Does anyone know a way to create a piece with a Mask trait, place that piece in an At-start Stack, and have it begin its existence masked by a specific side?
What I want to achieve is to have one side allowed to configure a set of pieces. This set of pieces needs to be hidden from other sides at the start and their placement on the map is relevant. Once configured, the pieces can be revealed to the other sides. The closest I seem to get is to trigger all the pieces to be masked the first moment they are changed by controlling side. This is far from the experience I’m looking to provide. I’ve also thought of some other goofy possibilities that involve moving pieces off of a private window, or having a private configuration window that manipulates properties in some other pieces, but all of these ways is undesirable.
I suppose I could also create a blank saved scenario masking the piece and use that saved scenario as a predefined setup for new games. If the game save updater became usable (as it looks like it may soon) this might be a solution, although not as elegant as masking from the start in my opinion.
Who can tell me the simple way to have a piece masked from the start? Or invisible from the start?
I guess I need more detail on what you are saying Tim. Restricted
access makes it so only a specific player can interact with the piece.
I’m not sure what your triggers are supposed to do. I think
Invisible and Mask allow a player to change the masked or invisible
state of the piece, but do not make it automatically invisible or
masked.
I can be a bit slow, perhaps a specific example could help.
The triggers are for revealing the invisible pieces (oops left out GKC). 1 trigger would make the specific piece visible, the other would make all invisible pieces visible
Restricted access might be a bit too strong. You could use restrict commands instead and filter access through the properties based on piece state - invisible = true/false && playerside = whatever
I’ll build a demo for you, then you can correct me on specifics to fine tune it to get it do what you want. I wont be able to post it till tonight though as I cant access forums directly at work to upload files - darn s(m)urf control!
OK, I look forward to the example. But from what you’ve written, I
still don’t see what makes the piece invisible from the start. I
think the Invisible trait allows a piece to be made invisible, but the
piece doesn’t start that way.
Feel free to email me the example directly if that gets around your
posting problem.
Oh, ok I see now (read bit more carefully duh! )
Pieces that are invisible cant be set to start invisible , but you could provide a Toolbar GKC that gets executed 1 time when starting game and have it apply to all pieces with the CanbeInvisible? property.
As for Mask, the pieces will always start masked if they have a mask applied
Regarding the toolbar GKC, I would route that to a DP ‘InvisibleSetup’ and set it up with value of false and have the GKC make it ‘true’, then have all the pieces look at the DP to determine if they need to turn invisble or not via trigger (again true/false). This causes initial invisibility setup to be activated 1 time only and subsequent presses on the toolbar GKC will do nothing at all because the DP’s on the pieces having evaluated from false to true and will no longer qualify and therefore cannot activate the trigger that turns the pieces invisible by accident
Anyway - I’ll build a demo with this. Probably the closest youll be able to get without having to create the scenario file and pre set the pieces condition
How can a GKC be configured to execute when a game starts? I didn’t
know that could be done.
Well, I’d like to see the example of this. When I use a Mask trait on
a piece in an At-start Stack they piece does not start out being
masked. And if it did, how would it know which side has it masked?
I understand this, except for how the GKC gets executed. Perhaps you
mean a player is required to click the button? I could easily achieve
this if I wanted to require players to click a button to mask
everything. I’m trying to make this simple for players.
In my mind, what is needed is a way to define a piece being masked by
side X (at the start).
This is what I meant - they would have to click a button.
An unambiguos labeled button to click or predefined setup file. Both are quick and easy to make. Both require a step on players part: Load a file or press a button - your not saving anything on players behalf and both are equally simple for them to do
I do see where you are coming from though - it would be nice to be able to define whether a piece starts in condition A or B quickly via check box option perhaps be it a mask, invisible, stack etc… in the respective trait properties and not need to define a scenario file to hold and set all the conditions or a button.
Of course, I am assuming they are going to rearrange their pieces before play begins otherwise if the pieces begin in a static location at start up and dont get moved around before play begins all of this serves little purpose (other than being ready to go with or without a button click), because if not, all one has to do is open up another session offline and join as the other side to see/memorize start positions…
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Anyways Ive attached my demo that will do specific sides with the button. Join as a side, press button - notice your piece, retire, join as other side - hey presto, that piece isnt there!
Game saves wouldn’t require a step for the player. It would happen
when they choose to make a new game.
Basically remove the option to create a new game and replace it with a
saved scenario which is really a new game thats been saved after the
pieces have been masked.
Anyhow, I’m a player too and I think the more the module can do
automaticaly, the better. Perhaps I’ll make some custom java class for
something like this.
Anyways Ive attached my demo that will do specific sides with the
button. Join as a side, press button - notice your piece, retire,
join as other side - hey presto, that piece isnt there!
