Vassal 3.6 Release Notes

uckelman · February 9, 2024, 8:50pm

This article will give you a quick tour of the new features in VASSAL 3.6, as well as listing some significant player-facing bug fixes.

Major New Features

Folders

The Editor now supports folders inside of most components that accept “children”. When adding new subcomponents you can also choose to “Add Folder” which will make a folder into which any valid subcomponents of the parent can be placed. In the example shown, folders are used inside of the [Game Prototype Definitions] segment to organize the prototypes.

Drag and Drop

Components in the Editor window can now be “dragged and dropped” from one valid location to another.

Duplicate

You can now duplicate a component in the Editor, which will make a second identical copy of it at the same location in the tree. If you duplicate a folder or a component that has children (subcomponents), then all of the child items will be duplicated as well.

Insert

The Editor now allows you to Insert an item at the currently selected location (as opposed to the traditional Add which adds an item at the bottom of the current list of subcomponents). This can be useful for adding to the middle of a long list of pieces, prototypes, or other components.

Mats & Cargo

Mats & Cargo Example

You can now add a “Mat” trait to a game piece to mark it as a piece that other pieces are placed upon. If those other pieces are marked with a “Mat Cargo” trait, then when you select the Mat the Mat Cargo pieces on it will also become selected–this means e.g. that if you drag the Mat around, then by default all the Mat Cargo pieces will come with it in the appropriate relative positions. Mats & Cargo can also be set to maintain relative facing (i.e. if you rotate the mat the cargo will be rotated as well).

Basic Name trait

You can now define the $BasicName$ property for a piece defined in a prototype by adding the new Basic Name trait – this allows you to safely leave the Basic Piece member completely blank in an individual piece definition (e.g. in a Game Piece Palette, an At Start Stack, or a Place Marker trait or Replace With Other trait). The $BasicName$ property will be filled with the value from the Basic Name trait, ignoring any name (blank or otherwise) in Basic Piece.

Scaling Factor for Layer and Non-Rectangular Traits

Both Layer traits (i.e. images) and Non-Rectangular traits now come with a built-in Scaling Factor field. This allows you to more easily adjust the relative sizes with which your various pieces are drawn, which can be particularly useful when boardgame companies supply source art that is not “in scale” with other parts of the game.

Does Not Stack improvements (DOES stack!)

The “Does Not Stack” trait just got interesting… it can now be told that in fact it DOES stack! This allows the creation of pieces that take advantage of some of Does Not Stack’s other features that have accumulated over the years (such as the ability to ignore the map grid) while retaining the standard VASSAL stacking behavior.

A description field is also provided, and you’ll notice in the editor that the key features of an individual Does Not Stack trait are better summarized in the traits list for a piece.

Mask Inset Improvements

The Mask trait has a new centered Image Inset option that makes the full face of the card or piece visible to the owning player, while insetting it slightly into the “masked” card back as a reminder that the card or piece is currently hidden from the other players.

Simply choose Image Inset in the Display Style combo box at the bottom of the Mask trait’s definition.

Rotate Directly To Facing/Angle

The Can Rotate trait now includes a key command to rotate the piece directly to a specific facing OR angle. Since the facing-or-angle is chosen via an expression, you can use a property in your expression to facilitate rotating however you like.

In the example shown at right, I set the ForceRotate Dynamic Property to where I want to rotate the piece, and then I issue the ForceRotate key command to tell the piece to rotate to that direction.

Autopeek Rollover

The Mask trait includes an Autopeek on Rollover checkbox, which allows masked pieces to continue to show their full rollover information to players who are entitled to see the piece (e.g. the current owner(s) of the piece).

Module Debug Features

A module debug window can now be opened, either from the Tools menu or you can edit the [Global Options] of your module to add a hotkey and/or toolbar button for it. It will show the current mouse cursor position on the map, as well as the name and position of the currently-selected piece, and is designed to make it easier to find and adjust map locations during module development.

A related improvement is that when adjusting the location of a Deck or Setup Stack, the current coordinates are shown during the adjustment process, and there is a checkbox to allow showing the “ghosted” start position of other Decks and Stacks. Likewise when placing points to define the shape of a new Zone the coordinates are shown.

Deck Refresher

The Refresh Counters (and corresponding Refresh Predefined Setups tool in the Editor) can now refresh Decks: existing decks will be updated to use the latest settings from the module, which includes the ability to adjust the deck’s location. If a deck has been deleted from the module it will be deleted from the current game (leaving any cards in a stack). Decks newly added to the module will be added to the game (though any new cards must be added separately, e.g. from palettes, and then dragged to the deck.).

Deck Restriction By Side

Decks in publicly accessible places (e.g. on the Main Map) can now have their access restricted to particular players. This means you can put player-specific draw piles or even hands on the main map (avoiding e.g. a whole extra deck window) while still allowing only the correct players to access them.

Deal Cards Face Down

The Mask trait now includes a key command to “deal the card face down” to a side specified by an expression, meaning that as long as the card isn’t currently “owned” by another player it will become owned by the specified side, and thus face down. This can be used to allow players to deal cards from a community deck while making sure they can’t see the cards that other players received.

Move Camera Button

You can now add toolbar buttons to a map window which, when clicked, will cause the map view to recenter on a specific location (determined by expression).

Fixed Cards From Deck (Global Key Commands)

When a Global Key Command interacts with a deck, the “fixed number of cards” it selects can now be determined by an expression.

Action Button Improvements

Action buttons now have a fancy visual configurer, and can be set to any polygon shape rather than only a rectangle. Also, the default for an action button is simply to turn the whole piece into a button (rather than always having to explicitly define boundaries)

GetString() added to BeanShell

Beanshell now supports the GetString() function – which works like GetProperty() except it always returns the result as a string (even if the property was a number or a boolean). Likewise the .toString() suffix, which works similarly e.g. LocationName.toString() has been included in the expression builder.

Report and Message Formats – Beanshell Expression Builders

All Message Format and Report Format fields in VASSAL now include the Expression Builder button. Beanshell was previously supported here, but was more on the “undocumented tips and tricks” side. Now it has been embraced as a documented feature.

Inventory - Multi Zoom Level

Inventory windows now support 3 levels of zoom, so you can include both a “tiny icons list” and a “large icons gallery”.

Toolbar Buttons can be Disabled (Greyed Out)

Many Toolbar buttons (e.g. Multi Action Buttons, Global Key Command Buttons, Dice Buttons, etc) can be assigned a Global Property. When that Global Property is set to “true”, the button becomes disabled – greyed out and can’t be activated – until the Global Property is no longer true!

LOS Thread - line thickness

LOS Threads can be configured to be multiple pixels wide.

Load-and-Fast-Forward Logs, also Load/FF/Append

Log files can be loaded in “fast forward” mode, which skips them to the end without the need to press the step-forward button multiple times.

They can also be loaded for “fast forward and append” which will go straight to the end AND commence appending further commands – this is an easier/safer way to create complete logs of an entire game, while preserving the ability to stop from time to time to back up your progress so far.

These new options are both to be found on the Tools menu.

Miscellaneous Minor Improvements

Improved Polygon Editor (cut/paste vertices, delete polygon)
Improved Region Editor (drag-at-edge works again, move regions inside of zone)
The “console” function of the chat window now allows properties of selected pieces to be queried/set as well as global properties (“/help property”)
When using the “console” function of the chat window, up and down arrows can be used to scroll back through previously issued commands
Ctrl+Click and Shift+Click can be used in Game Piece Palettes to grab multiple pieces at a time.
When switching sides, any player hands and private windows that the new side doesn’t have access to will automatically close.
Better trait one-line summaries in editor (auto-populates with information from trait’s major fields)
Folder summary in Editor automatically includes its description field
While double-clicking to open component in Editor, holding Alt, Shift, and/or Ctrl affects the location the new window opens
The Action Button trait includes an option to have the button open the piece’s right-click context menu
Report Action trait has a checkbox to override Global Key Command suppression of individual reports
Return-to-Deck trait allows target deck to be specified as an expression
Send-to-Location trait has new options for sending to pieces-selected-by-properties: cycle and nearest
Send-to-Location trait “To Grid Location” option now includes offset options
Added $numericTotal$ and $result#$ options to standard Dice Button report format
Mouseover Stack Viewer now allows layer filters to be combined with Property Match filters. (Before it was one or the other)
Newly added Layer traits will now default to ‘Always active’
A Map window’s “Mark Unmoved” button now accepts a hotkey and a report format
Game Piece Palette allows setting of default width for “docked” Game Piece Palette
When editing an IrregularGrid (e.g. in a Zone), start the map view somewhere near the grid or its parent Zone
Expression audit trails preference - improved error reporting/debugging when Beanshell expressions fail.
Default UI font size can be overridden in preferences
Preference to reverse left-to-right order counters are shown in Mouseover Stack Viewer
Added Global property MapName_isVisible for each Map to allow checking if Map is currently open
Deck Sort Key Command component to allow sorting of cards in a Deck by properties via menu or hotkey.
CountStack() added to beanshell to count pieces in current Stack
Repositioning Stacks/Decks optionally draws ghosted images of other stacks/decks
Show X,Y coordinates when repositioning At-Start Stack or Deck
Zone Editor shows coordinates of vertices while editing
Global Key Commands “Within a Deck, select Fixed number of pieces” field now supports expressions
Decks - filled out the rest of the commands with hotkeys and report formats
Multiplayer Server controls have improved feedback / UX
Private Message windows no longer prompt to ignore every time you close them; incoming private messages do not grab focus
Rebuild prototypes when they are changed in the editor (without having to exit and start again). Existing pieces on the board would still need refreshing though.
Different types of Global Key Commands can be cut and pasted
(Windows & Mac) Pieces dragged off the palette using the palette scale factor instead of always full size

Native Builds

There are now native builds for 64-bit ARM Windows and 64-bit ARM MacOS. For best performance, we recommend using a native build for your system and architecture if one is available.

If you were experiencing poor rendering performance with an Apple Silicon Mac, you should see improved performance with the 64-bit ARM build.

Removed & Deprecated Code

Some code which has been deprecated for more than a year has been removed. On loading a module containing custom code which uses removed or deprecated code, a warning dialog is now displayed immediately (instead of at the point when the deprecated code is used, as in 3.5).

3.6.0 Full Release Notes (changes since 3.5.8)

New features

10736: ‘Deal cards out’ to other players
10728: Allow ‘Prompt’ Dice Button values to be locked by designer
10727: Module Debug Window
10719: Deck Refresher
10717: Deck access - allow access to decks to be restricted by player
10682: Move Camera Button
10674: Startup Global Key Commands always fire in order, can’t be undone, and can be configured to, e.g., “once per game”
10649: Deck can start face-up or face-down when using right-click menu setting
10628: Autopeek Rollover
10584: Map “Mark Unmoved” button now accepts a hotkey and a report format
10582: Basic Name trait - facilitates creating pieces entirely in prototype (alternative way to fill BasicName property)
10576: Send-to-Location new options for pieces-selected-by-properties: cycle and nearest
10558: Added Current Mat GKC FastMatch option
10552: CounterDetailViewer - can combine layer filters with property match expression
10551: Action Button option to open right-click context menu
10509: Add $numericTotal$ and $result#$ options to standard Dice Button report format
10505: Enable Offset options to work with the Grid option in SendToLocation
10486: Better obscurable option for insetting
10484: Mats have more deselection options; double-clicking delesects cargo
10468: Refresh Counters support for Mats and Cargo
10454: Game Piece Palette allows setting of default width for “docked” Game Piece Palette
10412: Double the max heap for modules which run out of memory during loading
10394: Add a Key Command to Can Rotate trait to rotate directly to a facing specified by an expression
10276: Expose property if we’re currently drawing Counter Detail Viewer
10273: Mat Cargo can be set to detect mats way from their exact center
10248: Invisible trait - Option to disable auto-report of moves
10075: Scaling factors for Layers and Non-Rectangular
10066: Mats & Cargo - Cargo pieces stay attached to Mat piece when moving.
10034: Added option to Mass Piece Loader to not create empty levels in layers when there is no matching image
10021: Added sub-folders to group components under Module, Maps, Decks, At-Start Stacks, Prototypes and Global Properties folders
10002: Add Hotkeys to hide and show map windows. Existing show/hide hotkey field is now always visible. Allow changes to hide/show Map button settings without needing Editor restart
10001: Inventory window allows a hotkey for Refresh
9998: Editor now has Drag and Drop support
9997: Can duplicate and insert components in Editor, not just add to bottom
9988: CountStack() added to beanshell to count pieces in current Stack
9987: ReportState checkbox overrides Global Key Command suppression of individual reports
9979: Add Deck Sort Key Command component to allow sorting of cards in a Deck by properties via menu or hotkey. Add Deck Send Key Command component to provide additional commands to send contents of one Deck to another via menu or hotkey.
9973: Deck supports configurable strings for Draw Multiple, Draw Specific, Face Up, Face Down
9972: Ability to specify Return-to-Deck target as an expression
9917: Global Options can be configured to let toolbar items on closed windows accept global hotkeys
9912: Add Global property MapName_isVisible for each Map to allow checking if Map is currently open
9901: Preference to reverse left-to-right order counters are shown in Mouseover Stack Viewer
9864: Improved translation features (Global Translatable Message component, Translatable Message trait, exposing current language/locale as property)
9549: Default UI font size can be overridden in preferences
9391: Beanshell can now access $$ variables in Report Formats
4542: Added ‘Stack Normally’ option to ‘Does Not Stack’ trait
4533: Make grid center dot display independent of grid display

Bug fixes

10840: Directly setting coordinates in Zone definer fails to create a Zone
10827: Fix Deck refreshing when running Game Refresher
10826: Protect against multiple initializations of Movement Trails
10818: DrawingMouseoverIndex correctly returned as string. Console now displays null valued properties instead of NPE
10815: Fix Dice Button reporting when Keeping and Sorting results
10810: Protect against no available trait being selected in PieceDefiner
10793: Fix NPE: Always cache SetupStack configurer bounding box
10777: Fix duplicate DragShadow for Cargo at zoom < 100%
10773: Fixed bad description for Movement Trail trait
10760: Correctly initialize local-only properties in Movement Trails
10757: Prevent undo of Refresh Counters from causing contents of Decks to disappear, and deleting units from inside a Deck could not be undone
10752: Fixed bug where Deck ‘count expressions’ wouldn’t count beanshell, only old-style (now will count either)
10734: No refresh allowed during replay
10718: NPE due to dropTargetSelector being unset
10713: Escape errorLog path when making link URL for connection failed page in BugDialog
10711: When rotating a mat, jointly rotating cargo should prefer to stay with current mat
10703: Correct inconsistency in use of GetConfigureBoard
10702: When inventory grouping specifies properties that aren’t internally strings, don’t balk
10683: Fix bug in DiceButton ‘Keep Dice’ option
10679: Place Marker, Send-to-Location, and Translate traits didn’t always repaint maps
10678: Undo of movement will no longer deny lone stackable pieces their own stack
10671: Calculate Hex Range correctly, regardless of hex shape
10663: Fix occasional draw-side exceptions during loading game and saving screenshots
10660: Report translated name for Symbolic Die Faces
10659: Sanitize temporary file names a bit earlier
10658: Fix NPE if try to open translations but the buildable doesn’t exist
10654: Fixed corner-case NPE when closing a game
10647: Private Maps visible to non-owning players will correctly display Mouseover text
10640: Tidier right arrow symbol in default move reports
10639: Fix exception when canceling edit of a component that has been elsewhere moved or deleted
10638: Fixed NPE if pasting a cut component that was then deleted before pasting
10635: Trigger Action traits with “loop until” and “loop while” conditions can properly access piece properties in expression builder
10632: Fix ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException in Embellishment when layer value is out of range
10631: Clip pieces to their bounds and set rendering hints for drag image
10630: Correctly check if there are sides with blank passwords for password matching
10629: String Array Configurer bounds protection
10623: Fix NPE joining chat room when socket drops early
10622: Fix NPE when MapShader temporarily points to blank or missing filename
10621: Protect against changing to Image style while Image name is still blank
10620: Fix NPE EditPropertiesAction.windowClosed()
10619: Eliminate Command+A key conflict in Editor on MacOS
10618: ToolbarMenus that are submenus of other ToolbarMenus display their icons properly
10616: Mouseover Stack Viewer was failing to launch in certain situations
10615: Stack NPE in Mat Movement code
10607: P2P address book entries with spaces in address cause StringIndexOutOfBoundsException
10604: Match blank passwords less eagerly
10603: Action Buttons should not respond to Shift+Click, Ctrl+Click, Alt+Click, Cmd+Click
10602: Don’t unselect piece about to get context menu with Ctrl+RightClick
10601: Flares weren’t responding to Cmd key on MacOS
10599: map can be null during GameRefresher
10596: Protect CounterDetailViewer from designers who set the drawing scale to 0.0
10595: Fix crash ending logfiles- beginningState shouldn’t be allowed to be non-null when outputfile is null
10594: Fix crash when copying Toolbar Menu to a newly created map
10592: Corner case boardpicker exception with multiple boards being moved around
10591: Protect from GKCs that get sent when no game ever started
10589: Fix Mat send-to-location bug (which created problems in Undo & multiplayer)
10585: Movement Trail “initial visibility” and bounding box caching bugs
10572: Fix Drag Threshold preference to work correctly
10563: Trait editor Paste button is now always enabled
10555: Fix mat save/load to reconnect mats and cargo
10504: Text label shape, bounding box doesn’t resepect rotated labels
10476: Editor: Inserting text into middle of Key Command doesn’t work
10474: Movement traits need to update cargo’s mat after movement before applying apply-on-move keystroke
10405: Log replay of delete command behaves differently after load of sebsequent log file
10404: Catch FileNotFoundException when reading prefs files
10402: NPE when trying to create new P2P Network
10400: Custom preferences in Global Options incorrectly use property name, not description
10399: ThrowableUtils.throwAncestor() throws wrong object; throwMe() uses wrong constructor
10390: NPE in GameModule.getProperty() after deleting the Map from the owning Map widget
10387: ‘Centre on Opponents Moves’ functionality should ignore movement by Invisible units
10386: Audit Trail reporting is not reporting trait or piece information for Return to Deck trait when invalid Deck specified
10381: Replaying a log step can cause Deck to become corrupted
10375: NPE in EnumeratedPropertyPrompt.getNewValue()
10371: Reset the Zone Editor title to match the Zone being edited
10359: ClassCastException: DeckGlobalCommand cannot be cast to Auditable
10357: Return To Deck Deck name can be lost when pre 3.6 module is edited using 3.6
10351: Checkbox preference default value is ignored
10341: Symbolic Dice Button tooltip is overwritten by description text
10326: Add option to disable OpenGL FBOs on Macs
10301: Double max heap and retry when image tiler runs out of memory
10294: Can Rotate traits no longer lose any pre-defined starting rotation when editing a Piece Slot
10226: Force Game Piece Image names to be valid file names ending in .png
10187: Duplicate key and menu item for Editor menu
10095: Definition of Player Sides - Retire/Switch Button image not showing in editor
9993: DeckPosition was reporting 1 higher than the actual position
9884: Fix and improve module validity checking
8949: IllegalArgumentException in GameState.getRestorePiecesCommand() due to bad comparator
6130: Grid Numbering dialog can appear blank when grid size is very large

Other improvements

10853: Prototypes can be selected from popup menu
10852: Turn Tracker button sizes configurability
10839: Improved flow for users with blank passwords
10831: Allow JVM to be specified from command line for VASSAL.sh
10828: Skip All / Skip None for Mass Piece Loader
10812: Optimize Single Property Beanshell expressions
10811: Optimization: Check for possible keystrokes in Restrict Commands before evaluating match expression
10808: Misc property lookup optimizations
10806: Improved performance of Map “_isVisible” properties
10803: Speeds Game Refresh and general performance in modules with many maps defined
10800: Preference to turn off automatic update notification
10784: LOS thread thickness is adjustable
10774: Validation messages when Movement Trail traits placed inside of Rotate, Pivot, or Mat Cargo traits
10772: Allow module images to have English localizations
10764: Server text improvements
10762: Add sumProperties() function for use in Beanshell expressions in the Mouse-over Stack Viewer
10761: Toolbar buttons can be disabled when a specified Global Property is true
10755: When switching sides, close private hands/windows that we no longer have access to
10753: Clarify documentation of sum(PropertyName) in Mouseover
10751: Better description of Player Hand
10750: Place Marker should put stacking markers in a stack (even if parent marker is non-stacking)
10749: Move Camera Button can also change Zoom
10731: Add description fields to most important editor components
10730: Improve Game Piece Palette doc per forum suggestion (AsciiDoc file only)
10701: Zone defining - when dragging a square to define initial zone, dragging at edge of screen scrolls
10700: Improved bug dialog text
10699: Repositioning Stacks/Decks optionally draws ghosted images of other stacks/decks
10696: Global Key Commands “Within a Deck, select Fixed number of pieces” field now supports expressions
10691: Mouseover Stack Viewer - Unstatic a naughty field and add ability to count face down cards in a deck
10686: Decks - fill out the rest of the commands with hotkeys and report formats
10681: Better documented pieceName vs PieceName
10676: Upgrade to Java 17.0.1+12 for Windows, Mac packages
10673: Added Game Refresher documentation
10672: Multiplayer Server controls have improved feedback / UX
10667: Private Message windows no longer prompt to ignore every time you close them; incoming private messages do not grab focus
10652: Zone Editor shows coordinates of vertices while editing
10650: Show X,Y in Configurer when repositioning At Start Stack
10648: Private chat windows will no longer steal focus
10643: Show saved game mismatch warnings (e.g., loading wrong version) when loading from Wizard
10641: When Editor changes a prototype, clear the prototype cache and all PieceSlot caches
10636: Warn when Global Property has a blank name (which causes NPE on game load)
10633: Remove doubled images from Ghost Bug Pref
10626: Different types of Global Key Commands can be cut and pasted
10610: More robust configurer for PredefinedSetup
10609: Trigger Action - improved trait summary
10597: Selection Highlighter expressions now found by search
10593: Add description to Prototype Definition
10590: Better ConfigureTree summary on PieceSlot containing a BasicName-using piece
10587: Description field & better auto-summary for Does Not Stack
10586: Better defaults for Send To Location offsets
10578: MatCargo now provides OldMatOffsetX and OldMatOffsetY properties
10569: Better trait one-line summaries in editor; Folder summary includes description
10565: While double-clicking to open component in Editor, holding Alt, Shift, and/or Ctrl affects the location the new window opens
10557: Added MatCargo to manually attach/detach from mats
10547: Bring fastmatch $$ variable handling into line with standard Global Key Command match expression handling
10543: Initialise OldMat related properties in a Placed marker
10519: Improve Mat Movement
10510: More robust Java version check for Linux
10466: Reference manual missing description of restrict counters to Deck option
10446: Removed more items deprecated for over a year
10445: Improved browser launch support
10432: Store the tile cache in %LOCALAPPDATA% instead of %APPDATA% on Windows
10430: Upgrade to Java 17 for Windows, Mac packages
10392: HTTP requests for server status should follow redirects
10383: Update all site URLs for new site and HTTPS
10337: Bring Reference Manual up to date
10286: Add removal/deprecation checker and remove anything deprecated a year ago
10277: When editing an IrregularGrid, start the map view somewhere near the grid or its parent Zone
10272: Don’t auto-name new regions a long string
10259: 64-bit ARM builds for Windows and Macs; switched bundled Java to Zulu
10228: Upgrade to Launch4j 3.14
10041: Newly added Layer traits will now default to ‘Always active’
10015: Remove ?s from checkbox preference strings
10011: Add Scrollbars to Prefs Dialog when needed
10007: Ctrl/Cmd to select for Does Not Stack
9999: First ‘advanced search’ on a module defaults to all boxes prechecked
9992: Removed ignored ‘button tooltip’ field from Turn Tracker config
9989: Less verbose window titles for sub-windows
9975: Deck reports now suppressed during GKC report suppresssion
9913: Increase number of default zoom levels in new Map Zoom Capability
9596: Pieces dragged off the palette using the palette scale factor instead of always full size
9366: Inventory window allows 3-level zoom
9254: Expression audit trails preference - Improve error reporting when Beanshell expressions fail. Suppress ‘Bad Data in Module’ errors * generated by counters in Game Piece Palette.
9219: Expression Builder button added for Message Format fields & Report Trait. Sum() and Count() now available in the Report trait’s field
9209: Added GetString() and .toString() to Beanshell to force the return of property values as Strings
9124: Property incrementers no longer apply turned-off min/max constraints
6195: Don’t change Deck properties or fire Empty Deck Hotkey when just rearranging order
6075: Action Buttons now respect rotation
4496: Allow Action Buttons to be any shape and defined using a Polygon editor
4479: Shift-click and Ctrl-click can be used in the Piece Palette to select and drag multiple pieces on to the map

Changes in 3.6.1

New features

10879: Dice Button raw result and counts reporting

Bug fixes

10876: Remove unwanted nulls from Inventory
10871: Display proper name for Set Global Property and Place Marker in Editor
10869: Inventory shouldn’t show pictures/text for pieces in private windows not currently accessible
10861: Polygon read from coordinates list should never be null

Other improvements

10880: Create HintTextFields lazily

Changes in 3.6.2

Bug Fixes

10925: Turn Tracker Button can never be size 0
10915: Undo of Send To Location sent to bottom card of deck returns the card to the top of the Deck
10908: Fix NPE when using Send Back in SendToLocation
10907: Disabled Toolbar Buttons on Map Windows didn’t initialize starting state properly
10906: Show an error dialog if reading a corrupted prefs file
10903: Stacking units placed by At-Start stacks didn’t allow Action Buttons on said pieces to function until the piece was moved
10901: Unchecking Cycle Message box in a Report trait clears the fields
10899: Show the player window before the welcome wizard
10894: Warn about movement trails inside of rotates only when editing module
10893: Fix NPE: RandomTextButton raw rolls/counts support
10891: Pieces in decks were not being updated during Refresh Counters
10889: Added diagnostic to determine what is trying to add stacks to stacks
10887: Wasn’t possible to click add to add an Action Button trait to a piece

Other Improvements

10929: Use ‘/usr/bin/env bash’ in VASSAL.sh for greater portability on Unix

Changes in 3.6.3

Bug Fixes

11008: Prevent URLConnection cache from holding edited modules open on Windows
11007: Fix ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException in StringEnumConfigurer
11003: Fixed bad tile message; added plea for help with TileNotFoundExceptions
10997: Editor: Don’t close window when moving Map or other components relative to Map
10992: Fix NPE in SpecialDiceButton.getAttributeValueString() after deleting tooltip
10985: Reset save dialog filename after close of game
10983: Fix bad Inventory.Counter.equals()
10981: Reinstate AbstractBuildable.getComponents()
10979: Prevent Save Game from clobbering log being replayed
10970: Fix problem where rotated pieces did not move-fixed-distance in correct direction
10969: Fix Refresh of Pieces in Decks, remove old pieces completely
10964: Fix Deal-to-Side Mask bug - Finish evaluating expression properly
10954: Fix stack overflow infinite loop if invalid property name put in blank
10947: Collect diagnostic information for an SSLHandshakeException
10940: Fix NPE in TurnLevel
10942: Fix NPE in SendToLocation
10934: Repaint the background in the SetupStack editor
10931: Fix NPE in KeyCommand.makeMenuText()

Other Improvements

10961: Use heuristic value for initial tiler heap; use 3/4 physical RAM as max heap

Changes in 3.6.4

New features

11079: Main window & map accept Drag-and-Drop for loading saves and logs
11032: List Key Commands tool for Editor

Bug fixes

11073: Fix situation where Send-to-Location throws exceptions when it can’t find target counters
11069: Fix crash in Load Deck when an invalid deck file selected in file picker
11067: Fix NPE in SetupStack.isOwningBoardActive()
11065: Improved error handling when a temp file can’t be created
11062: Fix problem on Windows where a click at edge made it slowly scroll all the way in that direction
11060: Fixes to various Toolbar Buttons that weren’t respecting the “disable-on-global-property” settings
11056: Don’t attempt to send to already-hung-up connection
11053: Suppress Empty Deck Hotkeys when refreshing game
11041: Inventory windows respond to hide-if-property-true
11039: Display Loaded message instead of Cancelled when refreshing Predefined Setups
11038: Allow ‘Use Same Boards’ option on Private Map to be removed
11031: Turn Tracker List configure box missing labels
11025: Guard against ClassCastException when MultiActionButtons change property values
11024: Communicating with tiler over socket fails for some users; use stdout instead
11020: Don’t display lock option for P2P rooms, which aren’t lockable
11011: Fixed typo in DiceButton docs

Other improvements

11076: Editor’s search function (and List Key Commands) will now “find” the keys for Undo & Step Forward
11074: Support Send-to-Location source/target matching with $…$ expressions
11070: Documentation updates for DrawingMouseover / DrawingMouseover Index
11059: Right Click menu added to Show Error Log window in Module Manager
11054: Don’t let old versions of PoG load and crash

Changes in 3.6.5

New features

11124: Console supports up-arrow / down-arrow for command history
11122: Console can show/set properties of selected piece
11117: Log files can be fast-forwarded and appended to

Bug fixes

11218: Grid Editor incorrectly changes some grid settings on Cancel
11196: Game Refresher should not refresh stacks not on maps
11186: Disable load and edit actions for null modules
11179: Chart Windows display their names properly in their window titles
11162: Turn Tracker does not display a spurious blank line if its report format is left empty
11160: Prevent At-Start Stacks from creating additional spurious pieces on main map
11156: Games incorrectly load normally during ‘Load Continuation’
11150: Use heuristic value for tiler max heap, retry with 50% more on failure
11149: Capture tiling error messages Java incorrectly writes to stdout
11139: Deal-to-Other key in Mask Trait now recognized in Search
11135: Fixed Discord console drag-and-drop bug
11127: Don’t throw exception if there’s a drive letter in a filename
11121: Fix problem where undo wasn’t allowed when starting a new game with logging turned on
11119: Fixed NPE in NamedHotKeyConfigurer.setValue()
11115: Fix ClassCastException due to Zone properties not accounting for folders
11109: LOS Range incorrect when thread is not snapped to hex centres
11106: Fix NPE when duplicating GamePieceImage
11105: Added missing Editor.SendToLocation.getSendLocation translation key
11096: Remove “duplicate this item” option from Game Piece Image
11095: Deduce the existence of localized image directories which lack ZIP entries
11094: Exclude GamePieceLayout image names from unused image list
11093: Image directories for i18n were not found in 3.6.4
11089: Write text files in UTF-8, not the default encoding
11081: Prevent GameRefresher from changing visual order of pieces

Other improvements

11216: Inventory has checkbox to enable zoom (defaults off)
11209: Global Options settings for (a) Inventory Security, and (b) Send-to-Location generating move trails. Inventory now defaults to “old behavior” on seeing private windows, but can be turned to secure.
11205: Improved Polygon Editor (cut/paste vertices, delete polygon) & Improved Region Editor (drag-at-edge works again, move regions inside of zone)
11197: Better auto-description for Translatable Message trait and BasicPiece
11194: The errorlog console command is available at all times
11164: Upgrade bundled Java to 17.0.2+8
11135: Prompt to save/discard/cancel before loading the new game
11120: Permit hyphens and periods in GamePieceImage names
11107: Warn if Decks or Stacks defined before [Map Boards]
11098: Screenshot “typo” fix for Turn Tracker’s global hotkey

Changes in 3.6.6

Bug fixes

11327: Fix Action Button not working after refreshing pre-defined setups
11325: Implement the missing Play Sound trait ‘Send sound to other players’ functionality
11315: Show correct Turn Tracker tooltip
11302: Fixed link typo in GamePieceImageDefinitions page of Reference Manual
11287: Fix ConcurrentExecutionException in Game Refresher with Mats
11278: Scale tiled images to target size rather than by scale factor
11254: Tiler dialog doesn’t cancel tiling when Cancel button is clicked
11248: Catch InvalidDnDOperation exceptions when inappropriate drag-and-drops attempted
11227: Fix NPE when copying vertices from a zone with no vertices
11232: Stop edit of table when TableInfo is closed
11223: Copy/Paste conversions fixed for Zone Properties to/from Global and Map Properties
11188: DoActionButton hotkeys were not found by search

Other improvements

11303: Preference to control drag-at-edge scroll rate; per module defaults for edge scrolling
11297: Don’t copy out unused images on removal
11296: Don’t block the EDT when clearing the tile cache
11292: Strip leading and trailing whitespace from module names and versions
11286: Improved Setup Stack descriptions in editor
11279: Module “other” strings displayed in About screen
11276: Place Marker (and Replace With Other) include name of added piece in summary
11260: Editor now remembers its most recent image-picking (and sound) directories separately from its memory of last save/load of games and logs
11258: New BasicName trait defaults to Prototype’s name; Changing Prototype’s name changes BasicName trait’s, if identical; At-Start Stack with no name displays name of first contained piece or folder in editor
11256: Added a preference for the tiler max heap; tiler will retry up to that limit
11255: Updated downloads URL to the one for our download page
11243: Enable Sum and Count in GKC Report Expressions
11233: UI Cleanup: don’t scroll-at-edge the map if a file or link is being dragged instead of a piece
11229: Allow ‘Select All Regions’ when defining them; right click to delete now works for single unselected region
11071: Improved version number checking

Changes in 3.6.7

Bug fixes

11465: DoActionButton claims its icon in remove-unused-images
11417: Fix Ctrl key with Does Not Stack trait
11406: Don’t show image scale option for panels inside Chart Windows
11388: Correctly draw hex coordinates for odd-numbered columns spanning tile boundaries
11372: Delayed Notes from subsequent saves displayed out of order
11369: Leading zeros handling in Set Dynamic Property
11362: Match expanded Inventory nodes by entry value, not by display text
11347: Inventory should not reveal face down deck images
11344: Prevent Undo from triggering Deck Empty Hotkey
11343: Ensure that the pivot point is used for rotating Cargo
11329: Invisible Pieces belonging to another player can still stack together

Other improvements

11487: Removed obsolete option from startup script
11460: Show a dialog when connection to the game server is lost
11446: Tweak version number display in online window (numbers at end, grayed out)
11414: Improved version mismatch messaging
11373: Make columns in Delayed Notes table sortable
11361: Allow Calculated properties to set Game Piece Layer
11356: SetupStack can match literal grid names even if Zone only reports Zone name (e.g., uses $name$ as Location Format)
11351: Documented that Mats w/ cargo can’t go in decks
11348: Polygon Editor improvements (move whole shape, tab between points)
11346: Update bundled Java to 18
11330: Allow .toString() to be called properly on property names in Beanshell

Changes in 3.6.8

Bug fixes

11778: System.setProperty() in BugDialog throws if the value is null
11727: Fixed incorrect properties file path, which prevents working on translations
11716: Dereference symbolic link to executable before attemping to find install dir
11678: Prevent clearing the tile cache when a module is open
11617: Closing a reopenable Map should not close game
11565: Global Option List Preferences not initialising Global Property correctly
11544: Broken links to and within Reference Manual
11543: Closing game should reset multiplayer flag for console
11540: Display translated Basic Piece/Basic Name in Scrollable lists in Game Piece Palette
11537: Cancel key in Multi-Piece Editor (Edit all contained pieces) correctly backs out with no changes
11515: Piece dropped into incorrect position in the stack when dragging within a stack to a lower position
11513: Piece “disappears” when dragged to grid space with an existing stack and “snap to defined point”
11510: Updated Opt-in version of the ‘Leading Zeros in Integers’ handing
11496: Safer GKC Configurer for Fixed # From Deck

Other improvements

11798: Added Chinese translation
11796: Added Polish translation
11790: Updated bundled Java to 19 for Windows and MacOS
11704: Added Place Marker editor hotkeys
11700: Irregular Grid editor - add region with Insert or Ctrl+Right Click
11622: Added support for Open Recent… submenu
11600: Player context menus: Show keyboard shortcuts right-aligned and with symbols
11570: Update Module Extension window, add missing description
11564: Prevent Notes windows always starting open at very last character of note
11557: Auto-select contents of Edit boxes when they get focus
11546: Default dialog-closing button behaviors for Enter/Esc; Key shortcuts added to Piece Definer (see Game Piece help); Piece Definer list boxes jump to entry starting with that letter; Key shortcuts added editing Layer trait (see Layer help); Most text fields support Ctrl/Cmd+Z for undo/redo
11545: Description of Prototype will auto-include any BasicName
11541: Add hotkey to start specific chess clock
11534: Add Open all Contained Pieces option
11524: Option to ‘always use format’ on text label (even if label is blank)
11521: BoundsTracker - Track bounds and repaint just for the regions of added pieces; rather than the whole map
11499: TurnTracker Forward Only Toggle: Allow module designers to disable the backwards TurnTracker button
11497: Don’t play sounds while fast-forwarding a log

Changes in 3.6.9

Bug fixes

11825: BoundsTracker once again repaints entire maps, reverting 11521
11821: Include the AreaOfEffect bounds in the piece bounding box only if the AoE is visible
11814: Ensure that valid BasicName property is used to identify piece when no translation is available
11808: PieceCloner.clonePiece() should not expand inner pieces unconditionally
11806: NotesWindow re-open assigns focus properly to retain caret position
11805: Fixed NPE: tab.getTitleAt() can return null, so check for that

Other improvements

11804: Log element name on build exception, if available
11803: Report exceptions thrown while loading modules

Changes in 3.6.10

Bug fixes

11883: Fixed order of labels for “Select play mode” and “Enter your name” steps in the Welcome Wizard
11879: NPE when cutting and pasting a GlobalPropertyFolder
11860: Warn when same piece is both Mat and Mat Cargo
11858: Clear all PieceSlot caches after loading extensions
11846: Protect from null property results during search
11823: NPE in GameRefresher when refreshing unnamed Decks
11813: NPE in PieceSlot.getLocalizedConfigureName()
11759: Do not allow negative number of Dice or Sides
11748: NPE when cutting and pasting a prototype folder
11455: Prevent NPE when adding empty KeyStrokes to list
11452: Prevent NPE if invalid file specified in img tag

Changes in 3.6.11

Bug fixes

11941: Since 3.6.7, French/Belgian AZERTY keyboards on Mac were experiencing problems with Ctrl / Alt keys on the number key row
11938: IndexOutOfBoundsException trying to open a private note
11933: At-Start stacks were getting confused by blank boards
11929: Show translated module name and descriptions in Module Manager
11924: Reinstate translation of Player Sides
11904: Global Key Command fastmatch for Mats fixed to avoid trait-order bugs
11901: Corrected “Mark When Moved” documentation
11899: Hide FileConfigurer label in preferences dialogs
11890: NPE when current-stack option used on non-stacking piece
11505: Insert items into formatted strings from drop-down list into the correctly selected position

Other improvements

11911: Debug window shows board-relative coordinates if they are different from the map-relative ones
11906: MatCargo’s mat detection did unnecessary computations for lack of parentheses
11900: Clear Tile Cache with more efficient Files.walkFileTree()

Changes in 3.6.12

Bug fixes

11994: Deck “send-when-empty” hotkeys no longer create extra undo steps
11993: ActionButtons set to count 0 times don’t spuriously execute 1 time
11982: Fixed multiplayer problems with detach option on Deselect trait
11963: SendToLocation, Can Rotate, and MoveFixedDistance were all unlinking from deck/stack at wrong time, causing buggy behavior in some instances especially involving decks
11961: Clear up mark-when-moved problems for modules which still had a legacy value set
11884: ‘OldMat’ properties now set correctly regardless of order of Mat Cargo and Send-to-Location (etc.) traits
11880: Triggers set to count 0 times don’t spuriously execute 1 time
11714: Deck’s Send-when-Empty key now processes AFTER fully moving last card
11627: ActionButtons with context menu flag no longer trigger context menu when a different ActionButton on same piece (that doesn’t have the flag set) is clicked
11462: Don’t +1 inventory sum if property isn’t even defined
11437: Prevent NPE when right-clicking on a Deck with no menu items
11429: Deck Empty Hotkey no longer repeats per online player instance, nor when stepping forward a log

Other improvements

12013: Reinstate removal of module tile cache when a module is removed from the Module Manager
12007: Update Apple Silicon terminology in preferences and docs
11986: Add missing Section size symbol to NATO markers
11957: Spaces in GKC reports made consistent with all other reports
11935: Allow option for only first Mouseover-stack Viewer that generates a tooltip will be drawn

Changes in 3.6.13

Bug fixes

12042: Fix bug when copying Decks and At-Start Stacks to other maps
12037: Fix concurrent modification exception in Decks
12016: Fix a possible crash scenario in At-Start Stacks
11897: Ensure that deleted extensions don’t crash the Module Manager
11693: Prevent NPE when copying folders containing Mouse-over Stack Viewers
11451: Don’t permit drag-and-drop within PlaceMarker, Replace with Other selection dialogs
11173: Fixed crash in sorting a deck

Other improvements

11995: ActionButtons with reports shouldn’t display them if report is empty
11967: When dragging piece out of face-down deck, use unrotated shape
10877: Added a ‘player joined’ message when playing online
9786: Text Label traits will respond to GameRefresher (unless trait has a manually-change-label hotkey defined)

Changes in 3.6.14

Bug fixes

12063: Fixed Deck save/load hotkeys being mixed up
12061: Fixed bug with pasting invalid/incomplete regex expressions
12059: Various PMD and Spotbugs fixes
12048: Fix bugs when deleting groups of decks/stacks from the editor
12041: Rollover border color of ‘no color’ did not save to file, nor copy correctly
11249: Enhanced recursion protection to catch self-referencing prototypes

Other improvements

12065: Reduce update check delay to 5 days, from 10
10249: Duplicating a prototype no longer disables that prototype until next module reload

Changes in 3.6.15

Bug fixes

12119: Restore vanished Load Comments
12116: Pieces shouldn’t receive same GKC twice just because it sent them to a new map
12105: Deck’s ‘Send-to-Deck’ subcomponent has access to properties (e.g., PlayerSide) and properly shuffles “always shuffle” decks
12093: Fix disabling of toolbar items nested in multiple Toolbar Menus

Other improvements

12140: Action Buttons on pieces that have just been drag-moved are suppressed for a half second for user-error avoidance
12085: Screen capture default icon height adjusted to match the other 16-pixel-high icons
12069: Tiling: Improved detection of and recovery from running out of memory; improved error dialogs
9894: Improved error dialog for failure to start child process

Changes in 3.6.16

Bug fixes

12232: Notify user about mismatch between module and save version instead of throwing IllegalStateException
12231: Check that all tiles exist for an image when tiling, not just 0,0@1:1
12221: Fixed various missing searchability on various components
12209: Report correct trait in expression Audit Trail
12159: Correctly handle install paths containing spaces in VASSAL.sh
12158: List Key Commands tool can be re-opened after closing with X button
12152: Work around Java bug which prevents displaying Windows file dialogs

Changes in 3.6.17

Bug fixes

12248: Don’t NPE when handling setup errors
12247: Fix error dialog broken since 3.6.15 for exceptions with null messages
12237: Fix edge case Mat Refresh bugs
12234: Don’t try to render SVG which would have a width or height of zero
12233: Ensure that OpMultiResolutionImage.getBaseImage() never returns null