That is exactly my point! Game box designers won't even notice this feature, except that they don't need to waste hours of time when they make 1 change. The attribute is generated by ZunTzu when you save the game. Game box designers don't need to know anything about it. The gamebox.xml is still made the same as before. But the ztg and zts are different. You create your gamebox.xml just as you do now, you open it in ZunTzu, you move all your counters, you save the ztg, you copy/paste it to the zts, and it's all the same as before. BUT now it will have the layout attribute added to each counter object. It is a small change to add it to the software, doesn't bother designers or players, and solves the biggest current frustration in designing gameboxes. If there is a designer or not is irrelevant for this. You can use it with or without a designer.
I do not share your optimism about a rush of gameboxes with a designer. The hardest part is doing the graphics imo. You still need to use a bunch of software, scanners even. I don't believe there is a flood of people out there that want to scan their boardgame if only they had a designer. Personally I think making a designer is not worth the time that should be first spend on improving the featureset of ZunTzu itself, and providing proper documentation to current gamebox designers. Once that is in place maybe there is time for a designer. I just hope all the time it takes to make the designer will not cripple the whole project. I could've programmed my own tools to help me make the gamebox, if it was worth the effort, which it isn't, unless this feature is not added, and I might have to write a tool to keep changing id offsets.
I will add an example because I fear you might be missing what I am saying.
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<game-box name="MyGame" description="MyGame" copyright="Me" startup-scenario="sample.zts">
<dice-hand type="D6"> <dice count="1" color="00ff00" pips="ffffff" /> </dice-hand>
<map name="Map" image-file="Map.jpg" resolution="300 dpi" />
<terrain-sheet name="Charts" front-image-file="Charts.jpg" front-resolution="300 dpi">
<terrain-section rows="2" columns="2" front-left="0" front-top="0" front-right="2000" front-bottom="2000" /> </terrain-sheet>
<counter-sheet name="Counters" front-image-file="Counters-Front.jpg" front-resolution="300 dpi" back-image-file="Counters-Back.jpg" back-resolution="300 dpi">
<counter-section rows="16" columns="10"
front-left="0" front-top="0" front-right="1000" front-bottom="1600"
back-left="0" back-top="0" back-right="1000" back-bottom="1600" /> </counter-sheet>
</game-box>
Empty zts to get started.
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<game game-box="MyGame" scenario-name="Sample" scenario-description="Sample Deployment" scenario-copyright="Me">
<layout board="Map" />
<layout board="Charts" />
<layout board="Counters" />
</game>
Now I open it up in ZunTzu to make my scenario. And I save the game as ztg. As it is now we would get something like.
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<game game-box="MyGame" scenario-name="Sample" scenario-description="Sample Deployment" scenario-copyright="Me">
<layout board="Map" left="-5420.84" top="-70.71" right="23664.19" bottom="18107.43" visible="true">
<counter id="2" x="7668.48" y="317.16" />
<counter id="49" x="2104.67" y="1194.27" />
<counter id="105" x="2985.31" y="1186.80" />
<counter id="1" x="1661.48" y="6469.64" />
<counter id="67" x="2525.64" y="6974.21" />
<counter id="69" x="2094.49" y="6715.67" />
<counter id="68" x="2533.15" y="6452.14" />
<counter id="40" x="5110.53" y="11976.62" />
<counter id="41" x="4692.73" y="12241.19" />
<counter id="50" x="6407.76" y="13232.83" />
<counter id="107" x="3822.14" y="13233.40" />
<counter id="108" x="2944.73" y="13736.99" />
<counter id="100" x="6830.42" y="10976.56" />
<counter id="101" x="8133.24" y="10205.17" />
<counter id="102" x="8135.30" y="11214.54" />
<counter id="103" x="7278.96" y="12229.18" />
<counter id="27" x="6405.52" y="14242.87" />
<stack x="7270.17" y="14745.05">
<counter id="14" />
<counter id="28" />
</stack>
<counter id="29" x="1656.36" y="14996.53" />
<counter id="37" x="804.02" y="16001.01" />
</layout>
<layout board="Charts" left="-4208.90" top="-72.70" right="9858.38" bottom="8715.58" />
<layout board="Counters" left="-3700.69" top="-401.74" right="7943.36" bottom="6875.79" />
</game>
All the id attributes on the counter tags are just numbered as objects are created from the layouts in the zts as based on the ztg. Chart is 0-3. Counters is 4-163. If I decided to add some terrain layout before Charts and after Map, because I want to keep the terrain tab next to the map tab in the interface, all the ids will be wrong, and I can start anew.
My proposal is to get the output ztg to look like this.
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<game game-box="MyGame" scenario-name="Sample" scenario-description="Sample Deployment" scenario-copyright="Me">
<layout board="Map" left="-5420.84" top="-70.71" right="23664.19" bottom="18107.43" visible="true">
<counter id="2" layout="Charts" x="7668.48" y="317.16" />
<counter id="45" layout="Counters" x="2104.67" y="1194.27" />
<counter id="101" layout="Counters" x="2985.31" y="1186.80" />
<counter id="1" layout="Charts" x="1661.48" y="6469.64" />
<counter id="63" layout="Counters" x="2525.64" y="6974.21" />
<counter id="65" layout="Counters" x="2094.49" y="6715.67" />
<counter id="64" layout="Counters" x="2533.15" y="6452.14" />
<counter id="36" layout="Counters" x="5110.53" y="11976.62" />
<counter id="37" layout="Counters" x="4692.73" y="12241.19" />
<counter id="46" layout="Counters" x="6407.76" y="13232.83" />
<counter id="103" layout="Counters" x="3822.14" y="13233.40" />
<counter id="104" layout="Counters" x="2944.73" y="13736.99" />
<counter id="96" layout="Counters" x="6830.42" y="10976.56" />
<counter id="97" layout="Counters" x="8133.24" y="10205.17" />
<counter id="98" layout="Counters" x="8135.30" y="11214.54" />
<counter id="99" layout="Counters" x="7278.96" y="12229.18" />
<counter id="23" layout="Counters" x="6405.52" y="14242.87" />
<stack x="7270.17" y="14745.05">
<counter id="10" layout="Counters" />
<counter id="24" layout="Counters" />
</stack>
<counter id="25" layout="Counters" x="1656.36" y="14996.53" />
<counter id="33" layout="Counters" x="804.02" y="16001.01" />
</layout>
<layout board="Charts" left="-4208.90" top="-72.70" right="9858.38" bottom="8715.58" />
<layout board="Counters" left="-3700.69" top="-401.74" right="7943.36" bottom="6875.79" />
</game>
Since this is generated by ZunTzu, no designer needs to worry about it. Yet if I now add another layout, there is no problem. Sure if I change the composition of 1 layout, then there can still be trouble, but you can add counters to the bottom, so they will be at the high end of the id range.
Now, since the ztg/zts is exported by ZunTzu itself, where does it increase complexity for the gamebox designer? It also solves the expansion-pack-for-gamebox problem until proper expansion mechanisms can be created. Since you can add and re-arrange and change layouts, with much less restrictions.