Is it important to update to v9.2.0 or can I stick with v9.1.5 bottom line:
Always update. You know that by now.
Version
This module was now saved with Vassal Client v3.4.11
New features
Every player can now mouse-over other players’ cards and see a zoomed version, making it useful to scope out an opponent’s loadout. However, this opens up grifting possibilities which I hope players can resolve between each other.
Once a ship has moved and selected, you can spawn the movement template that was used with ‘s’. This can be used for effects that require a ship to move through another ship (ie Starbird Slash). Select that newly spawned template and hit ‘s’ to detect overlaps with other ships. This is better than using the collision aide template, which has extended straight 3 ends, because it could trigger false detections in the extended parts.
Website guide updated
A few missing entries (sideslip, Starbird Slash, hyperspace marker, etc), some with short soundless video tutorials, were added at http://xwvassal.info/guide
New cards
Every card for the November releases are included in this module
Nimi Chireen is now name-corrected and included as a t-70 x-wing pilot
A better image quality Buzz droid remote card is now included
3 new condition cards + associated tokens are included as part of the November releases
Zam Wessell condition card feature
Special card for the condition that acts like a dial. Use period ‘.’ or comma ‘,’ to cycle between the 2 choices. Do CTRL-R to hide/reveal. You’ll get a warning if you try to change the card once it’s on the map. The other players see a masked card on the map when you hide your choice.
What you see when you hide the condition card (CTRL-R to toggle hide/reveal)What other players see when your condition card is hidden
Hyperspace Marker Mouse Interface
Reminder: this token is used in the Aces High play mode, which was released in the Epic Battles expansion kit
Find it under the Pieces Window in ‘SecondEdition’ part, ‘Tokens2e’ tab. Drag and drop it to the map.
Ctrl-click to access it
Select a ship (clickable dots)
Select one of 3 positions around the marker (clickable dots)
Bug Squashing
The front launching bomb spawner is now correctly oriented instead of flipped 180. The bug was due to the addition of a free rotate feature to it in the last version which broke the flip command it had to receive in front launching mode.
Condition cards no longer spawn under the pilot card to the left under certain conditions (ie when there’s no upgrade card)
Sideslip moves are now announced with the right heading in the chat window when they’re performed (thought I had fixed it last time, but this time it’s for realz)
Cut a whole bunch of outdated 1.0 stuff (open movement dials, open movement strips, movement reference cards) to reduce the size of the module
Is it important to update to v9.1.5 or can I stick with v9.1.0 bottom line:
Always update. You know that by now.
Changes
This module was now saved with Vassal Client v3.4.7
Undo can now be done with CTRL-Z keystroke. It doesn’t seem to be great because it fails to work with some commands. I’m not sure, It’s probably a broken pipe dream that requires a LOT of diligence with the millions of custom commands I’ve written since 2017. You may decide to continue using the curved arrow button in the chat window instead.
At the time I’m writing this, FFG hasn’t updated its squad builder and the newest card art content in the background, on which we depend to get the card art for the newest October releases. This will be added via the Content Checker in the next days. Click on it when it flashes black and white. Your 9.1.5 will get its missing goodies. I ended up uploading the images myself, they were all fetchable from the articles.
At the time I’m writing this, the web service which translates a YASB url to XWS isn’t updated with the latest release. Hopefully this gets fixed soon. In the mean time, convert your YASB list into XWS directly in the website, before you copy paste it into autospawn’s method 2 text box. You can spawn lists with the newest stuff using YASB urls now.
New map
New Frog Squadron (group based around Quebec City, MY GROUP!) 3’x3’ map
Autospawn
Upgrade cards that are associated with remotes will now spawn the remote card(s)
Sensor buoy blue and red tokens added and can spawn with Sensor Buoy Suite tech upgrade
Dual-state ships
Tie/rb Heavy can now rotate its cannon with ALT-U or with the ship mouse GUI (this is a different feature not related to the turret arc indicator)
HMP Droid Gunship can now toggle between its active and inactive repulsor lift state with ALT-U (or the ship mouse GUI)
Friendly reminder that lots of ships have dual graphical states by now.
New cards
Remote “pilot cards” added in Pieces/SecondEdition/Remotes.
New tokens
Concussion bombs are now added in the bomb spawner that can be spawned from ships
Sensor buoy (blue and red versions) – they have a toggleable range 1-2-3 finder as well as autorange report (right click to access it)
The bomb spawner can now freely rotate
Hyperspace Token
The hyperspace marker can now freely rotate
Bug Squashing
Face up damage cards can now spawn reminder tokens like it used to be a few module versions ago (CTRL-T while the card is selected)
Autorange from obstacles/remotes was broken, it is now fixed
Sideslip text description mixed up left/right headings. This is now corrected.
Better handling of a bug during autospawn when it can’t find some local file that the x-wing module is supposed to write in its own folder. Instead of just a nondescript java bug popup, a message will explain the issue and how to resolve it. Those files aren’t there because the OS you’re using doesn’t grant permission to Vassal to write files in the spot where the module is located. Pick a better location! This is a well-known issue and is explained in the installation guide at http://xwvassal.info/guide.
Upcoming features in next module version
Zam Wessell condition card feature
(to do) Special card for the condition with a hidden state and 2 reveal commands (through the right click menu).
Hyperspace Marker Mouse Interface
(to do) Ctrl-click to access it
(to do) Lets you select a bomb icon or a ship icon
(to do) The bomb icon will let you spawn a bomb spawner
(to do) The ship icon will let you select one of the ships so you can attach it to the marker
(to do) Either way, you’ll then click on one of the 3 dots (one per branch of the marker)
Is it important to update to v9.1.0 or can I stick with v9.0.0 bottom line:
The quick answer is: yes, update.
The long answer is complicated this time around.
If you have updated your Vassal client to v3.4.1+:
You have no choice to update to X-Wing v9.1.0, otherwise pretty much nothing works
If you have updated your Vassal client to v3.3.x:
You can keep using v9.0.0 but as soon as the September ships are upon us, you’ll have a bad TIE/rb Heavy, so update anyway to v9.1.0.
If you have updated your Vassal client to v3.3.x, have a 4k display and are stuck with the very old X-Wing v8.9.2:
The v9.0.0 module fixed issues with 4k monitors and weird java interface sizes leading to gameplay issues with the size of the ships, but go ahead and get the latest and greatest anyway just for good measure, both for client and x-wing module.
If you’re on the old v3.2.17 and have an older 1080p monitor and want to hold off as long as possible:
You can have a bug free experience with client v3.2.17 and x-wing v9.0.0 (or even v8.9.2) for the next couple of weeks, but update both of these anyway in time for the Fall releases.
Cliffsnotes of this update?
All ship movement, dial reveals, ship reposition, bomb dropping, autorange from ships, autorange from obstacles ARE BROKEN if and only if you have the vassal client v3.4.1; all those issues are repaired with this new v9.1.0 module. This v9.1.0 module is fully backwards compatible with v3.3.x and v3.2.17 as well.
Fixed: a weird bug which showed you a null pointer error popup when you joined a game at a specific point while players manipulated a dial would give you the impression that something very bad happened, but it had no consequence to you the observer. These should not happen anymore.
TIE/rb Heavy dial plate now has a fixed tallon roll left icon instead of a rightward one
New 3’x3′ Map from Team Culex
Because of Vassal client v3.4.1, some chat window alerts and automated text appear as blue text instead of the old pink, some of it has reverted to plain (non bold) black, the next module versions will try to leverage this new reality to create a few classes of alert, as ideas are found.
What happened with Vassal client v3.4.1?
In their efforts about increasing compatibility with international keyboard layouts, this changed how all keyboard shortcuts are displayed in their “text” form. The X-Wing module used their textual representation without issues for 3 years+, but all became broken under v3.4.1 – this included everything that was built on the backbone of the keyboard shortcuts: ship movement, ship repositions, autorange, etc.
Even though most most players use the dials to move ships and the ship mouse interface for everything else, these shortcuts could still be typed in manually by the savvy user looking to shave off a few seconds (to perform a sleek and quick as-far-as-possible-barrel-roll, for example). Even the graphical ship mouse interface issued commands via these olden keyboard shortcuts.
Everything was changed to a much more robust language-blind keystroke java definitions and should work with all versions, old and new alike!
Is it important to update to v9.0.0 or can I stick with v8.9.2 bottom line:
Always update. You know that by now.
Cliffsnotes of this update?
The Vassal client v3.3.2 is out after years (?) of being at v3.2.17. Most players have not upgraded yet. Details below
Finally, 4k monitors won’t give you ridiculously small interface buttons
A new key to summon the ship mouse interface for Mac users with Vassal v3.3.x
Wave 7 and 8 ships are included with dials and at least 1 pilot
Sideslip (introduced by the HMP Droid gunship upgrade card) mechanism working, mouse GUI, small ships only
New Vassal client v3.3.2, the good and the bad
The Vassal client was on v3.2.17 for YEARS. Most players are still with it, especially mac users after they found out some bugs affected them when they updated to v3.3.x. This is no longer a problem now with this new x-wing module.
This new major branch of the client program (the launcher of vassal module) has been updated with the hopes of finally addressing owners of 4k monitor (or more!) who saw their vassal java window icons, menus and various user interface elements very reduced in size proportionally to their screen. In Vassal 3.2.17, people either found a OS-related solution to circumvent it, or just accepted the smallness. I don’t really know since I only own a 1080p PC monitor.
However, the v3.3.x line (starting with v3.3.0) of the Vassal client addressed this and scaled the size of these elements accordingly to what Java detects as your monitor. This is GOOD! No more eye straining and misclicks on your shiny 4k monitor!
A problem appeared: that scaling factor messed with many Java programmed elements inside the X-Wing module, rendering a lot of stuff very unusable: autorange lines, barrel roll triple choices, mouse ship interface, etc.
This was fixed because I followed the Vassal devs’ suggestion and could test the rescaling with a special command given to me, despite not owning a 4k monitor. Let me know for sure, though, if it really works on a real 4k monitor if you’re lucky to own one.
Next, for some obscure (to me) reason, mac users can no longer make the ship mouse interface appear with a held ctrl key + left click of the mouse. This has transformed into the behavior normally reserved for a Windows “right click” context menu, which opens the deprecated old style menu with missing entries and such. Is it the Mac OS update which did this? Is it the forced migration from Java SDK 8 to SDK 11 forced by the update of the vassal client? I’m not sure, but I have a solution!
I added the rightmost alt-key + left click as a second way to summon the ship mouse interface. On the mac, this is the rightmost option-key + left click. I had a mac user confirm it works, hopefully it does for all mac users.
I’m 92% that both of these problems are solved; they were not that technically complicated, but I can’t be 100% sure because I don’t own a modern mac (my most recent mac is a Mac SE/30….) nor do I won a 4k monitor. Fingers crossed. You should also update your client to v3.3.2 or above at this point. Another useful reason to do it is that the Java runtime files are bundled with it, so no need for some rare users to mess with java versions downloaded from Oracle.
Wave 7 and 8, ships + dials in
With the dials all spoiled, I edited the community driven xwing-data 2 repo with at least a single pilot for all of the stuff that’s incoming in fall of 2020. All those ships can be spawned, with a working dial (with new purple tallon roll icons). The cards are placeholders while we wait for their official points to drop.
Sideslip, the nightmare brought by a single card
Repulsorlift Stabilizers.
The HMP Droid Gunship has a very new capability, sideslip movements. Basically, banks 1-2-3 and turns 1-2-3 are performed from the sides of the ship, while maintaining the heading of the ship towards the enemy. It can overlap obstacles like a regular movement (needs new code), it can overlap a ship and resolve itself with the autobumping (needs new code). I also dedicated the unused ship mouse interface to it for small ships.
@Mu0n:
Fall 2020 new stuff readiness
Droid Tri-fighter: added ship + dial + entry in xwd2
New purple maneuvers added (tallon roll 2) for the eta-2 actis’ dial
New sideslip functionality
Added 12 buttons in the (until now) unused ship mouse interface ‘page’ (leftmost button) with a HMP silhouette page button; only shows up for small ships, including 6 new images under photoshop (note: I didn’t do the original illustrator design nor am I a designer, Jomblr did it)
Calculated the translations and rotations for all 12 final positions for these movements
Calculated the translations and rotations for all 12 template usage while this move is performed for obstacle overlap detection purposes
Calculated the translations and rotations for all 12 collision aide templates when a ship to ship overlap occurs with sideslips (ie when ‘c’ is pressed)
Calculated the partial movement when an autobump sideslip resolution has to happen and backtrack the ship
Vassal v3.3.2 (and 3.3.0 and 3.3.1) Bug Squashing:
4k monitor users can now enjoy normal sized (instead of tiny) java user interface buttons and menus while ALSO not mess up autorange + ship mouse interface + tallon rolls + various custom mouse interface that were added in the x-wing module.
CTRL-Left click to bring out the ship mouse interface was bugged (it brought up the old style windows-right-click menu). Alt-left click was added in windows; which translates to option-left-click for mac users. Only the rightmost alt or option key works for windows and mac users respectively for some reason.
@Tsukuda_Joe:
Mac User test:
Helped test out the new alt-left click to bring up the ship mouse interface with his Mac environment under Vassal v3.3.2
Is it important to update to v8.9.2 or can I stick with v8.8.9 bottom line:
Always update. You know that by now.
Cliffsnotes of this update?
The small base “chit” graphique for all ships have had their arc lines (front and back) redrawn so that they better line up with the toggle 1-2-3 range firing arcs
2 new maps were added: Jehda (from space) and Mustafar (planetside)
Autorange has been tweaked to work with some elements (it now properly shows obstructed shots) in the optional Hotac and Flight Group Alpha module extensions
Concerns about the new Vassal client software 3.3.1
Small Base Fix
Since the launch of the 2.0 version of the vassal module, the arc lines on the ship base (small form factor only) had a slight difference in the angle, compared to the toggleable range 1-2-3 graphic (that you can toggle with ctrl-f, for example). The difference was in a range between 0.5 and 1.0 degrees, enough to cause some players in the community varying degrees of concern, ranging from mild to severe. Shown above is the fixed version.
Here’s an animated comparison between the old and new versions of an empty small ship base. The newer version is a bit narrower.
Maps
Chris Allen bugged me about adding maps. I don’t do this often and I added them compressed, with reduced saturation, .jpg quality reduced so as to not occupy the image’s original 11+ mb size (they were reduced under 300 kb)
Jehda getting pwnedHigh Ground Battle Simulator Place
Hotac and Flight Group Alpha
Some of the objects used in these campaigns (which can be played using their respective x-wing module extensions, downloadable in the official vassal webpage) can now properly obstruct shots and trigger the appropriate behavior from the autorange feature.
The Vassal client was updated from 3.2.17 to 3.3.1
Use this new Vassal client at your own risk. I haven’t tested the X-Wing module with it yet, but some patch notes from the Vassal page gives me some concern:
Things may be broken which worked in 3.2.17. If you find a bug introduced since 3.2.17, please report it.
If you save a module in VASSAL 3.3, you will NOT be able to open it afterwards with VASSAL 3.2. We recommend keeping a backup copy of any pre-3.3 modules you plan to modify in 3.3 until you’ve verified that everything works to your satisfaction.
Some modules containing custom drawing code may render incorrectly on HiDPI displays. If you are the maintainer of such a module, let us know and we can advise you about what needs updating for 3.3 in your code. (We are aware already that VASL has this problem and are working with its maintainers to update it.)
Basically, the big new thing about this new client is support for higher resolution monitor (4k and such), which tended to be a bummer for some users, since the interface elements of Vassal would remain extremely small for them. I can’t really say since I personally own a circa-2013 Windows machine with a trusty 1920×1080 monitor.
Keep in touch with me if you do test it and it ends up working badly. That would be very appreciated.
If you’re risk averse, stick with Vassal client 3.2.17 for now.
Patch notes:
@Mu0n:
Chat window (main window) buttons:
Small ship chits: gfx redrawn under Gimp to match the angle of the 1-2-3 arc graphic toggle (and also the autorange)
Did Chris Allen’s work he promised me he’d do but didn’t of desaturating, quality reducing and jpg save-as-ing for the 2 maps he presented me (Shaaaaaaame :P)
Added autorange for some elements of Hotac and Flight Group Alpha
Autospawn now correctly spawns charge tokens on pilots as well as force charge token increases from upgrade cards with force
Aces High marker is in the Pieces window
12 Environment cards are in the Pieces window
Blinded Pilot damage card text is fixed and uses printed version now
Player 7 and 8 can now roll the dice and play!
Aces High playable
This token was highly requested over the last few months.
You can’t underestimate its importance, as this casual play mode is perfect for teaching new players the vassal module, as well as the game itself if need be. And there seems to be a high uptick of new players on the platform. Welcome them in and consider using that token.
It can be found in the Pieces window, SecondEdition page, Token2e tab.
Google Events Calendar
A new [Events Calendar] button in the main window button bar leads to this popup.
By clicking the link, you can open up a browser page to a community driven Google Calendar. As a player, you’ll have access to the date of many events in the community which are based on Vassal. Signup start/end dates as well as the event’s own participate start/end date will be shown there. Ideally, this will make players avoid to scour the whole of the internet, forums, facebook groups to hunt down new events to participate in. Click on any single event and you’ll be provided with the necessary info and link to sign up or follow up.
As an interested player, once you load up the Calendar, you can then click on the [+]Google Calendar button located at the bottom right corner of the page:
This will integrate the content of the Vassal X-wing Events to your own personal Google Calendar. Any new event that gets added there will be browsable from your personal account. You can, at any time, toggle on and off any individual Calendar when you view them in your Google account.
If you’re a tournment organizer reading this, please do contact me so I can give you a Google Forms to fill in so that the Calendar gets populated with your event!
Streamlined button bar for the main window
It now looks like this:
There are 4 changes:
Removal of the [How To & Shortcuts] button which was deprecated (too tied to the first edition)
Removal of the [X-Wing Ref Cards] button, for the same reason
New [Help] button, opening a popup shown below
New [Events Calendar] button, opening a popup shown above
This is what the [Help] window looks like; by clicking the links, you get to the Vassal website and guide that have been up for years now, but have very recently been revamped fully to the latest of Second Edition.
AutoSpawn additions
Charge tokens now appear besides pilot cards. Force charge tokens from upgrades now correctly increases the amount of tokens by the pilot card instead of just spawning a token in the common token pool above:
Also, every list has recently been spawning ion and strain tokens, in case you get the Disabled Power Regulator critical damage card or got it from a gas cloud obstacle. This was added without a line of code or needing a new module version, thanks to a web repo checked by the vassal module that deals with tokens that should be loaded with specific actions, pilots, upgrades or ships.
There are a few missing tokens (ie Deuterium Power Cells) which are well on their way to appear, pending a very soon to come update on the community driven xwing-data2 maintained by Legend Guido Kessels and collaborators.
Environment cards
If you were hankering to get some variety in the obstacle placement phase, you are now served with these in the Pieces Window, SecondEdition page, Environment tab:
Player 7 and 8 can now play!
For some reason, since 2014, no one has bothered to use those player slots. With Aces High and Hotac modes being played a lot since the confinements orders worldwide, people have started reporting that these player slots can’t roll the dice or participate much in the game. This has been fixed!
Patch notes:
@Mu0n:
Chat window (main window) buttons:
The [How-To and Shortcuts] Button is removed (it was severely outdated and related mostly to first edition)
The [Ref Cards] Button is removed for the same reason
A new [Help] button leads to a window linking to the X-Wing Vassal website and its guide
A new [Events Calendar] leads to a window explaining about the brand new Google Calendar with automatically fed events from community organizers.
Events Calendar
If you are a player, this Calendar can be integrated to your Google Account. It will list event signup with dates and web link for information. It will list the event actual start and end dates with web link for information.
These events will be submitted automatically to this Calendar, from a curated list of community organizers that contact Mu0n and possibly future co-admins.
If you are such an organizer, by making your case, you will be granted a Google Form that you fill in once for signups and second time for the event itself.
New elements in the Pieces Window:
Added the Environment cards from the “Never Tell me the Odds” pack. They can be found, dragged and dropped away from the Pieces window, SecondEdition tab, Environment tab.
Hyperspace Marker (used in an Aces High scenario, for example). They can be found, dragged and dropped away from the Pieces window, SecondEdition tab, Tokens2e tab.
New tokens taken care of by Autospawn:
Pilots with charge tokens will now spawn a charge token by their pilot cards (new lines of code were needed)
Pilots with upgrades that grant force (or extra force) will now spawn force tokens by their pilot cards instead of the generic token pool.
Some upgrade cards which grant the Lock action will now spawn a target lock token if it was not already the case, such as Targeting Computer, Passive Sensors (online edit of a web text file, if you find any more of them, please report)
Strain and ion tokens will now be spawned with every list in case anyone uses a gas cloud for strain or if someone gets the Disabled Power Regulator critical damage card (online edit of a web text file, basically all pilots that either have Focus or Calculate actions, which means 100% of pilots) get these tokens)
Player 7 and 8 feature complete
These player spots can now roll the dice in the dice window
These player spots can now interact with the turn tracker window
Bug Squashing:
The text for the damage card ‘Blinded Pilot’ was fixed from “While attacking, you can modify your dice only by spending a force for its standard effect.” to “While you perform an attack, you can modify your dice only by spending force for their default effect.”
(sorry for this late blog post about this version which is now months old, wordpress stopped working for me for a while)
Changes made by: @Mu0n:
New gas cloud tokens
All 3 new tokens from ‘Never Tell me the Odds’ expansion pack can now be used (they spawn right from a YASB2 list that has them included)
CTRL-T target lock images for them have been added
CTRL-SHIFT-T autorange detection to ships from those new tokens have been added
Bug Squashing:
The Galactic Empire TIE/in interceptor was recently errata’ed to tie/in interceptor instead of tie interceptor in its printed pilot cards, so xwing-data2 rightfully followed suit, which means vassal must allow follow suit. The correct image files were renamed with the new convention (dial plate + isolated ship + ship base + all pilot cards). You could get almost everything from the Content Checker, except the ship bases. This is all included in this new version.
The belbullab dial plate image was correct in the last versions, except in the edge case where you would overwrite all content with the Content Checker (it’s an optional choice that happens only if you check the ‘download all’ checkbox during the process). A bad version was present in a repo online and would make your module display the wrong dial plate image for that ship – however, the centered selected maneuver was always right despite the bad plate image. This is now all fixed and no corruption can occur again..
Is it important to update to v8.7.9 or can I stick with v8.7.1 bottom line:
Always update. You know that by now.
Cliffsnotes of this update?
Want to activate the autoranges for the left arc, right arc, full front arc and full back arc? You can. These buttons are no longer disabled and show you the best line or the best band of lines you can get.
The deplete token was added in (wave 6+)
The ships (TIE/ba interceptor and fireball) and some pilot card art gfx which was added via the Content Checker has been included in this update. Both of those ships are playable.
Changes made by: @Mu0n:
New autoranges for arcs
Left Arc Autorange
Right Arc Autorange
Full Front Arc Autorange
Full Back Arc Autorange
Automatically routed Autorange NOT IMPLEMENTED for single and double turret, use individual arc autoranges instead
New Depleted token
Should spawn with a few of the pilots that mention it
Can also be found in the Pieces window
Autospawn rework
This is an invisible upgrade in the background. The URL endpoint that was used to spawn a YASB2 list URL has been migrated to another. The old one will no longer be maintained so I had no choice but to follow the new one.
Bug Squashing:
I believe I’ve solved a seldom occurring bug involving rear arcs when the ship was facing a certain way (right, iirc). No targets were being found on the left. This has been resolved.
Is it important to update to v8.7.1 or can I stick with v8.7.1 bottom line:
Always update. You know that by now.
Cliffsnotes of this update?
An important bug exists in 8.7.0 and it can give you the impression that the ship mouse interface does not activate if the ship is too close to the bottom edge of the map – and then you can no longer activate any ship (in reality, the interface is far offscreen and can’t be closed/manipulated. oops!). 8.7.1’s sole purpose is to fix this mistake of 8.7.0 released yesterday on July 11th.
Is it important to update to v8.7.0 or can I stick with v8.6.0 bottom line:
Always update. You know that by now.
Cliffsnotes of this update?
The mouse interface EXPLODED into its 3rd iteration (from 15 buttons to 103 buttons, including 5 pending) with a hot new look from Jomblr and tons of new buttons (and pages of buttons!)
Fuse tokens are here as well as the Electro-Proton Bomb, making this update wave 4 feature complete
Echo decloak is now possible with automation and is supported by the ship mouse interface
All ships can activate all the arcs (present and future proofing – think about Sinker, the ARC-170 republic pilot), including full 180 degrees arc front AND back, left arc and right arc. Some autoranges are not ready but will be eventually in a next update.
Designed by Jomblr
This new original design is thanks to Johan aka Jomblr. He offered to create a new popup window for the ship mouse interface, which you can activate with a CTRL-left click on any ship. In case you weren’t aware, an older style of ship mouse interface has been present for the last few module updates. Here are some aspects for the interface:
-Only one ship may have an interface popup display at once
-You can close the interface with the little red x button
-You can toggle between whole pages of buttons with the toggles found under the center ship base shape
-The ship interface will always try to pop in space which minimizes an overlap with ships/obstacles/clickable objects
-Some buttons appear as grayscale – this means they’re not implemented yet
-If you’re a grizzled veteran who knows many shortcuts by heart and have done so for years, you can still use them. Some new stuff DON’T have shortcuts though (starviper barrel rolls, echo decloaks) so you MUST use the mouse interface to do them quickly.
-The goal for this interface is to completely replace the old (still present!) menu you get from right clicking on a ship – we’re almost completely there at making it completely obsolete. If you hated how you could never remember keyboard shortcuts for barrel roll straight 2, or starviper barrel rolls, or rear arc graphic toggle, this interface makes it all possible with mouse clicks instead.
-The mouse interface is a BIG GAME CHANGER for Vassal. I’ve dreamed of doing something like this for years, even before we were able to add in custom java code in March of 2017. From my timid first steps at the start of 2019 where I was able to detect mouse click events, the mouse interface steadily grew to this current form. It should be much easier than ever to bring in and teach new players to the platform. Please spread the word, please tell newer players that they should ctrl-left click on ships to get that going.
Default page of buttons you get when you summon the mouse interface for ships – Arc toggles and auto-range checks. Also always visible, ship stats tweaks for shield, hull, charge and force
Arc checks + auto-ranges: This interface gives EVERY ship access to every main arcs, even if they don’t have them. This was prompted by Sinker, the republic ARC-170 pilot, whose special ability makes you check his side left and right arc to find buddies of his. As you can see, you can toggle these arcs, along with every other: rear arc, full front arc, full back arc.
I did not have time to program the auto-range for these new arcs (I also need to debug the full front arc, which is different in 2nd edition compared to first edition) – it’s among the most complicated parts of java code I’ve done for the module back in late 2017. Most people don’t understand how many corner cases there are when you involve the side arcs when you try to find the best firing line. They will be coming in a future update. For now, they’re marked as unavailable in grayscale color.
Ship Reposition page of buttons for barrel rolls, decloaks and standard boosts
Ship reposition page: The layout by Jomblr makes it clear in a minimalistic way which way your ship will barrel roll by the position of the button relative to the central ship base graphic in the middle. Standard boosts are provided because future proofing against potential weird boosts is a losing battle. If you need to perform a hard turn 1 boost (ie Daredevil), just go to the movement/slam page (see below)
Turret page of buttons
Turret page: Not much going on here but many players will appreciate not having to learn the turret rotation keyboard shortcuts. Once the auto-range is solved for left and right arc, it’s going to be a cakewalk to implement it for single turret, then it shouldn’t be too hard for double-turrets. The turret arc toggle graphic works perfectly though – like before.
Miscellaneous page of buttons
Miscellaneous page: This is for the unclassifiable utility buttons – toggle sfoils (works for T65, T70, Scum Falcon, Vultures, Hyenas – basically every ship that have 2 graphic states) launch device, drop device, manual translation of ship per pixel and manual ship rotation by 1, 15, 90 or 180 degrees. Many people were not aware of the 90 degrees rotation (brought in summer of 2018 in preparation for the U-Wing’s pivot configuration ability), hopefully this mouse interface will bring these possibilities out of the shadows.
Mouvement/slam page of buttons
Movement/SLAM: these are all the possible movements in the game. Access this when you want to move a ship without using a dial – during the place forces step, when you perform a SLAM action, when you boost with a hard turn 1, etc. You should keep using a super-reveal (CTRL-S on a hidden dial placed on the map) on a dial to automate movements during the activation phase. This page of buttons is only here for some special needs outside of regular dial usage.
Free page of buttons
Free page: symmetry demands I have another button at the left side, but I have no idea what to do with it for now. What should it carry here? Leave a comment down below to tell me!
Wave 4 complete
The last bits needed to make wave 4 complete is the fuse token, the electro-proton bomb token (can be spawned by the bomb spawner) which required a new range 2 check. You can toggle it with CTRL-L and check autorange from the bomb token with CTRL-SHIFT-L (this feature was added a few modules ago). Some 40-or-so pilot and upgrade cards were also added to the autoupdater, but you’ll just get them already included in this 8.7.0 module anyway.
Vassal league season 8
It’s still time to sign up for the 8th season, but you HAVE to move fast. Go to https://listfortress.com/league to get all the details – this is the new league webpage from now on, managed by Antigrapist.
FULL PATCH NOTES:
@Mu0n:
Revamped look for the Ship Mouse GUI
3rd iteration of this GUI
Sharp new look by Jomblr (yay @ Jomblr)
Non-boxy buttons (grr @ Jomblr)
Toggleable pages of options (arcs, reposition, turret, maneuvers and misc)
Curvy bank barrel rolls now include echo decloaks (see below)
New arcs
Left and Right Arc (42 new svg graphics = 7 factions * 3 sizes * 2 arcs)
Works with the existing auto-range detection (CTRL-SHIFT-L on a mine token)
New condition token + condition cards
Since these don’t work with the auto-updater yet, they were added manually (it doesn’t happen that often so it’s not too annoying)
Compromising Intel, Decoyed, It’s the Resistance!
Echo decloak resolution with the mouse:
The Ship Mouse GUI can now deal with echo decloaks (akin to curvy barrel rolls with bank 2) left and right, going forward or backward and each of the triple choices (centered, as forward as possible and as backward as possible).
Those 12 end position choices are reposition choices that CAN’T be done with keyboard shortcuts. You must go through the Ship Mouse GUI
Miscellaneous:
Added the bullseye colored highlight on the Nantex-class ship base (ships that don’t have a full standard arc while still having a bullseye arc was a totally new case not covered by my ship base auto-generating code – so I just dealt with it manually here)
The splash screen image (when you decide to go online or offline) no longer contains a copyrighted image and makes it clear it’s not official
Included a new message in the module launch popup that tells you this is an unofficial module (ie not endorsed by FFG)
On Windows machines, if your module is in the /program files/ directory, Vassal might not have permission to write files there, resulting in an inability to spawn squads because it can’t fetch the local data. Other OSes may have similar problems in some spots as well. A new popup will show up and tell you what to do to remedy the situation.
Unofficial X-Wing Vassal Module 