KICK YOUR SHOES OFF AND STAY AWHILE, YOU HEAR?

PLEASE NOTE: This site is in no way affiliated with nor part of SILVER CREEK ENTERTAINMENT--HARDWOOD HEARTS GAME It is my personal site with informative tips and knowledge I am willing to share, and I know dern well NO ONE else wants to claim it. The opinions expressed here are solely my own... THANX FOR COMING: Calculated RiskJPW

Over the years, I have learned a great deal about the HW site. The basic knowledge posted here is common to all games, no matter whether it is Hearts, Spades, Backgammon, or Euchre. This site is basically for the Hearts crowd, but anyone could use the info, if you need to pass it to another HW gamer, feel free

You can also use the / feature within the game for many commands. /me in the chat box in lobby or game will use your nic in the chat ie.. /me smiles = CalculatedRisk smiles. You can add an "s" /me's cards were terrible! = CalculatedRisk's cards were terrible!

Another use would be for the time: /time in the chat fields will give you the time.

/showbinds will allow you to see all the binds associated with that game, Built in binds and those you have made yourself will be included.

/away will cause you to go away (brown) in the lobby list. I use that alot if I am eating or looking at something on the net. Green players are active, Brown players have been AFK for at least 5 minutes and black player nics are in a game at the present time. Guides always show at the top of the list in blue.

2. This picture is an example of many features in the games. Notice how my avatar is faded behind the background?? That can be acheived by typing /ghost in the chat balloon. (You may hit enter to bring the balloon up if you need to, if you have the chat box open as I do.) For added effect, I added /ghost -1000 This made the character fade back even more. To fade the background of the avatar, same thing, just type /ghostback. To bring the character back, just type /ghost or /ghostback for the background again. It will restore the avatar to it's previous state. On to the next tip...

3. Fooming is one of the greatest features in hearts for a lot of us. Once you learn to do them you are hooked. The pic above has an example of how I did a "megafoom". These are wonderful in social games as fooms are unlimited there. If you do one in a regular game-- Use only the /luck all, all, all. Or maybe /skiss all, all, all. That will go to all players but yourself. Now, let me explain the numbers in the foom I have typed in the picture...

The seats are numbered in the foom sequences so you can send certain fooms to only certain seats... For example, the seat to your left at the table is 1, 2 is straight ahead, and 3 is to your right. You are "me" or "self". In the picture I have included, I was fooming all with luck and sending super kisses (love that burn) to seats one and three, which are my opponents.

You can right click on any avatar including yourself and send a foom to them. For super fooms using the mouse selections, hold the control key down as you select the foom. The hearts breaking on a person's own avatar as they recieve the queen, (known as no joy foom) are done by holding down the control. HAVE FUN !!! BUTTTTT remember that fooming can be a distraction for other players, and don't abuse the fooms during the hands, I usually foom right before or after a hand. You only get 3 per hand.

To turn off fooms, go to options>Other...you will see a box that is labelled NO FOOMS. Check it, and you will not be bothered with them. You can also control the speed of the cards there and see hearts flying around as people take tricks that have hearts in them by checking tokens.

Table position, Card Scale, Chat Box

1. In the picture, notice how my table is offset to the upper left. My cards are larger than normal and have pretty backs on them. The last and pass boxes are repositioned to the bottom on either side of my avatar. This is how I run. It's convenient for me as a guide to have the lobby chat open so I have to have room for the chat box somewhere.

a. Right Click anywhere on the table. You will see postions for the table, like top left, top right, center, etc, there are several choices. Notice how mine is flush with the game border. Check the box that says Flush with edge, otherwise it will leave a margin.

b. Card Scale: When you right click on the table, card scale will be a choice at the bottom of the list and there will be a couple of them, normal 150% and 200%. I use 150, cause I SHOULD be wearing my bifocals but I am NOT. 200% would be great for someone with severe optical impairments though it covers a good deal of the table. If per chance you cannot tell what a card is due to scale--Hold Control and Hit the "H" key, and you will be able to see the card played.

c. In the screenshot, you will see that "lobby" is highlighted on the chat box. Anything typed in that box, is going into the lobby chat. If I want to talk in the game, I have to hit enter and bring up a chat balloon. I keep the box sized to fit in that corner. Then I can still get to game info, which is your next Screenshot....

BLACKOUT, GAME INFO BOX, HAND, GAME #, CLOCK/FPS

1. Notice the way the entire game board is blackedout. You can achieve this effect by typing /blackout in the chat balloon. If you want to go back to the regular view, just retype /blackout and enter and it will return to the state where the board is visible. In the pic, I would be returning to a normal state with the table showing, but that is the command to blackout the table as well. It toggles.

2. In this shot, you can see the game info box. This is valuable for a number of reasons.

a. Under lobby menu you will see file report. Many of our players are unaware it is there. If a report is filed from the within the game, the game number goes with it. Very nice for admin. It is much easier to look up chat that way.

b. All chat on this site is recorded. ALL OF IT. When you experience a rude player in the game go to this box, lobby menu>report form and BRIEFLY explain the problem in the report form. This is not the time for a speech. Just say "player was using profanity or being obscene,please check the chat in the game". There will be a drop down box there that say "PLAYERS"--every nic in the game will be in that list. Choose the player that was causing the disturbance and when finished hit SEND. NO you will NOT get a mail saying XPlayer was banned becuase you reported him/her. Player account info is confidential to that player, as it should be. Admin does it's job I know this. I have had many come to me and say "I was banned for profanity/rudeness/etc.. in a game. It starts the process and players that cannot conform to the rules will be dealt with accordingly.

c. How do I deal with one using the foulest of language and no one in sight to help me during the game??? Right click on the players avatar, choose ignore, and then add from the choices. At the end of that game stay in the room and file your report. If you retaliate within the game, your chat is recorded too, remember that. You will see his chat balloon is functioning but YOU won't see his chat. Distance yourself!! Don't let someone spoil the fun this site has to offer. Be mature and if you get plain old angry, find a guide or log off for a bit.

d. Clock--Notice at the very top margin of the pic that there is FPS (frames per second) and a clock. Click that very top border and those are drop down choices if you care to use them.

e. Auto Queue: This plays for you when it's the only card you have left to play say of that suit or that hand.

f. Last Trick: Makes your "last" and "Pass" boxes show. If this is unchecked the boxes will disappear.

SCORING

The screenshots depicted above have to do with the scoring. Notice in the upper screenshot, there are no avatars and no scores showing, they are tallied you just don't see em with this option. You can play with this option by holding the control key and hitting the H key at the same time. To toggle, either click in the box you see or repeat the control/H function.

Zone players have related to me that they do not understand the scoring, what/where it is and such as that. In the shot where the avatar and scores are visible--the scores in () are the scores the team ( or individuals, acquired before entering the hand in play. The numbers outside the parenthesis are the points that have currently been acquired during that hand. Me and my pard ain't doing too good here :(

For questions related to how your ratings are calculated, refer to Ratings FAQ, at http://www.silvercrk.com/rating_math2.htm .

When you first make a nic at HW you are a provisional or "provie" player. You must play 20 rated games in order to obtain the status of veteran player, meaning that you cannot enter games with a BLUE V on them until you are rated. After 20 games, you can enter any game on the boards that is appropriate for your rating range.

Placing the cursor over a players nic will reveal the rating or how many games they need to get rated. You can also look in the profile, as unrated players DO have a rating, only seen within the profile. You can go to Webprofile, and that lists all the games the player has played (up to 25 of them) and who they played against. It will indicate pards by showing the same score for 2 people.

Games stop at the point amounts set for ie, 300, UNLESS there is a tie for first. Then the game will continue until the tie is broken

FAIRY DUST/CONTROLS

In the pics you can see at the top left of the board a tab that says MENU. Hit that tab, then hold control and hit letter "p" at the same time--FAIRY DUST!!! very pretty on the black out screen AND it will follow you to the lobby and into all your games for that log in session.

Also at the top right, you can see some controls there: a music note, a chat balloon, a question mark and a speaker. Those little buttons will control the features they represent. To bring the chat balloon up, hit the little chat balloon button, to play the music included with the game, hit the music note. ? will bring up help and the speaker will turn the game volume on and off. The controls can be disabled in options/audio, so if you don't want them there, you don't have to use it :).

FINAL WORDS OF WISDOM

Included with the games are tutorials that can be played, just hit play hearts, instead of play online on the opening screen and you will find several. They are very well put together.

As a guide I am here to help. We don't make the rules up as we go along, there are guidelines we uphold for the site owner that are written into the Terms Of Service that you click "AGREE TO"" before you can come on the server, plus others which still fall under TOS handed down as situations arise. The link to the site rules are at the bottom of this page, please read those, it makes our time here so much more pleasant. You buy the game and pay NOTHING for the server time, and "freedom of speech" is not applicable there, it's privately owned. There ARE rules to follow but it's a good deal. The game is yours always ,You will only be able to play with the bots though, if you lose your server time.

If you are silenced or censored for whatever reason remember it is not personal, it's strictly business. Write support@SilverCrk.com with any concerns you may have. You can also file reports on guides, the same as anyone else if you feel you've been mistreated. Guides do not control the steps taken by ADMIN, and that includes banning of players. We are quite willing to rectify any errors we make... I have given back a couple of nics that I misinterpreted and I daresay may have to do that again :) We ALL make mistakes.