Introducing Intel Monkey (Another New Version: 0.4.1b)

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JocMeister
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey

Post by JocMeister »

Is there any way to get the program to read directly from the sigint files?
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witpqs
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey

Post by witpqs »

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Is there any way to get the program to read directly from the sigint files?
Uh, it does read directly from the ones in the archive sub-folder, which includes the current turn (meaning the turn resolution/combat replay that just ran). Could you explain a bit more what you are looking for?
JocMeister
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey

Post by JocMeister »

Ah,

Sorry for being a bit unclear. I havn´t been using the -archive switch in my game. When I turned it on it was only archiving the latest turn and I wanted to add all the previous sigint to the tool.

But I worked if I just manually copied the asigint from the SAVE folder to the SAVE/Archive folder! [:)]
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RogerJNeilson
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey

Post by RogerJNeilson »

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Ah,

Sorry for being a bit unclear. I havn´t been using the -archive switch in my game. When I turned it on it was only archiving the latest turn and I wanted to add all the previous sigint to the tool.

But I worked if I just manually copied the asigint from the SAVE folder to the SAVE/Archive folder! [:)]


I have started using the -archive switch now, and have simply copied previous sigint files into the archive folder. The programme is happy to read them all.

Rogerer
An unplanned dynasty: Roger Neilson, Roger Neilson 11, Roger Neilson 3 previous posts 898+1515 + 1126 = 3539.....Finally completed my game which started the day WITP:AE was released
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witpqs
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey

Post by witpqs »

The SigInt files that get read in are basically: side + "sigint" + anything + ".txt"

I'm 99% sure that 'anything' could also be nothing at all but I never tested that (it would just be a file named either "asigint.txt" or "jsigint.txt").

The target folder can also be changed by you, if you edit the .py file. But I figure the archive folder is the most natural place to target.

Been working on the basic Combat Report portion, which is way more complicated than the basic SigInt part. Progress is good.
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witpqs
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey (New Version: 0.4.0)

Post by witpqs »

There is a new version of Intel Monkey ready to use.

Here is the link, which I've also updated in my signature (I'm not sure how long that takes to update).
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByVleYydeDVceV95RVVDdlVTNHc

This version is 0.4.0, and includes the first cut of Combat Report functionality. For those of you upgrading from a previous version, read the bit below about running the included utility to generate a Bases.txt file for the scenario you are playing. It only takes a few seconds and is very easy for non-technical players to do.

Here is the documentation text:
2012-09-21

Intel Monkey V0.4.0

Intel Monkey is a program for WITP-AE players to help facilitate digesting Intel provided in the various reports (SigInt, Combat, Operations, Events).

Intel Monkey is written in Python, beginning with Python version 3.2.3 and requires that version of Python or higher be installed in order to run Intel Monkey. It is technically independent of the Windows operating system, but as AE is a windows only program I doubt that Intel Monkey will be used on either Linux or Mac OS.

The program reads in the player's report files that AE archives every turn. Those files are located in "save/archive" (in AE's main folder find folder "save", inside that folder find folder "archive").

Your AE shortcut must have the "-archive" switch for AE to create those files every turn.
__________
Requirement: Python version 3.2.3 or above. You may obtain this at

Sources: python.org (free and open source, and where I obtained it)
At the moment this is current version:
http://python.org/ftp/python/3.2.3/python-3.2.3.msi

OR
www.activestate.com/activepython/downloads
This is also free and a highly regarded distribution.

Install Python per the instructions. Also, although the instructions do not say so, on my system I had to reboot after installation so that the system's path was properly updated to run Python.
__________
Intel Monkey currently consists of three program files (.py) and this documentation file. There are two copies of the main Intel Monkey program, and also a utility program called "GetBasesFromScenario.py" that you will need to get started. In addition, the .zip or .7z will also include "witploadAE.exe" and its documentation file.
__________
Installation:

- In your main WITP-AE folder there is a folder call "tools". Navigate into that folder. That is the place where tools like Staff Assistant and Tracker are typically installed, and is a good place for Intel Monkey.

- Create a folder there called "Intel Monkey".

- Navigate into the "Intel Monkey" folder that you just created.

- Copy the Intel Monkey files (and witploadAE) into the "Intel Monkey" folder. If they are in a .zip or .7z file then you might need to "Extract Files Here" as needed.

Intel Monkey is now installed, and you now need to create a "Bases.txt" file for the scenario you are playing. Run the program "GetBasesFromScenario.py" (by double-clicking on it). Then just tell it where your AE scenario folder is, (usually called "SCEN" under the main AE folder) where you Intel Monkey is (that will already be the default), and the 3-digit scenario number that you are playing. Press the 'Proceed' button and within a few seconds it will create the Bases.txt file you need.

The two .py files you see are identical except one (-A) is configured to read in the Allied reports and the other (-J) is configured to read in the Japanese reports. The easiest way to proceed is to create a shortcut to the version you plan to use, and put the shortcut with your other AE shortcuts. Note: Because the combat report functionality can provide information about both sides, you might want to use both 'your' Intel Monkey and the 'enemy' version so you can review what information the other side has been getting from the combat reports.

To create a shortcut just Right-click on the correct Intel Monkey version (-A or -J) and select "Create shortcut" from the menu. A shortcut will be created right there in the Intel Monkey folder. You can then move that shortcut to anyplace you wish. You can even rename it if you like.

Intel Monkey will also work with multiple AE installs, just like Tracker and other utilities. Simple install it once for each instance of AE.
__________
Current State and Use Instructions:

The program reads files from AE's "save/archive" folder. Make certain you play AE with the "-archive" switch or else those files will not be created and there will be nothing to read.

Intel Monkey is still very new and has a very small set of functions compared to what is intended. Currently Intel Monkey processes all of the player's SigInt files and combat report files. Future versions will process other files as well.

- When started, Intel Monkey will display a small top level window with options for the various reports. Currently there are the Basic SigInt and Basic Combat Report functions implemented.

- When you click on the Basic SigInt button, Intel Monkey will take several seconds to read in all the SigInt files.

- A GUI window will open, where the information is displayed.

- Each line from each SigInt file has been made into its own record with the date at the front, and parsed into fields containing the various information. Note that some of the line come with four pieces of information (including the date) while others come with six (including the date).

- Buttons in the lower left corner allow the report to be sorted according to the criteria noted next to each button.

- You can click in the "Enter Search Text" box and type in something to search for. The first occurrence from the top (in the currently selected sort order) will be found and positioned at the top of the screen (unless too near the bottom of the report). The search is case insensitive (upper/lower case does not matter).

- The report can be scrolled using the scroll bars, or just click inside it to use the keyboard (PageUp, PageDown, etc.) or the mouse wheel if your mouse has one.

- You can select text in the report and copy it a) to some other program or text editor (useful if you are making notes for yourself), or b) into the search text entry area (useful to search for something you see now that causes you to want to change the sort order and look at all similar things).

- When finished, click on either the Exit button or the X in the upper right-hand corner to close the report you are viewing. When you do that to the top windown, Intel Monkey will close.

- The Basic Combat report displays very similarly to the SigInt report. There are some differences. First, the Combat Report takes longer to process than does the SigInt report. Second, The Combat Report has multiple options. Currently implemented are the options for Ship information and LCU information. Battle, Troop, and Aircraft information functions are not yet implemented.

- Note Well: While I believe that all ship location information is captured from the combat reports, the same is not true for LCU location information. Presently only Ground Combat locations for LCUs is captured. LCU locations revealed during combat reports of battle types of naval bombardment, air attacks, amphibious landings, and so on are not yet captured. Doing so is not straighforward because the combat report does not always provide clues as to which side the LCUs belong to. I look forward to increasing the amount of information captured with future versions.

There are many additional functions planned for Intel Monkey, including reading in and processing the other reports. The present functions are very useful already as they allow a player to see SigInt reports for a specific base, or all reports for a specific enemy unit, and so on.

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RogerJNeilson
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey (New Version: 0.4.0)

Post by RogerJNeilson »

Getting a problem when running the bases file:

Input folder pointed to Scen file
Output folder pointed to Intel Monkey folder
Scen set at 001 - standard campaign

Roger

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witpqs
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey (New Version: 0.4.0)

Post by witpqs »

Edited to add:

It looks to me like you do not have the "witploadAE.exe" file in your Intel Monkey folder. It was included in the .zip file, so try adding it in there.


Roger,

I tested with scenario 1 also, worked fine. Some other folks tested it for me, too.

I'm going to PM you - maybe you can give me some screen shots?
ORIGINAL: Roger Neilson 3

Getting a problem when running the bases file:

Input folder pointed to Scen file
Output folder pointed to Intel Monkey folder
Scen set at 001 - standard campaign

Roger

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witpqs
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey (New Version: 0.4.0)

Post by witpqs »

That's it, Roger. I just duplicated the error here by renaming witploadAE to something else. Just go back to the .zip file and make sure you pull out witploadAE and it will be fine. (Pulling out the witploadAE text file for reference in case you want to use it for something else is a good idea too.)

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RogerJNeilson
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey (New Version: 0.4.0)

Post by RogerJNeilson »

Yes that sorted it, thanks

Roger
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witpqs
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey (New Version: 0.4.0)

Post by witpqs »

ORIGINAL: Roger Neilson 3

Yes that sorted it, thanks

Roger
Cool! BTW, it's very easy to add or change the sorting buttons. If some useful ones are missing, and so on, let me know.
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LargeSlowTarget
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey (New Version: 0.4.0)

Post by LargeSlowTarget »

Excellent tool - many thanks, witpqs! [&o]
aoffen
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey (New Version: 0.4.0)

Post by aoffen »

Haven't had a chance to really get into it yet, but the ability to track individual ships and the damage inflicted is outstanding.
Thankyou.
Regards
Andrew
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witpqs
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey (New Version: 0.4.1)

Post by witpqs »

Edit to Add: I made an error that affected the accuracy of the "Battle Number". 0.4.1a fixes it.
Thanks for the encouragement!

So... here is the next installment... Intel Monkey 0.4.1a is released.

Here are the release notes:
V0.4.1a

SigInt

Added a Type field to separate Actor into Type and Actor. If Actor begins with a Ship Type, this is moved to Type. Using the same logic from the Combat Report, if the Ship Type that begins Actor is followed by a "-", then the Ship Type is not subtracted from the beginning of Actor. This avoids stripping the "PT" off of the name "PT-73", for instance. Added the Type field to the SigInt report, along with a sort button for it.

Combat Report

The Battle tab is now implemented. The Battle tab shows the combat report segment for one battle at a time. Presently the battle can be searched by Battle Number, the six-digit number assigned to each battle when the combat report is read in. You can forego typing the leading zeros in the search field. Notice that on other tabs in the Basic Combat Report, the Battle Number is listed for each record. You may also move forward and backward through the listing of battles by using the "Previous Battle" and "Next Battle" buttons.

Batch Files

Beginning with this version, there are batch file (.bat) included for each (player) version of Intel Monkey. These run Intel Monkey, and then have a 'pause' statement. This will allow you to see any error messages that might crop up. I recommend that you have your shortcuts refer to those .bat files instead of directly to the .py files.

Changing an exiting shortcut is very easy. Select it, then right-click on it and click on "properties" (which is at the bottom). You should see the cursor is already in the "Target" field, sort of in the upper middle of the window that opens. Press the "End" key to go all the way to the end of the field. then just change ".py" to be ".bat". Since the bat files have the exact same names as the Python files that small change will point the shortcuts to the right place.

The link to the new version (0.4.1a):
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByVleYydeDVcQjY3dl9YVl9NNlE

The link to version 0.4.0 is being left active for a while:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByVleYydeDVceV95RVVDdlVTNHc
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witpqs
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey (New Version: 0.4.1)

Post by witpqs »

Bumping this thread to note that 0.4.1a is out, which fixes an error in 0.4.1.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByVleYydeDVcQjY3dl9YVl9NNlE
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RogerJNeilson
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey (New Version: 0.4.1)

Post by RogerJNeilson »

Massiev developments her, thanks for all of this.
Two questions/suggestions....

Can a search ONLY show what you have searched for? On some screens it seems to juts put the records that fit the criteria at the top....

Is it possible to say search for battles that took place at a specifi location and show the set of them?

Roger
An unplanned dynasty: Roger Neilson, Roger Neilson 11, Roger Neilson 3 previous posts 898+1515 + 1126 = 3539.....Finally completed my game which started the day WITP:AE was released
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witpqs
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey (New Version: 0.4.1)

Post by witpqs »

ORIGINAL: Roger Neilson 3

Massiev developments her, thanks for all of this.
Two questions/suggestions....

Can a search ONLY show what you have searched for? On some screens it seems to juts put the records that fit the criteria at the top....

Is it possible to say search for battles that took place at a specifi location and show the set of them?

Roger
With this early functionality, the internals are a little bit "on the cheap". Obviously not totally so, but not like they will be when we have things in a format where queries can be more discerning.

With that in mind, the SigInt, Ships, and LCUs are one big sequence of text lines in the display window. When changing the sort order (by clicking on one of the buttons), the entire text window is deleted and all the lines re-written. When you search on one of those screens, the search always starts at the top of the text window and finds the first occurrence of what you searched for, positioning the scrolling so it's the top line visible (unless it's in the last few lines).

So, with the current early implementation, to see something in a group, first click on a sort button that will group it that way, then search for it. As an example, if you want to see all the SigInt for Hanoi you first sort by "Target/Date", then search on Hanoi. That technique will work for anything that is first on a "Sort by..." button in any of those three screens (SigInt, Ships, LCUs).

I think that might have cleared up the first question, which seems to be about current function?

The second part:
Is it possible to say search for battles that took place at a specifi location and show the set of them?

The current Battles implementation is a little bit different. It only shows one battle at a time, searching by Battle Number or by advancing "Previous" or "Next". I do indeed want to implement the sort of query you describe. I've been planning to get the data into a database that will support more complex queries, not to mention stop reading in all the files in the archive folder every time the program runs! The current displays are intended to be totally re-worked, so that instead of a series of text lines they are actually data fields displayed.

So, it will take a bit of doing and the only question is should we do an early version of that function or what until more things are re-worked internally? That also includes getting the other basic functions running (combat report tabs for Troop and Aircraft, plus operations report and combat events) so I know what their data looks like.

That's a mouthful but it's just to convey the big picture that I have in in mind. I would like to hear your opinion about short term versus long term functionality. For example which would that sort of Battles report (grouped by location) fall into? What other short term stuff seems important?

I'm replying to Roger, but I'm really seeking everybody's input too.
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witpqs
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey (New Version: 0.4.1)

Post by witpqs »

ORIGINAL: Roger Neilson 3

Is it possible to say search for battles that took place at a specifi location and show the set of them?

Roger

As an aside (I still want your opinion on short-term versus long-term stuff), I've been checking and I have some of the necessary structure built in, but it's not what I used to get the current "Battles" tab up and running quickly. How would it be if I left the current Battles tab as is (until it gets ripped out one day) and work on adding a second Battles tab with that kind of search & filtering capability?
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey (New Version: 0.4.1)

Post by RogerJNeilson »

No problem with that at all.

The ability to look at one location and see over a period the changes in the battle conditions is very useful. I am currently doing it via a very long winded process and what you are producing is a real time saver.

Roger
An unplanned dynasty: Roger Neilson, Roger Neilson 11, Roger Neilson 3 previous posts 898+1515 + 1126 = 3539.....Finally completed my game which started the day WITP:AE was released
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RogerJNeilson
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RE: Introducing Intel Monkey (New Version: 0.4.1)

Post by RogerJNeilson »

So, with the current early implementation, to see something in a group, first click on a sort button that will group it that way, then search for it. As an example, if you want to see all the SigInt for Hanoi you first sort by "Target/Date", then search on Hanoi. That technique will work for anything that is first on a "Sort by..." button in any of those three screens (SigInt, Ships, LCUs).

I think that might have cleared up the first question, which seems to be about current function?

Yes I see that works, on location or on hex pairing. Can live with that (lol) but as you say eventually into a DB format will give a much greater degree of granularity of searching.

The current Battles implementation is a little bit different. It only shows one battle at a time, searching by Battle Number or by advancing "Previous" or "Next". I do indeed want to implement the sort of query you describe. I've been planning to get the data into a database that will support more complex queries, not to mention stop reading in all the files in the archive folder every time the program runs! The current displays are intended to be totally re-worked, so that instead of a series of text lines they are actually data fields displayed.

So, it will take a bit of doing and the only question is should we do an early version of that function or what until more things are re-worked internally? That also includes getting the other basic functions running (combat report tabs for Troop and Aircraft, plus operations report and combat events) so I know what their data looks like.

That's a mouthful but it's just to convey the big picture that I have in in mind. I would like to hear your opinion about short term versus long term functionality. For example which would that sort of Battles report (grouped by location) fall into? What other short term stuff seems important?

I'm replying to Roger, but I'm really seeking everybody's input too.


All the above seems fine to me. From my own point of view the movement on this has been rapid and has provided me with enough of a glimpse of where it could go to stop me doing other analytical work - which took ages - because this is going to be so much faster when done. Given most of us are in dynamic ongoing games I'd go for short term messy stuff, and the polishing and database can come once the basic stuff is available. If we have the basics in to play with then we have the main stuff, the rest is nice but can take longer, and to an extent without the basics we don't know how the more detailed databases stuff would be best done...

Roger
An unplanned dynasty: Roger Neilson, Roger Neilson 11, Roger Neilson 3 previous posts 898+1515 + 1126 = 3539.....Finally completed my game which started the day WITP:AE was released
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