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Quickplay guide

tjakubo2 edited this page Jul 20, 2017 · 6 revisions

This guide is intended to lead you step-by-step from no TTS knowledge to finishing an X-Wing TMG game on TTS alone (singleplayer). If you have that figured out, you can follow the Setting up a multiplayer game or Joining a multiplayer game mini-tutorials to face off against someone else!

If you prefer, there's a Video tutorial that does roughly the same.

The Guide:

See the Undoing things page first. Really, even if you won't accidentally mess up anything at first, this info will be super useful later - even if you're careful, you'll be able to show others how to recover quickly.
See TTS configuration and you for settings help (useful stuff).

This image album contains pics that will be linked ahead (it may be easier to scroll through it rather than click each).

I. Creating the game

  1. Make sure you perform the steps from Getting started page. This is the very basics and prerequisites to know what we're talking about later.
  2. Start up Steam and then Tabletop Simulator.
  3. Since we're going solo, we can just click Singleplayer in the main menu.
  4. Click the blue Workshop tile on the left, then choose the "Unified X-Wing mod" to load it up.
  5. Wait for loading to complete! It is very important, if it is still loading or stuck for some reason (try restarting if it's going for more than 5 minutes), YOU CANNOT CONTINUE! (pic)
  6. Click your name in the upper right corner -> Change Color. Then click any of the four colored circles by the colored zones (Green/Red/Teal/Blue). After you do this, zone of your color becomes translucent - this is your hidden zone. You can see things inside, others cannot, same goes for other colors zones and players (pic1, pic2).
  7. [optional, if you want to simulate an opponent in front of you] Select the Zone Tool (fourth from top on the left bar, F4 shortcut) and either left click the hidden zone (colored rectangle zone) opposite of you to delete it, or right click it and change its color to same as the one you chose. This will allow you to play both sides without color switching (pic1, pic2).

II. Building a list

Building a list basically means getting all the ships, cards and other elements you need to play the game ready.
If you want to simulate both sides of the battle (not need to get the hang of the game), either copy and paste the objects you get after the step 12. to have an "opposing" squad or you just go through this part twice
We will use the built-in list spawner to greatly speed up the process. To make this as painless as possible, you are able to assemble your squad online (in a browser, outside the game) using some of the great, free tools available like xwing-builder.co.uk or Geordanr github.io builder, and then quickly make this squad appear in game, ready for use.

Right now we will use pre-made snippets for both squads. You can look at the Doc: Squad Building, "Squad Builder" section to see how these snippets are made using any of the supported building sites.

  1. Focus your view on the side tray that has "Collection, Builder, None" options (bigger one).
  2. Click Squad Builder button, wait for things to complete loading (pic).
  3. Select and copy the whole line (triple-click in most browsers) under one of the LIST headers below (pic):
    LIST 1 (do not select this line):
    Red Squadron Veteran + R2 Astromech (27) Jess Pava + Weapons Guidance (27)
    LIST 2 (do not select this line):
    Epsilon Squadron Pilot (15) “Epsilon Leader” (19) “Zeta Leader” (20)
  4. Go back to the game, click Initialize button near the big bag.
  5. Switch to Text Tool (T icon on the left bar), click the white text and paste (pic).
  6. Switch back to the Hand tool (hand icon on left bar), verify if white text now represents your list (pic).
  7. See if everything you have copied and pasted appeared on the visible text.
  8. If it looks OK, click Spawn Me button.
  9. Things should spawn, let them load (pic).
  10. If something gons, the text should change to indicate the issue (instead of spawning your list). Please try going through steps 4-8 again and send Feedback if the issue persists.
  11. Select (hold click, drag) all the things that appeared and are sitting on the inset part of the tray.
  12. Click and hold on any selected thing until everything lifts up, then drag it somewhere on your half of the playing table (near hidden zone of your color).
  13. You can click "None" on the side tray to get rid of unnecessary things and make it available for use to others.
  14. Start laying out the pieces you got on your play area. (This pic) shows an example of a convenient layout. Keep in mind that bags and decks (stacked cards) need to be clicked and held until they lift to move them. If you accidentally pull something out of the bag, you can safely select it and then hit delete key to remove it. If you pull from a card deck, drag and drop the card on top if it to put it back there.
  15. If you're satisfied, you can either repeat the process to have an "opposing" squad in front of you that you'll simulate a battle against, or just leave it there and play versus an imaginary opponent or fight between your ships.
  16. [optional, if you're experienced with X-Wing TMG] If you want to grab some obstacles for use later, you can draw them from the three locked obstacle-shaped bags on the edge of the table. Just click and quickly drag away to grab one, then you can click numbers on your keyboard while mousing over the obstacle to switch between its shapes. Don't shake it around too much while moving it, it randomizes the shape (which you can change any time). Later, after placing an obstacle on the play area, click 'L' key while mousing over it to lock it.

III. Game setup

This is a nice saving point. Right now all we did is get some elements laid out, scripts we used to get that done are finished. If you want to have a point to revert to if you screw up later during this guide (or for whatever other reason), you can click Games button at the top, then Create button at the top of new window, name it and click Save. If you want to load it up, click Games, then Saved Games tile on the left and click on the savegame your created. Keep in mind that you can't just save and load at any point, see the Save & Load basics page.

  1. Move all of your ship models down to your hidden zone (nothing else should be inside), then click the "Assign Dials" button next to it.
  2. Please note that you cannot move your dial layouts after you assign them (that's what we just did).
  3. This is the point where game-specific setup starts and you would decide initiative with your opponent (see generic X-Wing TMG guides). Rule-wise, obstacle setup happens now if you use them.
  4. [optional, if using obstacles] Click the Toggle Rulers button near obstacle bags to toggle between states until GREEN rulers are out, depicting a box with boundaries range 2 away from playmat edges. Alternate placing obstacles with your opponent, click L on an obstacle if it is where you want it to be, locking it.
  5. Ship setup takes place now. Click the Toggle Rulers button near obstacle bags to toggle between states until RED rulers are out, depicting areas range 1 from each player edge. Follow the ship setup rules (standard: by pilot skill ascending).
  6. Click Toggle Rulers button again until playmat is cleared of rulers.

IV. Standard game flow

This part will show you how to go through standard game phases efficiently.
From now on, I'll say "perform/use XXX command on a ship", which will mean to right click it and type in XXX in the lowest box, then clicking away to close the context menu, as we did before and is described on Doc: Commands page.

1. Planning phase

To assign a dial to ship, first locate which dial layout is his. Mousing over any dial should show you the name of pilot this layout is assigned to (pic). If no dial layout shows the pilot name you are looking for, something must've gone wrong during the assignment.

Each dial card in a layout represents a move just like a position on a real dial would. To choose a dial for the ship it is assigned to, pick it up, click F or middle mouse button while holding it to flip it (do it while it is still in your hidden zone so opponent doesn't see the move), and drag it out, placing anywhere on the table. When you drop it, dial owner name and Flip/Delete buttons should appear. You can lift and move this dial any time or click Delete to return it to your hiden zone (goes back like before you picked it up). Simply picking up another dial while one is out makes the former automatically return as if you clicked Delete on it. You're set to proceed when each of your ships in play has a dial set on the table. When you're playing multiplayer, you should indicate to the other guy that you're set and wait for him to do the same.

Assign a dial to each ship (pic).

2. Activation phase

In standard play, ships activate by pilot skill ascending. The usual way of activating a ship is clicking Flip on his dial, revealing it. Then you simply click Move to perform the move you dialed in. After yor ship is moved, it is time to perform actions. Quick rundown below will show you how you can quickly perform most common actions.

  • Focus - press F button on the dial or draw a focus token from middle of the table and drop it next to your ship.
  • Evade - press E button on the dial or draw an evade token from middle of the table and drop it next to your ship.
  • Target Lock (measure) - press A, then R on the dial to bring up a range ruler.
  • Target Lock (acquire) - press A, then TL on the dial or grab a TL token from the middle of the table and drop it on your ship. Then pick up the token and dropped it on the ship you locked on.
  • Barrel roll - press A, then one of the buttons starting with X to roll that direction.
  • Boost - press A, then one of the buttons starting with B to boost that direction.
  • Undoing move actions - press Q on the dial.
  • Assigning stress - press S on the dial or draw a stress token from middle of the table and drop it next to your ship.
  • Shedding stress - Press - on the dial to remove one stress token from your ship or just manually take it off.
  • Checking if move was clear - press T on the dial to toggle movement template for this manuever.
  • Checking range - press A, then 1/2/3 buttons to bring up appropriate range ring.

Once you're done with the actions, press Delete on the dial and proceed to another ship. For more on actions, see Performing actions page.

NOTE: This is all free-form. You can do (use the dial to do) actions before moving, skip them completely, whetever you need. The A button on dial expands and collapses additional shorthands if what you want is not yet visible.

3. Combat phase

When activating ship in combat, simply perform the 'a' command on it to bring up firing arc, measure range and proceed with attacking (pic). That part is not automated at all - you simply communicate, draw dice, roll em, signal your opponent what you do and so on.

Your damage decks are shuffled automatically when the table is loaded. If you want a replacement deck, you can always draw a new one from the damage deck bag on the middle. Newly drawn decks are shuffled too. Manual shuffle is done by clicking R on the deck.

4. End phase

No automation here (yet). Manually scoop up tokens to remove them from play.

V. General game tips

This concludes the guide! You should now have a hang of how X-Wing play elements translate to TTS. Toy with your single-player game a bit even if you didn't simulate an opponent. Make laser noises and familiarize yourself with the thing - you can't get comfortable without practice. If something common is REALLY annoying to do, there are chances that you're missing some solution - check out other pages or ask other players (basic game activities are pretty well streamlined by now, shouldn't be problematic).

The game is there to learn it, find an opponent and try a casual game!

Tips:

  • When drawing dice, hold left click over a bag and tap right click to draw multiple.
  • To rollng dice, put them on the table, select them with hold and drag and tap R (while NOT having them picked up, holding).
  • To modify dice, press a number on keyboard when mousing over it. 1-blank, 2-eye, 3-result, 8-critOnRed.
  • To view any card from any angle, hold ALT and mouse over it. You can then scroll to zoom it.
  • Undo command is 'q', redo commmand is 'z'. You can go all the way back and forth using this.
  • If your ship was unintentionaly moved, 'q' command will get it back to last saved position.
  • Set your "Physics" setting to Semi-lock in Options -> Options to have a more stable environment. TTS configuration and you page is your friend.
  • In mutiplayer games, uncheck stuff in Options -> Permissions to prevent grief unless you click on someones name and then Promote.
  • While holding an object, press right click to lower it to ground level. Useful for e.g. pushing up templates to ships precisely. Manual movement tips for more on it.