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Holotable & Holodeck readme

Holotable version 0.9.6/Holodeck version 0.3.9
Copyright 2004-2013 Matt Moseley

Windows installation:

Use the installer to put Holotable in whatever directory you like. You will not be able to see card images in either Holotable or Holodeck until the image root directory is set correctly in the holotable.ini initialization file, which should be taken care of by the installer (on Windows).

If you want to, create a shortcut on your desktop. One way to do this is to right click on Holotable.exe, select "Create Shortcut", and then move it to your desktop. You can also select "Send to" and then "Desktop (create shortcut)".

Install the GTK+ runtime if you don't already have it (you need at least minor version 2.12). A Windows port can be downloaded at

http://www.holotable.com/download/downloads/gtk-2.12.9-win32-2.exe

Install that and everything should be happy.

Linux installation:

Before doing anything else, you need to make sure you have GTK+ 2.12, SDL, and SDL_net on your system. GTK+ can be downloaded from www.gtk.org. SDL and SDL_net can be downloaded from www.libsdl.org. You may also be able to find RPMs or other binary packages from various websites.

Untar the Holotable *.tar.bz2 packages in a directory of your choosing. For example, you may wish to create a "holotable" directory in your home directory. Move the packages there, then untar/bzip with something like:

tar xjf holotable-0.8.3_install.tar.bz2

[Note: full Holotable packages for Linux will create a "holotable" directory in the directory where the package is extracted. Other packages (such as program updates, card image updates, etc.) should be extracted in the "holotable" directory itself.]

This will extract the files needed to run Holotable and Holodeck. If you've downloaded the images, you will need to do the same thing with their *.tar.bz2 files.

You will now need to edit the holotable.ini file to reference the correct directories for your images, the background image, and the default deck directory. You can also do this from the Table menu (select "Options") in Holotable.

Finally, you need to set the HOLOTABLE_PATH environment variable to point to the directory where you installed Holotable. As an example for those who aren't so familiar with Linux, something like this ought to work when placed in your .bashrc file in your home directory (often /home/username/.bashrc):

export HOLOTABLE_PATH=/home/username/holotable

Note: The Holotable and Holodeck binaries were built on Fedora Core 4. They may or may not work on other Linuxes; pandemonium may ensue when trying to run them somewhere else. I've done some testing on Fedora Core 4, and everything seems to more or less work. As a side note, if your opponent is on Windows and didn't build his deck post V10, you may not see all of the images for his cards. This is because the CDF files were converted to reference images with all lowercase letter filenames at that time. Having your opponent rebuild the deck from scratch (or converting the deck file by hand) from a CDF that includes at least Virtual Set 10 should solve the problem.

Note 2: Holotable 0.7.5 and 0.8.0 were built on Zenwalk 3.0. Holotable 0.8.1 and Holodeck 0.3.2 were built on Zenwalk 4.2. As before, your mileage may vary, but please let me know if you have any troubles.

Decks:

Holodeck is what you should use for building decks. It has updated CDFs that are compatible with the images you can download from The Holotable website. It also removes problems with special characters that can crash Holotable. As of version 0.1.1, you can edit previously-saved decks. Several problems related to saving decks are now fixed, and there is a counter for the number of cards in the deck.

Version 0.1.2 added the ability to "zoom" images just like Holotable, and the three key areas of the window can be resized through the use of panes (like the hand area in Holotable). There is also a fix for crashes caused by pressing keys when the focus was in the list of cards from which to select or the deck list. Now pressing 'a' in either place is analogous to pressing the "Add card" button. When the focus is in the deck list, pressing 'd' will remove one copy of the selected card, and the up and down arrow keys move a card up and down (respectively) in the deck order.

Version 0.1.3 was a bugfix release that removed a problem where Holodeck would crash if you opened it and then tried to load a deck before opening a CDF file.

Version 0.1.4 changed several things regarding key bindings. The list of cards to add to your deck may now be navigated by pressing letters and numbers; if one exists, the first card that starts with the same letter or number will automatically be selected. Also, the up and down arrow keys now change the selection in either list (previously they moved a card up or down in the deck list and had no effect in the list of cards from which to choose).

Version 0.1.5 fixed a bug where, if the cursor was left over the small image preview as the selected card was changed, the resulting popups would never go away. It also changed the order cards are added to the deck list; now, cards are prepended to the list, so cards added first (usually starting cards) end up at the bottom of the list. This way starting cards will be at the top of the deck when loaded in Holotable.

Version 0.2.0 made some much-needed improvements. The ability to filter by card set was added (it had been disabled since 0.1.0 a year before), and a basic search capability was added. Also, the card type can now be set to "all" so that cards of all types can be shown when doing a search, etc. The ability to export the deck as a plain .txt file listing of the cards was also added.

Version 0.2.1 added the ability to specify cards as "starting"; this causes them to be loaded into the starting cards pile in Holotable. Also, the average destiny of the deck (without starting cards) can be calculated, and opening draws may be simulated as well (also without starting cards). Finally, you can also select destiny as a search criterion.

Version 0.3.0 improved the search capabilities by separating the lore and gametext search criteria and adding search of the icons text. Also, the comparison operators =, >=, <=, and != can be used for searching destiny, deploy, forfeit, power, ability, armor, maneuver, defense value, hyperspeed, and landspeed.

Version 0.3.1 fixed a memory leak that occurred when using the large image popup feature. Also, advanced or basic search can be selected; basic search provides much fewer options, but also makes the Holodeck window smaller. Ctrl-F activates the Search button, and Ctrl-C activates the clear button. Repeatedly pressing a letter or number key while focus is in the "cards to choose from" list will advance the selection to the next card that starts with that letter or number. A "Card Type" column was added to the "cards to choose from" list.

Version 0.3.2 added the ability to search through the "cards to choose from" list by putting the focus in the list and then typing the letters in the card name you're looking for. The list will be searched as you enter the letters in the name up until no cards match the name; the search string is reset to nothing when a card is added to your deck, when the card selection is changed by clicking with the mouse or using the up/down arrow keys, when the list loses focus, or when the Escape key is pressed. Additionally, a separate window that contains the deck list with sortable columns is available, and a card summary dialog was added (open it to see the current count of cards of different types). Finally, you can change the order of cards in the deck by holding Control and pressing the up/down arrow keys -- this should speed reordering the deck).

Version 0.3.3 changed the .htd deck file format to version 2, which does not store card text in the deck file. The card text is read from the CDF files, both in Holodeck and Holotable. This allows deck files to be kept up to date (with errata and error corrections) just by getting updated CDF files. Any old style deck files will be converted to use the new format if they are loaded and then saved. Note that cards that have changed name (as a result of the Virtual Card Revolution, etc.) will not be able to be converted automatically. These must be removed manually and have the new card name added back. Holodeck will try to indicate cards that no longer exist in the CDF and should be removed. The basic search format is now the default window configuration. Several "generic" card types are now available for the type filter -- so now you can filter by any character, rather than just Rebels, etc. The deck list is now sortable by any column (previously availabe through a separate window accessible through a menu item). If you try to change the order of any card in the deck, the view will revert to the deck order view (removing any sorting). The average destiny of the non-starting cards in the deck is always shown on the main window.

Version 0.3.4 added the ability to generate randomized decks (with the card pool selectable by set). A problem where starting cards in old deck files were not recognized was fixed.

Version 0.3.5 fixed a problem where Holodeck would crash if cards were added to a deck while the sort order on the deck was not the default. Exporting a deck list to a text file now uses the current sort order of the deck. When sorted by set or card type, headers are placed in the file indicating the set or card type, respectively, for the group of cards that follow. There is a new menu item to allow the user to export the deck list to a directory and filename of their choosing.

Version 0.3.6 fixed a problem with the deck list becoming unsorted when a card is newly added to the deck. Made image popup work more consistently when the card selection changes.

Version 0.3.7 fixed a problem where the number of starting cards was zeroed when a deck was loaded from a previously-existing deck file. Keys to increment and decrement the number of copies (of the currently-selected card in the deck list) marked as starting were added ('s' and 'r', respectively). The "average destiny" menu item was changed to give general destiny information; it now provides the number of non-starting cards of each destiny value (0-7 and other).

Version 0.3.8 added the ability to select multiple cards from the deck list to manipulate at once. This allows adding extra copies, changing the number of copies of each that are marked starting, and deleting copies of the selected cards.

Version 0.3.9 fixed a problem with crashes when adding a new card to a deck when the deck list was sorted by name.

Keyboard and mouse commands:

Click on a card and drag to move it. To move a whole stack (all cards that overlap with the one you click on, plus the ones that overlap with those, etc.), press Control, then click and drag (you can release Control at any time during the drag). You can select in Table->Options whether you want single cards and stacks to move as you drag or not.

Note: As of Holotable 0.7.4, key bindings are configurable. These list the defaults. You may generate/overwrite a default key bindings file in the Options dialog under the Initialization tab.

Flip Card: f or right mouse button (when context menus not being used)
Flip Stack: Control-f or Control-right mouse button (when context menus not being used)
Next card in stack: n
Previous card in stack: p
Straighten stack: c
Shuffle stack: Shift-s (S)
Tally cards in stack: t
Horizontal Fan: h
Vertical Fan: g
Make flip state consistent: y

Activate Force: a
Used Force: u
Draw from Force Pile: d
Draw from bottom of Force Pile: ?
Draw from Reserve Deck: w
Draw from bottom of Reserve Deck: /
Recirculate Used Pile: Shift-e (E)
Lose Force from Reserve Deck: l (lowercase L)
Retrieve from Lost Pile: x
Search Reserve Deck: 1 (subject to opponent's approval, if connected)
Search starting cards: 2 (subject to opponent's approval, if connected)
Search Force Pile: 3 (subject to opponent's approval, if connected)
Search Used Pile: 4 (subject to opponent's approval, if connected)
Search Lost Pile: 5 (subject to opponent's approval, if connected)
Peek at top X cards: 6
Swap card from hand with one from Lost Pile: 7
Draw destiny: b
Move top card of Reserve Deck to Used Pile (facedown): B
Move card to bottom of Used Pile (facedown): .
Move card to top of Used Pile (facedown): >
Move card to bottom of starting cards pile: ,
Verify pile (also hand): V

Add card to group: left click on card, then hold Shift and left click on group
Delete card from group: 9
Delete all cards from group: 8
Reposition group: 0

Rotate Card Right: r
Rotate Stack Right: Control-r
Rotate Card Left: Shift-r (R)
Rotate Stack Left: Control-Shift-r (Control-R)
Rotate Card 180 degrees: ]
Rotate Stack 180 degrees: Control-]
Rotate large image 180 degrees: [

'Use' card: q
'Deploy' card: '
'Target' card: m
Force drain: -
Lose Force to card: =
Initiate battle at location: \
Toggle hand visibility: v
Swap sides (single player only): Q
Toggle popup type: `

NOTE: If you need to look through a deck, going backwards using 'p' will be faster than 'n'.

Menu selections:

File->Load deck... - loads a deck into your hand
File->Load game... - loads a saved game. For two-player games, your opponent must enter the correct password for the load to succeed.
File->Save game... - saves card information to a file, automatically appending ".htg" if there is no file extension specified. Table size and pile positions are saved as well. There must be at least one card loaded in order to save a game.
File->Check for updates - Checks the Internet to determine if the latest version of Holotable has been installed. Also checks for CDF and image file updates and gives the user the option to automatically download and install them.
File->Quit - exits Holotable

Table->Undo - undoes the last card movement.
Table->Redo - redoes the last movement that was undone.
Table->Clear local - removes all local cards from your hand, the table, and the opponent's hand.
Table->Clear all - removes all cards from your hand, the table, and the opponent's hand (use this wisely, as your opponent may not play with you again if you do it when you're losing!).
Table->Options... - set up various Holotable options (including image root directory and default deck directory - the image root directory must be set correctly, or you won't be able to see card images).
Table->Command Window... - opens a window where you can use buttons to accomplish all pile movement actions and searches as well as swap sides
Table->Detach chat/log window - removes the chat/log window from the area next to the hand and puts it in a separate window
Table->Detach hand window - removes the hand window from the area next to the chat/log and puts it in a separate window
Table->Hide phase/turn and status bars - hides the bottom two bars in order to provide more table visibility
Table->Choose side - randomly chooses Light or Dark Side and indicates this by a chat message to your opponent
Server->Connect - connect to a server to play a game. Connects to the IP/hostname and port set in the Options dialog.
Server->Accept - set up your machine as a server for a peer to peer connection from another player. Listens on the port specified in the Options dialog. (You may not be able to accept connections depending on your network configuration).
Server->Disconnect - disconnect from a server you've connected to.
Server->Cancel Accept - stop listening for a peer to peer connection.
Server->End Game - if you are playing via the central server, you can end your game and return to the lobby without disconnecting and reconnecting. Your opponent will be returned there as well. When observing a game, this takes only you back to the central server lobby.

Help->Key reference... - Open a keyboard reference dialog, which will stay above other windows.
Help->About - list some information about Holotable.

Playing a game:

Once you've found someone to play against, you need to get connected.

Peer to peer:
One player chooses Server->Accept, and the other player sets the first player's IP address and port number in their options. The second player then chooses Server->Connect. Note that, depending on your network configuration, you may not be able to accept incoming connections. Firewall software must be configured to allow incoming connections to Holotable ("act as a server"); routers generally need to be configured to allow incoming traffic on the port number you are trying to use, and they may need to be set to do port forwarding.

Central server (current IP is www.holotable.com):
Both players put the central server's IP address and port number 5320 in their options. Both players then choose Server->Connect. This will connect to the central server, which requires authentication. You must enter the password associated with your account on the Holotable website forums (your username in Table->Options must also match the username from the forum account). After you've entered the correct password, you will see the server lobby. You can chat with other users and request games here. If you request a game from yourself, you will automatically be rejected. Any user you request a game with will see a dialog box that allows them to accept or reject the game. If they accept, you will see a message in the status bar area reflecting that, and the server lobby dialog will disappear. You can then load your decks and start playing.

Once there is a connection, both players should load their decks (it is EXTREMELY important that this be done AFTER the connection is made, and that no cards were on either player's table beforehand). Wait for one person's deck to load before loading the other deck. The status bar on the right should report details about the connection, including how many remote cards have been loaded. Once decks are loaded, go ahead and play!

Your opponent's cards will show up rotated 180 degrees from their view, just like if you were sitting across the table from them. Their cards will also be on the other side of the table. So when you play your cards on the "bottom" of the table, they show up to your opponent at the top. It is important that both of you have the same dimensions set for the playing surface size. Otherwise the one with the smaller dimension might end up with cards all stacked on each other that shouldn't be. The default option to auto-adjust the table size to the largest dimensions will take care of this for you if both players have it turned on when a game is started.

Central server lobby operation:

The central server lobby provides a place for players to meet and chat as well as find opponents for games. When you log on to the server, a window will appear that shows you the username, status, and location of everyone who is currently online. The number of people currently playing a game is shown; if you place your mouse cursor over that text, a tooltip will appear that shows the names of these players.

In the middle of the window is a combo box with various status choices. You may use these options to indicate what you are doing in the lobby. If you choose "Away", anyone who requests a game from you will automatically be rejected, and you will not see the request.

To request a game with someone, select their username in the list and click the "Request game" button. That user will see a dialog box pop up which will give them the option of accepting or rejecting your request. If your request is accepted, the server lobby window will disappear and you will be placed back in the main Holotable window, where you can load decks and start your game. If the request is rejected, a message indicating that will appear in your chat/log window on the main Holotable screen. Note that requests are also automatically rejected if the other user has their own game request pending, someone else has already requested a game from them and they have yet to respond, or the user has configured Holotable to ignore you.

The "Observation" button opens a dialog containing a list of the current games in progress. You may select one of the games in the list and click the button to request observation of that game. The players will see your request and have the choice to accept or reject it. If either player rejects your request, you will be notified and you will stay in the lobby. If both players accept it, the lobby dialog will go away and the game will load for you. Each player's name will appear by their Reserve Deck for a short period. You will be able to chat with the players and any other observers, but you cannot manipulate the cards or see anyone's hand. Either player may kick you out at any time, and you will return to the lobby. If you are done watching the game, you can select "End game" from the Server menu to go back to the lobby.

In order to provide a way to avoid harassment of various sorts that was previously possible, you may set up a list of users to ignore while on the central server. You will still see the user in the user list, but you will not see any of their chat messages sent to the lobby or any of their game requests (which will automatically be rejected). You may set up your list by clicking the 'Ignore list' button while logged onto the central server. If a user is selected in the user list area, the entry field will be prepopulated with that name when the dialog opens. You may choose to ignore a user permanently, in which case the user will always be in your ignore list until you delete them. If you ignore a user without choosing the permanent option, the user will only be ignored until you close Holotable.

You may whisper to a user by selecting the checkbox and choosing a user in the combo box. When you whisper, only you and the other user will see the message (it will be indicated by a "[whispered to <user>]" tag prepended to the message).

Quick end turn indicator:

In Holotable 0.8.3 a new feature was introduced to make indicating the end of turns easier. The area between the "Ready for phase change" button and the "Pause game" button initially has "My turn" in it. When a game is started, the user who clicks in this area first will have the area turn green with "End turn" text in it. The other user will see the area turn red with "Opponent's turn" in it. When the first user clicks in the area at the end of their turn, the appearances will switch. This is a simple way to indicate the end of your turn without having to type something in the chat area repetitively or use the specific phase change buttons (which are cumbersome for some uses).

Setting quick chat text choices:

The quick chat text combo box contents may be customized by creating a file called 'quicktext.dat' in your Holotable installation directory. Each line in the file will appear in the combo box as a quick chat text option. Once Holotable has been restarted, the quick chat text combo box will show your customized choices.

Setting default pile positions:

The holotable.ini file is written with the positions of the different piles each time the options are saved. If you upgraded to Holotable 0.4.1, your holotable.ini can be updated with the default settings by opening the options dialog and choosing "Apply" or "OK". You can then open holotable.ini and edit the default positions for the piles.

For each pile, there are X and Y offsets. The first value is the X offset, which determines how far from either edge of the playing surface the particular pile is placed. The second value is the Y offset, which is always from the bottom of the playing surface. Some players are used to having their piles on their left, which is opposite of the default position. To support anchoring the piles to the left side of the playing surface, you add "left" after the Y position for each pile that you want anchored on the left. Otherwise, each pile will be anchored to the right.

To aid in editing your holotable.ini for the particular placement you want, the size of the three vertical piles is 66x91 pixels. The Used Pile, which is horizontal, is 91x66 pixels.

Changing chat text colors:

In order to make it easier to see which messages in the chat/log area are from what source, you can change the color used for each type of message. Informational messages are shown in the color specified in the holotable.rc file. Chat messages from you and your opponent may be shown in different colors. The holotable.ini file keeps this information, and Holotable will write the default values (blue for you and red for your opponent) to the file each time the options are saved if none were in the file when Holotable started.

Colors may be specified by name (only the basics are supported) or in RGB format. For RGB format, the values should be separated by spaces and be in the range 0 to 65535.

Example (these are the lines you'd add to/modify in your holotable.ini):

Your text: 3400 78 50000
Opponent's text: orange

Card border feature:

If you want your cards to have different borders based on card type, edit your "htborders.ini" file. The format is

<card type>: <red value> <green value> <blue value> AND <card set>: <red value> <green value> <blue value>

(without the < and >) The colon is IMPORTANT!

Valid card type values are those that are used in your deck files. For example, if you wanted all interrupts to have a certain color, you'd have this line in your htborders.ini file:

Interrupt: <red> <green> <blue>

Valid set values are those used in your deck files. You can also use subsets of these. So you could make all your virtual cards have a certain color with

Virtual: <red> <green> <blue>

There are two special keywords: OTHERS and NONE. Using

OTHERS: <red> <green> <blue>

will result in each card that doesn't match the other card types you specified colors for to have this default border color. You can also use NONE like this:

<card type>: NONE

This will result in the specified card type having no border drawn for it. In this case your cards will show up just like the images you have (i.e., with the black border from the card image). You can combine OTHERS and NONE , but the effect is the same as just not doing so (no borders will be drawn for card types you didn't specify).

Valid color values are 0-255. You can find charts online that tell you what color combinations result in what colors, or you can use most imaging programs to figure it out.

 

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.9.6:

• changed observation requests to be non-modal in order to avoid lockup problems
• added ability to exchange hand card(s) with one card from Lost Pile
• fixed problem with cards being rotated incorrectly for observers on initial load

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.9.5:

• added some auto-reject capabilities available when responding to observation requests
• fixed a bug related to pile positioning
• restored local pile positions after stopping observation of a game

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.9.4:

• fixed some bugs that could cause crashes related to loading then clearing decks, then loading other decks
• added observation capability (when using the central server)
• corrected some bad messages about where cards were placed when moved out of opponent's hand onto table
• allow user who purposefully disconnects/ends the game to be able to save the game (instead of presenting the save dialog and then having the cards cleared off the table immediately)
• user who is not loading a saved game now receives the same chat history text from the saved game that the loader does

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.9.3:

• fixed a bug where cards could "jump" around the table when certain command keys were pressed multiple times
• fixed a bug that could result in crashes when a card group was deleted

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.9.2:

• added a highlight function to the 'target' card command, so the opponent can find the card more easily
• added a brief popup containing the stack count for when the 'tally' command is used; this is to make this command usable for people who have the status bar hidden (where the stack count is normally displayed)
• fixed a problem where opponent's manual card movement would not be listed in the chat area if it was done immediately after movement with command keys/buttons
• fixed a problem that lead to a crash when switching table sides (on Linux)
• added ability to select multiple cards to take into hand when searching a pile

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.9.1:

• added the , key to put a card underneath the starting cards pile using the Control key with the fan command will, with successive presses, cycle through the three fan spacings
• fixed a problem where clicking on the table after opening a card context menu (i.e., to close the context menu) would cause cards to "jump" around the table

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.9.0:

• fixed a bug related to use of some card context menu items and cards moving around without having been clicked on
• added a graphic to show which pile a card was moved into
• made pile peek function default to suppressing shuffle afterwards
• fixed problem where the large image/tooltip text popup for a card would disappear each time your opponent moved a card, etc.

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.8.9:

• GTK+ 2.12 is now required
• changed messages to display the card name when a single card is moved from hand to table faceup
• added destiny number(s) to pile search display & verification dialog
• pile search display now shows card text in a tooltip when the cursor moves over each row (also for verify dialog)
• changed tooltip mechanism for cards on table/in hand; it should work the same as before, or maybe slightly better. upgrading to GTK+ 2.12 broke the previous method of using tooltips.
• clear "disable command keys" when the command window is closed/hidden
• removed the suppress shuffle checkbox from the verification dialog
• added ability to view X number of cards from top of either Reserve Deck; when viewing your own cards, you can select one to draw into hand and optionally suppress shuffling of the Reserve Deck afterwards
• store phase/turn/status bar hidden status in initialization file, so it will persist
• pile placement is now configurable in the options dialog; it has always been configurable through the holotable.ini file itself, but now it is easier to set

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.8.8:

• fixed card name referenced by "lose Force to" command when using the back side of a two-sided card
• added option to hide status & progress bar and phase/turn/pause area
• added option to allow hand area to be detached like chat/log window
• added option to pile searches to suppress the shuffle that follows
• added option to force table size auto-negotiation to go to smallest size; auto-adjust must be done and the user only has an option between large & small

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.8.7:

• automatic deck converter to compensate for virtual block changes to the CDFs and image files

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.8.6:

• fixed numerous potential jumping card problems that could occur
• fixed crash associated with pile search & verify dialogs
• fixed save game error that would cause a crash on loading

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.8.5:

• added automatic image file updating capability (optional)
• fixed bug where cards could move with cursor when not being dragged (particularly with GTK+ 2.12 and up)
• made pile search dialog show cards in pile order (can be sorted in alphabetical order by clicking column header)

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.8.4:

• supports new deck file format and reads card text from CDFs
• added automatic CDF version check and download/install (optional)
• added automatic Holotable version check and download/install (optional)
• changed key bindings dialog to be resizable and have scrollbars if needed

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.8.3:

• added draw from bottom of Reserve Deck capability
• added draw from bottom of Force Pile capability
• added "lose Force to <card>" capability
• added "initiate battle at <location>" capability
• added "deploy <card>" capability
• added move card to top of Used Pile capability
• added ignore user for central server lobby (messages from listed users are not shown, game requests are automatically rejected)
• added whisper to user for central server lobby
• quick message list is user-configurable by text file
• central server dialog has two panes so user can adjust size of user list and chat text area
• changed "Pacific Rim" location to "Australia/New Zealand"
• "coin flip" menu selection to choose which side to be
• easier indication of whose turn it is
• lowered network timeout warning to 1 minute from 5
• central server user status support (having away status automatically rejects all game requests)
• verify choice for all piles and hand (shows opponent list of cards in the selected area)
• added "lose Force to card" and "initiate battle" to right click context menu
• added enable/disable for card grouping feature

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.8.2:

• fixed a bug where the search function would no longer work if the game was interuppted while a search request was pending; it gets reset when a disconnection occurs or when the user goes back to the lobby
• added messages to tell both users when a card gets added to or deleted from a group
• cards are now automatically removed from their group when they are snapped into a pile; this will prevent some unexpected results
• added option to automatically check for latest program version and compare to user's version
• added automatic message to notify players when an objective is flipped while on the table
• added support for PNG images; search order is PNG -> GIF -> JPG

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.8.1:

• fixed next/previous so they work multiple times in a stack without having to move the mouse; also, image popups work as the stack is traversed
• default save game filename is set based on username (plus opponent's name if playing against someone), date, and time
• saved games retain up to 100 lines' worth of text from the chat/log window (previously only saved up to 20 lines)
• added a "Cancel" button to search request dialog that is the default; it does nothing, and will prevent accidental responses to search requests when the user is in the middle of typing at the time the dialog appears
• added key to toggle popup type (large image/card text tooltip) on the fly so text can be compared against the image (does not change the settings in the options file, so your default will be preserved when using this key)
• added support for Force draining, with a dialog box for entering the Force drain amount for the location (automatically populated with the basic amount) -- can be access through a key binding or the card context menu
• fixed a bug where card movement (such as to/from a pile) could be reported incorrectly
• added capability to stop the central server dialog from popping to the top whenever a chat message is received
• added capability to disable key bindings for actions that can be done through the command window buttons

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.8.0:

• added country selection for display in central server
• added detachable chat/log window
• added more commands to context menu (target, use, tally)
• added keepalive message to prevent networks from automatically closing idle connections and to warn user when connection may be dead
• fixed bug where key bindings other than the defaults for searching piles would not work
• added support for changing phases (coordinated between players)
• added support for pausing the game
• fixed bug where fanning a stack could allow cards to move outside the table area
• added hashing of password when sending to central server

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.7.5:

• drawing destiny shows the card name drawn when advanced reporting is on
• movement of cards in Force/Used Pile to/from Lost Pile is reported
• username is limited to 25 characters instead of 20 (fixes a bug in reading holotable.ini)
• added key binding for moving a card to bottom of Used Pile (from table or hand)
• font for pile counts is configurable through holotable.rc -- this makes it possible for users to control the width of the Holotable window, which could be forced to a large value when the default font is large (this occurs on Linux frequently)

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.7.4:

• fixed bug where several stack functions (fanning, next, etc.) would not work in the hand
• added user-definable key bindings (through the use of keybindings.ini). the key reference dialog updates based on the current settings. defaults can be restored through a button in the options dialog.
• fixed bug where cards snapped to incorrect place for piles in saved games and when the piles have been moved by auto-adjusting or changing the table size

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.7.3:

• fixed bug where moving a pile broke the swap sides feature
• fixed bug where the view could be swapped with the "Swap sides" button on the command window when connected to an opponent
• added prevention of using 'next', 'previous', and both fan types when the cursor is over a card in a pile; the first two things prevent surreptitious cheating, and the last prevents accidentally getting things all messed up by fanning a stack that's in a pile
• added the pile being searched to the title of the pile search dialog
• added optional extra messages in the chat log which show you when the opponent moves cards and flips them. these messages tell you which piles cards were moved to or from, what piles cards were flipped on, etc.
• added ability to group and ungroup cards (this is sort of preliminary, but it's good enough to use)
• fixed bug where loading a single user game did not clear the table before the game was loaded

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.7.2:

• fixed bug introduced in 0.7.1 where undoing regular card movement, fanning, or straightening often resulted in cards being flipped incorrectly
• added ability to specify the gap between cards when fanned (small, medium, or large)
• added ability to "swap sides" when testing decks (i.e., not connected) to make playing against yourself easier
• added a quick command bar to supplement key commands for dealing with pile movement, pile searches, and swapping sides
• added capability to change focus by clicking on an empty area on the table or in the hand area, which allows key commands to be used again after, for example, having typed something in the chat text field
• added ability to target a card by pressing the 'm' key (similar to 'using' a card)
• added ability to save and load games when in single player mode; single player saved games will not load when connected to someone (and vice versa)

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.7.1:

• added option (in Options dialog) to load cards to hand instead of Reserve deck (some users said they liked the old way)
• added 'B' key to move cards from Reserve Deck to Used Pile and ensure they're facedown. this is mainly to ease the destiny drawing process.

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.7.0:

• added ability to rotate popup image by 180 degrees (to ease reading of opposite side of locations)
• made undo of drawing a card from a pile with a pile search work in all cases
• made cards load to Reserve Deck instead of the hand (since cards can be specified to load to the starting cards pile now)
• made all card searches that succeed take the card into hand
• made piles that were searched be automatically shuffled afterwards, even when the search was canceled
• saved games now save the last 20 lines of text in the chat window for the person who saves the game; this will provide some context for that person when the game is loaded again
• added check for empty pile when a search request is made; if there are no cards, the search is not requested from the opponent
• made card search dialog and the related messages show the title from both sides of the card when it is two-sided
• added error reporting for when an uninterpretable message is received (to help in debugging)
• added undo capabilities to movement done with context menu and for straightening and fanning of stacks
• added missing messages for shuffling of starting piles
• prevented sending of undo/redo messages to the opponent when the movement is in your hand area
• improved undo/redo functionality for pulling a card from a pile after a search (a specific message about undoing/redoing the search is shown, and the card's original flip state is restored when undoing)
• added undo/redo for rotations and flipping
• added "drawing" destiny and reporting of destiny drawn with 'b' key
• fixed problem where large image popup could remain visible when the cursor is not over a card

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.6.4:

• fixed a bug that sometimes caused a crash when using the 'q' key to use a card
• fixed a problem with selecting a user in the central server dialog
• added ability to hide the card searched for in a pile from the opponent; the card is put into your hand in this case, and the opponent sees a message that the card was hidden from them
• fixed a bug that sometimes caused a crash when drawing cards from the Force Pile or Reserve Deck

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.6.3:

• added authentication capability for using the central server
• fixed bug related to server chat messages

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.6.2:

• fixed bug where undoing Force retrieval moved the cards to the Reserve deck instead of the Lost Pile
• fixed bug where undoing and then redoing a draw of cards into hand (from Force Pile or Reserve Deck) caused the opponent to see the cards still on the table and receive a warning message
• made error reporting when a deck fails to load work better for the opponent
• added specific reporting of shuffling of the Force Pile, Reserve Deck, Used Pile, and Lost Pile. other shuffles just report that a stack was shuffled (as before, except you get a message when you shuffle a stack, instead of just your opponent seeing it)

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.6.1:

• fixed bug where the opponent's Holotable crashed when the user pressed 'q' (to 'use' a card) over a face-down card on the table
• changed options so that they can be updated for the current session even when the options file cannot be opened for saving them
• piles are anchorable individually, instead of all one way
• added version checking; notification if versions of players don't match
• added undo and redo functionality (up to 64 individual actions) for card movement, including all special pile movement
• added search capability for Force Pile, Used Pile, and Lost Pile
• added capability to load cards to the starting cards pile (for Starting Effect and Defensive Shields, plus any Objective and related cards that start on the table)
• added capability to ensure that all cards in a stack are flipped the same way. the cards are flipped so that they match the flip state of the card the cursor is over
• added some commonly-used messages in a listbox so they can be sent quickly
• fixed a crash caused by searching a pile for a card and pressing the OK button without selecting a card

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.6.0:

• fixed bug where Holotable crashed if the last card on the table was drawn from the Force pile with the 'd' key
• fixed limitation in pile movement reporting where movements were incorrectly reported if the type of movement (draw, use, loss, etc.) changed rapidly
• added function to change pile count color temporarily when a pile count changes (to help prevent cheating)
• added an "acknowledge" button to cut down on needed typing
• added a function to notify the opponent you are using a card by pressing the 'q' key while the cursor is over it (to cut down on typing)
• added starting cards and out of play piles
• added capability to search Reserve Deck or starting cards pile (with opponent approval when connected) by card name

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.5.5:

• fixed a bug where cards would move to incorrect locations for the opponent when rotated

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.5.4:

• added the capability to use context menus to do some actions for cards/stacks
• a few other minor fixes

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.5.3:

• made card movement messages more reliable
• fixed numerous bugs related to the save game dialog
• various minor fixes and improvements

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.5.2:

• added code to prevent the "jumping piles" problem some people experienced
• number of players playing a game on the central server is shown in the central server chat/opponent selection dialog. opponents are shown together in the tooltip for the number of people playing a game text label
• fixed a bug where cards with broken images could not be rotated

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.5.1:

• fixed problem where sometimes recirculation would not move Used Pile cards to the bottom of the Reserve Deck for the opponent
• added intelligent reporting of activation, Force use, drawing cards from Reserve Deck, etc. in the chat area for both players (only when the key commands are used)
• decks load faster
• updated server IP so that "Restore Defaults" works correctly

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.5.0:

• added load/save game functionality, with password protection
• saved games restore table size and pile positions
• fixed some memory leaks and bugs that could cause crashes
• fixed problem where tooltip text would not pop up if image 'zoom' was selected and the large image could not be found
• added support for .jpg images for cards (used if .gif not found)
• incorporated Linux support
• opponent's decks load faster
• fixed problem where pile placement would not be sent if playing over the central server and a second game was started after using "End Game" to end the first one
• made table autosizing & pile positioning work better
• removed logging (obsolete and could allow cheating)
• added a few more informational messages
• added some code to aid in tailoring Holotable's look to user preferences
• shuffling a stack no longer locks the program for a short period of time
• fixed bug where opponent would not get updated z position when moving a stack (stacks would look like they were underneath other cards when moved and dropped)
• fixed bug where rotation could result in the opponent seeing a card snap into a pile it was near
• added ability to draw from Force Pile and retrieve from Lost Pile ('d' and 'x', respectively)
• added ability to change text color for opponent's and your chat messages, which allows easier understanding of what happens in the game. informational messages are shown in the color set in holotable.rc

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.4.1:

• fixed a few bugs in the network code, which should prevent several different problems, especially when using the central server
• added a "Restore Defaults" button to the Options dialog, per several people's request. it restores the default playing surface size, window size, and server IP and port number
• several additional messages are displayed in the chat/log window
• bugfix so that more than ~70 cards may be moved in a stack at once
• table size auto-adjust should now work when playing over the central server
• added keyboard shortcuts for activating, using, and losing Force
• pile positions may be set in holotable.ini, and are automatically sent to the opponent when connecting peer to peer or starting a game over the central server
• fixed problems related to rotating cards while on a pile/at the bottom right corner of the table

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.4.0:

• cards "stick" to the cursor reliably when moving in real time
• stacks can now be moved in real time (user can turn on and off)
• image "zoom" happens after a user-configurable delay, so it acts more like tooltip text
• added support for Force Pile, Reserve Deck, Used Pile, and Lost Pile areas (moveable)
• cards "snap" to these areas when dropped over them, and are automatically rotated to the correct orientation
• status bar shows count of Force Pile, Reserve Deck, Used Pile, and Lost Pile for each player
• added in-game chat capability
• chat area logs movement of cards to and from each player's hand
• chat area logs shuffling of stacks on the table, and opponent will see the shuffle graphic over the stack that was shuffled
• overhauled network code, resulting in much better stability
• program exit is confirmed with a dialog box
• fixed bug where hand area could get stuck in the not visible state
• HOLOTABLE_PATH environment variable allows intelligent loading of files
• installer creates holotable.ini on the fly, so you don't have to modify it if you don't use the default installation directory
• several options to configure the "look" of the program through the holotable.rc file
• option to auto-adjust table size if opponent's table size is larger
• various code tweaks to improve speed, reduce processor load, etc.

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.3.1:

• added key reference dialog
• both hand counts now shown at all times on a status bar
• when images exist, show large image instead of tooltip text ("zoom")

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.3.0:

• added server lobby (opponent selection and chat) capability to Holotable and the server program

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.2.2:

• fixed bug where cards could get out of sync when double or triple right-clicking to flip
• fixed some of the flicker/redraw problems associated with selecting cards

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.2.1:

• fixed crash when selecting a stack of cards
• border configurable according to card set

Changes/bugfixes for version 0.2:

• could not connect multiple times to server without restarting
• added 'f' key flip functionality
• fixed problem where server port number did not load from options file correctly
• fixed problem where deck loader couldn't handle lines without a color spec
• fixed problem where remote deck files couldn't end without a newline after the last card
• added support for background image on table
• added color to hand background
• added rotation support
• fixed problem where only first connection works when connecting peer to peer
• added ability to query for own and opponent's number of cards in hand
• added vertical and horizontal fan capability
• added ability to cancel an accept()
• made move to/from hand keep the layout of cards
• added graphic that shows when shuffling
• worked around tooltip character limit for objectives/made card text separate for each side
• options dialog doesn't lose info when cancel is pressed (original settings restored in window)
• made default buttons work (Options dialog, About dialog)
• fixed problem where dialogs got killed forever if you close them with the "X"
• new program icon
• took care of white corners on cards
• added option for moving single cards in real time
• added options for window startup size and table background
• added icons to menu items
• updated About dialog
• configurable card border based on card type

Current versions

Holotable: 0.9.9

Holodeck: 0.4.0

Current Windows packages:

• Holotable 0.9.9 (6627)
• Large images (post-reset) (4018)
• Holotable 0.9.9 update (1518)

Current Linux packages:

• Linux Holotable 0.9.9 (952)
• Linux large images (post-reset) (584)
• Linux Holotable 0.9.9 update (385)

Central game server:

Logged on:

Playing a game: