A number of gamers continue to use Hank (Roll Tide) Burkhalter’s “Above the Fields” The Russian Campaign PBeM utility in preference to VASSAL (ADC2 or Cyberboard) because of the feature which none to the other utilities seems capable of duplicating. ATF plots only the beginning and end of turn (or impulse) positions of units.
This allows a feature which returns a unit from its end of turn (before combat) position to its beginning position out of sequence. ADC2 (and perhaps others) can only undo one step or unit at a time. So, for example, if a player has 7 units – A, B, C… – and has moved all seven and then rethinks the move and wants to redo A’s move, for ADC2 the player has to undo G, then F, then E, etc. until A is reached. With ATF, the player only needs to undo A leaving the other 6 in their final positions.
Adding the feature to VASSAL would also require turning off the log file entirely for the game or at least erasing the changed move on the log file so as to reduce the confusion. It might also require undoing the steps made between the redone unit’s initial and final position.
Obviously, there are situations when the redo cannot be done like over a die roll for combat or other die roll situation.
It isn’t a matter of difficulty. Rather it’s that we would have to
devote development time to it, but there are many, many things in
the queue ahead of it.
If you’re independently wealthy, you could hire me to work on VASSAL
full-time (that is, in addition to the nights and weekends I already
put into it). Short of that, if you want to expedite development of
this feature, you can (1) help us increase the amount of developer
hours we have, by either finding us more developers or contributing
code yourself, (2) help us spend fewer developer hours on non-
development tasks by, e.g., assisting with documentation or answering
questions on the forum, or (3) help us spend the developer hours we
have more efficiently (but I don’t have any suggestions for how to do
this third thing).
I don’t actually use the Undo function a lot. It’s incredibly unreliable.
What I would have done in this case is simply have Movement Trail traits on
the markers and just simply move it back to where it was by dragging it –
not using Undo at all.
But I agree that, in general we should have a menu entry like “return to
original position” which simply does this for you.
A number of gamers continue to use Hank (Roll Tide) Burkhalter’s “Above
the Fields” The Russian Campaign PBeM utility in preference to VASSAL
(ADC2 or Cyberboard) because of the feature which none to the other
utilities seems capable of duplicating. ATF plots only the beginning and
end of turn (or impulse) positions of units.
This allows a feature which returns a unit from its end of turn (before
combat) position to its beginning position out of sequence. ADC2 (and
perhaps others) can only undo one step or unit at a time. So, for
example, if a player has 7 units – A, B, C… – and has moved all
seven and then rethinks the move and wants to redo A’s move, for ADC2
the player has to undo G, then F, then E, etc. until A is reached. With
ATF, the player only needs to undo A leaving the other 6 in their final
positions.
Adding the feature to VASSAL would also require turning off the log file
entirely for the game or at least erasing the changed move on the log
file so as to reduce the confusion. It might also require undoing the
steps made between the redone unit’s initial and final position.
Obviously, there are situations when the redo cannot be done like over a
die roll for combat or other die roll situation.
Any questions?
I don’t actually use the Undo function a lot.� It’s incredibly unreliable.
What I would have done in this case is simply have Movement Trail traits on the markers and just simply move it back to where it was by dragging it – not using Undo at all.
But I agree that, in general we should have a menu entry like “return to original position” which simply does this for you.
A number of gamers continue to use Hank (Roll Tide) Burkhalter's "Above
the Fields" The Russian Campaign PBeM utility in preference to VASSAL
(ADC2 or Cyberboard) because of the feature which none to the other
utilities seems capable of duplicating. ATF plots only the beginning and
end of turn (or impulse) positions of units.
This allows a feature which returns a unit from its end of turn (before
combat) position to its beginning position out of sequence. ADC2 (and
perhaps others) can only undo one step or unit at a time. So, for
example, if a player has 7 units -- A, B, C... -- and has moved all
seven and then rethinks the move and wants to redo A's move, for ADC2
the player has to undo G, then F, then E, etc. until A is reached. With
ATF, the player only needs to undo A leaving the other 6 in their final
positions.
Adding the feature to VASSAL would also require turning off the log file
entirely for the game or at least erasing the changed move on the log
file so as to reduce the confusion. It might also require undoing the
steps made between the redone unit's initial and final position.
Obviously, there are situations when the redo cannot be done like over a
die roll for combat or other die roll situation.
…in general we should have a menu entry like “return to
original position” which simply does this for you.
Yes! That’s what several people have asked for. Maybe not here, but whenever The Russian Campaign gets played Hank Burkhalter’s ATF (Above The Fields) program gets discussed. It’s always, “Why can’t any of the newer game playing utilities do the same thing?”