Noob question

I know this is probably a very noob question, but here it goes:

I’m doing a module where you have a deck with cards that you flip and then move into a board. I’ve set up the deck and everything, but when I start it up the cards are not showing up! If I click and drag, the cards do flip over, but the stack of face up cards is not visible (i.e. the back side of the card does not show). I thought I had set it up correctly by setting the mask of the card to show the backside image, but I guess I’m missing something here.
Can anyone point out some tips on doing this right?

On the mask trait, add your image for the back of the card.

Then lower down on the Mask trait, you’ll see an option for Display Style. Select “Use Image” and add the image again.

The reason there’s two settings here is that one is for what you see and one is for what other players see (I think). Anyway, if it’s just a standard card back, you have to enter the image in both places.

Thanks for the fast reply .

That’s the way I had it set up, but its not working :frowning:

Aha !!

I think I got it working, seems like there was some problem with the image I was using as backside. I switched to another image and it worked with that.

Thanks a bunch y’all

Hi, its me again. Sorry to bother you guys with dumb questions, but I have a limited programming background and I guess I’m hitting every stone in the road.
I’ve managed to get the cards to be drawn from the deck and transform into the corresponding tiles when moved to the map, but the alignment is all wrong. I got the grid to be the same size as the tile being placed (square grid), but when I place a 4X4 tile, it snaps to the grid on the center of the tile and thus the tiles squares don’t match with the grid on the map. I tried using the tile’s offset values and the grid’s offset values but the tile is still snapping to the center of the grid.
Is there a quick way to fix this?
I still need to use the same grid to place the player’s tokens on the tiles and match up with the tile’s grid, so what I’m looking for is some way of offsetting the image that I use to create the tile.

Someone who’s familiar with working with square grids may be able to answer your question.

But I would strongly suggest using an Irregular Grid to establish Region Points or a Zone grid. You’ll find you have much more control over how things are handled on the map as well as being able to send things to specific points or zones on the map. I don’t believe a standard Square or Hex grid gives you these luxuries.

It can be rather time consuming and generally a pain to go through the trouble of Region Pointing or Zoning an entire map but you may find it well worth the effort in the long run. I know I do …but my games tend to be those that need a lot of automation which requires me to address specific map locations frequently. Your game situation may not require that much control.

I had an idea to solve this.
I’ll make the image of the map be the right size grid, but use a grid size 1/4th of this size as the actual grid, but make that invisible. This way, I should be able to align the 4X4 sizes and still match up the center of each tile with a tile of the “real” grid
Does this sound right?
I’ll try this when I get home and let you know if it worked

On Jun 2, 2010, at 9:03 AM, Vilrandir wrote:

It will never work with even sized tiles.

You could try offsetting the grid from your image, though.
But that will cause trouble with any other pieces that you want to
have snap to the grid.

Another option that has the same effect would be to change the grid so
that vertices are legal snap points on the grid.

Also read this thread:
test.nomic.net/oldforum/view … +tile+grid


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Thank you Tar, that was helpful !!

Another round of questions, though.

Im using Property Sheets to keep track of statistics for units. Is there a way to assign an initial value to the propoerties in the sheet? So far I have to manually set them up every time I start a new game.

Also, is there a way to assign a random number (a 1d6, for example) to a stat in this initial setup?

Yes. When the game piece properties is open in your editor, right click the graphic for the piece and select your property sheet …just like you would in a game.

Fill in the values you want and save the piece. The game will start with those values.

I think you would have to set up a trigger of some kind to fire. I’m assuming property sheet entries can contain variables (someone will correct me if I’m wrong).

So, you can have a dynamic property on the piece …let’s call it FireRate. Then a hot key would be triggered to roll a D6, the DP FireRate would be set to equal $D6_results$ and the entry on your property sheet would be $FireRate$

Thank you Dr. Nostromo!!

I got the property sheet working as you explained.

About assigning a random number to the property sheet (the rolling of starting hitpoints in this case):

I’ve noticed when you start a module, that there’s a number of steps on the startup screens. How do I add steps to this? maybe I can introduce the HP roll here? Otherwise, I think with your idea on having a hotkey I can probably get this to work.

Further questions.

The turn sequence in the game I’m doing is a little quirky. Phase 1 of the turn is always taken by player 1 (out of 4 players), Phase 2 of the turn lets every player take an action in a given sequence (Players 1-4), Phase 3 is the monster’s turn (this action can be taken by any player for the monsters, following certain rules). Any ideas on how to structure the turn nesting to enable this? The only way I’ve thought to work this out is by having each sub-phase be a turn level (i.e. the turn levels would be (Phase 1- Player 1, Phase 2- Player 1, Phase 2- Player 2…)

Also, is there a way to limit who can take actions (i.e. manipulate objects) depending on the turn?

This sounds like something I would do. :confused:

There’s probably a lot of ways to do something like this …all of them rather complex …but this is what I’m doing on a mod I’m currently building. You may try using something similar in your setup.

At the beginning of each round, players issue orders for what they want to do in that round. The orders are always resolved in the same order via round phases but the players execute those orders in a random sequence.

For example, players 1, 2, 4 select Move Forces, 1, 3 select Launch Attacks, 2, 3, 4 select Build Forces.

The Move Forces phase is first and a random player from 1, 2, or 4, is told to move their forces. Then each of the others are selected at random. Once all three have moved their forces, the game moves to the Launch Attacks phase and selects a random player among those that issued that order. …and so on.

The Launch Attacks phase can get really complex as the player attacked can move and launch a CounterAttack. The original attacker can then launch a another attack.

As you can see, my phase system can get just about as quirky as what you’re trying to do.

The way I control all this is through Global Property counters and phantom card decks. I’ve found that cards are handy controllers for complex operations as they can trigger anything and you can move them easily around between various decks. You don’t need any fancy graphics for phantom decks, either, as no one is going to see them. I use a simple 10x10 black square.

So, I have a hidden window that no one has access to (except the host who knows the secret hotkey). In this window I create a deck of cards for each of the orders. Each card represents a player in that deck. Each deck is called (Order Name)_Draw …as in MoveForces_Draw.

I also create 2 empty decks for each of the orders called (Order Name)_Ordered and (Order Name)_Play.

When a player selects the Move Forces order, their card is moved from MoveForces_Draw deck into the MoveForces_Ordered deck. When the Move Forces Phase begins, a random card is drawn from the MoveForces_Ordered deck to the MoveForces_Play deck and a trigger is sent to announce who is to begin their phase and have the card activate whatever processes are necessary.

Once that player is finished, their card is moved back to the MoveForces_Draw deck and the next player is drawn from the MoveForces_Ordered deck.

You can use the Global Property counters to keep track of how many orders have been given, how many players have selected each order, etc. to determine when to change phases, complete the round, etc.

I hope you can glean enough wisdom from this to come up with a system of your own. It will probably drive you crazy …it does me, sometimes …but when it works, it really simplifies game play.

On Jun 16, 2010, at 7:05 AM, Vilrandir wrote:

In general this sort of thing is not possible.

The design philosophy of Vassal is to be able to provide an experience
similar to a standard board game, rather than a computer game. As
such, there isn’t much in the way of rule enforcement.

So, if you were playing a board game with friends, the only limit on
who can move things on the board is determined by the players
following the rules. The board game pieces themselves can’t do
anything to limit things.


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I deleted my original response. I didn’t read the last message correctly and went off on a tangent. Sorry.

For the most part true, but it is possible to create pieces that can be moved only at specific times. You have to create a global property and then create each piece with a does not stack trait set to select always and move never. Then add a send to location or move fixed distance command to each piece. You can then use the restrict command trait to match the value of the global property and hide the move command when it matches or doesn’t match.

What happens is when the global property is set to a certain value, only the pieces that match that value will be able to be accessed to move. You could even use multiple global properties to provide nested filters. You can also couple this with the restrict access trait to limit who can move it by player side.

This method does present some limitations though. You can only move pieces via the command menu, either right clicking or the matching key command. No dragging pieces on the map though you could create action button hot spots on a piece to click it to move. Also pieces won’t be able to stack with each other. (To be added in a future version, I think?)

If the pieces normally have a wide range of motion, it would be very burdensome to define movement commands for every place they can move to. Plus you would have to create all sorts of zones on a map to control movement unless it’s a grid in which case move fixed distance set equal to your grid sizes for all directions of movement would work. Still a lot to configure and test though.

It probably makes sense here to put in a RFE to the Restrict Access trait and change/enhance/modify its functionality to also allow total restriction by property filter condition which can be a lot more useful (and achieve what is needed in the request) instead of just by player side

From: cparrott messages@forums.vassalengine.org
To: messages@forums.vassalengine.org
Sent: Thu, June 17, 2010 11:03:19 AM
Subject: [Module Design]Re: Noob question

tar wrote:

For the most part true, but it is possilbe to create pieces that can be moved only at specific times. You have to create a global property and then create each piece with a does not stack trait set to select always and move never. Then add a send to location or move fixed distance command to each piece. You can then use the restrict command trait to match the value of the global property and hide the move command when it matches or doesn’t match.

What happens is when the global property is set to a certain value, only the pieces that match that value will be able to be accessed to move. You could even use multiple global properties to provide nested filters. You can also couple this with the restrict access trait to limit who can move it by player side.

This method does present some limitations though. You can only move pieces via the command menu, either right clicking or the matching key command. No dragging pieces on the map though you could create action button hot spots on a piece to click it to move. Also pieces won’t be able to stack with each other. (To be added in a future version, I think?)

If the pieces normally have a wide range of motion, it would be very burdensome to define movement commands for every place they can move to. Plus you would have to create all sorts of zones on a map to control movement unless it’s a grid in which case move fixed distance set equal to your grid sizes for all directions of movement would work. Still a lot to configure and test though.
[/quote]


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