Basic Fog of War

Module Design
1

Hi there,

I’m trying to design my first module and run into some issues… I’ve read the design manual and tried searching the forums / internet to get some pointers. However, most of the threads / examples, were highly specific and tbh probably to complicated for a beginner like myself… :smiley:
So I thought I’d just ask here, I’m just looking for pointers which way would be the easiest to achieve the functionality, not a full solution.

Ok, so the game I’m trying to design in vassal is somewhat of a homebrew thing a friend of mine came up with, and is still in development, but I think for the question I have, details arent really relevant.

Finally… here’s my question:
Which method would be the easiest to create a “fog of war” system?

Basically, I want the map/board to be shaded/covered except for the starting spots of the players, as they move around the board, they reveal the map. For now, all the players will see the same map, its just about “removing” the fog from the areas they’ve visited (plus a fixed radius).

I’ve tried map shading combined with an area of effect trait for game pieces, but this “re-shades” the board tiles that were already revealed, once the tile is out of the radius of the area of effect trait…

I’ve read something about zones and masking, but not sure if this would be the easiest way to accomplish what I’m looking for. If somebody could give me a hint which methods/functions/properties to use, I’d greatly appreciate it!

Thanks in advance

2

What if you cover the board with “Terra Incognita” or “Here Be Dragons” or whatever Markers… and as a player moves, he removes the TI/HBD chits, revealing the terrain beneath. (The chits, of course, should be square/hexagonal or whatever to fit the board grid).

Not elegant, but good enough for a 0.x solution.

3

Similar to the above, but cover the board tiles in range-1 area of effect tokens. Add a key command to the map that triggers whenever a piece is moved ‘to’ it.

The player pieces have a trigger trait that triggers in response to the map key command.
The trigger activates a global key command with limited range.
The global key command triggers a trigger trait on the area of effect tokens only when the area of effect is on and the token is within range.
The trigger on the tokens switches off the area of effect.