Mike Hopefully you have the MoV gamebox with the scenario file already created. If you don't I can send it to you.
To start a new game, open Cyberboard player, click on File>New>Game This will start a new game from the previously created scenario file (a .gsn file). Start with the MerchantOfVenus scenario file which is the base game. The others .gsn files are for variants. This will give you a a window with 6 of the race names and Hidden Pieces. You can click on a name to change it to a player name but we just use the race names for our games. Clicking OK creates a game file (.gam) for each of the races. We each pick a race file to play and just attach our first name to the saved move file eg MoV-Nik John.gmv. To play a 3 player game, player 1 makes his moves, saves it as a .gmv file (File>Send Recorded moves to File) and sends it to BOTH other players. Both players run the file (File>Load Recorded Move File), click on the arrowheads to move through the recorded moves then accept the move (Playback>Accept Move File Playback). Then player 2 records his move, sends it to both other players, who run the moves, but then Player 3 records his move and sends it to both other players then back to player 1 etc. You don't need to create a tray for each player, the boxes on the far right are for placing ships, goods, IOUs etc. Unfortunately, money isn't concealed. When we discover a race, we set it up just the way you described. No special ideas here. The scenario is set up for randomly drawing pieces from the "Cup" tray. Try clicking and pulling out a few pieces and dropping them on the board. You will see that you are getting a random draw, even though it looks like you selecting a particular piece. When you deliver a good, just drop it in "The Cup" tray and it will be randomized with all the other pieces when you draw from it. The only way we are able to peek at a counter is roll, move the ship the space where you want to peek at a counter, then create a .gmv file at that point. Then you can peek at the counter, discard your recorded move, and continue moving. You will create 2 (or more) .gmv files for a single move this way. I can send you some sample turns if you want to see a game set and start. I hope this helps. John On Feb 13, 2008, at 5:33 PM, jamida wrote: > Hi all... > > I'm new to cyberboard too and am using as my first example AH's > Merchant of Venus (a gbx file is available at boardgamegeek). After > some trial and error I think I have it figured out but I'd be curious > if someone else has any pointers to share. > > What follows is an overview of what I've done, parts of which I think > may be greek for anyone who hasn't played MoV or hasn't seen this > specific gbx file but I'll give it a go anyway. > > 1) I created a playing piece tray for each player. I think this is > redundant as the extreme right side of the board seems to have boxed > areas for the players' tokens. By way of example, I would put all the > counters of one color into each players' playing piece tray > > > 2) Initial set-up. I put the beginning ship and card and money in the > right side box. I assume I can either do this in the scenario file > just before I create the game or I can have each player pull these > things out of the "global" tray as part of their first move. Is this > correct is there no preferred way to do this? > 3) MoV uses a "cup" to randomly replenish demands, fares and goods > during the game. I assume I need to make a "cup" tray for this purpose > and in the scenario file I put all the Demands and Fares in there? > 4) Once I discover a culture I just drag all the goods for that > culture from the "global" tray and place them on the board next to > that culture. Not a question, but if there's a better way I'll be > happy to hear it. > 5) Once I deliver a good I assume I'm supposed to put that good in the > "cup" tray. My question here is ... how do I randomly draw a > replacement good? I was successful in using the random feature when > distributing the IOUs and Question-Mark counters, so I assume I set > the cup tray to a similar mode, just checking to verify cyberboard > supports this. > 6) I'm not sure how I "peek" at some of the hidden counters. MoV > allows you to secretly look at some of the face down counters and then > you can decide whether to bypass that counter or pursue it and hence > reveal it. If I simply "turn over" the counter and then turn it back > over, won't this show up albeit briefly in the playback for the other > players? I'd like a completely foolproof way to peek at these items. > > Hmmm... hope this post isn't too long. I just thought of an additional > question, but it seems more generic than these so I'll post that under > a separate topic. > > Thanks in advance > > Mike > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
