SITREP

[jimcarravallah]

Good to hear from you too, Mark. We're starting our fifth wave of Covid here In Australia. According to the stats we've lost just under 16K so far. Like you I'm self-isolating. I make an occasional foray to the supermarket and chemist, but largely rely on delivery services. My wife is suffering from long covid. Thankfully I escaped. She got it while working at the hospital and is now going through negotiations so she can work from home. What amazes me is that people here have virtually abandoned taking simple precautions like wearing face masks and distancing. Though the Government here is considering re-introducing these measures. But they always seem to wait far too long to do so and in the meantime the body count piles up.

Just to offer a picture on the other side of the world, numbers for COVID appear to be going down -- hospitalizations are decreasing and the death totals, though still occuring, aren't stunningly significant.

Though some still resist vaccination, there has been a significant effort to get every citizen from age 5 and up immunized against the disease. The immunization hasn't stamped it out like it did in the late 50s and early 60 with polio and later with measels. Though it's recommended that particularly the immune compromised still wear masks, there isn't an overwhelming number of people who follow the advice.

Those who get infected with COVID tend to have milder cases with symptoms more akin to a hard flu. Those who are immune compromised can get a medication that reduces the impact of the disease if they act within 5 days of having symptoms.

At least, for the past nine or so months, there hasn't been much effort to disrupt day to day activities to avoid contact with the disease. We're about to go into the 2022 flu season, which will complicate diagnosis and treatment for COVID because people who may get COVID believe it's the flu and end up infecting acquaintances. The people who run the US Centers for Disease Control are warning that the lax rules practice the past spring and summer may have to be tightened if the flu / COVID equation leads to more untreated disease.

 

[Guy Miller]

I haven't played in years, but when I did I played a lot and enjoyed it. I have several AARs posted. However, it seems like it has been years waiting on a critical update to improve gameplay. Is that still the case? Where is the game at these days?

 

[jimcarravallah]

I haven't played in years, but when I did I played a lot and enjoyed it. I have several AARs posted. However, it seems like it has been years waiting on a critical update to improve gameplay. Is that still the case? Where is the game at these days?

The update in the works is a massive code rewrite that deals with artificial intelligence attack planning to streamline approach routing and combat group assembly.. The last few updates prior to that dealt with artillery accuracy and more realistic set up times after movement for indirect fire units and better AI movement planning which somwtimes resulted in moving units taking a roundabout route in what started out as a short direct route from point A to B.

 

[Guy Miller]

The update in the works is a massive code rewrite that deals with artificial intelligence attack planning to streamline approach routing and combat group assembly.. The last few updates prior to that dealt with artillery accuracy and more realistic set up times after movement for indirect fire units and better AI movement planning which somwtimes resulted in moving units taking a roundabout route in what started out as a short direct route from point A to B.

I love the game, I'll just keep checking in every few months

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

SITREP Friday 23 Dec 22

Hi all,

Boy what a month. It got off to a good programming start but then tanked when my accountant spat the dummy and I had to step in and get another to deal with some pressing accounting reporting for the Government. But after that distraction I have got back into the staging arty for the attack. It's complex modelling and has taken me several goes at it to crack the nut. I believe I have now done so. My aim was to model the process of staging arty units along the attack approach route so that at least one unit is available to provide onCall support throughout the main force's move through the assembly, reserve and FUP locations. All the while it's trying to keep the force together and constrain arty to the approach route.

I still have work to do to implement this fully, but I just pushed my current code changes so Pavlo can sort out a swag of UI and low-level system issues that have sprung up once we moved to MS Visual Studio 2022. I had to make the move to this latest version of Visual Studio after I moved to a new PC running WIN 11 a few months ago. My old PC started going on the blink.

I am going to be taking a short break from now till after the New Year. I will be back then to finish off the attack overhaul I started two years ago. It's been far too long, I know. I thank you all for your patience and let's hope 2023 is a much better year for every one of us - with the exception of Mr Putin. He deserves a really bad year. (Sorry, couldn't resist that last bit.)

 

[john connor]

Enjoy your break, Dave! Yep, I certainly agree about the Putler.....depressing all that continues still. Hope Pavlo's people are ok. Peter

 

[jimcarravallah]

SITREP Friday 23 Dec 22



I am going to be taking a short break from now till after the New Year. I will be back then to finish off the attack overhaul I started two years ago. It's been far too long, I know. I thank you all for your patience and let's hope 2023 is a much better year for every one of us - with the exception of Mr Putin. He deserves a really bad year. (Sorry, couldn't resist that last bit.)

President Zelenskyy addressed the US Congress two days ago.

Putin is in the fight of his life:


As another aside, following the progress of the Russian attack on Ukraine has revealed that the Russian Empire is a hollow shell -- deficient in weapons quality, lacking a strategic vision, unprepared to support deployed forces and troops lacking morale necessary to fight and win battles.

It's no secret I worked more than a couple of decades for the US Army preparing for the threat of Russian aggression. Either the intel on Russian forces we prepared to repel was deficient, or the corruption embedded in the Russian defense spending has hollowed out the ability of vast numbers of troops to pursue victory on the battlefield.

The Russians can do a massive amount of damage to the Ukraine infrastructure, but their efforts are little more than terrorism.

My heart and prayers are with the Ukraines.

 

[Tommy.w]

I understand that Bradley at Bay is gathering dust waiting for this update to be released..- so when this update drops is it fair to assume that BaB will drop pretty quickly after a few tests?

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

Yep!

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

SITREP Tue 10 Jan 23

Hi all,

Just to let you know that Pavlo finished his changes to all the non-AI code necessary to get the game running under the latest Visual Studio development environment. And I have just finished my changes to staging arty in the attack. The game just compiled for the first time in ages. Hallelujah!

I will run it first thing tomorrow and see what breaks. It will need polishing from here but it's good news.

 

[john connor]

Bravo!

 

[Grognerd]

Pavlo and yourself, Congratulations!

 

[Le gac]

Happy new year !!!

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

SITREP Fri 13 Jan 23

Hi all,

I made good progress this week. I have been working my way through the attack code, addressing the asserts that fire when the game is run. I'm using the Tutorial scenario and have yet to get past the start of the game. But even so, I have quashed numerous false assumptions that my programming asserts are designed to catch. I am 100 lines from the end of the master function DevelopAttack(). It's over a thousand lines of code but it ends up calling over 20,000 lines of code. So, I'm near the end of this first stage of polishing, which is designed to get the code running through. Then I need to make sure it is working as it should. That will take longer.

I still need to revise the task linking and timing code and the code that destroys unwanted tasks to finish off this first stage. I should then see the game running through the scenario. I will start putting break points in at the various branches of the code and follow each of these in detail to ensure they function properly.

So good progress but still more time to get it all running.

 

[MarkShot]

Thanks, Dave. I am looking forward to playing CO2 and my last real play was back with COTA!

I also looking forward to see Richard's Bradley at Bay.

Right now, I am playing WITE-2. Can you believe that? Me of all people playing a TBS/HEX game!!! Ha ha But GG's work is superb.

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

Great News!!

I finally got the game to run again. Here is a screen shot of the Tutorial scenario at 07:30 on Day 1 with three Bn attacks going in.

What a relief to see this. It's been way too long.

But a word of caution, there is still a lot more testing to do. In this scenario all the arty units start within range of the objective, so it doesn't go into my staging code for the arty. I need to use a bigger scenario to test this. Also, I note that my cross-over fix didn't work. It was designed to prevent assault lines crossing over each other - eg. the Bn on the left attacking the objective on the right and vice versa. I need to work on that a little more.

But regardless, this is good news. The end is nigh!

 

[song]

Great News!!

I finally got the game to run again. Here is a screen shot of the Tutorial scenario at 07:30 on Day 1 with three Bn attacks going in.View attachment 9459

What a relief to see this. It's been way too long.

But a word of caution, there is still a lot more testing to do. In this scenario all the arty units start within range of the objective, so it doesn't go into my staging code for the arty. I need to use a bigger scenario to test this. Also, I note that my cross-over fix didn't work. It was designed to prevent assault lines crossing over each other - eg. the Bn on the left attacking the objective on the right and vice versa. I need to work on that a little more.

But regardless, this is good news. The end is nigh!

Great job Dave, Hope all goes well in future tests!

 

[MarkShot]

Congratulations, Dave!

I am retired from the field. Computers you love them. You hate them. All depends on when and the termination code.

 

[ultradave]

That's excellent news!

Dave

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

SITREP Fri 3 Feb 23

Hi all,

I have been flat out coding like a lizard drinking. I'm still working my way through the end stages of attack development, where we confirm and verify the data. I've had to revise the timings and routes to account for all the permutations. Today, for instance, I've had to handle cases where the attack subject is already near the reserveLoc and so one of its subordinates has to lead the move tasks to the reserveLoc. I've had to add a join route from its location to the approach route and then adjust timings. It's just one of many issues that I've been stomping on since I last reported in.

I have still to test the arty staging code on a bigger map.

I will be away for the next two weeks. It's my sister in law's 70th birthday and we swore we would get to Adelaide to celebrate this milestone. We've put off so much during the pandemic. Won't it be great when we can freely travel and socialise without the risk of dying from some virus.