Map Window hotkeys that aren't a toggle

Feature Requests
1

I would like to see a close hotkey and an open hotkey in addition to the Map Window Hotkey toggle.

Currently, to make a public player window private mid-game, I have had to send all the pieces on the public window to a private window.

If there were a hotkey to close windows, I could have it close the player windows, and make the buttons that would open other players’ windows ineffective, then simply make the buttons effective again when the need for privacy ends. This would be a lot cleaner and easier, and avoid the need to have two windows (and two buttons) for each player.

2

+1 for this, for the more generic reason that any automation that opens a window currently relies on that window being closed in the first place.

However, @benkyo - no hotkey or other action from one player can close a window on another players’ machines can it? Have I misunderstood your post, or does this undermine your idea ?

Mark

3

Ah, just my mistake. Thought it would be possible, but a moment’s thought and yeah, it’s clear my idea wouldn’t work.

4

How about something like this idea…

Create a piece in each of the hand windows, dimensioned to cover the entire window, or part of it that needs to be masked from prying eyes. The piece should have a Marker to place it the topmost Layer of the map, be non-movable/selectable; the Piece must have two piece layers - one with a masking image - Curtains? :slight_smile: and one with no image.

The hand window has a global property - handPrivate - by default set false and a handOwner property - fixed at the PlayerSide that owns the window.

When you want to conceal a player’s window, the action includes setting the hand window’s gp handPrivate to true; so, the masking piece kicks in, based on an evaluation such as:-
{handPrivate == true && handOwner!=PlayerSide} (modified to allow Solo play, if your module requires this)

When done, handPrivate gets set to false again to cause the masking piece to disappear.

Hope this helps.

Mark

5

Thanks, but the private phase is an active one - each player manipulates a lot of pieces on their window while it is private, so a masking image would get in the way.

6

I coded up a version of this – give it a try - it will be the 14377 branch one the builds page (vassalengine.org/builds)

7

FWIW - I would vote against any feature that changes how (as a player) I’ve arranged my windows - in particular, moving/closing/resizing/etc. Opening a new window is less problematic (but still irritating).

As a player, I have my windows arranged in a way that let’s me play efficiently/effectively and don’t want any module changing that.

I could see a potential need to be able to “mask” all of a window’s content so the other player can’t see what is going on inside it…