MWIF Game Interface Design

[Shannon V. OKeets]

12th in a series of 14

[Shannon V. OKeets]

13th in a series of 14.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

14th and last in a series of 14.

Currently there are 171 screen shots for the Players Manual. There are probably about 30 more that need to be added (20 are for the PBEM Standing Oders forms).

[BallyJ]

PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE let this be ready soon I can hardly wait;
LOL[:)]

[Extraneous]

6th in a series of 14 – Post #: 2015

 
 
If the C in the far right column stands for Convoy Points (CP) then your count is wrong.
 
Belgian Congo (127, 52) by rail to Port of Luanda
 
4 CP Convoy Line - Gulf of Guinea to Cape Verde Basin to Cape St. Vincent to Bay of Biscay
 
Port of Liverpool by rail to Sheffield
 
 

Transporting resources by sea
If you can’t rail a resource to a usable factory, you may be able to rail it to a port and then ship it overseas through a chain of sea areas, each containing convoy points. If that chain of sea areas extends to a port, you may then be able to rail the resource from that port to a usable factory.

 
 
Is there a chance that in the "Route" box you could show the Land transport route in a different color (or bold font) than the Sea transport route?
 

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Extraneous

6th in a series of 14 – Post #: 2015



If the C in the far right column stands for Convoy Points (CP) then your count is wrong.
 
Belgian Congo (127, 52) by rail to Port of Luanda

4 CP Convoy Line - Gulf of Guinea to Cape Verde Basin to Cape St. Vincent to Bay of Biscay

Port of Liverpool by rail to Sheffield

Transporting resources by sea
If you can’t rail a resource to a usable factory, you may be able to rail it to a port and then ship it overseas through a chain of sea areas, each containing convoy points. If that chain of sea areas extends to a port, you may then be able to rail the resource from that port to a usable factory.

Is there a chance that in the "Route" box you could show the Land transport route in a different color (or bold font) than the Sea transport route?

Thank you for your careful reading.[:)]

The resources/factories list is not updated until the Recompute button is clicked. In the presentation in the Players Manual the later screen shots are part of the explanation of how to reduce the number of convoys from 5 to 4.

The new route that is being defined by the player is a Default (the label under Recompute says DEFAULTS and the color used in the two tables above that is green). For OVERRIDE, the color is blue for those two tables. When Recompute is clicked, OVERRIDE settings are checked first, then DEFAULT settings. Only if both are omitted is a more general search conducted.
---
I am reluctant to use more colors, this form is very busy/complex as it is. I'll think about underlining the sea areas though. If I had more room, I would add another column to the Route table. In fact, I had a second column at one point but there wasn't enough room to show the full hex/sea area names. My judgment was that the names were more important.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Extraneous

6th in a series of 14 – Post #: 2015



If the C in the far right column stands for Convoy Points (CP) then your count is wrong.
 
Belgian Congo (127, 52) by rail to Port of Luanda

4 CP Convoy Line - Gulf of Guinea to Cape Verde Basin to Cape St. Vincent to Bay of Biscay

Port of Liverpool by rail to Sheffield

Transporting resources by sea
If you can’t rail a resource to a usable factory, you may be able to rail it to a port and then ship it overseas through a chain of sea areas, each containing convoy points. If that chain of sea areas extends to a port, you may then be able to rail the resource from that port to a usable factory.

Is there a chance that in the "Route" box you could show the Land transport route in a different color (or bold font) than the Sea transport route?

How's this? In case players with difficulties differentiating colors have trouble with yellow and light green, the sea areas are also in italics. These are a couple of bad routes found by the automated route planner.



EDIT: These changes were not purely cosmetic. I had several problems I wanted to solve with the player interface for Production Planning so I needed to change the code that displayed the route table anyway.

[Froonp]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

How's this? In case players with difficulties differentiating colors have trouble with yellow and light green, the sea areas are also in italics. These are a couple of bad routes found by the automated route planner.

EDIT: These changes were not purely cosmetic. I had several problems I wanted to solve with the player interface for Production Planning so I needed to change the code that displayed the route table anyway.

Why not light blue color for sea areas ?

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Froonp

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

How's this? In case players with difficulties differentiating colors have trouble with yellow and light green, the sea areas are also in italics. These are a couple of bad routes found by the automated route planner.

EDIT: These changes were not purely cosmetic. I had several problems I wanted to solve with the player interface for Production Planning so I needed to change the code that displayed the route table anyway.

Why not light blue color for sea areas ?

Throughout MWIF light blue is used for the sky (e.g., PARA units) and light green is used for the sea (e.g., marines).

[Extraneous]

I like the Italics for the people who are challenged by colors [:)]

I agree with Patrice blue would have been nice it could match the colors of the sea zones. Or are the sea zones Teal?

But green is fine it differentiates quite well.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

I haven't posted any screen shots for a while. I thought this compsite of 6 pages from the tutorials might be of interest. The top 2 on the left describe land units, the top right is for 'special' units (and includes some expanatory text). The bottom left describes naval units and the two on the bottom right are for air units. If I were playing the board game, I would find this page a helpful reference sheet. The only examples missing are the stripes for captured naval units and lend lease air units.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

I have just about wrapped up the Vichy France creation process. I've spiffed up the form for which Administrative Groups go to Vichy/Free France by adding the die rolls and the values needed. The right column includes the penalty for carriers or battleships outside France (in this case there is no penalty).

Notice the Spain was aligned to France so the German player got to conquer both Spain and all the countries it controlled. There is still a question of whether the die rolls for Madrid should be used for the determination of which Spanish possessions go Vichy. And another question about whether the German player can assign them to different major powers. Here Germany has given Spain and the Baearic Island to Italy and kept Spanish Morocco for itself. I have the code working this way presently.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

2nd in a series of 2.

This shows why it is so difficult to get the Vichy code correct. Look at all those subphases - each with its own unique set of rules/code.

In this screen shot you can also see the delights of controlling both sides. The beta tester aligned Belgium to France and let Geramny walk into Paris on the first turn so I could test the Vichy creation code. There are a lot of French units that have to be relocated into Vichy France.

[Taxman66]

I have a quick question about PBEM:

Does MWiF have to be loaded on the same machine that receives the email in order to run it? e.g. If I have MWiF loaded on computer 2, and receive the email on computer 1 can I move the attached MWiF save file to Comp2 do my turn then create/move the save file back to Comp1 to mail out? Optionally if I set up a shared folder on Comp1 (Win XP) could I have MWiF on Comp2 (Win7) read the save game file from the email?

Wife is hooked on MS Outlook and that downloads the emails from the web based ISP mail. Yeah, yeah, I know... we do have separate email accounts but I'm kinda hooked on Outlook myself, and I'd rather not be bothered for checking the web based email before opening my mail If I can avoid it.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Taxman66

I have a quick question about PBEM:

Does MWiF have to be loaded on the same machine that receives the email in order to run it? e.g. If I have MWiF loaded on computer 2, and receive the email on computer 1 can I move the attached MWiF save file to Comp2 do my turn then create/move the save file back to Comp1 to mail out? Optionally if I set up a shared folder on Comp1 (Win XP) could I have MWiF on Comp2 (Win7) read the save game file from the email?

Wife is hooked on MS Outlook and that downloads the emails from the web based ISP mail. Yeah, yeah, I know... we do have separate email accounts but I'm kinda hooked on Outlook myself, and I'd rather not be bothered for checking the web based email before opening my mail If I can avoid it.

I am not that deep into the PBEM system, but I see no difficulties in reading emails from different locations.

I have to think about the viability of having multiple email locations active at simultaneously.

[paulderynck]

ORIGINAL: Taxman66

I have a quick question about PBEM:

Does MWiF have to be loaded on the same machine that receives the email in order to run it? e.g. If I have MWiF loaded on computer 2, and receive the email on computer 1 can I move the attached MWiF save file to Comp2 do my turn then create/move the save file back to Comp1 to mail out? Optionally if I set up a shared folder on Comp1 (Win XP) could I have MWiF on Comp2 (Win7) read the save game file from the email?

Wife is hooked on MS Outlook and that downloads the emails from the web based ISP mail. Yeah, yeah, I know... we do have separate email accounts but I'm kinda hooked on Outlook myself, and I'd rather not be bothered for checking the web based email before opening my mail If I can avoid it.

I can't see why this would present any problem. It is just an attached file and once saved it can be moved around on a network, or re-emailed or whatever. It should be no different than any other game file or word document or spreadsheet, etc.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

ORIGINAL: Taxman66

I have a quick question about PBEM:

Does MWiF have to be loaded on the same machine that receives the email in order to run it? e.g. If I have MWiF loaded on computer 2, and receive the email on computer 1 can I move the attached MWiF save file to Comp2 do my turn then create/move the save file back to Comp1 to mail out? Optionally if I set up a shared folder on Comp1 (Win XP) could I have MWiF on Comp2 (Win7) read the save game file from the email?

Wife is hooked on MS Outlook and that downloads the emails from the web based ISP mail. Yeah, yeah, I know... we do have separate email accounts but I'm kinda hooked on Outlook myself, and I'd rather not be bothered for checking the web based email before opening my mail If I can avoid it.

I can't see why this would present any problem. It is just an attached file and once saved it can be moved around on a network, or re-emailed or whatever. It should be no different than any other game file or word document or spreadsheet, etc.

Microsoft likes to encode emailed files using its own format as WinMail.dat. But I guess we have to deal with that problem anyway.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

I added some more feedback to the player when he is making naval moves. If a player clicks on a sea area to which the units-in-hand can move, then the program assumes that he wants to take the shortest route that avoids being intercepted by enemy units. My addition is to inform that player when there is a shorter route if he goes through sea areas where he can be intercetped.

In the screenshot below, the naval unit started in Liverpool and can either go through the Bay of Biscay, risking being intercepted, or take the Faeroes Gap - Northern Atlantic route to Cape St. Vincent. The latter avoids enemy interception but leaves the unit with only 1 remaining movement point, so it can only go into the 1 section box.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

I completed section 8.4.5 of the Players Manual. In debugging the code for naval movement, I had to make some decisions about when moves could be undone. It seemed appropriate to document all those decisions while they were fresh in my mind. I posted the section on Land Movement previously (nothing has changed).
===
8.4.5 Moving Units
8.4.5.1 Basic Unit Movement
Left clicking on a selectable unit it to the “moving stack”, which, if you are familiar with board war games, you can think of as “picking up a unit”. The cursor then displays the selected unit which is no longer shown in the hex it had been occupying. As you move the cursor over the map, the cursor superimposes a target symbol (circle inside a cross) onto the image of the moving unit to indicate a valid destination hex. For invalid hexes, a large X is superimposed. At the bottom of the Main form, a text message augments the cursor’s information. For example, for a valid destination hex, the number of movement points required to enter the hex is shown. If a destination is invalid, the text message explains why.

8.4.5.2 Land Movement
Default Path
The easiest way to move a unit is to “pick one up” and left click on a destination hex or sea area. The program finds the fastest path to the destination. Here fastest means the path that requires the fewest movement points. Although visually the unit appears to ‘jump’ from its original hex to the destination hex, in actuality the program moves the unit along the fastest path, just as if you had moved the unit one hex at a time.

Precise Path
If you do not want to use the program’s chosen path, you can control which hexes the unit enters by holding down the Ctrl key and left clicking on each hex in the path you want the unit to traverse. In fact, you can combine these two methods. For instance you could use the Ctrl key and click on the first hex in the path and then release the Ctrl key and click on a final destination hex several hexes away. Entering a precise path for a unit is often done by the German player when advancing through Russia to make sure that control of every hex changes from the USSR to Germany.

Group Movement
If you want to move several units as a group (e.g., to conduct an overrun) you can either select them using the Flyouts form (see section 8.4.6), the Units in Hex form (see section 8.7.1.24), or using Ctrl-Left-Click in the unit’s start hex (see section 11.8). All the units you select have to have started the impulse in the same hex. Once you have selected a group of units, you move them the same way you move a single unit.

Partial Movement and Overruns
You can move a unit to a preliminary destination hex and then pick it up again and move it to a final destination hex. In fact, this is what happens when you hold down the Ctrl key to enter a precise path. This ability is most important when you conduct an overrun. After the defending units have been destroyed, captured, or forced to rebase in an overrun hex, you can continue to move the overrunning units by picking them up again, provided they have movement points remaining. Because of the zones of control rules, for some overruns you may have to first use the Ctrl key to move your units to the hex adjacent to the hex you want to overrun and then pick them up again and click on the overrun hex.

Once you have completed moving a unit or stack of units and picked up a different unit, you can no longer go back to the first group and move them again. This is true even if the first group still has unused movement points. This is how MWIF implements the Rules As Coded rule: “You must finish moving the unit(s) you are moving before you can start moving another unit”.

Undoing Moves
MWIF is somewhat forgiving in that it usually permits you to undo your moves without regard to the order in which they occurred. For example, you can move unit A, then move unit B, and then go back and undo unit A’s move. Indeed, there is a menu item on the drop down Command menu of the Main form that lets you undo all moves. There are two important exceptions to this leniency.

1. Should you conduct an overrun, then all the moves you made prior to the overrun can no longer be undone. The overrun might even have been made by one of your allies, and occurred thousands of miles away. Regardless of where and what is overrun, as soon as an overrun is performed, all land moves made previously in the impulse become permanent and can not be undone.

2. Should an out-of-supply or isolated unit have its supply status improved (e.g., from out-of-supply to in-supply), then the program marks the unit with the Improved Supply Status as ISS. If an ISS unit moves, then all moves made prior to that action are ‘frozen’. That is, you are unable to Undo any previous moves unless you first Undo the ISS unit that moved. The reason for this rule is to prevent exploitation of the Undo move to circumvent the rules by, say, (1) moving a unit to provide supply to other units, (2) moving the newly in-supply units, and then (3) undoing move #1.

Overstacking
In general, units may not overstack during land movement. However, MWIF enables temporary overstacking, primarily to enable players to rearrange units in hexes that are fully stacked. A typical instance of this is when the French have 2 corps in every hex of the Maginot Line and want to switch which units are in which hexes. To facilitate this, MWIF permits units to be overstacked when a unit, or stack of units, ends its movement. But then the next unit or stack of units that moves has to correct the overstacking. In the case of two French corps, A and B, in Metz, and two more corps, C and D, in Strasbourg (adjacent to Metz), the player is permitted to move unit A to Strasbourg, even though that causes overstacking. But then his next move has to be to move unit A, C, or D out of Strasbourg, to eliminate the overstacking.

Temporary overstacking enables you to move a stack of units from behind your lines up to a hex in your front line (which becomes temporarily overstacked) and then continue moving by overruning units in the enemy’s front line.

Another subtlety of land movement and overstacking is when an HQ or an engineer has been used to enable air units to overstack in a hex. Moving the HQ or engineer out of the hex would then cause the air units in the hex to be overstacked. MWIF permits this overstacking to occur, and permits it to remain in effect until the end of the land movement phase. So, if you move an HQ out of a hex, causing air units to be overstacked, later in the phase you can move another HQ (or an engineer) into the hex, thereby negating the overstacking. Failure to correct the overstacking by the end of the land movement phase means the owner of the air units has to chose which air unit(s) to destroy.

8.4.5.3 Naval Movement
Group Movement
If you want to move several units as a group, you can either select them using the Flyouts form (see section 8.4.6), the Naval Review Details form (see section 8.7.1.10), the Units in Hex form (see section 8.7.1.24), or using Ctrl-Left-Click in the unit’s start hex (see section 11.8). All the units you select have to have started the impulse in the same: (1) hex or (2) sea area and section box. Once you have selected a group of units, you move them the same way you move a single unit.

Default Path
The easiest way to move a unit is to “pick one up” and left click on a destination hex or sea area. The program finds the fastest path that avoids interception by enemy units to the destination. Here fastest means the path that requires the fewest movement points. Visually the unit appears to ‘jump’ from its original hex or sea area to the destination hex or sea area.

Precise Path
If you do not want to use the program’s chosen path, you can control which hexes or sea areas units enter by holding down the Ctrl key and left clicking on each hex or sea area in the path you want the units to traverse. In fact, you can combine these two methods. For instance you could use the Ctrl key and click on the first hex in the path and then release the Ctrl key and click on a final destination hex or sea area several hexes away.

Entering a precise path for naval movement should only be used if: (1) you are moving a group of submarines and want to drop some of them off in different sea areas or (2) you are moving into a port to pick up cargo. The disadvantage of using the Ctrl key for naval movement of surface ships is that those moves can not be undone.

Transporting Units
There are many different combinations of naval units and transported cargo, many of which are only possible when playing with optional rules. See the following optional rules sections for those details:
• 9.2.1 Divisions
• 9.2.4 Frogmen
• 9.2.15 Carrier Planes
• 9.2.16 V-Weapons
• 9.2.17 Atomic Bombs
• 9.2.21 The Queens
• 9.2.27 Supply Units
• 9.5.3 Amphibious Rules
• 9.5.4 SCS Transport

Here are the possible combinations:
• Naval transports can carry 1 corps/army sized land unit, land based air unit, supply unit, or V-weapon.
• Naval transports can carry 2 ‘division’ sized units. For this rule, carrier air units and atomic bombs are considered division sized.
• The Queens can carry 1 corps/army sized infantry class unit.
• The Queens can carry 2 division sized infantry class units.
• Amphibious units can carry 1 corps/army sized infantry class unit.
• Amphibious units can carry 2 division sized infantry class units.
• Surface Combat Ships (e.g., battleships, cruisers) can carry 1 non-motorized division sized infantry class unit.
• Carriers can carry 1 or 2 carrier air units provided the summed air classes of the carrier air unit(s) is less than or equal to the carrier’s air class.

Units are typically loaded in port during the naval movement phase immediately before moving the naval units transporting them. However, it is possible to move a naval unit from a port into a sea area where the naval unit ends its movement and then picks up cargo from a coastal hex. A third way to load cargo onto naval units is to “pass through” a port, picking up cargo as part of the naval unit’s move. Finally, carrier air units can be loaded onto carriers during the Setup, Reinforcements, and Air Rebase phases. Carrier air units can also change which carrier is transporting them when the carrier air unit returns from an air mission or naval air combat.

All cargo is unloaded when a naval unit ends its move in a port. The sole exception is for carrier air units aboard carriers, which are only unloaded during: (1) the Remove Air subphase of the Reinforcement phase, (2) the Air Rebase phase, and (3) when flying an air mission or in a naval air combat. To be clear about this: carriers are the only naval units that may carry cargo (i.e., carrier air units) while in port.

Enemy Interception of Naval Moves
If you enter a sea area where enemy units can intercept your moving units, enemy players with units capable of intercepting are immediately asked whether they want to intercept. Regardless of their answer, at that point no naval moves made previously can be undone. This follows the general rule that once an opponent has to make a decision, no moves made previously can be undone.

If the naval interception is either not attempted or fails, you have the opportunity to decide whether to have all your units stop in the sea area, continue moving all your units, or have some of them stop and have others continue moving. If the interception succeeds, you decide whether to have all your units stop in the sea area or to fight through. If you decide to fight through and survive the combat, you have the opportunity to decide whether to have all your units stop in the sea area, continue moving all your units, or have some of them stop and have others continue moving.

Sometimes you enter an enemy sea area even though you could go around it, because you want to take the most direct route to your destination. Remember, the default route avoids sea areas where enemy units are capable of intercepting the moving units, so it is quite possible that the default route uses more range and movement points.

Undoing Moves
As long as you do not use the Ctrl key for moving units and do not enter sea areas where enemy units are capable of intercepting your moving units, you can undo move freely. This includes undoing moves where units were loaded from a coastal hex. If you use the Ctrl key to move surface naval units (i.e., not submarines), then that move cannot be undone. However, other naval moves made before and after using the Ctrl key can be undone freely.

The important point is that once a naval interception is possible, no naval moves made previously can be undone.

8.4.5.4 Air Movement
Default and Precise Paths
The path that an air unit takes is immaterial unless you are playing with the optional rule En-route Aircraft Interception.

Group Movement
Air units are always moved one unit at a time.

Undoing Moves
Air unit moves can always be undone during the subphase in which they are moved unless you are playing with the optional rule En-route Aircraft Interception.

[Skanvak]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

I added some more feedback to the player when he is making naval moves. If a player clicks on a sea area to which the units-in-hand can move, then the program assumes that he wants to take the shortest route that avoids being intercepted by enemy units. My addition is to inform that player when there is a shorter route if he goes through sea areas where he can be intercetped.

In the screenshot below, the naval unit started in Liverpool and can either go through the Bay of Biscay, risking being intercepted, or take the Faeroes Gap - Northern Atlantic route to Cape St. Vincent. The latter avoids enemy interception but leaves the unit with only 1 remaining movement point, so it can only go into the 1 section box.

That is quite nice, but I feel that I will not see it in the the very small white font in the green stuff line that I will never look at. Couldn't it be a floating text neat the counter (not on the counter) and in a bigger font?

I fear to have difficulty reading all the small information in the top bar.