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 Post subject: How to play online - VOTR Community
PostPosted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 1:15 pm 
Craftsman
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EDIT:

Noticed that some people looking for partners to play with so I thought of adding a list of al people intersted in joining the online commuity at the beginning of this post. I'll add the OR nickname followed by the skype handle as it's so far the standard communication channel for the community (Other players showed interest also, but I am listing the guys who posted their skype handle in the OR forum. So please let me know here if you want your name and handle on this list):

[h1]Looking for an online opponent?
Click the show button below!
If you wanna be added too, post your Skype id here.
[/h1]

[h2]Available Players[/h2]
[spoiler]
FelixPhantasm - toddarney
Krol - ilia_alex_kur
Haldir_Strikes - john.yance
jpchewy01 - jpchewy01
MuslimRohirrim - muslimrohirrim
[/spoiler]

[h1]Finally the tutorial is ready
you can download it from this link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=4a74 ... b9a8902bda
[/h1]You download the "VOTR Basics Demo 1.02" files (2 files), put them in the same dir and open the *.vlog file. walk through the tutorial with the "one step foward" and "redo" buttons. The demo was made using VOTR 4.06 module. Let me know if you have any questions or issue.



[h2]Original Post[/h2]

This post is to help people use vassal software and VOTR module to play lotr over the internet. It eleminates the barrier of distance that separates the LOTR population. I'll try to put quick tips for using the module and will also try to answer your questions as much as I can.

Actually using Vassal is as easy as drag and drop. all you need to do is:
- download the software and module
- install the software
- import the module in the software

and you're ready to play.

I'll try to give you some quick hints now and once you download and open the module feel free to ask anything and I'll be happy to answer as much as I can. Also guys involved in the new born online gaming community 8) are invited to help as they could or correct me if I am wrong or if I missed anything. I'll repeat the posted links to be all in one place for the campaign reference.

Step 1: Downloading links

[spoiler]# VASSAL (free software):
http://vassalengine.org/community/index ... &Itemid=26

# LOTR module: (VOTR4.06.vmod.zip)
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=4a74 ... b9a8902bda

# Skype: our current communication channel
http://www.skype.com/download/skype/windows/

# A tutorial about how elevation affects the LoS in Vassal: (this is a proposal that may be discussed and improved)
Two files are in the same link as the module above (3rd dimention rules - Demo 1.02.vlog and 3rd dimention rules - Demo 1.02.vsav). save both of them in the same dir.

Now your're set and ready to go.[/spoiler]

Step 2: Openning the Module & Starting a game

[spoiler]# Install the VASSAL software and open it.
# from file menu choose "import module" and open the VOTR4.06.vmod.zip file you downloaded. Now an entry of the module should appear in the software list.
# double click the entry to open the module
# If you're trying to test it by yourself you can go for the offline option, if you wanna play online you choose the online option.
# you'll be prompted to choose a ready made map. Just fot testing you can choose any one. (later you can make your own)
# the board will open. to view the board click the "Board" button in the VOTR controls window. you may want to resize or move the map window to be able to see the controls window again.
# Click "Pieces" to show all available pieces. you have tabs for Good, Evil, Terrain... to open and choose from. A pane will show with all sub categories (evil lists for instance). you may need to resize the list panes to see their contents.
# drag the image (not the name) of any piece you want to the board. you can further move the piece around by drag and drop if you need to adjust its place. After placing the terrain pieces you can highlight to control them again by shift+click (not just normal click for models). right click on any piece to see its control options.[/spoiler]

The games has many shortcuts (e.g. ctrl+L while highlighting a piece will show the radar ruler to show you the movement range). you can still use the right click on the piece to show it, but with time you'll learn them and it'll be very fast to play (even faster than picking and stretching your measuring tape in real time games! :wink: ).

After installing the VASSAL and importing the module, you can open the tutorial files just by double click the *.vlog file in "My Computer" and it'll open in VASSAL automatically. open the board normally and use the "step forward" and "redo" buttons to walk through the tutorial.

There are some more ready made maps you can download from the following link:
http://www.vassalengine.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1401

One last thing, a great feature that you can record all the game while you're playing along with any chat you made during the game. so basiclly you won't need any further effort making a report than just post/mail the saved file of the game along with its log file.

I'll stop now. Please let me know when you try it and come back with any questions you may have and we can go from there.

_________________
OFTENTIME,THE SHADOWS SERVE NOT ONLY TO CONCEAL THOSE WHO WISH TO DO EVIL,BUT ALSO PROTECT THOSE WHO SEEK TO DO GOOD


Last edited by MuslimRohirrim on Fri May 01, 2009 1:17 am, edited 9 times in total.
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:26 pm 
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Here are some of the most useful shortcuts in the game. Most of them are pretty easy to learn (even I managed :shock: ) and they make the game go a lot faster.
To save space I will provide them in dropdown lists. I will not be able to go through them at once, thus I'll be adding stuff when I have time. The most useful commands (the ones that really make life easy, not just take up bytes of memory) will be listed in bold
.


General Shortcuts (used for anything on board, hence useful)
[spoiler]
Ctrl+X ---- Delete highlighted object(s)

Ctrl+C ---- Clone Highlighted object(s)
[/spoiler]

Shortcuts that Affect Warriors
[spoiler]
Ctrl+B ---- If, for some reason, you want to see your mini without the base circle, this button toggles between these regimes (+ an obscure view that I don't understand)

Ctrl+D ---- Replaces the mini with a red skull, in token of its death.

Ctrl+E ---- Allows you to write the name or type of weapon the mini is armed with (if you are not playing WYSIWYG (I can't imagine why)).

Ctrl+F ---- Places a moveable "Fight" marker on the mini. Useful for separating fights and determining fight order.

Ctrl+G ---- Lets you state that your mini has a shield.

Ctrl+K ---- Places a "Knocked Down" marker on your mini.

Ctrl+L ---- A ruler radar appears around the mini, giving a general movement range.

Ctrl+N ---- Type in your mini's name (if it has one).

Ctrl+Q ---- A Ruler appears. IMHO, this is less useful than the radar, but it all depends on your taste.

Ctrl+R ---- Flips/Changes the picture of the mini. Has no game effect, but adds variety to your troops.

Ctrl+Y ---- Shows you the range of a mini's bow. I've never used this one so far.

Ctrl+Z ---- Places a target on a mini, showing that it is being shot at by some nasty archer. Also can be used just to draw the opponent's attention to a particular mini.

Ctrl Page_Down ---- displays the mini as lying on the ground.

Ctrl Page_Up ---- returns the mini into an upright position.

Shift+C ---- Places a "Courage" marker on your mini. I've seen it used in different ways so far.

Shift+J ---- Places a "Jump" counter on the mini.

Shift+N ---- Places a "Climb" counter on the mini.

Shift+F ---- Toggles between different firing modes: Ready to Fire>Firing>Nothing.
[/spoiler]

Special Shortcuts for Heroes
[spoiler]
Ctrl+H ---- This opens a window with the hero's Might, Will and Fate characteristics. All the numbers are editable.

Ctrl+W ---- This opens the window where you can edit the number of wounds the hero has (left).

Ctrl+N ---- this has been listed already, but I thought a reminder wouldn't hurt. Especially since this command is definitely more useful for heroes
[/spoiler]
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 12:42 am 
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Nice bit of coding guys.

I'm def printing out those shortcuts and posting them next to my screen.

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 3:56 pm 
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This aint the end of it too!

Here are some Terrain Shortcuts. But first, a word on highlighting terrain.
You will find that when you first pull a piece of terrain onto the board, it is automatically highlighted and you can edit it all you like.
You will also discover, to your dismay perhaps, that once you left-click outside that particular piece, it freezes in its position to wit and cannot be highlighted again with a normal left-click (like minis and markers).
Well, not exactly. You can still highlight and edit a piece of landscape by Shift+left-clicking it. I believe this was done to prevent terrain from accidentally being moved during gameplay.
So you can take your time and come back to each piece no matter how long ago you placed it. With this in mind, here are the...

Terrain Shortcuts
[spoiler]
Ctrl+A ---- Allows you to rotate the piece using your mouse and left-click

Ctrl+C ---- The already familiar cloning command.

Ctrl+E ---- Change elevation stats for terrain pieces.

Ctrl+T ---- Shows the tree stumps of forests and thickets.

Ctrl+X ---- Another old friend. Deletes selected piece
[/spoiler]
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 5:46 pm 
Elven Warrior
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The file 'C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\VOTR\moduledata' is not a valid VASSAL module.
This is what I get when I try to import it?
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 7:14 pm 
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Does the name of the file end in ".mod"?
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 7:26 pm 
Elven Warrior
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I think iv sorted it now mate I just d/l from somewhere else it works now but just diont kno how to play it, lol
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 8:00 pm 
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Sure, take it easy, mate.
Any more questions, feel free to ask :)
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 1:24 am 
Elven Warrior
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Hi Alex This is great stuff. I haven't tried anything yet, but I'm taking some days off and I'll try it this week. If I think I'm ready for a game I'll pm you.

Oh here's a coin for all your help.

Rob
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 6:42 am 
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I'm getting the same issue as Ste271276. No, it does not end in a .mod. It's just a "file."

So I followed the link from the Vassal forum link (For the extra maps) and downloaded THAT VoTR thing, and it seems to be working so far.
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 1:05 pm 
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All this is awesome! Keep it coming folks, the more the merrier. :)

And ask questions. 8) 8)
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 3:01 pm 
Craftsman
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Glad to know it worked for you guys. waiting to hear about your first online game! :D
Just to make sure, what module version is working for you now?
to know it, after you open the module just open the "about votr" from the help menu. it's the one right below the image.

ste271276 wrote:
I think iv sorted it now mate I just d/l from somewhere else it works now but just diont kno how to play it, lol


I'll try to post a quick demo soon.

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OFTENTIME,THE SHADOWS SERVE NOT ONLY TO CONCEAL THOSE WHO WISH TO DO EVIL,BUT ALSO PROTECT THOSE WHO SEEK TO DO GOOD
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 4:22 pm 
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I added a list of players interested in VOTR online games for easier access. As I mentioned in the post above, I only added the guys that posted their skype contact for people to contact them, so please let me know if you're interested to be added to the list.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 7:11 pm 
Elven Warrior
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Managed to download Vassal, went through the tutorial and then downloaded VOTR. I think everything is working fine. The only problem is this. There are 10 other links on the page you linked us too for VOTR and when I download them and try to open them, nothing happens. For example the Helms Deep one (Im assuming is a map) won't open in Vassal and I don't know what to do with it. Can anyone help me please? :(

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 7:24 pm 
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lorderkenbrand wrote:
Managed to download Vassal, went through the tutorial and then downloaded VOTR. I think everything is working fine. The only problem is this. There are 10 other links on the page you linked us too for VOTR and when I download them and try to open them, nothing happens. For example the Helms Deep one (Im assuming is a map) won't open in Vassal and I don't know what to do with it. Can anyone help me please? :(


The other *.mdx files are extensions to the module. (Mainly they are ready made boards that make nice addition to your terrain collectinon)

in the vassal window, right click the VOTR module and choose "add extension" then add them one after another. for an image of the this process see Haldir_strikes post near the bottom of the following page:
http://www.one-ring.co.uk/phpBB2/viewto ... 6&start=20

now when you open a new game you have the choice of choosing the ready-made board from the list.

let me know if this helps or if you have any more questions

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 7:43 pm 
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@ lorderkenbrand: those other 10 links were to extension boards (as you noted very well).
After I updated my Vassal to the latest version, they don't seem to load for me too. Thus I'm guessing that since they were created by a previous version of vassal, the newest version is incompatible with them. Kind of like why in MSWord you can save docs in two formats: '98-'03 and '07.
As for the suggestion to add them as extensions, I did that got an error message saying: Unable to Write File

When I clicked for details I got the stuff in the spoiler. Can anyone with java knowledge (wink at Mohammad :) explain what that means?

[spoiler]java.io.IOException: Could not create C:\Program Files\VASSAL-3.1.4\VOTR4.06.vmod_ext
at VASSAL.build.module.ExtensionsManager.ensureExists(ExtensionsManager.java:112)
at VASSAL.build.module.ExtensionsManager.getExtensionsDirectory(ExtensionsManager.java:83)
at VASSAL.build.module.ExtensionsManager.setActive(ExtensionsManager.java:141)
at VASSAL.launch.ModuleManagerWindow$ModuleInfo$1.actionPerformed(ModuleManagerWindow.java:1100)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton.doClick(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicMenuItemUI.doClick(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicMenuItemUI$Handler.mouseReleased(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(Unknown Source)
[/spoiler]


Cheers!
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 8:03 pm 
Craftsman
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first I'd like to emphasise that this shouldn't affect your ability to use the module at all. it's just an extension.

As for the error you posted it seems like a problem writting the file to its destination. for an easy way to work around this you can do the following:

- open the dir where you have the module file in (e.g. VOTR4.07.vmod.zip)
- create a dir and name it the same name as the module adding "_ext" to the end (example: for a module named VOTR4.07.vmod.zip create a dir named VOTR4.07.vmod_ext) and copy all the *.mdx files you downloaded to it.

this should do. now to check if it works, when you open the vassal window click the icon to the left of the modeule name to expand the extensions list. you should see all extenstions there.

BTW, I am using the latest version and the maps are working ok for me.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 10:45 pm 
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Hey muslim_rohirrim, would you be able to add me to the player list as well please? what's your skype by the way I don't think I have it.

Some great stuff you've been coming up with :)

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 12:16 am 
Elven Warrior
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Thanks guys, the link to Haldirs post certainly helped as did your description MuslimRohirrim, ive added them now, and im interested to see how a battle would be played out using this system. How do you break everything down into turns and phases? Is that just done through communicating to your opponent or are there buttons that I have not yet seen?

thanks for all your help 8)

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 1:00 am 
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lorderkenbrand wrote:
How do you break everything down into turns and phases? Is that just done through communicating to your opponent or are there buttons that I have not yet seen?



Precisely, you either communicate with your opponent, or you use the Priority Marker, located in the tab "Markers" in the "Pieces" menu. This marker is very useful to keep track of your game if you need to pause it for some reason.
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