================================== Virtual Valhalla for Vassal (VVV) ================================== Thanks for downloading VVV. ------------------------ Installation of VVV ------------------------ Make sure you have JAVA and VASSAL! Visit http://tinyurl.com/sx9lg Follow all instructions! Please read the rest of the Getting Started Guide for Vassal BEFORE continuing. ANY questions related to the information in that guide will go unanswered by me! Get VVV! Visit http://tinyurl.com/rycgz Download the virtual_valhalla_PKG_X_XX.zip file. Contrary to what is stated in the Getting Started Guide, that I know you just read, this file IS A ZIP FILE, and NEEDS to be UNZIPPED. The reccommended location for windows users is in C:\Program Files\VASSAL\modules\virtual_valhalla\ Wherever you unzip it to, remember where you put it, I will refer to this location as the "installation directory". ------------------------ Starting VVV ------------------------ There are a couple of ways that you can start VVV. 1) The 'standard' way Open Vassal Click "Play Module" Browse to the installation directory Choose virtual_valhalla.mod Click Open 2) The 'quick start' way Preparing the 'quick start' Unfortunately the 'quick start' way may require you to hand edit an XML file to get it to work. If you are a windows user and installed VVV to the reccommended location then you may be able to skip this step. Open a text editor (notepad for example) Browse to the installation directory Open start_virtual_valhalla.jnlp Near the bottom of the file you will find a line containing "EDIT:" with the following instructions replace insides of the following tag with the full path to the virtual_valhalla.mod found inside of your installation directory Follow those instructions and save it. Using the 'quick start' You should be able to just click the newly edited start_virtual_valhalla.jnlp file and if all is well, vassal will start up and automatically load VVV. Now that VVV is running you should see a chunk of text like the following: - Virtual Valhalla version 0.95 - Extension masterset v0.3 Hasbro's HeroScape Master Set (c) 2005 loaded - Extension map_maker_assist v0.4 loaded - Extension masterset_cards v0.1 loaded - Extension personal_cards v0.0 loaded - Extension virtualdice v0.1 loaded - Extension virtualdice_sidemap_addon v0.1 loaded If you do NOT see any Extension messages, then you have done something WRONG and you will NOT see any figure images or maps etc. NOTE: your numbers may be different than those listed here! ------------------------ Playing VVV ------------------------ Loading a Map File -> Maps -> Master Set -> Choosing Pieces 4th button from the right, looks like the Tarn Vikings. Click it, it opens the Pieces window. This has a set of embeded tabs containing all of the various pieces used in the game. Simply pick one and drag it to the map. Available Pieces Figures: all of the miniatures. Blank figures can be used to play any figures that are not provided (custom or yet unreleased virtual waves). Glyphs: As the name suggests you can find the glyphs here. There is also one named ` (single back tick) This is the custom glyph and can have its name and effect set. Etc: These are the odd pieces that don't fit anywhere else. Of particular notice is the Dice Tray (more about this below). Terrain: All terrain elements are here, including one named - (dash) which can be used to load premade maps that are accessible online. Turn Markers: The "shield" markers from the game along with a Player # ID and Name tag. Using Pieces Pieces have a lot of various abilities built in. Instead of writing out all of the options available for every piece, I will tell you how to discover them. Right click on a piece! A menu will show up with the options. Beside some options will be a keyboard combination that can be used as a hot key to activate the given option when the piece is selected. Learning these will greatly speed up your game play. Side Table The blue shield with a ? in it in the toolbar when clicked will open the Side Table. This is a place where you can keep all of your administrative information without cluttering the map. It contains a box labled Randomizer. If you put a collection of items into the randomizer and then draw them out, they will come out in random order. You can put an extra copy of each type of figure on you side onto the side table and then you can place turn markers on to or beside them in order to indicate your choice of figures to use each turn. (If you put all of your turn markers into the Randomizer first and then draw them out, your opponent will have a harder time guessing which is which!) Dice There are two types of dice: text only and graphical. Text only dice can be found on the main tool bar under the menu TextDice. It opens up a drop down, choose the number of dice, and you will get a report such as: *** 4 dice = Skull,Skull,Shield,Shield *** Graphical dice require a little bit of setup prior to each game. First decide if you want to roll your dice on the side table or on a separate little window just for dice. If you want to use a separte window, click the Dice button on the main toolbar to open the window. If you want to use the side table, click the blue shield icon (?) to open it. Now open the piece pallet and goto the Etc tab. Choose the Dice tray and drag it to the selected window. Once there, hold shift and then right click the dice tray. This brings up its only option "Place dice". Select it to place the 15 dice into the dice tray. Now you can press the numbered buttons on the window to roll the indicated number of dice. In addtion to being able to see the dice, you will also get a report in the chat window such as: Porter************ ROLLING 4 ************ * Roll Dice Tray: Die 4 SKULL X * * Roll Dice Tray: Die 3 blank - * * Roll Dice Tray: Die 2 SKULL X * * Roll Dice Tray: Die 1 SKULL X * Well, at this point I have run out of time. :( Sorry, but there are some out there that DO know. Ask around.