Tabletop Simulator

Tabletop Simulator

Dorfromantik: The Board Game
TechnicolorLover  [developer] Aug 24, 2024 @ 9:07pm
Tips/Suggestions to improve Mod
Some things I've noticed and would suggest to help streamline the game. These should all be fairly simple things to code - let me know if you need help and I can help write them or point you in the right direction.

1) Have the task tile bag and landscape tile bag refuse tiles that don't have the right tag - right now if you drop a task tile in the landscape bag, you have to go search the bag to pull it out. Also, you have the landscape bag coded to shuffle every time a tile enters it, but not the task bag. Intentional? Either way, you don't need to do that in code and can just select "Order -> Random" in the right-click menu on the bag.

2) Have the "Totals" text boxes automatically do the math when you write a number down on the score pad

3) Have a dedicated space/table off to one side to keep the scorepad, rules, and campaign sheet (locked in pace). Also, perhaps a dedicated area for placing earned cards from boxes.

4) Alongside 3, have a dedicated space to place completed task markers. You could even code it to automatically add the score for markers placed in that area to the scorepad to the relevant spot on the scorepad.

5) Add a textbox to the "Crown" spot on the score pad to write the game number - in case anyone wants to keep copies of their score pads and reference them by game number. The date box can be used for that anyway, so not a big deal.

6) Have the tiles orient themselves to the same direction (face up/face down) when entering a bag. Landscape tiles are usually upside down when you take them out. Task tiles are usually face up, which is a bit confusing. But even then there are some inconsistencies. Pick one orientation and make them all follow that from the onset and on bag-enter. You could even code a button to toggle between start-face-up and start-face-down in case different players have different preferences.

Great work on the mod so far!
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Showing 1-4 of 4 comments
faszik  [developer] Aug 25, 2024 @ 7:24am 
Thank you for the tips, I will try to comment all points.
First I should mention, that all scripting I did, it wasn't me...but I did it with chat GPT :) and thanks to that, it was quite time consumings. So if you would like to help, I will be glad ;). If you want to, you can contact me straightly through Discord (I have there the same nick as here - faszik)

1) Refusing tiles with wrong tag isn't bad idea and I suppose I and chat GPT could do the code. Anyway during the game, there shouldn't be any case, when the tiles are placed back into the bags, only at the end of the game and it is solved with clean up button.
Shuffle: all bags are shuffled when loading the mod (except special tiles bag, there is no need to shuffle these tiles separately). I think it should be enough. But into Landscape bag are additionally placed special tiles during setup, so it should be shuffled after placing these special tiles into the bag. That's the reason, why that bag is shuffled, when anything is dropped there.

2) Sums at the end of the rows and total sum would be perfect. I am afraid this is over my skills even with using chat GPT.

3) Good idea. I am not sure, if I know, how to add another table. 3D model with coordinates of existing table?

4) Sounds very nice :), but to complicated for me...

5) Yes, I can add the text box into the crown.

6) I know it could be confusing. Here is the story behind. In the first version of the mod, all tiles were face down in the bag. Then I told myself..ok it's in the bag and not visible, so I could let all tiles face up and anyone don't have to flip each tile..yeah but, when you picking up 3 landscape tiles at the beggining of the game and placing them out of the game...you shouldn't see these tiles. So I flipped the landscape tiles back face down. But I let task tiles face up just to have at least any tiles, which don't have to be flipped everytime. I don't know, if this is the best solution..maybe let all tiles face down at the beginning and after picking these 3 tiles use the button to flip over all tiles in all bags?
TechnicolorLover  [developer] Aug 25, 2024 @ 5:49pm 
Thanks for the quick reply.

I'm always impressed at what Chat GPT is able to make work. If you can't code you must still be pretty good at AI prompting and bug-squashing :)

Refusing tiles is mostly just to avoid potential for slip-ups and it being annoying to undo. Though putting tiles back in will happen if you accidentally pull the wrong type (e.g. pull landscape when supposed to pull a task). I think randomizing each pull is helpful so if you do accidentally pull the wrong kind you aren't learning any new info since your next pull from that bag will be different.

Coding the math inside of someone else's code (like Mr. Stump's awesome stuff) to add math operations to the text boxes can be a little tricky but it's still a simple idea and I've done it elsewhere - I'll take a stab at it.

You don't need to add a new full "table". The simplest is just to expand the size of the main table (white button on bottom right of table) and make it bigger. Alternatively, add boards or really almost any object into the game and lock it in place and fiddle with the dimensions - then it will serve as a "table" to put other things on top. You can even have the rules/scorepad/campaign map just float off the table by locking them.

Overall, I like that the landscape tiles are drawn upside down. As you say you need to remove 3 blind to begin with, so that makes sense. I think having tasks also upside-down would be more user-friendly because then having to flip is always consistent. Plus it's closer to mirroring real life play by grabbing a tile then flipping it.

There are other more complicated things one can do (e.g. automatically drawing a task marker when you pull the task tile, automatically pull cards/tiles when the requisite campaign box is checked, etc.). But baby steps!
TechnicolorLover  [developer] Aug 25, 2024 @ 8:30pm 
I've implemented 1-4 and 6 in my local version. I see you already added a text box to the crown (#5). As I expected, it wasn't all that hard. The only hard part was trying to reverse engineer which textbox was which on the scorepad :).

Rather than any particular dedicated space, I just made the table bigger. I also display the rules and campaign sheet vertically to maximize available table space.

I also added a "Remove 3" function to the context menu of the landscape tile bag - similar in function to your special tile bag.

I can send you the file if you want. DM me.
Last edited by TechnicolorLover; Aug 25, 2024 @ 8:35pm
TechnicolorLover  [developer] Aug 25, 2024 @ 8:34pm 
Or let me know if there's any other functionality you think would be useful to add.
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