I, and many of my friends, would like an additional control based on the function of " Center on opponent’s moves". This current function works fine but when you play a multiplayer game that covers a large map or set of maps, it grabs the focus of a player away from where he may be making his moves.
What we would like is an additional capability, perhaps Shift-Mouse Left Click, that performs the same function as “Center on opponent’s moves” but could be used onyl when needed instead of all of the time. This way we can disable “Center on opponent’s moves” and use this new function, via Shift-Left Mouse Click, on rare occasions when it is needed and all players agree. Since the effect we are looking for already exists as a function within Vassal, this seems like it should be easy to do.
Thanks,
Mike
Are you suggesting a key that toggles the preference setting or a key that does the actual centering on an opponent’s last move ?
For info: there is a “Move Camera Button” feature available to module developers, described on this page in the Reference Manual, that would allow a centre-on-last-move feature to be implemented for a module. It does require module work in its current form but might also form a basis for a Vassal update.
As it stands, the module dev would simply need to capture each tracked piece’s movement coordinates (CurrentMap, CurrentX, CurrentY) into 3 global properties. A Move Camera Button / Hotkey would then be able to work off those.
Caveat: The above info is based on my reading, I’ve not used the feature myself yet.
A key combo that will center everyone to focus on one spot on the map. Using the “Center on Opponents Move” is interrupting the game and the focus of others every time you move a counter. The idea is you click this key-combo once when you need it and not every time when you move, and it centers everyone that one time.
Yes…each player can disable that in File > Preferences
See the online documentation:
Center on opponents’ moves:
If checked, whenever an opponent makes a move (either online or while replaying a PBEM log file), VASSAL will ensure that the position is visible on the screen, recentering if necessary. This is generally desirable behavior, but in online games where multiple players make moves simultaneously it can be annoying, and thus the ability to turn it off is provided.
The “Flare” component is available when a player wants to draw attention to a specific location on a map.
When added to a [Map], this component allows a player to “send up a flare” at any location on the map in order to attract other players’ attention. The flare is sent by clicking on the desired location while holding down a designated modifier key (or set of them). Flares can be used both in online games (where they are sent to other players connected to the server), and in PBEM games (where they are shown to players who replay the log file).
A [Flare] component is automatically added to every map, starting in VASSAL 3.5. Additional flares can be added if desired.
The problem arises in games with large map areas. We generally have Center on Opponents Move disabled to prevent any moves from readjusting the map positions. This prevents someone selecting a unit/stack and trying to move them at the same time as another.
The Flare is nice to ping an area, but if players are zoomed in on a particular area of the map, the flare may not be visible to them at that moment.
We’re hoping for a feature that would Flare & Center that might override the Center on Opponents Move for such instances. The players should be warned by the person activating such a function, to help avoid the initial issues that would occur in this case.