Writing an AAR. Tips for a newb?

[Halsey1958]

Hi All,
I've been reading some AAR's on this site and others regarding different games like EU2. I find them very enjoyable. But I was always wondering how do you insert the reports texts & screenies into the posts? Anyone have the time to give me a rough outline of the process? Great work!

- cheers Halsey

[AmiralLaurent]

Please don't insert the combat report in the AAR, there is nothing more boring than a compilation of combat report.

Then if you want to show a PARTICULARLY interesting part of an AAR, you can find a file called "combatreport.txt" in your SAVE folder.

For the screen you can use the keys ALT + PRINTSCREEN (depends of your computer) then you paste if into an image processing software (the default soft of Windows, Paint, is enough) and you add some comments.

Then to add a picture in a thread here, when you click on reply or post a new thread, a new window appear. Below the white space where you can type your text are written the words

Click here to upload! Embed picture in post

Click where you're asked for, and you can upload a file, in this case a picture. Before clicking there, click on the checkbox 'embed picture in post' so the picture will be shown on the board rather than being an attached file to your post.

Hope it helps

[Halsey1958]

Hi AdmiralLaurent,
Thanks for the quick response. No, I didn't have any desire to insert entire turn combat reports. I went to the save file, looks easy enough to copy & paste a snippet if applicable. I'll monkey around with the paint program & see what I can do with that.
It seems all the AAR's are from PBEM games, (of course the most interesting), does anyone ever post games they play the AI? I guess noone would like to view the eventually tiring AI's predictable scripting. How do the PBEM players keep the opponent from viewing each others posts? Is it just a mutually agreed "trust". I guess I would be leery, heh. Anyways, nice meet you.
Background: I just purchased this game approx. a week ago. I've been studying the manuals intently. I played through the tutorial & am now into turn 7 of the Grand Camp stock game as Allied (of course). I also own UV, but really didn't play it much before getting sidetracked by Hearts of Iron and a host of other games. I tried to play the original "Pacific War" free download game a couple times in the past but can't get any sound out of it on different machines running WIN Me & now XP. I was delighted to see this title finally arrive, (well actually forgot about it) and couldn't resist the temptation to accquire it. I've been frustrated in recent months trying to wait for the devs on the "Pacific Storm" Buka title to patch up all the bugs in that one, & I stumbled across this while waiting. I'm glad I did. I almost but forgotten what a REAL wargame played like.

-cheers
Halsey

[Feinder]

Best thing to do skim/read thru a few AARs, find out what you like, what you don't like.  There are many different kinds of AARs.
 
Popular one is the Hibiki - Cuttlefish decidided to report on a single ship, and tell a story.
Also "From here it seems like an eternity".  That one is more comedic fiction, but with maps and such and reports on the war.
Another one floating around done like news stories.
Another one is heavy into screen shots of naval battles with narration.
My own AAR is mostly maps, with narrarion of the significant events that happened that week.
Actually -some- combat reports are fine.  Just don't copy paste the (whole) combat report into your AAR, or you'll likely be the only one reading it.
 
Folks will also be more likely to read your AAR if they're playing your scenario.  I tag some of the CHS AARs occasionally, just to see how other players are handling things (and naturally to compare how I'm doing, competition is a wonderful thing).
 
And you do realize that AAR means that you're now accountable...  If you get your butt stomped (it happens to the best of us), you're going to be writing about it for all the board read...  [;)]
 
-F-

[pauk]

perhaps you could consider focusing on air force (one pilot or one group) and tell the story... now that is Herbieh's (1275psi) AAR is dead it would be the only one AAAR that focus on that...

[1275psi]

NO, please don't do a pilot AAR!!!!Ive JUST started a new game against Wobbly -CHS -and a certain youn man is joining his squadron today...........

[pauk]

oh, im sorry[:(]....

but i liked very much your pilot AAR....[&o]

[Halsey1958]

Hi All,
Yes, I will read a lot more (and play; I don't want to get thrashed too awfully in public) before I take the plunge. I kind of like the different perspectives (styles) you've all brought forward. This will take MUCH thought before I decide now on a format. I must say the choices I have seem limitless. All the best. [:)]

-cheers
Halsey

[Halsey1958]

Hi All,
I've pressed Alt-PrtScn on a few different maps in-game & also just PrtScn. Does anyone know where I would find these screens on my comp/ what directory are they saved to? I've looked around to no avail. I run WIN XP home version.

-cheers
Halsey

[Feinder]

Press Alt-PrtScrn during game event you want to screen capture.
Alt-Tab out of game.
Open "MS Paint" or whatever.
Within Paint, do "Edit -> Paste" to dump your screen shot to Paint.
Within Paint, do "File -> Save As" to save your file.
 
***  I also have to do Shift-PrtScreen.  For me, it's not Alt.  You might have to play around with it find which one is actually capturing your screen shot.
 
-S-

[Halsey1958]

Hi Feinder,
It worked like a charm. I didn't realize you had to paste it right away after capturing it. In fact I came back from shopping an hour later and it was still on my clipboard to paste in right away! thanks. So Alt-PrtScn apparently will work as originally stated BTW. [:D]

-cheers
Halsey

[Yava]

For making screens get your self the UOSU utility... it's really good. You can make as many screens as you want and at the end you have them all nicely tucked in the UOSU directory as jpegs.

[Feinder]

One more thing.
 
If your AAR is "open", and your oppoenent is welcome to view it, you might consider "doctoring" the shots a little.  If you take the shot during a replay, no problem.  It's only going to show what you can both see (but it can be difficult to snap the shot at exactly the right moment).  However, if you're taking screen shots during your turn (to make moves so you can scroll around and get exactly the shot you want), be advised that you'd be displaying a shot of YOUR screen, complete with troop, TF, and air dispositions.  You'll also want to select a sea hex, so that it doens't have the LCU/AC list on the bottom of the screen as well (I edit these off anyway).
 
But for my AAR, I try to trim the picture to just the area I'm talking about.  After you've pasted your initial screen into Paint, you can use the select tool to highlight a smaller (more useful) piece of your screen shot (the copy to clipboard), then start a new image, and paste the smaller image into your new shot.  I also move around or delete entirely, TFs and subs.  And may copy LCU icons to bases that might not actually have a garrison (or edit out a garrison, so that the base appears empty).
 
If your AAR isn't "open", and you opponent doesn't have privilage to view it, then the editing isn't necessary.  Altho much of the edits that I do, are simply to remove irrelevant clutter to better focus attention on what I'm talkig about.
 
-F-

[Halsey1958]

Oop sorry hit submit by accident.

[Halsey1958]

test

[Halsey1958]

Test, (last one for sure, lol. Blah, it doesn't save the zoom lvl I think. No prob still good quality.

[Chickenboy]

Thanks for this, guys. I found the link and, since I'm starting an AAR and am a luddite, would like to try a test too:

[Chickenboy]

Worked like a charm! [&o] Feinder, I'll have to take your advice to trim out the extraneous in future postings too.