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SITREP

VinSix

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SITREP Fri14 Apr 23

Hi all,

Clobbered a swathe of bugs this week. I now get through the first lot of attacks launched by CCA 4AD. As the situation opens out after the initial crossing objective the German's launch their own counter-attack. With more space for both sides I'm getting into the arty staging code that I wrote for attacks a year ago. I'm currently dealing with an interesting case that I had not planned for. The Germans are counter-attacking with one of their inf battalions. All units of the main Attack force group are close to their intended objective, so there is no approach route, just an assault route. I hadn't catered for this, so I made some changes to the code to substitute the assault route in such cases.

But then I struck another problem with this case. The onCallSpt force group (FG) has the arty units and it's separate to the mainAttackFG. This attack has two arty units, one of which is close by and one a long way back. The one nearby is no drama. It deploys near the start of the assault route. The on far back though creates a join route to the start of the assault route. But alas its final staging poiunt remains set at the start of the assault route. I now need to concatenate the routes and recalc the final staging position to avoid pushing the longer ranged arty unit too far forward where it will be within its min bombard range and hence unable to fire in support of the attack.

I'm sharing this with you so you can appreciate the nuances that are at play in what is a very complex situation.
Great stuff Dave..thanks for the insight on the complexity...
 
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Jim, agreed and in fact there is provision for that. But in this case the arty unit that was far away was not able to reach from its current position and so had to move.
OK. I didn't have the geometry.

If the decision to move is based on range and distance the attack is planned to span, then it covers the typical tactical concerns.
 

MarkShot

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SITREP Fri14 Apr 23

I'm sharing this with you so you can appreciate the nuances that are at play in what is a very complex situation.
Swim, Dave! S W I M (don't look back) ... from my perspective you/we only have another 6 months more before ChatGPT5 eats our lunch and us too. Not only will it write and debug your code for you, but it will plan the attack after the linker is done.

The days of gamers saying, "I cannot get a good game against the AI" is rapidly drawing to a close.
 

Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor

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SITREP Tue 9 May 23.

Hi all,

I've been out of action these last two weeks after catching covid. For two years I dodged the bullit, but my eldest went to an ice hockey game and brought back the dreaded virus. Didn't realise he had it for a couple of days by which time my youngest and I succumbed. Thankfully my wife avoided it as she had covid previously. I was fortunate to get anti-virals and I reckon they and the booster vaccine I had a month before protected me from really bad symptoms.

Anyway I'm back on deck fixing more bugs. While I ponder a scheduling issue, I thought I'd take a break and look at how to best handle the UI changes we need for the new attack code. The AI will now generate an assembly point, a reserve location and a forming up point (FUP). The existing UI allows the human user to specify an objective loc - the last wapypoint specified - and an FUP - the second last waypoint specified. That UI method works pretty well. So, I'm thinking of setting the reserve loc to the third last waypoint and the assembly point to the fourth last waypoint.

What do you reckon?

We'll need to come up with some icons for the reserve and assembly locations. If you have a suggestion, I'm all ears (and eyes).
 

MarkShot

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Dave,

Stay well. I am still sheltering, and have yet to get covid or any respiratory infection since we switched over in 2019 to hot zone isolation and gas masks. After 3 years, I am quite used to this. I don't think buffets important enough to risk dying over; I have an auto-immune condition that does not respond well to the spike protein whether from vaccines or live virus. Take care of yourself, Dave.
 

john connor

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Good you got through it without probs, Dave. We've all had it! (Well, nearly all...). It can have a longish tail. Glad you're back at work!

Sounds fine to me, your waypoint idea. Reserve icon - a box with an R in. Assembly, a box with an A. Or some such simple schema.
 

ultradave

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I agree. That scheme sounds good, and that simple designation is fine. You probably should have some kind of default in case there are not 4 or 5 waypoints too, which means maybe creating 1 or 2 more just in front of where the move starts?

Dave
 

Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor

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I agree. That scheme sounds good, and that simple designation is fine. You probably should have some kind of default in case there are not 4 or 5 waypoints too, which means maybe creating 1 or 2 more just in front of where the move starts?

Dave
At present if the user only sets the objective, then the AI has freedom to determine the FUP. I'll have it work the same for the reserve and assembly. The AI when it determines the assembly, won't bother if the force is not a long way away from the FUP. So, it won't try and cram one in. The force will simply move to the reserve and then the FUP. If no-one is allocated to the reserve, then it will go straight to the FUP.
 

Grognerd

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Sorry about the Covid, at least now you have better immunity and know for certain it won't seriously ruin your life.

Towards your question, I go back to my default answer, whatever method is easiest/simplest to program the UI is my vote. Not being programming smart, it is the best answer I can think of. Whatever route you go, I will get used to it.
 
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The sequencing before the attack sounds right.
Existing waypoints before the attack icon location use your icons for formation types, so I suggest using one of them for each of the new steps; perhaps the double line formation icon at the reserve location and, since the defend in place icon represents the FUP, the all sides defend formation for the assembly point.
 

ultradave

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At present if the user only sets the objective, then the AI has freedom to determine the FUP. I'll have it work the same for the reserve and assembly. The AI when it determines the assembly, won't bother if the force is not a long way away from the FUP. So, it won't try and cram one in. The force will simply move to the reserve and then the FUP. If no-one is allocated to the reserve, then it will go straight to the FUP.
Thanks for the explanation. This sounds good!

Dave
 

Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor

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The sequencing before the attack sounds right.
Existing waypoints before the attack icon location use your icons for formation types, so I suggest using one of them for each of the new steps; perhaps the double line formation icon at the reserve location and, since the defend in place icon represents the FUP, the all sides defend formation for the assembly point.
We used the Reorg task symbol for the FUP, because that is what they did there. At the Reserve and Assembly, they will defend but then there would be no differentiation between the reserve and assembly tasks. So, I reckon we need a specific icon for these. We can use a simple letter eg R and A but I'd prefer a symbol. Hopefully someone else with a bit of graphical flair will chime in.
 

GoodGuy

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We'll need to come up with some icons for the reserve and assembly locations. If you have a suggestion, I'm all ears (and eyes).

Hm, I'd suggest to use the military symbol for the rally ("RLY") point. You can then rename/redesignate the smbol, accordingly.
Example:
"RES" for the reserve location/point, "ASY" for the assembly point, etc.
You could use an outline version (pic 2), ofc.

Reserve-point.pngReserve-point-outline.png
 
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We used the Reorg task symbol for the FUP, because that is what they did there. At the Reserve and Assembly, they will defend but then there would be no differentiation between the reserve and assembly tasks. So, I reckon we need a specific icon for these. We can use a simple letter eg R and A but I'd prefer a symbol. Hopefully someone else with a bit of graphical flair will chime in.
I suggested it because then there was no need to design a new icon (plus I don't have an idea of how a task which is basically "wait until you're called" could be illustrated).

I'll look through my military documentation archives. There might be some standard combat map symbols that could serve as a low overhead graphic design for an on-map icon.
 

simovitch

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Seems like programming this sort of graphic stuff can wait for the period that we are beta-testing the new engine. Great to hear we are making progress!

Speaking of graphics, the BaB scenarios need "the plodder" touch for the situation maps. I've seen him post fairly recently so I know he's out there...
 
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We used the Reorg task symbol for the FUP, because that is what they did there. At the Reserve and Assembly, they will defend but then there would be no differentiation between the reserve and assembly tasks. So, I reckon we need a specific icon for these. We can use a simple letter eg R and A but I'd prefer a symbol. Hopefully someone else with a bit of graphical flair will chime in.
Here's a preentation with a suggested graphic repesentation of the dispositions. Assembly and Reserve.

I don't recall how many pixels are being used for on-map symbols. If they reflect what you want to record on the map, send me the pixel measure height and width standards for display, and I can work on a representation by pixel for the map display.
 

Attachments

  • DIsposition Icons_2.zip
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GoodGuy

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Reserve location:
Reserve.png

Reserve flavor 2:
RES-2.png

Reserve flavor 3:
RES-3.png

----------------

Assembly (FUP) location:
FUP-F.png

Assembly loc flavor 2:
FUP.png

Assembly flavor 3:
FUP-3.png
Assembly flavor 4:
ASY.png
 
Last edited:

GoodGuy

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This should have a PowerPoint file with a simple graphic representation close to the style already in use.
That worked. :)
I like the assembly icon, it would make for a pretty cool task icon. The reserve one looks rather like a formation symbol, imho.
 
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