Board Game Arena

Hello,
I have a game option with only two options. One of these options is only present in beta.
Question 1: If there is only one option present, which should be the case in none beta mode, will the options be present ?
Question 2: If so, is there a displaycondition option available for beta mode ?
Thank you

I don't understand your question. There's only one instance of your game on BGA production. Your game is either in alpha, beta, or gold (normal). So there's no such thing as "only present in beta". The option will be present at all times. Setting beta = true on an individual option is just to display a warning notation for players. It just add some warning at the top of the table creation screen like "Heads up, this option might not work right. Please report bugs.". It has nothing to do with the alpha/beta/gold status of your game.

Which reminds me this option does not work at all. I have put several of the options values of my game in beta but nothing particular is shown when setuping the game.

quietmint wrote: ↑15 August 2020, 19:14 I don't understand your question. There's only one instance of your game on BGA production. Your game is either in alpha, beta, or gold (normal). So there's no such thing as "only present in beta". The option will be present at all times. Setting beta = true on an individual option is just to display a warning notation for players. It just add some warning at the top of the table creation screen like "Heads up, this option might not work right. Please report bugs.". It has nothing to do with the alpha/beta/gold status of your game.

I'll try to be more clear.
In the game setup screen, you have your option listed on the right. Which are define in the file gameoptions.inc.php.
In the wiki, it says you can add beta => 'true' like in my first post in order to have the option only listed in beta mode.
When my game will be no more in beta and will become publish, the 'Manual' option whould not be visible.
The only option available will be 'Normal'.

My first question is : Since there will be only one option, will the combobox be visible at all to the user ? Since the user have no choice, I find it kind of sad to show the selection box without any choice being possible.
So my second question is if it is possible to hide some option base on release state of the game.

Which reminds me this option does not work at all. I have put several of the options values of my game in beta but nothing particular is shown when setuping the game.

For me, it is working, I can see the option present in the list. But I do not effectively know the stats of my game, I would assume it is beta since the option is visible. But maybae, it will be visible when release, I hope not.

As far as I know, I don't believe it works as you think. The option will be visible to everyone, regardless of the state of your game. You just get a warning added on the lobby page. The 'beta' parameter doesn't affect visibility.

Ilmion wrote: ↑18 August 2020, 17:02 In the wiki, it says you can add beta => 'true' like in my first post in order to have the option only listed in beta mode.

I think that quietmint is right. The wiki says

beta - Option in beta stage on development

and

// beta=true => this option is in beta version right now.

I think it doesn't mean that the option exists only when the game is in beta stage, but that the option itself is in beta stage (not fully tested).

I confirm that "beta=true" does not currently do anything (except maybe display a warning somewhere).

Games are the same along the alpha/beta/released process. There is no reason to have an option only available in alpha/beta since the goal of alpha/beta is to qualify the game code for release.

If really needed, such an option could be active in the code for alpha/beta, then commented out before releasing the game.

Thanks everyone, it makes more sense that way. Should have reread the wiki

Een wrote: ↑24 August 2020, 17:17 I confirm that "beta=true" does not currently do anything (except maybe display a warning somewhere).

I think it would be helpful that the warning is shown during game setup. That way, a player would know that this option is not fully tested. As there is no staging system except the studio, the new variants are not fully tested by someone else that the developer (which of course has the developer bias and won't click where it should). This would encourage players to play such variant in training mode and perhaps be more attentive to bugs.

bdrieu wrote: ↑27 August 2020, 22:43

Een wrote: ↑24 August 2020, 17:17 I confirm that "beta=true" does not currently do anything (except maybe display a warning somewhere).

I think it would be helpful that the warning is shown during game setup. That way, a player would know that this option is not fully tested. As there is no staging system except the studio, the new variants are not fully tested by someone else that the developer (which of course has the developer bias and won't click where it should). This would encourage players to play such variant in training mode and perhaps be more attentive to bugs.

Absolutely, we have improved the warnings to do just that. A warning is now displayed for games in alpha/beta or for fully released games where players have selected an option flagged as "beta".