Specific steps needed to resign position

[fingersmcknee]

Hi everyone,

I am curious to learn the specific steps for one player to resign his power and for another player to step in as that same power. Also, do the steps needed to resign differ by module?

[JoelCFC25]

No, the feature is standard in VASSAL as long as player sides are defined--it doesn't vary by module. There should be a button in the toolbar called "Retire". It is possible that it could be configured with an image but no text (though hover over buttons to see if they offer tooltips).

Find this button, click it, change to observer mode, then save the game. The previously-occupied player side will then be available for the replacement player to claim.

[FredhoT]

Hello.

The first step, i.e. how the leaving player resigns, is understood.
But, then, what about the second step?
How do we include the new player in the game? It's a 6-player Here I Stand pbem game, and we need to replace one player in the middle of Turn 1.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thx

Fred

[jrwatts]

Leaving player resigns, saves the game, sends the save file to new player. New player loads the save file, is asked which side to play, chooses the side the last player resigned. (I believe that's how it works, never done a PBEM game myself.)

[shilinski]

The solutions presented don't always work. If the quitting player owned masked pieces, then those pieces are linked to the quitter's password. The new player will be able to join as the quitter's side, but they will not be able to see those masked pieces. There are just two ways for the new player to get control:
1. The quitter configured his side as "opponents may unmask my pieces." In this case, the new player must unmask and then re-mask all those piece so their password is linked to the masked pieces. I suggest they do this unrecorded and offline--between vlogs.
2. The quitter gives their password to the new player. This is not the keys to a bank account, so there should be no problem doing this. With the password, the new player can join in the quitter's spot by using that password. Note that in this case there is no reason to actually retire.

[JoelCFC25]

Very often in these larger multiplayer games, the player needing to be replaced has gone missing without warning, so there is no smooth handover from departing player to replacement that can occur.

With respect to Fred's specific situation, the instructions given will work fine, as the masking settings in the module will not be an obstacle to the new player taking over.

[Brent Easton]

If the quitting player owned masked pieces, then those pieces are linked to the quitter's password. The new player will be able to join as the quitter's side, but they will not be able to see those masked pieces.

If the module designer selected 'Can be masked by Any Side' instead of 'Can be masked by Any Player' in the Mask trait when setting up the module, then a new player taking over a side will automatically have access to the masked pieces belonging to that side.

Obviously, this is of no use if the module has not been set up this way. The default is 'Any Player', because by default, modules do not have Sides, however, any module that defines Sides should really use the 'Any Side' option for any Mask traits they create.

[FredhoT]

Thanks to all for the replies.
It worked fine while using a .vsav file instead of a .vlog.