I am attempting to allow all players (1-4) to be able to access the discard pile from a deck. The players need to be able to easily access the cards in the discard pile and decide if they would like to take a specific card. The problem is the cards have information on them so the “Draw Specific Cards” function does’t work when making an empty deck because it just shows their file names and its silly to except players to memorize the names of cards and be able to remember what they do.
I have tried to allow the cards to exists outside of a deck as a simple stack on the play area which gives me images through the “Mouse Over” function but its more messy to manipulate the cards that way and then also removes your ability to easily take that card since you need to then dig through the deck to find it.
I know that one could pull a card from the discard deck and simply place them out on the play area and look at them separately that way.
My ideal situation is to be able to cycle through which card is on the top of the discard pile using the arrow keys so that players can cycle through the deck, read the card, and decide if they want to pull it.
There may be a way to do this but I have not found it. Tried working with the layers property but I am fairly unexperienced with Vassal.
With the “Draw Specific Cards” function, you can display the $BasicName$ which may be set to whatever you want and could be more explicit than the file name (or not…)
Another simple solution that may better suit your need is to create a button in the window to cycle through the cards of the deck :
add a global key command in the window
matching properties: the discard deck
apply only to one piece in the deck
key command: DOWN (the arrow key)
This will send the first card to the bottom of the deck, hence showing the next card. By clicking repeatedly the button (or the hotkey) you will cycle through the deck (this could also be done with a GKC of the deck itself, but in this case you need to right click on the deck, which I find less convenient).
If you want to be able to cycle also in the other direction, I can provide instructions but it is much more complicated (I’ve never put all the pieces together, but it should work! There may also be easier ways that I’m not aware of…)
I believe the global key command would work since the discard deck should never be too full.
Cycling through would allow the players to see the cards without trouble instead of having to rely on any name text. They can search at anytime and don’t have to wait on their turn so should flow smoothly.