How to put a marker on top, but unstacked

Module Design
1

Hi all,

I’m new to this and have been searching the forum and FAQ’s on how to put a “marker” (unlimited amount of pieces - game piece palette) on top of a stack of “units” (limited amount of pieces - at-start stack). I want to use the unstack property as I don’t want the markers to snap to the hexgrid. So far I haven’t found an answer, which is why I post it here.

The idea is to mark certain stacks of units as being put in “reserve” or “embarked”.

If I disable the “unstacked” property, the marker snaps to the hexgrid and the stack becomes “clouded” by the marker. (it all turns yellow in my case). See this example.

Can someone help me? I tried moving the markers above the board with the at-start-stack but that does not seem to do the trick.

I guess it must have something to do with layers, but I haven’t touched those yet.

Thanks,
Pokke

Edit: I guess the easiest thing to do would be to make a lot of “reserve” and “embarked” counters and put these in with the regular units. But I’m sure there’s an easier solution?

2

I would use layers. Add a layer to the prototype of your game pieces and select the reserve marker as the image. You need only a shortcut for activate, you can leave the rest (increase, decrease etc.) empty. Then just use the shortcut in game to mark your pieces as reserve.

Edit: Hmmm I just tried this in one of my modules, but it unstacks the first piece on a stack when I activate the layer. I gotta find out why this happens.

Edit2: It seems that just the first piece was selected and not the whole stack.

3

Aha. Thanks.

Actually I thought about using layers, but some of the pieces have a backside already.

And I’m not sure if you can put a “smaller” image on top of a “bigger” one, so that you still can see what the stats are? If not, it means I have to make for all different units a “reserve” and “embarked” graphic (to use as layer)

4

You could also use an offset, so that the marker appears beside or under the piece.

5

Ah? That will probably solve my problem. Thanks. [Now all I have to do is find out how to create an offset.] :slight_smile:

BTW Do you have a clue why my stacks are colored yellow and not show the original artwork for that piece when something smaller is stacked on top of it?

6

No idea why they become yellow, maybe the developers can help you with that. More informations about how the pieces are built would be necessary.

For an offset just enter a number into the offset input boxes in the layer trait (top right).

7

This is controlled by the Stacking Options for the Map Window. Pieces below the top piece in a stack can be drawn normally or as colored boxes.

rk

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8

Aha! I did not realise that NOT selecting a color was a possibility. I assumed it turned to default black. Thanks!

9

You could also give your marker the “does not stack” property