Crowdsourced Scenario Setups?

carlsson

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Guys,

I am doing at least 30 different scenario map setups each year for tournament reasons. I can imagine that we are a lot of people that's doing the same work here. A lot of wheels reinvented over the time....

Wouldn't it be good if we could somehow process these setups together? I am thinking a combined Google Drive or Dropbox, with various folders containing the setups in different steps? For example:
1. New Setups
2. Currently being proofed
3. Proofed and ready

All work should be signed by the creator/s, and proofreaders.

This way, we share the time spent on the setup files and there will not be one, byt maybe 50 different people contributing to this? And all setups that are proofed and ready should be sent to (or fetched by) Sam, or whoever is in charge of the VASL project at the moment.

At least for me this would save a lot of time, and I would save time for some of you!

Thoughts?
/andreas
 

CaptCaveman

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I would be a big fan of this and willing to contribute. I rely heavily on the enhanced scenario setups that Patrick Ireland put together, but it looks like that has slowed over the past couple of years.

Would be even better if these setups could be incorporated into the ASL Scenario Archive. I often use that to search for appropriate scenarios based on experience of players, time, etc.
 

von Marwitz

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This is already in place. You can find hundreds of setups here:

http://vasl.info/scenarios.htm

The only drawback is, that you can't tell by the file-name there, with which version of VASL the setup was created. Some stuff there is really ancient and probably no longer of much use (VASL v5.3), some is very new (VASL v6.2.2 til v6.4.1).
Sometimes, there are references to the version, though, if you open the VASL file itself and have a look at it.

As for updating old setups:

With regard to the boards, this should be no problem as with the current version of VASL, the current boards are drawn online if the boards used in the setup file are not the newest version.
With regard to the counters, there is a function in VASL that allows you to refresh (i.e. repull) all counters - 'VASL controls' window, 'Tools' Menu, 'Refresh Counters'. AFAIK, this function will only work if you have no extensions installed in your VASL Extensions folder. So basically, as almost everyone has installed some extensions, it won't work per se. It's been some time since I tried, but I believe if you rename the extensions folder temporarily and create a new empty one, then the function will work.
However, if 'Refresh Counters' is run, I believe that all labels of counters or names of leaders will be lost. So it might be quicker to manually redraw counters onto the existing stacks and afterwards delete the older ones below. This will save you at least the tedious work of positioning them correctly.

Redrawing counters is not always necessary. Setups created with v6.2.2 or even older run fine with the current version of VASL. There *might* be some counters that have been edited (errata, different context-menus) or added in newer versions of VASL though.

Furthermore if you open setups created with pre-v6.2.x versions of VASL, then all counters, labels etc. will appear offset. This is due to the fact that the margin around the playing area used to be half as wide in the old versions. This issue can be fixed very easy and quickly:

VASL Map window, Button with soldier on orange background, bottom entry from the dropdown menu 'Convert Pre v6.2 game'. This will shift everything to adjust to the wider margin.

I believe you can send your setups to Sam Tyson to put them online. You could inquire and ask him. His Email-address can be found on vasl.info.

It should be made sure, though, that the setups do not contain VC and SSR as to protect the copyright of the publishers.

von Marwitz
 
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