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76mm -> Filtering for Equip Selection in TOAWxml (4/11/2019 11:26:53 AM)
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I am hard at work on TOAWxml to enable players to add new equipment to OOBs, but have a question for experienced scenario developers before I get too far downfield. One of the things that drives me crazy about the current editor is having to wade through screens and screens of dozens of types of equipment to find what I am looking for. In fact, this might be my biggest pet peeve with the current editor.
So I want to add filtering, so allow players to narrow down the list of equipment before selecting it. Currently I have three filters in mind, with two of them being optional. These three filters would be applied in sequence:
1) The first filter would be whatever equipment categories are defined in the eqp file (ie, "Infanty & Support Troops", "Tanks", "Ships), etc.). This will provide the same list of equipment as the current editor.
2) A second filter for "Country" would be optional. Generally, if I'm building a German force, I don't want to be looking at Chinese equipment, etc. Note that this would also be keyed from the data in the eqp file, which is too fine-grained for my taste because it is broken down by year, but for now I think it will be better than nothing. For instance, the default eqp file currently has three entries for Argentina, nine for Austria, four for Belgium, etc. with many of the entries overlapping (ie, "1970s", "1974", etc.). Major powers have dozens of entries, which makes it kind of a pain... Maybe later I will be able to figure out a way to aggregate entries by country, including all years, or maybe eqp files will emerge with more useful year data.
3) A third filter for equipment characteristics would also be optional. This would be based on the "flag" entries (eg, "In Flight Refueling", "Agile", "Major Fording Capable", etc.). I guess this wouldn't be used most of the time, but if you are looking for units with specific capabilities it would be helpful.
I thought about, but have so far decided against a series of other filters for other factors in the eqp database, such as AT, AT, AA values, etc. (eg, "AT > 4" or "DF < 5"), but this would be a bit fiddly to program and moreover would make the GUI too busy, so for now I think I'll pass on this option--any violent reaction?
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