Rindis.com

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

I’ve actually been working on the 2.0 version of the F&E Vassal module again for the last month or two. Right now, there’s going to be three main phases for the project:

* Test – While I add the bulk of the content and try to get general items working
* Alpha – Cleanup and making sure all the features are up and working
* Beta – Final proofing and scenario file creation

I’ve just mailed out Test 5 to a few people. It’s already been invaluable, as I’ve been trying to add a new feature, and on the big map, it’s having trouble.

Several scenarios use ‘sectors’ to break them down into small mini-scenarios. The big scenario in ISC War used a new system of ‘cordons’ to do much the same thing. Rather than have the confusion of two sets of extra lines on the borders on the map at the same time, I came up with a system where you can turn big, transparent pieces off and on as needed.

But a big map with two big transparent layers is defeating most people’s systems. I think it’s just overrunning the default memory allocation in Vassal, but I’m still trying to get test data on that.

But here’s a look at how it’s starting to shape up:

And the latest new feature:

You can now flag ships with optional EW modes to signal their current settings, and the counter will report the appropriate stats (it still reports max Attack and EW if nothing is selected), and bases can be set to a particular EW level and report the correct AF. I envision this as a good reminder during PBeM games, but I hope to get better reporting of the battle line in this module, and it will help with that.