Display - [EBP Help Contents]

The "display" is the main EBP game window.

MAP BOX

The majority of the display is occupied by the map box; see usage topic. It is here that track is built and trains are moved during play; see symbols. To adjust the size of the map box, drag the resize icon found near its lower left corner. Many aspects of the map display, such as text font and color, can be adjusted to suit your preferences via the Display Settings window, and Show pull-down menu.

When you mouse over a city, EBP displays above the map the city name and loads it supplies. A load name in ALL CAPS means the city is the only source of that load.

Learn how to zoom and scroll the map in the Map Use topic.

HISTORY BOX

Beneath the map is the scrollable history box. It records a text description of game play. To search for text within the box use the Game, History, Search pull-down menu.

PLAYER CONTRACTS BOX

At the left of the map is the Player Contracts box. During a game, the Player Contracts box lists the players in turn order from top to bottom. The listing for each player includes (from the top):

Player's name, engine speed and avatar (if any)

Loads onboard (mouse over to blink supply cities on map)

Contracts, typically listing 3 demands of cities/loads/payoffs

If your track serves a demand city, that city name is italicized; if your train is in that city, a * appears before the city name. If you have a load onboard that matches a demand, that load name is italicized. A ">" is prefixed to a city that is the destination of your automove, or to a load if that destination supplies a load demanded on your contracts.

Mouse over or touch the listed cities to blink them on the map. Mouse over or touch the load names to blink their supply cities on the map. Touch screen users can avoid scrolling the contracts by touching and sliding within the leftmost area of the contracts. To blink info about remaining demands, upon a contract left click midway between the demanded load text and the load icons.

To scroll the contracts, click and hold near the middle of a contract and drag up or down. You can also scroll via the numeric keypad's arrows, after you press the Ins key there to move the focus to the contracts.

To remind yourself about a particular delivery, double click that contract demand to toggle the display of a RR crossing icon. This reminder is not shown to opponents in Web and Pbem matches, though the AI bots do note and act upon it. If a particular delivery is locked and must be done (honeymoon variant rules), a padlock icon will automatically be displayed. As a further reminder, EBP will also overlay these icons in the Loads window.

To change the display order of the contracts, click and hold on the right side of the contract (the load icons) and drag the contract to the desired position. Note that the display order you choose is revealed to opponents in Web and Pbem matches, just as if you had changed your arrangement of physical contracts during board game play.

Right click a demand's city or load to popup a menu, and choose Information for details.

If any Special Demands and/or Open Contracts are active, they are displayed below the contracts of the last player. To scroll directly to Special Demands during play, click the box found below the contracts box and above the cash box.

To monitor a particular Special Demand or Open Contract, right click on it and from the popup menu choose Watch. EBP displays watched contracts in the same area as your regular contracts, but does not reveal them to opponents in Web and Pbem matches. To stop watching a contract, right click on it and again choose Watch.

If the load demanded is one generated by building to an xspot, mouse over the payoff to blink the cities in which an already generated load currently exists for pickup. Move the mouse over the load name to blink all cities at which the load can be generated.

For Pbem and Web matches, to change the avatar displayed with your locomotive, right click on your name and enter the full URL (starting with http:// or https://) of the desired JPG, non-animated GIF or BMP picture file online. You are welcome to use for this purpose any of the images at http://www.railgamefans.com/avatars/

To open a separate window showing the contracts of all players, use the Game, Contracts menu. Resize the window taller than wide and EBP will show two players per column. Right click for a popup menu to adjust the text size for a better fit, or toggle non-player contracts so that only Special Demands and Open Contracts show. Those running a dual-monitor system can drag the window to their other monitor. This separate Contracts window supports none of the left-mouse-click accessible features of the contracts box.

CASH BOX

Near the bottom left corner of the game window is the cash box. It shows the current money level for each active player as well as loads onboard. Players are listed in turn order; the name of the current player is underlined; the name of the most recent player to collect a payoff is displayed in bold. In a narrow box, the player names will be reduced to their first letter. Mouse over to view the speed and load capacity of a player's train, plus the names of any onboard loads. Mouse over also blinks the player's train on the map. Click a player's name to scroll to that player's contracts, and display above the cash box that player's rank and amount loaned (if BorrowMax enabled). Double click a player's name to zoom the map to that player's train.

The exact cash level can be hidden by enabling the "Keep cash levels secret" check box on the Game Options window. When cash is secret, multiple currency symbols will show the approximate cash levels of the players. When a tax card event occurs during a match, per game rules the exact cash amount becomes public through match end.

If you are playing the connect-only variant (i.e. if the match's winning cash level is set to 0), each player's number of big cities connected is displayed within the cash box.

If you find the text in the Cash box too difficult to read, right click it to reverse the background color.

THUMBNAIL

The thumbnail "mini-map" blinks city, load and train locations plus facilitates zooming into the main map. You can reposition the thumbnail into any corner of the main map, or share the area with the Cash box, or place it to the right of the Cash box. To reposition the thumbnail, right click upon it then drag and drop it near one of the aforementioned locations. Alternatively, instead of drag and drop, you can reposition (and resize) via a dropdown menu in the Display Settings window.

To zoom to an area click or double-click the thumbnail map, or then rotate the mouse wheel upon it. To scroll the main map, drag the thumbnail's viewport.