Place Marker Problem

Hi Again,

I seem to be having a problem with Place Marker and can’t figure out why.

Here is the background on the problem…
I have an artillery unit that I want to have a menu option of “Support Battle” which, when chosen, will Place Marker with an ammunition icon that the player can then drag (separate from the artillery unit) to the hex of the battle being supported.

The problem is that though I have offset the Place Marker, it still seems to snap to the center of the hex that it both initially appears on and when dragged to the battle hex. I am trying to get it to be more free floating for ease of movement and for a clear indication of what it actually is…but no matter what I do, it still seems to snap to the center (actually, just a little below and to the left of center).

While I am on the same matter. I would also like that when the player does select this “Support Battle” option, the artillery’s ammunition (which is a layer item attached to the piece) to decrease by one…can’t seem to get that to work either?

Any help is appreciated.

Place a Do Not Stack trait on the Ammunition Icon and check the box that says, “Ignore map grid when moving.”

Make sure your Layer trait has “Level follows Property Value” checked and let’s say the Property Name is Ammo. Then use a Dynamic Property trait for that value giving it the name Ammo and set up a Key Command to increment Ammo by -1 when triggered.

On the Artillery Unit’s Place Marker trait, add this key command to the entry “Keystroke to apply after placement”. Make sure the Dynamic Property trait resides above the Layer trait on the Ammunition Icon.

Thanks much! That helped a lot.

However, no matter where I put the Dynamic Property trait, it doesn’t seem to make the ammunition decrease. I’m sure I’m just missing something but I’ve tried every different sequence…nothing seems to do it.

Here is the sequence as I have it now on the unit…

Basic Piece
Layer - Ammo Count (showing the amount of ammo)
Place Marker - Support (this is the floating ammo that when selected is supposed to decrease the ammo count)
Dynamic Property - ammo (as suggested above and does in fact alter the ammo count properly on it’s own)

So I’m not sure what I am doing wrong.

Looks like you have the Place Marker on the wrong piece. Here’s how you would set it up.

ARTILLERY UNIT
Basic Piece

Place Marker
----Description (whatever you want)
----Command - Support Battle (What will appear when you right click the piece)
----Keyboard Command (whatever hot key you want. For this example, let’s say CTRL P)
----(Use the Select button to browse to the Ammunition Icon)
----Keystroke to apply after placement - (whatever hot key you want. For this example, let’s say CTRL A)

Now, when you right click the Artillery Unit and select Support Battle, it will fetch the Ammunition Icon …which would look like this.

AMMUNITION ICON
Basic Piece

Dynamic Property
----Name - Ammo
----Value - (Starting Value. For this example, let’s say 5)
----is Numeric - checked
----Minimum Value - 0
----Maximum Value - 5
----Key Commands
--------Menu Command (Right click command, if you want one. In this case, let’s say Shoot)
--------Key Command - CTRL A (matches the command to be sent by the ARTILLERY UNIT)
--------Type - Increment Numeric Value
--------Increment by - -1 (that’s minus 1)

Layer
----Name - (whatever you want)
----Always Active - checked
----Levels follow property values - checked
----Property name - Ammo
----Level 1 - 0 (this means your first layer would be 0 ammo)
----(Since this layer follows the property value of Ammo, and Ammo is controlled by the Dynamic Property above, you can remove all hot keys)
----Images (Image 1 would be for zero Ammo, Image 2 would be for 1 Ammo, and so one up to Image 6 for 5 Ammo)

Does Not Stack
----Select Piece - Normally
----Move Piece - Normally
----Ignore map grid when moving - checked.

Where the Ammunition Icon is located in the game does not matter. You can have it in a game piece palette, hidden window, off to the side of the board, etc. The Select button in the Place Marker trait will allow you to browse to the piece in the editor tree regardless of where ever it’s located in the game.

Also, by using the Place Marker trait, you only need to have one Ammunition Icon as the Place Marker trait does not move the piece to the location but rather creates a copy of the piece. So, you can use the Place Marker trait to create as many copies of the Ammunition Icon as you want.

Thanks much for your assistance.

You have confirmed I was on the right track. Unfortunately it doesn’t solve the problem. Nor can I figure out how still.

The Artillery unit has an Ammo supply attached to is (as a layer trait). This is what needs to be decreased when the player wants to Support Battle. This layer doesn’t move like the Support Icon does but should stay with the unit. In your method above, the ammunition supply becomes tied to the Support icon.

I am starting to think that it might be better if there were some way to Place Marker (Support Icon) from decreasing the ammunition supply layer trait…perhaps with a prototype?

Thanks again for your help.

Ok, got it to work, though, not entirely sure why?

Dr. Nostromo’s excellent example got me underway but as I explained, I needed the ammunition supply to be different from the support icon (just the one bullet going down range, not all of them!).

So I went into the protoype and added the ammo supply in there (layer with the ammo supply variations as the levels). I did set to follow property levels as suggested. Then, above that, I added the dynamic property that decreased the ammo supply and decided to add an option to increase (when the artillery unit gets new ammo).

Then back on the Artillery unit (which now has the above prototype) I added in the Place Marker trait which holds the Support Battle ammo icon.

I tried that and it worked! Why, I’m still not sure. The only thing I can see that connects the two is the Keyboard Command (ALT S) which I think might be pure coincidence…but again, it seems to work perfectly.

No further assistance needed on this one. Thanks again for the help.