Pieces That Can "Carry" Other Pieces?

[cpangracs]

Is there a function in the current version of Vassal that would allow for a piece that is movable on the map, and have, say, rotational and layer functions just like any other game piece, but can ALSO have other pieces placed ON it in specified areas?

What I'm trying to achieve here is essentially a "tray" on which I can place up to 10 separate game pieces "in", that can have its own attributes, such as layers to signify different statuses, as well as rotate with all the pieces in it rotating with it? Oh, and BTW, each of the game pieces being carried would have their own individual attributes as well. Easy, right?

[Benkyo]

Nope.

You can manipulate the standard stacking in various ways along with pieces that each have layers offset from the centre by the right amount to appear in a different position when stacked, but its very inflexible and almost impossible to put this to practical use.

[GameCraftsman]

Basically you can do nothing with this, as stacking options is limited.But you can put your pieces to different layer and tray to another and use mouse to "capture" all pieces in all layers. Bad solution but nothing better is not exist.

[m3tan]

Sounds like a minis game. I'd create a Piece only for each tray, then create 10 Layers for each unit on each tray. Everything would rotate together. There really is no limit on the number of Markers and Calculated or Dynamic Properties you can assign to a Piece, so you could easily create Strength1, Strength2, Attack1, Attack2 etc..., each with a Layer if you need to display the stat. The UI for changing all those stats could be handled by nested menus. Creating the Prototype would be a bit tedious but seems pretty straightforward to me...

[Benkyo]

Can you elaborate on the "everything would rotate together"? I can't picture it.

[jrwatts]

I think the idea is to only actually have a single piece, the tray; it would have all the necessary traits to emulate the 10 other pieces placed on it. Interesting idea...I think I can see a way to make it work, by using Place Marker to create a new piece when you want to remove one from the tray, and then deleting the piece when you add it back to the tray. Sounds like a lot of trouble to program, however.

[m3tan]

Any Layer above Can Rotate in the traits list will rotate with the Piece's image in unison. If you want to rotate the 10 units individually, you'd need to have a Layer image for each angle, but again, entirely doable.

[Benkyo]

No, like, are you talking about 10 layers, each representing a different position on the tray? Mostly transparent, the same size of the tray? Some kind of way to select which layer to use depending on the order of pieces "stacked" on the tray? Automatically? I'm not seeing the big picture.

"A layer image for each angle" seems like you are talking about some other method entirely. I use layers for angles all the time, but not with 10 possible positions centered over a larger tray, or for 360 degree rotation in a miniatures game.