Archive through April 20, 2023
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Federation & Empire: F&E COMPUTER PROJECTS:
F&E with Vassal:
Archive through April 20, 2023
By 'warbook documents', you mean the OOB, SIT, etc? Vassal doesn't have a great way of incorporating those, so I consider opening those PDFs in a browser the best solution (or print them out...).
Vassal really can't work with spreadsheets in the module, though I can hand over the one I use to anyone interested.
Progress report: Did not get the Gorns done during vacation, and got set back a week for Vassal bugs. But, Gorns are now done, and starting on the Tholians. I've also instituted a new prototype system for the factors which is invisible to you, but will someday allow me to get rid of the 100+ separate prototypes the old system generated (slowly converting all the old ships over will be an ongoing project in post-2.1 releases).
James if you still live around the Bay Area we should get a live game going. I am just over the 680 bridge.
James, screenshots (say PNG) of the OOB, SIT, etc. can be made and then attached in Vassal fairly easily. You are correct, the Excel needs to be separate. If you already have some economic spreadsheets I would really like to have then.
Where is the vassal module for F&E? The link I got to via Vassal didn't work.
The link on this page works for me:
https://vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Federation_%26_Empire
James, I made a version of 2.0 for Basic F&E, with the basic sequence of play and advanced rules highlighted. I added the Ship Information Tables and the basic combat chart to the combat mat, plus made two scenarios for the basic opening and introductory game (removing all the ships from later modules and adding the pre-war construction). I am sending it to you in email.
In Vassal there are four "heavy" ships in 0707 at game start. Are these in the OOB?
Up to six ships from the home fleet can start in 0707
See 711.0 in the 2016 FO rulebook:
"A Lyran player may, if he wants, substitute one or two HFFs for FFs and/or one or two HDDs for DDs, but further production isn’t allowed (or efficient) and the HFF and HDD cannot be converted into anything else."
If you don't want them, delete them, if you want them, move them to whatever fleet(s) you do the substitution(s) in and delete the appropriate FFs and DDs.
All right, I've made some more progress on the updated module. I'm most of the way through the WYN.
That leaves me with a couple questions, partially because I have the rules but not the countersheets.
The WYN TG has a drone pod listed in the TO SIT, but doesn't give any sort of regular designation for it. I'd assume DP or maybe BP if it's really a drone-throwing battle pod like the Kzinti's.
I normally do a small record chart, even for the minor powers, to keep all the bits like the raid pool. The single scenario (so far) for the WYN doesn't really call for that, and there's unanswered questions: Can they raid (in a more regular scenario)? How many of those pods do they get to use? Any repair ships (probably not)? Any Prime Teams?
I've got the capital chart put together; I need to get it into the module still. 
There is no Wyn tug listed in SFB, which is reflected in the SIT not having a SFB Ref. R12.1D, Module C1, page 25, states "The WYNs did not need and never operated ... tugs, starbases ..."
The WYN received a Tug in TO. It is a unbuilt variant.
F&E has introduced a number of ships for SFB before they got a SFB rule number. This is just another example.
BTW it is on Sheet Tango.
As for the designation of the Drone Pod I'd say use DP like the Klingon one, which it is probably based on it since it's got a scout channel.
A quick module design question: Right now the buttons to bring up everybody's list of fleets is in R# order. Which is okay with just the main 8 powers, but as that grows may not be the best idea any more. (This is also true in the main ship palette.)
I could shift to an alphabetical list. Group them by Coalition/Alliance/Neutral. (I might be able to sub-menu the sub-menus... but even if I can, I'm not sure it's smart; sub-menus can be easy to trip up on.)
Also, the module controls are threatening to go into a third row of buttons on my monitor. Avoiding that means shortening labels. The main way I can see to do that would be to cut "Fleets" out of "Fed Fleets", "Klingon Fleets" etc., but that reduces discoverability for new users.... How does "Fed Flt" sound? Or if I can come up with a 16x16 pixel icon that someone might think signifies 'fleets', I can do that in all the colors, and just have that and the empire name, which would still save room.
Anyone have any thoughts? (Including on other bits of UI.)
For the "fleet" buttons, I think using the form of "(3-letter code) FLT) would work well. Most of the empires have pretty well understood 3-letter abbreviations (FED, KLI, ROM, KZN, GRN, etc) If it doesn't create graphic design issues, using the standard empire color scheme on each fleet button would help make them easier to spot, even with abbreviated text. (The ROM FLT button is black text on a red button, etc.)
The only way to have color is with an inset graphic (like the chart and layers buttons). You can't change the appearance of the button itself in Vassal.
Here's a couple of possible quick mockup buttons:
Button 1
Button 2
Button 1 is better to me.....
Button 1
Button 1. Although I would suggest capitalizing FLT.
For the moment, I'm thinking of leaving it lowercase to emphasize the empire name part a bit.
And back a subject - should I include counters for any of the following for the WYN:
Admirals
Prime Teams
CPF/CPX
OPB
FSD
FRD
Convoys
REPR
Megafighters
Button 1
And I would say no to the extras for the Wyn, unless of course they get more love in the upcoming expansions.
Ive been playing a F&E game on VASSAl with another player for three weeks. This week, neither one of us could load the game map with either one of us hosting the room. The room creator could load the map fine, the joining player could not load the map. Once we waited for a full half hour. Does anyone what might be the issue here? Thanks in advance for any response.
Have you updated to version 3.6.15?
