If I add the EPT to the plasma always there is no point of the Expendables tab. BTW, you don't have to cancel the Activity window. Just change the expendables and go back change the segment temporarily to something else and change it back and the EPT option will be available.

Phasers, I should be able to. I just need to add some more data into the client to know how much energy is removed from the capacitor on firing.

By Jon Taylor (Vendetta) on Sunday, January 20, 2013 - 09:30 am: Edit

In tournament play at least, phasers and battery usage are probably the only place in the client where a player can make an accidental mistake in record keeping. I like to think no one makes a mistake on purpose here, if you get my drift, but I am sure that happens to at times too. It seems to me to be a fairly high priority issue in that it affects every game played online. I hate to think that a game several hours long could be lost because 1 player miss spent .5 points of phaser energy they didn't have and for real did it completely by accident. Some players would force someone to concede over something like this even if they were soundly defeated.

Paul, we all appreciate your work on the client. Not be critical, never in a million years, just wanted to add my voice to how important this is.

By Peter D Bakija (Bakija) on Sunday, January 20, 2013 - 09:45 am: Edit

Yeah, battery and phaser error/shenanagins have been an issue on SFBOL forever (well, "issue" in the sense of "something that is worth fixing in the long run" rather than something I think is a highly significant problem). Especially in regards to pre-emptive use of batteries (i.e. you see a lot of damage coming in an impulse or two, you empty your batteries into a future HET at the end of an impulse, a couple impulses later, you get shot and lose all your batteries, and then you HET anyway, as you allocated the batteries for the HET 3 impulses earlier; there is no actual way in SFBOL to accurately/securely record this).

I think the big problem with trying to implement this is that I can't see a way, using the existing interface, to make it work in a way that is both concrete and non-reversable. And also not a huge hassle.

By Paul Scott (The_Rock) on Sunday, January 20, 2013 - 01:24 pm: Edit

Peter,
I think the "notes" section deal with that - though I will admit I usually forget this myself and just type it onto my EA. What would be nice there, is if a record was kept that indicated the impulse on which all EA records was made. Because, like me, I suspect most people forget about the "notes" functionality.

I don't see how errors can be made on phasers that are not reflected in the record, but I will say that I wish two things on phasers:
1. my "P. Cap. Used" was updated everytime I fired (or took damage and had more in my cap than I now could);

2. That "Power in P. Cap." started filled.

I suspect that the real reason this is not done is that Paul does not actually track option mounts. But I might be wrong there. If the game knows the option mount configuration, then P. Caps should be easy to automate.

Batteries are probably just too complex, though I can see something simple like the following.

1. Automate batteries used.

2. Automatically spend batteries when speed changes are made.

3. For everything else provide a "use battery button." The button would have two inputs - power and a text field. The text field would, along with the turn, impulse, be entered into your notes (and, preferably, also entered on the EA on the first empty "notes" row.

Paul,
I don't think you are right about the EPT, but let me suggest something slightly different anyway.

Assign a convention. For example, I use "8e" on my EA to designate an EPT S. If, when a player hits "Submit EA", he has "8e" for one of his plasma, automatically have the expendables mark it as an EPT.

Also, on your comment that just allowing EPT at all times makes the Expendables tab useless, I would suggest two things:

1. It makes it no more useless than allowing a large selection of non-EPT options as it currently does when the Expendables is actually marked "EPT"; and

2. The primary use of the "Expendables" tab for plasma is to track the one true expendable - the PPTs.

By David Zimdars (Zimdarsdavid) on Sunday, January 20, 2013 - 02:28 pm: Edit

I suspect the lack of power tracking w/regards to phasers and weapons is that one can (and some still do) enter fire as a text order and not use the check boxes. Other functions like tractor auctions are entirely mediated by chat.

Linking SS and WW to EA would be nice. As would be locking drone load out at game start.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Sunday, January 20, 2013 - 04:07 pm: Edit

Paul,
The idea of using the EA to designate a plasma status was actually discussed back in December 2011. Check the "Archive through May 06, 2012"

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Monday, January 21, 2013 - 05:00 pm: Edit

Just so that you know what is happening. I did the following today:

1) SFB: Automatic phaser capacitor capacitor usage
2) SFB: Automatically calculate the phaser capacitor at the starting of the game.
3) SFB: Change the life support/shield and fire control to be based on the previous turn

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Monday, January 21, 2013 - 11:13 pm: Edit

Note: The above will be in the next update

By Josh Driscol (Gfb) on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - 09:27 am: Edit

Thats very cool, great work Paul.

By Paul Scott (The_Rock) on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - 12:03 pm: Edit

That's great. Thanks Paul. Hopefully this will also get the few stragglers out there to use the fire check boxes, which has the benefit of automatically recording fire in the "opponent's weapons" tab. When people don't use this, I have to get out pen and paper to keep a record for myself.

By Josh Driscol (Gfb) on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - 07:37 am: Edit

1: Crippled and uncontrolled status

I know that at some point there was talk about adding a feature to the client to help a player easily see if his ship is crippled under the 50 percent of internal hits rule.

This feature may have already been added but I dont know where to look for it and how to use it yet.

I was thinking it would be cool if when you allocate a volley of internal damage the client would do a check to see if you meet the criteria for crippled or uncontrolled and could incorporate that information into the DAC readout.

It would be nice if somewhere on the SSD tab there was a place for that information even if it cant be automated into the damage allocation system.

2: Configure

The configure button is very important when teaching new players the game, its how you add all the really critical information to the piece into screen.

What would be nice is if it could remember your configure settings for different game types or have preset configuration settings that had everything most players would want.

For whatever reason I have a heck of a time explaining how to use the configure button to the new guys.

Even in tournament games I usually would want to add "damage taken", im not sure I understand why that particular piece of info isnt displayed in every game. The other one is "Moves", any time there is a ship with plasma weapons I really like to have moves on the piece info to save time.

In regular SFB games that use EW you have to add "ECM/ECCM, Loaned ECM/ECCM, and Total ECM/ECCM" using configure. In really big games I highly recomend adding "move status", this definatly helps me locate the last few seeking weapons or ships than haven't moved for the impulse.

If there was a way for me to save my configure setup one time and have it that way in every game it would save me alot of time.

I think maybe it would be a good idea to get other players input on what we may want to have added to the piece info display as it appears after a new install of the client.

These would get my vote to be added.

Tournament SFB
"damage taken"
"moves"

Regular SFB
"ECM/ECCM"
"Loaned ECM/ECCM"
"Total ECM/ECCM"
"damage taken"
"moves"
"move status"

3: Unplotted speed changes

I think these new phaser capacitor improvements are going to be great to speed bookeeping. One suggestion I have would be to make unplotted speed changes also automatically reduce battery power by the correct amount for the speed change. When you do an unplotted acceleration the client already calculates the energy cost of the change, so just like the phaser capacitor all the client needs to be able to do is transfer that number to the EA form in "reserve power used".

4: Finishing rolling delay's with reserve power

The same concept could be used for fast loads and bolting or launching torps from reserve power, if your rolling an S torp and want to bolt it as an S you could have that subtract the right amount of power (2) from your available reserve.

5: Web Caster automation for adding web counters

When you cast web there's always a big dealay because you have to stop and add a bunch of web counters which need alot of information recorded about them.

What I would like is the ability to specify at the point of casting how many hexes and what strength web and then have the client add those web counters onto my ship. I can then move them quickly to my target hexes and not have to type in most of the information for each piece.

I would suggest using some common format for the piece names like you use for plasma and drone counters.

I would have the web counters name include the strength of the web, and the range of impulses it is solid.

Example: Web 1 (10) 1.24-2.08

By Paul Scott (The_Rock) on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - 11:28 am: Edit

Josh,
#5 is pretty much already there. Let me explain my process.

1. I pick a hex likely to be included in my web.

2. I right-click the hex and select "add multiple pieces."

3. The first box pops up and I tell it the name (I use the folling convention: "[W/S#] ([STR]) [turn].[impulse web solidifies]_"

4. I tell it the starting number, which is always 1 and how many pieces I want (usually 4 or 5, but whatever).

The interfaces then adds, as an example:

W1 (10) 1.24_1
W1 (10) 1.24_2
W1 (10) 1.24_3
W1 (10) 1.24_4
W1 (10) 1.24_5

Then I move those pieces around with the mouse until I am happy, at which point I press the "Ready" key to let my opponent know.

By Matthew Potter (Neonpico) on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - 12:35 pm: Edit

For #5, Josh is asking for something similar to shuttle launches or SP blossoming:

The player tells the client to fire/launch/whatever-metaphor the web-caster during direct-fire. The client adds the web markers to the map (exactly like a blossom).

For sake of ease, I'd be happy with the client adding 5 web markers (since that's the maximum and probably the most common situation) to the casting-ship's hex. Then the player can drag the markers where he wants to and discard any extras.

By Paul Scott (The_Rock) on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - 12:47 pm: Edit

Ah I see.
It could be automated more, by adopting conventions. You would still need to ask the player the strength of of web.

That is, you select the caster or snare, as normal, using the fire decision box. Maybe that row has a pull-down (1-5 for caster, 1-2 for snare). It could use the same column as teh overload/std/UIM, etc. column. Then when your fire is revealed, the hexes around your ship (or maybe just all of the hexes directly in front of your ship, get automatically populated.

I think that would be elegant and speed web casting up.

By Paul Scott (The_Rock) on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - 12:55 pm: Edit

Thinking of this, the same thing could be done for the PPD. If pulses is used (same column we currently use for Disruptor/photon overload) then the counter could be added automatically upon firing.

By Josh Driscol (Gfb) on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - 04:46 pm: Edit

Strength of web could be in the name just as easily as the strength of a plasma warhead is, that was the (10) in my example.

By Josh Driscol (Gfb) on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - 05:18 pm: Edit

Anyway it was just an idea to help automate the adding of web counters hopefully to speed play.

A bare bones approach could just have the add multiple web counter dialogue pop up any time you cast web, but it would be nice to have everything named a standard way and have it include web strength and at least the impulse of formation.

By David Zimdars (Zimdarsdavid) on Sunday, February 03, 2013 - 06:12 pm: Edit

Perhaps this was already mentioned, but it might be nice to be able to turn off the generation of POT/POS markers (or hide them from the board). While they are great for duels, in fleet battles, the board gets cluttered fast.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Sunday, February 03, 2013 - 09:01 pm: Edit

You can turn that off when you add the piece. It is a checkbox at the bottom of the window. It is called "Track Movement".

By Josh Driscol (Gfb) on Sunday, March 03, 2013 - 04:22 pm: Edit

Is there any way we could get base rotation added when you advance impulses it automatically calls for every other type of unit to move but base rotation has never been supported.

It would really help me to remember when to rotate them if it was programmed into the client.

Thanks

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Sunday, March 03, 2013 - 06:03 pm: Edit

It is possible to add.

By Mike Kenyon (Mikek) on Monday, March 04, 2013 - 10:20 am: Edit

That'd be awesome. Now on my 3rd base assault on SFBOL, I think we've missed the proper impulse of change several times.

Is it possible to do announce the impulse BEFORE the move? The penumbra effect to fire is fairly significant with base rotation.

By Josh Driscol (Gfb) on Tuesday, March 05, 2013 - 01:33 pm: Edit

It would be cool to see base rotation added in a future update, id put that right up there with floating map on the top of the list of what id like to see added.

By Matthew Potter (Neonpico) on Tuesday, March 05, 2013 - 01:56 pm: Edit

I've gotten around the base rotation issue by setting the base's speed to 8, and rotating it on the odd-movement pulses (move 1 on impulse 4, move 3 on impulse 12, etc)

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Tuesday, March 05, 2013 - 02:17 pm: Edit

It should be noted that floating map is pretty low on the priority list.