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Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: When? (7/1/2008 9:17:23 PM)
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Okay, I'm back. Here's the monthly status report (my previous post of this was removed when Erik deleted my temporary account).
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July 1, 2008 Status Report for Matrix Games’ MWIF Forum
Accomplishments of May
Project Management
December 2008 is the scheduled release date for MWIF product 1.
Communications
I monitored all the threads in the MWIF World in Flames forum daily and uploaded versions 8.05, 8.06, 9.00, 9.01, and 9.02 to the beta testers. 13 new beta testers were added in June, bringing the total to 30.
Rob Armstrong finished the 11 splash screens. His only remaining task is a touch-up for the primary ThemeEngine form design, but there is no hurry on that.
Patrice has sent me yet another pass on buffing and polishing the rules from Harry Rowland.
Peter Skoglund continues to help with developing scripts for the AI Opponent.
Robert Jenkins sent me some revised writeups for the naval units and Andy finished all his revisions to the air unit writeups (1345). Jesper Pehrson is back in charge of the land unit writeups and reports them 70% done. We only have 50% of the naval unit writeups done, but so it goes.
Dan (NetPlay) and I are back in communication, though little progress has been made on NetPlay.
Erik Rutkins and Bill Cloer have brought me up-to-date on the physical layout of the Players Manual.
No information from Matrix about getting a price on a printed copy of the map.
Robert Nebel is keeping his hand in on the test plans/scripts.
No communications with Chris Marinacci.
Hardware and Software Development Tools
I have not installed ThemeEngine July/2007, but that is because it seems it isn’t necessary. After I went through all the 100+ forms in the game and replaced some old code from CWIF with what I consider “good programming practices”, the problems running MWIF under Vista disappeared. I’m still not sure exactly what changes made the difference, but since 9.00, only one beta tester is reporting problems that might (or might not) be Vista related. I have had no troubles on my new machine (Vista) since MWIF version 9.00, though I had had some with version 8.05.
Beta Testing
I uploaded versions 8.05, 8.06, 9.00, 9.01, and 9.02 to the beta testers this month. Version 9.00 included map data changes which obsoleted previous saved games. After that it took me some time, with a lot of help from the beta testers, to rebuild my library of saved games for testing different game situations.
I timed the release of 9.00 with the arrival of the new beta testers, so they started with a clean slate. As of today, 12 of the 13 new beta testers are putting the program through its paces, while the 13th should be up and running within the next week.
I inserted checks for file names in about 60 places in the code. These detect when a necessary file is missing and generate a meaningful message so the player knows what the problem is. Because a couple of the new beta testers messed up unzipping the master file, they had a defective file structure and/or missing files. As a consequence, the program was generating the less than helpful Windows message “Error 103". After my changes, it now says that a file was not found, and provides the file’s full name, including directory path.
The new beta testers have each signed up for 5 optional rules and 2 scenarios. This gives me at least 5 and in some cases 6 or 7 testing each scenario. I still need to add to those responsibilities 20 - 30 test scripts, as prepared by Robert and Jimm, which hopefully I can get started on this coming week.
Units
Patrice found an anti-air unit that was in the data files as motorized when it should have been a ‘leg’ unit. I have no idea how he finds this stuff.
Air unit writeups are done! Not a lot of progress on the naval and land units this past month.
Map
I made the few small changes to the map in accordance with information from Patrice. The only big change was consolidating eastern Papua/New Guinea, New Britain, and the Admiralty Islands into a single territory. That change was the result of the forum’s group consensus on how that portion of the map could best be rendered in WIF terms.
Scenario Setup
With version 9.01, I fixed 2 small problems the new beta testers identified concerning scenario setups.
Optional Rules
Nothing new. A lot remains to be done with these since a dozen or so were never part of CWIF.
Player Interface
Rob’s splash screen images have been integrated into the program for the opening screen (HMS Repulse) and while the game data is loading. For the latter, there are 10 different World War II black and white photographs that Rob has built into pretty pictures. Which one is shown is randomly selected.
I reworked the status indicators so the color palette is unambiguous for color blind players. I’ve always been sensitive to using colors that everyone can tell apart. In this case, one of the forum members posted detailed information on which colors to use, including a simulation of how they appear for each of the three common types of color blindness - very interesting. I am not going to do any more with that information though, since the graphics for so much of the game are already completed. But getting the colors for the status indicators right is important for game play, so I am very happy I was able to make those changes.
With version 9.01 I presented my solution to the problem of the Start New Game screen being too complex. That form has 5 sections, of irregular sizes, pieced together to fill out the entire screen. Each section has a different color/theme, taken from the major power themes used in the program. While this demarcates the separate sections, it does mean that the overall screen is rather complex at first viewing. To improve that first impression, and to provide better structure for the order in which the sections are to be completed, I thought of a clever solution. Instead of numbering the sections, which I had done previously, I simply add them to the blank screen one at a time.
This means that the player only sees section 1 when the Start New Game screen is first shown. After he completes section 1, section 2 appears. After he completes section 2, section 3 appears, and so on. The previous sections remain displayed on the screen so the player can see his previous decisions and he has the option of going back and changing them if he wants to. By filling out the screen one section at a time, the player is forced to complete them in order, can easily see what he is suppose to do next, and gets a better understanding of the process. Meanwhile, he has immediate access to information on the decisions he has already made and can modify them freely. I really prefer this design to the alternative of having a series of forms/screens which the player navigates to set up a new game.
Internet - NetPlay
The material Dan sent me described most, maybe all, of the common play sequences and potential problems with players joining and leaving games in progress. These can get rather complex, since we have two Servers (the player who Originates the game serving as one Team Leader, and the Opposing Team Leader), plus clients for each of the two sides. Without going into details, Dan’s analysis seem well thought out, covering all the different situations that might arise due to problems with internet communications and the vagaries of people wanting to stop and start play in the middle of a game and/or internet session.
CWIF Conversion
I wrote more of the code to recalculate supply for units. Once I get the sequence of play revisions for NetPlay completed through the end of an impulse, I’ll finish the supply routines. The new supply calculations use an optimal search strategy so determining supply will execute much faster than it did in CWIF, which did a blind search. I need this to be faster so the AI Opponent can examine hundreds of supply lines when evaluating whether units can be put out of supply.
MWIF Game Engine
I completed the conversion of the code for the Air Transport and Paradrop phases to support NetPlay and I’ve made a start on the same for the Ground Support phase.
There were several major problems with my understanding of the rules for: (1) whether fighters from cooperating major powers can act as escorts for bombers on air missions, (2) when carrier based air units at sea can perform air operations in land hexes (e.g., strategic bombing), and (3) the relationships between minor countries at war with an enemy major power when the major power controlling the minor country is not at war with the enemy major power. The last comes up rarely but code has to be written to cover it. Historically this is the situation when the USSR declared war on Finland, and Finland received, unofficially, assistance from Germany.
I went through all 6 of the air mission routines I have converted for use by NetPlay (port attacks, strategic bombing, carpet bombing, ground strikes, air transports, and paradrops), rigorously comparing them side by side for how the code accommodates the 3 issues described in the preceding paragraph. Very tedious to do, but I found a lot of code that was wrong in light of my new wisdom concerning those rules. When I was deep into fixing this code I had 3 WIF grognards available on-line in the WIF forums helping me understand precisely how those rules are suppose to work. I would post questions and get back answers in a few minutes on the most arcane stuff. Then I could write the conditional code (If ... Then ...) to handle the situations. That was very productive, but in retrospect I am aghast at the time and effort required to master these nitty gritty rule details.
Saved Games
I keep this functioning at all times. The only difficulty with saved games over the last month was with rail lines. One of the problems was simply the processing sequence when restoring a saved game; I changed the order and now things work ok.
The second problem was with the Barbarossa scenario. Theoretically, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria are not part of that scenario, but nonetheless, Germany should be able to rail units through them to reinforce Rumania. To fix that I needed to add some special code for those two countries in the Barbarossa scenario (only). Those changes take place at the very start of the game, so Barbarossa games that were saved prior to version 9.02, still have the defect that Germany can’t rail move units into Rumania until after they have aligned Hungary. Games saved using version 9.02 permit rail movement by the Axis through Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.
Player’s Manual
Erik Rutkins reached a working arrangement with Matrix’s printer for larger manuals. They will remain 5 inches by 7 inches, which is standard for Matrix Games player’s manuals. But now there can be two booklets, with the one packaged inside the case being up to 400 numbered pages, while the second, packaged outside the case, being up to 800 numbered pages = 1200 pages total. Since I currently estimate that MWIF’s Player’s Manual will be around 500 numbered pages (at 5" by 7"), the upper limit on the number of pages is no longer a concern.
Most likely we will split the Player’s Manual into two parts, with one devoted to: (1) getting the game up and running and (2) describing the player interface, while the other will contain the more detailed stuff, like appendices.
After exchanging emails with Bill Cloer of Matrix Games (he will be the editor for the MWIF Player’s Manual) I made another quick pass through the Player’s Manual buffing up a few sections and standardizing the layout and numbering across the 9 different sections. I did some sample screen shots for inclusion in the manual, so Bill can judge whether the format I used will work or not. I’ll try to do a little writing on this every week, so it won’t be a monstrously large task in the fall.
PBEM
Nothing new.
Historical Detail, Animations, and Sound
Nothing new, scheduled for fall.
Help System and Tutorials
Matrix Games is converting to a new system for their web site. Once the conversion has been completed and things have settled down, I’ll look into uploading the PPS files that Patrice created for the 10 tutorials.
I created a new help form that is accessible during play. It explains all the unit status indicators.
AI Opponent
Peter Skoglund and I have been making small progress on defining the data structures for setting up units. In particular, Peter has been building a data set for how to set up the Finnish units if the USSR declares war on them before the USSR is at war with Germany. This can be quite tricky since there are numerous conditions that have to be taken into consideration: current year, time of year, weather, optional rules, and placement of the USSR units (e.g., their ability to paradrop and/or invade). In the end we have decided to have multiple scripts, with conditional logic determining which script to use. This is still a work in progress, but Finland is a severe enough test, so any data structure that handles Finland should support encoding how to set up other minor countries when they are attacked.
Other
The hospital next door is only going to be 3 stories high. They are still working on finishing the walls for the 2nd (last) story and the I-beams have been delivered for the roof structure.
Chorus activities are at a lull, though they should start picking up again as we prepared for the international competition in October.
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June summary: I was able to get a new version of the program to the beta testers roughly every week. With the arrival of the new beta testers I am getting a lot more bug reports to work on. Having all the Vista problems disappear was an unexpected delight.
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Tasks for July
Communications
Continue monitoring the forum threads.
Map and Units
Make any corrections to the map on the 15th.
Beta Testing
Upload versions weekly. [est. 2 hours]
Redesign of MWIF Game Engine
Work through the sequence of play giving each phase its own module. [est. 130 hours]
CWIF Conversion
Convert CWIF style internet formats to Game Record Log Formats. [est. 10 hours]
Test the new random number generator. [est. 5 hours in October]
Player Interface
Finish the code for determining and displaying supply lines. [est. 10 hours]
Display the sequence of play (SOP) on the screen so the player knows where he is within the SOP and what is coming up next. [est. 20 hours]
Fix bugs with player interface. [est. 20 hours]
Complete the Task Forces forms. Implement Task Forces as a new “unit type”. [est. 40 hours in September]
Create Unit and hex lists for air missions. [est 20 hours in October]
Optional Rules
Review, comment, modify, and create code for optional rules [est. 40 hours]
NetPlay
Implement the bidding capability using NetPlay. [est. 10 hours]
Incorporate the Indy10 code for the two player system into MWIF. [est. 10 hours]
Incorporate the multi-player (more than 2) system into MWIF. [est. 10 hours]
AI Opponent
Define LAIO variables with their supporting functions. Write a parser for LAIO. Create a few more rules as text and encode them for testing the parser. [est. 180 hours in July - August]
Help System and Tutorials
Nothing scheduled until October.
Player’s Manual
Nothing scheduled until September.
Historical Detail, Animations, and Sound
Nothing scheduled until September.
Other
Things remain slow outside of working on MWIF, which is for the best.
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July summary: Keep the beta testers busy and respond to their bug reports. Continue work on Game Record Log conversions to support NetPlay for entire sequence of play. Make some progress on the optional rules. ================================================================
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