RE: Memo (Full Version)

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Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Memo (4/11/2008 12:12:47 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: ullern

quote:

ORIGINAL: Norman42

quote:

we let the player who has the fighting FTR (the front FTR) roll the A2A dice, as he is responsible for the outcome inflicted on the enemy.


This is our method as well.

If a choice is needed, I'd say go with # of bombers. As mentioned above, they are the more strategicly valuable unit involved.


Interesting to see that everyone posted so far let the player with the best FTR roll the dice. My group tend to let the same player do all the decision making in the combat too, which was different from the two other who posted, who let the ones with bombers decide. I am going to guess that this difference stems from the fact that my group is playing with WIFcon Time rule (added about 10% time, but not more), which makes us minimize the war by committee issues in WIF.

Everything takes time. And this leads me to a question:

Suppose we could reduce the time needed to play an impulse by one third by reducing the number of meddling between players, and affecting hopefully no rules, only imposing some limitiation on when and where negotiations could be made. Would it be better?

I think the fun per time unit ratio is important. And my concern at the moment is mostly about the game beeing too slow phased.

(And Frankly I didn't understand the Italian a2a in between two German A2A fights example you had earlier Steve. What is the point of allowing an Italian a2a combat in between two German A2A fights?)


Yes. That is what I intend too. Partly for speed of play, but more importantly for predictability as to who has to move and click his mouse.




Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Memo (4/14/2008 11:50:53 AM)

Here is a revised version of the Air Attack form. It is used to show the results of strategic bombing, carpet bombing, ground strike, paradrop, air transport, and ground support air missions.

This screen shot is from strategic bombing. The Result is no effect. The target hex was Changsha, which has a flame image displayed in the center of the hex on the insert map. Because this form serves several purposes, it has a few extra elements. I see no harm in showing the ground units during strategic bombing. They are important when doing most of the other air missions.

Some day, I'll convert the bland Results text into a table listing the possible strategic targets in the hex (e.g., factories, oil resources, saved build points, etc.). That will give the player a better understanding of what was attacked, as well as what was destroyed. He may want to come back again the next time he is the phasing side to attack anything that still remains.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/8F7C01C587154539B85D46970A97A42E.jpg[/image]




lomyrin -> RE: Memo (4/14/2008 5:58:52 PM)

In this strategic bombing attack in Chang Sha there seems to some information missing. The hex show '5' units there. Presumably that is the 3 Chinese land units and the Japanese NAV. The 5th units is what ?  A saved oil or BP ?

Since there is no factory in ChangSha why would you stratbomb there unless on saved oil or BP.  Kunming or Chungking are more likely targets.

Lars




Froonp -> RE: Memo (4/14/2008 6:28:50 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: lomyrin

In this strategic bombing attack in Chang Sha there seems to some information missing. The hex show '5' units there. Presumably that is the 3 Chinese land units and the Japanese NAV. The 5th units is what ?  A saved oil or BP ?

Since there is no factory in ChangSha why would you stratbomb there unless on saved oil or BP.  Kunming or Chungking are more likely targets.

Lars

I believe that there is a factory in Changsha.




Froonp -> RE: Memo (4/14/2008 6:36:54 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
I see no harm in showing the ground units during strategic bombing. They are important when doing most of the other air missions.

Yes, but seeing land (or other) units in the Strat bombing form is weird anyway IMO.
If the player wants to see what's in the hex, he has a lot of ways to do that : The unit in hex Form, the Flyouts. Why not have the flyouts available from inside the Form ?
I think that it would be better if the "Units in target hexe" were only units that are concerned by the attack.
For example, showing all the ships in an hex that is being Ground Struk seems weird. Seing land units in a hex that is being Port Attacked or Strat bombed is weird.

Maybe you could show a factory counter for each factory present in the hex for Strat Bombing.

For Port attack, you should show naval units (and maybe not the SUBs in Major ports).
For Ground Support, and Paradrops you should show land units only (as they are the only ones affected by that kind of mission).
For Ground Strike and Carpet Bombing you should sown land and aircraft units (as they are the only ones affected by that kind of mission).
For Air Transport you should show all the units in the hex, land, aircraft and ships.




Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Memo (4/14/2008 7:55:35 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: lomyrin

In this strategic bombing attack in Chang Sha there seems to some information missing. The hex show '5' units there. Presumably that is the 3 Chinese land units and the Japanese NAV. The 5th units is what ?  A saved oil or BP ?

Since there is no factory in ChangSha why would you stratbomb there unless on saved oil or BP.  Kunming or Chungking are more likely targets.

Lars

The 5th unit is a Japanese fighter providing cover for the Nav Air.




lomyrin -> RE: Memo (4/14/2008 8:00:29 PM)

Re the factory in Chang Sha I wrote without thinking first it seems, there is a factory there although it usually ends up destroyed.

The fifth unit being a Japanese Ftr as escort still ought to be visible to avoid guessing and to show the reason for the Chinese Ftr in range to not intercpet.

Lars





Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Memo (4/14/2008 8:08:19 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Froonp

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
I see no harm in showing the ground units during strategic bombing. They are important when doing most of the other air missions.

Yes, but seeing land (or other) units in the Strat bombing form is weird anyway IMO.
If the player wants to see what's in the hex, he has a lot of ways to do that : The unit in hex Form, the Flyouts. Why not have the flyouts available from inside the Form ?
I think that it would be better if the "Units in target hexe" were only units that are concerned by the attack.
For example, showing all the ships in an hex that is being Ground Struk seems weird. Seing land units in a hex that is being Port Attacked or Strat bombed is weird.

Maybe you could show a factory counter for each factory present in the hex for Strat Bombing.

For Port attack, you should show naval units (and maybe not the SUBs in Major ports).
For Ground Support, and Paradrops you should show land units only (as they are the only ones affected by that kind of mission).
For Ground Strike and Carpet Bombing you should sown land and aircraft units (as they are the only ones affected by that kind of mission).
For Air Transport you should show all the units in the hex, land, aircraft and ships.

Using counter depictions for factories, oil resources, etc. is a good idea. I was going to make a table, but the pictures would be better.

I already had naval units edited out.

Another reason I want to use unit depictions , is that I can place text strings under the unit pictures describing their status: Damaged, Detroyed, Struck, ..

This form is not used for port attacks. Those results are shown using the naval combat results form.




Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Memo (5/10/2008 9:58:22 PM)

I was debugging this form and in the process I revised it quite a bit. It is used for selecting units from a group of units at different points in the sequence of play. This is a primary way of selecting a group of naval units for movement.

Here I have deselected the units with a range less than 4, so 19 of the 23 units in the port have been selected.

Note the different filters for naval unit types, sea sections (used when selecting units for inclusion in naval combat) and countries.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/07DB39C9908C4DDABBD2D5DC2C341BA3.jpg[/image]




Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Memo (5/10/2008 10:02:14 PM)

2nd and last in the series.

Here is the same hex as shown using the naval review details form. This shows all 25 units, including the marine units.

Now that I have debugged the other form (Select Units), I'll work on implementing the capability to pick up units using the NRD form. This would let you place the marine corps on the transport and the marine division on a surface ship (probably one of the weak light cruisers).

[image]local://upfiles/16701/BD6D62BAB9E34E69BCA681F47BC473D5.jpg[/image]




Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Memo (5/11/2008 6:10:01 AM)

Here is the revised form with the factory target shown. For some reason the text under the factory is not being shown, it should say Blue for the first and Red for the second. I figure it out this afternoon.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/C9EB45DEA2ED43A7BC2CCA02330498AE.jpg[/image]




Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Memo (5/11/2008 7:29:03 AM)

The corrected form.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/5EA6154A3ECA433AAD4CE43CD74A0263.jpg[/image]




Taxman66 -> RE: Memo (5/11/2008 5:25:44 PM)

How hard would it be to overlay a red tint onto the factory stack picture?  Or perhaps use a blue/red border?




Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Memo (5/11/2008 8:29:14 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Taxman66

How hard would it be to overlay a red tint onto the factory stack picture?  Or perhaps use a blue/red border?

I do not see any need. The information is clear. Time is precious.

I do want to select the right base color though. Here it is gray (Germany) and it should be brown (USSR). I hadn't noticed that until you make this comment.




Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Memo (5/13/2008 4:26:23 AM)

Here is a revised layout for reporting the results of Ground Strikes. I'll also use it for strategic bombing, carpet bombing, and ground support.

This is a surprise impulse so each of the attacking units is getting an extra die roll. Because the Stuka disorganized the infantry unit, the 150 mm didn't even roll for that unit.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/D35D009BAC14455DA5723B4EA1CB477B.jpg[/image]




Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Memo (5/13/2008 4:29:46 AM)

2nd and last in series.

Here is another ground strike from the same turn. Because the target is in the woods, the tactical/bombardment factors are halved. but a couple nice die rolls made the 800 mm unnecessary.

Note that the status indicators for the units in the stack viewers are the wrong size, they are zoom 4 instead of zoom 6. I need to increase them by 50%.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/5D3C2863B9C245BC90CF80C1AB669E4C.jpg[/image]




Zorachus99 -> RE: Memo (5/13/2008 4:51:08 AM)

The statement:

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 2

is painful to see and interpret.  Is there a CSV we can modify so that it says at the very least 2nd Arm instead of simply 2?  Many different units have the designation 2, it makes sense to be just slightly more verbose.  I'm sure we can abbreviate without thrashing the land units statistics (something that was much harder for air units).
So many units are named appropriately, it hurts to see 2nd Mot or 2nd Arm not being mentioned properly.




Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Memo (5/13/2008 5:54:41 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99

The statement:

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 2

is painful to see and interpret.  Is there a CSV we can modify so that it says at the very least 2nd Arm instead of simply 2?  Many different units have the designation 2, it makes sense to be just slightly more verbose.  I'm sure we can abbreviate without thrashing the land units statistics (something that was much harder for air units).
So many units are named appropriately, it hurts to see 2nd Mot or 2nd Arm not being mentioned properly.

I am nervous about making the statements longer (e.g., by adding Armor/Infantry/Division/AntiTank/etc.). The space available does not have a lot of extra width. I have provided a lot of height for multiple lines, since there could be a lot of units in a hex and numerous attackers.

Changing the name of the unit in the data file is a possiblity. What you see here is taken straight from the WIF FE counters. I guess they assume that since the NATO symbol for infantry and the XXXX denoting army are part of the counter there is no need to say anything more than '2'.




lomyrin -> RE: Memo (5/13/2008 6:17:50 AM)

Could you make the status dot on the target units show disorganized status ?

Lars




Zorachus99 -> RE: Memo (5/13/2008 7:02:51 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets


quote:

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99

The statement:

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 2

is painful to see and interpret.  Is there a CSV we can modify so that it says at the very least 2nd Arm instead of simply 2?  Many different units have the designation 2, it makes sense to be just slightly more verbose.  I'm sure we can abbreviate without thrashing the land units statistics (something that was much harder for air units).
So many units are named appropriately, it hurts to see 2nd Mot or 2nd Arm not being mentioned properly.

I am nervous about making the statements longer (e.g., by adding Armor/Infantry/Division/AntiTank/etc.). The space available does not have a lot of extra width. I have provided a lot of height for multiple lines, since there could be a lot of units in a hex and numerous attackers.

Changing the name of the unit in the data file is a possiblity. What you see here is taken straight from the WIF FE counters. I guess they assume that since the NATO symbol for infantry and the XXXX denoting army are part of the counter there is no need to say anything more than '2'.


Exactly. When look at the 2 on the unit, it's obvious what it is, but when typed out it is much less clear. Imagine hexes with 2 units with the same number. It makes the ground strike much less informative.

Instead of Just using the number 2 I'd propose standard naming conventions for generic unit types, such as: Inf, Mot, Arm, Para, and so forth; all of which are the standard abbreviations. No need to mess with anything but the generic land units either.

That way when you ground strike the 5th Para, it would say.

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 5th Para

instead of

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 5 (which is misleading/confusing when read literally)

My guess is it would only take a some few hours to clean up the abbreviations for the land unit names. If nobody volunteers I would give it a try, particularly if the data was presented in CSV fashion.




Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Memo (5/13/2008 8:31:41 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: lomyrin

Could you make the status dot on the target units show disorganized status ?

Lars

It does - the orange dot (it should be larger and positioned slightly more to the right).




Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Memo (5/13/2008 8:37:50 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99


quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets


quote:

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99

The statement:

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 2

is painful to see and interpret.  Is there a CSV we can modify so that it says at the very least 2nd Arm instead of simply 2?  Many different units have the designation 2, it makes sense to be just slightly more verbose.  I'm sure we can abbreviate without thrashing the land units statistics (something that was much harder for air units).
So many units are named appropriately, it hurts to see 2nd Mot or 2nd Arm not being mentioned properly.

I am nervous about making the statements longer (e.g., by adding Armor/Infantry/Division/AntiTank/etc.). The space available does not have a lot of extra width. I have provided a lot of height for multiple lines, since there could be a lot of units in a hex and numerous attackers.

Changing the name of the unit in the data file is a possiblity. What you see here is taken straight from the WIF FE counters. I guess they assume that since the NATO symbol for infantry and the XXXX denoting army are part of the counter there is no need to say anything more than '2'.


Exactly. When look at the 2 on the unit, it's obvious what it is, but when typed out it is much less clear. Imagine hexes with 2 units with the same number. It makes the ground strike much less informative.

Instead of Just using the number 2 I'd propose standard naming conventions for generic unit types, such as: Inf, Mot, Arm, Para, and so forth; all of which are the standard abbreviations. No need to mess with anything but the generic land units either.

That way when you ground strike the 5th Para, it would say.

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 5th Para

instead of

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 5 (which is misleading/confusing when read literally)

My guess is it would only take a some few hours to clean up the abbreviations for the land unit names. If nobody volunteers I would give it a try, particularly if the data was presented in CSV fashion.

As a beta tester, you already have the CSV file for this: "Standard Units LND.CSV". If you want to modify the names, that's fine by me. All land units (except HQs) are selected randomly, not by name, so changing the names of non-HQs is ok.

In fact, the players have this ability during game play. But I agree that your offer to make the names more complete in the starting data file would be an improvement.




Froonp -> RE: Memo (5/13/2008 10:21:54 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99
That way when you ground strike the 5th Para, it would say.

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 5th Para

instead of

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 5 (which is misleading/confusing when read literally)

Or simpler :

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 5 PARA

This way you'd just need to add the type of unit beside the ID, not needing to calculate the "st", "nd", or "rd" or "th".




Froonp -> RE: Memo (5/13/2008 10:24:48 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99
My guess is it would only take a some few hours to clean up the abbreviations for the land unit names. If nobody volunteers I would give it a try, particularly if the data was presented in CSV fashion.

Yes, but if you rename the "2" INF unit as "2nd Inf", then when using the name & type you'll have "2nd Inf INF".
I thin this is better & simpler to just add the type in the result form for air strikes.




Froonp -> RE: Memo (5/13/2008 10:28:51 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

2nd and last in series.

Here is another ground strike from the same turn. Because the target is in the woods, the tactical/bombardment factors are halved. but a couple nice die rolls made the 800 mm unnecessary.

Note that the status indicators for the units in the stack viewers are the wrong size, they are zoom 4 instead of zoom 6. I need to increase them by 50%.

Good job at improving this form. It is now much clearer than it was before.
Maybe you can also add in the first line that the target hex is a forest, and that the TAC factors are halved.
Maybe also you should not write the full sentences in bold. Too much bold kills the bold effect. Maybe you should just put the number rolled, and the ID of the unit ground striking and the ID unit targeted in bold.
Maybe also the "disorganized" word in green, and the "failed to disorganize" in red, so that success & failures are immediately identified by colors.




Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: Memo (5/13/2008 11:18:17 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Froonp

quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

2nd and last in series.

Here is another ground strike from the same turn. Because the target is in the woods, the tactical/bombardment factors are halved. but a couple nice die rolls made the 800 mm unnecessary.

Note that the status indicators for the units in the stack viewers are the wrong size, they are zoom 4 instead of zoom 6. I need to increase them by 50%.

Good job at improving this form. It is now much clearer than it was before.
Maybe you can also add in the first line that the target hex is a forest, and that the TAC factors are halved.
Maybe also you should not write the full sentences in bold. Too much bold kills the bold effect. Maybe you should just put the number rolled, and the ID of the unit ground striking and the ID unit targeted in bold.
Maybe also the "disorganized" word in green, and the "failed to disorganize" in red, so that success & failures are immediately identified by colors.

The use of bold is because the font 'floats' on the textured background. When the font is too thin, it loses legibility against the mottled background(s).

Changing colors of the text in mid-sentence would be a lot of work. But more importantly, the gray background is only for German. The uS would have a textured green background and Japan a textured red one. Green on green would not provide much contrast and green on red would be a disaster.

I'm not keen on using the results text as a place to explain the rules. The player will either know them already or can look them up. For example, the help button will bring up the particualrs you mentioned.




YohanTM2 -> RE: Memo (5/13/2008 3:07:36 PM)

I like this approach

quote:

ORIGINAL: Froonp

quote:

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99
That way when you ground strike the 5th Para, it would say.

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 5th Para

instead of

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 5 (which is misleading/confusing when read literally)

Or simpler :

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 5 PARA

This way you'd just need to add the type of unit beside the ID, not needing to calculate the "st", "nd", or "rd" or "th".





Sewerlobster -> RE: Memo (5/13/2008 3:46:35 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Froonp

quote:

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99
My guess is it would only take a some few hours to clean up the abbreviations for the land unit names. If nobody volunteers I would give it a try, particularly if the data was presented in CSV fashion.

Yes, but if you rename the "2" INF unit as "2nd Inf", then when using the name & type you'll have "2nd Inf INF".
I thin this is better & simpler to just add the type in the result form for air strikes.


Would it be easier, if limited to just a number, to have disorganized 2 to mean the second unit on the display? Once a player is used to Mwif convention it won't be such a big deal.




Zorachus99 -> RE: Memo (5/13/2008 5:09:58 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Froonp

quote:

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99
That way when you ground strike the 5th Para, it would say.

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 5th Para

instead of

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 5 (which is misleading/confusing when read literally)

Or simpler :

Ju88A1 Die roll 1 disorganized 5 PARA

This way you'd just need to add the type of unit beside the ID, not needing to calculate the "st", "nd", or "rd" or "th".


Which do you prefer Steve? I can update the land units names pretty easily with some CSV tricks I know and send it to you, but would prefer not to waste time if you like Patrice's idea more.

I do like my idea more, but wouldn't want to cause trouble in any other forms by being more descriptive with the land units. It seemed like an idea to take something off your task list.

Thanks! [8D]




Froonp -> RE: Memo (5/13/2008 5:23:31 PM)

Frankly, modifying the names of the units in the CSV files seems like opening a can of worms to me, because there are names that are already quite long (XXVII, XXVI, XXXIX, LXXXVII... there are scores of them), and those names are displayed on the counters themselves. So changing the names in the CSV and adding them 5-6 letters will cause display problems on the counters.

Those names might be used elsewhere inthe games, and I don't think that increasing their length of 5-6 letters is a good idea.




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