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SITREP

Panman

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Joined
Dec 26, 2014
Messages
6
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1
Age
57
Location
USA
Silent lurker here … but you can count on my purchase of BaB. Own everything else because its just that good!
 

Iconoclast

Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
130
Points
18
Location
germany
Since BAB was mentioned in the context of a new module: Will this next Patch/version contain more than "just" fixes? Will there be new features?

I am asking because the way the message was phrased, sounded to me like BAB would be co-released with an engine update, which as far as I have understood the road map would mean new features.

Cheers
 

TMO

Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2014
Messages
178
Points
18
Location
Bristol
I have supported Panther since RDOA and will continue to do so, so I'll be buying BaB when it's released. With regards to community testing, on the UI the 1FD dialog box is a bit 'wonky', it's still understandable but needs fixing.

Regards

Tim
 

JArraya

Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2015
Messages
113
Points
18
Age
49
Location
UK
Long time fan, I still think this is the best wargame out there; yes, it has some issues and needs a couple of patches that have been a long time coming, but I will buy the new DLC when it is released.
 

AdmSteebe

Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2017
Messages
10
Points
1
Age
54
Location
Red Bluff, CA
SITREP Fri 1 May 2020



We will be charging for the BAB module, but there will be no cost associated with the new game version. You will be able to play all your existing modules with the new game engine. It will either automatically convert these, or you will be able to download a converted version of your existing modules without additional charge.

I know this is a break from our earlier pricing model. I know it’s not seeking any recompense for all the work we have put in to develop this new version. But I’m hoping that you will show your support by buying Bradley at Bay and any other of the existing modules that you don’t already have. It’s been a long two years of development with little in the way of sales. So please, don’t let me down.

I too am very excited to hear this news on BaB and the new game version. I'm good for at-least BaB and I'll look into another module to install this weekend to play on my new machine. I wish that there could be more that we as players could do but it sounds like there are some dedicated and faithful players here and I think that I speak for them as well when I say we appreciate the hard work that you and others have put into the game.
Thank You Dave and keep up the good work.
 

Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor

Panther Games Designer
Joined
Jul 31, 2014
Messages
3,415
Points
113
Location
Canberra, Australia
Website
www.panthergames.com
SITREP Sunday 17 May 2020.

I spent the week debugging my changes. The autotesting threw up a string of issues relating to the new aspects of doing a partial replan. The earlier code for this was tailored to handling cases where a reinforcement arrives and just added a task to an existing mission for the new arrivals. This did not involve replanning the whole mission. The new code is more sophisticated and more powerful and is used when a subordinate abandons its mission. Where the mission is deemed significant one of the options is to do a partial replan. We hive off the mission plans that we want to exempt from replanning (eg those with an atttack underway or those almost at the objective). So this just leaves a set of plans that we want to replan. In such cases we want the AI to reallocate forces so that the previously abandoned plan may get enough to achieve the objective.

These changes have had knock on effects with the scheduling code and I now need to change ProcessReceiveOrders() to handle these specific cases. I hope to finish that next week.
 

Tainster

Member
Joined
Mar 8, 2020
Messages
49
Points
6
Location
England
SITREP Sunday 17 May 2020.

I spent the week debugging my changes. The autotesting threw up a string of issues relating to the new aspects of doing a partial replan. The earlier code for this was tailored to handling cases where a reinforcement arrives and just added a task to an existing mission for the new arrivals. This did not involve replanning the whole mission. The new code is more sophisticated and more powerful and is used when a subordinate abandons its mission. Where the mission is deemed significant one of the options is to do a partial replan. We hive off the mission plans that we want to exempt from replanning (eg those with an atttack underway or those almost at the objective). So this just leaves a set of plans that we want to replan. In such cases we want the AI to reallocate forces so that the previously abandoned plan may get enough to achieve the objective.

These changes have had knock on effects with the scheduling code and I now need to change ProcessReceiveOrders() to handle these specific cases. I hope to finish that next week.
Hi, You refer to “autotesting”. As a matter of interest, how does that work?
 

Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor

Panther Games Designer
Joined
Jul 31, 2014
Messages
3,415
Points
113
Location
Canberra, Australia
Website
www.panthergames.com
Autotesting is a debug tool that has the AI play both sides. It runs as fast as possible, automaticaly. It's controlled by a script which sets what scenario to play with what options. It logs a lot of data to a file so we can review it. Every few minutes, it will save a recording and then continue the game. If an assert fires (these only fire in debug mode) it will log specific data including a stack crawl of the code just before the assert. Then we can use this to replay the recording and step through the exact sequence that led to the assert. In that way it provides a repeatable process for us to debug the problem.
 

GoodGuy

Member
Joined
May 20, 2015
Messages
443
Points
28
Location
Cologne
An Assertion is a boolean function added by the programmer that can help a program to detect its own defects (typos, logical errors in the code, erroneous output values, etc). Unlike classic exceptions or classic exception error handling (ie. deliberate crash with msg, say "error XY in line 3678"), such function can then also be used to log the line (or even x lines before the assertion was triggered, as Dave described) where the failure occured but also to proceed with program execution (if it's not a fatal exception error) until say the scenario end has been reached or until one of the AIs has wiped out all enemies, or it can load a savegame and just proceed with the game. If no assertions come up during autotesting anymore, betatesters will then test a new (corrected) version, who then - during their test runs - put the focus on functions/situations that had triggered misbehaviours/crashes/whatever in the previous version.
The betatesters are using the debug version, so they have additional tools which the regular user/player doesn't have. Depending on the amount of debug tools and functions included, the betatester may have the possibilty to discover funky AI behaviour, as he may have the ability to remove the fog of war, for instance, or he may add handicaps for the enemy AI to slow down the enemy AI and ease observation.

Big companies like say EA employ quite a few software egineers in their quality assurance divisions, where they use (or even develop their own) autotest environments and where then games are autotested on a number of machines and different hardware/operating systems. Some divisions have an entire "machine park" for autotesting, some of them just autotest particular game modules, not the entire game and leave the detailed testing to inhouse testers.
IIRC, Dave used to have one dedicated machine for autotests.
 
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Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor

Panther Games Designer
Joined
Jul 31, 2014
Messages
3,415
Points
113
Location
Canberra, Australia
Website
www.panthergames.com
SITREP Mon 27 May 2020

Hi all,

I've been autotesting and fixing my way through the overhaul of the partial replanning code. I've broken the back of it today but still have some minor asserts to work through. Today I was able to see the 4th Armoured Division HQ respond to the CCB HQ abandoning its assigned plan. It exempted the mission assigned to CCA and successfully replanned the remaining three missions, including the abandoned plan. Essentially it threw more troops into achieving the abandoned plan and it went on to achieve it as well as its other missions. So I was pleased.
 

Sidekick

Member
Joined
May 4, 2018
Messages
5
Points
3
Age
58
Location
Ottawa Canada
Another silent lurker wishing you well and confirming that I'll buy BAB when it's available.

Its a long slog, I know. Keep up the good work.
 
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