I know how to assign sides and restrict pieces for simple 2 player games.
I am attempting to create compound sides in a potential solo/single/multiplayer WWII game with 8 major powers and therefore numerous combinations depending on whether there are 1 to 8 players in the game. With potential sides such as follows…
[size=75]Examples of Sides:
Solo =
Solitaire
2 Player =
Axis
Allies
3 Player =
Germany, Italy, Japan
USSR and Chhina
UK, France, USA
4 Player
Germany
Italy, Japan
China, USSR
CW, France, USA
5…8 Players you get the idea (I hope)[/size]
The questions are:
- Do I have to create all combinations as sides since a player can only choose 1 side?
- How does a player join a compound side if I do not have to create all combinations?
- Of course, depending on the answer above…, restricted pieces can become very convoluted. I am not even sure I can restrict a piece to multiple sides and which order of precedence would apply if multiple restricted sides can be assigned?
Please help!
Really what you want for this use case is what I’ve long desired, which is a complete overhaul of the way player sides work–adding the ability for users to occupy more than 1 player side at a time, and/or disabling certain defined player sides at game/scenario start.
In the absence of those capabilities, I would advise against trying to create all possible combinations of player sides and player count–that way lies madness, especially if Restricted Access traits are involved. Think very carefully about whether you really must have restricted pieces or not…often in async games it ends up being quite burdensome and slow when piece management/manipulation (without revealing stuff that shouldn’t be seen by an opponent) can’t be done because Player A is unable to select or move Player B’s pieces.
Instead of starting with a complex approach, see if simply defining the 8 player sides and letting players switch as necessary is good enough.
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Yes an overhaul that simply allows players to join multiple sides would be the ideal fix.
Will this work around suffice?
A player with one or more countries runs one or more instances of Vassal so each instance is a different side.
Then just switch to the correct instance of Vassal for the other countries pieces. In that way restricted access works.
But…
Does each Vassal instance use a different port?
Does this work within a Vassal server?
How about peer to peer?
On a single computer, that won’t work–player side access is controlled by one’s module password (found in the module’s preferences). You can’t have multiple passwords, so all instances would be referencing the single password found in the module preferences. You could hope that players have access to multiple computers, in which case they could configure a different module password on each, but that might not prove workable for everyone.
If you only got one computer, you could create a virtual computer and run the second copy of vassal there. If your computer has limited RAM, I would suggest installing an OS with a small footprint, like one of the leaner Linux distributions, in the virtual machine. This will also save you an extra Windows license.
/henrik
Ran across this post while looking for something. Sounds very much like you’re doing a World in Flames module. If not continue. If so, then be aware that the game copyright owner would not be happy. ATM there are 2 sanctioned Vassal collector’s edition (CE) modules for WiF. One by DD Games (the Official ADG module) and one by me.
You are right, I bought CE a long time ago. The module I developed was for my own private use as you can see it has not been posted to the public. I have other permissions from Harry concerning things that are releasable to the public. However, they pertain to MWiF. A PM would have sufficed versus a public rebuking of something I obviously never did.
I was just ensuring that you do not run foul with ADG. There was no intention of a ‘public’ rebuking. My aim was to let you know - that is all.