Turn Results Parser

[Ry Vor]

I'd like Bananas to start a new thread that I can make stick in the Rules and Resources section with everything players need to use the tool, and that it is either the final version, or the version updates automatically with Uncle Mike's help on how to format it.  I would like all players to easily be able to use it.

[bananas]

Yeah, I know, I know. I've been thinking about how to create an auto-updater all day. But I'm just not confident that the binary I have works for enough users. Best I can tell, there are still people who have only been able to get it to run by installing Ruby. But that way does not work work for everyone either. On the other hand, since you cannot please all of the people all of the time, I'll shoot for the good-ole 80% solution

By the way, we should probably settle on a name. At various times I've called it the Alamaze Turn Parser, Alamaze Data Miner, Turn Parser, and just Parser. JF calls it the Bananas Parser and you are partial to the Bananas Splitter. I did like your suggestion, somewhere, that it was the Bananas Splitter Mapping and History Tool.... though if we rearrange that to be the Banana Splitter Mapping And Turn History, then the abbreviation would be BS-MATH. When I mentioned that to a coworker, he suggest that we simply call it the Banana Map "because everybody needs to have a good BM"

[Ry Vor]

LOL. 

Back  to business.   It's really a great advance, but Alamaze is complicated enough without requiring a side degree.  You have been a great sport throughout, and the players that have gotten it to work love it.  So I just want all players to have it, without having to learn six new things.  If you notice, in most games, they just start clicking on things and think that is great and they can then master it.  They don't read rules, and most under 35, have never experienced a text-based game.  Alamaze doesn't aspire to that ground, but we want a great tool like this can be to be simple to use.

[bananas]

I'd like Bananas to start a new thread that I can make stick in the Rules and Resources section with everything players need to use the tool, and that it is either the final version, or the version updates automatically with Uncle Mike's help on how to format it.  I would like all players to easily be able to use it.

OK, see if this is what you are looking for

http://kingdomsofarcania.net/forum/showt...4#pid30884

I've probably swung too far, giving them too little information instead of too much. What do you think?

[bananas]

Other than the map being as up to date as your turns indicate what functionality do people really use/enjoy.  I load it but still don't really use it much other than the map.

I didn't respond to this post because I was hoping other people would reply with how they use it. I'm just as curious.  But since no one else did, let me.

The short answer is that the map is the main thing. Having it update automatically is pretty useful. (unless you are LD. He does so many cool things to his powerpoint map! Supporting his use-case is now my holy grail!) But, to answer your question more fully, let me describe what happens when I get a new turn.

First thing I do when I get a new turn is read it. But when I do, town names and map locations go in one eye and out the other. They do not translate in my head to anything useful. In the old days, I'd have to pull out that big yellow map and run my fingers across it to figure out where everything was happening before they were meaningful.

When I get home, I save the html turn results in a folder specific to that game. Then I fire up the parser, load the saved data for that game, and tell the tool to parse that newly saved turn file.  After staring at the map a bit (which now takes up most of my screen), I zoom out and drag it to a corner. Then I click on a pop center to get the Emmy Tool up. That I move to the corner above the map so that they mostly do not overlap. The text window goes in the opposite corner and gets resized so that it only partially overlaps the map. Finally, I click on the Report menu, click on the dotted tear-off line, and drag the menu to the last corner. (OK, I probably could have left that paragraph out).

What happens next sort of depends on where I am in the game. For the first few turns, I'm usually focused on finding pop centers, so seeing them appear on the map brings me great joy (especially when they are grey-neutral). On these turns, I usually take the time to mark which areas I've explored (just paste the areas from the movement order on the turn into the explored dialog). Later in the game, I turn those little dots off to reduce the clutter on the map. You can do all that with the powerpoint map.

When I'm ready to enter a movement order, I pretty much always use the group mover tool. Why? Because I absolutely hate, Hate, HATE trying to eyeball the screen and figure out the coordinates of the next square I want to move into. Once I have my movement plotted out, I drag it to the side so I can see it at the same time as the order entry page and easily type in where I want to go.  Right now, that is easily my favorite tool so far.

When I'm trying to figure out what to do with my emissaries, the emmy tool helps. First thing I do is click on each one to see where they are on the map (cause that square highlights).  I then enter my 3xx orders. The yes/no/maybe results are not as accurate as the Frost Lord spreadsheet, but they give me a rough guide. If I click on a town in the region I want to control and see nothing but red, I know I need to enamor more. Other times, I'm like "what? even my ambassadors can single-step a town. SWEET!" When it counts, though, I do jump over to the Frost Lord spreadsheet. That thing is a life saver. I also like that if I click on a pop center, I can immediately see which emmies can move there. Playing the Gnome and Ancient Ones, I've used that tool a LOT. (OH, and if you play warlords or titan, do not forget that you can 'switch kingdoms' so the emmy tool reflects the information relative to that kingdom).

When I go to do an agent order, I look at the emmy tool and cry that I have not written one for agents yet.

The rest is history. No, I mean it. The historical information extracted from each of my turns is there for whatever other information I might glean from it. For that, I cannot help you much. But whatever you might normally glean by rummaging through your old turns, you might possibly learn faster if what you need is in the information I keep.

[Hawk_]

Other than the map being as up to date as your turns indicate what functionality do people really use/enjoy.  I load it but still don't really use it much other than the map.

I didn't respond to this post because I was hoping other people would reply with how they use it. I'm just as curious.  But since no one else did, let me.

The short answer is that the map is the main thing. Having it update automatically is pretty useful. (unless you are LD. He does so many cool things to his powerpoint map! Supporting his use-case is now my holy grail!) But, to answer your question more fully, let me describe what happens when I get a new turn.

First thing I do when I get a new turn is read it. But when I do, town names and map locations go in one eye and out the other. They do not translate in my head to anything useful. In the old days, I'd have to pull out that big yellow map and run my fingers across it to figure out where everything was happening before they were meaningful.

When I get home, I save the html turn results in a folder specific to that game. Then I fire up the parser, load the saved data for that game, and tell the tool to parse that newly saved turn file.  After staring at the map a bit (which now takes up most of my screen), I zoom out and drag it to a corner. Then I click on a pop center to get the Emmy Tool up. That I move to the corner above the map so that they mostly do not overlap. The text window goes in the opposite corner and gets resized so that it only partially overlaps the map. Finally, I click on the Report menu, click on the dotted tear-off line, and drag the menu to the last corner. (OK, I probably could have left that paragraph out).

What happens next sort of depends on where I am in the game. For the first few turns, I'm usually focused on finding pop centers, so seeing them appear on the map brings me great joy (especially when they are grey-neutral). On these turns, I usually take the time to mark which areas I've explored (just paste the areas from the movement order on the turn into the explored dialog). Later in the game, I turn those little dots off to reduce the clutter on the map. You can do all that with the powerpoint map.

When I'm ready to enter a movement order, I pretty much always use the group mover tool. Why? Because I absolutely hate, Hate, HATE trying to eyeball the screen and figure out the coordinates of the next square I want to move into. Once I have my movement plotted out, I drag it to the side so I can see it at the same time as the order entry page and easily type in where I want to go.  Right now, that is easily my favorite tool so far.

When I'm trying to figure out what to do with my emissaries, the emmy tool helps. First thing I do is click on each one to see where they are on the map (cause that square highlights).  I then enter my 3xx orders. The yes/no/maybe results are not as accurate as the Frost Lord spreadsheet, but they give me a rough guide. If I click on a town in the region I want to control and see nothing but red, I know I need to enamor more. Other times, I'm like "what? even my ambassadors can single-step a town. SWEET!" When it counts, though, I do jump over to the Frost Lord spreadsheet. That thing is a life saver. I also like that if I click on a pop center, I can immediately see which emmies can move there. Playing the Gnome and Ancient Ones, I've used that tool a LOT. (OH, and if you play warlords or titan, do not forget that you can 'switch kingdoms' so the emmy tool reflects the information relative to that kingdom).

When I go to do an agent order, I look at the emmy tool and cry that I have not written one for agents yet.

The rest is history. No, I mean it. The historical information extracted from each of my turns is there for whatever other information I might glean from it. For that, I cannot help you much. But whatever you might normally glean by rummaging through your old turns, you might possibly learn faster if what you need is in the information I keep.

I hate having to keep track of what squares my groups have moved through after the first few turns.  Could you add a feature that would track squares cleared of pop centers?

I have been using it to track pop centers and groups every turn.

[bananas]

I hate having to keep track of what squares my groups have moved through after the first few turns.  Could you add a feature that would track squares cleared of pop centers?

I have been using it to track pop centers and groups every turn.

You mean that you want it to track those areas automagically? It already has a feature that lets you track those. It is pretty simple, but it does require some manual effort too.

Select Map->Mark Explored... to get the dialog up. Then, copy the area squares from your 710/720 orders and paste them into the dialog. Click 'NoPC' and then hit the 'Make it so!' button. Don't forget to save afterwards. You can toggle those dots on and off with Map->Toggle Explored. But I got tired of having to mouse up there, so if the map has focus, you can just hit the 'e' key to toggle them on and off.

[Jumpingfist]

You can also note what squares have been fully cleared of artifacts and PCs. The only glitch I notice from time to time is if a group moves over a controlled PC it sometimes does not parse what else it found

[bananas]

Updated link in first post to point to version 2.0.2.
Here are changes since 1.9.4

Version 2.0.2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Added the Necromancer (Fix for issue #26)
- Abbreviation is NE which used to be Neutral
- Neutral changed to NU
- Changed colors of Necromancer and Tyrant (Fix for issue #27)
- Tyrant was dark grey and looked too close to neutral
- Added Help menu which displays a text-only version of the instructions
- Agents now show up on the EmmyTool so you can make use of the range finder.
- For 3rd cycle, the Yes/No values of the InRange field have been replaced with
the actual range since the max range is not constant for all emissaries of all
kingdoms

Version 2.0.1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Lines for Group Movement Plotter do not disappear when changing groups
- They are not saved, but they will stay there until file is closed.
- Instead of black, they are now the kingdom's color.
- Parser now picks up 710, 720, and 976 orders and marks areas explored.
- I was too lazy to handle 715 and 725
- Everything is marked as 'no pc', even if there is a PC there.
- The last area should be marked as 'all clear', but I didn't do that yet either.

Version 2.0.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Can now process results for Third Cycle games.
Still alpha code (mostly untested)
Artifact information not processed
No special handling for new emissary times (is there anything to do?)
Colors for new kingdoms might overlap existing kingdoms.
Most other things *seem* to work OK, but I expect bugs.

[Hawk_]

Updated link in first post to point to version 2.0.2.
Here are changes since 1.9.4

Version 2.0.2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Added the Necromancer (Fix for issue #26)
 - Abbreviation is NE which used to be Neutral
 - Neutral changed to NU
- Changed colors of Necromancer and Tyrant (Fix for issue #27)
 - Tyrant was dark grey and looked too close to neutral
- Added Help menu which displays a text-only version of the instructions
- Agents now show up on the EmmyTool so you can make use of the range finder.
- For 3rd cycle, the Yes/No values of the InRange field have been replaced with
 the actual range since the max range is not constant for all emissaries of all
 kingdoms

Version 2.0.1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Lines for Group Movement Plotter do not disappear when changing groups
 - They are not saved, but they will stay there until file is closed.
 - Instead of black, they are now the kingdom's color.
- Parser now picks up 710, 720, and 976 orders and marks areas explored.
 - I was too lazy to handle 715 and 725
 - Everything is marked as 'no pc', even if there is a PC there.
 - The last area should be marked as 'all clear', but I didn't do that yet either.

Version 2.0.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Can now process results for Third Cycle games.
 Still alpha code (mostly untested)
 Artifact information not processed
 No special handling for new emissary times (is there anything to do?)
 Colors for new kingdoms might overlap existing kingdoms.
 Most other things *seem* to work OK, but I expect bugs.

Thanks for the 710/720 mapping feature!!!  I already started using this.