New Scenario Editor

[InfiniteMonkey]

ORIGINAL: traskott

Is there any progress on this project?

Yes. I'm working on it on average a few hours a week. Keep in mind that I am not working on this as a full time project and I've been at it only a little more than a month...

[ancient doctor]

will it be possible to fast edit some data like leader stats which is almost imposible under the current editor?right now someone has to do every leader by itself so it whould be great if for example it was like the excel editor of Richard Dione's original war in the pacific.

[InfiniteMonkey]

ORIGINAL: Ancient seaman

will it be possible to fast edit some data like leader stats which is almost imposible under the current editor?right now someone has to do every leader by itself so it whould be great if for example it was like the excel editor of Richard Dione's original war in the pacific.

Probably? I'm not familiar with the excel editor for the original witp you refer to... Can you explain what you can do in that editor that you cannot in the current scenario editor?

[traskott]

Thanks. [:)]

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: InfiniteMonkey

ORIGINAL: Ancient seaman

will it be possible to fast edit some data like leader stats which is almost imposible under the current editor?right now someone has to do every leader by itself so it whould be great if for example it was like the excel editor of Richard Dione's original war in the pacific.

Probably? I'm not familiar with the excel editor for the original witp you refer to... Can you explain what you can do in that editor that you cannot in the current scenario editor?

Interpreting here, but I think he means that in Excel (or any spreadsheet) he could select a whole bunch of cells at once and type in a value for all of them. For example select the Inspiration column for 30 rows and change all 30 leaders' Inspiration at once.

Ancient seaman: Is that what you mean?

[InfiniteMonkey]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: InfiniteMonkey

ORIGINAL: Ancient seaman

will it be possible to fast edit some data like leader stats which is almost imposible under the current editor?right now someone has to do every leader by itself so it whould be great if for example it was like the excel editor of Richard Dione's original war in the pacific.

Probably? I'm not familiar with the excel editor for the original witp you refer to... Can you explain what you can do in that editor that you cannot in the current scenario editor?

Interpreting here, but I think he means that in Excel (or any spreadsheet) he could select a whole bunch of cells at once and type in a value for all of them. For example select the Inspiration column for 30 rows and change all 30 leaders' Inspiration at once.

Ancient seaman: Is that what you mean?

I thought that might be what he meant, but I listed in the OP that one of the features I wanted to include was to "Allow list editing and Excel Spreadsheet Ctrl-D type duplication of values across rows" and "Allow use of SQL to do scenario updates. For example, if you want to cut cargo capacity by 30% across the board in a scenario, you could execute "update shipclass set cargocapacity = cargocapacity * 0.7 where scenario = 28;" and then export the scenario. Done." I was not sure if he meant something different than that. He may have a better idea that I have not considered.

[witpqs]

What is Ctrl-D type duplication? Not sure I've seen that one.

[InfiniteMonkey]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

What is Ctrl-D type duplication? Not sure I've seen that one.

Copy Down menu option. In Excel, if you select a range and press Ctrl-D, it copies the cells in the top row down.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: InfiniteMonkey

ORIGINAL: witpqs

What is Ctrl-D type duplication? Not sure I've seen that one.

Copy Down menu option. In Excel, if you select a range and press Ctrl-D, it copies the cells in the top row down.

New one to me - thanks!

[ancient doctor]

what i meant was that right now it is impossible to fast edit large quantities of data.Lets say that you need to change every low grada IJAs officer insiration to another value.To do so someone has to go to the editor and change every single officer at a time and they rae 1000s.In excel type of editors you just peek a row and do marvels.
BTW when is it going to be ready?

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Ancient seaman

what i meant was that right now it is impossible to fast edit large quantities of data.Lets say that you need to change every low grada IJAs officer insiration to another value.To do so someone has to go to the editor and change every single officer at a time and they rae 1000s.In excel type of editors you just peek a row and do marvels.
Just FYI, you can do that now editing the CSV files with a spreadsheet. That does entail using witploadAE to dump the scenario files to the spreadsheet and then load them back after you are finished (while that is not difficult many people don't feel technology-comfortable enough to do it).

BTW when is it going to be ready?

[InfiniteMonkey]

One of the ideas for the new editor that I have been kicking around in my head has been a feature I have dubbed "Scenario from Save". The idea is simply to take a saved game file and turn it into a Scenario. I originally envisioned it as just a way to turn an interesting game situation into a Scenario. As I've pondered it, I can see some uses for it I did not originally envision.

Disclaimer: Before I go too much further, I want to acknowledge and have acknowledged that the ideas listed below are a kludge. Ideally, the AI would be modified as the game progressed and there would be more slots for scripts available and more script features (like an actual scripting language), stop loss settings, dynamic sizing, wildcards for LCU/air groups, etc. I'm simply trying to think of ways to work with the few tools we get to address some situations that cause WitP:AE players angst.

Anyway, some thoughts on how it might be used:

1) It can serve to accelerate testing of AI scripts.

Take PaxMondo's situation as he refers to in this thread: tm.asp?m=4331665&mpage=3

The problem is that each iteration of his AI script he needs to play the game to the point in time the script activates to test it. He has no way of knowing if his scripts work as desired until he gets the game to the point the script would trigger. To test late/mid game scripts takes playing the game to that point. So, how might you use "Scenario from Save" to help with that?
a. Pax creates his scenario file and identifies some guinea pigs (hereafter referred to as GP's) to test it for him. Each of those GP's (General Patton almost HAS to be a tester, right?) play the game for a period of time - say 3 months. At the end of that period, they each send Pax the save. Each of those GP's might be asked to take a different tack in that phase of the game. Brave sir robin, Palembang defense, etc. to simulate different player approaches against the AI.
b. Pax takes the received files and evaluates his script performance and determines if tweaks are needed, adds new scripts, etc. If he determines that new scripts are needed, he adds them to his existing AI file.
c. The AI file gets embedded into the save file when the first turn of game is run, so it is locked in. Here is where "Scenario from Save" comes in. Pax loads the turn file into two copies of Tracker - one for Allies, one for Japan. Then in the scenario editor (SE), he selects "Scenario from Save" and gets prompted for 4 things: folder location of the two tracker instances, game date to create on, and a scenario slot to save the new scenario to. SE then pulls state from both tracker DB's and creates a new scenario from the state in tracker and saves the files using the scenario number requested.
d. Pax copies and renames his new scenario file to match the new scenario number.
e. Pax can then zip and send the complete set of scenario files to his GP. The whole process begins again from step one, but with from a new, later start date.
f. His scenario file can evolve with the state of the game without constantly restarting on 12/7/41. He can even go back to "save points" in the game. If a GP has a save file from before a bad/catastrophic scripts began, he can modify it and try again.
g. The above DOES come with costs. There is state information that cannot be saved (pilot skills are not in tracker/scenario files - only exp), or should not be saved (e.g. KIA's clutter up pilot DB. Only 20k pilots can be in scenario files, but 70k in save files). However, it could greatly improve AI testing (and therefore make it easier to test AI scripts).
h. This works in part because the AI refers to bases, LCU's, air groups, HQ's, etc. by their "slot id" which could be preserved by "Scenario from Save".
2) Eventually, another use for this might be possible - to improve AI performance in AI games. By extracting state from a game and rewriting the AI scripts to handle the current state of the game, the AI could be made more reactive to game situations. An expert system AI written to create AI scripts could dynamically analyze the game state and generate AI/new scenario files to better fight the war and provide more variety to the AI play. An AI file only allows for 1999 "scripts" to cover the entire war. If there were 1999 available to fight a 3 month period of the war and they were "written" based upon the state of the war as pulled from tracker, it might be possible to greatly improve the quality of the AI as an opponent.
3) Finally, if 2) occurs, then it becomes possible to address the "Disappearing JFB" phenomenon. If a JFB decides to depart from a game and provides the password to his opponent, 1 & 2 above could be used to turn a PBEM into a AI game. While the opportunity "To crush your enemies. See them driven before you. And to hear the lamentations of their women." would be mitigated - at least a game could be played to a finish by the Allied player against a marginally competent opponent.

[ancient doctor]

Could you please explain to the naive and stupid me - no joke here - how can i do what you mentioned WITPQS?cause its really very difficult to do the type of editing without it.Thanks

[PaxMondo]

Item c is the key: you need input from a dev as to how that happens. The AI files get imbedded into the game file itself and cannot be changed. That is one thing we know.

We know that the save game and the scenario game files are quite different. And anecdotally, my understanding if Michael was able to do this for Andy, it was difficult and not done often. I say that as Andy has also mentioned the same issue ....

Just saying that this is a great goal, but I fear there are some parts that are missing ...

[InfiniteMonkey]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

Item c is the key: you need input from a dev as to how that happens. The AI files get imbedded into the game file itself and cannot be changed. That is one thing we know.

We know that the save game and the scenario game files are quite different. And anecdotally, my understanding if Michael was able to do this for Andy, it was difficult and not done often. I say that as Andy has also mentioned the same issue ....

Just saying that this is a great goal, but I fear there are some parts that are missing ...

Each time you do this, you are starting a new game, with new scenario files and (potentially) updated ai file. I'm never updating the save. I'm using trackers ability to extract data from the save file and using the db it creates to create the new scenario so that the game state matches as closely as possible the state of the game in progress. Ships sunk are still sunk, lcus destroyed are destroyed, bases and forts built are built, pilots in air groups will be in air groups, lcus will be in the same state of disablement/damage, supply levels will match, etc., etc.

[InfiniteMonkey]

ORIGINAL: Ancient seaman

Could you please explain to the naive and stupid me - no joke here - how can i do what you mentioned WITPQS?cause its really very difficult to do the type of editing without it.Thanks

Look for a file called witploadae.exe. using that program, you can extract scenario info to .csv files. You can then modify data in excel and then import using the same utility.

[btd64]

MI, I have been following. This is Looking go....GP

[Admiral DadMan]

ORIGINAL: InfiniteMonkey

ORIGINAL: Ancient seaman

Could you please explain to the naive and stupid me - no joke here - how can i do what you mentioned WITPQS?cause its really very difficult to do the type of editing without it.Thanks

Look for a file called witploadae.exe. using that program, you can extract scenario info to .csv files. You can then modify data in excel and then import using the same utility.

I have found out the hard way that one must be very careful working solely in excel. You have to understand the causal relationships between certain categories/files.

[InfiniteMonkey]

ORIGINAL: Admiral DadMan

ORIGINAL: InfiniteMonkey

ORIGINAL: Ancient seaman

Could you please explain to the naive and stupid me - no joke here - how can i do what you mentioned WITPQS?cause its really very difficult to do the type of editing without it.Thanks

Look for a file called witploadae.exe. using that program, you can extract scenario info to .csv files. You can then modify data in excel and then import using the same utility.

I have found out the hard way that one must be very careful working solely in excel. You have to understand the causal relationships between certain categories/files.

Pretty sure I'm aware of the types of constraints you're referring to, but would you give some examples? I'd like to test my knowledge/the editor against known problems.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: InfiniteMonkey

ORIGINAL: Admiral DadMan

ORIGINAL: InfiniteMonkey


Look for a file called witploadae.exe. using that program, you can extract scenario info to .csv files. You can then modify data in excel and then import using the same utility.

I have found out the hard way that one must be very careful working solely in excel. You have to understand the causal relationships between certain categories/files.

Pretty sure I'm aware of the types of constraints you're referring to, but would you give some examples? I'd like to test my knowledge/the editor against known problems.

I think the help text and the readme file for witploadAE.exe take pains to point out that when uploading into scenario files the data is *not* validated, so certainly cross-reference validation would not be done either.