Next Generation Tracker: Staff Officer Companion

[Dereck]

I keep ABDA command and assign sub-units I want to make unrestricted to it. Costs 1/4 of the full cost for assigning the unit to a different command.

If 1st Australian Corps command is still unrestricted, you can assign those LCUs in Malaya to it at full cost but they will be unrestricted for later deployment. I don't think that is gamey - if IRL the Aussie government wanted to earmark those units to be deployed later when danger to the Home country is past, it would give them an unrestricted command. The trick here is to save some part of those units so they can be reassigned and rebuilt.

I think I've figured it out (at least for non-Divisional size assignments):

the 8th Australian Division is ADMINISTRATIVELY assigned to the Australia Command

The 22nd and 27th Brigades are OPERATIONALLY assigned to the Malaya Army.
The 23rd Brigade is OPERATIONALLY assigned to ABDA.

Not sure how to show a Division sized unit but will worry about that later.

Incidentally, I'm playing my own custom scenario where I removed all unit restrictions for the Allies.

[Moltrey]

RC:
First of all, congrats on a very interesting app. Whenever the WITP:AE final release comes around I will kick the tires on it.

It got my wheels turning- on whether it could be used as a base or launching point for an app to create a Japanese or Allied Computer Opponent "AI" script(s) to enhance/update Michaelm's scripts. He has long stated that it would be great if others could take a shot at creating alternate enemy plans.
Problem has always been after a few cycles, units move, fight, get eliminated, etc. and it sort of loses the ability to carry on. But it still works fairly well to get things going and adds randomness to targets for conquering, etc.
Just pie-in-the-sky wondering if something like a NGT:SOC Cousin could be created to "run' the computer enemy turns and use all the data like NGT:SOC to think and create/revise objectives, units assigned, etc. as play unfolded.

While I intend on renewing my love of WITP:AE, I don't know how realistic it is to assume I can be ready for and find a real opponent to play. Hence my interest.
Wonderful start brother! Keep up the great work.

[Dereck]

Possible bug in the Force Structure tab, NGT v6.41.

In the stock scenario I based mine off of there are two Waziristan Divisions. One with a 411206 delay and the other with a 9999 delay. The attach button screen displayed both.

[BBfanboy]

Possible bug in the Force Structure tab, NGT v6.41.

In the stock scenario I based mine off of there are two Waziristan Divisions. One with a 411206 delay and the other with a 9999 delay. The attach button screen displayed both.

I think the 9999 delay is for players choosing random reinforcements (+/- 30 days IIRC). The other is for those choosing fixed reinforcements. Can you teach the AI to ignore these types of 'duplication' ?
There is other duplication of Locations, Units and Equipment for different scenarios too.

[RangerJoe]

Possible bug in the Force Structure tab, NGT v6.41.

In the stock scenario I based mine off of there are two Waziristan Divisions. One with a 411206 delay and the other with a 9999 delay. The attach button screen displayed both.

I think the 9999 delay is for players choosing random reinforcements (+/- 30 days IIRC). The other is for those choosing fixed reinforcements. Can you teach the AI to ignore these types of 'duplication' ?
There is other duplication of Locations, Units and Equipment for different scenarios too.

I think that the 9999 indicates that the unit does not enter the game but is in the database in case someone wants to add it.

[RedConkristador]

Yes - I can include de-duplication in the next update.

[Diliwitm]

9999 might be the parent of an unit that was split.

[Dereck]

Ranger Joe was right. For Units (NOT TOEs) a 9999 in the delay field indicates the unit does not appear in the game.

[Dereck]

Possible bug. Version 6.41:

Still working with the 1941-12-08 save making my OOBs.

Two units show up as active:
- 21st BR Lt AA Rgt
- 48th BR Lt AA Rgt

Both have delays of 411213 and 411211 so shouldn't show up or if they do should have the dashed border instead of the solid border.

Question:

In the attach screen from the OOB screen I will see TOEs and also units like 1st Marine and 1st Marine where one is the Division and the other is Regiment. I know what TOEs look like so can ignore them but is there any way to distinguish between the 2 1st Marine units? I've been attaching both and looking at their contents and removing what I think it the obvious wrong one.

[RedConkristador]

I can work on both. And yes, not showing the echelon in the name is a persistent issue that I'll address as well.

[Dereck]

I can work on both. And yes, not showing the echelon in the name is a persistent issue that I'll address as well.

First off, I retired after 35 years in IT so what you've accomplished is truly amazing and very useful. I still have a lot of notepad/spreadsheet tabs (mostly to track officers since for the US I set it up so I can "promote" them. But the one part I could NEVER really get working was an OOB. After reading a book on Admiral Nimitz's command methodology where it made the distinction between an ADMIN and OPERATIONAL OOB I got my hands sort of around it but with your NGT I think I have it working.

I do have a few questions that if it is in your manual or tutorial I missed:

1. How/where do I track potential changes to the OOB. New arrivals, tranfers, etc? Do I have to rely on keeping track of it myself or is there a way I just haven't seen yet?

2. In the screen shot below, what is the difference between BatDiv 1 (a container I created) and the BATDIV 7 which was created using the Templet?

Battleships, Battle Force.jpg (95.87 KiB) Viewed 262 times

[RedConkristador]

First off, I retired after 35 years in IT so what you've accomplished is truly amazing and very useful. I still have a lot of notepad/spreadsheet tabs (mostly to track officers since for the US I set it up so I can "promote" them. But the one part I could NEVER really get working was an OOB. After reading a book on Admiral Nimitz's command methodology where it made the distinction between an ADMIN and OPERATIONAL OOB I got my hands sort of around it but with your NGT I think I have it working.

Thank you for the praise! There are many limitations to the engine as it relates to command & control, and I was tired of manually creating spreadsheets, work docs, to keep track of it all.

I do have a few questions that if it is in your manual or tutorial I missed:

1. How/where do I track potential changes to the OOB. New arrivals, tranfers, etc? Do I have to rely on keeping track of it myself or is there a way I just haven't seen yet?

Good point - it doesn't display that on the OOB. Arrivals show in the Commander-in-Chief updates. The OOB workbench will show you future reinforcements so you can add them to your OOB ahead of time. But won't alert you to status changes on it.

2. In the screen shot below, what is the difference between BatDiv 1 (a container I created) and the BATDIV 7 which was created using the Templet?

Functionally - none. I created a bunch of templates to ease building massive OOBs but haven't really tested it.

[RedConkristador]

Just posted update. OOB now tracks changes. Still working on unit suffixes...

[PaxMondo]

Possible bug in the Force Structure tab, NGT v6.41.

In the stock scenario I based mine off of there are two Waziristan Divisions. One with a 411206 delay and the other with a 9999 delay. The attach button screen displayed both.

I think the 9999 delay is for players choosing random reinforcements (+/- 30 days IIRC). The other is for those choosing fixed reinforcements. Can you teach the AI to ignore these types of 'duplication' ?
There is other duplication of Locations, Units and Equipment for different scenarios too.

I think that the 9999 indicates that the unit does not enter the game but is in the database in case someone wants to add it.

RJ;

Consistent with my understanding of 9999.

Placeholder for a unit used in another Scen is the most common usage. That way the dev had only one, single, db. And then built many different Scen off of it.

[Dereck]

I think I already know the answer but just wont to confirm.

In the J3 Operations Force Structure screen the button "Export Task Org" just exports the currently displayed org chart and not everything. Correct?

[RedConkristador]

I think I already know the answer but just wont to confirm.

In the J3 Operations Force Structure screen the button "Export Task Org" just exports the currently displayed org chart and not everything. Correct?

It exports the entire OOB as a JSON so it can be saved or uploaded in another campaign.

[Dereck]

Thanks to Microsoft glitching when updating Copilot I lost 7+ months of work and common shared knowledge. Still not working and Microsoft said I'm on my own.

Here is what I'd have worked through with Copilot that I'm asking here:

I'm setting up an operation: Build Alaskan Infrastructure. When I create the task for a base should I make 3 tasks (port, air field and fort) or just one overall task?

Thanks

[RangerJoe]

Thanks to Microsoft glitching when updating Copilot I lost 7+ months of work and common shared knowledge. Still not working and Microsoft said I'm on my own.

Here is what I'd have worked through with Copilot that I'm asking here:

I'm setting up an operation: Build Alaskan Infrastructure. When I create the task for a base should I make 3 tasks (port, air field and fort) or just one overall task?

Thanks

Are you on offense or defense?

[RedConkristador]

Thanks to Microsoft glitching when updating Copilot I lost 7+ months of work and common shared knowledge. Still not working and Microsoft said I'm on my own.

Here is what I'd have worked through with Copilot that I'm asking here:

I'm setting up an operation: Build Alaskan Infrastructure. When I create the task for a base should I make 3 tasks (port, air field and fort) or just one overall task?

Thanks

It depends how much granularity you want in tracking key tasks. You can also export the entire NGT state for that turn and upload it into copilot or something else and ask for recommendations.

[Dereck]

Thanks to Microsoft glitching when updating Copilot I lost 7+ months of work and common shared knowledge. Still not working and Microsoft said I'm on my own.

Here is what I'd have worked through with Copilot that I'm asking here:

I'm setting up an operation: Build Alaskan Infrastructure. When I create the task for a base should I make 3 tasks (port, air field and fort) or just one overall task?

Thanks

It depends how much granularity you want in tracking key tasks. You can also export the entire NGT state for that turn and upload it into copilot or something else and ask for recommendations.

Well, that's kind of the problem. When Microsoft updated Copilot yesterday it didn't synch properly and I don't have my most recent conversation threads where ALL the strategy Copilot and I have been forming the past 7 months was at. If I still had Copilot as my Chief of Staff we'd already have a good idea of what to do in each area since we formed our strategy earlier. Right now, if I don't hit a chat limit because of synch issues, this Copilot only knows we were talking about WitP but not the details.