Modules for ABattlemap

@Uncrustable:

Why do people ever play Abattlemap? Not to sound too trollish, but really it looks very very bad, and is very very difficult to actually play out games.
Seriously good luck getting anyone but hardcore A&A fans to play this :P

Interesting question. I am dealing with exactly the same question at the moment. I have been absent from A&A for almost two years. Before I played some AA50-41 PBF-games using ABattlemap. AA50 was introduced in late 2008 and there have been constant rule revisions up to the latest FAQ of March 2010. So in this time ABattlemap was the only way to play the common “use OOB rule with latest FAQ”.

TripleA needs the rules to be coded. So the players have to accept the code/game options that come coded by the developpers.
ABattlemap is just a game board. You can play whatever rule you want / whatever rule you and your opponent(s) agree on.

Anyway there has been a lot of development and TripleA is definitely worth a try.
I don’t think that ABattlemap looks that bad. It is up to your creativity to make it look “better”.
Most of the “optical” aspects can be changed to fit your needs.

@P@nther:

TripleA needs the rules to be coded. So the players have to accept the code/game options that come coded by the developers.
ABattlemap is just a game board. You can play whatever rule you want / whatever rule you and your opponent(s) agree on.

This is the #1 reason. And as you said yourself, you can’t even play the latest game (G40) with it. G40 has been out for a year and a half.

The icons do look terrible at first. But after I played a few games, I quickly got used to them. Now I think they look great. (Wait - I bet you’re looking at the crappy ones. There are “big pieces” icons that look MUCH better.)

I’ve tried Triple A. I didn’t get past J1 of 1942 scenario of AA50 (Japan goes first). It didn’t allow me to attack with all legal fighters because the carrier/fighter rules were not properly coded. Couldn’t even get past my first combat move. I realize this bug has probably been fixed since then, but what other bugs await me? ABattlemap will ALWAYS let you follow the rules properly!! Very important to this gamer.

You can do whatever bids you want (Triple A has limitations), and you can play whatever house rules you want. Again, Triple A has a lot of limitations.

Besides that, the ABattlemap for G40 is beautiful. You maybe haven’t even seen it yet.  AA50 and Spring 1942 maps look pretty to me, too.
Triple A and ABattlemap each have their own +'s and -'s. Pick the one you prefer and don’t criticize people who make the opposite choice.

I agree that ABattlemap has its limitations, but you should know what you’re getting into. It’s called a BATTLE MAP for a reason, people. If it was meant to be a board game, it would be called ABoardgame. It is simply a TOOL players use to show unit positions for games on the forum. ABattlemap cannot roll the dice for the game, and it does not prevent you from moving units illegally. It is merely a map. If you want more from an Axis and Allies program, like dice rolling, avoid ABattlemap.

TripleA is really really great

only bad thing is no G40

the fighter/carrier thing is very easily fixed…its called ‘edit mode’

i play tripleA a ton and have never had any problems with it

i do not like the no ruleset for abattlemap it makes it harder to play not easier and it is also really hard to get people to try it

So, I am trying to download battlemap and having difficulty doing so. I click on the link that takes you to the MediaFire website. I click on the button for downloading the program. I get a message in  the button that says your download is starting. Then all that happens is the page refreshes and I have no download. I have tried turning the security setting to the lowest and turning the pop-up blocker off. Still no success…yes I am at work  :-D

@Ol’:

So, I am trying to download battlemap and having difficulty doing so. I click on the link that takes you to the MediaFire website. I click on the button for downloading the program. I get a message in  the button that says your download is starting. Then all that happens is the page refreshes and I have no download. I have tried turning the security setting to the lowest and turning the pop-up blocker off. Still no success…yes I am at work  :-D

try it at home?

OK, so I am not HolKann, TMTM, Funcioneta, or Stoney. But I do have an improvement to submit to ABattlemap for 1940 Global.

Since Larry changed the turn order again now in Alpha 3.9, the InfoView and Toolbar in ABattlemap have the countries in the wrong order. I have fixed this. However, I’m afraid I didn’t really create a new version of battlemap, and am probably doing this wrong. But I had another player test it on his computer and it works for him too. Here’s what you do:

1. Download the 7 files from Mediafire
http://www.mediafire.com/?ksbh73nv51ngo

2. Copy them into your GA3.gim folder and replace. Make a backup copy of the GA3.gim folder first - this is my first time after all.

3. You now have the updated toolbar and infoview.

9/23/12 New game file can’t be over-written, apparently.  I will soon make a file for starting new games that can be loaded

You will probably want to make this upgrade between games, because if you load a game started before the upgrade, most of the nations will be screwed up and you will have to spend a half hour or whatever fixing it (as is the case for me) Also, you will need to get your opponent to download these files and upgrade as well.

The really great news is that I think we now have a new Battlemap editor in the house! So submit ideas to me for improvements. I’m not very experienced yet, so there are a lot of things I can’t do, but I’m hoping to learn more. My next priority is to fix the NO boxes for Russia which are incorrect.

@Gamerman01:

OK, so I am not HolKann, TMTM, Funcioneta, or Stoney.  But I do have an improvement to submit to ABattlemap for 1940 Global.

Since Larry changed the turn order again now in Alpha 3.9, the InfoView and Toolbar in ABattlemap have the countries in the wrong order.  I have fixed this.  However, I’m afraid I didn’t really create a new version of battlemap, and am probably doing this wrong.  But I had another player test it on his computer and it works for him too.  Here’s what you do:

1.  Download the 7 files from Mediafire
http://www.mediafire.com/?ksbh73nv51ngo

2.  Copy them into your GA3.gim folder and replace.  Make a backup copy of the GA3.gim folder first - this is my first time after all.

3.  You now have the updated toolbar and infoview.  You also have a start.aam file for Global 1940 that I believe is accurate, but I haven’t double checked it.  So if you click new/Alpha3 GA3.gim in ABattlemap you will have the starting setup for Alpha 3 with the corrected toolbar and infoview.

You will probably want to make this upgrade between games, because if you load a game started before the upgrade, most of the nations will be screwed up and you will have to spend a half hour or whatever fixing it (as is the case for me).  Also, you will need to get your opponent to download these files and upgrade as well.

The really great news is that I think we now have a new Battlemap editor in the house!  So submit ideas to me for improvements.  I’m not very experienced yet, so there are a lot of things I can’t do, but I’m hoping to learn more.  My next priority is to fix the NO boxes for Russia which are incorrect.

Good to hear.  Thanks for stepping up to the plate - I am just too busy lately.  If there’s anything you need to know about what can be tweaked within the modules, you should be able to find it in my tutorial:
Tutorial for Creating ABattleMap Modules

Glad you’re around, Stoney.
I was really only able to do anything because of your tutorial.

@Gamerman01:

Glad you’re around, Stoney.
I was really only able to do anything because of your tutorial.

Very happy to hear it was useful to you.  It was fun to write and figure it all out… like a puzzle game where I had to fit all the abstract pieces together!  Of course I had a lot of help from conversations with Atti, too, but he is no longer developing the thing.

We need a final module for Global 1940 using the 2nd edition rules.  If anyone wants to get on that, it would be greatly appreciated by us backwater, country hillbillies still using the better program instead of the blechy, poo-poo new program. :P

@Cmdr:

We need a final module for Global 1940 using the 2nd edition rules.  If anyone wants to get on that, it would be greatly appreciated by us backwater, country hillbillies still using the better program instead of the blechy, poo-poo new program. :P

Well, most of the changes that still need to be made are the proper labeling of Russian NO’s for Alpha3.

2nd edition is just take away a UK infantry in Egypt, so that’s very easy - just delete an infantry and re-save your start file…
The Korea/Mongolia rule requires no change to ABattlemap, so that’s it.

The Russian NO deal is no big deal because you just put a flag up there for each pro-Axis or original G/I territory you control.  Proper labelling would be nice, but is certainly not essential.

So really, the ABattlemap module that’s out there is quite functional for 2nd edition.

Eh…yea, but as you point out, there are changes that need to be made.  Just a request.  Also, a reminder of what ships/planes do dmg and how that works being written on the map would be great too…probably unfeasible, but great.  Too many questions from players on how it works.  (You should SEE my inbox! We’re talking 101 pages of private messages!)

Is anyone going to work on a module for a simple 1914 battlemap?

@ksmckay:

Is anyone going to work on a module for a simple 1914 battlemap?

If nobody’s posted a thread about it, then probably not.  Here’s a tutorial if you want to take a stab at it yourself.  It’s pretty straightforward.

Yeah, I’m trying we will see how it goes.

@ksmckay:

Yeah, I’m trying we will see how it goes.

Just take it one step at a time.  If you have any questions that are not answered by the tutorial, let me know.  Some of the parts that take the longest are things like making the map look good that are really just up to you how much time you want to put into it.  So long as you have everything else right, you can always make aesthetic changes to the Map.bmp file later without any problems or hassles for players (assuming you are not changing the placement of the actual territories and borders).  You can also go without the sector information entirely, and the module will just be pieces on a board like the real game without any statistics or analytical info.

Do i need sectors for the ipc counts and turn number?

@ksmckay:

Do i need sectors for the ipc counts and turn number?

sectors are required for all the information in the top five rows of the infoview window.  without the sectors, you would have to put a production chart area on the map.bmp image and the players can keep track of production manually just like they would in a face-to-face game.  Does that make sense?

I’m not sure what you mean by turn number. if you’re wanting the game to display how many rounds have gone by, I don’t think there’s any way for the program to calculate that automatically.  players would just manually count/keep track… you could easily put a space on the map for them to do this.  Am I understanding you correctly?

If i put two of some unit or flag in an area and other units in another what keeps them from stacking.  Isn’t it the borders of the territory which are what sectors are?  Otherwise how does the program know when two placed say infantry are in the same vicinity.  So at the bottom of the map when you stack flag markers to indicate how many ipcs you have for each country our what turn it is, the two sets of flags don’t combine because they are not in the same defined space.  If that isn’t a sector then what defines the borders of that space?  Just a black line?