Frood AACalc Dicey / Sim / Odds Calculator: Updates and Opinions

[Guest]

Consistency of format with other diceys
Ease of adjustment of number of units
Ability to switch quickly from one battle sim to another
Tab button and numeric key-pad only operation.

[frood]

I guess I don’t really care about consistency - I’m out to make mine better, not more like the others.
Adjustments - you can move around with the mouse or the arrow keys just as easily
and #3 and #4 are basically restatements of #1 and #2. I don’t think the tab key was that useful because if you wanted to change Inf and Fgtrs you’d have to hit tab like 4 times - not really any easier, I always just used the mouse.

And for speed, you can use ultra-shorthand form, eg “5i2a1f|3i2a”

Well, this is the version that will see continued development - addition of NA units, custom OOL etc. I’ll leave the old version up somewhere.

I’m interested in any bugs - OOL not working properly, or subs/artillery/amphib assaults/other special units not working properly. I haven’t noticed anything like that yet.

[frood]

Okay, I’ve made the new version the default version - with a link to the old version for any luddites out there.

Once CC gets me my manuals back, I can start on adding in all the National Advantages. That will be next. And then maybe separate groups of units for OOL (eg. so UK Art can die before Russian Inf, etc.) That will be tricky though.

[UncleNate]

It’s possible you may just have lost a good number of people who are seeking an intuitive interface to a battle calculator.  At the very least, I’d like to suggest keeping the old OOL entry with default values in a separate location as it was before.

[frood]

Well the old one is still available… sheesh! And it’s not like I’m doing this for money.

And what’s so non-intuitive about entering “2 Inf 1 Ftr v. 1 Inf” ?

[frood]

Okay, due to excessive whining, I’ve made the old one the default, with the new one available on a sub-page.

[Guest]

Not a matter of whining Dan.

As I said previously, it is what folks are used to…  the format they have with other diceys.

You can build a car with a great new method of steering and acceleration, but if someone gets into it and there is no steering wheel and no gas pedal… they are not likely to know how to drive it, and will likely go purchase a model they are more familiar with.

[frood]

Grrr… very grumpy. Not feeling very impressed with the human race tonight…

[Weekend Gamer]

Dan, if it makes you feel any better, I think your old dicey is the most popular one on this site, including with yours truly.  :-)

But now that you have me playing Triple A, I will now be using it primarily for checking battle odds . . . (which I should have done for the Germany defense – I was just getting lazy with that one).

[frood]

Yeah that’s what I mostly use it for too (or only I guess)

I think that attack on Germany was hard to anticipate though - it was a 3-wave attack and I only made it because Russia was also in a position to strike. Good game. Let me know if you want to go again!

It’s just frustrating - I did some really clever work and I think it really simplifies the form and makes it easier to use for cutting and pasting combat moves. It may just take some time. I’ll add NAs to the new one, and it sounds like I need to improve the OOL stuff. Is it the unit entry, or the OOL entry that people don’t like about the new one?

[rjclayton]

If it’s the unit entry, blame me :lol:

[UncleNate]

Don’t get me wrong–I’m a huge fan of the efforts you have made to provide free tools for A&A style gaming.  I also appreciate all the effort you put into parsing user entries for battles in your new calculator.

I’m just saying, it became like staring at a system prompt, rather than a GUI.  Many people wouldn’t have a clue what to do if they had a system prompt staring them in the face.  Now, is a GUI superior to a system prompt?  Not if you’re trying to add a prefix or suffix to several hundred file names in a given directory!  While it may not be nearly as powerful, a GUI is generally considered friendlier (but some GUIs are actually counter-intuitive and pretty yucky).  You just happened to migrate from a no-questions-asked interface to one where people need to figure out how things work–at first glance, people have no idea how forgiving your input field was–it’s only by playing with it that people discover the speedier entry of attack/defend units.  (I’m still not sure yet how one would have changed the OOL for attack vs defense, since I wasn’t looking to spend time figuring that part out)

[frood]

@UncleNate:

Don’t get me wrong–I’m a huge fan of the efforts you have made to provide free tools for A&A style gaming.  I also appreciate all the effort you put into parsing user entries for battles in your new calculator.

I’m just saying, it became like staring at a system prompt, rather than a GUI.  Many people wouldn’t have a clue what to do if they had a system prompt staring them in the face.  Now, is a GUI superior to a system prompt?  Not if you’re trying to add a prefix or suffix to several hundred file names in a given directory!  While it may not be nearly as powerful, a GUI is generally considered friendlier (but some GUIs are actually counter-intuitive and pretty yucky).  You just happened to migrate from a no-questions-asked interface to one where people need to figure out how things work–at first glance, people have no idea how forgiving your input field was–it’s only by playing with it that people discover the speedier entry of attack/defend units.  (I’m still not sure yet how one would have changed the OOL for attack vs defense, since I wasn’t looking to spend time figuring that part out)

Thanks.

Attack vs Defence OOL - the attacking units are killed in the order they are listed, and the defending units are killed in the order they are listed.

[Guest]

Yep, you will need some instructions for the new one so that folks other than those who have been active in this thread can use it.

[frood]

There were/are instructions right on the page…

[Guest]

Don;t get down Dan.

Give it time for folks to get used to it.

And if you do implement the fully customizable OOL that folks have discussed above, you will ahve a far superior dicey to anythign else out there (which means beating your own current dicey, since it is already superior to DAAK, AAMC, etc.)

[Guest]

Some abbreviatioons to make sure they are coded for the new dicey…

SS = Super Sub
DST = Destroyer

Also, does it automatically pair INF/ART if both are present to boost the INF attack?  Or is there a seperate coding type for ART supported INF?

[rjclayton]

Looks like it automatically pairs inf and art.  Try a sample combat

4 inf 4 art v. 6 arm

compare to

8 art v. 6 arm

both results are the same (and they should be!)  If it wasn’t automatically pairing, you would have different results for the two above combats.

[Guest]

Just asking :-D

[frood]

Yeah, the Inf/Art thing is supported by the underlying code - I’ve only made changes to how the actual units are entered. Once entered they are handled the same as before.