BigDuke66
Posts: 2013
Joined: 2/1/2001
From: Terra
Status: offline
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Not sure if I can help much, I run my first game against AI and I'm only in February 1942, looking at what and how the tracker shows the SigIntReport it can be a good template.
As database we see:
Turn | Event Type | Location/Destination | Details | Notes
I suggest to add a notes section that the player can fill himself.
Also we see some filters that should be expanded.
1. Turn filter
I suggest to give the player 2 fields that he can filled out with the turn numbers he wants to see, leaving one field empty just shows the turn from the other field, filling both will show all turns between(and including) those numbers and filling no fields will show all turns.
2. Event filter
-Radio transmission
-Heavy Volume of Radio transmission
-Troop count
-Aircraft count
-Ship count
-Unit location
-Loaded on ship
-Planing for an attack
-Moving to
-Radio call sign
-coastwatcher
What I miss is a coastwatcher event but these for what ever reason are in the OpsReport not in the SigIntReport, question is can they be put in here?
3. Base & Unit filter
This is nice but doesn't help for a bigger picture. I suggest using region files similar to the tracker to incorporate all basses in the game into regions so that the player gets and overview of infos of bases that are close together or even on the same island.
An example would be a region called "Java", this would show all bases that the region Java incorporates and will give the player a clue of what is on the whole island instead just a single base.
I'm not sure what could be done with the unit filter, similar to the regions for bases a filter that filters tank, anti-aircraft, infantry, base forces, etc. would be great but I think there is no easy way to do that. Just like the regions files the unit files would have to be hand made by classifying each unit into a category for the filter.
Now what to do with the info that can be pulled out of the SigIntReport:
1. Radio transmission & Heavy Volume of Radio transmission
Those should be made visible on map so the player can see where a concentration of traffic is and so can place his subs or try dashes into these sea lanes with TFs.
Best would be to allow the player to set the filter for the turns and after that clicks a button to draw the filtered results on the map.
Results on map could simply shown by a colored dot with two numbers in it showing how many radio & heavy radio transmissions there are, also a deeper color with more reports could make it better visible were there is a concentration running from lets say yellow(1-10 reports) to Orange(11-20 reports) to Red(21-30 reports) or so.
2. Troop count, Aircraft count & Ship count(coastwatcher)
They speak for themselves, what could be done is an additional option to show only the latest result for each base in a region when using the region filter. This gives the player an overview of the latest strength figures he has on a region no matter how old or new they are and will give him a picture of the amount of troops, aircraft and ships in this region.
3. Unit location, Loaded on ship(unit info) & Planing for an attack
Also speak for themselves, what could be done when filtering to a specific unit(or maybe unit type) is that dots for the different points the unit was seen and/or loaded could be drawn with lines connecting those dots(in order of the turn the info was gathered) on the map together with a special dot & line in case the "Planning for an attack" info is known, this could make the path visible that the unit is taking and its target or if target is unknown it could at least give a hint of where it is heading to.
4. Moving to, Loaded on ship(ship info)& if possible coastwatcher
Similar to units dots should show where the ship was spotted, where it was loading and where it's heading to, again lines could connect the dots to see it's overall path on map so that a target or a target area could be recognized, especially tracking paths of heavy navy units and carriers could show where the next major operation will unfold.
5. Radio call sign
Here I run out of knowledge, what does it reveal? The only one I had so far is SS I-15 at 158,18, so is it like a specific ship is being spotted or is it the name of a TF?
Maybe it should be incorporated into point 4.
So that's it for the SigIntReport.
The Tracker doesn't get anything out of the OpsReport as far as I can see, so what the Combat Reporter shows us so far is this:
-Arrivals(Are perfectly covered by the tracker alert)
-Coastwatcher(info should go into SigIntReport under 2. as Ship count because that is usually what the coastwatchers do, in case they see a specific ship it could be added to under 4.)
-Combat(Sinking's are reported in the tracker as alerts but the hits usually show ships that are hit by recon and where there is no combat report so you don't have a clue how the ship was damaged or maybe even sunk at all, maybe these should be attached to the Air Combat reports)
-Damaged(These can be used to form a database for airgroups where the player can set a timeframe he wants to check and so can hopefully find airgroups that have an unusual high damage rate)
-Fuel(Is already a Tracker alert)
-Intel(Could also form a database with the number of recon flights over a specific base to show how good the target was explored)
-Japanese(Similar to Intel it could also form a database to shown the player which of his bases and TFs is being explored and also which is explored above average to give clues of possible future operations)
-Loss(Well maybe the tracker could also add when a loss was admited as it already list the details of all friendly ships that are sunk)
-Maintenance(Should flow into the airgroup database to show airgroups that pile up too many planes on maintenance)
-Pilot(Can stay like it is, the trackers pilot database is already enough)
-Reassignment(Can stay like it is)
-Repairs(Again the tracker already has an alert for ships that complete repair but where repairs can't go on is missing, hopefully they can cover this too so no need to do something)
-Replacements(Can stay like it is)
-Sighting(Well this isn't easy, all messages should be sorted into different categories depending on what is sighted, especially signs of subs or carrier planes can be important. These sightings should be made visible on map to see where there is a chance to intercept planes or subs on their way to their targets)
-Submarine(Well again showing on map where a friendly sub was sighted can give a hint if it should get a new patrol area or if the patrol area has to be adjusted, depending on how often it was sighted the enemy may or may not try to circle around such sightings and will so deny those subs an attack chance)
-TaskForce(Well like under "Sighting" here are also sightings these should be merged with the sightings report to get a picture of the enemy air activity)
-Unknow(Well I guess most of them are part of one of the points above but just can't be identified as such or what is the problem here?)
So that's it for now, gee what a long list.
Important is now to get feedback from other players that are more advanced into the game, PBEM players, Japanese players, late war players and so on as the points I listed just cover what I as Allied vs. AI player who's only up to February 1942 think should be looked at, simply just my 50 cent(looks more like 5 bucks  .)
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Printable Version
RE: Combat Reporter - report monitoring tool - 
RE: Combat Reporter - report monitoring tool - 
But were is the link to down load. And is it a simple setup? I'm not to good at the programing type of stuff but would like to try this. Just started the Ironman scenario. Will it work with a game in progress? Sorry for the questions. Im sure some of this is in this thread, but my memory is not as good as it use to be.
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