BFTBQwikRef Download Available (Kybd + Scenario)

Command Ops: Battles From The Bulge takes the highly acclaimed Airborne Assault engine back to the West Front for the crucial engagements during the Ardennes Offensive. Test your command skills in the fiery crucible of Airborne Assault’s “pausable continuous time” uber-realistic game engine. It's up to you to develop the strategy, issue the orders, set the pace, and try to win the laurels of victory in the cold, shadowy Ardennes.
Command Ops: Highway to the Reich brings us to the setting of one of the most epic and controversial battles of World War II: Operation Market-Garden, covering every major engagement along Hell’s Highway, from the surprise capture of Joe’s Bridge by the Irish Guards a week before the offensive to the final battles on “The Island” south of Arnhem.

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MarkShot
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BFTBQwikRef Download Available (Kybd + Scenario)

Post by MarkShot »

Folks,

I am making the following two items available in my own Web space until Matrix posts it.

(1) BFTB one page keyboard reference

(2) BFTB scenario complexity analysis (both as an XLS for you to manipulate and a PDF for those who don't use spreadsheets)

I would also like to share some analysis of the scenarios as to what you get in BFTB:

27 Scenarios

(Min/Max/Avg)

36/343/106 duration in hours
62/655/258 total units
3/22/12 Axis objectives
3/25/13 Allied objectives

And how this compares with COTA:

32 Scenarios

(Min/Max/Avg)

24/209/102 duration in hours
29/326/146 total units
2/17/8 Axis objectives
2/29/10 Allied objectives

Just eye balling this data, I can say that the biggest growth in complexity with BFTB has been a substantial growth in the number of units commanded and a moderate increase in the number of objectives per scenario. I should note that since the engine provides for hiearchical command through AI agents, the player complexity of say doubling the number of units in a scenario tends to scale much better for the player than traditional "command every unit" or "stack based" war games.

This should also help those who want to get a sense of what you get with your BFTB purchase. Note: that each scenario may include random force deployments, variable reinforcement arrivals, non-scripted AI that is unlikely to do the same thing every time, and quite a number of parameters which you can tweak to make things harder or easier on a per scenario basis.

Enjoy!

http://home.comcast.net/~markshot/tempi ... wikRef.zip

---

NEW STUFF

I just completed a similar analysis for HTTR (raw data to be posted shortly in the HTTR forum). So, if you care to compare:

37 Scenarios

(Min/Max/Avg)

12/230/83 duration in hours
26/700/251 total units
2/18/9 Axis objectives
2/18/9 Allied objectives

I think the most interesting thing which I see here is that HTTR well exceeded COTA in terms of pushing scenarios with high unit counts. And the average number of units is comparable to BFTB. However, it is worth noting that HTTR offered a lot more smaller scenarios than BFTB. Where as on the whole BFTB has not too many small scenarios. HTTR's average pulled up by 6-8 very large scenarios.

It might be interesting to compute the "normalized unit complexity" of these three games. I would define that as total units in all scenarios divided by the total duration of all scenarios. My guess is that BFTB would score quite a bit higher in the rating. Oh, well ... an exercise for another day.

Off now to add HTTR to my comparative BFTB performance testing suite ...

MORE NEW STUFF

Here are some further statistics.

Total playable simulated scenario hours delivered with each game:

HTTR: 3085

COTA: 3273

BFTB: 2854

These numbers are so close, it would almost seem that someone planned this. But, as far as I know, that's not the case.

NOTE: This is really a minimal value, since this assuming a single play from just one side with only one set of balance adjustment options.

---

I am finally ready to compute my normalized complexity metric for each game.

Assumption: For the purpose of this analysis, all units are assumed to be present at the start of each scenario which is not the case. However, a more accurate calculation taking into consideration of arrival times is beyond my manual methods of analysis.

Methodology:

(1) Let N be the scenario index.

(2) Let M be the simulated scenario hours.

(3) Let U be the scenario units for both sides.

(4) Then ( ( SUM(M*U)[N] ) / SUM(M)[N] ) / 2 yields the average number of units commanded by the player during simulated hour.

Results (a player command complexity metric):

HTTR: 203

COTA: 90

BFTB: 146

Discussion:

Well, I think this is really interesting. It clearly shows that of the three games, COTA has the lowest level of play command complexity and that HTTR has the highest level of player command complexity. Rather interesting as BFTB has the best UI tools for managing player command complexity.

Additionally, there was some discussion elsewhere of which game would be the best for players who prefer smaller force sizes. COTA would appear to be the winner in that regard. And if you put aside improved features, then HTTR would seem to be the game for mega-battles.

Another interesting conclusion might be when combined with performance benchmarking that COTA is the best of three games for very low spec systems. Yes, HTTR was less CPU intensive than the other two games, but not by a factor of 2X.

Now, a further interesting result might be to gather the area (square kilometers) covered by each scenario and once again weight the unit counts by this new metric. So far, we have looked at complexity by time. However, complexity by space and time might also prove to be quite interesting.

DISCLAIMER: All of these calculations and conclusions have not been independently verified and are subject to incorrect assumptions, math errors, and plain old human error.
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RE: BFTBQwikRef Download Available (Kybd + Scenario)

Post by PirateJock »

Hi MarkShot

Thanks for this; very useful and saves me a couple of hours better spent playing the game [:)]

Cheers
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RE: BFTBQwikRef Download Available (Kybd + Scenario)

Post by Chad Harrison »

Mark

Thank you so much!

I was just trying to figure out a clever way to do the same thing. Thanks for putting it together for all of us.

Chad
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RE: BFTBQwikRef Download Available (Kybd + Scenario)

Post by MarkShot »

Folks,

You're welcome! But it's not like I wasn't going to use this stuff myself. :)

The keyboard reference was derived from one I did for COTA. The BFTB sheet was done a year ago, but I quickly checked it against the manual before posting. There might be a few minor things missing. So, it might be worth browsing the manual yourselves.

I am actually reading/skimming the manual myself at the moment. What a joy compared to so many games released these days. I haven't really looked at it for about six months since we did the errors and omissions review. The BFTB docs are old school and remind me of the golden days of Dynamix, Microprose, and Spectrum Holobyte. :)
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RE: BFTBQwikRef Download Available (Kybd + Scenario)

Post by Shadrach »

Thanks a lot for the keyboard ref, thats sure to come in handy :)
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RE: BFTBQwikRef Download Available (Kybd + Scenario)

Post by Talon_XBMCX »

Very helpful ... thanks!
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RE: BFTBQwikRef Download Available (Kybd + Scenario)

Post by Kabbers »


The files in the package are a gift, many thanks MarkShot!

I would say a further thank you to any more infos per scenario you ever wanted to share, however personal or anecdotal, in the worksheet, as I love this series but find it takes me to my outer ability parameters aka every ounce of help, brings more happiness for me )

xKabbers
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RE: BFTBQwikRef Download Available (Kybd + Scenario)

Post by MarkShot »

Bumped for TGB.

(I've asked Matrix to put this zip into the Members Area, but I cannot check that, since I got my copy of the game by being a Beta and Matrix has yet to create a transaction record for me.)
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RE: BFTBQwikRef Download Available (Kybd + Scenario)

Post by Erik Rutins »

FYI, this is now also available in the Members Club.
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RE: BFTBQwikRef Download Available (Kybd + Scenario)

Post by MarkShot »

BUMP

See first post under "NEW STUFF" for comparative scenario analysis relative to HTTR.
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RE: BFTBQwikRef Download Available (Kybd + Scenario)

Post by vj531 »

thanks Mark
All the best
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RE: BFTBQwikRef Download Available (Kybd + Scenario)

Post by MarkShot »

Bump for those following this thread.

See "More New Stuff" (red highlight) in the first post for even more analysis.
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RE: BFTBQwikRef Download Available (Kybd + Scenario)

Post by wodin »

I find BftB loads up the scenario far quicker than CotA...
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RE: BFTBQwikRef Download Available (Kybd + Scenario)

Post by Henri »

The complexity might be misleading but I am not sure. Most of the BFTB scenarios have units entering during the battle, and if you have not taken those into account then BTFB might be more complex than HTTR. Even the BTFB has most units entering after the start of the scenario!

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RE: BFTBQwikRef Download Available (Kybd + Scenario)

Post by MarkShot »

I am not sure of where we are in the discussion, but I will just point out that the unit counts I reported in the XLSs where for scenario defaults and includes all units (start + reinforcements). Of course, the normalized calculations were done by applying the total units across all scenario hours. This is, in fact, somewhat inaccurate, but otherwise it would have required a great deal of work to segment the data by statistical arrival windows.
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What times are correct?

Post by Templer_12 »

@ MarkShot

MarkShot’s BFTB Mouse/Keyboard (USA layout) Quick Reference (05/19/09) says:
ENEMY UNIT DISPLAY FILTERS
Cycles between:
Current sightings ( within last 15 minutes )
Recent sightings ( 16 minutes - 1 hour )
All sightings

The BftB Game Manual page 161 says:
Assessing a Sighting
Sightings of enemy units are rated by Age and Reliability. Age is given as either
Current (sighted within the last five minutes)
Recent (sighted within the last hour)

What times are correct?
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RE: What times are correct?

Post by MarkShot »

I am not sure for BFTB. But I am pretty certain that it wasn't changed from HTTR/COTA and from playing the others you can simply watch the clock and the status reported of a particular contact change over time from current -> recent.

When you are in close proximity to the enemy and the Sun goes up or down, lots of contact pop in and out like subatomic particles in a collider. :)
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RE: What times are correct?

Post by MarkShot »

Sorry ... I forgot to say ... I believe 15 minutes is the correct figure.
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RE: What times are correct?

Post by Konrad_Novak »

Could anyone reupload the BFTBQwikRef.zip? It seems, the link has expired or something (404 error). And I can't find it on my HDD.
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RE: What times are correct?

Post by Wartath »

Same here. Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)
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Could anyone reupload the BFTBQwikRef.zip? It seems, the link has expired or something (404 error). And I can't find it on my HDD.
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