TCGBuddy

Changing the tab-bar items

More edit mode

The tab bar in TCGBuddy (the bar at the bottom) doesn’t give you room for too much stuff.  There’s the Life Counter at the left (which stays put at all times), the More at the right, and room for 3 more items of your choice.  If you hit the More button you can always choose one of the other items and use it immediately.

Its really easy to change the tab bar to put your favourite items in those 3 other slots.  First, hit the More tab item.  This will bring up the More screen.  At the top of the More screen, hit the Edit button.  From here you will see the Configure screen.  You can then tap and drag any of the items that you like down to the tab bar into one of the 3 slots.  You can also drag the tab bar items around to re-order them.

Make sure you tap the Done button at the top when you are finished.

Play around with it, and figure out a configuration that suits you.  Yu-Gi-Oh players will probably want to put Calculator on the tab bar, Magic players will usually want the dice/coin up front.

Preferences

TCGBuddy includes a Preferences section, where you can customise a whole bunch of options.  It’s initially set up for Magic: the Gathering players, so if you play a different game you will probably want to set a few of these.

Description of the options

Your Information

Player name: Your name
Player deck: a default name for your deck (for when the game is saved to history)
Flip score: ON means that this will appear upside-down in both vertical and horizontal modes.

Opponent’s Information

Opponent name: Your opponent’s name
Opponent deck: a default name for your opponent’s deck (I tend to leave this blank)
Flip score: ON means that this will appear upside-down in both vertical and horizontal modes.

I like to use Flip score:ON for my opponent’s score when we are sharing the life counter.  On the life-counter screen, tilt the device horizontally then put it in the middle of the table!

Life Settings

Starting life: The starting life value for each new game
Life increment: The amount by which the life value changes when you tap-drag your finger over the life display.
Multitouch incr.: The amount by which the life value changes if you tap-drag with 2 fingers
Logging Delay: After you change your life total, TCGBuddy will wait for this many seconds before logging the change to history.
Show Diffs (+/-): ON means that changes to life will appear in the history display on the life counter.

Draft Timer

Draft Sounds: (Voice / Ticks / Off) If you use the Draft Timer, this determines the type of sound output (You will need headphones if you have an ipod touch).
2-Headed Giant Mode: ON will change the draft times to that for a Magic: the Gathering 2-headed giant draft. OFF is set for a normal Magic draft.

Misc

Override Standby: ON will prevent your device from going into standby while TCGBuddy is open. OFF will use your standard power settings.  Set it to ON if you don’t like having to wake up your device every turn =)
Reset Settings to Defaults: Select this to reset your preferences.
About TCGBuddy: Some info about the product.

Common setups:

Yu-Gi-Oh players:

Starting life: 8000
Life increment: 100
Multitouch increment: something smaller, 5 or 1

Vs players:

Starting life: 50
Life increment: 1
Multitouch increment: 10