View source for DRAFT1846 Player's Guide

[[File:DraftFlow.png|frame]]
[[File:D1846StartPage.png|frame]]
== Introduction ==
DRAFT1846 is a utility for play by email 1846 games. 
This utility mediates the private company draft phase of 1846.<br>
DRAFT1846 was written to be used with BOARD18 but it should be usable with any Play By Email game.

The diagram to the right shows a simplified version of the way a draft is mediated by DRAFT1846.<br>
The general flow, once things get started, is:
* A player gets an email with a link.
* The player clicks on the link.
* DRAFT1846 displays a screen usually asking for the player to take an action.
* The player takes the action and presses the appropriate button.
* The process is repeated with the next player.

== The Draft ID ==
Each draft is assigned a '''Draft ID''' when it is started on the draft1846Start.php page.<br>
This '''Draft ID''' will be displayed on every email and every page produced by DRAFT1846.

== How To Start A Draft ==
There are two ways to kickoff the draft process:
# If you are using BOARD18 then you can go to the map or market page and use MENU/Help/DRAFT1846.<span style="color: Fuchsia"> Not true yet!</span>
# If not then, on your browser address bar, type https://d1846.board18.org/index.html
This will display the '''Welcome To DRAFT1846''' page. <br>
Please read all of the instructions on that page.<br>
Then select the number of players and press the '''Start the draft setup''' button.

<span style="color: Fuchsia">Please be careful to have only one gamer start the draft. <br>
Having more than one draft active for the same game could be very confusing!</span>

== How To Setup A Draft ==
You should now see the '''Start new 1846 private company draft''' page.<br>
A scaled down example of this page, for a 4 player game, is shown to the right.

Enter the player names and the player email addresses on the top part of the page.<br>
Next, for a 3 or 4 player game, select the private companies to be '''eliminated''' from the draft.<br>
You can use the [https://www.random.org/lists/ list randomizer] at random.org to determine this ahead of time.

And finally, press the '''Process Form''' button.

The DRAFT1846 will now send a Confirmation email to each player. Each player should click on the link in this email.<br>
When all players have done so then the draft will start. See diagram on top right.

== How To Check The Status Of A Draft ==
As a general rule clicking again on the latest link that DRAFT1846 has Emailed to you will get you a status update on the draft.<br>
Clicking again on an Email link should never cause a problem.

== The Actual Draft ==
<span style="color: Fuchsia">The rest of this document is yet  to be written.</span><br>
But the draft process from this point on should be fairly self explanatory.


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