Plotting Tasks

[panther 2010]

Hello to everyone,

in some games both Players must secretly plot the intendend actions of their units for that Game-Turn. This Plot must then be revealed to the opponent of the end of that Game-Turn. Can this be simulated in Vassal, without using delayed notes?

Thank you in advance for your support on this.

Panther 2010

[J.A.M.]

I have been using invisible and hidden movement trails. The pieces don't start invisible, but with a global key command you can turn them all invisible. Then I use the movement trails to reveal what went from where to where, again with linked global key commands. It has many flaws, but it is sorta working for me. Then again, I have used vassal for all of a few days, so take all this with a heaping of salt

[Benkyo]

Depends how you want the plotting to work. Invisible pieces with hidden trails is certainly one way to do it. Another might be changes to game state on private windows, with pieces on the private windows all being sent to public windows once the plotting phase is over. This could include text "labels".

[panther 2010]

Many thanks to all the guys that sent a reply I think I will use two private windows (one for each player) to create the plots and then revealing them sending a copy of each plot to a public window at the end of the game-turn. Hope it will work.

Be well.

Panther 2010

[Rindis]

For PBeM, the obvious answer is for each player to do their logs, and then run one with the other as a continuation.

However, one thought would be to have a 'duplicate' that each counter can deploy. Have it plainly marked as the 'orders' version of it, have it come in invisible, and with movement trail on. Then have a button to reveal all of them, and maybe one to cause units to move to their 'order' unit.

[panther 2010]

Unfortunately, it looks like that duplicating the contents of the private window in a public one presents many problems, since it depends on the structure of the plot sheet.

The more complicated the plot structure, the greater the difficulty in arranging its exact duplication in the public window.

The simplest idea that came to my mind, which bypasses, but does not solve the problem, is to take a snapshot of the window in which the plot is programmed using the camera button, then encrypt the image file so obtained that it will go attached to the logfile to be sent to the opponent.

At the end of the game turn it will be sufficient to communicate the password to the opponent to allow him to check the correctness of the move sent.

The real solution, however, would be to have a button that allows the owner to temporarily make the private window public and vice versa.

Introducing such a feature in one of the next versions of Vassal would help a lot in this regard.

Panther 2010