Has anyone heard from Paul F lately?

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Wednesday, September 01, 2021 - 11:55 am: Edit

He has been logged into the client on and off

By Joshua Ivan Driscol (Gfb) on Saturday, October 23, 2021 - 12:11 pm: Edit

Is there any way configuration settings can be saved for use in other games of the same type.

I personally always like to add Damage Taken and Moves to the piece information display. If i could have my client always display that information it would be helpful.

It would speed play up if the client could remember my configuration settings and font size preferences.

The way it works now i have to customize each game in game. That takes time setting up things like range tracker. In a tournament game the range tracker could be programmed to show range to enemy vessel without having to be told its obvious you need a range tracker for ship to ship ranges in a tournament game. Could it be setup to automatically calculate ranges between ships so you just have to open range tracker and it will be setup for you.

Generally the client can be made to do anything you need it too the question is how much work it takes to setup each game to work right. Things that speed the process up help. If the client could just remember my configuration settings it would be a big help.

By Marcel Trahan (Devilish6996) on Sunday, October 24, 2021 - 07:54 pm: Edit

Once you have done all your settings, go to Board/Options/Save Current Setting.

You settings will be saved then and will be there for any future games.

Marcel

By Joshua Ivan Driscol (Gfb) on Monday, October 25, 2021 - 02:59 pm: Edit

Could Soludra Shard counters and definition be added to the client?

By Joshua Ivan Driscol (Gfb) on Friday, December 03, 2021 - 02:01 pm: Edit

Hi I was wondering if two things could be done. If systems repaired and displayed in yellow on the ssd could use a yellow font on the weapon status and fire allocation tables I think that it would make it much easier to remember what Phasers and other systems might be hastily repaired and would need to be down fired perhaps with less range and capability.

I think it would be very handy to see what system boxes have been repaired on weapon status and the fire allocation table. Something similar could be done for shuttle launch screen but its not a big deal there but it would be nice to know the shuttle in the repaired box is destroyed.

The other thing that would be an improvement is for shuttle launch window of impulse activity to have a "memory" like the fire allocation window does. If earlier activity pre empts shuttle launch you have to input the instructions again. Sometimes in bigger battles this can be very time consuming.

It works like I want it to and expect it to for direct fire already. The client remembers what you've entered and its easy to just re open activity and hit execute because your instructions are saved in the client.

Drone and plasma launch should also get memories so they remember your input if activity gets cancelled or preempted by earlier activity in the sequence of play.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Friday, May 27, 2022 - 09:49 am: Edit

An idea for tournament play- I think it would be extremely useful to know what the pseudo speed would be should a tractor beam be established between 2 ships (prior to establishing it). I know it can be calculated by hand but I am never sure I am doing it correctly and getting it wrong can be very very bad.

By Andy Koch (Droid) on Friday, May 27, 2022 - 11:52 am: Edit

I agree with Jack

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Friday, May 27, 2022 - 05:09 pm: Edit

Perhaps put that in place for patrol/campaign play ?
Set it up so that when you want to know what the pseudo speed of 2 tractored units are, do so without the other guy knowing what you are planning ?

Even go as far as putting in a formula for multiple tractors by a ship.


Cheers
Frnak

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Saturday, May 28, 2022 - 03:50 pm: Edit

I like the idea of at least a calculator that could be brought up where you can select the number of ships and the pseudo speed could be calculated from that.

It is one of the more complicated rules in SFB.

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Monday, September 26, 2022 - 10:32 pm: Edit

Enhancement idea- I think the die roll monitor isn't all that helpful. It looks like it includes every roll made by both sides and that doesn't tell me much about how I am rolling when it matters.

I would suggest adding a column to the die roll monitor to include only my rolls and not count internals rolls. Just add up every roll I make for labs, phasers, disruptors, hellbores, HET rolls, lock on rolls, every roll I make but do not include internals. If it isn't too much trouble, do the same thing for my opponents rolls too.

I know this feature idea doesn't really change anything. I already know I roll terrible when it matters, it would just be good to see how bad that really is.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Tuesday, September 27, 2022 - 08:57 pm: Edit

Jack,
The rolls in the die roll monitor is only the rolls done in your client. That is internal, rolls and every manual roll that you make.

The only reason I added it at all is because of the complaint that the die rolls are skewed.

I understand that you only want the manual rolls. But that will just tell you how good/bad that your rolls are when you click the button.

In theory, I should just remove the die roll monitor to simplify the client more.

By Jeff Guthridge (Jeff_Guthridge) on Saturday, October 01, 2022 - 01:33 pm: Edit

Hey Paul, could the SAVE system be modified to export a human-readable file that could be downloaded, edited, and later imported? A feature like this could be used to setup squadrons or fleets before game night and not waste time when both parties are online and available to play. Might even be leveraged to cache published scenarios for rapid deployment or replay. I can see this as being exceptional in a training process where the teacher sets up an exercise lets the student have a go, talks about the result, reverts to the beginning and give it another go….

Advance apologies for those who won’t understand the following…. Comma Separated Value and JavaScript Object Notation files are somewhat advanced topics and often used by programmers that need data readable by humans…

For my example, a Feddie CA, named “Doomed” in hex 0101, facing C, with a last turn speed of 4, and a Klingon D7 with two D6’s in a squadron on other other side of the map licking their chops at the meat on the table. The Klingons are facing their prey with a last turn speed of max. Such a setup might be exported to look like this:

(CSV example)
Empire,Class,Name,Hex,Facing,LastSpeed
Federation,CA,Doomed,0101,C,4
Klingon,D7,Klink,4229,F,31
Klingon,D6,Kahless,4228,F,31
Klingon,D6,Korth,4230,F,31
(CSV example end)

(JSON example - note: parenthesis used in lieu of proper syntax to avoid breaking things with the BBS)

(
(
"Empire": "Federation",
"Class": "CA",
"Name": "Doomed",
"Hex": 101,
"Facing": "C",
"LastSpeed": 4
),
(
"Empire": "Klingon",
"Class": "D7",
"Name": "Klink",
"Hex": 4229,
"Facing": "F",
"LastSpeed": 31
),
(
"Empire": "Klingon",
"Class": "D6",
"Name": "Kahless",
"Hex": 4228,
"Facing": "F",
"LastSpeed": 31
),
(
"Empire": "Klingon",
"Class": "D6",
"Name": "Korth",
"Hex": 4230,
"Facing": "F",
"LastSpeed": 31
)
)

(JSON example end)

The CSV is more easily read by the non-computer-speaker, but is mangled by NotePad, the default Windows text editor.

The JSON version might be more easily used with your code, I’d have to see how you’ve coded things to know.

Both files can be edited by hand with only a little training and there are software tools for either format to automate the process for those with the will to tinker without the knowledge to understand the formatting required.

The lack of an ID field is not an omission, the client would assign an Instance ID increment during the import and it would needlessly clutter the export report. This becomes especially needful if you have each player import their squadrons independently and the client has to stitch things together and sync up.

Jeff

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Friday, October 21, 2022 - 10:41 pm: Edit

In the speed plots area where you can save "Quick Plots" it would be nice to have a way to add a short description to the plot. Even just a letter would help.

Like:

Name Plot
A 1-14=16 15-25=20 26-32 = 31

By Jack Taylor (Jtaylor) on Sunday, January 22, 2023 - 06:42 pm: Edit

Question to people who might know - I do not know.

I am talking only for tourney stuff here - nothing else.

I am now displaying the board (map) on my 60" TV. It works great but because everything is much bigger it clearly shows the fairly low quality images that are ships, slip modes, turn modes, drones, etc. It looks like those images are literally photos of original chits from like 25 years ago cut out using MS Paint. I am not trying to insult anybody who worked on this, I just think it could be better (maybe)

Would it be a reasonable project to replace those images with something more high resolution? I am not looking for 3d or anything that fancy. But definitely am looking for a way to get into this century, with someone who knows how, building something that looks monumentally better. I am not thinking animations or 3d. Just much better 2D. Like megahex ships maybe. Conceptually this would be an easy win that modernizes the experience in the client a little bit. Anyone have thoughts on this?

By Jeff Guthridge (Jeff_Guthridge) on Sunday, January 22, 2023 - 10:41 pm: Edit

Jack, I expect Paul would enjoy having access to high-resolution counter imagery. I can't speak for him, but having the option for a High-Rez counters and maps would be welcome for those like you that have ginormous screens.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, January 23, 2023 - 09:30 am: Edit

Paul, email me about counter images at your convenience.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Sunday, June 16, 2024 - 03:02 am: Edit

This morning I started a game room and reloaded yesterdays game. I noticed that if I did load the game from the scroll down menu it wouldn't load the board properly. I had to use the load button in the tourney room board tab. That should be an easy fix, perhaps?

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Sunday, June 16, 2024 - 10:24 pm: Edit

Yeah. I need to remove the menu item for the Tournament Room.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Monday, June 17, 2024 - 10:53 am: Edit

Another cause of weirdness: Occasionally a creator need to leave a room and open another. If the first is still open for some reason the client will suggest the same room name as the first. This will cause various weird problems.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Wednesday, June 19, 2024 - 04:36 pm: Edit

zoom function for the EAF.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Wednesday, June 19, 2024 - 06:59 pm: Edit

It is also annoying to raise IA window only to close it again because you forgot to set your various expendables like torpedo types and SS.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Wednesday, June 19, 2024 - 07:01 pm: Edit

Another annoying things is that you can
reveal ew/speed before EAF is submitted.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Friday, June 21, 2024 - 02:01 am: Edit

A "looking up rule" button would be nice.

By Frank Lemay (Princeton) on Saturday, June 22, 2024 - 10:46 am: Edit

Paul,
You know that nifty feature you programmed where all highlighted units can change their speed at once or EW settings at once ?
Would it be possible to have the same feature to include the facing of multiple units at once ?
Example, 15 stingers are doing a HET to A, currently each fighter must have its facing changed individually.
If they could all be highlighted and select the same facing, it would be super sweet !
Also, it would be nice that once you do the facing change, the client does not inform you the unit has moved and asks would you like it to move again as that would be 15 times required to select yes.

Thanks.

Cheers
Frank