Ashteki

Stuff about ashteki that may need a bit of explaining...

Layouts

There are a couple of settings that affect how the screen appears:

• left mode
• compact layout

Playing against the chimera demonstrates both of these settings, and at time of writing, users are unable to change the layout when fighting the chimera:

Left Mode

When left mode is activated the player prompt and the dice box are both aligned to the left. In the area above the player prompt the action log is a high level audit of what is happening. This is handy for keeping track of the game when you need to hide the full chat/log e.g. when playing on an iPad mini.

Compact layout

Notice that the chimera cards and dice are all on one row of the main screen, and there are buttons to access its conjurations, draw pile, and hand at the top of the screen. 

Player vs Player

When you have a 2-player game there is more flexibility on layout. 

No compact Layout

if you have the screen estate then removing compact mode places the opponent's cards on two rows

I had to set the browser zoom (using Ctrl + mouse wheel) to 90% when using this layout because otherwise the battlefield rows overlap. In this view 'left mode' is still active.

Original, or 'right mode'

Originally ashteki only had one mode, with the prompt and dice on the right, and opponent cards on 2 rows. this simulated the suggested layout for IRL games presented in the rulebook. Note that in this layout the action log above the prompt is displayed without text, and the last used card shown a bit larger.

I introduced left mode because of the distance between the prompt, the cards in hand, and the dice box, and my desire not to tire out my mouse.

What about compact right mode?

At this time, compact mode enforces left mode. The dice layout for compact mode is left aligned, so it looked odd to do otherwise. I don't have plans for a compact right mode unless I get a lot of requests for it.

Settings?

you can change the settings in the profile page, or in-game. The settings changes in-game only last for the current game, and if you fancy trying out different layouts but regret it mid-game you can easily go back to what you are used to.