It is an overview, but part of the reason is the administrative side of knowing how the replacement situation looks (and FCR factors are also separately listed in the reports).

By John Lajoie (Lajoie) on Tuesday, December 29, 2015 - 05:56 pm: Edit

Just started playing F&E - well, I wanted to play it many years ago when it was first released but I was just a poor kid. I'm older now, with a little more disposable income and getting back into the Star Fleet Universe. I've just got the basic F&E game/rules, but playing by Vassal is *incredibly* convenient.

Is there any way I could get hold of the latest beta of the 2.0 module?

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 - 02:00 pm: Edit

Work update: The new module is currently headed for Beta 6, which may be the last pre-release version.

I've just posted some of the latest work here:

https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/51222/fe-vassal-20-beta-6
http://www.rindis.com/3469

And I'll ask directly here: what tug+pod combination counters would you most like to see?

By John de Michele (Jdemichele) on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 - 02:09 pm: Edit

The combos that you have in the BGG image look good, plus PFT/SCS combos for the non-Fed empires.

A non-tug request: if you haven't changed it already, can Colony counters be changed to be bases, rather than ships? Hiding ships temporarily is useful during the economic phase, but that makes colonies get hidden, too, at least in the pre-2.0 version.

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 - 02:52 pm: Edit

Um, I just checked, and colonies are part of the bases layer. They should only disappear if you hide the BATS and SBs and such.

Are you on an old version? Or just using very old counters?

The plan on pods is to have all the 'basic' combinations in. For K/Z/L that means all the tug + two of the same pod combos. But if you commonly use some sort of mismatched combo (or maybe you find a 10-point, command 9 TGA handy), here's your chance to get a convenient counter for it.

By John de Michele (Jdemichele) on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 - 03:39 pm: Edit

Ok, cool. I've restarted playing a game from about two years ago, it's on an old version. I just noticed colonies getting hidden the other day, and wanted to say something while I remembered it .

John.

By Chuck Strong (Raider) on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 - 06:35 pm: Edit

Do you have a method to assign PFs to a a given PFT.

How are half-factors of fighters accounted for on a given carrier?

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 - 07:51 pm: Edit

PFs are handled in chits of flotillas. They can be cycled through 0-6 PFs on the chit (0-5 for CPF specialty chits). The game I'm playing has yet to hit the PF era, and I don't know how other people people do it, but my thought is to place a chit on top of a PFT to represent it's current flotilla (ASL SW usage habits...). There's also a property sheet for each PFT that can be called up and you can track it that way, but it's inconvenient, and I doubt anyone actually uses that method. Or, you can just use a text label on the PFT saying how many it is carrying; it won't generate statistics, but is still easy to see at a glance.

Fighters are also handled in the property sheets, but those actually drive stats, while the PFs don't. They generally aren't worth going in and fiddling with, but it can be done, and can be worthwhile for long-term out-of-supply situations. Carriers with half-factors are set as, say 2 out of 3 (three check boxes with the last one empty) for a Romulan WH. Vassal doesn't do anything more with it, and 2WH would still report 4 fighters, but if you know those WH are going to be together for a long time, you can go in and check the third box on one of them to correct the reporting. But usually, you just look at the counters involved and count triangles.

Remember, Vassal, like Cyberboard, is aimed at recreating paper games, so most things still require intelligent user action to work with. However, things like attaching short notes to any particular counter are a big aid over the physical version.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 - 09:05 pm: Edit

I stack the PFs on the base they're at, or on the counter that is carrying them. This is in my game with Peter Bakija using Vassal (Do Not Start What You Cannot Finish). It is currently turn 21, PFs saw their first use in combat in a starbase assault against the Kzinti.

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Sunday, April 03, 2016 - 02:21 pm: Edit

Progress report:

Version 2.0 is now at Beta 8, and will probably go to Beta 10 (that may go straight to official 2.0 status).

Beta 8 has everything for the LDR in ME added, and now I need to get on the Seltorians....

By Javier Benvenuti (Javierb) on Saturday, April 09, 2016 - 11:50 pm: Edit

James, is it possible to get a copy of the latest Beta?

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Sunday, April 10, 2016 - 03:14 pm: Edit

Email sent.

By Dan Knudsen (Agnin) on Saturday, May 14, 2016 - 10:24 pm: Edit

Think I could jump on that beta as well? Your work is awesome.

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Monday, May 16, 2016 - 01:25 pm: Edit

Dan, I've added you to my email list for updates.

Javier, I might have forgotten to include you; the new file's in the exact same place as the old one.

Progress report:

Just polished off Beta 9, which has everything the Seltorians should need.

Next up, Vudar, and figuring how far I want to go on setups before official 2.0 release.

By Blake Ball (Gamergeek) on Wednesday, May 18, 2016 - 07:17 am: Edit

James, would love to be included in the beta as well. Big fan of your work on this.

By Jason Langdon (Jaspar) on Thursday, May 19, 2016 - 12:18 am: Edit

James, I noticed in a game file last night that the Hydran Resv 1 and Resv 2 markers had disappeared but couldnt see where to get new ones.

The Fleet markers dont seem to include Reserves?

Also, one of the balance options involves extra Reserves so is it a big thing to increase the number of Reserve fleets for each Empire by 1? This isnt a huge thing if its a lot of work.

Thanks.

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Thursday, May 19, 2016 - 09:54 pm: Edit

The reserve markers are with the small fleet markers as there's only one size. If you're using the large map, you have regular ship counters, larger reserve markers, and even larger fleet markers.

Technically, it's a huge thing to add in an extra fleet/reserve box. But I thought of a way around it some time ago. I need to prep the module for it, but then I can put the box and marker in a tiny little extension, and it'll show up like it was always there. Is there any particular empire you need it for?

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Thursday, May 19, 2016 - 10:02 pm: Edit

Double post

By Jason Langdon (Jaspar) on Friday, May 20, 2016 - 01:11 am: Edit

James, not sure what you mean by "small fleet markers".

Im talking about when you go to the Ships menu, then select the empire and then in the dropdown go for Markers, there is a Fleet option.

When I look at all the fleet names, I dont see Reserve 1, Reserve 2, etc. as options for the fleets.

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Friday, May 20, 2016 - 02:19 am: Edit

Okay, I thought you were looking at the new (beta) module, but you're on 1.3.2, aren't you?

Go to the Misc panel in Markers. You'll see a 'RESV' marker there. That's what you want. The generic RESV marker is also the numbered one. [A]ctivate it to turn it into a numbered marker, and then use the increase and decrease commands to change the number.

By Richard B. Eitzen (Rbeitzen) on Friday, May 20, 2016 - 02:24 am: Edit

While it activates as you say, it will not go past 4th.

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Friday, May 20, 2016 - 09:39 am: Edit

Finding the reserve markers, and re-doing the module so it can have an extra reserve are two different things.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Saturday, July 16, 2016 - 03:44 pm: Edit

James!

Here is a thing that I finally just noticed (after noticing the result for a while, and not understanding what was going on till just now).

When advancing the Turn Marker (i.e. advancing the turn and sequence of play using the Turn button in the upper left hand of the screen), all the numbers on all the planet markers (i.e. the markers you put on planets that indicate who owns the planet and that it is devastated or captured) advanced by 1. Which is not helpful for planets in F+E as planets recover based on *side* turns, not player turns. So if I liberate a planet on Alliance Turn N, it starts producing income on Alliance Turn N+2, not as the result of the planet being held Coalition N+1 and then Alliance N+1.

So the Turn Marker system is advancing planets twice as fast as they should be (i.e. planets hit "2" after advancing the Turn Marker 2 player turns turns instead of 2 side turns; planets hit "Rec" after 5 player turns advanced; both of these are twice as fast as they should be).

Is this something that is possible to fix? Maybe have the Alliance planets only advance on the Alliance turn (and the same of Coalition) or possibly have planets advance in 1/2 increments?

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Saturday, July 16, 2016 - 11:18 pm: Edit

What version of the module are you using? The recovery tracking should be going at the proper rate already (i.e., counting Game Turns). Do note that it will move from 0 to 1 the first Player Turn; but it should only move from 1 to 2 a full Game Turn after that. I believe that delivers the correct timing to recovery no matter which half of the turn it was recaptured/devastated in. (It'll likely report Recovered on an enemy player turn when it isn't yet, but since you don't actually get EPs from it then, that's not so important.)

Also note that there are two planet markers, one to track recovery, and one to show economic status. If you recapture a friendly planet, use both. The status marker should correctly show when a planet is a SMN and when it produces EP.

By Peter Bakija (Bakija) on Friday, July 22, 2016 - 08:31 am: Edit

Ah, ok. Cool. It is certainly possible I'm using an older version of Vassal. I should remember that the answer is often "just update the darn thing!" :-)

Thanks!