Folks

I've read a few historic posts on Vassal from these boards and it's obvious that it had a decent following and allows people to play opponents where 'real life' would otherwise get in the way. Irritations like time, distance, availability are all made easier which is good news. This does however come at a cost.

The first is the amount of time that it takes to figure out how to actually use the software. I've taken a quick look and was completely bewildered by how I'm supposed to actually set the thing up and use it to play another person. I'm sure it's not that difficult and all I need to do is invest the proper amount of time into learning it all. So my first question to people who have done that is how long does it take. I'm in the process of learning the actual X-Wing game and whilst I'd like to play more how much extra time will I need to be able to actually use the software?

The second is a lot more subjective. I've used 'free software' to play other tabletop game systems before and I have found that in a lot of cases it just wasn't worth the effort. Not actually being in the same room as your opponent and the complete lack of social contract made easier by internet anonymity has lead to slightly annoying things. Starting from, the opponent just quitting the first turn that doesn't go according to their wishes, to much more toxic things such as cheating and abusive comments. Now whilst I'm not overly bothered by abusive comments in a chat window, its sadly par for the course in most online games, I'm not sure I want to waste precious free time subjecting myself to it. Which makes my second question; Whats the actual player community like?

I'm just trying to figure out before hand if it's worth spending the time to learn it all. I really want to play more X-Wing and it seems like the answer but previous experiences make me wonder if it's all too good to be true.

Thanks

Vassal doesn't take long at all to use, and I believe there are some guides on how to make and save squads.

Yes it's clunky, but once you get the hang of it it goes pretty smooth. It does save you time on the whole set up and clean up before and after game which I like.

I've played a lot on vassal, and I don't think I've ever ran into any toxic player. Nobody rage quit etc.

You usually know when your beat, so at that point some will say gg.

I guess it comes down to how fast a learner you are with such things. Myself I'm not very computer literate and it wasn't very difficult for me to learn.

There is a offline mode as well so If you'd like to practice getting to know the interface that may help, but really just go on and play. Everyone is new at some point so people are pretty patient, and helpful.

It's as good as they say.

I very recently set it up the first time.

In the sticky for useful posts is a rundown and FAQ on getting it started.

It looks daunting but if you just go through the few steps it's actually quite easy to understand.

I struggled with how to have squads saved and ready but once I got a big of advice...its also really easy.

I think the total time I spent futzing with the entire thing ...including my problem figuring out how to save a squad was...like an hour and a half or so.

And a good portion of that was just watching other games in progress just to see how it goes and what the etiquette was.

I observed several games and never once saw any sort of negative behavior.people don't play vassal to rack up a winning record.its a tool to get games in and see how squads perform.

That all said...I've yet to actually get a game in....so...we can learn together if you like.

I am generally available this time of day but not today or tomorrow. Perhaps Friday or next week sometime.

And a good portion of that was just watching other games in progress just to see how it goes and what the etiquette was.

I observed several games and never once saw any sort of negative behavior.people don't play vassal to rack up a winning record.its a tool to get games in and see how squads perform.

This here.

Its so easy to go online and observe other people playing to get a sense of whether you like it or not, what the etiquette is, and how comfortable you would be given the 'social constraints' (whatever you may feel those are).

For myself, I've been playing on VASSAL for about 2 years or so (I've actually used it longer----I initially just used it for playing offline games against myself to test squads and learn the basics of x-wing. I found it extremely valuable in teaching me how to navigate ships through asteroids, not bump into my own ships and plan one or two moves in advance).

In the two years I've been playing against other people, I think I've had only 2 unpleasant matches (where the opponent was either rude or annoying in some way). I should say though that I have observed other games where one of the players complained to me in a private chat that they were getting frustrated with the opponent, so it does happen occasionally. For my own experience though, only 1 annoying game per year is really quite acceptable! Your experiences might not be exactly the same, but really, for the most part, players are civil/decent. I mean, almost everybody wants the same thing (opportunity to play the game more and practice with their squads). So the majority of the time games are good.

As for players rage-quitting and what not, well again, its pretty rare. Some players get pretty frustrated with the dice (VASSAL dice have a reputation for giving one player better rolls early on----usually this evens out if the game doesn't end quickly, but sometimes one player will feel a sense of unfairness). But frankly, its just a game and since most people get used to this (and expect it) I don't think it results in rage-quitting all that much. Besides, its usually frustration over the dice and not directed at the other player (usually).

But honestly , if you do get into a game that you don't feel comfortable with or for whatever reason you want to stop----its easy just to say so and either take a break or go look for another game. Most players don't get ruffled by that since it really is so easy to find another game given how many players are on at any given moment...

Thanks everyone for your opinions.

The community certainly sounds a lot better than the 'other games' I've used software for.

The advice about watching a few games is brilliant and not something I had even thought of. No sure why I didn't make the connection because that is exactly what I'll do at the FLGS if I see a new game to me being played and people seem to be having fun. It's exactly how I got into X-Wing in the first place!

I have absolutely no problem with people resigning from a game that is obviously lost or abandoning a game because 'real life' has intruded and what's happening is more important than finishing the game. The sort of thing I had previously experienced would be more like people trying a stupidly high risk opening turn that perhaps had a 5% chance of working and then just quitting the 95% of games where it went wrong and only wanting to play the 5% where they got the advantage. The problem really was that it happened so frequently that you could waste more time starting games that got abandoned than actually playing.

Strange dice happen in 'real life'. Last night I just couldn't roll bad dice if I tried. All my reds seemed to have nothing but hit/crit and all my greens just came up evade. I'm sure it will even out and I'll have a night where it feels like there is nothing printed on them at all. Coping with that is just part of playing a 'dice game'.

I think my next step is to load it up again tonight and spectate for a bit.

Thanks again.

Just in case you didn't stumble upon this link (which is present on the download page of the module itself, in the notes at the bottom, which also quickly announces patch notes for the new stuff in each version of the module)

step by step guide, in order in which you'll logically need them. There are also lots of little sections for special effects in the game (ie bomb dropping, ship undocking, decloaks, etc.), but they're near the end.

http://s93768914.onlinehome.us/xwing/

Steal the topic for a sec for a quick yes or no question is there anything like vassal for tablets users?

This works ok on my kindle...

http://xws-bench.github.io/bench/#

It's good as a single player vs. Ai

But try to make the ai squad as simple as possible. It struggles to understand some of the more....eh...advanced combos like deadeye on a jumpaster .

But it's not awful and easy to use.

The hardest part of Vassal for me was learning how to set up and save squads. I think I started and stopped like three times before finding a video that explained it. Since they can't save the ships with the existing statlines and card text, it was tough as a newer player to figure things out.

Thanks everyone for your opinions.

The community certainly sounds a lot better than the 'other games' I've used software for.

The advice about watching a few games is brilliant and not something I had even thought of. No sure why I didn't make the connection because that is exactly what I'll do at the FLGS if I see a new game to me being played and people seem to be having fun. It's exactly how I got into X-Wing in the first place!

I have absolutely no problem with people resigning from a game that is obviously lost or abandoning a game because 'real life' has intruded and what's happening is more important than finishing the game. The sort of thing I had previously experienced would be more like people trying a stupidly high risk opening turn that perhaps had a 5% chance of working and then just quitting the 95% of games where it went wrong and only wanting to play the 5% where they got the advantage. The problem really was that it happened so frequently that you could waste more time starting games that got abandoned than actually playing.

Strange dice happen in 'real life'. Last night I just couldn't roll bad dice if I tried. All my reds seemed to have nothing but hit/crit and all my greens just came up evade. I'm sure it will even out and I'll have a night where it feels like there is nothing printed on them at all. Coping with that is just part of playing a 'dice game'.

I think my next step is to load it up again tonight and spectate for a bit.

Thanks again.

I set it up and played one practice game using an android app (Mark 13: x-wing solo) for the ai. After that one practice game I felt comfortable enough to hop on and play against someone. Way easier than it seems. I avoided Vassal for a long time because it seemed complex, glad I gave it a shot.