Just give me the beta!

If you just want the beta download, without all the discussion of what's in it, go ahead and jump down to "How do I get the beta?"

Want Hexes?

Turns out, I can be swayed.  I said I wouldn't implement hex grids prior for 1.0.  Several of you made your case for hex support when you stopped by the booth at Gen Con this year.   It's not so much that there were tons of people who wanted hexes, but those of you who wanted it, really wanted it.  And you quite reasonably argued that, for now at least, you didn't need vision and calculation with hexes, you just needed hexes to be able to play your game.  As a one man development shop, I know I can't please everyone.  However, after talking to people who were really enthusiastic about EpicTable, but also long time players of games that use hex grids; people who weren't bullying but made genuine appeals on behalf of their favorite games...well, that strikes right at that heart of what EpicTable's all about, with its mantra of neutrality and flexibility and inclusion.  I had a sixteen hour drive during which to ponder the topic of hex grids, and it wasn't long after my arrival home that I prototyped it.  Between then and now, other issues have delayed the introduction of hex grids.  Hex grid support was a semi-secret candidate feature in betas 12, 13, and 14, each time getting trumped by other things.  Finally hex grids have arrived!  

Move Objects with Arrow Keys

A much-requested feature--moving an object via the arrow keys--makes its debut in beta 15.  It's a little extra spiffy in that it's grid-aware.  That is, if you're on a tabletop or map with snap to grid off, the arrow key moves the selected object one pixel.  If you're on a map with snap to grid on, though, the arrow keys move the selected object on grid square.  Oh, but wait!  What about the folks so recently wooed with hex grids?  Hex grids don't support snap to grid, so doesn't that mean that hex grids won't support grid based movement?  Disappointment on the very eve of celebration?  Madness!  I wouldn't leave you guys out in the cold.  Even without snap to grid, you can get the same effect by holding the Shift key down while hitting an arrow key.  If you want diagonals or (30 degree moves for hex), you can use the keys on the numeric keypad (with NumLock off).  A picture might help.  This shows the use of the keypad arrows.  Remember NumLock has to be off to get the arrows.  You can also use the plain old arrow keys, if you don't care about diagonal or hex-based movement.

_{"Keyboard Keys Images" by attosoft licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY)}

What Else?

There were some interesting errors in automated error reports and diagnostics collections from the beta testers.  This led to the discovery of an issue with the way placeholder images were replaced with the "real" images fetched from another participant.  Also, a mysterious "drag and drop registration error" that a couple of you reported has been fixed.  For a full list of the fixes in this release, check out  the what's new page.