Client usage

Graphical User Interface

After you connected to the server and started the game (explained in Getting Started), you see the board on the right, with a game info box and the chat/game output window and the chatline in the center of the board. Furthermore you see some info boxes on the left.

The elements on the main window are mostly self-explanatory. Use the toolbar or the menus to control the game. Use the right mouse button to get info about the fields and to act on the fields (e.g. mortgage/unmortgage properties, build houses, etc.).

In addition to controlling the game, you have the possibility to chat with the other players by typing messages into the chatline located under the output window in the center of the board. There are two modes for the output window and the chat line (represented by two tabs "Chat" and "Game Log").

In the first mode ("Chat"), the output window contains the chat messages and the most important messages about the game (e.g. short messages about trades going on, messages about bankruptcy etc.). In Chat mode everything you type in the chat line is interpreted as chat by default.

In the second mode ("Game Log"), you can read the history of the actions concerning the game (e.g. actions connected with each turn, but also full versions of trade offers etc.). It provides an addition to the game info box above. Furthermore in Game Log mode, everything entered in the chat line is interpreted as a client command (see next section command line introduction)

Hint: If the Graphical User Interface fails (in case of bugs or if you want to cheat ;-), all necessary commands are also implemented on the command line, which is described in the next section.

Command line interface

In addition to the graphical user interface described in the previous section, the chat line in the center of the board provides a simple command line interface. There you can access all commands necessary for playing. The commands can be typed in quite efficiently by typing the first letters, until a command is unique. E.g. instead of ".property buy", you can simply type in ".p b", which is already unique. A simple history is provided by using the up and down arrow keys.

Here is a list of all available commands (you can get this list by typing ".help"):

Client (Server) commands are prefixed with '.' ('/').
Available commands:
 (type command without arguments to get subcommand list)
---------------------------------------------------------
.help                - this help text
.chat                - send chat message
---------------------------------------------------------
.info <subcmd>       - information about board, players
.roll                - roll the dice
.done                - end your turn
.property <subcmd>   - manipulate properties (buy etc.)
.houses <subcmd>     - manipulate houses (buy etc.)
.trade <subcmd>      - trade with other players
.jail <subcmd>       - get out of jail
.pay                 - settle your debts
.bankruptcy          - declare yourself bankrupt
---------------------------------------------------------
Abbreviations are allowed.

Some commands have a specific syntax, they are listed here:

---------------------------------------------------------
syntax: chat [ playername: ] message
---------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------
syntax: info <about> [ <name> ]
	<about>:	board, field, player
	<name> :	field/player name
---------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------
syntax: property <subcmd> <propname>
	<subcmd>  :	buy, mortgage, unmortgage
	<propname>:	name of the property
---------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------
syntax: houses <subcmd> <monopname> <nhouses1> <nhouses2> [<nhouses3>]
	<subcmd>   :	buy, sell
	<monopname>:	monopoly name (use color name)
	<nhouses1> :	# houses to buy/sell on 1st street of monopoly etc.
---------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------
syntax: trade <subcmd> <destplr> [ <money> <props> ]
	<subcmd>:	offer, reply, agree, reject
	<destplr>:	player you want to trade with (name)
	<money>:	money to balance the trade
	<props>:	your properties to trade
			*and* these of your counterpart
---------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------
syntax: jail <subcmd>
	<subcmd>:	pay, card
	pay the fine, or use jail free card to get out
---------------------------------------------------------

Examples

Here I collected some simple examples, how they could occur in a real game. You can train a little and get used to the usage. When you are fed up with this nasty dot before the commands, simply switch to the Game Log and type your commands there, without the dot.

I want to roll the dice:
```
> .r
```
I want to buy the property I've just landed on:
```
> .p b
```
I want to end my turn (this is forgotten very often!):
```
> .d
```
I want to get information about the data of some street (say "Boardwalk"):
```
> .i f bo
```
This stands for ".info field Boardwalk". You should be careful with names like "St. Charles place", where in some cases the whitespaces or the points are omitted. Try both with and without whitespaces or points to find out what is the correct name.
I want to buy 3 houses on the blue monopoly, 1 on Park place and 2 on Boardwalk:
```
> .ho b bl 1 2
```
The "bl" stands for "blue". There exist eight monopolies (purple, lightblue, violet, orange, red, yellow, green, blue), you can find the right monopoly color name in the info for fields in that monopoly (especially in future, when the names will be configurable).
A powerful, but yet complicated feature is trade. Its described best with another simple example. Player bob wants to offer a deal to player joe: "I give you $100 and St.James Place. You give me Illinois avenue for that.":
```
> .tr of jo 100 st.j ill
```
This is the short form of ".trade offer joe 100 St.James place Illinois avenue". Its simple, isn't it. So joe has the choice to agree
```
> .tr ag bo
```
or he can reject the deal:
```
> .tr rej bo
```
But he can also reply to the offer by offering something else: "I give you Atlantic avenue and you give me $200 and St.James Place."
```
> .tr rep bo -200 st.j atl
```
Notice the negative money, if you want something! The order for the streets is unimportant, because it's clear who owns which streets.
Bob can now again agree, reject or reply with another deal offer.
Hint: Always be fast to type e.g. ".tr rej bo", if something goes wrong with your trade offer. There are some pitfalls!

Server Commands

If you have started the server from within your client connection dialog, you have the full control over it. You can issue all server commands and you can set server options. These are some examples of useful server commands typed on the client chatline:

> /show                       (show server options)
> /set aifill 4               (fill the game with up to 3 AI players) 
> /start                      (start the game)
> /aitoggle <your_nick>       (convert yourself to an AI and watch the game)