[size=167]Sending boards to the initial position in play area[/size]
As a feature asked by Soft-Bug, instead of drag and drop boards in the initial positions I added a “global key command” to the deck (CTRL-0 global key for the “Boards” deck) which sends one and only one card to a zone in the main board… the zones names are “board1” “board2” and so… The location in the “sendo to location” trait is a zone in the main board… and the zone name is “board$Boards_numPieces$”.
Using the number of pieces in the deck as the “counter” for the location to be used I achieve my task, that is, the first mini-board card goes to the position 8 (zone “board8”), the next one to position 7… and so on till position 1 when only 1 card is left in the deck… pretty imaginative solution
The problem comes when I think “hey! send CTRL-0 not only for the topmost card in the deck but for all of them…”, but vassal crashes after placing the first card… I am using the Vassal beta and it seems a concurrency of processes problem… not need to worry about it
But if someone has a good idea to do this please tell me, the plot is sending with only one click the cards in the deck in order to different locations… (maybe this could be a nice feature for many games… for example to make the initial player hand deal, you know: “deal 5 action cards to every player”).
This is a bug - Vassal should not crash. Could you please submit a Bug report for this.
As a workaround, you can change the way the 5 commands get issued by using a Multi-Action button or a Counter Trigger Action to fire off a 1-shot GKC 5 times in row.
Sorry Brent… I open the module for editting… added the feature (in fact only change the number of cards affected in the deck for the “global key command” from “1” to “all”) and… NOW IT WORKS :S
It tried to make it fail again with no luck… anyway I’ve uploaded the module here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Y6FXI2MQ
You can test it in the miniboards board right clicking on the deck and choosing the only one option (the translation doesn’t allow me to change the text of global key commands in the deck, another bug already mentioned, I think), then the deck empties and the main board is filled with the eight boards face down at random.
If you can unwind the changes and work out how to reproduce the failure, I would be very grateful. These types of problems can be extremely difficult to sort out.
(the translation doesn’t allow me to change
Yes, I have already submitted a fix for this bug. It should be included in the final version of 3.1.
Yes, I’m ITCrowd and such erros are a pain in the arse to trace. Anyway it could be caused by many things. I found lot of “vassal errors” solved by just saving the module, closing and opening again… this one seems to be one of them
The Bug that still bothers me is when I quit the button to show the main board (“main map”) in the module… it is suposed to show the map allways in the map window instead of a new hideable window, but… it crashes I know it is caused by somthing I’ve done in the creation process… something pointing to null, some object I erased… but I can’t find what
Please send in the bug report - Even if it is caused by your module, Vassal should not crash. I should be able to pinpoint the problem in your module fairly quickly fromthe bug report.
When you Edit a module, it is always in the base language of your module. So you will always see the Spanish version when you edit the module. You then ‘translate’ the Spanish into English using the ‘Translate’ menu options. You will only ever see the module running in a language other than the Base language when you Play (not Edit) the module.
The reason for this is that the Vassal Module transation process actually overwrites all of the Strings inside the module with the translated versions. If the module was being edited when this happens and you saved it, it would obliterate the base version of the module.
Yes, that is absolutely right… it is a nonsense to edit in other languaje the problem is that when I PLAY WHILE EDITING (that is, create a new game) I can change my languaje preferences too but the game allways plays in the source languaje… that’s why I could not reproduce the other reported bug except when playing… and as the option to play while editing if for module developing purposes I think it should use the languaje optios just in regular (non editing) games.
Thus you can’t verify translation working except if you’re playing the module (that is, closing the edit and creating a new game).
It’s ok for me anyway… but I should be stated somewhere not to think that it’s a bug…
Sorry, but that still counts as editing. You are playing the game inside the editor and can still save the game - No Translations at that point. This just cannot be changed.
Sorry, but as explained, this will never happen.
You do raise a very valid point. I can see how cumbersome this will be.
Currently, the Module Manager allows you to open a module in Play mode multiple times, but prevents you from playing a module if it is already opened in the Editor.
I think this should probably be relaxed to allow you to open a additional sessions of a module in Play mode if you already have it open in the Editor. This should solve your problem?
This asking for problems. If we do this, we’re going to get all kinds of
weird bug reports from people who have Players and Editors open on the
same module at once.
If anything being able to run a module in play mode while still in editor should raise some sort of a flag/marker for identification of the mode being run in the error log should a bug report occur to identify this case.
Right now youll just see the set of lines for editor mode followed by a set of lines for play mode, but no way to tell if editor was closed/running when play mode commenced
From: Joel Uckelman uckelman@nomic.net To: VASSAL Engine Forums Mailing List messages@forums.vassalengine.org Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 3:38:09 PM Subject: Re: [Module Design]Re: DUNGEON TWISTER
Thus spake “Brent Easton”:
This asking for problems. If we do this, we’re going to get all kinds of
weird bug reports from people who have Players and Editors open on the
same module at once.
I don’t mean Bug Reports, I mean reports of bugs. I think this could lead
to some weird, unintuitive behavior.
I’m sure I don’t understand the problem with translation. What is the purpose
of designating a ‘base language’ for a module? Why aren’t all languages for
which there are translations treated the same?
Currently, none of the components write a Shutting Down message to the log when the close. If this where added, then I think it would be obvious because you would see anotehr Player start up before the Editor finishes.
However, I fail to see the significance of this. Running an Editor and Player session at the same time will not cause bugs to appear.
I also do not think we will get many reports of bugs by allowing this. It’s no different from the myriad of other stupid things people can do when building a module and constantly ask about on the forums. A short, sharp smack on the head and they don’t do it again
Perhaps add a warning dialog when starting up a Player session if the Editor is already open? I don’t think we should stop the ability to do this, just make people aware of the issues with doing so.
It’s introducing another way for things to fail. Suppose you’re editing,
you open a Player, do some stuff and save a setup, and then delete one
of the prototypes that the setup uses. Or you replace an image while a
Player is open.
Exactly this scenario can happen even when you are not running an Editor and Player simultaneously.
But this can happen anyway if you start a new game when in the editor. In fact, you get more problems when this happens than if you where to start a new Player Session. A new Player will always see the module in a consistent state, whereas Playing a game within the Editor does not always work as you would expect. We already get regular ‘reports of bugs’ from people running modules from within the Editor.
I think it would be cleaner and cause LESS problems if we allow new Players to be started from the Module Manager when an Editor is open, but prevent a game being started from within the Editor itself.
I know it is caused by somthing I’ve done in the creation process… something pointing to null, some object I erased… but I can’t find what 
the problem is that when I PLAY WHILE EDITING (that is, create a new game) I can change my languaje preferences too but the game allways plays in the source languaje… that’s why I could not reproduce the other reported bug except when playing… and as the option to play while editing if for module developing purposes I think it should use the languaje optios just in regular (non editing) games.