A way of deleting Decks in the main window?

So, I’m currently making a module which has two game modes.

In both modes, there are Decks on the main map window which are initially empty. As the game progresses, these Decks soon contain cards (which are placed there face-down from other windows).

However, the first game mode uses many more Decks than the other. As a result, when playing the second game mode, there are a bunch of empty, useless Decks. They get in the way, particularly when you accidentally place a card on them and it flips upside-down.

I’ve attached a picture of the problem. Can someone instruct me on how to give the players the option of permanently deleting the extra, empty Decks from the board?

(It’s always the same Decks, so even a button of some sort which causes them to be deleted would be fine)

I don’t think you can actually delete them. You could have two separate boards/areas for the two different modes, or I believe you can limit their use almost entirely for the second mode (especially if the preferred method for adding cards added to them in Mode 1 is via right-click actions and not manually).

To keep it all one board and limit their use you’d want a global property tied to the mode it’s in. For example: CurrentMode (numerical, 1-2).

In the optional (mode 2) decks then, check the Restrict adding counters… property, adding Dropped counters must match: CurrentMode=1. Also, reduce their width/height properties to like 2. Finally, uncheck Draw outline when empty.

For the cards themselves, restrict any right-click actions involving the additional decks while in Mode 2 using the Restrict Commands trait.

So in Mode 2 then, no cards will be allowed manual placement in those optional decks, even if players accidentally hit that small 2x2 area. If they do hit the 2x2 area, I believe the cards would bounce back to where they were being moved from, which is why you want to limit the area from its larger default.

For Mode 1, if you wanted to assist with manually adding cards back to those decks, you could add a small zone around each deck and instruct cards that hit that zone in that mode to return to that deck. Additionally, if you wanted an empty outline for those decks while in Mode 1, you could use At-Start stacks instead, with a hidden piece (no image, no move, no select) that has a layer trait (with an outline image) controlled by the CurrentMode global and/or the deck’s current count (I can elaborate on any this if need be).

Hope I explained that okay.

Those sound like quite good solutions, thanks very much! Would it be additionally possible to have a different Map background for each mode? This would allow me to draw some visible outlines for the extra decks in Mode 1. (Similar to the labels in the top-left corner of the picture above)

Yeah, good idea. Use the “empty outline” piece I suggested above as an example for that. No image, no select, no move, placed at exact center of board I would guess. Layer trait will be always active, with levels following expression: CurrentMode (or whatever you’re using as a global). Then level 1 will have an image of the mode 1 board, level 2: mode 2 board.

In addition to the Does Not Stack and Layer traits for that piece, you’d want to add a Marker trait placing it at the bottom of a map level Game Piece Layers trait. So the map’s GPL trait might be: MainMapLayer (with: boards, cards, counters added to it in that order) and the marker trait for the alternate boards piece would then be: MainMapLayer=boards, which will keep it underneath everything else.

If you don’t add similar markers for the other pieces that use that map, I’m not sure off-hand if they stay above by default or not… especially after reloading a saved game… so consider adding the MainMapLayer=cards Marker trait in the cards’ prototype, etc.

phew, that’s quite complicated but i think i get it all. Thanks very much!