Hi all,
After a long hiatus, I have returned to playing Hellenes, starting up a pbem game using the Vassal module. As a result, have found an issue with the ‘Cards’ window, where each player is meant to place their cards face down in the shaded spaces at the bottom of the window, so that they can both be moved to the upper ‘revealed’ spaces, when ready, so that they can be revealed at the same time.
What we are finding is that we’re not able to reveal the face-down card played by our opponent. Moving the opposing card to the upper box does nothing and the card cannot be flipped. I seem to remember that this was not an issue last time we played this, so perhaps it has something to do with a later version of the Vassal game engine. Not sure.
Thanks for any assistance in solving this one!
I would recommend emailing the module author directly–you do have to be signed into the module wiki for the listed author/maintainer’s email address to be visible. In this case it’s well-known module maker Joel Toppen.
In general, when you mask a card, your opponent won’t be able to unmask it because you own the masked card. However, there is a Preferences option that overrides this restriction. I don’t have the option in front of me, but it’s something like “let my opponents unmask my pieces.” That should fix you up unless I’m missing something special that the module designer did.
Thanks for your advice. I had thought of that, but there is no unmasking option in the preferences for that module.
I’ll get in touch with Joel.
I made a mistake; it’s not a Preference item by default. First, someone needs to edit the module with the Vassal editor. In the editor, double-click “global options.” The first line in the window that appears is “Allow non-owners to unmask pieces.” It probably is set to “Never.” Change this to either “Always” or “Use preference setting.” Save module and distribute it to players. If set to “use preference setting,” it WILL appear as a preference option, and each player should enable it.
Ah, that’s great advice Shilinski…thank you!
Is anyone able to modify the module…? I don’t have that knowledge and I gather that it also requires permission from the module designer. I have sent Joel an email, but no answer as yet.
Anyone can edit it. It would take less than 30 seconds. Right-click the module in your VASSAL module library view, choose “Edit Module”.
Double-click the Global Options node, adjust the setting I highlighted, hit OK, save. Done!
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Fantastic, Joel…that will do the job. Thanks!