I’m trying to learn how e-mail play works, not live play.
I loaded up the module for ‘Washington’s War’ and set up an email game to play theoretically by myself first so I could understand how it all works before trying play with a friend. Here is what happened and maybe somebody out there can tell me what I’m doing wrong.
1.) Module loaded up OK
2.) Was able to see the ‘card’ ‘pieces’ board etc…and actually do a move. I started as the British player
3.) I turned on the log file while moving.
4.) I then saved the game with a unique name
5.) I closed down vassal
6.) I then reloaded the game as if I was the American player.
7.) I could still ‘see’ all of the pieces, and stuff but the trouble was I could still see all of the British players cards. There was a button at the top for “British Hand” but the American Hand button looked like it could not be pressed. (It couldn’t)
‘Hidden’ stuff depends on the password you set in the preferences. When you reload the game, your password is exactly the same, so Vassal assumes you are the British player. It would work for another player because they would have a different password.
When testing ‘sides’ you need to change the password, then load the log file.
Where do I set the second password? That is pretending that I am the second player? Don’t you just load up the file? Or do you start a ‘new’ game as the American Player. I’m confused here. Where in the procedure do you set a new password?
Start a log file and make the American player moves
close the log file
Now we have to pretend to be the British player, so change your password from password1 to password2
open the log file and you will get the option to select the British side
replay the logfile
start a new log file and make the British moves
close the loggile
Now we have to go back to being the American player, so change you password from password2 (The British players password) back to password1 (The American players password)
Open the logfile and you will automatically be the American player, since you have set the American Players password.
NB: I’m convinced now that we should change this for 3.2, as it seems to
cause no end of confusion for people. It’s not hard to imagine both
players having ‘panzer’ as their password…
Thank you for the detailed method on how to do an email turn. But, I’m afraid your instructions leave something rather important out. That is: WHERE AND HOW do you change your password? I followed your instructions very carefully but no where in the instructions does it show HOW to change the password. My steps.
1.) I started the game as American
2.) Opened the Log file
3.) Began playing
NO WHERE DID THE PROGRAM ASK FOR A PASSWORD and I don’t know where you set this.
This is strange because before when I set up my very first game I recall it asking for a password
I am glad you asked this because I would have never guessed that is how you change sides even between different playings of the same game (I am only just now delving into my first CDG game ever in 35-40 years of wargaming).
Maybe obvious - but… are you stepping through the logfile when you open it to see the moves recorded by the other side?
I don’t see the Washington’s War module listed on the Vassal module page. Did you design this module yourself? If you did, did you assign masked traits to any of the counters? If units are masked (hidden) by one player then the opposing player, when using a different password, won’t be able to see those counters.
It would also help if we had a login diaog where we asked users for
an identity-password combo when loading a game. My understanding is that
a large part of the problem right now is caused by users not knowing under
what password they’re presently logged in, so making that explicit for
them would help.
(Note that I’m not saying that users should always be prompted for their
password, as we’re not trying to secure the account against others,
just that the user be presented with something like a list of available
identities at start.)
WHOA! Who said to start a NEW GAME and set the password. The instructions say that at this point you
Change your password
Load the saved game from Step 6
Because you started a new game in step 7 instead of changing your password and loading the old saved game.
Look, you are trying to simulate the situation where you are trying to play a game on two different computers by two different players who have different password’s set. Starting a new game between turns does not make sense!
I got the Washington’s War module from the Consimworld site. They have a folder for this game which is not even out yet. It will be a replacement for the game “We the People” and the designer Mark Herman is on the site asking for play test feedback.
I would love to accommodate him but I’m having a devil of a time learning VASSAL.
Thanks xlegion. I was going to look at the module to see how it was structured.
Try and follow Brent’s instructions. He should get you there. Just be patient and you’ll get it. I’ll hold off adding any suggestions because it could just confuse you with more than one person walking you through it.
I’m a Babylon 5 wars player. In the past players have used cyberboard to conduce PBEM games. However I’m looking at it and don’t feel it’s the best choice, especially since the person I want to play against is on a Mac.
My issue is that most games will be strictly PBEM, and not live. That said, recording a log that shows a player’s every move, etc. might be overkill. I know this is not using the engine to it’s full potential, but is there any way to simply email the end result of your turn without showing “live” moves, and current chats etc?
Also, is there any way to “edit” your turn for the logs? say I move a piece and then undo it, can I remove that from the “playback”?
I also have a customization question. I’ll post in a different thread though, cause it’s totally unrelated.