Arkham Horror - Dice Window & Screen Focus

I’m not sure if this is a feature of Arkham Horror or a general nuisance of the VASSAL Engine but my friends and I would appreciate some help with it. For the most part we greatly enjoy our games, but some interface problems extend the length of them a bit too much. We haven’t been able to find a simple Preferences workaround for these problems.

First is a problem with the module’s dice windows. Whenever you roll dice, a window pops up giving you visual feedback of your roll status. It also shows the results in chat. Whenever the graphical window pops up, though, the player’s cursor - wherever it is - is automatically ‘reset’ or ‘removed’. Basically, if someone’s going through a flurry of rolls (like in combat) it becomes frustrating to chat because the chat window will be deselected every few words.

Finally - and perhaps most obnoxiously - the ‘camera’, or whatever part of the board is displayed at the time - will immediately refocus whenever someone moves anything on the game board. If my friend flips a monster on the southside while I’m dragging my character token around on the northside, I have to painstakingly scroll upwards at the window borders to get back to where I was. This makes simultaneous activity very ARGH-inducing.

So I ask - has anyone found a workaround for either of these, be they an engine or module problem? Is it something I could comment out in the code on my own, and if so what should I look for?

Ah yes. My old lady hates this behaviour, and so we change it on most of the modules we play.

  1. In the Module Manager, right-click Arkham Horror, select ‘Edit Module’. This will open the Module Editor.
  2. In the list of game components, find the ‘Global Options’. In Arkham Horror it’s the 4th item. Double-click, or right-click → Properties.
  3. Change ‘Center on oppenent’s moves’ to either ‘Never’ or ‘Use Preferences Setting’. If you choose the latter, you will also need to change a preference in File->Preferences when you actually start playing.
  4. Save the module, and close it.

Now, I only play with a small group of friends, and we all update our modules at the same time, but I am /pretty/ certain that:
a) You only need to change your copy of the module to change this behaviour for yourself, and
b) Your copy of the module will still be fully compatible with an unmodified module
I’ve never bothered testing this, however. I would be interested to hear how it goes.

-Seth

Thus spake Furienify:

Finally - and perhaps most obnoxiously - the ‘camera’, or whatever part
of the board is displayed at the time - will immediately refocus
whenever someone moves anything on the game board. If my friend flips
a monster on the southside while I’m dragging my character token around
on the northside, I have to painstakingly scroll upwards at the window
borders to get back to where I was. This makes simultaneous activity
very ARGH-inducing.

Do you have a suggestion for how this should work in the future? If
others’ actions never change the focus, then you run the risk of
missing them. If others’ actions always change the focus, then you get
the irritating situation you describe.


J.

Personally, I think this should always be a personal preference. I don’t know why a module designer would ever need to remove that choice from the user.

Thus spake irishwulf:

Do you have a suggestion for how this should work in the future? If
others’ actions never change the focus, then you run the risk of
missing them. If others’ actions always change the focus, then you get
the irritating situation you describe.

Personally, I think this should always be a personal preference. I
don’t know why a module designer would ever need to remove that choice
from the user.

I agree, but that’s a seperate issue. Regardless of whether it’s set by
the user or by the module designer, “always follow others’ actions” and
“never follow others’ actions” will each be the wrong thing some of the
time. What I’m trying to suss out is whether there are intermediate
focus policies which would be better, or if we simply need a quickly-
accessible toggle between the two.


J.

I went and tested this our first game - you’re right, everything works as normal, I just don’t have to deal with the jumpy camera anymore. Thank you!

I’d prefer that it be listed in the Preferences menu, at least. Our second game everyone had the focusing disabled - turns went a bit faster as a result, but there was a moment or two where someone went “Oh wait, where did that come from?” or “Wait, did I do ___?”. It’s a largely personal thing - my friends and I all make the occasional mistake or possible rule misinterpretation, but we just roll with the consequences that arise. It was nonetheless very refreshing to be able to scroll freely around the board while others played out their actions.

Another similar convenience issue cropped up after that - if someone wanted to look through the chat window to make sure they’d done something, or see where a monster or whatever came from, they’d have to ask everyone to stop chatting for a moment since the chat window snaps to the bottom whenever a new line crops up. This problem only came up once, though, and it ended in my character being devoured by Yog-Sothoth (only because my friend was incorrect- I was in fact Cursed and facing a Lost in Time & Space check).

Ahh yes, those damned rats.