Card stacking problem

Module Design
1

Hi,

I designed a module for Kingmaker (http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Kingmaker). This game uses 2 types of cards. The first type are “Crown Cards” which are placed in various (1 or more) stacks when utilised by a player. When the player elects to place a Crown Card with others, they are stacked in a pile of 1 or more cards, and each card below the top one should have the bottom 1/4 visible, because the information on that section must be visible and contributes to the value of the pile as a whole.

Now, I have an area set aside to the left and right of my game map for players to place their visible Crown Cards. I currently have these cards set to unstack, thinking that places could just place them and use them that way. However, I noticed when the stacks are moved around that Vassal will draw the cards sometimes in the wrong order, and I also noticed when I loaded a saved game, that the cards now all had their back visible.

I under these are 2 separate issues with my module. I read in another posting in this forum that Vassal will not draw the cards correctly if I place them this way. Is there someway I can tell it to stack the cards so that each card above the first card is placed about 1/4 of the card height “up” the page i.e. so that the lower 1/4 of each card below the top card is always visible in the stack?

The second issue I think relates to my cards. I don’t think I understand how card backs and masking works well enough. Essentially, for ANY card taken from the deck and placed on the map it SHOULD ALWAYS be visible face side up. Well, a player could flip the card, I don’t mind that, but I don’t want the cards to appear with all their back showing when a saved game is loaded. Each player MUST be able to see other players cards quickly and easily. Oh, there is a separate map called Player Hand where a player may secret his Crown Cards invisible to other players until he decides to bring them into play by placing them on the main map.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Scott Pitcher

2

On May 24, 2011, at 9:14 PM, anonemous123 wrote:

Is there someway I can tell it to stack the cards
so that each card above the first card is placed about 1/4 of the card
height “up” the page i.e. so that the lower 1/4 of each card below the
top card is always visible in the stack?

Under “Map Window” there is a “Stacking Options” panel where you can
set the values for expanded and not-expanded separations. If you
increase the vertical non-expanded separation to be 1/4 of the card
size in pixels, you should get the stacking behavior that you desire.

3

Thanks for that info. But, doesn’t that stacking option apply to ALL playing pieces? The Crown Cards and other pieces like counters and other cards will be present on the same map. How do I apply particularly stacking options to the Crown Cards only?

4

You are correct. That is the drawback with stacking. There is no way to
specify components it affects

From: anonemous123 scottypitcher@gmail.com
To: messages@vassalengine.org
Sent: Wed, May 25, 2011 11:30:01 PM
Subject: [messages] [Module Design] Re: Card stacking problem

Thanks for that info. But, doesn’t that stacking option apply to ALL
playing pieces? The Crown Cards and other pieces like counters and other
cards will be present on the same map. How do I apply particularly
stacking options to the Crown Cards only?

Read this topic online here:
https://forum.vassalengine.org/t/card-stacking-problem/3944/3