I have figured out how to use GKC to send a piece from a deck to a specific window.
Can I do a similar thing “fetching” a piece from the piece pallet? (i.e. these are currency token, so unlimited and therefore they are sitting in the piece pallet and not in a “deck”).
Not as such, but there is another way to achieve the same effect.
You want to use the ‘Place Marker’ trait, which creates a new piece out of thin air from the definition recorded in the ‘Place Marker’ trait.
There are two ways to define the new piece to be created
- Use the ‘Select’ button to select an existing piece definition from the Game Piece palette.
- Use the ‘Define Marker’ button to create a new piece definition to use.
Personally, I never use option 1, I have run into maintenance problems over time with updating and refreshing counter definitions.
I always use option 2 to Define a new piece that consists of nothing except an empty Basic Piece with a name and no image and a single prototype that completely defines the new piece. I always try to create a matching piece in the Game piece palette that is defined in the same way, using the single prototype. Players then have the choice of using the Place Marker trait, or manually pulling a new counter from the palette and they are guaranteed to be the same.
I always make sure players have an alternate method of performing any ‘automation’.
Thanks I will give this a try
Trying to wrap my head around this:
the documentation implies that this creates a new piece “on or near” an existing piece. So do I have to have another origin piece on the board somewhere? (is that what you mean by the “define Marker” button? Is it a piece with an Action Button defined on it so someone can click on it and then we then “place a marker” nearby?
Yes, the ‘Place Marker’ trait creates a new piece, by default, on top of the piece that has that ‘Place marker’ trait (the target piece).
You cannot fully simulate the ‘Pull a piece from the Game Palette’ action.
However, the target piece can be an invisible or do not stack/do not move piece and you can send it the command to Place the Marker via a Global Key command. So you could, for instance, have a non-moving piece that looks like a piggy bank and send it a GKC to generate new currency tokens. The GKC’s could come from any other source, .e.g. A toolbar button, or any counter where the GKC might be initiated by an Action button, a right-click command, or a Trigger Action fired off by a GKC from some other source.
The generated piece can be created in the same stack as the target piece (top of stack, bottom of stack, above or below target stack) or use the offset numbers to have it appear in a different location relative to the target.
You can also specify a Key Command that is sent to the new piece after it is created, which might initiate a Send To Location command to send it somewhere else.
When you send these currency tokens, will you always be sending them to the same place, or will the place vary depending on the context in the game?
If you don’t want the marker to just end up in the same spot as the piece (button or whatever) that you dropped it from, and you want to vary the location that it ends up depending on game context, here’s a sample method to do that:
(1) Your starting button/piece sets a Global Property called “Destination” to be the location you want to send the new piece.
(2) It does a Place Marker to place the new piece. For the Key Command that the piece receives after placement (bottom field of the Place Marker properties, I think), give it a Named Key Command “ToDestination”
(3) In the prototype for the marker that you’re creating, have a Send To Location trait which responds to the Keystroke “ToDestination”. Set it to send to “Region on Selected Map”, and in the field for what region it’s going to put $Destination$
That that way your original button/piece can set the Global Property to the name of the location it wants the new piece to go, and then send it there. Hope this helps!