Vassal Update 4

by on November 7, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: F&E

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

Okay, the new version of the F&E Vassal module has turned into quite an undertaking. For some reason, I’ve decided work through just about every idea I’ve had for the module and not gotten to, and put them in the upcoming 1.3.

With any luck I won’t need to do this again for quite a while, because this is certainly the biggest update I’ve had in ages. Certainly, it has the longest feature list of any update I’ve done.

Anyway, last week I put in just about every legal heavy fighter carrier conversion outlined in (530.221), and not just the couple of ‘common’ ones that actual counters have been provided for.

Now, I’m redoing all the HDWs. I went with the AO route originally, just general counters with a box that marked what mode they’re in, but not actually giving specific stats. That saved me a lot of effort, and since the module didn’t give the combined total in the stack viewer at that point, it had minimal effect. Now, I’m providing a separate counter for each legal mode. I’m also putting in a sub-menu that allows quick switching between modes.


Who do you want to be today?

So, anyone who’s waiting for the ISC War update, sorry for the delay, as all these extra things I’m doing are pushing back the release of that. The good news is the delay has given me time to notice a couple things hidden away in the rule book to put in the module, such as overlays for the new provinces the Romulans and Gorns annexed at the end of the General War.

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Vassal Preview 3

by on September 24, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: F&E

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

Well, when I put the mini-battle boards into the capital charts, I knew I was going to be re-doing the regular battle boards. First, there was actually a new feature to put in (the slot for plus and minus points), and then I wanted to update the look to match the much nicer style I’d achieved by starting with CorelDraw instead of PhotoShop. I think it’s much nicer looking:

However, that left the ‘Charts’ the boards where the module lets you keep track of the Raid Pool, available tug pods, the Depot, and other limited items as the last bit of pure-PhotoShop graphics. While they aren’t bad, they were starting to look out of step with the rest of the module. So, I’ve decided to re-do those too.

:sigh:

I’m still working out just how I want the new ones to look, but I think this is pretty much it:

As always, I’m interested in hearing opinions and advice.

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Vassal Preview 2

by on September 3, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: F&E

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

All right, things are moving along, graphically speaking, and here’s a completed version of the new capital form:

I’m definitely interested in hearing any feedback on this version before I release the new module.

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F&E Vassal Module 1.2.1

by on March 4, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: F&E

Crossposted from the SFU blog at BGG.

Well, about four months after I initially thought it would be done, the new version of the Vassal Module for F&E is available at starfleetgames.com.

http://www.starfleetgames.com/documents/F&E_1.2.1.zip

Creating the Vassal module has always been an adventure, and this update is no less so than before.

Did you know that the Windows 7 version of Paint doesn’t recognize palette information in older gifs correctly? I sure found out when it did some crazy dithering to some Hydran counters. Of course it looked fine in Paint, it was only after I loaded the graphic somewhere else that the trouble became apparent. Most of the ‘art’ on the counters is done by me twiddling pixels. Paint is brain-dead enough that it’s relatively easy there, but now I’ve learned how to get Photoshop to behave in that mode.

F&E was my first Vassal module, and I’ve poured a lot of time into it over the years. It also turned into a ‘stress test’ for Vassal, as it wasn’t really able to handle that many counters being on the board and active at one time. Thankfully, Vassal 3.1 fixed the resulting load times, and I’ve seen the module go from a curiosity to actually having a decent number of users.

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