Okay, if there's a PFT entry under the Feds, you have the Fed PF extension active.

Checking in there again, I see BCP 10/5 with P4. ...I also note that the version number is 2.0, indicating that it hasn't been updated since the initial release. ... I probably noted and fixed the graphics at one point, but didn't fix the zip package, because I thought there were no changes. I'll change it to 2.1, put it in the zip, and when I get 2.1.1 out the door, it'll go out.

(Older confirmation was done without looking in the module. I've been thinking the BCP being reported was a duplicate of the BC1 from Extras, since BCP is the SFB name for the phaser-armed BC. :P )

By Soeren Klein (Ogdrklein) on Sunday, January 07, 2024 - 01:29 am: Edit

James,
I install Vassal on another computer yesterday and used the opportunity to look into the Federation PFT extension with the "Edit extension" mode.

If I go down the aisle to the BCP, I see the counter with the P4 note.
But if I open a game with Vassal and a look up the BCP in the Federation PFT tab, then the note P4 ist missing on the counter.
Looks like you already changed the counter graphics but the module doesn't load the correct one ingame.

Hope this helps.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Soeren Klein

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Sunday, January 07, 2024 - 01:51 pm: Edit

Okay, my first thought on that problem didn't work.

Which... pointed the way to the problem. At some point, I bet I did have phaser BC version of the BCP in Extras, and it still has the graphics from that. So, if you load both extensions, you'll get the wrong image. I'll pull the images from the Extras extension.

(Leftover image cleanup is on the long 'to-do' list of Vassal devs.)

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Monday, January 08, 2024 - 07:25 pm: Edit

Okay, I need a couple of volunteers to proofread.

Part of the revision cycle right now is re-doing the counter stats to get away from excessive number of prototypes. This is all invisible to the user, but carries lots of opportunities for typos on my end.

So, I need a couple people to go through every Federation ship in my current working copy, and see if anything looks wrong stat-wise.

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Monday, January 08, 2024 - 07:41 pm: Edit

I can help. Email in profile.

By Soeren Klein (Ogdrklein) on Tuesday, January 09, 2024 - 02:21 am: Edit

James,
you were right.

If I install the module new and ignore the "Extra" expansion, the Battlecruiser-PFT counter is displayed correct. Once the expansion is activated, it is wrong.

I deactivated the expansion afterwards and the counter returns to the correct picture.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Soeren Klein

By John M. Williams (Jay) on Friday, January 12, 2024 - 02:30 pm: Edit

FYI - It appears that the Vassal server is down. Two of us are receiving a message that we are unable to connect to the server.

Never mind; it's back.

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Saturday, January 13, 2024 - 01:00 pm: Edit

It is basically just a single server, I think maintained by the current primary dev.

Occasionally something happens and it reboots. More serious outages happen, but usually its just a few minutes in my experience.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Tuesday, January 16, 2024 - 05:39 pm: Edit

James I see in the new version there is a note that the Home fleets grey space is a little larger than the regular fleets. Thank you.

Was there a space issue or reason we couldnt get all of the fleets to have +1 rows and +1 columns?

Reason is with some of the late war and new scenarios this extra space will indeed come in very handy for visual help and for trackin reports.

Example: we (The fed team) set up a VASSAL starting foces file for Stratcon this last year. At 5X the fleet allotments it was impossible to really see anything without shifting ships to the offboard. This eliminated the possible use of the Vassal reporting on SEQs and locations

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Wednesday, January 17, 2024 - 06:16 pm: Edit

I personally am jealous of screen real-estate, and am resisting having the fleet boxes get bigger because of it.

I have generally found the existing fleet boxes almost adequate in practice, and for scenario setup purposes, the single Home Fleet enlarged box has done well.

If you have five times the normal fleet size... I think you'd need a lot more than a minor size upgrade. (My mind boggles...)

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Friday, January 19, 2024 - 03:39 pm: Edit

Yeah the 5X for the Feds was most extreme.

I would appeal to ask at least match the Home fleet gray space increase to every fleet box.

Number of fleets: Maybe add a few more Strike Groups as fleets to help the Coalition spread their fleets across the galaxy.
Lets say 3 each.

The feds could use a few more (lets say 5 total) Counter-strike fleets due to their border size.

By Mike Curtis (Nashvillen) on Friday, January 19, 2024 - 03:52 pm: Edit

RE: Screen real estate

A lot of us have multiple monitors of 24" plus in size. Screen real estate is not much of an issue for us.

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Friday, January 19, 2024 - 10:49 pm: Edit

I have a 27" monitor. It doesn't help with screen real estate, since Vassal is pixel-bound. Unless you actually have better than 1080p resolution, or multiple monitors, the fleet windows will each continue to take up the same proportion of the screen no matter how big or small it is.

Outside of extraordinary situations like the overstuffed StratCon scenario, how is actual usage going? My (not very representative) mid-war experience had the Klingons actively using ~13 fleets, only one of which was stuffed full (and wasn't the Home Fleet, though it was at the capital), and the Feds were similar, though they did have a couple pretty stuffed.

Since there were a fair number of fleet boxes left, it would have been possible (if not entirely mentally easy) to break things up administratively, since simple sizable detachments weren't consuming all the available markers.

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Saturday, January 20, 2024 - 07:07 am: Edit

I have seen the Klingons run out of fleets and need to start scavenging from unused empires (Seltorian, Vudar, etc).

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Saturday, January 20, 2024 - 12:43 pm: Edit

That I can easily believe. How crowded were the individual fleet boxes at that point?

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Saturday, January 20, 2024 - 03:46 pm: Edit

There might have been a couple over-filled ones (FRD park type stuff), but it was mostly a matter of too many piles of 10-15 ships existing at one time.

Hey, there's an idea for a couple new fleets for each empire with over-sized grey areas. Give everyone a "1st Repair Depot" and a "2nd Repair Depot."

By Soeren Klein (Ogdrklein) on Sunday, January 21, 2024 - 12:08 am: Edit

James,
when Joern and I play a game our major fleets get crowded regularly because of carrier production.
We don‘t create piles sorted by carrier types but by the individual carriers and their assigned escorts. That way we track missing escorts and CVGs at the ready when combat starts.
After several turns of escort and carrier production the fleets get really full for the Feds, Klingons, Kzinti and Hydrans (probably ISC also) Less for the Roms (although sorting by ship type and eagles, krestel, and hawks also needs some space), Lyrans and Gorns.

I second the proposal of one or two large Repair Fleet per Empire.
We have the cripples sorted by ship type and there are many of them. Especially when homeworlds are attacked or conquered.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Sören Klein

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Sunday, January 21, 2024 - 02:52 am: Edit

The "Repair Depot" fleet boxes are a very good idea. (Hmm. Maybe a couple of LTF boxes for the Feds as well.)

I typically do my carriers groups as separate stacks too. At least the ones likely to see action (I do tend end up with a few loose carriers providing refills without proper available escorts - those go in a stack). And that can start filling things up fast.

Overall, I see more of the too many detachments syndrome though.

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Monday, January 22, 2024 - 12:00 pm: Edit

Another Idea we have been discussing with Chuck for the new version of the former Knipfer Fleet Charts is to have a few Base Logistic Fleets because folks tend to leave things at the Starbase (These would include a Capital Forces Fleet for every empire). We discussed including for the Klingon example (one for the NR SB and on for the SR SB, plus one extra for either the TBS SB or an added SB.

This would works better in Vassal as you could add a singular Capital forces fleet for each. You could then add Base Logistics forces as you have done for the Klingon Color fleets (labels as you see fit...#1-4, A-D, Alpha-Delta).

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Monday, January 22, 2024 - 12:25 pm: Edit

As for that gray space it is really just more important for tracking than it is is for view. I get the real estate issue in terms of expanding the window.

When there are stacks over 6 ships its hard to see them in the space but we want to use the reports to track and find the ships.

Tracking: Its not ideal but we have resolved to only put specialty ships really care about tracking in there (Maulers, Scouts, SFG, Drone, Personnel, and for some Carriers, Troops etc) standard warships fall out and get stacked to the side which is not ideal.

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Monday, January 22, 2024 - 08:10 pm: Edit

My stacks go well over six, and I don't have any trouble with them. (Okay, over a dozen and it's going to be more trouble....)

Starbase logistics is fairly common from what I've seen. Of course, the NR Fleet and a... NR Logistics could get a bit confusing. I'll consider it.

Right now, my thoughts are a Repair Depot fleet (numbered) for each expected major front of an empire (i.e., 3 Klingon, 2 each Fed, Rom, Lyran), plus 2 LTF fleets for Fed, plus 1 or 2 FRD Parks for everyone. I think that'll be a good start on the logistics part.

On the 'make pretty' end, I've been contemplating putting the appropriate national/naval symbol in as a background for the fleet boxes. (Basically, the same symbol as on the fleet counters, but this time obscured by counters instead of text. ;) )

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - 01:41 am: Edit

Interesting...as an example on mine with a stack of six the top edge of those on line two obscures the bottom 50% of the combat factors of the ships on line 1...when you add the 7th ship its 100% obscured. I would include a screen shot as an example but this forum does not work in that way.

Be careful calling a fleet Repair Depot as there is a chart of the same name and in fact when you send a ship with the Depot option in vassal is goes there. The FRD park is a better idea for a name.

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Tuesday, January 23, 2024 - 07:58 am: Edit

Good point on the "Repair Depot" name. "FRD Park" really doesn't work either because it's insider lingo. Perhaps "Logistics Group #" or "Forward Depot #"?

By James Lowry (Rindis) on Wednesday, January 24, 2024 - 12:39 pm: Edit

I've been concerned over the name 'repair depot', but haven't had a better idea (the in-module reference is just "Depot"). FRD Park I think is fine enough since it's not too hard to figure out, especially since I plan to mention the new fleets in the PDF guide.

That said, Jason's ideas are not bad. Perhaps MFR (Mobile Fleet Repair) if you want to sound official... and/or Field Repair Group...

As for covering counters... as long as you can still select them, I don't get too worried. If you know what it is, you probably know the factors. If you have a consistent organization, you probably know the factors. And selecting the stack brings it visually to the top. Also, hoverover works as long as there's more than one ship in the stack, which will still give you the totals.

Now, how stacking appears can be changed too. The default is over 2 up 4, and I could go to up 3. At 100% zoom, you still get striping from the shading, so you can still eyeball the stack pretty well.

See here:
http:\www.rindis.com\demo.jpg

By Kevin Howard (Jarawara) on Wednesday, January 24, 2024 - 01:04 pm: Edit

I think I found a glitch, though admittedly it is a really minor one.

I was using Orion LR in a previous gamefile, to represent the Federation VT (now in the new version). With the update, I'm now going through and deleting all the LR's and replacing them with VT's. So I click on the LR to bring up the menu, scroll down to delete... and I notice that the first item on the menu is "Tholian". Curious, I click it, and that LR has now been captured by the Tholians. I presume this is leftover from the capture menu somehow, but probably shouldn't be part of the main selection?