I have not yet heard back from either contact so this evening I’m proceeding on the notion of silence as tacit approval. We’re underway at this point.
Today I learned of the power of HTML charts. I was planning on using them to code in the rules and events. I’ve already been testing the functionality of the hyperlinks between e001 and r201b, and yes I can switch between those two with ease (the links loop into one another, so that was kinda helpful). They’re in a common Pull-Down Menu with Events and Rules as separate Scrollable lists, with each list consisting of individual rule or event references. I am discovering, though, that if you click on a hyperlink and then attempt to reload the page via the menu that it’ll pull up the last page visited from the menu option (i.e. if I click on r201b, link to e001 and then select r201 from the menu, if I then attempt to pull up r201b via the menu I’ll get e001). I don’t know if there’s a workaround for that and it could spell trouble for this plan. Right now I’ve just got the three HTMLs I mentioned - r201, e001 and r201b - implemented.
Any of the VASSAL gurus around here can jump into this conversation with some helpful tips any time now…
capi3101 That’s great’ the time your putting in is much appreciated , look forward to the release of the mod
Today I tried the notion of putting everything (the rules and events) into a single HTML file and using anchor points to navigate. VASSAL barfed at that notion…
Work continuing slow but steady (I’m working on more than one mod at the moment and the other one’s actually giving me the bigger fits). Right now I’m still transcribing rules into HTML. I need to go ahead and get a main map window selected; it’ll probably be based on the Antelope ship diagram, though I hope to get the opportunity to clean it up a bit.
Sorry, that wasn’t very specific, was it?
First off, I’m still using 3.2.5, so this is an issue that may have been resolved at this point; I need to get to the point where I can install the latest version (that’s all RL time management issues on my part).
It was telling me I had “Bad Data” in my module; I’m not in a position where I can go into the module at the moment and give you the exact message. What was going on though was I was attempting to add an HTML Chart and referencing a specific rule like this: “rules.html#r201b”. It was actually throwing me bad data messages as I was typing in the individual characters IIRC (couldn’t find “r”, couldn’t find “ru”, couldn’t find “rul”…and so on.).
My HTML code in this file looks like this, if this is helpful:
[code]
E001 The Adventure Begins (takes 0 hours)
Due to bad luck and loan sharks, your financial situation is getting very desperate. Your small merchant starship never seems to have a full cargo hold, but operating costs are high. Your cash is almost gone, and another payment is due to the sector financiers. Maybe, just maybe, you can make ends meet if you look for illegal goods, and begin to take chances.
Consult
R201B to determine your starting attributes, and your skills, for your new career as a Star Smuggler, then continue reading here:
[/code]
On the design front - last night I went ahead and started pulling out images from the redesign; I’ll probably be using those. Probably will still be using the old design token pieces though (for the ship, boat, skimmer, Zapp Branni…er, Duke Springer).
Been giving more thought to crew names - this is something I’d like to do. Easiest way to do it is going to be just to pre-seed the mod with a smattering of names (as a pair of multi-layered objects, you select the names you want by changing layers independently). I’m definitely going to include the names of the crew of Serenity and a few from Futurama; any suggestions for any others?
Going to try and get a main board designed today if I can; I’ve got a lot of things vying for my attention at the moment.
Uckelman - the exact error message I get with that bit of code up above is:
Bad Data in Module: Rules and Events[HTML Chart]: Chart not found #r201b
That’s when I click on the link in the second paragraph there.
And here’s the code snippet for R201B:
<br/>
<a id="r201b"><b>R201B Your Character — Duke Springer:</b></a><br/>
<br/>
You begin play as the star smuggler, Duke Springer, a talented and experienced starship pilot who is having trouble being successful in legal commercial enterprises. You have a starship (<i>Antelope</i>-class), a speedy and versatile small merchant vessel that can be operated by just one person, a pilot-navigator like yourself. In addition, you are a qualified starship gunner (can operate the guns of your ship), but the guns are only Tech Code 1 (low quality). You are an excellent shot with smaller weapons, with a marksmanship of <b>5</b>. After a rough-and-tumble life in many spaceports, bars, and back alleys your hand-to-hand combat is even better, with a rating of <b>6</b>, Coming from a high-gravity home planet, and because of your life, your body is in excellent condition, your endurance value is <b>10</b>. In addition to these characters, you have a Cunning rating (<a href="#r202"><b>R202</b></a>) which other characters do not. See <a href="#e001"><font color="0000ff">E001</font></a> for complete details of your possessions at the start of the game.<br/>
<br/>
Decided to take a different tack with the mod pending a resolution to the problems I’m having with HTML charts. I figured that instead of focusing on the rules and events first (i.e. the hard work), I should go ahead and get everything else up and running (that way someone who had hardcopies of the booklets - or at least access to the PDFs - could still utilize the mod. So I started working on that. I’m pleased to report that I was able to get enough put into place that I was able to make a preliminary attempt at playing a game. I did have to rely on an open instance of Notepad for bookkeeping and that will probably be where I focus my efforts next.
Quick update - I’ve been working on a different mod these last few days, so I don’t have much to report (the other one’s giving me headaches). I hope to pick up work on Star Smuggler again soon.
One of the things I intend to do is make tokens for the various pieces of cargo you can haul in game. For that, I’m going to need to go through the rules and events more thoroughly. I also intend to add irregular grids to the various locations on the maps; that way they’ll throw messages with the appropriate rules references when you move pieces around the boards.
Still having the same problems with HTML anchors in 3.2.8 that I was having with 3.2.5.
Got the Accounts boards in, still need to add boards for crewmembers - that’s the plan for later today. I’m going to attempt to build a composite of the Sanders player aid boards for the purpose, that way they’ll have the same level of functionality as the original sheet.
Also have been working on building commodities tiles and fixing the rules and events HTMLs slowly but surely. I think I’m going to forego direct hyperlinks entirely; much as it pains me to do that, it seems to be the best way to avoid the kinds of headaches the HTML portion of the game has been giving me to date.
Thus spake capi3101:
Got the Accounts boards in, still need to add boards for crewmembers -
that’s the plan for later today. I’m going to attempt to build a
composite of the Sanders player aid boards for the purpose, that way
they’ll have the same level of functionality as the original sheet.
Also have been working on building commodities tiles and fixing the
rules and events HTMLs slowly but surely. I think I’m going to forego
direct hyperlinks entirely; much as it pains me to do that, it seems to
be the best way to avoid the kinds of headaches the HTML portion of the
game has been giving me to date.
I haven’t yet had a chance to look into the HTML anchors problem you
reported. There might still be a solution.
–
J.
Okay - prepping work on the mod to go both ways at the moment, actually, and it’s become the lowest priority item in the mod for the moment. If I can assist with pinning down specific bugs in any way, lemme know.
Been trying to get artwork together for in-game commodities lately. I’ve got about another thirty or so to go and the ones that are left are getting tricky; there’s only so much (ostensibly) free artwork out there for something like this…
Most of the other art elements are in the game at this point, though. I just need to generate a series of digits for layering, crewmen names for layering (have the list, just need to build it), and tokens with the names of the planets (for wanted statuses and for indicating the location of caches). I also still need to add a Notes Window to the mod (try as I might to cover every facet of the game, I bet there’s at least one thing I’ve forgotten to implement somewhere).
Quick update - I’ve completed the gathering of commodities artwork at this point and I’ve started adding it all to the mod. If I can get a decent amount of time to work in the near future I daresay I’ll be able to get the artwork all in this week, and then it’s just a matter of finishing up with the HTML. Probably will want to do at least one test run before I post the game as well. Shouldn’t be too much longer, though.
Had a curious incident last night - finished getting all the commodities into the game and saved it, so the next bit was to get crewmember names working. That was going along splendedly, but VASSAL couldn’t save the game when I tried…I was thinking it might’ve been because there wasn’t sufficient space remaining on my jump drive (where the mod file itself is located), but it still had over a gigabyte of space available. I’m hoping that was just a fluke; I guess I’ll know for sure when I go to work on the mod later today. Meantime, I’ve lost that particular bit of work (at least all the commodities are in…).
Fluke, I’m happy to report; was able to get the work re-done this morning. If I’d had another five minutes on my lunch break, I daresay I would’ve gotten out of the “get everything in” phase and into the QC phase (sans the HTML of course, but even there I’m making headway).
Thus spake capi3101:
Had a curious incident last night - finished getting all the commodities
into the game and saved it, so the next bit was to get crewmember names
working. That was going along splendedly, but VASSAL couldn’t save the
game when I tried…I was thinking it might’ve been because there wasn’t
sufficient space remaining on my jump drive (where the mod file itself
is located), but it still had over a gigabyte of space available. I’m
hoping that was just a fluke; I guess I’ll know for sure when I go to
work on the mod later today. Meantime, I’ve lost that particular bit of
work (at least all the commodities are in…).
What was the error message?
–
J.
@Uckelman: I was unable to replicate the error last night on the same machine that gave it to me in the first place, so I can’t give you the exact error message. Something about it not being able to delete the old mod file to replace it with the new one. Since I can’t replicate the error, though, I’m firmly of the opinion it was just a fluke.
At this point I’m setting up At-Start Stacks for the E000 (game start) conditions, and once that’s done all I need to do is implement the HTMLs. Shouldn’t be much longer.
Thus spake capi3101:
Still having the same problems with HTML anchors in 3.2.8 that I was
having with 3.2.5.
I’m looking into this now. The way we’re handling local anchors is
completely broken. I think whoever wrote this code did not consider
that case.
–
J.