Creating a computer-aided version of WCTO
- Thread starter Avacar
- Start date
Please do; you've already seen what I came up with for the text for the movement report, but I'd happily swap it out for better-sounding text.
I know it isn't very clear right now, but that's mostly because I just haven't bothered making it look pretty, or giving it any highlighting/colour.
I know it isn't very clear right now, but that's mostly because I just haven't bothered making it look pretty, or giving it any highlighting/colour.
Jason_Ryock
Vice Admiral
Ah. I knew trigonometry would be useful for something.
(I actually enjoyed high school maths, I found it objective and quite easy compared to something subjective like English.)
I felt the same way, and it was easy to see the practical applications of Math compared to the practical applications of, I don't know, High School Chemistry. (Which is really just math with letters!)
It certainly took me long enough, but the combat alpha demo is now ready. This hacked version will alternate between the movement alpha and the combat alpha, on a phase-for-phase basis. As before, this is all within the fake 'turn 1' that normally wouldn't have infinite phases.
I need everyone's help right now. I suspect there will be a lot of bugs; some may lock it up and need me to fix it. Some may simply be wrong behaviour. I've got the same ugly overlayed reporting working, and it should report all gun and missile fire.
The pre-engine pop-up should only allow valid targets, but doesn't yet list the difficulty of the shot, nor does it have all the tooltips working.
Also note that, since missiles are resolved in the end-turn phase, if you fire one, it will record its details, and just sit there.
I'm not finished with the missile class; I don't know if they'll even show up at the moment, but I will look into that in the next day or so.
I know this has taken a long time, but this was the biggest bulk of the work. We still have a ways to go, but we're now past halfway through phase 4.
For those of you with code access, I've done a preliminary commit, and I welcome you to look over the code as well.
I need everyone's help right now. I suspect there will be a lot of bugs; some may lock it up and need me to fix it. Some may simply be wrong behaviour. I've got the same ugly overlayed reporting working, and it should report all gun and missile fire.
The pre-engine pop-up should only allow valid targets, but doesn't yet list the difficulty of the shot, nor does it have all the tooltips working.
Also note that, since missiles are resolved in the end-turn phase, if you fire one, it will record its details, and just sit there.
I'm not finished with the missile class; I don't know if they'll even show up at the moment, but I will look into that in the next day or so.
I know this has taken a long time, but this was the biggest bulk of the work. We still have a ways to go, but we're now past halfway through phase 4.
For those of you with code access, I've done a preliminary commit, and I welcome you to look over the code as well.
Once again, great work! I'd like to help out, but it seems to be stuck at turn 28... I could issue firing orders for the Rapier, but it won't go on from there. Maybe someone actually blew up one of the fighters and the program doesn't yet know how to handle this? 
I also haven't seen any reporting windows yet - I guess they only pop up once, seeing that the shield and hull points for each ship seem to be always the same during your current "infinite phases" setup.
Is it intentional that the ship info screens' "roll out" event only works for the info screen itself, and not for the ship? (Um, meaning... If you point at a ship, the info screen will come up, but it will only close once you'ved moved the mouse over the info screen .) When I checked out each of the ships' stats, those info screens quickly cluttered the map.
I also haven't seen any reporting windows yet - I guess they only pop up once, seeing that the shield and hull points for each ship seem to be always the same during your current "infinite phases" setup.
Is it intentional that the ship info screens' "roll out" event only works for the info screen itself, and not for the ship? (Um, meaning... If you point at a ship, the info screen will come up, but it will only close once you'ved moved the mouse over the info screen .) When I checked out each of the ships' stats, those info screens quickly cluttered the map.
Once again, great work! I'd like to help out, but it seems to be stuck at turn 28... I could issue firing orders for the Rapier, but it won't go on from there. Maybe someone actually blew up one of the fighters and the program doesn't yet know how to handle this?
No, according to the database, it thinks it is still waiting on 1 ship to submit orders, but no ship has an orders dialog. To solve this I need to know 1 thing:
Was there ever an 'orders' window available for the Durango? I have code in place that is supposed to predict when no valid shots are available, and therefore skip a ship's order phase. It looks like it successfully skipped the Durango, *BUT* forgot to update the 'countdown to all orders in'. to verify this, I just need you to confirm Durango has always had no order available from the start of you playing with it.
Regardless, I've kicked the database into thinking that all ships are in (since they are) so it will process the combat orders next.
I haven't window-ified the reporting yet. it is just an overlay at the top for the moment. Here are the last 2 reports:
I will update that into a pop-up window at the same time that I build the improved navigation toolbar, which is not critical for a phase4 completion, so is being pushed off to phase5.
Is it intentional that the ship info screens' "roll out" event only works for the info screen itself, and not for the ship? (Um, meaning... If you point at a ship, the info screen will come up, but it will only close once you'ved moved the mouse over the info screen .) When I checked out each of the ships' stats, those info screens quickly cluttered the map.
Wedge asked the same thing a while back. Yes, this is the intended behaviour, and is acting as I coded it to. I can easily change this, but here was my logic behind it:
- This allows you to mouse over a ship and leave the window open if you want to.
- You can have multiple open if you want to.
Yes, the 'close' condition is to move a mouse, already over a box, out of the box. I could instead put in a 'close' button (probably an X) or something else if everyone would prefer. Or I could very easily make the windows close as soon as you mouse off the ship.
Just found a typo in the movement_phase_engine.php which would confirm this theory, but I'd still like to hear confirmation.
The only ship with an orders button was the Rapier (I ordered it to fire all guns at the Ferret, with no reserve fire). Someone else has probably taken care of the Ferret before I got in...
It should now generate a turn 29, or did I miss something?
Should these reports show at the top of the map? I've seen some white text flashing, but it's gone now, and I thought it was a debug feature or maybe a hickup in the code.
Maybe I'm just too used to it, but I'd say it feels more natural to close the window as soon as you move the mouse out. Maybe hit the left mouse button if you want it to stay open - but as long as there's no drag and drop feature, it's rather strange to have two info screens overlapping. Also, as soon as there are more ships populating the map, it might get a pain in the backside.
(Anyway, as far as pre-release tests are concerned, I can certainly live with any version.)
Got this message after I ordered full reserved fire for both Rapier and Ferret:
One more thing: I managed to pull off an Immelman turn at speed 0 with the Rapier. It's probably one of the manual errata I have to fix, but an Immelman shouldn't be possible at speed 0...
Edit: Everything seems to be working again!
Not sure if it has to do anything with the reserved fire, though...
One more thing: I managed to pull off an Immelman turn at speed 0 with the Rapier. It's probably one of the manual errata I have to fix, but an Immelman shouldn't be possible at speed 0...
Edit: Everything seems to be working again!
At least in firefox 3.6.X I see the white text. What browser are you using?
Maybe I'm just too used to it, but I'd say it feels more natural to close the window as soon as you move the mouse out. Maybe hit the left mouse button if you want it to stay open - but as long as there's no drag and drop feature, it's rather strange to have two info screens overlapping. Also, as soon as there are more ships populating the map, it might get a pain in the backside.
(Anyway, as far as pre-release tests are concerned, I can certainly live with any version.)
Click to stay open... I like that as open, and should be easy enough to code. I may do that some time 'soon', since that's only a few extra lines of code.
Got this message after I ordered full reserved fire for both Rapier and Ferret:
Not sure if it has to do anything with the reserved fire, though...
[...]
Edit: Everything seems to be working again!
Yeah, that's worrisome, as is the fact that it seems to have magically cleaned itself up. That line of code iterates over all submitted orders. Maybe you clicked just as I pushed up an update just now (which fixes opportunity fire, since I realized I didn't finish that).
One more thing: I managed to pull off an Immelman turn at speed 0 with the Rapier. It's probably one of the manual errata I have to fix, but an Immelman shouldn't be possible at speed 0...
Sure; easy enough to do. Is speed 1 sufficient?
Also, I think, right now, if you bring the durango around to bear, it'll be able to Anti-Matter Cannon the fighters into oblivion as if the gun was a fighter's normal forward facing weapon.
Chrome 5.0.X - but you're right, Firefox shows the text correctly.
For now, yes. I'm not exactly sure if we're doing the Immelman turn justice, but I'm not really happy with the way it translates to WCTO anyway. (Seeing that you usually pull it off to turn around AND gain some height at the same time in "real life.")
It's definitely something I'll have to think over for the next revision of the rules...
Yes, I was able to target one of the fighters with the Durango's AMG.
But since the submit buttons aren't available right now, I couldn't do any harm. 
I had put a small update up that added in opportunity fire, but it crashed the pre-engine (producing the broken pop-ups).
That is now fixed.
I also noticed very little actual damage was being done, and it wasn't being reported either. I've fixed those too, so that the damage is now being done and properly reported.
Capital weapons are still not really playable.
Please test out weapons fire, missile locks, etc. Also try to fire at the Durango; with the Phase Shields, you shouldn't be able to lock in the first place, but if you do, it should do no damage.
That is now fixed.
I also noticed very little actual damage was being done, and it wasn't being reported either. I've fixed those too, so that the damage is now being done and properly reported.
Capital weapons are still not really playable.
Please test out weapons fire, missile locks, etc. Also try to fire at the Durango; with the Phase Shields, you shouldn't be able to lock in the first place, but if you do, it should do no damage.
Darn, you're right about that "Orders" button, haha! 
Okay, next version: Keep it the way it is, but close all other ship info screens as soon as you roll over a new ship (unless you clicked the left mouse button to have the former info screen stay open). Does this sound as if it'd be making any sense?
(Guess you could just flag all info screens opened with the left mouse button and close all screens without that flag.)
I've come across two oddities:
- the "turn" command for the Durango was missing in turn 37 (instead of the "continue left/right turn" option that used to be in there)
- the Rapier couldn't fire a DF at the Ferret in turn 38, although it was 2 hexes away in front of me
Damage seems to work now. Not sure about shield recharge, since the end phase isn't done yet. If you blow up the Ferret, will the game remove it from the map, or will it still be there with negative shield and hull values? (I didn't want to break anything, so I haven't tried out yet.)
This will be so much fun!!!
Okay, next version: Keep it the way it is, but close all other ship info screens as soon as you roll over a new ship (unless you clicked the left mouse button to have the former info screen stay open). Does this sound as if it'd be making any sense? (Guess you could just flag all info screens opened with the left mouse button and close all screens without that flag.)
I've come across two oddities:
- the "turn" command for the Durango was missing in turn 37 (instead of the "continue left/right turn" option that used to be in there)
- the Rapier couldn't fire a DF at the Ferret in turn 38, although it was 2 hexes away in front of me
Damage seems to work now. Not sure about shield recharge, since the end phase isn't done yet. If you blow up the Ferret, will the game remove it from the map, or will it still be there with negative shield and hull values? (I didn't want to break anything, so I haven't tried out yet.)
This will be so much fun!!!
Wedge009
Rogue Leader
The 'flash' you're seeing is the text being rendered first, then the other layers - the hex grid and the star background - being rendered over the top.
I wouldn't say 'correctly'. Perhaps 'as intended'. The problem is that there seems to be a gross discrepancy between the SubVersion code and what's on display in the Combat Alpha Demo page: I suspect that since the browsers are running in 'quirks mode', we're getting drastically different behaviour. In Trident, WebKit and KHTML, the reports text is 'behind' the background images, in Gecko and Presto, it is in front. Too, Trident is in such a quirky state that the ship windows are permanently open - no amount of mouse movement is getting them to disappear.
I know you're deep in code development right now, but you won't be able to see things consistently across browsers in the current state of the code because they're all rendering in quirks mode.
The good news is that once I build the end-phase-engine, the need for the 'alpha demo' hack versions goes away, and the actual phase4.php becomes the dominant main file. At that point, if Wedge's already in-place corrections aren't enough, we can focus on cleaning it up.
The main reason for the 'alpha demo' files at all is so that I can force the game to kick past the not-yet coded phases.
The main reason for the 'alpha demo' files at all is so that I can force the game to kick past the not-yet coded phases.
I've noticed this too, but I have yet to figure out what is causing it. It happened on some of the earlier turns as well. If it happens again, try to recall what the previous turn's order was.
Hmm, clearly a problem. When you say 'couldn't fire' do you meant it didn't show up on the target list? Did other missiles have it show up? If the ferret WAS on the target list, did the missile just not 'fire' in the combat results report?
Right; currently there is no shield recharge. If we kill off the ships, I can spawn new ones.
Well, as far as I remember, I did put in the board_cleanup routine. I can't remember how much i've put in it so far, but it eventually should kill off ships that fly off the map, and blow up ships that are dead.
Feel free to destroy ships; that will let me trace through where I need to put in the death code when they do die. You can't really "break" something that isn't finished, only point out flaws!