Combat Reporter has gone Gold - Version 1.0 is available

[bretg80]

I am pleased to announce the official 1.0 version of Combat Reporter. You can get it here

http://code.google.com/p/wiptaecombatre ... loads/list

If you would like more information, see the pinned thread in the Scenario and Mods section of the forum. I have also included a users guide and have incorporated feedback from the community.

Thanks everyone for your support and great ideas. [:)]

A few changes to note from the beta.

1. The map is no longer included and you need to tell Combat Reporter where you installed WitPAE so it can find the WitPAE map. You will set this in the preferences when you start the application. This reduces the overall size of the download and the extra handling of a separate map. The only requirement is that you have to be using patch 3 with the enhanced map sizes. I think they were lower res before patch 3. If not, then no issues for earlier releases.

2. The preferences dialog will help you configure Combat reporter to work on your system. Read the user guide for assistance if needed. It should be more intuitive now.

3. Post questions on the forum if you need help. The tool is being used by quite a few people and they should be able to help if I can't get back to you quickly enough.

Enjoy !!!!!!

Bret

[Mistmatz]

Thanks for this tool. Looks like a cool addition.

One suggestion which may have been made in the sticky thread already, could you arrange data not only by date but by area of interest?
For instance with bodhis utility under stock WitP you could see all the messages (filterable) for a certain hex on the map over a defined poeriod. This way it was possible to identify areas with heavy sub infestion for instance or all combat reports for a besieged hex.

In a way thats accessing existing data the other way around as you have it now. First do the graphics and with a click on the hex you get the related text lines rather than clicking text lines and find the spot on the map. I assume this wouldn't be a small addition but I think it would increase the added value of the tool a lot. Nevertheless kudos to what you have achieved so far. [:)]

[Rainer]

Downloaded, installed and runs

Thanks a lot and
Cheers
Rainer

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

Thanks Bret! [:)]

I downloaded it and will try it for sure!


BTW, long time ago there was "WitP Utility" by "Bodhi". It was, unfortunately, never quite finished... [:(]

I suggested to him the following addition and he made some initial imlementation of it - perhaps you can use this idea in your tool as well (I haven't started it yet so I don't know if something like that already exists in it - my apologies in advance just in case):


Leo's suggestion for additional vector representation of sighted TFs


NOTE: This is "copy & paste" from my post made 6 years ago (can it really be that long ago [X(])


What about vector (line with arrow) over every enemy spotted TF?


That vector would have the following attributes:

#1
The vector's thickness would depend on how many enemy ships were sighted in certain TF.

#2
The vector's length would depend on speed the enemy ships that were sighted in certain TF.

#3
The vector's orientation would depend on course the enemy ships that were sighted in certain TF.


Using this the player would be able to very easily grasp picture of enemy movement (of TFs that were sighted) and this would help tremendously in situation awareness!


Here is what Allied player would see in current WitP when he discovers enemy TFs (the TFs are plotted on map but you don't see additional
info until you examine the TF with mouse and check the Intel report generated in execution phase):




And now here is what Allied player would see in WitP when he discovers enemy TFs and if he presses key combination to enable map
overlay for sighted enemy TFs (i.e. if my idea would be implemented):

NOTE: New info is presented with yellow vectors.




IMHO, it is clear that this gives 100x more information at glance!



Thanks in advance!


Leo "Apollo11"

[bretg80]

Hey Leo,

Yes, I would love to enhance the tool, but in order to add the changes you requested I need access to the save file and Matrix has not responded yet to my inquiries yet about getting access to the save files. So until I can read a save file, I'm out of luck unless I make it a two step process and use WitpTracker first which will make the tool awkward to use.

I am also looking at enhancements to the view so that you can see combat by hex or area. That is a bit more work and I'll look into it.

Keep up the suggestions and I'll look at enhancing the tool as time goes on.

Bret

[n01487477]

ORIGINAL: bretg80

Hey Leo,

Yes, I would love to enhance the tool, but in order to add the changes you requested I need access to the save file and Matrix has not responded yet to my inquiries yet about getting access to the save files. So until I can read a save file, I'm out of luck unless I make it a two step process and use WitpTracker first which will make the tool awkward to use.

I am also looking at enhancements to the view so that you can see combat by hex or area. That is a bit more work and I'll look into it.

Keep up the suggestions and I'll look at enhancing the tool as time goes on.

Bret

Bret,
you wouldn't need access to the save file for this, the OP's report gives the info (if you parsed it correctly - size, direction etc)

Sighting report: 2 Japanese ships at 85,70 near Batan Island , Moving East
E13A1 Jake sighting report: 3 Allied ships at 123,56 near Kushiro, speed 16, Moving Southwest

Tracker doesn't give this information ... yet [;)]... and the savefile wouldn't help you in this manner anyway.

I must say though that I'm thoroughly impressed with your work so far and it certainly is a great benefit to any player. Well done.

[LeeChard]

I'm stuck at the date entry
Win7 64bit



When I click on the button nothing happens

[Rainer]

You can try to open the file "combatReport.properties" with Wordpad and enter the data for the date line like this:

startIntervalDate="05/09/2010 02:19 PM"

However, your message seems to indicate there is a Win7 Access Rights/Ownership problem involved which has to be fixed first.

[bretg80]

I've had a few others run into this issue and I'm not sure what is causing it. I'm currently running on win7 64 and not seeing this issue. Can you PM me a screen copy of your command window so I can see the error. Are you running Java 6? This may run on Java 5, but I'm not 100% sure as I haven't tried it.

[bretg80]

hmm, yes I could parse that and produce a similar screen with that information. I hadn't noticed that information before. I guess I'll have to go back and take a look at that particular report. Thanks for the heads up. [8D]

ORIGINAL: n01487477

ORIGINAL: bretg80

Hey Leo,

Yes, I would love to enhance the tool, but in order to add the changes you requested I need access to the save file and Matrix has not responded yet to my inquiries yet about getting access to the save files. So until I can read a save file, I'm out of luck unless I make it a two step process and use WitpTracker first which will make the tool awkward to use.

I am also looking at enhancements to the view so that you can see combat by hex or area. That is a bit more work and I'll look into it.

Keep up the suggestions and I'll look at enhancing the tool as time goes on.

Bret

Bret,
you wouldn't need access to the save file for this, the OP's report gives the info (if you parsed it correctly - size, direction etc)

Sighting report: 2 Japanese ships at 85,70 near Batan Island , Moving East
E13A1 Jake sighting report: 3 Allied ships at 123,56 near Kushiro, speed 16, Moving Southwest

Tracker doesn't give this information ... yet [;)]... and the savefile wouldn't help you in this manner anyway.

I must say though that I'm thoroughly impressed with your work so far and it certainly is a great benefit to any player. Well done.

[bretg80]

Hey everyone, sorry some of you are having some issues with the new preferences.

I have now tried this on my win7 64 machine with three different versions of java. The program will not even startup under java 1.5, so you need at least a version of 1.6. I have tried 2 versions of 1.6 and both work properly.

Please note that sometimes the calendar window ends up behind the other two windows. I have offset it enough so you should be able to click on it and bring it to the front. I have changed my path to point only to a java jre and it still works. I also know that Rainer has it working. If you still are not able to get the calendar widget to work on your machine, edit the combatreport.properties file using notepad or wordpad as follows.

watchDir=""
startIntervalDate="05/11/2010 12:56 PM"
watchIntervalSecs=60
witpDir=""
side="a"

use the format exactly as shown above. It must include date and time and AM or PM using 12 hr notation.

I will modify the tool to allow you to enter this from the preferences also if I am unable to figure out why this is occurring for some of you.

Sorry about the inconvenience.

Bret

[Misconduct]

That fixed it Bret!

[bretg80]

New version uploaded that allows you to enter date/time in preferences in addition to using the button. If the calendar does not show up when you push the button, look behind the combat reporter windows as it sometimes opens behind them. If for some reason it doesn't work, you can enter the date / time in the preferences dialog box now.

Bret

[bretg80]

enjoy !!!

[bretg80]

I made a few small changes based on some feedback. You may want to get the latest version.

Tweaks: when changing the save directory, the combat reports are now picked up correctly.
ability to set date/time by hand in preferences
fixed a potential classpath problem with the jar file

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: bretg80

ORIGINAL: n01487477

ORIGINAL: bretg80

Hey Leo,

Yes, I would love to enhance the tool, but in order to add the changes you requested I need access to the save file and Matrix has not responded yet to my inquiries yet about getting access to the save files. So until I can read a save file, I'm out of luck unless I make it a two step process and use WitpTracker first which will make the tool awkward to use.

I am also looking at enhancements to the view so that you can see combat by hex or area. That is a bit more work and I'll look into it.

Keep up the suggestions and I'll look at enhancing the tool as time goes on.

Bret

Bret,
you wouldn't need access to the save file for this, the OP's report gives the info (if you parsed it correctly - size, direction etc)

Sighting report: 2 Japanese ships at 85,70 near Batan Island , Moving East
E13A1 Jake sighting report: 3 Allied ships at 123,56 near Kushiro, speed 16, Moving Southwest

Tracker doesn't give this information ... yet [;)]... and the savefile wouldn't help you in this manner anyway.

I must say though that I'm thoroughly impressed with your work so far and it certainly is a great benefit to any player. Well done.

hmm, yes I could parse that and produce a similar screen with that information. I hadn't noticed that information before. I guess I'll have to go back and take a look at that particular report. Thanks for the heads up. [8D]

Thanks!


And yes... just as "n01487477" wrote - all info is already there in "Combat Report" file - you just need to parse the data in it and show it graphically on screen!

I will keep my fingers crossed... [:)]


Leo "Apollo11"

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: bretg80

I made a few small changes based on some feedback. You may want to get the latest version.

Tweaks: when changing the save directory, the combat reports are now picked up correctly.
ability to set date/time by hand in preferences
fixed a potential classpath problem with the jar file

I think I have the most current version, and it installed and works fine for me in XP.

However, when I change the Date to an earlier date and re-run the data load, it only loads the OPS reports and SIGINT reports. No combat reports in the tree. But if I close it all down and relaunch it, it loads everything from the new, rolled-back date. Am I doing something wrong?

[bretg80]

I think I have the most current version, and it installed and works fine for me in XP.

However, when I change the Date to an earlier date and re-run the data load, it only loads the OPS reports and SIGINT reports. No combat reports in the tree. But if I close it all down and relaunch it, it loads everything from the new, rolled-back date. Am I doing something wrong?

_____________________________

The Moose

Yes, that was fixed in the latest update. You may want to download again. Oh, and I did not update the version number, so it still says 1.0.

[LeeChard]

That worked for me, Thanks!

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: bretg80

I think I have the most current version, and it installed and works fine for me in XP.

However, when I change the Date to an earlier date and re-run the data load, it only loads the OPS reports and SIGINT reports. No combat reports in the tree. But if I close it all down and relaunch it, it loads everything from the new, rolled-back date. Am I doing something wrong?

_____________________________

The Moose

Yes, that was fixed in the latest update. You may want to download again. Oh, and I did not update the version number, so it still says 1.0.

Oh, OK. I was going by the time. It had been up for download 20 hours, and I downloaded it 12 hours before the post above. I'll get the new one.