Map Overview, Full Screen Mode and Visibility Settings
The next version of WinBolo is coming soon, and it has the biggest changes since the first 2.0 release. This post covers the first three: Map Overview, Full Screen Mode and Visibility Settings.
Map Overview
Players have asked for this feature for a long time. When opened it shows a second window that can be resized and zoomed in/out showing the entire map. This feature has led to debates in discord and the forums about what it allowed you to see in 1990 vs modern computers with much higher screen resolutions and faster CPUs for faster rendering but now for the first time in WinBolo's history it is available!
Full Screen Mode
Full Screen Mode makes the entire game now run in full screen. From main menu, lobby and the game. The map fills the whole screen, and your status panels and build buttons sit at the edges of the screen. They can have transparency set as well as automatically be shown/hidden.
Other features
- Full screen mode can be access from the main menu or by pressing Alt+Enter on Windows and Linux, or Option+Enter on macOS
- Camera can be set to follow the tank or free look around the map using the camera toggle key to return to following the tank.
- Zoom via configurable control+scroll wheel and zoom keys.
Visibility Settings
The new version brings a lot of new visibility options to allow for new type of play on the expanded view area and enable new strategies to be used with new line of sight visibility. Visibility settings are managed inside the lobby and can be configured by server operators as well.
Presets
The host picks a Visibility preset in the lobby:
| Preset | Visibility Options | |---|---| | Classic | The standard Bolo view only. No map overview, no full screen map, no extra views. | | Classic with overview | Classic, plus the Map Overview window and Full Screen Mode. You still have to scroll to see around your tank. | | Expanded | In fullscreen mode/map overview You see the full 29×29 squares centred on your tank, you don't have to scroll around your tank. Pill view is always on. | | Max view | Expanded, plus your bases and allied tanks also show you what is around them. | | Line of sight | Max view, but you only see what your tank can actually see. Buildings block sight, and so do two squares of trees in a row. | | Custom | Set each rule yourself. |
A server with no settings runs Classic. The game browser and WBN shows the selected game's preset, so you know what kind of game it is before you join. The lobby provides more details if custom is selected
Custom Visibility Options
In the lobby pressing Details next to the visibility options allows you to see every rule in a table and change any of them if you have permissions.
Pillbox View, Base View and Allied Tank View can each be set on their own:
- Pillbox View shows you the area around your own pillboxes.
- Base View shows you the area around your own bases.
- Allied Tank View shows you the area around your allies' tanks.
Each of the three has four settings:
| Setting | What it means | |---|---| | Always | The area is shown on your map overview/fullscreen all the time. | | Key | The area is shown only while you are watching it with that view's key, the same way Pill View has always worked in Bolo. | | Decay | The area stays visible for a set time after one of your tanks was last near it (within 9 squares). The host picks the time, from 5 seconds to 10 minutes, default 30 seconds. When it runs out, the area goes back under fog, and the view key skips it until you visit again. | | Off | The area is never shown. |
Decay means you have to keep visiting your pillboxes and bases, or keep in touch with your allies, to keep seeing what is around them.
You can also set:
- See allies in trees: allied tanks are always visible to you, even inside trees.
- Overview window: Classic shows the same area your normal game view does, so you still scroll to look around. Expanded shows all 29×29 squares around your tank. None turns off the Map Overview and Full Screen Mode for the game.
- Line of sight: buildings, and two squares of trees in a row, hide the ground behind them. Trees within two squares of your tank never hide anything.
- Classic mode: a single checkbox that sets and locks the original Bolo rules: Pillbox View on Key, Base and Allied Tank View Off, no allies in trees, no line of sight and no map overview.
Fog of war style
The game settings also allows configuring different styles of the fog of war overlay, dark/light and a bordered view.
Stay tuned for more exciting new features coming in the next release