Small World Vassal Module

Hi,

Myself and TRagedy have released a Vassal Module for the game Small World which is included in the module list here on this site:

http://www.vassalengine.org/community/index.php?option=com_vassal_modules&task=display&module_id=856

If anyone has any feedback or suggestions please feel free to post them here and we’ll respond.

Dear Yojimbo and TRagedy:

thank you for your work! I recently included the three missing official expansions and some custom tiles in the SMALLWORLD-module; 16 new races, 15 powers, some markers and helpsheets, a new token tray and expansion background all in all, but was (technically) unaible to make the module shuffle the new pieces into the deck and make it ligthen up the helpboxes as it should.

Are you able to fix this?
Should be rather easy for you

I uploaded my mod-file here: file-upload.net/download-342 … 0.rar.html

Thanks for your help,
Lino

Lino, the link was broken in your post. But, I found correct link through the Google. Here is: file-upload.net/download-342 … 0.rar.html

The vassel engine object stacking on the tokens only applies on the declined side. Could someone adjust it so that it stacks either on both sides or, at least, the active side?

Harowen,
I have enabled stacking in the course of making some other changes in an update to Yojimbo and TRagedy’s work that I plan to release after some playtesting. For now, it’s available here:
mediafire.com/?v5tzbdyqyh8q503
I would be very grateful for any feedback regarding the gameplay experience.

Well darn it, I replied shortly after your post but apparently /failed at submitting.

Good improvements all around, I didn’t find anything problematic, annoying or non-intuitive. Nothing else really comes to mind as enhancements that I’d wish to see implemented either.

The overall gameplay experience is better with your changes, so thank you.

Harowen,
Thanks for the update. I believe the only change I’ll end up with between the version in the link I provided and the final version is to fix the race/power decks on the race/power screen - I mistakenly switched them to auto-shuffle, but they should be manually shuffled. With auto-shuffling, discarded badges are immediately put back in circulation, which is not the behavior specified in the rules. Actually, they are supposed to be discarded and then reshuffled ‘in the unlikely event’ the deck is exhausted, but frankly I’m too lazy at this point to adjust the artwork to accommodate a discard pile. The least I can do is put the discards at the bottoms of their decks, as Yojimbo and TRagedy had originally provided.

Cheers,
Seth

Ah I didn’t get far enough through in the test games to observe that behavior.

If someone REALLY wants a discard pile, then always have the option of piling them up themselves rather than using return to deck.

This is now posted as version 4.0. I disabled the ‘Help’ command on the race and power tokens because:

1. It duplicated the functionality of the help charts
2. Unlike the help charts, it obscured the race/power token for all players while one player was using the help command
3. Because it was visible to all players, it telegraphed the player’s interest in a race without a clear indication that it was doing so
4. I didn’t want to bother doing the image processing for the added Be Not Afraid… races/powers
5. It was not implemented for all existing race and power badges anyway
6. It would rarely, but occasionally, cause pieces to disappear. I suspect this was merely a design error, not a Vassal bug, but because of the other 5 reasons I didn’t really investigate.

Probably mostly number 4.

Other changes:

• Token tray pieces are now in decks, and support the ‘draw multiple’ command
• Game pieces are now in layers, such that, e.g., fortresses or lairs always appear underneath race tokens, and dragons and heroes always appear on top
• Victory points are still manipulated as in the tabletop game - that is, by moving coin tokens around - but they are actually stored as a single number, which is shown above your victory point bag. This total can be hidden or revealed.
• Map regions are all defined for better reporting: i.e. ‘irishwulf moves Dwarves from Region 12 to Region 16’ instead of ‘irishwulf moves Dwarves from offboard to offboard’.

Cheers,
Seth

Awesome update, thanks.

Don’t forget to submit news on the main vassalengine.org/ page about the game update.

I have created a Small World Underground Module based on the existing module as a template. I have a fully playable mod for the 2 player board but it needs work for the other boards. If anybody would like to see the work in progress PM me. It includes the expansions and you can add in the vanilla races and powers as well.

After finally buying SW, I tried out the Vassel Module last night. I tried to walk through a few turns of a PBEM, but had some issues with how the game is managed (gameplay is fine, this is just about the technicalities of playing)

• In other Vassal modules, there is a “finish turn and pass controll to the next player” button. I couldn’t find this here.

• In the Wizard, I can’t select my player slot after loading a game, so if whoever set up the game started as P1, I will be the same. There seem to be no restrictions as to who’s pieces I move around. I can even Hide/Unhide the VPs of the other players.

Is there an easy way to fix this? I have never done anything with Vassal other than play it, but I’m willing to get into improving the module if it isn’t too hard.

My info below is about the Small World Underground Module which incorporates regular Small World into it:

I have done quite a bit with the module since I posted that version, and i don’t remember exactly what features that one had. I will look at it a bit and check into your issues. When I find time I will post the latest version which has Tales and Legends and Realms among other things.
I am not really familiar with too many vassal modules, and I haven’t yet looked back at that particular version but I will answer your questions about this one the best that I can for now.

• I don’t understand the need for a “finish turn button” since this is a rather dumb module - It doesn’t have checks to make sure that you are playing correctly. It basically just lays out the board and all the pieces that you would need to place on the board during a game.
  Can you explain a little bit what that button would be for or do?

• As far as selecting the player slot, it should only let you choose a player that is not already in the game. That is tied to your password and your installed version of Vassal the way I understand it. Whenever you log into a game with your install of Vassal it will either ask what player you want to be, not allowing for those that have already been chosen in that game if you have loaded a save game file or a log file, or else or it will automatically place you as the player that you have chosen previously with that install of Vassal. That is how it has always worked for me with the few Vassal mods that i have used.

• I have placed no restrictions on what pieces can be moved by whom. I never really thought about that. I think for the most part I would need to leave it like it is since you move other people’s pieces in a PBEM game when you conquer a region and send one back to the tray and move the others off board and such.
  There is a retire button, which is just built in with Vassal, which allows you to log in as another player and then it seems if you save the game as another player it will load it with you as that other player.

• And as for the score, I have fixed that somewhere along the line but apparently it was in a later version than the one that is posted. PM me your email and I will send you the latest mod. I will even play a PBEM game with you if you like. It’s hard to find a block of time to play live, but maybe that too.
  I have completely redone that entire tab and now you are restricted to only hiding and unhiding your own score.

I hope I answered some of your questions. I will have more time later to play with the mod a little bit and see where that one was at. If you have any other suggestions for things I could do with the mod feel free to let me know about them. I always like to tinker with it, and hopefully improve it.

And btw, you would be surprised at how intuitive Vassal is if you go under the hood. You would probably pick it up quick.

Hi

Great module. I just tried it last night and just being a total noob, turn 8 I accidentally clicked on the -EXP button, removing all the expansion cards… and messing the game. Could it be possible to add some kind of confirmation or to to move the EXP button away from the one showing the VPs?

Thx
Jay

The module with Regular Small World as Well as Underground, Tunnels and Realms is listed as Small World Underground… I probably should have just posted it under Small World but I started out just to make it for Small World Underground and that is where it has stayed…

vassalengine.org/wiki/Module … nderground

Good module. Obviously a great deal of work went into it. Accordingly I am curious as to why there are no Mountain markers (visible)?