This is the link I use for AA Calc, now it redirects to a Beer Blog. Â Anyone?
Frood AACalc Dicey / Sim / Odds Calculator: Updates and Opinions
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Just asking :-D
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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.
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Just out of curiosity, what is the attack value of a Zombie?
2 Zombies on 2 INF is an 82% Zombie win… I am guessing they are 4’s on attack?
And I am guessing they defend on 6’s, since even against 2 HB attacking, they still win 75% of the time
And also just curious… which nation gets Zombies? Haiti would seem to be the natural source, and since the USA controls Haiti is that a new US NA? :mrgreen:
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Grrr… very grumpy. Not feeling very impressed with the human race tonight…
Sorry Dan. Did not intend to sound ungrateful. I really do appreciate your dicey and the effort you put into it.
To be honest, it is the only one I keep a bookmarked link to. I can find the others if I have to but since they are nowhere near as user friendly with stats, breakdowns of various sims and the like, I don’t even go to them.
We will figure out how to deal with the added complexity of having to think (oh no!!!) about our OOL as we enter them.
I was thinking (ow, ow, ow, get me some aspirin!!!) about how we post our moves and I might start listing the units in each of my territories in the OOL so it is a simple cut and paste for the opponent.
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Now I feel bad - I really was sleep deprived last night. It’s clear though that the new version needs a little more work yet before I can justify replacing the old one. I think once I add NAs and multiple unit groupings for OOL people will see past the “change” from the familiar.
Also, just adding better documentation ABOVE the form so you can’t help but see it I think will also ease the transition
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Eh, won;t be the first time that someone posted late at night and regretted their posts the next day.
At least yours was not in a GAME though :roll:
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@ncscswitch:
Eh, won;t be the first time that someone posted late at night and regretted their posts the next day.
At least yours was not in a GAME though :roll:
LOL…Been there, done that. :roll: :roll: :roll:
Dan, I echo Baghdaddy’s comments. Not only do we use your site for combat roles, it’s an invaluable tool for planning combat. Having to type in the forces and then try and order them by OOL is a NON-STARTER. Glad to see the old system back.
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The thing is, the intent behind it was to make it easier. Here’s how:
You are already typing your battles in to your forum post. This was designed so that you could copy and paste your battle description. Within reason, it accommodates a wide array of formats: with/without spaces, different abbreviations for the same unit types eg. Fig Ftrs Ftr F, uppercase or lower case, and will even ignore extra data stuck in there like (2 from Kwa, 2 from Man.).
So the idea was that you could just type your move in for your forum post, and then copy and paste it into AACalc rather than having to click and enter each unit total separately.
I think it was just too advanced - like showing a cell-phone to a caveman :wink: . People just don’t see the convenience, or can’t think of a different, easier way that would require them to change their style.
Anyhow, the plan is that I will incorporate multiple unit group OOLs - eg 4 Inf then 2 Art then 2 other Inf then 1 Bom then 3 more Art, or whatever. To do that you will have to enter a total unit listing anyway, so the individual unit boxes become redundant. Once that is in place I’ll probably make the new one the default again.
People will learn. It just takes more typing, less mouse clicking. Not even typing if you copy and paste. And less moving between keyboard and mouse.
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Okay, I think I have a plan that should satisfy everyone, including me ;) :
I will work from the old form. I will add above it a “Quick load” form where you can enter the units you have typed in to your post, or a list of the units you are planning to use. Click submit on that form, and it will add up all the units and populate the regular form.
Then, beneath the individual unit fields, there will be rows where custom OOLs can be entered. These will be blank by default, and if blank a default OOL will be followed, which will be posted somewhere. If however you wish to deviate from the standard OOL, you can enter what units you want killed first, in separate groupings eg 1 inf 1 art then 1 inf. Once those units are used up (if not all are accounted for) the default OOL is followed for any remaining units.
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I like the plan, Dan.
Then, beneath the individual unit fields, there will be rows where custom OOLs can be entered. These will be blank by default, and if blank a default OOL will be followed, which will be posted somewhere. If however you wish to deviate from the standard OOL, you can enter what units you want killed first, in separate groupings eg 1 inf 1 art then 1 inf. Once those units are used up (if not all are accounted for) the default OOL is followed for any remaining units.
Maybe even better than this would be just a radial button that you can change from use standard OOL (default) to use the “Quick Load” field OOL. If that is selected it will kill units in the order they are posted in the quick load field.
That should save some additional typing too. Just a thought.
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The one issue with the “copy and paste” as being faster…
Some folks still use you as a sim, and thus have not typed a battle to copy and paste in.
Just something to consider…
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@ncscswitch:
The one issue with the “copy and paste” as being faster…
Some folks still use you as a sim, and thus have not typed a battle to copy and paste in.
Just something to consider…
It seems that people are quite attached to the individual fields, so I will have to leave those it seems.
But Switch, you can type in the units for sim purposes just as easily as you can click on different fields. But whatever - I’ll leave both as an option. And the OOL field will be a separate fields will be separate from the “quick load” field.
Now, allowing these custom OOLs will take some significant reworking of the combat engine, so don’t hold your breath… Fortunately the work I did on the text-based input is also what I needed to do to parse the custom OOL field. So no work has been wasted (which is what makes me happy with the plan.)
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I look forward to testing the fully customized OOL in the Beta version…
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Froodnet is not sending battle results to the e-mail address inputted. Grrrrrr…. :x :x :x :x :x
I just ran a test battle to my e-mail address and got nothing.
Honestly, before you make changes to an “Approved” dice roller you should vet it with the board first, it’s BS that everyone here has to spend all this time trying to figure out what’s going on, and then try and accommodate your changes.
Signed,
A very Annoyed Customer
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it’s BS that everyone here has to spend all this time trying to figure out what’s going on, and then try and accommodate your changes.
Grrrrrr…. :x :x :x :x :x
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PS I hope the dice gods curse you mightily, UPS5224621124104939. And watch out, I am on rather close terms with some of them…
Man, I would not want to be on the blacklist of someone who has the power and ability to write code to skew random results based on a UserID.
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He he. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t actually do this. And, my dicey does not use a user name.
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Don’t worry Frood, you do a great job and all your work is very much appreciated.
People just get used to a certain look. Â Plus dice rolling is a touchy subject to begin with. Â And now there is easy access to a creator of a popular dice rolling program. Â Look out!
I think you have fixes for non-emails (your game log) so I’m not sure if that is too much of an issue, plus DAAK is notoriously bad at emailing at least from my experience.
I would like to say something about the OOL upgrades/changes:
I think some of the issues are, that while it is nice to customize the OOL or put in what you want, that the majority of the battles are land battles and 95%+ of the time you use standard OOL. Â (inf, rt, arm, ftrs)
Which means your “old” form or standard form is great for most if not all battles as is.
Sure there could be a bomber but in cases where the OOL is not “standard” it is a disadvantage to the defender to say what he will lose before hand. Â We do it for convenience in some games here but I’ve had very recent games where I would have denied an early request for OOL and made the attacker commit, attack, and see how many hits he got before I say what I lose. Â Which If I understand some of your changes, might defeat the purpose since he’d need to wait for the defenders response anyway.
I’m certainly not going to tell someone I’ll lose my Bom in the first wave before he even types out his turn and commits to battle just to make it easy for him when he does a dicey roll so he can paste it in there.
Now for Naval battles things can get really screwy and usually players can see a big battle coming and again will puposely not declare an OOL.
I’ve seen players lose BB’s over trns cause they won the last round of battle, but you won’t see any player say my OOL for this battle is 1-hit BB, 2nd hit BB, then trn, just to make it easy for the attacker to do his battles.My point is, that almost any battle where you need to do a Customize OOL you will need input from the defender which will slow do the battle process anyway. Â These battes also tend to be the “important” ones and at that point no one wants to give away any strategic hints prior to the battle.
I often say “I’ll give you my OOL when/if you attack”, but sometimes I even wonder if that is giving too much away and will purposely make no mention of it in other cases, so I don’t encourge/discourage an attack I may/ or may not want.
My final thougts are, there is value in customizable OOL, but how much when probably 95% of battles are “standard” and those that aren’t are usually important enough where the defender may not wan to tip his hand.
I can see a lot of value in the Sim aspect of people wanting to see some alternatives in what happens if they lose this units first, etc. Â But that would seem more like what I defender might do when trying to decide what he’ll leave in a territory during Non-Com.
And you are doing a great job and keep up the good work!
Darth
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Short version…
1. e-mail glitches happen. Fortunately they are rather uncommon from Dan’s server. The down side of that is that, since they are so uncommon, when they DO occur, people expect there to be a reason for it, so they go looking for one. And site changes are an obvious place to try to pin the blame. That is the downside of being more reliable than DAAK… EVERYONE expects THAT dicey to screw up.
2. Many people dislike change. Rapid change in particular. They want TIME to get used to new concepts, new things. Folks who ahve been gaming for pretty much any amount of time online have used a Dicey that was little boxes that you put a number in, and then click a button to run it. When a new version comes along that is different, it takes folks time to get used to it. Some never will.
I think that sums up most of the past several dozen posts.
One last thing…
Frustration happens. Gods knows I have been a bit frustrated with the losing streak I have been on of late (about 90% of my past 10 games). And when you are TRYING to improve, and trying to get better, and there is no recognition of that (using my example I keep losing), the frustration can boil over. The good news is that, for most folks, once it boils over, the pressure is relieved. That frustration can be even greater when it is something that is your personal creation that is creating the pressure, especially if it is pressure from something outside of you and your creation.So um… yeah… what Darth said. :wink:
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Thanks. It wasn’t so much the feedback as the way it was given that set me off. I have no time for “very annoyed customers”.
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