VASL Map Online Problem/Suggestion Form

von Marwitz

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As you can hopefully see when you select the "Go Rogue!" Special overlay for that board :)
No Kidding! :eek:🤣 That's an easter-egg of sorts:

24539

But I see no blue colors as promised - rather grey...

24540

Brown = pink and blue = grey. @Tuomo , mebbe yer need to take off dem shades.... ;)

24541

von Marwitz
 
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ibncalb

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Stack Manipulation Idea - Collapse all stacks.

Its common to have to double click expand a lot of stacks to conceal them and then to have to double click to collapse them after setup.

Is it possible to have a "collapse all my stacks button"?

I have no idea if this is a reasonable or doable idea.
 

DougRim

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Stack Manipulation Idea - Collapse all stacks.

Its common to have to double click expand a lot of stacks to conceal them . . .
Why?

Is there a reason why right-click on the top counter then Conceal (Ctrl-c) does not do the job?

Is there a key-stroke that expands a stack? If so, then yes, a button would be possible. But necessary or useful?
 

Robin Reeve

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As said in another thread, board 89, when checking LOS, displays a ghost overlay which prohibits the LOS tool from working.
No overlay was applied to the map.24760
 

DougRim

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As said in another thread, board 89, when checking LOS, displays a ghost overlay which prohibits the LOS tool from working.
No overlay was applied to the map.
Not on my machine it doesn't.

Deus ex machina.

I suggest deleting board 89 from your directory and then starting up a new game with it. It will auto-download a new version and you should be good to go. I just tried this on my machine and the new download was clean. No overlay.

BTW, U8-O7 is blocked according to VASL. LOL!

Could you cross post this to the other thread that you referred to as I cannot access it.
 

Robin Reeve

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Thanks.
I did as you suggested, and all works fine now.
24761



I deleted the other thread, as I realized this one was devoted to such technical questions.
 

Michael R

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Is there a reason why right-click on the top counter then Conceal (Ctrl-c) does not do the job?
But necessary or useful?
This could be useful when one has more stacks than concealment counters. You expand all the stacks and then decide which ones get the concealments. Then it would be nice to have a keyboard shortcut to collapse all the stacks.
 

von Marwitz

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Thanks to Tom Repetti, the DZ:SME maps are now on VASL. Look for boards FA, NE, and SE in the boadpicker dropdown.

Do not look for the boards on VASL.info. They won't be there
While I do understand that the maps are no longer downloadable via VASL.info because this is now handled directly via the VASL board-picker, maybe there is yet the need to keep track of which maps are out there for VASL.

Formerly, at VASL.info, you would have looked for "Drop Zone St. Mere Eglise", clicked the download button and would retrieve the Zip file containing the maps.

In VASL itself, map names are genrally some letters that do not intuitively speak for themselves. I would not have known that the maps are named FA, NE, and SE unless I owned DZ:SME (which has not arrived yet). Or I would have needed to ask around to find out before being able to find the correct maps via the board-picker.

What I am saying is that the new way of doing things is not intuitive as the old one and that - at least at first glance - it seems to be more difficult to keep track of VASL maps.

Might it be an idea for improvement of VASL if the board-picker is enhanced in a way that it provides more built in support? For example via drop down menus: Search for a map, dropdown selection for producers (MMP, BFP, etc.) next dropdown selection for 'geoboard', 'HASL', 'Core Module', 'Starter Kit', 'Fort Board' or some such, next dropdown section displays the actual maps within a specific HASL, Core Module, etc. This dropdown support would not be intended to replace the current board picker system but could supplement and enhance it.

Thoughts?

Will cross-post this into the VASL Suggestion section.

von Marwitz
 

holdit

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What I am saying is that the new way of doing things is not intuitive as the old one and that - at least at first glance - it seems to be more difficult to keep track of VASL maps.

Might it be an idea for improvement of VASL if the board-picker is enhanced in a way that it provides more built in support? For example via drop down menus: Search for a map, dropdown selection for producers (MMP, BFP, etc.) next dropdown selection for 'geoboard', 'HASL', 'Core Module', 'Starter Kit', 'Fort Board' or some such, next dropdown section displays the actual maps within a specific HASL, Core Module, etc. This dropdown support would not be intended to replace the current board picker system but could supplement and enhance it.
Good suggestions. I've also noticed that while picking a board I have picked before is quick, picking one I haven't used yet involves a long wait while it is downloaded. It would be nice to have an "update all boards" button that you could click, leave it to do its thing, and have all up-to-date boards quickly available when needed.
 

von Marwitz

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Good suggestions. I've also noticed that while picking a board I have picked before is quick, picking one I haven't used yet involves a long wait while it is downloaded. It would be nice to have an "update all boards" button that you could click, leave it to do its thing, and have all up-to-date boards quickly available when needed.
Excellent idea!

von Marwitz
 

von Marwitz

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Hear hear,
(and wouldn't it be nice to automate the overlays updating too?)
In general, yes.

But we have to keep in mind the potential issue of ongoing games and campaign games.

I believe, we should not have VASL auto-updating. This process should be triggered by the user.

Maybe, for the VASL maps, some naming-conventions might be helpful. For example, a version should/could/must be included in the map name (i.e. RBv2.1 instead of just RB for the Red Barricades map). This is probably not easy to implement, though, as VASL can't control if the map makers would name the maps properly. Furthermore, the map folder of VASL might get clogged with too many maps (i.e. bd01v1.0, 1.1, 1.2, etc.). Possibly this could be circumvented by a prompt asking "Keep the old version of the map?", but this would still be an issue with regard to the naming of the map-file, I reckon.

If there were a function "Update ALL map" and/or "Update ALL overlays", maybe to tackle the problem of ongoing games, the user could be prompted with a Checkbox-List asking which boards/overlays NOT to update.

What applies to maps would apply in the same way to overlays IMHO.

Still room for ideas to optimize the approach, I reckon.

von Marwitz
 

PresterJohn

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Do the boards auto-update outside of the "start a new game" option? I hadn't paid that much attention but I thought that if you opened up an old save game you were stuck with the counters, maps and overlays that it was saved with.
 

DougRim

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Do the boards auto-update outside of the "start a new game" option?
Yes. Auto-update happens when you open a .vsav game.

I hadn't paid that much attention but I thought that if you opened up an old save game you were stuck with the counters, maps and overlays that it was saved with.
At present, what you wrote is true for counters and overlays. But not for maps aka boards. Boards update (1) when clicked on in the boardpicker dropdown and (2) when a .vsav file (setup file or saved game) is opened.

In VASL6.6.6, overlays will say goodbye to counters and will join boards in the "we like to auto-update club".

Since overlays are like boards in every respect, there is no reason not to treat them the same way. Counters and other game elements are different, I agree.

Auto-updating for boards (and soon overlays) works. Period. Sometimes there are connectivity or setup issues that prevent auto-updating from working. But those are different issues.
 

Michael R

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In VASL6.6.6, overlays will say goodbye to counters and will join boards in the "we like to auto-update club".

Auto-updating for boards (and soon overlays) works. Period. Sometimes there are connectivity or setup issues that prevent auto-updating from working. But those are different issues.
Which overlays? The ones in the extension, or the ones built in to VASL?
 
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