortify Rule the board may benefit from one setting over another.
What does the Public Beta flag do?
Setting a board to Public Beta (click the Green Bug icon) will allow the board to accessible from the Beta view of the Boards tab and other players can then begin games on your board without you being in the game. You can access these games from the MyBoards > Games List page and you have the ability to comment and control the Dev game. Note: The board should be in a playable state prior to setting the board to Public Beta. Also, the Public Beta flag will automatically revert to non-Beta after 30 days.
How do I update a Live board?
If you need to make a change to a board that is in a Live state then follow these steps. First, you will Copy the board to a new version (this will copy the base board and any related Scenarios), this new version will now be seen in your Dev boards section of the board designer tab, at this time the pre-existing version will continue to be in the Live state. You will then be able to make changes to the board/Scenarios in the Dev state and Save the changes. Finally, simply Promote the version in the Dev state and the system will promote the new version to Live and Retire the pre-existing version. You will not need to have the board re-Reviewed, so ensure the new version is complete and well tested (especially if promoting new Scenarios).
Note: All existing Rankings and Ratings will copy to the new version of the board.
Note: Only games started after the new version is promoted to Live will see the changes. If you need a change to a Live board (for example a change that is affecting current gameplay) then please contact Yertle or tom to have the existing Live version updated.
What does Single, Chain, and Tether mean when adding Borders?
When Single is selected you will click on both territories to set a border. Example: Click Terr A, Click Terr B to get border A-B. Click Terr B, Click Terr C to get border B-C.
When Chain is selected you will be able to click on a string of territories to create borders between each of them. Example: Click Terr A, Click Terr B, Click Terr C to get borders A-B and B-C.
When Tether is selected you will click one territory that is the base and then click other territories that you would like to border to that territory. Example: Click Terr A, Click Terr B, Click Terr C to get borders A-B and A-C.
Depending on the types of borders and the layout of the board one of these may work better/quicker than the others.
What does By Border and By Territory mean when deleting Borders and Modifiers?
When By Border is selected you will click on the black line of the border or the red/green arrow of the modifier to complete a delete action. When By Territory is selected you will click on the territories in which the border/modifier exists to complete a delete action. Depending on the number of borders present one of these may work better/quicker than the other.
How do Border Modifiers for SimulGear boards work?
Creating border modifiers for a SimulGear board is done in the same way as creating border modifiers for a Turn Based game, access the Modifiers section on the Design tab. SimulGear border modifiers are set in increments of 5 and reflect a difference in percent (%) of the associated odds of killing a unit. The other difference for SimulGear modifiers though is that the thought process of what border modifiers mean is a bit more complex. Consider the following example:
Default Odds set to Attack 50% and Defend 60%
How are the number of Neutrals calculated?
If Neutral Count is set to Low, Medium, or High and territories are distributed randomly then Neutrals are awarded territories in a similar manner as players. In addition to territories distributed to Neutral, a Neutral Count enabled setting will also help ensure players are given the same number of randomly distributed territories. So if the number of territories to be randomly distributed is not divisible by the number of players in a game, then Neutrals will fill in the gap. The number of Neutral territories distributed is dependent upon the Low, Medium, or High setting and plugged into the following calculation:
Low: Set Number Neutral Players = 1
Medium: Set Number Neutral Players = 2
High: Set Number Neutral Players = 3
What are Starting Cards and Starting Bonus?
Starting Cards and Starting Bonus located on the Colors tab are ways to set card and troop allocation for each player on their first turn. Whether Starting Cards and Starting Bonus is locked to the Seat Color the Seat Number is determined by the Rule Lock player colors to specified seat number. Starting Cards and Starting Bonus only affect turn one, all subsequent turns will be played out as normal.
Starting Cards can be set to A, B, C, and/or W in which the player receives the cards allocated. For example, if set to A, A, B, then on turn one the player will receive cards A, A, and B. Note, these cards are distributed outside of the virtual card deck and therefore do not reduce the number of that card in the starting deck.
Starting Bonus can be set to either Default or 0-100. Default indicates the player will be given the number of troops relative to the per territory and/or continent bonus on turn one. A value of 0-100 will override the per territory and/or continent bonus and simply give that player that specified number of troops on turn one.
What are Scenarios?
Scenarios are a way for Board Designers to modify rules, setup, images, etc. and have each Scenario Live. Normally Scenarios will have the same theme as the board and differ in minor ways, such as Abandon rules or Initial Setup. All Scenarios of a board tie to the same base board and therefore all Rankings and Ratings of a board are kept as one and not on a per Scenario basis. For more information see the Scenarios Help page.