n00b with 2 questions

Module Design
1

Hi All,

I’m a n00b to Vassal, I’m looking to do Escape from Colditz (Parker Bros) as a Vassal module and I have a couple of questions…

I will be redesigning the board (using a few zones) as the circles don’t easily align with hexes so for all intent and purposes the final product will play like EFC (including the rules/cards/pieces etc.) but it will look a little different (a bit more angular in places).

My questions are…

  1. Do you think that redesigning the board is an OK approach???
  2. Should I aim to code in V3.19 or wait for 3.20 or even 4.0?

Regards

VAZ

2

  1. Sure, lots of modules have redesigned or customized artwork. Go for it.

  2. Unless you need some of the new functionality added in 3.2, such as Calculated Properties, then why not design (“code” is not quite an accurate term here) for 3.19? Anything you design for 3.19 will be compatible with 3.2 when it’s released. And V4 is only in the planning stages.

Good luck!

3

Thus spake vaztr:

Hi All,

I’m a n00b to Vassal, I’m looking to do Escape from Colditz (Parker
Bros) as a Vassal module and I have a couple of questions…

I will be redesigning the board (using a few zones) as the circles don’t
easily align with hexes so for all intent and purposes the final product
will play like EFC (including the rules/cards/pieces etc.) but it will
look a little different (a bit more angular in places).

My questions are…

  1. Do you think that redesigning the board is an OK approach???
  2. Should I aim to code in V3.19 or wait for 3.20 or even 4.0?

How long do you think it will take you? If you’re going to finish next
week, then you might want to develop for 3.1.19. If you’re going to
finish after that, then you should develop for 3.2.0. You can’t develop
for 4.0 yet, as we’re only now in the process of defining the file
format.

–
J.

4

Thanx All - guess I’ll aim for 3.2 :slight_smile:

VAZ

5

One advantage you’ll find in 3.2 is that, although you can still use key commands like CTRL A, ALT B, etc., you can also use keywords, like GetFirstCard, PlaceArmyUnit, etc. That was a huge advantage for me.

6

That’s interesting, and I really like that change. So, if I’ve got a current-version module that’s about 90% done, would you recommend going back and changing all my key commands to keywords, or just leaving it as-is?