ok i am very new to vassal programing so i am probably doing something wrong.
I am designing my own game and i am planning on having the map tiles being very dynamic. as such rather than a drawn map, i went with drawing a blank grid and used counters with layers to build the map, so durring game play each tile could be individually altered based on circumstances.
I gave the pieces the do not stack trait, with the options set so you need to hold shift to select them and they never move once placed. I then set up a pre defined setup to build the board, planning on making the board tiles not selectable pieces to the players.
the pre defined set up works however the pieces are still being selected and still moveable. what am i doing wrong?
also I would like too over ride the right click menu for these pieces, is this possable and where would i start exploring this option?
Well, if you have the options on the trait set correctly, then here some possible issues you can explore:
-The Does Not Stack trait is in the wrong place (make sure it’s last on the list of traits for the map tiles). I am not actually sure this will make a difference for this particular trait, but it’s important for most others, so it’s worth checking.
-A less likely possibility is that you (maybe?) created and saved the pre-defined setup before you had finished putting all your traits on the map tiles. A pre-defined setup is a snapshot of the way pieces are defined at the moment you create the setup. For example, if you saved the setup, and then finished the map tiles with the traits you wanted, the setup would not reflect any changes to made to the tiles before you saved the setup.
As for ‘overriding’ the right-click menu, can you elaborate what you mean? Not sure if it would be helpful, but the ‘Restricted Access’ trait lets you hide or show the commands on the right-click menu, depending on conditions you can define. You can make certain commands on the menu visible only to certain players, or only at certain times during the game, or for any of a number of other conditions.
I
then set up a pre defined setup to build the board, planning on making
the board tiles not selectable pieces to the players.
the pre defined set up works however the pieces are still being selected
and still moveable. what am i doing wrong?
I wouldn’t necessarily worry about this. The point of automation in Vassal it to make things easier for the players and not to try to enforce all of the game rules. You have to assume that the players will be reasonable, and not try to restrict their actions too much. You want them to have the flexibility to be able to fix any potential mistakes in the starting setup without too much hassle.
But as indicated, you can probably change this behavior.
well i am pretty sure I had the traits all set before i put in the tiles. its a VERY simple piece. the only traits so far are Basic piece, layers and does not stack. I will try remaking the board up and see if that fixes it.
as for over riding the right click menu. basicly i have layers for each state that a hex can be in. (this is an elemental type game, so each hex can be set to any of the 4 elements.) I wanted to remove the increase and decrease options on the right click menu and replace them with commands to jump to a spicific layer.
as for enforceing rules. I am not trying to reinforce any rules at this time, i havent even finished writing the rules. I am just trying to prevent the board from accidently moving around since each hex of the map is a seperate piece but i dont want them to move around at all.
that is exactly what happened. I remade the pre defined setup with the new pieces and it works just how it should thanks much. is there any way to update the pieces rather than remaking the map? I was going slow with the pieces doing one step at a time so it would be a pain to have to do this every time i make a minor modification.
There is a ‘Saved game updater’ on the Tools menu. It will require that you version your module so when the module is updated, the saved game can be as well. Personally, I have never had any luck getting this to work, but others may have.
BTW, if there is just a single game setup, where the pieces start in the same places every time, then consider using ‘At Start Stacks’ instead of pre-defined setups. Pre-defined setups are intended for games with multiple scenarios, like wargames, where different pieces could start in different places. If the game has the same setup every time, like in chess, At Start Stacks is the way to go. The great thing about At Start Stacks is that they’re defined directly in the module, so they are easy to update if the individual pieces need updating.
As regards your second question: yes, you can include different commands to make piece layers change (I assume you’re talking about the Layer trait). The easiest way is to set these up as different Layer traits. For example, one layer trait activates and deactivates the Earth trait; another does the same for the Fire trait, etc.
No, each X-Y point on the board would be a separate At Start Stack. In your case, I believe each map tile would be its own ‘stack’. Yeah, it’s a fair bit of work to set up, but once it’s done, it’s done forever:)
yeah im halfway done with it. the board is a hex grid 13 hexes in diamater with a few hexes outside of it for home zones. is there a way i can edit all the counters at once or should i use a prototype?
Always use a prototype and then assign the prototype to each tile. You will be much happier later if you ever need to maintain the module and want to make changes to all the tiles. All you need to do is revise the prototype.