Don't Allow Player Defaults to Override Designer Font Settings

Development
1

It has been proposed in another thread that player default settings should override the designer’s font size and type settings in modules.

My position on this is that it’s a bad idea.

The player should ONLY be able to override the font for the chat window. That override should ONLY affect that module. Therefore each module should begin with the designer’s settings.

For fonts applied to pieces, only the designer’s settings should be allowed. Players with vision challenges are accommodated via the mouse-hover magnification. It is arguable that players could benefit by overriding the designer’s magnification settings to assist with their vision if they find that the designer’s settings are insufficient for their needs. Again, this should only pertain to the module. Each module should always begin with the designer’s settings.

[edit] Allowing a player’s font size/type to persist across modules (even if relegated to the chat window) would lead to players opening new modules and believing them to be garbage due to the messy/broken design…never realizing it was their font override causing the issue.

1 Like
2

And I strongly non-concur.

If a player wants to use a bigger font, because that is what is best for them (given vision problems) they should be able to do that.

Why should Vassal ignore a player’s needs?

Player’s who don’t set different defaults will see the designer’s intended font.

There are 2 cases here:

  1. Vassal allows module designer to take precedence over player’s needs.
    IMPACT: Module is unusable by players with vision issues.
  2. Vassal allows player preferences to take precedence.
    IMPACT: Some modules may have distorted (large) text IF a player has changed defaults

As a Vassal user with significant vision issues, I think it’s critical that player’s have the ability to control this.

Players who don’t change the defaults won’t see any issues.

I have have seen modules where the small size made it essentially unplayable for me.

1 Like
3

And NO it’s not “arguable.” I have vision issues and have first hand experience with this.

The chat window isn’t the primary problem. The primary problem is either right click context fonts (almost too small to read) and/or text on counters.

People who need it, need it. While only a small subset of the Vassal user base, it’s a very big problem for some of us.