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Home » Stars! 2.6/7 » The Bar » Micromanagement Tools (was Fledgling Admirals 2: EoG Comments)
Micromanagement Tools (was Fledgling Admirals 2: EoG Comments) Fri, 02 November 2007 06:01 Go to previous message
Dolphin

 
Crewman 1st Class

Messages: 21
Registered: February 2005
Location: Germany
 Hello,

m.a@stars picked up on my end of game comments for "Fledgling Admirals 2" about micromanagement. As that issue deserves its own threat and would not belong into "game stories", I will continue the discussion from this here. First of all, thanks to m.a@stars - I was already afraid that this (to me the key part of my EoG remarks) was being ignored over verbally continuing the un-ended war of that game.

I grant that are are vast differences in the amount of micromanagement required for the various races. Yet, even "non-economic" races (SS, SD...) need a lot of attention if you want to play them well. There are very helpful tools (many calculators, some tools for visualization or information and a few battle simulation aids). The visulatization/information tools use some game input (via fleet/planet info exports, not the m-file). Yet, most other tools are stand-alone, i.e. demand the time-consuming input of game data into a third-party system.

M-File
>all the known "experts" have reached their status by sharing their knowledge.
What I was thinking about is not just sharing hints – the community has done that for years and it greatly helped me in understanding the finer points of the game. I was thinking about people like Wumpus, who know the structure of and encryption of the M-File. Yes, it contains a lot of “hidden” information, thus they are reluctant to unlock that secret. Yet, if we ever want to see tools that are integrated into the game, then we need the structure of the M-, H- and X-Files to be public knowledge. Otherwise every aspiring programmer of tools would have to start with decoding the file structure and most will have lost interest (or lack additional time) once they managed that.

>the game structure and its files don't allow for truly automated tools
I am not a computer expert but I beg to disagree. If the input (M-file, H-File) and the output (X-File) are well understood, then any decent programmer could create player tools that for example automate the checking for human errors (a wonderful field for integrating a lot of expert knowledge).
A step up in complexity would be tools helping to automate the economy (pop, minerals, minesweeping) and thus relieve the burden of micromanagement. Ideally, players set goals/targets and the tool suggests solutions that we would then just need to check. What I also miss is support for strategic planning (seeing historic developments and patterns of fleet behaviour, not having all planetary data marked as x year old if much of that data is actually a lot older, e.g. by having a non-scanner ship visiting a planet). Such tools could give more detailed data, i.e. suggest judgement calls based on enemy intel (scores, ship weights, known or suspected tech levels, minefield sizes etc.) about the enemy status. (Simple example: a growing minefield around a planet indicates that one ship of the only enemy minelayer frigate known to us is in orbit). The ship gets added to the enemy fleet as a guess and gets taken into account in predicting the result of one’s minesweeping. Generally, such a tool could provide a worst/best/typical case prediction of the next turn. If the m-file also shows single ship data, not just fleets, it would even allow for a much better tracking of enemy behavior. That would lift the game to a higher level.
Finally, we could go to the highest level of complexity – battle management tools. It would save time to use game data (enemy fleet designs and numbers, estimated tech levels) and thus make battle simulations easier. Eventually such a program could even suggest changes to one’s fleet composition/design to counter known known threats or targets. I am told that currently, even many good players spend a lot of time simulating battles or at least calculating ship attractiveness. That is micromanagement calculus, which would be relatively easy to automate.

>anything which meddles with game turns opens the gates for all kinds of nasty cheats and problems
If the file structure is ...

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[Updated on: Sat, 03 November 2007 08:41] by Moderator


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