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Boardgames That Use Apps
1. Do you typically need to use the app during the whole game?
2. Does your phone's screen saver keep kicking in, and does that cause any problems with the app?
3. Is it a major drain on your battery to run an app all game long?
4. Is a smart phone sufficient, or do these boardgame apps tend to require a larger screen, like an iPad?
5. Could you run said app on a laptop instead of a phone?
6. What happens if you get a phone call while you are running the app?
7. Does the app cost extra?
8. Would the app show up on my phone bill? (My current employer took over my cell phone bill and replaced my phone with an iPhone, and I now need to request permission before adding apps to my phone.)
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1) Yes
2) No I haven't had this problem.
3) Yes I keep it plugged in with an additional speaker.
4) I have a large phone its fine - others may vary.
5) Yes
6) Mine was fine just minimized the app.
7) No
8) No idea on this one
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- SuperflyPete
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Shellhead wrote:
1. Do you typically need to use the app during the whole game?
YES
2. Does your phone's screen saver keep kicking in, and does that cause any problems with the app?
NOT GENERALLY. IT LOCKS THE SCREEN OPEN.
3. Is it a major drain on your battery to run an app all game long?
YES-ISH
4. Is a smart phone sufficient, or do these boardgame apps tend to require a larger screen, like an iPad?
DEPENDS. UNLOCK!, not so much, XCOM, yes.
5. Could you run said app on a laptop instead of a phone?
NOT THAT I AM AWARE OF
6. What happens if you get a phone call while you are running the app?
THE CALL SHOWS UP AND THE GAME PAUSES.
7. Does the app cost extra?
NOT YET
8. Would the app show up on my phone bill? (My current employer took over my cell phone bill and replaced my phone with an iPhone, and I now need to request permission before adding apps to my phone.)
NO. ANYTHING YOU BUY IS TIED TO THE CARD YOU USE FOR APP STORE/APPLE PAY.
AS AN ASIDE, ALWAYS NEGOTIATE THAT YOU PAY YOUR PHONE BILL AND THEY REIMBURSE. WHEN YOUR COMPANY OWNS THE PHONE BILL THEY OWN THE NUMBER WHICH CAN BE DETRIMENTAL TO YOUR CAREER WHEN YOU HAVE TO SURRENDER IT. IT MEANS THAT ALL OF YOUR CONTACTS IN BUSINESS CALL THAT NUMBER AFTER YOU LEAVE AND IF YOU WENT TO A COMPETITOR THEY WILL BE CALLING YOUR OLD COMPANY. Just my 2c from experience.
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- southernman
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- Legomancer
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I have First Martians, which is app driven and which I enjoy, but there's a definite downside to the app. Apparently at some point people could add events to the ones in there and you can definitely tell which ones were added because (1) they're usually dumb and (2) no one bothered to spell check them or whatever. I really wish I could exclude them. I'm all for the idea that an app allows you to add content, but I don't want just anything getting thrown in there.
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I would love to see an app that allows for a multi-player, non-coop boardgame with good quality fog of war.
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- Jackwraith
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I personally like all of the ones I’ve played from Fantasy Flight. I’ve got a campaign going for both Imperial Assault/Descent and Mansions of Madness has been a favorite amongst my friends.
One thing I like about the app is that if a scenario is broken, it can be fixed via a quick update as opposed to waiting until the next expansion comes out.
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- Erik Twice
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As you might know, 18XX are very long games. The average is four or five hours with experienced players and they can certainly go much longer than that. And much of that time isn't playtime, per se, it's time moving money around which is why practically everyone uses poker chips instead of paper money. But some people go a step further and use a "moderator" that tracks all the money, like "Lemmi's Moderator"
The program is ugly as sin and mostly in German, but man, I tried it last night playing 1825 against myself and the time savings are massive. I mean, I finished the game in less than hours even though I was playing both sides and didn't know how to operate the moderator, that's insane! People are playing 1870, which normally takes 7-8 hours in 4, or turning 1830 in a 3 hour or less game. Sure, the program might look awful but it turns 18XX games, which are heavy shelf toads into typical heavy euros and that's massive.
It's not perfect, though, uglyness aside. It doesn't seem to have support for 1825 Unit 3 and I normally play 1825 using Units 2 and 3. And apparently some of the supported 18XX are variants common in Germany and not the official rulesets. But man, it's a really huge change.
There are also other moderators, but I'm not sure about them.
There's Oddman's Administrator but it isn't used by anyone but the creators and I haven't managed to do anything with it. At all.
There's Survey Party, which is a iOS app. It costs 1€ so it's worth trying out, but man, it not being a Windows application hurts. The iPAD's screen is small and I don't think it would be comfortable compared to Lemmi's moderator, uglyness aside. Still, I'll get it and try it out.
There are also Excel spreadsheets, which should do to the same but they don't seem much better than using Lemmi's Moderator. Still, I'm going to try them out.
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I can see these making a massive difference in the time spent, just by doing the crunching for you. I've never actually played any of the 18xx games, but I'm sure Excel is the best possible way to handle game state.
I mean, this is what spreadsheets were meant for. Dynamic accounting exercises.
The plus side of an Excel sheet is it's always expandable or changeable (given enough understanding of what it' doing), so you can add your favorite missing ones or undo someone else's tweaks.
Honestly, any really heavy economic game is going to benefit from something like this, unless obscuring that info is where the "game" is. In which case, fuck that game. There's a reason why quants have the most powerful computers available.
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- Erik Twice
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And yeah, the issue with 18XX is that each company "runs trains" and pays money to players. So you have to calculate "well, if the payout is 13 per share and I have 4 shares, I get 52" and then go fetch the poker chips. For every company and for every player. So yeah, it's slow. The moderator does it just by pressing enter which is much, much faster.
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- Legomancer
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