star smuggler

[pistolpete]

Hiya Everybody ,
Just wondering if anyone is doing a mod for Dwarf stars Star Smuggler solitaire game?

[capi3101]

Not to my knowledge; I'd never heard of it before today. It certainly sounds interesting enough.

I'd have to read through the rules to be sure, but at a glance it seems like it'd be a fairly simple mod to work up...I could take a crack at it. Unless you'd prefer to work up one of your own, of course.

[capi3101]

Alright...so I've had a chance to look through the materials on the game from the Dwarfstar games site. Not a lot of components with the game; I see the biggest trick being the need to create new characters, which might mean the need for a name generation routine of some sort. I've done something of that nature in Python before, but not Java (just means I'd have to learn the necessary bits of code to translate, and then figure out how to work it into VASSAL; I'm sure the good folks around here would be able to help out).

The biggest hurdle I can see is the need to get permission from Dennis Sustare. A fully functional VASSAL mod would require the use of the materials off the DwarfStar site, and it says in big bold letters: You MAY NOT distribute these files except as authorized by Dennis Sustare. I'll go ahead and shoot him an e-mail to see if I can get the mod green-lit.

We can talk design meantime. The die rolls can be done via Dice Buttons and as far as I can tell you don't need more than 2d6 to play the game - that's easily handled. I can see both time and money tracking being handled via counter areas on the main board. I see each system opening up as a pre-designed map window - unless we want to make the twelve map pieces selectable and make people build their boards themselves; the boards will have to have zoom functions. The four box corner tokens could be simple basic pieces, maybe with clone and delete functionality extra.

Would we want to add the event booklet references? I'd have to think about how to handle that if we did...

Yeah, crew is going to be the tricky bit...I'm blanking on how to handle it right now. I'll give it more thought. Might not matter if Mr. Sustare says no anyway.

[pistolpete]

Thanks for your input , really looking forward to this if you get permission to do a module

[capi3101]

Found a contact point for Dennis Sustare; will be contacting him shortly.

I have noted that there's been a redesign; pictures are up on Boardgamegeek.com. I'm inclined to stick with the game's original version since I've already got the images off the Dwarfstar site but I'll defer to the crowd on this.

[capi3101]

I've contacted both Dennis Sustare and Todd Sanders for permission to use their materials. No word yet but I wouldn't expect any this soon. Do you have a preference as to which I should use, pistolpete?

[pistolpete]

Hiya capi3101
Don't mind which one you can do , they both look good . Only reason I haven't had a go myself is that I'm new to this site , but will be having a go at making some mods in the future.

[capi3101]

I have not yet heard back from either contact so this evening I'm proceeding on the notion of silence as tacit approval. We're underway at this point.

Today I learned of the power of HTML charts. I was planning on using them to code in the rules and events. I've already been testing the functionality of the hyperlinks between e001 and r201b, and yes I can switch between those two with ease (the links loop into one another, so that was kinda helpful). They're in a common Pull-Down Menu with Events and Rules as separate Scrollable lists, with each list consisting of individual rule or event references. I am discovering, though, that if you click on a hyperlink and then attempt to reload the page via the menu that it'll pull up the last page visited from the menu option (i.e. if I click on r201b, link to e001 and then select r201 from the menu, if I then attempt to pull up r201b via the menu I'll get e001). I don't know if there's a workaround for that and it could spell trouble for this plan. Right now I've just got the three HTMLs I mentioned - r201, e001 and r201b - implemented.

Any of the VASSAL gurus around here can jump into this conversation with some helpful tips any time now...

[pistolpete]

capi3101 That's great' the time your putting in is much appreciated , look forward to the release of the mod

[capi3101]

Today I tried the notion of putting everything (the rules and events) into a single HTML file and using anchor points to navigate. VASSAL barfed at that notion...

Work continuing slow but steady (I'm working on more than one mod at the moment and the other one's actually giving me the bigger fits). Right now I'm still transcribing rules into HTML. I need to go ahead and get a main map window selected; it'll probably be based on the Antelope ship diagram, though I hope to get the opportunity to clean it up a bit.

[uckelman]

Thus spake capi3101:
> Today I tried the notion of putting everything (the rules and events)
> into a single HTML file and using anchor points to navigate. VASSAL
> barfed at that notion...

Barfed how?

--
J.

[capi3101]

Sorry, that wasn't very specific, was it?

First off, I'm still using 3.2.5, so this is an issue that may have been resolved at this point; I need to get to the point where I can install the latest version (that's all RL time management issues on my part).

It was telling me I had "Bad Data" in my module; I'm not in a position where I can go into the module at the moment and give you the exact message. What was going on though was I was attempting to add an HTML Chart and referencing a specific rule like this: "rules.html#r201b". It was actually throwing me bad data messages as I was typing in the individual characters IIRC (couldn't find "r", couldn't find "ru", couldn't find "rul"...and so on.).

My HTML code in this file looks like this, if this is helpful:

Code: Select all

<html>
<body width="1000">
<a id="e001"><b><font color="ff0000">E001 The Adventure Begins (takes 0 hours)</font></b></a><br/>
<br/>
Due to bad luck and loan sharks, your financial situation is getting very desperate. Your small merchant starship never seems to have a full cargo hold, but operating costs are high. Your cash is almost gone, and another payment is due to the sector financiers. Maybe, just maybe, you can make ends meet if you look for illegal goods, and begin to take chances.<br/>
<br/>
Consult <a href="#r201b"><b>R201B</b></a> to determine your starting attributes, and your skills, for your new career as a Star Smuggler, then continue reading here:<br/>
<br/>


[capi3101]

On the design front - last night I went ahead and started pulling out images from the redesign; I'll probably be using those. Probably will still be using the old design token pieces though (for the ship, boat, skimmer, Zapp Branni.....er, Duke Springer).

Been giving more thought to crew names - this is something I'd like to do. Easiest way to do it is going to be just to pre-seed the mod with a smattering of names (as a pair of multi-layered objects, you select the names you want by changing layers independently). I'm definitely going to include the names of the crew of Serenity and a few from Futurama; any suggestions for any others?

Going to try and get a main board designed today if I can; I've got a lot of things vying for my attention at the moment.

[capi3101]

Uckelman - the exact error message I get with that bit of code up above is:
Bad Data in Module: Rules and Events[HTML Chart]: Chart not found #r201b
That's when I click on the link in the second paragraph there.

And here's the code snippet for R201B:

Code: Select all

<br/>
<a id="r201b"><b>R201B Your Character — Duke Springer:</b></a><br/>
<br/>
You begin play as the star smuggler, Duke Springer, a talented and experienced starship pilot who is having trouble being successful in legal commercial enterprises. You have a starship (<i>Antelope</i>-class), a speedy and versatile small merchant vessel that can be operated by just one person, a pilot-navigator like yourself. In addition, you are a qualified starship gunner (can operate the guns of your ship), but the guns are only Tech Code 1 (low quality). You are an excellent shot with smaller weapons, with a marksmanship of <b>5</b>. After a rough-and-tumble life in many spaceports, bars, and back alleys your hand-to-hand combat is even better, with a rating of <b>6</b>, Coming from a high-gravity home planet, and because of your life, your body is in excellent condition, your endurance value is <b>10</b>. In addition to these characters, you have a Cunning rating (<a href="#r202"><b>R202</b></a>) which other characters do not. See <a href="#e001"><font color="0000ff">E001</font></a> for complete details of your possessions at the start of the game.<br/>
<br/>


[capi3101]

Decided to take a different tack with the mod pending a resolution to the problems I'm having with HTML charts. I figured that instead of focusing on the rules and events first (i.e. the hard work), I should go ahead and get everything else up and running (that way someone who had hardcopies of the booklets - or at least access to the PDFs - could still utilize the mod. So I started working on that. I'm pleased to report that I was able to get enough put into place that I was able to make a preliminary attempt at playing a game. I did have to rely on an open instance of Notepad for bookkeeping and that will probably be where I focus my efforts next.