SITREP Wed 17 Feb 2021
Hi all,
Haven't got as much done these last few weeks for a number of reasons. I had to spend time on accounts to comply with Government covid assistance reporting. Also my youngest has been in hospital for a number of weeks now and it's been rather harrowing. Still not out of the woods yet but things have improved somewhat.
I have finished the bulk of the changes to the PlanAttack::ConfirmTimings(). However there is an issue with cases where the boss assigns a HHour. This leaves a fixed preHHourDuration and a fixed postHHourDuration. The preHHourDuration now covers the moveToAssembly, Assemble, moveToReserve, moveToFUP and FUPReorg. I have written code to handle those cases where there is insufficient time and it will now try and crib those tasks so long as it meets the minimum duration for each. Similarly I've done the same for the postHHourDuration. However, where these internal finessing is still not enough to meet the assigned timings I have to ask the boss for more time.
Trouble is the existing code that asks for this passes in just one slippage amount. That works fine where everything is to be slipped by the same amount. But there are cases where the subordinate planning the basic attack can meet the assigned HHour but doesn't have enough time for the required postHHourDuration (the assault and final reorg). So I need to jump into the Slippage code and change it so that it can take in an additional HHourSlipage amount and then manage the two requested slippage amounts accordingly.
I have to admit, this is a rabbit hole I have not visited for many years. Part of me would prefer not to have to go down that hole. In an endeavour to obviate that I considered making changes to ensure that the FUP chosen allowed for an assault route that could be completed in time with the boss' assigned End. Some of the assault routes can be quite long.
I have investigated this and just finished overhauling the code that determines the FUP. If the boss has assigned a HHour then it uses the postHHourDuration (End - HHour) as the maxAssaultDuration. The DetermineFUP() now uses that as an additional factor when looping backwards along each approach route. So in addition to enemy firepower it factors in assault duration and derives a suitability for each loc along the route. Then it sorts them and chooses the best one. This should allow more nuance in selecting an FUP. It will probably see the selection of FUPs closer to the objective even if they have some enemy firepower. Though it will still rule out any loc whose enemy firepower exceeds a threshold.
I finished that code today. This will reduce instances where there is a need to ask the boss for more postHHourDuration. But it won't eliminate the need. Tomorrow I'll dive into the slippage hole and add the capability to handle HHour slippages.