Managing the Timer Settings
To open the settings dialogue you can use one of two methods.
1. Double-Click the program icon in the task-bar.
2. Right-Click the program icon in the task-bar and select “Set-Up” from the pop-up menu.
Before we begin, the OK button means close the window but keep the program running and Quit, means Quit.
Don't worry, I mistakenly shut the program down from time to time too.
Timer Settings
The timer settings tab is where you set the basic options for the program. The most important of these is the Timer Increment.
The Timer Increment
Simply set the increment, in hours, minutes and seconds that you want to use.
Increment On Click
Tells the program what to do if the timer is running and the icon gets clicked. ... add remaining time to the increment value or set the remaining time to 0 and then increment it.
Factor For Grace Period
Allows for the "grace period" introduced in the game. Instead of clicking exactly as the timer runs down you have five minutes to actually make the click. This does introduce a challenge or two when trying to create a program that has to surmise what the other program and used are doing. Because you get a 14 minute grace on your first cast of the day, FW Timer will assume that the first time you start it, is the first cast of the day - if not, you must turn off Factor For Grace Period, click Start Timer and then turn Factor For Grace Period back on.
Show Form on Start-Up
When checked opens the window you're currently working with every time the program is started. Eventually, once you have everything just so, you'll likely remove the check from this item so that the form is hidden at start-up and just the program icon [the really important bit] is visible.
Start/Stop Timer Buttons
These are here, well ... to start and stop the timer while you're working with the settings. They also come in handy when doing time adjustments, which I discuss next. It's the same as clicking on the program icon for the first time – you can't increment the setting any further from here.
Timer Correction
The timer on FW uses .1 min [6 second] increments until it gets down to the last minute – at least that's what it displays. With the timer on FW, is a bit hard to identify actual start time. With the timer on FW, is really hard to identify start time when you get treasure chest selection [although I believe the timer starts and is running right after the selection page loads] and near impossible to identify on skips. Now that I've blamed all my problems on FW, I'll blame any other timing problems on you. On single 15 minute increments I've found that waiting patiently until you see “Fish in 15 mins” as opposed to “Fish in ~15 mins” helps considerably. If you click on the program icon immediately after the “Fish NOW” on FW, before the page even starts to load, we're going to have trouble you and I.
So, what do you do when you slide the mouse over the program icon and the time remaining is no where near the time being displayed on FW – this happens with skips quite a bit. Double-click the program icon and once the form opens stop the timer. Set the timer increment settings, using the drop-downs, to the next FW time increment you can catch. When the two times match, click the start timer button. STOP! Do not click the OK button. Reset your timer increment to 15 minutes [or whatever your using] and then click on OK. Now, you're good to go.
You'll come up with some formula that works to provide you with the most accurate timing possible – if you do, please share it with the rest of us. It's all just best-guess anyway.
