FAQ

Follow Me 42 is a web app that installs directly from your browser - no app store needed. Once installed, it works just like a regular app with its own icon on your home screen.

iPhone or iPad (Safari):

1. Open play.followme42.com in Safari
2. Tap the Share button (the square with an arrow pointing up) at the bottom of the screen
3. Scroll down and tap "Add to Home Screen"
4. Tap "Add" in the top right corner

Android (Chrome):

1. Open play.followme42.com in Chrome
2. Tap the three-dot menu ⋮ in the top right corner
3. Tap "Install App" or "Add to Home Screen"

Android (Firefox):

1. Open play.followme42.com in Firefox
2. Tap the three-dot menu ⋮ in the top right corner
3. Tap "Add app to Home Screen"
4. Touch & hold the Follow Me 42 icon to drag it to your Home Screen

Follow Me 42 can also be installed as a desktop app from your browser. No download or app store required.

Chrome or Edge (Windows, Mac, Linux):

1. Open play.followme42.com in Chrome or Edge
2. Click the install icon in the address bar (it looks like a monitor with a down arrow), or click the three-dot menu and select "Install Follow Me 42"
3. The app will open in its own window and appear in your Start menu, Applications folder, or app launcher

Safari (macOS Sonoma or later):

1. Open play.followme42.com in Safari
2. Click File in the menu bar
3. Click "Add to Dock"

You can also play directly in any browser without installing. The app works the same way either way.

Yes, the app is completely safe. Follow Me 42 is built as a Progressive Web App (PWA), which runs directly within your web browser's secure sandbox environment. This architecture ensures that the app cannot access your device's files, contacts, or sensitive hardware features without your explicit permission.

We chose the PWA approach over traditional app stores for three primary reasons:

• Focus on Game Development: Complying with ever-changing app store policies, submission guidelines, and regulatory requirements takes significant time and energy away from game development. By choosing a web-first approach, we avoid these administrative hurdles and focus our resources entirely on improving the game, upgrading the AI, and shipping new gameplay features.
• Zero App Store Fees: Traditional mobile app stores charge a 15% to 30% cut of all digital purchases. Running the game on the web allows us to process cosmetic unlocks and supporter subscriptions directly via Stripe, keeping costs low for players.
• Instant Updates: Instead of waiting days for app store review processes, we can deploy bug fixes and new features instantly. The next time you open the app, you automatically run the latest version.

If parts of the game are cut off or hidden, you're most likely playing in a browser tab. The browser's address bar and toolbars take up screen space that the game needs.

The fix: Install the app to your Home Screen using the steps above. This removes the browser chrome and gives you the full-screen experience the game was designed for.

If you've already installed and still have issues, try rotating your phone to make sure you're in portrait mode, and close any other apps that might be overlapping (like a picture-in-picture video).

Enlarged Fonts / Accessibility Zoom: If you have enlarged system fonts or high accessibility zoom enabled on your device, the game's scoreboard will scale up, which can squeeze or clip the active play area on smaller screens.

The fix: You can resolve this by adjusting your device's display or font settings:

• On iPhone or iPad: Go to iOS Settings > Display & Brightness > Text Size (or Display Zoom) and adjust to a smaller size. Alternatively, tap the aA icon in Safari's address bar and lower the page zoom to 85% or 75%.
• On Android: Go to Android Settings > Display > Font size and style (or Screen zoom) and adjust it down. Inside Chrome or Firefox, you can also lower the "Text scaling" or "Zoom" under the browser's Accessibility settings.

When you visit play.followme42.com, you'll be prompted to sign in before the game loads. You can sign in with one of the following:

• Google - sign in with your Google account
• Facebook - sign in with your Facebook account
• Microsoft - sign in with your Outlook, Hotmail, or Microsoft account
• Email & Password - create an account with any email address (requires email verification - see below)

Signing in with Google, Facebook, or Microsoft does not require email verification - those accounts are verified automatically by the provider.

Your account tracks your game history, achievements, ratings, and cosmetics across devices. You only need to sign in once - the app remembers you.

If you opened the link from inside Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, or another social media app, you're in an "in-app browser" that blocks sign-in for security reasons.

The fix: Open the game in your phone's real browser instead:

1. Look for a "Open in Browser" button - the app will show one if it detects you're in an in-app browser
2. Or tap the three-dot menu ⋮ (or Safari icon) in the in-app browser and select "Open in Safari" or "Open in Chrome"
3. Or copy the link (play.followme42.com) and paste it into Safari or Chrome directly

After signing in:

1. Choose a game mode - Beginner is recommended if you're new
2. Tap "Start Game" to begin
3. The AI will play the other three seats. You're always the South player

If you've never played Texas 42 before, tap "Learn to Play" on the main screen to walk through a guided tutorial that teaches you the basics step by step.

• Beginner - simplified rules, easy AI, and coaching hints to help you learn. No special bids like Nello or Splash
• Tournament - official tournament rules (straight 42). The standard competitive format
• House Rules - the full Texas experience with Nello, Splash, Plunge, Follow Me, and all the extras. Medium AI difficulty
• Custom - pick your own rules, difficulty, and scoring style

You can switch between modes at any time from the main screen.

Your rating is marked as Provisional under our Glicko-2 rating system when there is still a high level of mathematical uncertainty about your true skill level. This is normal for newer accounts and occurs if:

• You have played fewer than 15 rated games, OR
• Your Rating Deviation (RD) (which measures the system's uncertainty of your skill) is greater than 150 (brand new players start at 300).

Once you have played at least 15 rated games and your performance stabilizes, your RD will drop below 150, and your rating will become fully established.

Can I become provisional again?

Yes. If you go an extended period without playing, the system's certainty in your skill naturally decays. Your RD will increase by 15 for every inactive 7-day period. If it climbs back above 150, your rating returns to provisional status until you play a few games to stabilize it again.

While your rating is provisional, server-wide ranking percentiles are hidden to ensure accurate placement on the leaderboard.

For a game to qualify as rated and affect your skill rating and leaderboard position, it must meet several strict structural and fair-play requirements depending on whether you are playing in Solo Mode or Multiplayer Mode.

Solo Mode (vs. AI Bots)

To qualify as a rated game against the AI, the following conditions must be met:

• AI Difficulty: Must be played on Medium, Hard, or Expert difficulty (Beginner mode is excluded).
• No Coach Hints: The "Coach Hints" or AI assistance features must not be used during the game.
• Standard Scoring Target: The game must be configured for exactly 7 marks to win.
• Minimum Duration: The game must last for at least 3 completed hands and at least 60 seconds (prevents premature folding or concessions).

Multiplayer Mode (Online)

To qualify as a rated multiplayer game, the following conditions must be met:

• Natural Completion: The game must finish naturally through gameplay and cannot be voided or forcibly ended early.
• Exactly Two Human Players: Rated multiplayer is currently supported for 2-Player (2P) games (each paired with an AI bot). 4-Player (4P) rated matches are planned for a future update.
• Subscriber Status: Both human players must hold an active subscriber role.
• Active Gameplay: Both teams combined must score at least 3 total marks before the game concludes (prevents immediate concessions for rating boosting).
• No AI Substitutions: If either player disconnects or abandons the game and is replaced by an AI bot mid-game, the match is voided from rated eligibility.
• Fair-Play Rate Limits: To prevent collusion or rating manipulation, a maximum of 5 rated games can be recorded between the same two players in any 24-hour window.

Follow Me 42 supports four distinct AI difficulty levels, allowing you to choose the right level of challenge or match competitive tournament standards. The AI engine is built using Dennis Roberson's strategy rules, simulating highly authentic and strategic Texas 42 play.

The Four AI Difficulty Levels:

• Easy: Designed for beginners. The bots bid using basic heuristics, play legal moves at random, and never call special contracts (Nello, Plunge, or Splash). Recommended for learning the game.
• Medium: The standard difficulty for casual play. Bots bid and play using solid standard strategy but occasionally make human-like tactical errors, especially when leading or counting trump.
• Hard: A tough competitive challenge. The bots use Dennis Roberson's at-risk points evaluation framework (bids are calculated as 42 minus at-risk points), bid Nello under a strict 90% confidence threshold, utilize advanced defensive maneuvers (such as sluffing off-suits and bleeding opponents' trump), and coordinate tightly with their partners.
• Expert: The ultimate challenge. Bots employ all Hard-tier evaluations plus lay-down hand detectors, advanced Nel-o defensive blanking and trapping, and score-based desperation multipliers. If the Expert bot is trailing in points near the end of a match, it dynamically lowers its bidding confidence gates to attempt high-risk comeback bids.

Where can I configure the difficulty?

• Tournament Mode: Locked to Hard difficulty to guarantee a consistent competitive standard.
• House Rules: A fixed preset locked to Medium difficulty, playing with standard Texas scoring and all special contracts enabled.
• Custom Mode & Multiplayer: In Solo Mode, selecting Custom expands the Gameplay Options panel (the custom rules panel) where you can fully customize AI difficulty and rules. In online Multiplayer, the host can configure difficulty for AI seat substitutes under the Table Options panel.

Note: To earn points toward your official Glicko-2 rating in Solo Mode, the game must be played on Medium, Hard, or Expert difficulty (games played on Easy are not rated).