I don’t know why but I can’t get my head around how to use the Turn Counter feature to work the way I want it to.
The game I am designing has it’s game turns made up as follows:
Turn 1
Player A Phase a
Player A Phase b
Player A Phase c
Player A Phase d
Player B Phase a
Player B Phase b
Player B Phase c
Player B Phase d
Turn 2
Player A Phase a
Player A Phase b
Player A Phase c
Player A Phase d
Player B Phase a
Player B Phase b
Player B Phase c
Player B Phase d
Turn 3
etc
I would like to have a button on the tool bar that when pressed, advances and also reports the current turn and phase.
So it is something like:
Turn1-PlayerA-Phase a
Turn1-PlayerA-Phase b
etc
Add a Turn Counter component and change the ‘Turn Name Format’ to
Turn $level1$ - Player $level2$ - Phase $level3$
Add a Counter component to the Turn Tracker. This is level 1. The default of starting at turn 1, incrmenting by 1 each time is what we want. You don’t need to change the first 3 fields.
Add a List component to the Counter component. This is level 2. Add the two player id’s ‘A’ and ‘B’ to the list.
Add a List compinent to the level 2 List component we created in 3. This is level 3. Add the 4 Phase Id’s ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, ‘d’ to the list.
That’s it.
Cheers,
Brent.
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On 2/04/2008 at 8:52 PM Bullman wrote:
Brent Easton
Analyst/Programmer
University of Western Sydney
Email: b.easton@uws.edu.au
The thing I was missing (and I think it isn’t shown on the tutorials) is how the components are nestled within each proceeding component as opposed to just in the “root directory” of the Turn Counter component.
I was also getting confused with the use of the syntax $level1$, $level2$ etc and the field title “Turn Level Format ($levelx$)”. What does the “x” refer to?
Am I right in saying that the syntax of $level1$ and $level2$ etc refer to the the “implied” subsequent levels “below” the Turn Counter comonent?
I was kind of expecting that with each component you had to manually assign the name $level1$ to identifiy it, but it seems like the level names eg. $level2$ are automatically assigned once you correcty make them “sub directories”.
Great feedback. It is very difficult to know what is wrong with the doco when you are so used to it.
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On 2/04/2008 at 9:53 PM Bullman wrote:
Ok, I will try an make that clearer.
Yes, that’s right. I will try to make this clearer by displaying the actual level number somewhere in the component and in the description, so a level 2 component will say ‘Level 2’ somewhere and display the prompt as ‘Turn Level Format ($level2$)’
Cheers,
Brent.
Brent Easton
Analyst/Programmer
University of Western Sydney
Email: b.easton@uws.edu.au
Thanks for the help.
I now have a button on the toolbar which brings up a separate window that houses the +/- turn/phase controls
The name of the phase appears in this window between the +/- controls, which makes thes control window change width depending on the length of the the estring of text describing the turn/phase.
Is there a way to just have the controls show a window with the +/- controls, as the information in that window currently is already reported in the text window when you press teh + and - button, and thus is kind of redundant.
Yes having an option to set/fix the size of that window would be good.
And yes leaving the Turn Name Format blank does make it blank between the +/- buttons in the Turn window.
However, it seems that if the Turn Name Format is left blank, then there is no way of defining the “structure” for how a turn/phase is defined.
ie. if you enter in “oldturn” or “newturn” (which seem to be reserved variables for the value of the Turn Name Format) in to the Report Format field, the report just comes up blank.
Thanks Brent…I actually missed the option to set the size of the window.
Preferentially I would prefer if the Time Counter and the +/- controls to exist permanently docked in the toolbar. How would I do that?
Not yet. Real Soon Now ™. The 3.1 will be released as a beta once Joel gets some Mac compatibility problems sorted out. It’s got a lot of bug fixes and a new front-end user experience, but internally, there is not a lot of difference from 3.0, so should little (no!) problem with module compatibility.
Brent.
Brent Easton
Analyst/Programmer
University of Western Sydney
Email: b.easton@uws.edu.au
Glad I did a search on this, great answer to my problem with the Turn Tracker.
I do have a follow up question though. Say that ‘Player A’ can vary and needs to be determined from scenario to scenario. Is there a way to set that at the start of the game with some sort of variable so that once set, Player A is the Axis for the remainder of the game?
In most of my stuff, I use an Initialization icon somewhere on the map. Once the players are in, they click the icon to establish anything you want tied to that player (like perhaps, in this case, a Global Property called AxisPlayer can be set to $playerSide$). Then have the icon disappear.
I simply entered the turn sequence in the Turn Tracker as P1 (player 1) and P2 (player 2). For example, P1-Moves.
I then placed a graphic on the different sides of the board to literally indicate P1 and P2. While not ideal, it doesn’t look bad and should be clear enough to players who is who.
However, if anyone does come up with a dynamic variable, I would still be interested in the answer.
I don’t have any released modules that do this …they’re on hold waiting for the Vassal 3.2. I’m also not familiar with using the Turn Tracker …I tend to set up my own turn and phase tracker using buttons. But, I’ll see what I can come up with as a demo.
