Wow. Just wow.

[Hedge-o-Matic]

It's been just a few days since I was turned on to Zun Tzu, and already I've completed three gameboxes. Not bad for someone with a newborn! Granted, the boxes are ultra-simple, but since Zun Tzu handles artwork in the same way designers create it (i.e. sheets of counters, cards, etc.) the work of a ZT gamebox involves more error-checking my XML than endlessly crafting individual counters. Awesome!

There are a couple of things I would like to use, and can't seem to find anything on doing so in the support section, and I'm not sure I''d recognize them in the available gamebxes if I waded through them, so I was hoping for some more direct help.

The first is geomorphic terrain, since I need that in one of the abstracts I've got in line next (it's a set of six). Is there any reason to not just use cards for this function, or to geomorphic tiles have some quality (like not being causally movable) that make them special?

The next is support for alpha-blending in counters. One of my abstracts needs acrylic pieces, so you can place one token on another and see through. Also, I've got a set of Icehouse pieces ready to go, and thing some transparency would look pretty nice. I tried just using a mask, and giving the pieces a 50% mask, but no dice. ZT didn't recognize the tranparent pieces in the counter sheet.

Any advice on these things would be much appreciated!

[Hedge-o-Matic]

Okay, I think I found a post that explains geomorphic boards. How do you declare other pieces unstackable, though?

Still interested in transparency levels!

[Jerome]

It's been just a few days since I was turned on to Zun Tzu, and already I've completed three gameboxes. Not bad for someone with a newborn!

Congratulations! (for the newborn and the three gameboxes )

Granted, the boxes are ultra-simple, but since Zun Tzu handles artwork in the same way designers create it (i.e. sheets of counters, cards, etc.) the work of a ZT gamebox involves more error-checking my XML than endlessly crafting individual counters. Awesome!

Thanks!

The first is geomorphic terrain, since I need that in one of the abstracts I've got in line next (it's a set of six). Is there any reason to not just use cards for this function, or to geomorphic tiles have some quality (like not being causally movable) that make them special?

Terrains have these properties:
- you can't move them, except in terrain editing mode (the trowel icon).
- there's an unlimited supply of terrain. When you drag and drop a terrain from your hand to a board, you don't move it, you actually clone it.
- terrains are always displayed beneath cards and counters

You declare a terrain sheet exactly like a counter sheet, except that you need to replace "counter-sheet" by "terrain-sheet" and "counter-section" by "terrain-section".
Terrain sheets are not displayed (they have no tab) except when in terrain editing mode.

The next is support for alpha-blending in counters. One of my abstracts needs acrylic pieces, so you can place one token on another and see through. Also, I've got a set of Icehouse pieces ready to go, and thing some transparency would look pretty nice. I tried just using a mask, and giving the pieces a 50% mask, but no dice. ZT didn't recognize the tranparent pieces in the counter sheet.

Your intuition was correct: you can make pieces transparent by using gray areas.

You need to be aware that the transparency mask doesn't replace the declaration of counter sections. You need to first declare counter sections normally, then provide a transparency mask.

[Hedge-o-Matic]

Congratulations!

Thanks!

Your intuition was correct: you can make pieces transparent by using gray areas.

Looks like an error in my code may have been responsible for my transparency efforts not working, then. Hmm. Back to work!