The Game menu
Gamut's Game menu contains several commands that you can invoke while a table window is active. Some are more immediately useful than others; we'll describe the more commonly used commands first.
Basic Commands
- Invite Player...
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Displays a dialog box that lets you invite another player to this table. You can type in the player's Volity ID here, or drag them from your roster, or even drag them from another table or chat window's roster pane.
The invited player will receive a message letting them know about the invitation. If they're using Gamut, they'll also see a dialog box with accept/decline buttons.
- Request Bot
- If the parlor offers bots, then this command will cause one to appear. (Otherwise, you'll get a message apologizing for the parlor's lack of bots.)
When a game is active, selecting this command tells the referee to temporarily suspend play. The table drops into a suspended state, and it won't resume until all the seated players have declared that they are ready, just like starting a game.
This command is useful when you want to change the table's current seating arrangement, since players are free to stand up, sit down, or swap seats while the game is suspended. Note that you cannot add new seats to a suspended table, or remove them. You can add bots to vacated seats, which is a good way to replace human players who have, for one reason or another, left the table. Conversely, you can also remove bots from seats and replace them with human players.
Advanced Commands
You can generally disregard these commands until you become familiar with the structure of the Volity network. Some let you modify a game's user interface source, and others are of interest primarility to game developers or testers.
- New Table At...
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If you happen to know the full Jabber ID of a Volity parlor, you can try to start a new table there through this command.
This is one way to have Gamut create a new table at a parlor which is not visible on the game finder.
- Join Table At...
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If you happen to know the full Jabber ID of a Volity table, you can try to join it with through this command.
This is one way to have Gamut join a table at a parlor which is not visible on the game finder.
- Select New Interface...
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Gamut will automatically and silently locate and download appropriate user interface files every time you create or join a table. This command lets you ask Gamut to load other UI files instead.
The dialog it brings up lists all the appropriate UI files that Gamut already knows about. You can specify more, either by URL or by local filename, and immediately attempt to load them.
- Select New Resource...
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Some games feature individual resources that can be swapped out for others, such as decks of cards with alternative artwork. If a game makes uses these kinds of resources, selecting this command will bring up a dialog listing the alternative resources that Gamut already knows about. You can specify more, either by URL or by local filename, and immediately attempt to load them.