So I have been using Vassal a bit with my friends. However, it just takes so long for us and feels pretty clunky. We understand the basics of the system and are aware of hotkeys (but there are about a billion of them), so I was wondering if there are some Vassal pros out there that can give out some tips to make game play faster/smoother? i.e. what do you do to make vassal run better?

Learn the hotkeys.

Playing with another player familiar with Vassal usually takes less time than a tabletop game.

Flying lists with no more than 3 ships will help a bit.

Have your lists pre-built and loaded into a log file so you can get straight to the action.

playing over skype eliminates the having to confirm everything you do with "set"

Having your lists pre-constructed is a HUGE plus for moving things along.

I think you need to take Vassal for what it is, a substitute for the 'on the table' experience. It is a little clunky at first, but the more you work with it, the more easily you find your way around it.

Learn some of the big hot keys for movement is also another big one. I am 'old fashion' when it comes to my Vassal play in that I'll still use tokens on the board to represent actions. So for me, clearing actions at the end is just like the table top experience. Remove tokens when complete.

The big issue is bumps, and if you hit the 'c' button after completing a maneuver, you'll get the pro guides. Those are a HUGE help!

I hope this helps!

Vassal I believe uses flash, so I also try not to have anything else running in the background

Like stated above I also use the actual tokens instead if using the hotkeys for actions

I find it slows down, and freezes up whenever I try to use the focus, or take off shields.

Other than that, the more you use it the faster it goes.

I find games tend to go pretty good until things start to bump, but the "c" really does help with that

Honestly, as long as you memorize the main movement hotkeys, the action hotkeys, the range/firing arc hotkeys, and the stress hotkeys, you will find the game moves plenty fast. Don't be afraid to fall back on the right click menu for situational things like bombs or even barrel rolls. I've been playing vassal plenty long and I just haven't even bothered to memorize the simple barrel roll hotkeys because it just hasn't been necessary.

The slowest aspect of vassal is list building without a doubt, so you need to make sure to do that before hand.

I agree that list building is the slowest, especially depending how much you want to customize your ship bases and dials.

Other than that the only real issue is bumping. Most other aspects are faster than playing in person. Movements are instant and accurate. Range measuring is quick and easy with the firing arcs.

I did not like vassal very much because it rolls unmodified dice to well.

Vassal dice hate me.

I did not like vassal very much because it rolls unmodified dice to well.

I actually had the opposite effect happen to me, hence why I stopped using it. After recording dice results via ladyluck, I was always 25-50% more blanks rolled then expected. With modifications. Don't trust it all any more

I did not like vassal very much because it rolls unmodified dice to well.

I actually had the opposite effect happen to me, hence why I stopped using it. After recording dice results via ladyluck, I was always 25-50% more blanks rolled then expected. With modifications. Don't trust it all any more

I have to say... The fact that you both don't like vassal for the totally opposite reason seems to speak volumes about a little thing called confirmation bias.

Somewhere there is a spreadsheet that totaled the dice results for thousands of games on vassal...dice were exactly the same percentage that they should be.

I did not like vassal very much because it rolls unmodified dice to well.

It's not any better than real life. I had a game where i rolled 25 hits out of an expected 38. Another one my guri died in 2 shots after rolling all blanks on both shots. On the other hand, at a tournament last weekend with 2 TLT y-wings in my list, the y-wings probably only rolled 1 or 2 blanks the entire game one match.

Somewhere there is a spreadsheet that totaled the dice results for thousands of games on vassal...dice were exactly the same percentage that they should be.

Never noticed lady luck had a leaderboard for best/worst dice. I have the #6 worst green dice game!