I’m interested in playing the TI3 mod. However, although I can download the mod and open it fine, I cannot access the documentation because the homepage at ti3wiki.org/ is down. As a result, I can’t figure out how to set up and run a game. I’ve fiddled with everything I can think of, but I can’t get any further than assigning a home planet and race to each player.
The module homepage on vassalengine.org has a link to documentation, which points to ti3wiki.org/index.php?title=TI3_VASSAL however, when I go to that site, a “This site is down for maintenance” message appears, saying that there is more than 50 days(!) left before it goes live again. Does anyone have copy of the module’s documentation and FAQ (or a link to same) that you could post on the forum (note that I’m looking for the module’s docs, not the game’s manual)? The mod looks very polished and well-done, and I’d like to play it.
Thanks, and thanks for supporting the mod. TI is an excellent game.
Here is a (partial) solution. ti3wiki.org went down years ago. I used the Internet Wayback Machine (http://web.archive.org/) to get as much of the information as I could. Here is what I found:
web.archive.org/web/200706181654 … umentation
Content pasted below.
Bottom line: SHIFT-CLICK is your friend. If you’re trying to grab a hold of a tile, and you can’t, SHIFT-CLICK that mofo, and it will probably do what you want.
Selecting Tiles, Race Cards or Player Names
You must hold shift while left-clicking on them.
Note: VASSAL uses shift-left click to also add pieces to the current selection so you must clear the current tile selection to prevent selecting several tiles at once
Objectives Setup
Click the setup button on the toolbar to open the setup area map
Right click on the imperium rex card and send it to the main map public objectives deck
Click the main map area icon on the toolbar (shaped like a system tile)
Go back to the setup map window and right click on the stage 2 public objectives
Select draw multiple cards and type in 3
Left-click on the stage 2 objectives deck in the setup area and drag and drop them on the public objective deck in the main map
Right-click on the public objectives in the main map and select shuffle
In the setup area, right-click on the stage 1 public objectives
Select draw multiple cards and type in 6
Left-click and drag from stage 1 public objectives deck to main map public objectives deck
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Player setup
Click the setup button on the toolbar
Click on the appropriate P1-P6 button to bring up your private area
Choose a race
To pick starting race:
Right-click on home sytems deck in setup area and select draw specific card
Select the race you want
Left-click and drag from home systems deck to your secret area
To get a random race:
Left-click and drag from home systems deck to your secret area
Shift-click to select your chosen race in your private area, use peek to find out who you selected.
On the main map, shift-click the race sheet in your player area to select it. Right click and cycle through the races until you find the race you selected in step 3.
Drag around your ships to select them all, right-click or use ctrl-c to choose your colour.
Draw your system cards:
Right-click on the systems deck in the setup area
Select draw multiple cards and pick the number appropriate for the number of players (for 6 should be 5; empty tile spot can be filled by anyone by drawing from the deck after galaxy building)
Left-click and drag from systems deck to your private area
Remember to use shift-left click after this to select tiles to move them around, even in your private area
Do not flip your home system or system tiles in your private areas. Other players are not restricted from viewing your private area. Use either the Peek command or simply shift-left-click to select the tile and the facedown side will be revealed to only you.
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Searching Action/Political Cards
Right-click on action card deck in the common area and select move to searchable
Deck will shift 2 spaces to the right
Right-click on action card deck again and select draw specific card
Select the card you want
Open your private area (P1-P6) and left-click drag from action card deck to your area
Right-click on action card deck in common area and select return action cards
Deck will shift back to original spot
For the political deck, right-click on deck and select reshuffle. Action card deck is always shuffled.
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Political Primary (Draw 3, Put 2 on Bottom, 1 on Top)
Right-click on politcal card deck and select draw multiple cards and enter 3
Open private area and drag from deck to your area
Right-click on politcal card deck in common area and select send to searchable
Drag the two cards you want on bottom to the original (now empty) political deck position
Right-click on where the political card deck shifted to (to the right) and select return political card deck.
Left-click and drag the last political card in your private area to the political card deck. This card will be the next card to be drawn.
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Transfering Cards Between Players (Hacan action card trading)
In VASSAL, only the owner of a card/tile may discard, flip or peek at it. When a card/tile is drawn from a deck, VASSAL assigns ownership to the drawing player.
The current owning player should drag the card to the main map transfer deck
The receiving player then drags from the main map transfer deck to their private area. The receiving player becomes the new owner of the card and will be the only player capable of discading, flipping or peeking at the card.
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Playing as GM
In VASSAL, only the owner of a card/tile may discard, flip or peek at it. When a card/tile is drawn from a deck, VASSAL assigns ownership to the drawing player.
The GM should drag the card to the receiving player’s private area transfer deck.
The receiving player then drags from their transfer deck to view their cards. The receiving player becomes the new owner of the card and will be the only player capable of discading, flipping or peeking at the card (besides the GM).
See *2
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Footnote 1
VASSAL does not provide a quality adjustment for screenshots. Avg screenshot is 25meg. I convert these to .jpg with ~50% quality before posting them. This reduces file size to ~3meg.
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Footnote 2
Issues with using VASSAL mod for PBeM as playing moderator:
Other players must have installed VASSAL and the TI3 mod and have access to the save game to view their action cards/secret objective/top 3 political. This can be done by allowing players to download a copy of the save game or by creating a server that they may sync to in VASSAL.
Since players require a copy of the save game, it is not possible to prevent casual cheating and it is not recommended for use in public games.
If you want to reduce the ability for casual cheating as moderator, move the action card deck, political deck and public objectives deck to GM secret area. This removes the ability for players to open a local save game and pick through the decks without anyone knowing.
In VASSAL, only the owner of a card/tile may flip/discard/peek. For players to gain ownership of a card, the GM must drag and drop card/tiles to the receiving players transfer deck in their private area. The receiving player will then be the only player able to draw the card from their transfer deck and become the new card owner.