Physical counting

Module Design
1

Okay, looking at re-doing a feature, and I’ve managed to forget most of the details on how to get to where I was going…

The idea is to have a form that displays the totals of a bunch of stats. As I recall, it’s not that hard to generate a physical piece that will display the current status of a global property.

Now, doing a piece with bunch of layers, and tying the current layer to the property is something that I’m pretty sure I can figure out. But I’m looking at totals that can go well over a hundred. Is there any good method for not having to come up with over a hundred images to attach to over a hundred layers?

Also, are there any good modules with this type of form currently? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen one or two, but I can’t think of where.

2

I would not use separate layers for more than 10 or so different values, it becomes very unwieldy. For a wider range of values, I just use a Text label, centered on a plain background counter. Bump up the size and pick a font, bold serif doesn’t look to bad. Use the offsets to get the text exactly where you want. Set the label text to $globalvariableName$ and you are done.

3

Ah ha! I figured there had to be a better way to do it. Didn’t know you could set a text label directly to a variable name.

4

Okay. I can’t get this to work. Something’s wrong, and after a week, I can’t find it.

Here’s a link to my test module, which also has a working Global Variable which does work, and I based the current set up on.
http://www.rindis.com/F&E%202.0-test.vmod

In the “Ship” prototype, you can see the main triggers for both variables at the bottom.

The first set is for the working value:

  1. Start a new game, use any map you like when the dialog comes up.
  2. Go to the toolbar, click “Ships” to open up the counter menu.
  3. Go to “Klingons”, “Markers”, “Fleets” in the counter menu. Pull out the only counter there to the main map. On hover over, you’ll see a line of stats that’s largely question marks, but includes “(0 SE)”.
  4. Click on “K Home Fleet” in the tool bar to open a sub map.
  5. Go back to “Federation” in the counter menu, and pull a CA counter into the sub map.
  6. Hover over of the other marker will now read (in part) “(1 SE)”.

And then the part that doesn’t work:

  1. With a game open, click on “ComPot” in the tool bar to open a sub map.
  2. In the counter menu, go to “Test”. Pull the only counter there to the “ComPot” sub map.
  3. Click on “BattleMat” on the tool bar to open another sub map.
  4. Go back to the Federation CA in the counter menu. Pull one to the BattleMat in the blue section with numbers. (Only part with a functioning grid; log will report the counter as having moved to “A Line” when you’re in the right place.)
  5. At this point, the number on the first counter should go from “0” to “8”. …But doesn’t.

Both of these will also work for all the ships in the Klingon section, but this is slightly simpler. As near as I can tell, the setups for both variable trackers are the same. I did a quick test at one point, and got a counter that displayed the first Global variable correctly, so the counter itself should be good.