Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

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RFalvo69
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Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by RFalvo69 »

This is something I pray and hope for since TOAW I (is it nearly 20 years? [X(])

Basically, what I ask for is an option that allows you to choose which values are shown in the unit's counter.

For example, in a highly-mechanised situation you would like to have the AT capability of the unit shown on the counter (along with either defence or movement), not the capability vs. soft targets. In a "mixed" situation having both could be the ideal solution - relying on the simple "movement arrow" to see where you can go, and so on. Generally speaking, the player should be able to display the most useful values on his units, according to the situation, so to be able to evaluate them at a glance.

Gary Grigsby's War in the East/West already allow for something similar.

This is one of my two my requested features since the early days of TOAW. I see that the other one, naval interception, finally made it [:)]

Edit: of course I'm talking about the option of showing the desired values on all the units on the battlefield, not on a unit by unit basis. I don't need other reason to go crazy right now [:D]
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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by larryfulkerson »

There's a new feature in TOAW IV that allows the player to designate which values show on the unit counter and I'm not sure how
it works, haven't used it yet, can't prove that it works, etc. but it's been tested and works I'm told. There are entries in the Opart.INI file
that control which values the player wants displayed so that there's toggle positions for three different displays possible. Most often
the players want to see the AT and AP values but other values are possible. Here's what's possible to display: ( in the image ).

I'll have to experiment with this to see how it works and what advantage it gives. I'm not sure how the player is supposed to tell which
values are being displayed currently.........maybe you just have to keep track yourself.

I haven't found a use for this feature myself but I can understand it's utility.

EDIT: I notice that there's not an entry in the list for Movement. I understand that Movement is always one of the numbers displayed.

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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by RFalvo69 »

It sounds good! However if it is true that movement is always displayed it would be a waste: you can check the movement range of your units by selecting them and moving the cursor around.

Of course you could be interested in the movement capabilities of the enemy - but I hope that showing movement remains an option and not a feature. In most cases AT/AP (or AT/Def) are much more useful - as WitE/W show.

Anyway, pet-peeves aside, I'm looking really forward to the new TOAW IV [:D]
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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by larryfulkerson »

Of course you could be interested in the movement capabilities of the enemy
Wouldn't that be cool........to just mouse over am enemy unit and see the DBR ( displayed bombardment range ) of the enemy
unit's movement possibility range, a crop-circle of the limits of it's movement. That would enable moving up to and just excluding
the last hex it could move to etc. to set up camp in, to dig in and defend. It's an estimate that they use in real life to do planning
so it would be really useful I think.
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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by larryfulkerson »

Here's the appropriate entries in MY opart ini file. It calls for the defensive value and the attacking value and that's all. I'm
not sure what the 'N' does for userIcon5. I'll have to look that up. I notice that their are 4 pairs of numbers so I'm guessing
that I can toggle through four different states of display but that right now all four are just defense and attack.

userIcon5=N
userIcon42=4
userIcon41=1
userIcon32=4
userIcon31=1
userIcon22=4
userIcon21=1
userIcon12=4
userIcon11=1
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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by sPzAbt653 »

'M' on the keyboard toggles thru the different display settings. It's really nice !
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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by larryfulkerson »

I found this in the Manual for TOAW IV

So, if the following settings were made:

• userIcon32=9
• userIcon31=8
• userIcon22=3
• userIcon21=2
• userIcon12=5
• userIcon11=0


Then the display will cycle through: AT & Armor, AA low & AA high, Eng & RR, and MPs.
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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by Curtis Lemay »

Note that the Unit Strength display can be setup within the game via the Advanced Rules dialogs. The codes Larry posted won't have to be dealt with by players. Also, the options include Group Strengths (cumulative values for the entire stack in a hex) in addition to individual unit strengths.

(I could make this clearer with a screenshot, but I'm not authorized for that yet).
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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by larryfulkerson »

I have a PBY unit that's flying the PBY-5 and they are scheduled to upgrade to the PBY-5A which has the amphibious landing gear.
The problem with that is that the weight of the gear makes the plane a hog. It's slower, climbs slower, can't fly as far, can't carry as
much weight as the -5 and overall it was better as a floatplane. I would change the upgrade path but I don't want to spend my
Political Points ( PP's ) for that right now. Other things are a higher priority, like replacing the poor submarine commanders.
So the best thing for this unit is to turn off the upgrade for now. There aren't enough PBY-5A's in the pool to fill out a unit anyway.

EDIT: OOoops. Wrong thread. Sorry. Not really sorry.

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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by Curtis Lemay »

I'll go ahead and show how these alternate values display. First, here's the dialog for setting them up. It's accessed via the Advanced Rules dialog. There are two sets of defaults. This shot shows the Basic defaults - just like it was under TOAW III (one strength display toggling with one movement allowance display):

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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by Curtis Lemay »

Here's a shot showing the same dialog after selecting the Advanced Defaults. Now there are several other options to cycle through:

AP and DF

Stack AP and Stack DF

Minor/Major Fording

Engineering/Rail Repair

Movement Allowance

Time Stamp

(For a max total of six options)


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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by Curtis Lemay »

But you are not limited to the defaults. You can change the strength values as shown in the attached shot that shows the popup menu:

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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by Curtis Lemay »

Now, let's take a look at what the Advanced Defaults look like on the map. First, here is the first choice (just AP & DF like under III):

Image

Strengths look normal. But note the Info Panel - it explains that the circled button works one way for a left-click and the other for a right-click (so you don't have to cycle all the way through to get to any view).
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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by Curtis Lemay »

If we just do a normal left-click on that button, the view changes to Stack AP and Stack DF. These are the cumulative strengths in the hex. You can imagine the usefulness this will have...

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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by Curtis Lemay »

One more left-click and the view changes to the Ferry strengths:

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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by Curtis Lemay »

One more left-click and we arrive at the Engineering strengths:

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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by Curtis Lemay »

One more left-click will display the movement allowances (I won't bore you with a shot of that, since everyone should be familiar with it from III). One click more, though, gets to the Unit Time Stamp. This tells you what combat round of the turn each unit is in, via the fraction of its movement allowance it has expended. You can imagine how this would be of use in planning combats.

All units in the shot have values of 0, since none have moved. But, as they move, these values advance upward, finally reaching 10 when they've expended almost all of their MPs.

Image

Note that when you are in the normal strength view (AP & DF), it can be a few left-clicks to get to the Time Stamp view. But here is where a right-click will get you there right off.
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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by RealChuckB »

Looks great - love that you can set it up the way you want to!
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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by Meyer1 »

Very nice.
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RE: Pease, tell me that you can choose the values on the counters...

Post by dox44 »

nice. can't wait.
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