VASSAL 3.6 Release Notes

This article will give you a quick tour of the new features in VASSAL 3.6, as well as listing some significant player-facing bug fixes.

(NB: The release notes will be fleshed out while 3.6 is in beta. More to come...)

= Major New Features =

Folders
The Editor now supports folders inside of most components that accept "children". When adding new subcomponents you can also choose to "Add Folder" which will make a folder into which any valid subcomponents of the parent can be placed. In the example shown, folders are used inside of the [Game Prototype Definitions] segment to organize the prototypes.



Drag and Drop
Components in the Editor window can now be "dragged and dropped" from one valid location to another.

Duplicate
You can now duplicate a component in the Editor, which will make a second identical copy of it at the same location in the tree. If you duplicate a folder or a component that has children (subcomponents), then all of the child items will be duplicated as well.

Insert
The Editor now allows you to Insert an item at the currently selected location (as opposed to the traditional Add which adds an item at the bottom of the current list of subcomponents). This can be useful for adding to the middle of a long list of pieces, prototypes, or other components.

Mats & Cargo
You can now add a "Mat" trait to a game piece to mark it as a piece that other pieces are placed upon. If those other pieces are marked with a "Mat Cargo" trait, then when you select the Mat the Mat Cargo pieces on it will also become selected--this means e.g. that if you drag the Mat around, then by default all the Mat Cargo pieces will come with it in the appropriate relative positions. Mats & Cargo can also be set to maintain relative facing (i.e. if you rotate the mat the cargo will be rotated as well).



Basic Name trait
You can now define the $BasicName$ property for a piece defined in a prototype by adding the new Basic Name trait -- this allows you to safely leave the Basic Piece member completely blank in an individual piece definition (e.g. in a Game Piece Palette, an At Start Stack, or a Place Marker trait or Replace With Other trait). The $BasicName$ property will be filled with the value from the Basic Name trait, ignoring any name (blank or otherwise) in Basic Piece. 

Scaling Factor for Layer and Non-Rectangular Traits
Both Layer traits (i.e. images) and Non-Rectangular traits now come with a built-in Scaling Factor field. This allows you to more easily adjust the relative sizes with which your various pieces are drawn, which can be particularly useful when boardgame companies supply source art that is not "in scale" with other parts of the game. 

Does Not Stack improvements (DOES stack!)
The "Does Not Stack" trait just got interesting... it can now be told that in fact it DOES stack! This allows the creation of pieces that take advantage of some of Does Not Stack's other features that have accumulated over the years (such as the ability to ignore the map grid) while retaining the standard VASSAL stacking behavior.

A description field is also provided, and you'll notice in the editor that the key features of an individual Does Not Stack trait are better summarized in the traits list for a piece. 

Mask Inset Improvements
The Mask trait has a new centered Image Inset option that makes the full face of the card or piece visible to the owning player, while insetting it slightly into the "masked" card back as a reminder that the card or piece is currently hidden from the other players.

Simply choose Image Inset in the Display Style combo box at the bottom of the Mask trait's definition. 

Rotate Directly To Facing/Angle
The Can Rotate trait now includes a key command to rotate the piece directly to a specific facing OR angle. Since the facing-or-angle is chosen via an expression, you can use a property in your expression to facilitate rotating however you like.

In the example shown at right, I set the ForceRotate Dynamic Property to where I want to rotate the piece, and then I issue the ForceRotate key command to tell the piece to rotate to that direction.



Autopeek Rollover
The Mask trait includes an Autopeek on Rollover checkbox, which allows masked pieces to continue to show their full rollover information to players who are entitled to see the piece (e.g. the current owner(s) of the piece).



Module Debug Features
A module debug window can now be opened, either from the Tools menu or you can edit the [Global Options] of your module to add a hotkey and/or toolbar button for it. It will show the current mouse cursor position on the map, as well as the name and position of the currently-selected piece, and is designed to make it easier to find and adjust map locations during module development.

A related improvement is that when adjusting the location of a Deck or Setup Stack, the current coordinates are shown during the adjustment process, and there is a checkbox to allow showing the "ghosted" start position of other Decks and Stacks. Likewise when placing points to define the shape of a new Zone the coordinates are shown.



Deck Refresher
The Refresh Counters (and corresponding Refresh Predefined Setups tool in the Editor) can now refresh Decks: existing decks will be updated to use the latest settings from the module, which includes the ability to adjust the deck's location. If a deck has been deleted from the module it will be deleted from the current game (leaving any cards in a stack). Decks newly added to the module will be added to the game (though any new cards must be added separately, e.g. from palettes, and then dragged to the deck.).



Deck Restriction By Side
Decks in publicly accessible places (e.g. on the Main Map) can now have their access restricted to particular players. This means you can put player-specific draw piles or even hands on the main map (avoiding e.g. a whole extra deck window) while still allowing only the correct players to access them.



Deal Cards Face Down
The Mask trait now includes a key command to "deal the card face down" to a side specified by an expression, meaning that as long as the card isn't currently "owned" by another player it will become owned by the specified side, and thus face down. This can be used to allow players to deal cars from a community deck while making sure they can't see the cards that other players received.



Move Camera Button
You can now add toolbar buttons to a map window which, when clicked, will cause the map view to recenter on a specific location (determined by expression).



Fixed Cards From Deck (Global Key Commands)
When a Global Key Command interacts with a deck, the "fixed number of cards" it selects can now be determined by an expression.



Miscellaneous Minor Improvements

 * Better trait one-line summaries in editor (auto-populates with information from trait's major fields)
 * Folder summary in Editor automatically includes its description field
 * While double-clicking to open component in Editor, holding Alt, Shift, and/or Ctrl affects the location the new window opens
 * The Action Button trait includes an option to have the button open the piece's right-click context menu
 * Report Action trait has a checkbox to override Global Key Command suppression of individual reports
 * Return-to-Deck trait allows target deck to be specified as an expression
 * Send-to-Location trait has new options for sending to pieces-selected-by-properties: cycle and nearest
 * Send-to-Location trait "To Grid Location" option now includes offset options
 * Added $numericTotal$ and $result#$ options to standard Dice Button report format
 * Mouseover Stack Viewer now allows layer filters to be combined with Property Match filters. (Before it was one or the other)
 * Newly added Layer traits will now default to 'Always active'
 * A Map window's "Mark Unmoved" button now accepts a hotkey and a report format
 * Game Piece Palette allows setting of default width for "docked" Game Piece Palette
 * When editing an IrregularGrid (e.g. in a Zone), start the map view somewhere near the grid or its parent Zone
 * Expression audit trails preference - improved error reporting/debugging when Beanshell expressions fail.
 * Default UI font size can be overridden in preferences
 * Preference to reverse left-to-right order counters are shown in Mouseover Stack Viewer
 * Added Global property MapName_isVisible for each Map to allow checking if Map is currently open
 * Deck Sort Key Command component to allow sorting of cards in a Deck by properties via menu or hotkey.
 * CountStack added to beanshell to count pieces in current Stack
 * Repositioning Stacks/Decks optionally draws ghosted images of other stacks/decks
 * Show X,Y coordinates when repositioning At-Start Stack or Deck
 * Zone Editor shows coordinates of vertices while editing
 * Global Key Commands "Within a Deck, select Fixed number of pieces" field now supports expressions
 * Decks - filled out the rest of the commands with hotkeys and report formats
 * Multiplayer Server controls have improved feedback / UX
 * Private Message windows no longer prompt to ignore every time you close them; incoming private messages do not grab focus
 * Rebuild prototypes when they are changed in the editor (without having to exit and start again). Existing pieces on the board would still need refreshing though.
 * Different types of Global Key Commands can be cut and pasted
 * (Windows & Mac) Pieces dragged off the palette using the palette scale factor instead of always full size

Native Builds
There are now native builds for 64-bit ARM Windows and 64-bit ARM MacOS. For best performance, we recommend using a native build for your system and architecture if one is available.

If you were experiencing poor rendering performance with an Apple Silicon Mac, you should see improved performance with the 64-bit ARM build.

Removed & Deprecated Code
Some code which has been deprecated for more than a year has been removed. On loading a module containing custom code which uses removed or deprecated code, a warning dialog is now displayed immediately (instead of at the point when the deprecated code is used, as in 3.5).

= Changes in 3.6.0-beta1 =

Feature Additions

 * 10276: Expose property if we're currently drawing Counter Detail Viewer
 * 10273: Mat Cargo can be set to detect mats way from their exact center
 * 10248: Invisible trait - Option to disable auto-report of moves
 * 10075: Scaling factors for Layers and Non-Rectangular
 * 10066: Mats & Cargo - Cargo pieces stay attached to Mat piece when moving.
 * 10034: Added option to Mass Piece Loader to not create empty levels in layers when there is no matching image
 * 10021: Added sub-folders to group components under Module, Maps, Decks, At-Start Stacks, Prototypes and Global Properties folders
 * 10002: Add Hotkeys to hide and show map windows. Existing show/hide hotkey field is now always visible. Allow changes to hide/show Map button settings without needing Editor restart
 * 10001: Inventory window allows a hotkey for Refresh
 * 9998: Editor now has Drag and Drop support
 * 9997: Can duplicate and insert components in Editor, not just add to bottom
 * 9988: CountStack added to beanshell to count pieces in current Stack
 * 9987: ReportState checkbox overrides Global Key Command suppression of individual reports
 * 9979: Add Deck Sort Key Command component to allow sorting of cards in a Deck by properties via menu or hotkey. Add Deck Send Key Command component to provide additional commands to send contents of one Deck to another via menu or hotkey.
 * 9973: Deck supports configurable strings for Draw Multiple, Draw Specific, Face Up, Face Down
 * 9972: Ability to specify Return-to-Deck target as an expression
 * 9917: Global Options can be configured to let toolbar items on closed windows accept global hotkeys
 * 9912: Add Global property MapName_isVisible for each Map to allow checking if Map is currently open
 * 9901: Preference to reverse left-to-right order counters are shown in Mouseover Stack Viewer
 * 9864: Improved translation features (Global Translatable Message component, Translatable Message trait, exposing current language/locale as property)
 * 9549: Default UI font size can be overridden in preferences
 * 4542: Added 'Stack Normally' option to 'Does Not Stack' trait
 * 4533: Make grid center dot display independent of grid display

Bug fixes

 * 10326: Add option to disable OpenGL FBOs on Macs
 * 10301: Double max heap and retry when image tiler runs out of memory
 * 10294: Can Rotate traits no longer lose any pre-defined starting rotation when editing a Piece Slot
 * 10187: Duplicate key and menu item for Editor menu
 * 9993: DeckPosition was reporting 1 higher than the actual position
 * 9884: Fix and improve module validity checking
 * 6130: Grid Numbering dialog can appear blank when grid size is very large

Other improvements

 * 10286: Add removal/deprecation checker and remove anything deprecated a year ago
 * 10277: When editing an IrregularGrid, start the map view somewhere near the grid or its parent Zone
 * 10272: Don't auto-name new regions a long string
 * 10259: 64-bit ARM builds for Windows and Macs; switched bundled Java to Zulu
 * 10228: Upgrade to Launch4j 3.14
 * 10041: Newly added Layer traits will now default to 'Always active'
 * 10015: Remove ?s from checkbox preference strings
 * 10011: Add Scrollbars to Prefs Dialog when needed
 * 9999: First 'advanced search' on a module defaults to all boxes prechecked
 * 9992: Removed ignored 'button tooltip' field from Turn Tracker config
 * 9989: Less verbose window titles for sub-windows
 * 9975: Deck reports now suppressed during GKC report suppresssion
 * 9913: Increase number of default zoom levels in new Map Zoom Capability
 * 9254: Expression audit trails preference - Improve error reporting when Beanshell expressions fail. Suppress 'Bad Data in Module' errors generated by counters in Game Piece Palette.

= Changes in 3.6.0-beta2 =

Bug fixes

 * 10390: NPE in GameModule.getProperty after deleting the Map from the owning Map widget
 * 10387: 'Centre on Opponents Moves' functionality should ignore movement by Invisible units
 * 10386: Audit Trail reporting is not reporting trait or piece information for Return to Deck trait when invalid Deck specified
 * 10381: Replaying a log step can cause Deck to become corrupted
 * 10375: NPE in EnumeratedPropertyPrompt.getNewValue
 * 10371: Reset the Zone Editor title to match the Zone being edited
 * 10359: ClassCastException: DeckGlobalCommand cannot be cast to Auditable
 * 10357: Return To Deck Deck name can be lost when pre 3.6 module is edited using 3.6
 * 10351: Checkbox preference default value is ignored
 * 10341: Symbolic Dice Button tooltip is overwritten by description text
 * 10226: Force Game Piece Image names to be valid file names ending in .png
 * 10095: Definition of Player Sides - Retire/Switch Button image not showing in editor

Other improvements

 * 10392: HTTP requests for server status should follow redirects
 * 10383: Update all site URLs for new site and HTTPS
 * 10337: Bring Reference Manual up to date

= Changes in 3.6.0-beta3 =

New features

 * 10486: Better obscurable option for insetting
 * 10484: Mats have more deselection options; double-clicking delesects cargo
 * 10468: Refresh Counters support for Mats and Cargo
 * 10454: Game Piece Palette allows setting of default width for "docked" Game Piece Palette
 * 10412: Double the max heap for modules which run out of memory during loading
 * 10394: Add a Key Command to Can Rotate trait to rotate directly to a facing specified by an expression

Bug fixes

 * 10476: Editor: Inserting text into middle of Key Command doesn't work
 * 10474: Movement traits need to update cargo's mat after movement before applying apply-on-move keystroke
 * 10405: Log replay of delete command behaves differently after load of sebsequent log file
 * 10402: NPE when trying to create new P2P Network
 * 10400: Custom preferences in Global Options incorrectly use property name, not description
 * 10404: Catch FileNotFoundException when reading prefs files
 * 10399: ThrowableUtils.throwAncestor throws wrong object; throwMe uses wrong constructor

Other improvements

 * 10466: Reference manual missing description of restrict counters to Deck option
 * 10446: Removed more items deprecated for over a year
 * 10445: Improved browser launch support
 * 10432: Store the tile cache in %LOCALAPPDATA% instead of %APPDATA% on Windows
 * 10430: Upgrade to Java 17 for Windows, Mac packages

= Changes in 3.6.0-beta4 =

New features

 * 10584: Map "Mark Unmoved" button now accepts a hotkey and a report format
 * 10582: Basic Name trait - facilitates creating pieces entirely in prototype (alternative way to fill BasicName property)
 * 10576: Send-to-Location new options for pieces-selected-by-properties: cycle and nearest
 * 10558: Added Current Mat GKC FastMatch option
 * 10552: CounterDetailViewer - can combine layer filters with property match expression
 * 10551: Action Button option to open right-click context menu
 * 10509: Add $numericTotal$ and $result#$ options to standard Dice Button report format
 * 10505: Enable Offset options to work with the Grid option in SendToLocation

Bug fixes

 * 10607: P2P address book entries with spaces in address cause StringIndexOutOfBoundsException
 * 10604: Match blank passwords less eagerly
 * 10603: Action Buttons should not respond to Shift+Click, Ctrl+Click, Alt+Click, Cmd+Click
 * 10602: Don't unselect piece about to get context menu with Ctrl+RightClick
 * 10601: Flares weren't responding to Cmd key on MacOS
 * 10599: map can be null during GameRefresher
 * 10596: Protect CounterDetailViewer from designers who set the drawing scale to 0.0
 * 10595: Fix crash ending logfiles- beginningState shouldn't be allowed to be non-null when outputfile is null
 * 10594: Fix crash when copying Toolbar Menu to a newly created map
 * 10592: Corner case boardpicker exception with multiple boards being moved around
 * 10591: Protect from GKCs that get sent when no game ever started
 * 10589: Fix Mat send-to-location bug (which created problems in Undo & multiplayer)
 * 10585: Movement Trail "initial visibility" and bounding box caching bugs
 * 10572: Fix Drag Threshold preference to work correctly
 * 10563: Trait editor Paste button is now always enabled
 * 10555: Fix mat save/load to reconnect mats and cargo
 * 10504: Text label shape, bounding box doesn't resepect rotated labels
 * 8949: IllegalArgumentException in GameState.getRestorePiecesCommand due to bad compartor

Other improvements

 * 10597: Selection Highlighter expressions now found by search
 * 10593: Add description to Prototype Definition
 * 10590: Better ConfigureTree summary on PieceSlot containing a BasicName-using piece
 * 10587: Description field & better auto-summary for Does Not Stack
 * 10586: Better defaults for Send To Location offsets
 * 10578: MatCargo now provides OldMatOffsetX and OldMatOffsetY properties
 * 10569: Better trait one-line summaries in editor; Folder summary includes description
 * 10565: While double-clicking to open component in Editor, holding Alt, Shift, and/or Ctrl affects the location the new window opens
 * 10557: Added MatCargo to manually attach/detach from mats
 * 10547: Bring fastmatch $$ variable handling into line with standard Global Key Command match expression handling
 * 10543: Initialise OldMat related properties in a Placed marker
 * 10519: Improve Mat Movement
 * 10510: More robust Java version check for Linux

= Changes in 3.6.0-beta5 =

Bug fixes

 * 10620: Fix NPE EditPropertiesAction.windowClosed
 * 10616: Mouseover Stack Viewer was failing to launch in certain situations
 * 10615: Stack NPE in Mat Movement code

= Changes in 3.6.0-beta6 =

New features

 * 10736: 'Deal cards out' to other players
 * 10728: Allow 'Prompt' Dice Button values to be locked by designer
 * 10727: Module Debug Window
 * 10719: Deck Refresher
 * 10717: Deck access - allow access to decks to be restricted by player
 * 10682: Move Camera Button
 * 10674: Startup Global Key Commands always fire in order, can't be undone, and can be configured to, e.g., "once per game"
 * 10649: Deck can start face-up or face-down when using right-click menu setting
 * 10628: Autopeek Rollover
 * 9391: Beanshell can now access $$ variables in Report Formats

Bug fixes

 * 10734: No refresh allowed during replay
 * 10718: NPE due to dropTargetSelector being unset
 * 10713: Escape errorLog path when making link URL for connection failed page in BugDialog
 * 10711: When rotating a mat, jointly rotating cargo should prefer to stay with current mat
 * 10703: Correct inconsistency in use of GetConfigureBoard
 * 10702: When inventory grouping specifies properties that aren't internally strings, don't balk
 * 10683: Fix bug in DiceButton 'Keep Dice' option
 * 10679: Place Marker, Send-to-Location, and Translate traits didn't always repaint maps
 * 10678: Undo of movement will no longer deny lone stackable pieces their own stack
 * 10671: Calculate Hex Range correctly, regardless of hex shape
 * 10663: Fix occasional draw-side exceptions during loading game and saving screenshots
 * 10660: Report translated name for Symbolic Die Faces
 * 10659: Sanitize temporary file names a bit earlier
 * 10658: Fix NPE if try to open translations but the buildable doesn't exist
 * 10654: Fixed corner-case NPE when closing a game
 * 10647: Private Maps visible to non-owning players will correctly display Mouseover text
 * 10639: Fix exception when canceling edit of a component that has been elsewhere moved or deleted
 * 10638: Fixed NPE if pasting a cut component that was then deleted before pasting
 * 10635: Trigger Action traits with "loop until" and "loop while" conditions can properly access piece properties in expression builder
 * 10632: Fix ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException in Embellishment when layer value is out of range
 * 10631: Clip pieces to their bounds and set rendering hints for drag image
 * 10630: Correctly check if there are sides with blank passwords for password matching
 * 10629: String Array Configurer bounds protection
 * 10623: Fix NPE joining chat room when socket drops early
 * 10622: Fix NPE when MapShader temporarily points to blank or missing filename
 * 10621: Protect against changing to Image style while Image name is still blank
 * 10619: Eliminate Command+A key conflict in Editor on MacOS
 * 10618: ToolbarMenus that are submenus of other ToolbarMenus display their icons properly

Other improvements

 * 10731: Add description fields to most important editor components
 * 10730: Improve Game Piece Palette doc per forum suggestion (AsciiDoc file only)
 * 10701: Zone defining - when dragging a square to define initial zone, dragging at edge of screen scrolls
 * 10700: Improved bug dialog text
 * 10699: Repositioning Stacks/Decks optionally draws ghosted images of other stacks/decks
 * 10696: Global Key Commands "Within a Deck, select Fixed number of pieces" field now supports expressions
 * 10691: Mouseover Stack Viewer - Unstatic a naughty field and add ability to count face down cards in a deck
 * 10686: Decks - fill out the rest of the commands with hotkeys and report formats
 * 10681: Better documented pieceName vs PieceName
 * 10676: Upgrade to Java 17.0.1+12 for Windows, Mac packages
 * 10673: Added Game Refresher documentation
 * 10672: Multiplayer Server controls have improved feedback / UX
 * 10667: Private Message windows no longer prompt to ignore every time you close them; incoming private messages do not grab focus
 * 10652: Zone Editor shows coordinates of vertices while editing
 * 10641: When Editor changes a prototype, clear the prototype cache and all PieceSlot caches
 * 10633: Remove doubled images from Ghost Bug Pref
 * 10650: Show X,Y in Configurer when repositioning At Start Stack
 * 10648: Private chat windows will no longer steal focus
 * 10643: Show saved game mismatch warnings (e.g., loading wrong version) when loading from Wizard
 * 10636: Warn when Global Property has a blank name (which causes NPE on game load)
 * 10626: Different types of Global Key Commands can be cut and pasted
 * 10610: More robust configurer for PredefinedSetup
 * 10609: Trigger Action - improved trait summary
 * 9596: Pieces dragged off the palette using the palette scale factor instead of always full size