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).