FG: Galactic Overlord VIII Sign-Up Thread

[:) Smiley]

As of right now, the spreadsheet could use the automation most in converting weapon types and tactics into modifier values on the battle page. This is the place where screwups are most likely to occur.

A breakdown of the time used to process a turn of GOVIII

Order entry (1 minute/player)
Battle processing (5 minutes/6-round battle)
Image display for null battles and spying (5 minute/event)
Battle display (5 minutes to set up + 5 minutes for each round)
Chart display (3 minutes/player)

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Smiley
As of right now, the spreadsheet could use the automation most in converting weapon types and tactics into modifier values on the battle page. This is the place where screwups are most likely to occur.

A breakdown of the time used to process a turn of GOVIII

Order entry (1 minute/player)
Battle processing (5 minutes/6-round battle)
Image display for null battles and spying (5 minute/event)
Battle display (5 minutes to set up + 5 minutes for each round)
Chart display (3 minutes/player)

Actually I was thinking of just iterating the battle process. Although Excel is incapable of doing iterated loops, VB-Excel is very capable of doing so. It would print out the results of each battle round in turn ... ie round 1, round 2, etc., based on a set template, essentially the template of what you had in the spreadsheet. It shouldn't be difficult at all, essentially:

 while (attackFleetHP > 0) and (defendFleetHP > 0) do
  copyWave(attackFleet,defendFleet,attOrd1,defOrd1)
  copyWave(attackFleet,defendFleet,attOrd2,defOrd2)
  copyWave(attackFleet,defendFleet,attOrd3,defOrd3)
  procKillShips(attackFleet,defendFleet)
  copyWave(attackFleet,defendFleet,attOrd4,defOrd4)
  copyWave(attackFleet,defendFleet,attOrd5,defOrd5)
  copyWave(attackFleet,defendFleet,attOrd6,defOrd6)
  procKillShips(attackFleet,defendFleet)
  if pressAttack = FALSE then exit loop
loop

which would give you a printout of each wave. (i'm using wave to mean a single order vs. single order, and round to mean six waves; that's probably incorrect, but I don't remember the terminology well enough ) "CopyWave" would be a generic copy function that copies the template of excel cells that determines each wave's result. "procKillShips" would be a function that decrements the total ships available to each side. The loop could also be modified to end after one loop if Attackers don't press the attack.

But first is the stat display, which is all done btw except for the display of laser/fighter/torpedo values, which is nearly identical to the display of bases/bp's, which IS done. I also need to do a few simple things like automating killing off players (which I may leave out, as it may be easier just to select rows and choose "delete", depends on how excel-vb processes the images.)

[snoopy369]

Oh- relevant to that last one - are you allowed to send different orders for different rounds of battle? ie:

Att 1: TTF-FLL
Att 2: TFL-TFL
Att 3: TFF-LLT
Def: TFL-TLF
etc. (for the same enemy, not for different ones.)

??

[snoopy369]

Screenshot of how it's going so far

I haven't added pics of all the other players yet, just 2, but i've added code to handle them, and their names.

Also, you'll want to either replace the fonts with better ones of your own, or put in a pic replacing the title portion - I have no good gothic fonts and couldn't find any good ones in my admittedly short search!

[Atragon]

Wow, not bad at all. Looks a bit stretched vertically in terms of the boxes, but I'm extremely impressed.

[:) Smiley]

Sweet.

To answer the previous question, no, OoB repeats every 6 rounds when fighting to the death.

A couple other questions:
Is it possible to gray out ship types that a player has none of?

In general:
Doing the math is fast, it's converting the math to images (as in the end of round chart) that takes the longest.

By the way:
Since you have all the information, how do you think the next round is going to go?

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Smiley
Sweet.

To answer the previous question, no, OoB repeats every 6 rounds when fighting to the death.

A couple other questions:
Is it possible to gray out ship types that a player has none of?

Um, in what way. Short answer is probably yes, but it might be more work than it's worth. IE, if you want to take each of those icons for FF,FC,FB,FD,FT and make them something different, then it's not worth it - I didn't individually handle these, as they don't generally change, but instead left them as fixed. You would have to manually replace them, or i'd have to write a more complex script to replace them.

OTOH, if you just want to turn the background of those cells from black to gray, that's a piece of cake. Consider it done.

In general:
Doing the math is fast, it's converting the math to images (as in the end of round chart) that takes the longest.

Hmm, probably. But it's not hard for the math to be done by excel either, and if you want the one done why not do both?

But you don't have to use the other part certainly I like programming challenges in Excel, so I do them regardless of use value And the image thing is portable.

By the way:
Since you have all the information, how do you think the next round is going to go?

I think ... hmm. Atragon vs Lord Nuclear in a showdown with about 450 ships on each side, but since all of Atragons are Fighters, and all of LN's are torps ...

[DrSpike]

Very nice of you to give me more ships in your example.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Very nice of you to give me more ships in your example.

Yeh, you were the one i tested "gross-effects" with as opposed to "fine-tuned-effects".

In the next screenshot believe you me you'll have far less.

[snoopy369]

Okay, here's it done to a point.

It has the gray-out-background thing done, although it doesn't look real pretty because the icons for the ships are on black, not transparent, bg. I suggest just leaving it be. But it's up to ya.

How to use:

1. Extract the zip folder.
2. Open the Excel file.
3. Go to the tab "Details Sheet".
4. Enter in the path to your folder, including the folder, and a \ at the end.

IE
C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\GO VIII\
would be entered exactly as show if you put it in My Documents and that's in C:\ drive and you have win2000.

5. Click on "Set Home Directory".
6. Cell AI3 is the one that determines which player the buttons affect. 1 is for snoopy369, 2 for drspike, etc.
7. Play with the buttons!!

It's not finished yet; it doesn't have an update all macro or anything like that, but that will be done after i get back from dinner tonight in 3-4 hours (it's a dinner party, so who knows?). But I wanted to post something ...

[snoopy369]

And a screenie for those of you who don't want to play with it.

I also still have to fix the icon spacing for the ships, as I ended up increasing the size of the cells they were pasted near (to allow for up to 300 ship-build points of each type!!) I'm waiting to make sure I know exactly what is going to end up done with them before fixing it (as i have to manually fix each one).

[DrSpike]

Booo!

[Jamski]

Further thoughts about Manouvre

Only one M order per OoB.

Using an M order exposes you to double damage

The attack after an M order is at double strength.

So, basically, you take double damage now, to deal double damage later. You take a chance that your ships will survive the pounding they take as they manouvre into the perfect firing position. This seems the most fair and useful application of M orders.

Tactical Note : Using an OoB that starts with an M order is suicidal. The double casualties you take in the first round will be removed from the first ship type in the OoB - in this case whatever you wanted to benefit from the M order will get smashed before it can fire. I suggest using a second weapon type to "cover the manovure"

Therefore M orders are perfect for fleets with TWO or more weapon types.

-Jam

[Atragon]

Er, Jamski... it won't, remember, casualties are removed at the end of each 3-round block... So your Laser ships are about to die from the massive fighter strike, but not before they annihilate the other side's next ship up (probably)

[GeoModder]

Yeah, 't would be too confusing for the GM's if suddenly they have to distract ships before the round is over in this exception.