A Beginner's Guide To GameSmith

Welcome, GameSmith newbies! I'm Remy, your helpful guide through the strange land known as GameSmith. GameSmith, as you probably already know, is Freeverse's game matching server, allowing you to find opponents for all sorts of games in a fun environment. However, like all new things, GameSmith can be a little intimidating if you're just starting out. So let me show you around!

Once you log in, this is the window you're likely to see. The artwork may be different, the users may be different, but the general idea will remain the same.

This is your main interface, with some helpful text labels. This may be enough to explain what's going on, but in case it's not, let's look at each part piece by piece.

Room Selector

This is the room selector. It displays what room you are in and how many people are in the room with you. If you click on it, you can see how many people are in the other rooms - and if you select a different room, you will change rooms. Note that you cannot change rooms while in a game.

The Chatbox

This is the chat box. In here, you can see users joining and leaving, as well as chat messages from other users. This will be your primary method of communicating with others.

Input Line

This is the input line, which is what you use to get what you want to say into the chat box. To chat, simple type your message and hit return. Voila, chat! There are some commands you can use in the input line, but we'll cover these later.

The Userlist

This is the user list. This is a source of a lot of confusion, so let's look at it from left to right:

• The icon to the left represents the game the person is connected with. Each game has its own individual icon. Try to find people that match your icon to find opponents!
• The name to the right of the icon is the user name for that user. A dimmed name represents a person who is either away from their computer or is currently in a game. A red user name represents a captain, who has some administrator priviliges and is a volunteer. A purple user name represents an Admiral, which are given to Freeverse employees and programmers. A blue user name represents the #1 ranked player for that particular game.
• The number near the right side represents that user's ranking in that particular game. A user may opt to hide their ratings from the public, which is why you'll see them for some people but not for others. Guests have no rank, by the way.
• To the very right is an icon that designates user type. Regular users have blue icons, guests have green icons with a "G", captains have icons with some red in it, and admirals have purple icons with a pretty star.

Sounds pretty confusing! But luckily, if you have help tags on in your preferences (and unless you've turned it off, you probably do), you can hover your mouse over a user for a few seconds and information about them and what they're currently playing will show up.

If you double click on someone's name, you'll pull up their profile page (see below). If you double click on your own name, you'll pull up your profile and be able to edit it. If you right-click (or control-click, if you only have a one button mouse), you get a menu with options for things you can do with that user. Right-clicking on yourself yields more options.

The Game List

This is the games list. All the games that are currently being played in this room are shown here. After you've learned how the user list works, you may be able to guess much of the functionality here. What you're seeing, from left to right, includes:

• The icon for that particular hosted game. If a game matches your icon, that means that you may be able to join.
• The name of that game. People can give their game whatever name they'd like, but normally it just includes the name of the person starting the game. If a game is dimmed out, that means the game has already started and you will not be able to join. However, if a game is un-dimmed, you can attempt to join by double clicking on it. Note that a blue-colored game name is an unranked game, and will not affect your position on the ladder.
• Sometimes, to the right of a game name, you'll see a padlock icon. This means the game is private and you will need to be given a password to join. Should you have the password, simply join and input the password when prompted to.
• To the very right, you'll see icons representing the number of human players (human heads) and AI players (computer heads) currently joining that game. Most games only support up to 4 players, so if you already see four icons, chances are you aren't going to be able to join.

Much like the user list, if you have info tags enabled and you hold your mouse over a game, you'll be given more information about it.

Buttons

These are the remainder of the buttons you'll need. From left to right:

• The red question mark button will take you to the support page, which is probably how you got here!
• The blue "I" button will take you to the Freeverse forums, where you can have discussions within the community.
• The grey button will bring up the preferences panel.
• The join button will, if you've selected a game in the game list, attempt to join it. This has the same action as double clicking on a game, so this is provided for those of you who like to click twice, but not in the same spot!
• The host button allows you to host your own game, and brings up the hosting window.

Hosting Window

This is the window you'll see when you click on "Host". Type whatever name you'd like for "Game's Name". If you're the type of person who isn't wowed by rankings and wants to have a game just for fun, click the checkbox next to "Unranked game". If you want to have a private game, click the "private game" checkbox and type a password in the appropriate field. Then hit OK, and your hosted game will begin.
NOTE: IF YOU SEE A DIFFERENT WINDOW WHEN YOU CLICK HOST, WARNING YOU ABOUT HAVING A TRANSLATED IP, YOU MAY NEED TO FOLLOW OUR ROUTER CONFIGURATION INSTRUCTIONS.

Profile Window

This is the profile window, which you will see if you double click on someone else. Most of the information is self explanitory. If you wish to ignore a user, click the checkbox next to "Ignore chat from this player". If you want to get the attention of the user, use the "Page" button in the upper right. The button will only be active if the user accepts pages - and please use the feature sparingly, because no one likes getting paged endlessly. One time will do!

Rankings may not be shown if the user opts out of having their rankings displayed.

If you double click on yourself, you can edit our own profile. Add some information about yourself so people can get to know you!

Preferences Window

This is the screen you'll see if you press the Preferences button (see the buttons section). Options include:

• Player Sorting - reorganize how the user list is arranged.
• Chat Font & Size - change the display of the chatroom settings to make it easier or harder to read, depending on your personal tastes.
• Use Alternating Colors - allows text to more easily be identified.
• Show Emoticons - when checked, smilies and the like will be replaced by cute little graphics.
• Show Enter & Exit Messages - when checked, will give you a text notification in the chat room when someone connects or disconnects.
• Accept Pages From Others - dictates whether or not other users can send you an audible page to try and get your attention.
• Show Info Tags - when checked, "tooltip" style help will be available when you hover your mouse over a user or game.
• Hide My Ranking From Others - if you don't want to be counted for the ranked game ladders, check this box and your stats will be hidden from the world. You, of course, may still access them.
• Hide Banner Ads - available only for Premium Members, will disable the small banner ad at the top of the GS window.

And that's it! I hope this helps to clarify some of the nuances of the GameSmith interface. If you need further assistance, feel free to ask in our forums or on the server itself. If you want to contact me directly, I'm available on GameSmith as "FV Remy". Hope to see you there!