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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition >> Most Valuable Modules of Tracker

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Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/27/2013 2:30:57 PM

adsoul64

Posts: 277
Joined: 1/23/2012
From: Milan Italy
Status: offline

First I'd like to say that I judge the Tracker an essential tool. But it's a huge tool so I would appreciate hints and ideas about the most important modules, the ones that you check near everyday. I assume that JFB will use especially the ones about production handling that are not so useful for AFB.

< Message edited by adsoul64 -- 11/28/2013 9:47:50 PM >

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RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/27/2013 3:19:59 PM

richlove

Posts: 196
Joined: 5/1/2009
Status: offline

I'm playing an AI game as the allies. Here's what I do:

On a daily basis:
- Check alerts to see the stuff like LCUs finishing their movement, detection levels on TFs, subs arriving (basically stuff that Combat Reporter misses).
- Check air groups to look for groups w/ inactive pilots or insufficient pilots

2-3 times a month:
- scan for low morale LCUs and air groups
- review LCU TOE upgrade plans
- check that upgrade and replacement settings are correct for all LCU and air groups
- review and plan for ship conversions and upgrades
- manage aircraft pools, plan for aircraft allocation

Monthly:
- review minefield degradation

Ad hoc? Well, all sorts of stuff. VPs, supply levels and damage at bases, speed of ship repair, speed of XP gain, probably lots of other stuff.

(in reply to adsoul64)

Post #: 2

RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/27/2013 3:24:52 PM

Powloon

Posts: 137
Joined: 10/12/2006
Status: offline

I am still very new to this game but I have found the alerts screen in particularly useful using the LCU filter which among other things gives details of when LCUs have arrived at their destinations. I export this information (together with ship and air group arrivals) to excel and use this as part of my turn order. Basically there are a lot of units and it seems very easy to miss when one of these units you started moving several turns ago finally arrives at its destination

I also use it to track how particular LCUs take on reinforcements / recover disabled spuads / morale increases etc

(in reply to adsoul64)

Post #: 3

RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/27/2013 3:39:56 PM

Numdydar

Posts: 3211
Joined: 2/13/2004
Status: offline

For Japan, every module is important

. However the one I used every turn were Alrets. Most of the rest I used a lot, just not every turn. The ones I used the least were the LCU and Bases. The VP section is more important to both sides than some think as you can see what kind of Air looses occured in the last turn and overall. This way you can adjust your air ops accordingly. So if you see too many losses, then you may want to examine some of the attacks and eliminate those that could be considered marginal or not as effective.

(in reply to Powloon)

Post #: 4

RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/27/2013 3:40:29 PM

Lokasenna

Posts: 9297
Joined: 3/3/2012
From: Iowan in MD/DC
Status: offline

Alerts tab is the best. Industry tab is second-best.

I use Kull's region definitions. In the Industry tab I'll check supply levels, on both sides, for various regions. Gives me an idea of when I need to ship in supplies and how much. As Japan, I check the resources/oil/fuel as well, and the Global tab for trends in my global pools.

After that, it's just here-and-there checking. VPs (and aircraft losses tab) to satisfy curiosity and check victory progress, aircraft production to check trends in pool history.

The aircraft comparison is also great. I just wish there was a ship class comparison as well.

(in reply to Powloon)

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RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/27/2013 3:45:10 PM

Bullwinkle58

Posts: 11302
Joined: 2/24/2009
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: adsoul64

First I'd like to say that I judge the Tracker an essential too. But it's a huge tool so I would appreciate hints and ideas about the most important modules, the ones that you check near everyday. I assume that JFB will use especially the ones about production handling that are not so useful for AFB.

Allied and I do the same "route" through Tracker each and every turn.

1.Current Day alerts, open Major, sort, don't look yet.

2. VP screen. Check PPs. Check daily air losses by type. Check sunk ships. Glance at chart. Cry.

3. Back to Alerts. Major to Info in order, with sorting. Really look at Info closely.

4. Intel. Current turn. Sort by type. Look especially for entries not "this LCU at this base." LCU-on-ship-bound-for-base are invaluable. Once in a blue moon "CV X located at x,y" are the best.

5. Ship repair. Port first. Look at progress, begin thinking about optimization moves to be done in turn. Then TF. Especially look for Fires.

6. Upgrades, sort by Location for those in port today which are eligible.

7. Air production. Turn on Building Now. Turn off Soviets. Sort by pool quantity. Especially look at fighters.

8. LCUs. Sort by Location. Look at supply state at key battle sites. If rebuilding key LCUs open history detail and see what devices have been pulled in.

9. Bases. Turn on Allies. Sort alphabetically. Look at AF, Ports, Forts at key strategic bases. Look at supplies too. Look at bombing damage since yesterday. Think about whether next Fort level is worth the supply or not.

10. About once a week look in Devices, especially Squads by nation.

That's it. I can do this in less than ten minutes now. Some of the other tabs, like OOB upgrade dates and air unit morale/fatigue I will look at in an emergency, and sometimes I'll look deeply at an aircraft's model stats, but the rest of Tracker mostly is unused. For what I use it for though it's a critical tool. The ability to see time series data on things like ship repair is invaluable and not present in the game's info screens.

< Message edited by Bullwinkle58 -- 11/27/2013 4:48:55 PM >

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RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/27/2013 3:46:56 PM

adsoul64

Posts: 277
Joined: 1/23/2012
From: Milan Italy
Status: offline

So many hints thanks everybody. A special thanks to Numdydar for his economic guide, great for green Japanese players (like me)

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RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/27/2013 4:02:17 PM

Numdydar

Posts: 3211
Joined: 2/13/2004
Status: offline

That is why I wrote it

To increse the number of JFBs lol. Glad you liked it.

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Post #: 8

RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/27/2013 4:20:14 PM

Lokasenna

Posts: 9297
Joined: 3/3/2012
From: Iowan in MD/DC
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

Check sunk ships. Glance at chart. Cry.

I forgot about the ship upgrades tab. I use that a lot, and the compare button is essential. Tracking progress per turn on repairs and base upgrades and such is also good for planning.

For the Alerts tab, there's a trick. You can sort multiple times in a row to rearrange the data. I first sort by Value, then Alert Type, then Severity. This will put my Critical alerts on top, all of my LCU reached destination alerts together, and all of the same destination alerts together. Very handy. Try it sometime.

(in reply to Bullwinkle58)

Post #: 9

RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/27/2013 4:29:03 PM

Bullwinkle58

Posts: 11302
Joined: 2/24/2009
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

Check sunk ships. Glance at chart. Cry.

I forgot about the ship upgrades tab. I use that a lot, and the compare button is essential. Tracking progress per turn on repairs and base upgrades and such is also good for planning.

For the Alerts tab, there's a trick. You can sort multiple times in a row to rearrange the data. I first sort by Value, then Alert Type, then Severity. This will put my Critical alerts on top, all of my LCU reached destination alerts together, and all of the same destination alerts together. Very handy. Try it sometime.

I open them one at a time. Then sort.

The Allies never have a Critical; they're not programmed in. The majors are stuff I don't consider that major, but D. and F. did. The middle entries are mostly stat increases for specific pilots and leaders. The Info is where the meat is for me.

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RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/27/2013 5:13:38 PM

floydg

Posts: 2052
Joined: 6/27/2004
From: Middletown, NJ
Status: offline

I spend most of my time on the Alerts. I use it as a "checklist" of things to manage during a turn. In addition to on-going operations, of course.

What drove me to start working on the program was to track ship repairs (since I didn't believe some ships were actually getting repaired), so I tend to go to that area a lot, too. I spent a long time working on the GUI components for the Port View of this data set, so sometimes I'll just bring that up and click around aimlessly just to marvel at it.

The alert severity settings were mostly based on my mood (and Damian's) at the time we programmed them in. Suggestions are welcome, but I suppose there is some subjectivity there...

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RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/27/2013 6:22:33 PM

Bullwinkle58

Posts: 11302
Joined: 2/24/2009
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: floydg

The alert severity settings were mostly based on my mood (and Damian's) at the time we programmed them in. Suggestions are welcome, but I suppose there is some subjectivity there...

Sure. No complaints from me. There's a point of diminishing returns on what could be there. I also open CombatEvents.txt every turn for the AAR game, and less often for the non-AAR one. A lot of that is too much info as well, but there are nuggets.

I think once you play this beast long enough you realize that at some point enough already and I have to do the turn. It's one day. The war isn't going to be lost or won in one day.

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RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/27/2013 7:49:06 PM

nashvillen

Posts: 3836
Joined: 7/3/2006
From: Christiana, TN
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
I think once you play this beast long enough you realize that at some point enough already and I have to do the turn. It's one day. The war isn't going to be lost or won in one day.

That is probably the most important information about this game one has to realize. A campaign game is over 1500 turns long. You have time to adjust everything as long as you don't try to do it all at one time. You and your opponent if playing PBEM will enjoy the game much more!

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RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/28/2013 6:12:59 AM

Boomer Redleg

Posts: 36
Joined: 7/15/2013
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: floydg

I spend most of my time on the Alerts. I use it as a "checklist" of things to manage during a turn. In addition to on-going operations, of course.

What drove me to start working on the program was to track ship repairs (since I didn't believe some ships were actually getting repaired), so I tend to go to that area a lot, too. I spent a long time working on the GUI components for the Port View of this data set, so sometimes I'll just bring that up and click around aimlessly just to marvel at it.

The alert severity settings were mostly based on my mood (and Damian's) at the time we programmed them in. Suggestions are welcome, but I suppose there is some subjectivity there...

I don't suppose there's a way to tag units that I'm looking at on a regular basis? Then I could sort on a tag and all those units assigned to a mission would come up in a clump.

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Post #: 14

RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/29/2013 5:28:01 AM

pharmy

Posts: 271
Joined: 4/3/2010
From: Bangkok/Budapest
Status: offline

there is - you can write something in notes - and the sort by notes. I usually export LCUs to a csv so I can filter not only sort them

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RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/29/2013 3:18:52 PM

paolorossi

Posts: 89
Joined: 12/17/2012
From: Milan - Italy
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: icepharmy

there is - you can write something in notes - and the sort by notes. I usually export LCUs to a csv so I can filter not only sort them

Never tried, but if you write a note, this note will be also on future tracker export?
Thanks
Paolo

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Post #: 16

RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/29/2013 4:02:47 PM

floydg

Posts: 2052
Joined: 6/27/2004
From: Middletown, NJ
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: teseo tesei

quote:

ORIGINAL: icepharmy

there is - you can write something in notes - and the sort by notes. I usually export LCUs to a csv so I can filter not only sort them

Never tried, but if you write a note, this note will be also on future tracker export?
Thanks
Paolo

Correct. All table columns are exported.

(in reply to paolorossi)

Post #: 17

RE: Most Valuable Modules of Tracker - 11/30/2013 1:06:57 AM

adsoul64

Posts: 277
Joined: 1/23/2012
From: Milan Italy
Status: offline

Many new ideas and some confirms of my own. Glad to see everybody is using Alert, I was afraid I was spending too much time with it. Great the trick to sort it thanks Lokasenna.

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