SITREP

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

SITREP Fri 16 Apr 2021

Hi all,

Just to pipe up and say I'm still alive. Though my sore throat and sinuses are trying to prove me wrong at the moment. Two weeks ago I had a covid scare here, got tested and thankfully was cleared. It was only the flu. But boy I have never been this sick from the flu before. Hit me at a low ebb I suppose. The doctor has me on antibiotics now. I doubt if I'll be back programming for a week.

But let me say this the development of the game has gone on for the last two years. I know you don't have anything substantial to show for it. But it is continuing. A lot has been done but can't be released till the whole overhaul is done. Once I am back on deck it won't take that long. Please be patient.

 

[Jones]

Influenza can be really nasty Dave, you just need to get better. So take it easy until you are ready (please)

cheers

 

[Art Hall]

Hang in there Dave.................it will be ready when its ready.

 

[Grognerd]

Your health is more important than game! Do whatever it takes to get back on your feet!

 

[Panman]

Speedy recovery ... we'll still be here!

 

[MarkShot]

Dave,

Sorry to hear you are sick. Do be careful, the Flu can still kill. A real danger is a follow on bacterial pneumonia after your immune system has been weakened. So, do get some rest before going back to work.

If you tested positive for Flu, they may have given an anti-viral like Tamiflu. It's not really a cure like anti-biotics, but it reduces the length which reduces the risk of follow on complications.

Myself I am mainly at home taking cover and go out every couple of weeks. Always with P100/GME full face plate respirator (effectively a civvy gas mask); certified for BL3 labs and other industrial hazards. (Dying of old age has become a much harder proposition these days.)

Feel better!

 

[ironsight]

Hope you are feeling better soon Dave.

 

[BlackJaguar]

Take all the time you need Dave; I hope you feel better soon.

 

[col.sanders]

How We doing David are You yet with Us old boy? any progress not a word lately just bangin a drum see if anyone's around.

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

Yep I am. Although it's only been in the last ten days that I have been well enough to get back into the coding. Yesterday, I finally finished the overhaul of the PlanAttack::ConfirmTimings() and got the game to compile. Now I need to test it. I'll get stuck into that in the coming week.

 

[GoodGuy]

SITREP Fri 16 Apr 2021

Hi all,

Just to pipe up and say I'm still alive. Though my sore throat and sinuses are trying to prove me wrong at the moment. Two weeks ago I had a covid scare here, got tested and thankfully was cleared. It was only the flu. But boy I have never been this sick from the flu before. Hit me at a low ebb I suppose. The doctor has me on antibiotics now. I doubt if I'll be back programming for a week.

But let me say this the development of the game has gone on for the last two years. I know you don't have anything substantial to show for it. But it is continuing. A lot has been done but can't be released till the whole overhaul is done. Once I am back on deck it won't take that long. Please be patient.

I hope you are well now.
Antibiotics don't work against flu viruses, at all, though, they may assist in toning down side infections, like say lung infections, but they fail here as well, if the infections are just triggered by the virus or by severe reactions of the immune system. Anti-viral medication would be the only medication of choice, but usually only reduces the length of the sickness, if at all.
I recommend to get flu shots every year. While they are somewhat less effective in some flu seasons, they then still avoid that you get seriously sick. And in the best case, they totally protect you from getting the flu.

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

I am still working through code changes for the attack. Currently overhauling LinkAttackTasks() to factor in the new attack tasks.

FYI the new attack code now sees a main sequence for a basic attack comprising:

* move to assembly
* assemble
* move to reserve
* move to FUP
* FUP reorg
* assault
* final reorg

In addition there can be:

* independent move to assembly tasks (for those units on the far side from the main force)
* near Assembly defend (for those units already close by)
* near FUP defend (for those units already close by)
* near Reserve defend (for those units already close by)
* near Objective defend (for those units already close by)

In effect, at start the force is divvied up into the main force and those already nearby the Assembly, Reserve, FUP and Objective locs. These nearby forces are assigned to the respective defend tasks and stay there till the main force catches up to them, where they will then be absorbed. The main force moves as one group to the Assembly loc. Once everyone has assembled, the force moves to the Reserve loc, if it has one. If not it moves directly to the FUP. At the Reserve loc it drops off the reserve group, who will then undertake a reserve task till the end of the attack. The main force will move onto the FUP. There they will conduct the FUP reorg, shaking out into assault formation. Next comes the assault and in most cases a final reorg, unless the force opts to end the attack immediately upon achieving the objective.

The aim here is to have the attack force stick together throughout the attack. The exceptions to this are the nearby forces, which will eventually get absorbed into wither the reserve or main groups. This should avoid situations where we have seen HQs and reserve forces moving independently ahead of the main force.

 

[krishub1]

I am still working through code changes for the attack. Currently overhauling LinkAttackTasks() to factor in the new attack tasks.

FYI the new attack code now sees a main sequence for a basic attack comprising:

* move to assembly
* assemble
* move to reserve
* move to FUP
* FUP reorg
* assault
* final reorg

In addition there can be:

* independent move to assembly tasks (for those units on the far side from the main force)
* near Assembly defend (for those units already close by)
* near FUP defend (for those units already close by)
* near Reserve defend (for those units already close by)
* near Objective defend (for those units already close by)

In effect, at start the force is divvied up into the main force and those already nearby the Assembly, Reserve, FUP and Objective locs. These nearby forces are assigned to the respective defend tasks and stay there till the main force catches up to them, where they will then be absorbed. The main force moves as one group to the Assembly loc. Once everyone has assembled, the force moves to the Reserve loc, if it has one. If not it moves directly to the FUP. At the Reserve loc it drops off the reserve group, who will then undertake a reserve task till the end of the attack. The main force will move onto the FUP. There they will conduct the FUP reorg, shaking out into assault formation. Next comes the assault and in most cases a final reorg, unless the force opts to end the attack immediately upon achieving the objective.

The aim here is to have the attack force stick together throughout the attack. The exceptions to this are the nearby forces, which will eventually get absorbed into wither the reserve or main groups. This should avoid situations where we have seen HQs and reserve forces moving independently ahead of the main force.

Any update?

 

[simovitch]

In between RL and game development the overall status is not too different from Dave's last update. Progress is being made and we should be picking up the pace a bit more in the near future.

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

SITREP Tue 4 Aug 2021

Hi all,

I know it's been a while, but I have been busy. I finished drafting the attack overhaul code last week and started the process of stepping through a running game to see that it's working as intended. I have changes so much, it's going to take some time to finish this process. I doubt I will have fully tested and honed this code till the end of next week. It may take longer. It may take less. But rest assured progress is being made.

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

SITREP Sat 21 Aug 2021

Hi all,

I finally finished re-wiring the attack code to the point I could actually step through the code. What a relief that is. I am going through line by line. It's going to take some time yet to hone it to a state where there are no bugs. But I'm making progress.

One of the things I discovered during this line by line process is that often when developing an attack an approach route is rejected because its adjusted move rate falls to zero. Basically, we generate a number of routes and then apply various modifiers to them and then rank them. One of the modifiers we apply is a caution factor. The bigger the caution the greater the cost applied to the route. The frontal approach uses the standard avoidance caution factor of 1.0. The first flank approach applies a caution factor of 2.0 and the second flanking approach gets a value of 3.0. The intended effect is that these will push further out and around enemy firepower before heading to the objective.

Both flanking approaches were getting rejected on a regular basis if there were significant enemy near the objective. I tracked this down to a severe caution modifier being applied to the firepower effect. I tweaked this down only to discover that we were also applying a caution modifier to the map control effect. In essence we were double dipping for caution and in each case using a severe modifier. I've stripped out the second use of it and toned down the effects. So hopefully this should see more flanking attacks in the future.

At the moment attacks are in essence on a single approach. One thing I have been toying with is to enhance the attack code by allowing for multiple approaches - eg a frontal and a flanking approach. I would restrict this to complex attacks - ie where we have multiple sub HQs in the attack force. I'd like also to introduce the option to make one of these multiple approaches a "fixing" task, rather than an "assault" task. A fixing task would see the force close to the enemy and then engage it with fire rather than pressing on to the objective.

I am not going to implement these changes now, though. My priority is to get a new working version of the game out to you all. But I raise the idea here so I can get your feedback as to whether this feature is of interest to you. So please let me know what you think of it.

 

[Art Hall]

I like both flanking and fixing............

 

[Sigwolf]

Not much to add other than I agree with your method. Prioritize the release of the existing improvements, and then work on the new flanking logic when you can. Sounds great!

 

[Rob]

I agree with both of the above posters.
Onwards!!

Rob.

 

[col.sanders]

Great news Dave looking forward to see this release. Your ideas going forward sounds interesting I'm for it.