Are my settings applied to everyone?

Mexican Train has two quite different kinds of setting, and the difference is worth knowing. Some are yours alone — they change how the game looks and sounds on your screen and nowhere else. Others belong to the game itself and apply to everyone at the table. Here’s which is which, and what your Account page settings really do.

The short answer

Anything about how the game looks and sounds to you is yours alone. Nobody else is affected by it, and nobody else can change it for you. Anything that changes how the game is played — the rules — is chosen by whoever created the game, and is the same for everyone in it.

Settings that are only ever yours

These are the personal ones. Open a game, click Menu at the bottom of the screen, and choose Display settings.

• Element Size — how big everything on the board is.
• Add colors to tiles — gives each number its own colour.
• Show Play Hints — numbers inside the outlines where you could play.
• Safe Mode — while you’re still holding a domino you could play, it stops you drawing from the pot or putting your train up by mistake.
• Disable confirm buttons — skips the confirm step when you draw, put your train up, or end your turn.
• Hide notifications — turns off the pop-up messages during the game.
• Disable all sounds, with Disable player turn ding underneath it for a quieter option.

Change any of them whenever you like, including in the middle of a game. They take effect straight away, they only affect your screen, and the other players won’t know. See Sounds and notifications for what each sound and message means.

Rules that apply to the whole table

These are chosen when a game is created, in Step 2: Settings, by whoever created it.

• Double-Zero Penalty — extra points for being caught holding the double-blank when a round ends. Anything from 0 to 50.
• Starting Round — which double the game opens on.
• Who should start each round? — last round’s winner, or a random player.
• Train Branching on Doubles — whether a train can split in two after a double is satisfied.
• Must Satisfy Doubles — during the game, and again to go out.
• Tiles Per Player — the standard count for the number of players, or a fixed number.

Two things follow from this. They apply to everyone in that game, however each player might feel about them. And they are fixed once the game starts — not even the person who created it can change them mid-game — so it’s worth a look at Step 2 before anyone presses Start!

See Game rule options for a plain-English explanation of each one.

What your Account page settings actually do

Your Account page has its own Game settings and Display settings. These are defaults for new games you create — a starting point, copied into each new game at the moment it’s made.

Three things follow from that, and they’re the usual reasons this gets confusing:

• Changing a default never changes a game already in progress. The values are copied when the game is created, and that copy is what the game uses from then on.
• Joining someone else’s game doesn’t apply your defaults. They only apply to games you create. If you switch Safe Mode on in your Account page and then join a friend’s game, you’ll find it off in there — turn it on again from Display settings inside that game.
• Hide notifications, Disable all sounds and Disable player turn ding can’t be saved as defaults at all — there’s no control for them on the Account page, so they start fresh in every game.

See How to manage your account for a tour of the rest of the page.

The one setting that follows you everywhere

Color Theme — Light, Dark, or System — is the exception. It’s saved to your account rather than to a game, so changing it applies everywhere at once, on every device you sign in on. You can set it on the Account page or from Display settings inside a game; both save to the same place.

So, in short

Set the board up however suits you and play in peace — none of it reaches anybody else. If you want a particular rule in play, that one needs choosing before the game starts, by whoever creates it.