Sneak Peeks, Coming Attractions, Works-In-Progress

[Zovs]

Could you briefly explain what Lua programming means or is?

[BigDuke66]

Whatever, it's surely an ass full of work.

[Crossroads]

Could you briefly explain what Lua programming means or is?

I wrote a couple of blogs about it, here’s part three with links to first two as well:

https://cslegion.com/vietnam/campaign-s ... io-design/

[Zovs]

Could you briefly explain what Lua programming means or is?

I wrote a couple of blogs about it, here’s part three with links to first two as well:

https://cslegion.com/vietnam/campaign-s ... io-design/

Thank you

[Crossroads]

How about rebooting this thread to share some ideas and, importantly, get your feedback and suggestions too?

There's a pretty extensive to-do list for the late Fall 2.40 UPDATE release. Among other things, I've taken another pass at improving some UX elements in the game. Here’s how ChatGPT explains UX:

UX stands for "User Experience." It refers to how a person feels when interacting with a product, system, or service. In simple terms, UX is about making sure that using something—like a website, app, or game—is easy, enjoyable, and meets the user's needs. It involves everything from design and navigation to how smoothly things work.

As a starting point, I’ve created a new "Set Up New Scenario" dialog that welcomes the player when starting a new scenario. It asks for side information, fog-of-war settings, possible advantage modifiers, optional rules, and more. These settings vary by play mode—starting a game against the Computer Opponent is different from starting a PBEM or Hot Seat game, for example.

Without going into too much detail (as I covered that on the Vietnam forum, have a look), here’s a look at the new standardized scenario setup dialog. The optional Fog-of-War settings are now logically grouped as radio buttons, allowing you to pick only one option. All Optional Rules are visible at once, and there’s an extensive, dynamic tooltip available to help guide you through the options.

Another edit: Screenshot of a tooltip does not display the cursor, what we have below is the Tooltip for Side B selection. Thought to mention that just in case. Also, if Side B is first side, then Side B would be selected by default.

Updated Sept 8th with latest version. I was not certain at how slider worked under the covers, so looked it up and inserted as a tooltip as well: Combat resolution plays out with 0-100 die rolls, and the Advantage slider adds to the side with the value selected. There's a 50% die roll if Advantage is to be taken into account, first.

meSetUpNewScenario_tooltips.jpg (79.56 KiB) Viewed 1205 times

[Crossroads]

All in-game Help buttons are now tweaked to open the game manual in the proper context. For example, in the above dialog, the Help button opens the page that explains Optional Rules. Here’s another example, highlighting the Objectives models available in the game.

Edit: FYI Variable objectives came available for the Vietnam game, Jason is currently working to introduce those into the ME scenarios for the next UPDATE. Work-in-progress, wishing him a ton of luck!

It’s pretty neat, actually. We probably should have done this sooner, but there’s always that never-ending to-do list. Prioritize, prioritize. And now’s the time.

(About the SumatraPDF reader that comes with the game: I don’t recall which View options are on by default when you use it for the first time, but it saves your preferences. So, if you’re like me and prefer to always have the Bookmarks (ToC) open and browse a page at a time rather than in Continuous mode, your settings will be stored in the Manual folder. (This means if you have both Vietnam and Middle East, you’ll need to set your preferences once for each game.) You can also view the manual in Book view, with both pages displayed side by side, but I personally prefer the single-page view.)

me_help.jpg (526.47 KiB) Viewed 1417 times

[Crossroads]

And finally, if you were paying attention and know your scenario setup dialogs by heart, you might remember that the Computer Opponent setup dialog included an option to have the computer play both sides.

Well, Berto actually developed a test game mode, accessible from the command line, with two variations. These are even better because they don’t require you to manually click through the New Phase and Command Report dialogs, making it the recommended way to watch the computer play against itself. He explained them in this scenario CSEE testing session AAR in the Vietnam forum.

Since this is technically a play mode, and the new user interface (available as of the 2.40 UPDATE) has a Play Mode selection, let’s add it there instead. No more need to use the command line interface. Here we go:

CSME_Launch autoplay.jpg (380.54 KiB) Viewed 1415 times

[Crossroads]

How about rebooting this thread to share some ideas and, importantly, get your feedback and suggestions too?

Wish list items, comments, other ideas? Would love to hear from you all

[Zovs]

How about rebooting this thread to share some ideas and, importantly, get your feedback and suggestions too?

Wish list items, comments, other ideas? Would love to hear from you all

I just applied the latest update 1.31.02 Jul 22 2024 from Matrix and that alone looks amazing!

Can't wait for the 2.40 update!

When might it be available?

[Crossroads]

I just applied the latest update 1.31.02 Jul 22 2024 from Matrix and that alone looks amazing!

Can't wait for the 2.40 update!

When might it be available?

Yeah, sorry about the typo in the version number, somehow I managed to ship ME exes with VN version number. But that is the correct latest version, confirmed. e

That was supposed to be a Spring Update, so likely, as it is nearly September already, the Fall Update will ship just before or after the year's end. Which is just a few months away, I notice. Sheesh how time does fly.

[Crossroads]

This week's internal build for the Dev Team and Beta Brigade included some goodies.

First, in Vietnam forum, a suggestion for frontend option to start game in fullscreen mode, instead of windowed mode. Previously available as a command line parameter, now with a click of a button. As it should be.

Updated Sept 8th with latest development version.

mefront_fullscr.jpg (375.21 KiB) Viewed 1206 times

[Crossroads]

There's a pretty extensive to-do list for the late Fall 2.40 UPDATE release. Among other things, I've taken another pass at improving some UX elements in the game. Here’s how ChatGPT explains UX:

This week's build saw the end-of-life for two current in-game dialogs: the Strength (Units/Strength/Losses) and Victory dialogs.

Status menu now looks shorter and neater, with some regrouping and renaming for a Find... set of dialogs I did not touch.

[Crossroads]

^ Ooh yeah, the new SITREP dialog, also available via F3 hotkey.

Tabbed dialog, with three tabs. Fulfilling a long time wish list item, from us too: Force Status tab. Men & equipment, how nice! Not exact science, as inherently our platoon data does not include categories. But something I can deduce for most part. Any errors, blame it on those slackers at Intel Section!

Btw, this will also remain available when Enhanced Reporting rule is ON. Similar to new frontend with # of units detailed, and complexity estimate with formation sizes, our friends at Intel Section want us to have at least some information always available.

Updated Sept 8th with the latest version. Frames now with lighter camo tint, while inserted into the game the custom TabCtrl that allows for erasing the remaining part of Tab Title bar outside the tabs themselves.

mesitrep1.jpg (183.07 KiB) Viewed 1204 times

[Crossroads]

Continuing with the SITREP, in tab two and Strength Report it introduces a newly formatted Strength dialog, providing all the details you need on Strength points and VP status. Like the Force Status tab, this only reports on units currently on the map—reinforcements and other off-map units aren’t included.

Here’s a sample from the beginning of the scenario, as shown above. No losses to report yet. I’ve also appended the [SPn] information to unit type names to make them easier to distinguish.

Sept 8th with latest version here as well. Sorted the units on alphabetical order while at it.

mesitrep2.jpg (193.77 KiB) Viewed 1203 times

[Crossroads]

Finally, the good old Victory dialog is kept pretty much as it was. I shuffled fields a bit to have all Side A intel on left column and Side B column on right column. Also, I took advantage of the spacing available, also adding side specific total tallies to bottom before the mission total. This is from beginning of turn #1, so not much to show yet.

Anything I missed here, perhaps? Could not immediately think of other intel to have available here.

Updated Sept 8th with a tidied up version. Also, per suggestion from a player in Vietnam Sneak Peeks thread, removed the borders from the text areas. Had considered that, and appreciated the nudge to do just that.

mesitrep3.jpg (93.37 KiB) Viewed 1201 times

[Crossroads]

This week's build saw the end-of-life for two current in-game dialogs: the Strength (Units/Strength/Losses) and Victory dialogs.

Status menu now looks shorter and neater, with some regrouping and renaming for a Find... set of dialogs I did not touch.

Well, consider those updated as well with the nifty two color camo grid created for the SITREP tabs.

Why the long text area for Objectives Values? With the new cumulative, turn-by-turn objectives, the list might be far longer than just the one location and the respective value. Cumulative objectives should make their appearance to Middle East in the coming 2.40 update, too.

me_find_dialogs.jpg (337.97 KiB) Viewed 1200 times

[Crossroads]

Well, consider those updated as well with the nifty two color camo grid created for the SITREP tabs.

Next, I thought to give the three Targeting dialogs the same treatment, but as it was, those listbox dialogs that display the NATO symbols (as well as Out-of-Ammo symbols as necessary), it was a bridge too far, way more complex than I thought. So I kept the listboxes, and why not, they work quite nicely here.

However, I made the dialogs larger as screen estate is not an issue nowadays, and while at it, changed the unit Short names to Full names, and got rid of some other abbreviations as well replacing with full descriptions.

Here we go:

targeting_dialogs.jpg (109.83 KiB) Viewed 1197 times

[Crossroads]

And that is it for the time I had available for user interface upgrades within this Update schedule. I spent a week longer than I initially thought, to be honest, but thought these are worth the effort and make a nice bundle of upgrades, together.

Here's the latest 2.40 change log, released to Dev team and Beta Brigade today:

Enhancements

• Implemented a new front-end launch dialog, replacing multiple old interface dialogs.

• Implemented a new 'Set Up New Scenario' dialog, replacing several old dialogs and standardizing the setup process across all play modes.

• Updated all Help buttons to open context-specific chapters in the game manual.

• Introduced a new SITREP dialog with a Force Status tab and enhanced the old Strength and Victory dialogs as tabs. The old dialogs are now deprecated.

• Implemented a new Find Locations dialog with a grid view instead of a text area.

• Implemented a new Find Objectives dialog with a grid view instead of a text area.

• Standardized all dialogs with buttons centered in the middle of the interface.

• Enlarged and updated the Artillery Support and Close Air Support dialogs, providing more informative content instead of the many abbreviations used previously.

^ Also, note that I updated a bunch of my previous posts with the Sept 8th screenshots, earlier in this page, such as the Set Up New Scenario dialog, here.




And that indeed is "it". Please keep your ideas and suggestions comning, though. There's always the next Update after the next Update, right!

CSEE and Lua stuff, next.

[Zovs]

When approximately will these awesome features be available?

Looking forward to taking it for a spin!

[Jason Petho]

CSVN 1.40 and CSME 2.40 are slated to be released around Christmas.

Shortly before or shortly after.

Depending on scheduling.