The SPWaW war cabinet

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Steel Panthers World At War & Mega Campaigns >> The SPWaW war cabinet

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The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/13/2016 8:54:02 PM

ErikCumps

Posts: 18
Joined: 12/11/2016
From: Leuven, Belgium
Status: offline

Hi,

I have an early Christmas gift for you: the first public release of the SPWaW
war cabinet.

Back when I started playing SPWaW around 2004, I discovered and used
Campaign Watcher to keep track of my units in the campaigns. However, I
became a bit dissatisfied with the way that Campaign Watcher works and,
seeing that there were no updates for it, I decided to try to create my own
tools.

First, I investigated the SPWaW save game files and wrote some tools to
decompose them in their separate data sections and reconstruct them as
a new save game. Next I decoded the save game section content to extract
as much useful information as possible from the save game. With all that
knowledge, I built a tool to create interesting text reports showing all that
useful information. Finally, I created a GUI application around it.

In 2006, when I started working on my tool, I decided I would give the tool
and the source code to the SPWaW community. Unfortunately, a lot of life
happened since then and I never got around to publishing anything. In the
early summer of this year, about 10 years since the start of the project, I
became tired of postponing and waiting and I set myself the goal of a first
public release before the end of the year.

Note: I am not yet allowed to post links, so I had to mangle the URLs a bit.
To access them, replace "_dot_" with "." and all "_" with "/".
Sorry for the inconvenience...

So, for what it's worth, here is the first public release, version 0.6, of the
SPWaW war cabinet! The files are here:
github_dot_com_ErikCumps_spwproject_releases_tag_v0.6.0

To install, extract the zip file in a location of your choice: a new warcab folder
will be created there. The application is standalone and you can simply run
it from inside this folder. Warcab runs on Windows XP and Windows 7. It is
expected to also run on Windows 8.* and 10, but this was not tested.

The application is completely open source using the GPL v2 license. You can
find the complete source code here at GitHub:
github_dot_com_ErikCumps_spwproject

I am open to answering questions, fixing bugs and implementing feature
requests as time permits. Bear in mind I can only work in my spare time on
warcab so it might take a while.

Feel free to use the GitHub project page or this forum.

As the README.TXT says:

quote:

Warcab is a tool to record and track battles in an SPWaW campaign. It is
inspired by Campaign Watcher.

Warcab tracks information for core units (including reassignments) during a
campaign. It also shows and tracks information for core, auxiliary and
opponent units during battles and battle turns.

Its current main missing features are data export and printing.

A demo warcab dossier has been included in the "save" folder of this release.

I hope you find warcab useful and that you enjoy using it.
I certainly enjoyed making it.

Erik Cumps

Post #: 1

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/14/2016 2:07:57 AM

Major_Mess

Posts: 451
Joined: 2/8/2004
From: The True North. Strong and Free
Status: offline

Very Interesting Erik

When I get on my machine I'll D/L this bad boy and see what we've got.

There's still life in the old girl.

cheers

Major Mess

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Post #: 2

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/14/2016 3:49:23 AM

Kuokkanen

Posts: 3545
Joined: 4/2/2004
Status: offline

Can we have screenshots plz?

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Post #: 3

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/14/2016 6:34:22 AM

ErikCumps

Posts: 18
Joined: 12/11/2016
From: Leuven, Belgium
Status: offline

Hi Matti,

there are some screenshots on the GitHub project page, in the
info, screenshots folder. The most recent screenshots have a
suffix with the date of 29 november. The other screenshots are
older.

Erik

(in reply to Kuokkanen)

Post #: 4

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/14/2016 4:51:03 PM

Major_Mess

Posts: 451
Joined: 2/8/2004
From: The True North. Strong and Free
Status: offline

Erik,

This is really good work.
A definite improvement over the Campaign Watcher.
This is way more complete, and it looks much more presentable, that's a fact.

Give me some time to play with this, I'm testing a new-and-improved-revised campaign right now.

Here's some screenshots of the program. The link is HERE!
Off the top of my head the Turn | Strategic map page is too cool. You can click from save to save, and watch a graphical representation of the battle per turn showing the respective areas of infleunce.

Thanks for sharing this,

cheers

Major Mess

Edit #1 - Confirmed that this program works on a Win 10 machine.

Edit #2 - MATRIX!!!!! - are you watching?

< Message edited by Major Mess -- 12/14/2016 4:58:09 PM >

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Post #: 5

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/14/2016 6:42:29 PM

DROregon

Posts: 129
Joined: 1/19/2002
From: Oregon
Status: offline

Erik,

I'm having problems loading my save games:

Error (145) failed to add savegame to dossier !
info msg: SPWAW_snap_make() failed: SPWERR_BADSTAMP: invalid timestamp

What am I doing wrong?

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Post #: 6

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/14/2016 7:33:52 PM

ErikCumps

Posts: 18
Joined: 12/11/2016
From: Leuven, Belgium
Status: offline

Hi Major,

quote:

ORIGINAL: Major Mess
Erik,

This is really good work.
A definite improvement over the Campaign Watcher.
This is way more complete, and it looks much more presentable, that's a fact.

Give me some time to play with this, I'm testing a new-and-improved-revised campaign right now.

Thank you for your feedback. Great to hear you got it up and running so fast, even though
there is no real manual or in-app help available...

I am glad you want to try it out and I'll be happy to assist where possible.

quote:

Off the top of my head the Turn | Strategic map page is too cool. You can click from save to save, and watch a graphical representation of the battle per turn showing the respective areas of infleunce.

The strategic map was a late addition to warcab. It's one of my favorites too

No hard game data is used for the influence calculation. It's a heuristic where for each
hex a blue and red influence value is calculated. Highest value wins. Each blue and red
unit contributes to the blue and red influence value, with modifiers for distance, unit
readiness and relative height difference.

quote:

Edit #1 - Confirmed that this program works on a Win 10 machine.

And thanks for confirming this!

Have fun,
Erik Cumps

(in reply to Major_Mess)

Post #: 7

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/14/2016 7:48:50 PM

ErikCumps

Posts: 18
Joined: 12/11/2016
From: Leuven, Belgium
Status: offline

Hi DROregon,

quote:

ORIGINAL: DROregon
Erik,

I'm having problems loading my save games:

Error (145) failed to add savegame to dossier !
info msg: SPWAW_snap_make() failed: SPWERR_BADSTAMP: invalid timestamp

What am I doing wrong?

As the message says spwawlib is complaining about an invalid timestamp.
There can be many reasons for this, but this is likely to be a bug in the code.
Or a failure to correctly interprete a date from the save game.

You could try running the debug build, from the warcab_0.6_debug.zip. That
should give more logging (in a log file) and will help to pinpoint the location
where the error happens.

Or, if you want to, you may send me the save game (and oob files) and I will
investigate/debug this issue myself.

Thanks for testing,
Erik Cumps

(in reply to DROregon)

Post #: 8

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/14/2016 8:49:19 PM

DROregon

Posts: 129
Joined: 1/19/2002
From: Oregon
Status: offline

Erik,

I'll send you a PM. I couldn't debug. It's beyond my knowledge level...

Thanks.

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Post #: 9

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/16/2016 10:31:56 PM

ErikCumps

Posts: 18
Joined: 12/11/2016
From: Leuven, Belgium
Status: offline

Hi DR,

thanks for the save game data you sent, I managed to discover and fix the issue

I will prepare a bugfix release soonish.
But not today, it is already past 00:30 over here...

Erik

(in reply to DROregon)

Post #: 10

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/16/2016 11:05:05 PM

DROregon

Posts: 129
Joined: 1/19/2002
From: Oregon
Status: offline

Erik,

I don't know if it makes a difference in the save files, but I used the Campaign Generator for my files not the World War II Campaign routine
or a pre-defined campaign.

DR

< Message edited by DROregon -- 12/16/2016 11:11:53 PM >

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Post #: 11

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/17/2016 3:32:32 PM

ErikCumps

Posts: 18
Joined: 12/11/2016
From: Leuven, Belgium
Status: offline

Ok, I just released version 0.6.1 (files available on GitHub).

This release fixes the following issues:

* Fixed issue #1 - MMAS graphs not updated after snapshot load in dossier
* Improved date validity checking. This fixes issue #2 - the SPWaW Campaign Generator triggers save games with start month '0'.

(in reply to DROregon)

Post #: 12

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/21/2016 12:04:02 AM

JEB Davis

Posts: 443
Joined: 12/27/2005
From: Michigan, U.T.B.
Status: offline

The github is a confusing place to find the 0.6.1 download... could someone post a link?

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Post #: 13

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/21/2016 12:17:41 AM

Major_Mess

Posts: 451
Joined: 2/8/2004
From: The True North. Strong and Free
Status: offline

Here ya go JEB

clink on this Linky right HERE!!

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Post #: 14

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/21/2016 7:55:33 AM

ErikCumps

Posts: 18
Joined: 12/11/2016
From: Leuven, Belgium
Status: offline

Hi Jeb,

Yes, I agree GitHub is confusing. It is focused on developers but not on users.

I am still not allowed to post links, otherwise I would have done so already.
So, Major, thanks for covering for me!

(in reply to Major_Mess)

Post #: 15

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/22/2016 2:59:40 AM

JEB Davis

Posts: 443
Joined: 12/27/2005
From: Michigan, U.T.B.
Status: offline

Thanks MM and Erik

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Post #: 16

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/22/2016 8:45:51 PM

ErikCumps

Posts: 18
Joined: 12/11/2016
From: Leuven, Belgium
Status: offline

Guys,

while looking at my screenshots, I just noticed a couple of issues with the
way kills and losses are reported.

First of all there was a regression with the battle and turn losses report,
which caused an empty list of destroyed units. That's fixed now but I have
not yet created a bugfix release just for that, I am hoping to be able to
combine it with other fixes.

The other thing is the way losses are calculated. There can be a discrepancy
between the calculated losses of one party versus the kills recorded by the
game engine for the other party.

The difficulty lies with crews. In some cases a crew kill counts as a separate
kill, in some cases not. It is impossible to figure out which was the case
when interpreting the save games, but that's when the losses are calculated.

To make it even more difficult, if a crew abandons a unit and is killed all in
the same turn, there is no record of this crew in the save game data.

So the war cabinet errs on the safe side and attributes a loss for each
recorded crew as well as for each unit which is recorded as having (had)
a crew but for which no crew can be found.

So I am afraid that this kills/losses discrepancy can't be (easily)fixed...

But if you have ideas or suggestions, please don't hesitate to share!

Erik

(in reply to JEB Davis)

Post #: 17

RE: The SPWaW war cabinet - 12/23/2016 3:37:17 AM

Major_Mess

Posts: 451
Joined: 2/8/2004
From: The True North. Strong and Free
Status: offline

Erik,
I wouldn't worry about it. This has frustrated people forever.

It's Mostly about the crews: You hit a tank, it explodes but the crew bails out ...... that's a kill.
You attack the crew and they die ...... that's another kill.
If it's a BIG scenario, maybe that crew doesn't get counted cuz the Unit (or Formation) count is at the max.

Or maybe something else.

The Kill count was never really fully explained by the programmers, so we have never really got a handle on this.

Let it go.

MM

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Post #: 18