Chris Gogolen’s series will be back later this week. In the meantime, it’s a great time to learn how you can play Star Wars CCG online.
Holotable is the easiest way to play Star Wars CCG online. Not only does it let you play around with all the cards in the game, but there are online leagues and events.
This article is going to breakdown how to install Holotable.
Install the following files in this order to get holotable working and fully updated. I highly advise to install them one at a time because I’ve seen too many people have problems with the install if they are not done correctly. The links bellow take you to the Holotable page, just find the links for these items and start the download.
- GTK runtime environment – find the link in the GTK section that says “here”.
- installer – found on this download page – click on “Holotable.0.9.5”
- large images(258mb – optional but highly recommended)
If you get a .dll error when launching the program, it is almost certainly because you haven’t installed gtk.
Tutorial
This tutorial should get you up and running after installing the program.
Creating decks
Open Holodeck. Then choose File->Open, which will bring up a file selection dialog box. From here you need to open the card data file (.cdf) for the deck you wish to build (either light or dark side).
To add a card, select it from the list of cards, then click “Add card”. The card will show up in the deck listing at the bottom. You can add more of the same card by clicking “Add card” again.
You can flag cards as “starting” by clicking on the + symbol underneath “delete card”. Cards marked in this way will load in your “starting cards” pile when you load the deck in Holotable. It is suggested that you use this feature for your defensive shields and starting effect.
The arrow buttons control the order of cards in the deck when it loads. Cards at the top of your deck list will be at the bottom of the deck when it is loaded and vice versa. So if you have cards that you will use at the start (such as an Objective, a Starting Interrupt, Effects etc.), it is best to put those cards at the bottom of the deck listing.
You can search for the card you want by typing its name (or part of its name) in the “Name contains” field and clicking enter. You can search for other fields such as “Lore” and “Gametext” in a similar way. If you do not need the advanced search features, you can turn them off by clicking on the “Advanced Search” button. You can also filter the entire list by “Card type” or “Set” by selecting the type you want from the appropriate drop-down menu, at the bottom of the advanced search area.
You can save your deck by choosing File->Save.
Holotable: the basics
Once you’ve built a deck and saved it, you can load that deck in Holotable. Go to File->Load deck and pick your deck file. By default all cards (except those flagged as starting) will load in your Reserve Deck. This can be changed to loading in hand in Table->Options if you want. It is recommended that you do this to prevent your opponent from possibly seeing your objective before they load their deck.
When playing a game, your opponent cannot see any of the cards in your hand; he can only find out how many cards are there. Your cards will load facedown. Your hand is the blue field at the bottom of the screen.
You can flip the entire stack of cards over by holding the Control key and either right-clicking on the stack or pressing the ‘f’ key with the cursor over the stack. Flipping the whole stack is not like picking up a stack of cards in real life; it’s like individually turning each one of them over. So whichever card was on top is the one that’s still on top after the flip.
Now that your cards are faceup, you can look through your stack to find your starting cards. Using the ‘n’ and ‘p’ keys to go to the next and previous card in the stack, respectively. When you find one of your starting cards, click on it (and hold), then drag the cursor fully to the ‘table’ area and release. Your card will move with the cursor. If you want to move a stack of cards, hold Control, then click (and hold) on any of the cards in the stack and drag the cursor to wherever you want the stack to go. A stack is defined as any cards that overlap with the card you click on, plus any that they overlap with, etc.
Once you have some cards on the table, you may want to rotate some of them using the ‘r’ key while the mouse is over the card you want to rotate. Holding Shift changes the direction of rotation. If you want to straighten up any stack of cards, put the cursor over the stack and press ‘c’. To shuffle a stack, put the cursor over it and press ‘Shift-s’. You’ll see an image appear briefly over the stack, which indicates that it has been shuffled. You should do this to your Reserve Deck before you start playing.
You can manipulate cards in-game in one of two ways. You can either use and remember the key commands (found in Help->Key Reference or use the command window. To open the command window click Table->Command Window. The command window is recommended for first timers, though key commands are quicker if you can remember them!
Getting connected to an opponent
It is possible to play a game against yourself (Shift-q to switch sides), but not as fun for obvious reasons! The easiest way to find an opponent is to connect to the central server. This can be done through Server->Connect. If it does work, you should immediately be prompted for a password. The server is secure and to connect you need to have set up an account at the Holotable forums. You use the same username and password for the server as you did for your forum account (set your username in Table->Options->Connectivity).
Once you’ve connected you will be waiting in the lobby. This is a good place to wait if you are looking for an opponent. If anyone else connects to the server, the program will flash in your task bar, so you can go and do something else and leave Holotable running in the background. If there is another person there, you can request a game by clicking on their name and hitting “Request game”. If they accept, you will be prompted to set a password for the save game for this game and, once both players have done this, you will be in-game.
Once you are connected to your opponent, each player’s deck should be loaded. It is very important to have a clear table at this point. Decks should be loaded one at a time; one person should wait until the other person’s deck loads before loading theirs. Once decks are loaded, you can begin playing.
*Most of the information from this page was posted by Advocate on the Star Wars Players Committee website.
