MWIF Game Interface Design

[Shannon V. OKeets]

Here are 4 screen shots for my (nearly) current version of the land combat resolution form. I repositioned some of the buttons so I could make some of the text messages longer.

The first screen shown after ground combat missions have all been completed.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

2nd in a series of 4. The CW gets to chose the combat table.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

3rd in a series of 4. The Axis has to take 3 losses. None has been selected so far.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

4th and last in the series. Germany has chosen 2 of its losses and must pick the 3rd.

[brian brian]

[small point ... when using fractional odds the rules have you explicitly truncate the + number that you add to the die roll to tenths only, with no rounding, so you might wish to show the number only out to the tenth place? And you would have to force the computer to truncate rather than round the number; depending on OS it would tend to round the # as it went to display to an explicit amount of places?]

It might help a tiny little bit to always declare one of the three possibilities "All attacking units are disorganized / Half of the surviving attacking units are disorganized / No attacking units are disorganized", but with only the one example shown, I predict you are already on top of that. ?

Does the 'Attacking Units' window keep an ART unit that is bombarding out of the window, or differentiate it somehow? Just checking. Otherwise you'd get people trying to assign losses/disorganize results to one.

[lomyrin]

In the  above combat resolution is seems to me that the 2D10 table was used and the roll of 4 adds to the basic +15 if the fraction did not make it +16. Then the end result would be a 19 or 20 and the loss picture is different. If it was assault the attacker would lose 2 units and disrupt half and the defender would lose his unit and the city would fall.  
 
The screen does not state whether it was assault or blitz.
 
Lars

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: lomyrin

In the  above combat resolution is seems to me that the 2D10 table was used and the roll of 4 adds to the basic +15 if the fraction did not make it +16. Then the end result would be a 19 or 20 and the loss picture is different. If it was assault the attacker would lose 2 units and disrupt half and the defender would lose his unit and the city would fall.  

The screen does not state whether it was assault or blitz.

Lars

Yes, 2D10.

I will add a line that says the fractional odds roll failed.

The use of the phrase "modified roll" is confusing (even to me). I will try to clarify that. It looks like the modifed roll should be 19 =>a result of 1+/2(D). I had checked some of these calculations and they looked correct, but this one looks seriously wrong.

The Assault CRT was used as indicated under Combat Details. This is also where the use of winterized units and engineers is reported.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: brian brian

[small point ... when using fractional odds the rules have you explicitly truncate the + number that you add to the die roll to tenths only, with no rounding, so you might wish to show the number only out to the tenth place? And you would have to force the computer to truncate rather than round the number; depending on OS it would tend to round the # as it went to display to an explicit amount of places?]

It might help a tiny little bit to always declare one of the three possibilities "All attacking units are disorganized / Half of the surviving attacking units are disorganized / No attacking units are disorganized", but with only the one example shown, I predict you are already on top of that. ?

Does the 'Attacking Units' window keep an ART unit that is bombarding out of the window, or differentiate it somehow? Just checking. Otherwise you'd get people trying to assign losses/disorganize results to one.

Since the computer is doing the die rolling, fractional odds are based on 100ths, not 10ths. Might as well make use of the computing power.

I am worried about space for reporting results (so many different things can happen). If half the attacking units are disorganized, that is reported. But I omit reporting that none are disorganized when that happens. It is pretty obvious from the status indicators of the units.

Bombarding units are not shown (nor are naval and air units providing support fire).
---
If invading units or paradropping units are automatically destroyed, then that happens right away and the players can not 'undo' it using this form.

[composer99]

A quibble: the three possibilities for unit organization after a combat are (1) all units are disorganized, (2) half the units remain organized (round in favour of organization), and (3) all units remain organized.
 
It is a slight but significant difference as the choice of wording affects the rounding.

[Fred98]

This is a grand strategy game. Artilery usually comes under command at divisional level

1. If a counter represents a division, why are artillery units shown as separate units?

2. Are there separate counters for anti tank units?

-

[macgregor]

ORIGINAL: Joe 98

This is a grand strategy game. Artilery usually comes under command at divisional level

1. If a counter represents a division, why are artillery units shown as separate units?

2. Are there separate counters for anti tank units?

True but as this game features optional builds it allows the player to invest in artillery divisions, which can be more effective at softening up well entrenched positions. Artillery divisions did and still do exist, though often extra batteries(II,III,X) are split among assaulting divisions. IMO the game handles this appropriately; either the same as it would concentrated air strikes or as so many more combat strength points.
Yes there are separate units for AT gun concentrations as well that notwithstanding attack/defend posture on certain units, are doubled against armor though cannot make strikes.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Joe 98

This is a grand strategy game. Artilery usually comes under command at divisional level

1. If a counter represents a division, why are artillery units shown as separate units?

2. Are there separate counters for anti tank units?

-

Greg's answer is correct. You might want to look at the tutorial pages (one of the top threads has links to all the tutorials) which detail the different unit types. There are separate tutorials (10 tutorials, 100+ pages in all) for land, naval, and air units: the different types, their movement and combat abiltiies.

[composer99]

Also most of the land units are corps/army scale.

[paulderynck]

ORIGINAL: Joe 98

This is a grand strategy game. Artilery usually comes under command at divisional level

1. If a counter represents a division, why are artillery units shown as separate units?

2. Are there separate counters for anti tank units?

-

1. Its part of adding divisons to the game and can be WiFzened to represent abnormally large concentrations of artillery similar to how the Soviets operated. They are not really historical units IMO.

2. Yes and similar WiFzen for them applies IMO.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

I have been doing some revisions to the presentation of information during land combat. One thing I feel compelled to do is to provide players all the stuff that is done internally regarding combat. Since not everyone wants to see this all the time, the land combat chart is only shown when the player clicks on a button on the land comabt resolution form (where there might be multiple land combats shown, awaiting resolution).

There are basically 3 places in the sequence of play where this form might be displayed:
1 - before the combat type has been chosen,
2 - after the combat type has been chosen but the die has not been rolled, and
3 - after the die has been rolled.

The screen shot shows the Land Combat Charts for the 3rd situation. The yellow strip is the range of possible die rolls. The red cell indicate what the die roll actualy was. If you call up this form before having chosen the combat type, then there are two yellow strips, one for assault and one for blitz.

What I like about this presentation is that it envokes memories for long time players of WIF, where you found the column and row for a combat result. But more importantly, for new players it clearly shows what the possible outcomes are for each of the combat tables.

The 2D10 table is similar.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

I have been doing some revisions to the presentation of information during land combat. One thing I feel compelled to do is to provide players all the stuff that is done internally regarding combat. Since not everyone wants to see this all the time, the land combat chart is only shown when the player clicks on a button on the land comabt resolution form (where there might be multiple land combats shown, awaiting resolution).

There are basically 3 places in the sequence of play where this form might be displayed:
1 - before the combat type has been chosen,
2 - after the combat type has been chosen but the die has not been rolled, and
3 - after the die has been rolled.

The screen shot shows the Land Combat Charts for the 3rd situation. The yellow strip is the range of possible die rolls. The red cell indicate what the die roll actualy was. If you call up this form before having chosen the combat type, then there are two yellow strips, one for assault and one for blitz.

What I like about this presentation is that it envokes memories for long time players of WIF, where you found the column and row for a combat result. But more importantly, for new players it clearly shows what the possible outcomes are for each of the combat tables.

The 2D10 table is similar.

Just awesome!

It does indeed bring back memories from old WIF games.

-Orm

[paulderynck]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

I have been doing some revisions to the presentation of information during land combat. One thing I feel compelled to do is to provide players all the stuff that is done internally regarding combat. Since not everyone wants to see this all the time, the land combat chart is only shown when the player clicks on a button on the land comabt resolution form (where there might be multiple land combats shown, awaiting resolution).

There are basically 3 places in the sequence of play where this form might be displayed:
1 - before the combat type has been chosen,
2 - after the combat type has been chosen but the die has not been rolled, and
3 - after the die has been rolled.

The screen shot shows the Land Combat Charts for the 3rd situation. The yellow strip is the range of possible die rolls. The red cell indicate what the die roll actualy was. If you call up this form before having chosen the combat type, then there are two yellow strips, one for assault and one for blitz.

What I like about this presentation is that it envokes memories for long time players of WIF, where you found the column and row for a combat result. But more importantly, for new players it clearly shows what the possible outcomes are for each of the combat tables.

The 2D10 table is similar.

When are fractional odds resolved? In WiFFE it is after the combat table is chosen. So when showing the form before having chosen the combat type, would there not have to be four columns highlighted when playing with fractional odds?

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

I have been doing some revisions to the presentation of information during land combat. One thing I feel compelled to do is to provide players all the stuff that is done internally regarding combat. Since not everyone wants to see this all the time, the land combat chart is only shown when the player clicks on a button on the land comabt resolution form (where there might be multiple land combats shown, awaiting resolution).

There are basically 3 places in the sequence of play where this form might be displayed:
1 - before the combat type has been chosen,
2 - after the combat type has been chosen but the die has not been rolled, and
3 - after the die has been rolled.

The screen shot shows the Land Combat Charts for the 3rd situation. The yellow strip is the range of possible die rolls. The red cell indicate what the die roll actualy was. If you call up this form before having chosen the combat type, then there are two yellow strips, one for assault and one for blitz.

What I like about this presentation is that it envokes memories for long time players of WIF, where you found the column and row for a combat result. But more importantly, for new players it clearly shows what the possible outcomes are for each of the combat tables.

The 2D10 table is similar.

When are fractional odds resolved? In WiFFE it is after the combat table is chosen. So when showing the form before having chosen the combat type, would there not have to be four columns highlighted when playing with fractional odds?

I have taken the simpler path of showing the tables assuming the fractional odds roll does not exist or fails. It is easy enough for a player to visualize them shifted one to the right if they're using fractional odds.

[micheljq]

I thought that the 1D10 table was dropped in MWiF. What table is used by default? Is the 3D10 table an option, just curious as for me I use 2D10, I do not consider using 3D10 now.

[:)]

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: micheljq

I thought that the 1D10 table was dropped in MWiF. What table is used by default? Is the 3D10 table an option, just curious as for me I use 2D10, I do not consider using 3D10 now.

[:)]

1D10 or 2D10, it's up to the players. For presenation on the screen the 1D10 requires more programming. One of the beta testers can post what the 2D10 looks like with these new revisions after I upload version 12.05 for them today.