Multi-players option?

[darksandman]

Hello,

Been awhile since I used the program. I have been trying to start a multiplayer wargame campaign with BG. What I need is to set up six players on my map with their army markers. I want to use the fog of war option (its already there of course), but the problem is I dont want the players seeing the others armies unless they get close enough. I am running the campaign and taking screenshots of what they see. The rules allow you to send agents and spies which will be able to see the map as well. The only hitch I have is that all markers belong to the GM and even on hide they still show up. I want the players to only see their armies not the other players.
Can this be done?

Darksandman

[Omnidon]

I want the players to only see their armies not the other players.
Can this be done?

Yes. In the Fog of War panel, uncheck the box "Use shared party view".

If the box is grayed out, just host a game temporarily. Don't know why but it seems that the option can only be changed while a game is up.

[darksandman]

Super, that did work. Now that leads to another question. (and your response time was "most excellent") I am trying to create a 'mighty empires' type of game for a campaign and I'm almost there. The issues are as the GM:
I want to control each player's forces, only seeing what each sees in turn.
That will allow me to screenshot a player's forces/spies/agents.
When only I am logged in, I can only give control to 'GM' or 'Everyone'
How can I give control of icons to 'player1' if player1 is not online?
I have 6 players to move about on the map and each one should not be able to see what the others are seeing.

Thanks in advance,
Dark

[Omnidon]

The issues are as the GM:
I want to control each player's forces, only seeing what each sees in turn.
That will allow me to screenshot a player's forces/spies/agents.
When only I am logged in, I can only give control to 'GM' or 'Everyone'
How can I give control of icons to 'player1' if player1 is not online?

Well, if you're talking about a live session, then you would just assign control of those units the the players when they log on.

Since that doesn't work for you, I take it that this is for some sort of play by post game where you will just send screenshots to the players rather than having them join a live session?

If you only need to screenshot a single player's spies at a time and there are no other players connected, then you would just assign control of those units to "Everyone" and check the checkbox in the FoW panel called "View FoW as players see it".

That feature combines all the players views, so it wouldn't work for switching quickly between the individual views of multiple players, but it's fine if you just need to screenshot a few units at a time. The GM client alone cannot currently access individual player views if there is more than one player on the battlefield (although heruca has been planning to add that feature eventually, probably in v2).

If you need to quickly switch between multiple player views in an offline session, you can create multiple instances of your battlegrounds application and connect to your game with those as if they were your players.
Instructions for running multiple instances on a single computer can be found here:
viewtopic.php?t=671

Once you've connected with the other instances, you would assign them control of the appropriate units and then use them to screenshot the views.

Keep in mind however that extra instances will need their own player/floating licenses if you wish to remove the demo limitations on them. (Although 45 minutes should be plenty of time just to take screenshots)

[heruca]

Omnidon did a good job of answering this already.

I'll just add that if this is an umpired wargame and you're just using BRPG to generate battlefield updates using the Fog of War feature, all you should need is one additional instance of BRPG installed, in addition to your GM Client. Use it to log into the hosted game session, logging in as each player in turn. That way you can assign units to each player and take screenshots that only show what each player can see.

Also, be sure to edit the "Enhanced Night Vision Menu.txt" and/or the "Light Sources Menu.txt" files, located in BRPG's "Preferences" folder, in order to establish the range of vision for each unit type in your game.

[darksandman]

Thanks for the quick reply once again.
I think that with a few tweaks and turns that you can make this a viable campaign manager for all those wargamers out there. Who wouldn't want to participate in a well run and graphically cool wargame campaign?
The army/spy/agent markers allow for all I need to represent them. I would like to add some different army states like - garrison, force marched, exhausted, etc.. Another idea would be to add to the owner list, like (even when they are not logged on.)
GM
Everyone
Player 1
Player 2...
Searching the web finds few campaign managers and Battlegrounds is practically one already.

Just to sum up the above problems, another way to deal with my different players would be to locate them on the map and give them a light source. Then view as player. This shows them what they can see on the map as well. It works for me because of the limited armies I allow on the map.

Just my thoughts,
Dark

[heruca]

I would like to add some different army states like - garrison, force marched, exhausted, etc..

Do you know that you can edit the "Labels Menu.txt" file to include your own custom unit states? This file is located in BRPG's "Preferences" folder.