A masked piece looks different to players other than the one who hid it,
but remains visible to all players (unlike an invisible piece). This
trait is useful for playing cards. Players may drag a card face down
from their hand to the playing area. The owning player will be able
to see the identity of the card, but other players will only see the back
until it is turned face up. Board games with a concept of concealment
will also use this trait.
Like the "Can be Invisible" trait, this trait only hides traits that appear
before it. Generally, it should be before any Invisible trait and after
all other traits of the piece.
A piece with the Mask trait is "owned" by the player who masks it. If
unmasked and masked again by a different player, the second player becomes
the owner. Menu commands of traits hidden by a masked piece are not
available to non-owning players. A setting in the
Global Options determines whether
or not non-owning players can unmask pieces.
Mask Command: The name of the right-click menu entry
that mask/unmasks this piece
Key to Hide: The keyboard command to mask/unmask this
piece.
View when masked: To non-owning players, the piece will be
drawn using this image.
Display style: Determines how a masked piece is seen
by the owning player. The following options are available:
- Inset draws the regular piece with the mask image
at reduced size in the upper left corner
- Background draws the mask image at full size and the regular
piece at reduced size centered within it
- Plain draws only the mask image, so the piece looks the
same to all players. A "Peek" command key may be specified. When
the owning player selects the "Peek" command, he will see the unmasked piece
so long as it remains selected (i.e. until he clicks elsewhere on the map).
If the "Peek" command key is left blank, then the owning player will
see all selected pieces in their unmasked state.
- Use Image draws the unmasked piece and then a specifyable
image on top of the piece. The image should make use of transparency
to let some of the information through.
EXAMPLE: An ordinary playing card can be implemented by setting
the basic image to represent the front of the card. In the "Mask"
controls, specify an image for the back of the playing card. When
a player types CTRL-F, that card will be known only to him (as though
held in his hand). Typing CTRL-F again will reveal the card to the
other players (as when playing it on the table).