Ok, After having listened to last weeks episode of SHNN, It was brought up about The lack of players on VAssal. I will admit that I have let other things, Some of them Important things from keeping me from playing on Vassal. More then that , I've fallen out of the habit of playing on Wednesday nights, Which for almost 2 years was my my night on Vassal.

What Has kept you from playing on Vassal? Too busy? A lack of interest? It could be anything..More importantly, though, what can we do to play more on Vassal?

I know that I have to take a little time like I used to and make a few 200 pt squads with some of the new DOTF set and be willing to Branch out. Sometimes after a lack of interest in Minis in your area, It might be easy to just give up playing. I think that there are many who would like to play still on Vassal. Lets see what we all can do!

Check out the thread on gamers about saturday night minis. We meet on Saturday's around 7 EST

I often go on Fridays and staurdays at 9:00-10:00 pm EST, but hardly anyone ever seems on. I heard about a tournament that would start with RS and progressively add sets, but I've seen noting more for it.

Not enough free time is a big part of it (especially since I got a PS3 for Xmas and have mostly been playing Call of Duty: Black Ops in my spare time... I've already been through the entire ranks once and am level 36 of the first prestige class ).

But, I've also had some less than fun experiences when playing with people I don't know or haven't at least met before. Some of it was people who are bad sports when they win OR lose, and I've had more than one observer feel the need to chime in in an "unfriendly" way toward either me or my opponent for whatever reason. Some of it was unbalanced squads (i.e., people have different ideas about what's fun vs. competitive... I'm not pointing fingers for this one as I know I've made some mistakes here, too). I've also had some great experiences (probably more good than bad), but there were enough bad that it became too hit or miss, so I lost a lot of interest.

Ya, I have to agree with both Tonythetoyman and AdmiralMotti also. I have also ran into many poor sports and people running known tougher squads in a supposed fun game where I wanted to try a squad. Also the VAssal Dice have gotten me pissed. Hopefully though you were able to meet some cool players too. Guys who don't have to win at all costs.

I would say, as much of a generalisation as this is, that most people who love SWM enough to play on vassal won't be bad sports. It is unfortunate that you have had thse experiences.

What helps me is that most people's vassal names are the same as their bloomilk/gamers names, thus you can sort of tell what they would consider competitive or not. So my tip is, look at the name, if you know who they are in person or from the boards then you are pretty much ok in terms of what is competitive and fun or whatever. If you don't recognise the name then have a bit of a talk before hand, see what they consider competitive or not, ask if they are practicing for regionals or not, and try to figure out what level of squad you should play.

There isn't really anything yo ucan do against bad sportsmanship, but just have patience. I have had a couple of games with a couple of people I found seemed annoyed at me for being a noob, or did silly things themselves that tugged my nerves a bit. But be patient with them. If they are rude to you, then do whatever you feel is right.

As to RANDOM observers chiming in, that annoys me. Observers should be neither seen nor heard, unless addressed by one of the players. If they are your friends and you are all having a laugh then fine.

Just my two cents.

I love playing on Vassal to test out new and different ideas. There is one thing that is very suspicious to me though. There was a stretch of four games where over 20 crits were rolled against me and I only rolled 5 in return. Not saying people are using some program or hack to manipulate the die rolls. If they are, I really wish they would stop cause its not doing anyone any good, except for the person that may be cheating so they can stroke what little ego they have.

I try to get on every night on Vassal, even if its just to figure out openning moves for my squads on different maps or to discuss squads/topics for SWM. I try to give people input on their squads after a game to try and help them improve their game. I look forward seeing you all on Vassal. Cheers!

Sincerely,
Jester007

Ironically, I just started setting up a game with a french guy who was trying Vassal out for the first time. It was going to be his first game ever and Vassal booted me out, then wouldn't let me back on! I can only hope it booted him out too so he doesn't think I am rude.

His name was Olivierbourne or something like that. Just in case anyone sees him online. French guy, new to Vassal.

well as a long time vassal user let me give you guys some tips.

1. If you are having trouble with people observing and jumping in on your game ask them to stop. If they dont boot them from the room (yes that is an option for the person that created the room) and then lock the room. Another option.

2. There are bad sports out there. The best thing you can do is log down their screen name and avoid them. I can tell you I have a million stories of guys (all long since gone) who would just disconnect the minute you killed their favorite character in a bad squad that they thought was awesome.

3. Ask what they want to play competitive or fun. Then if still not sure clarify what you think is fun. I played a guy one night and we agreed on fun squads. I playa tier four sucko fun squad. He plays tier 1 super comeptitive squad. He then tells me it was his idea to beat me because of my screen name. That was fun to him. So yes there are jerks but isnt that true in every walk of life.

I find that most people will be very cool if you just take about five minutes and communicate with them. I have had tons of guys over the years ask me for a game. If I dont know who they are I demand to know who they are. I demand to know something about them and what got them into minis. Not to be a jerk but just to get to know them. The game is more fun if you spend some time trying to get to know your opponent versus just playing a very stale and cold game.

Skype is also a great tool... considering it is free and relatively easy to use Iw ould suggest folks give it a try it certainly makes things seem more like real life minis.

I don't play on Vassal because I've always had such a tough time getting it to work. I have follwed the directions from SWMgamers and other people and have had no luck. The one time I got it to work I played one game. A few days later my PC died. I have tried twice since with no luck and have given up trying to make it work all together. If it wasn't such a pain to get it working I would use it often.