hi all

I've finally managed to add in a history log viewer to the Flash player. There's now an extra button to the right of the slider which pops up a log review window. There's still some tweaking to be done with it, note it can be resized by grabbing the bottom right hand corner.

From the testing I've done it's highlighted some problems with the log entries being retreived with the heavier fog settings which I need to fix up.

cheers

Tom

How about a Maximize button :P

Noticed this today.

1. 'There's now an extra button to the right of the slider which pops up a log review window.'

How 'bout a tooltip? I clicked on it just to see what it was.

2. 'note it can be resized by grabbing the bottom right hand corner.'

Did not note that. That's neither instructed nor at all obvious graphically.

3. Even with resizing possible, it gets in the way. It only fits within the flash window, which basically only has room for the board and the info box. Covering up the info box is alright I suppose, but the history log is actually slightly bigger than that anyway. I realize this is very likely a lot to ask, but, can anything be done about this? If that's a difficult issue, it's clearly a low priority anyway.

EDIT: Maximize? You wouldn't be able to see the board at all?

Tooltip - good point will add.

As regards the other points - whatever I do it has to fit within the contraints of the Flash window (which can't be resized without refreshing the whole page)

I can make the default log window size the same size as the Info box but this means for 2-player games it's going to be 2 rows high. Actually, maybe I could drop the table header to get an extra row in there.

There's a couple of different alternatives that I can think of, but they all lose the the benefit of being able to click or scroll down the history grid and have it nicely update the display as per currently.

1) Separate history log page (i.e. full screen). Clicking on a row in the grid jumps back to the history board image tab - perhaps it could be when you hold the mouse button down it shows the board image for that turn, when you let go it flicks back to the log view?

2) Some sort of smaller version of the board image being on display when the log is visible so there is room for both

What do you reckon?

Suggestions:
1. Make the history default to the written history with the option to launch the player.

2. Make the history window SCROLLABLE with the mouse wheel.

3. Don't lock the history into the flash window, I have a widescreen and a lot of space to either side of my flash player that I could place the history in.

4.  Change it's organization - maybe colour code it.

At the very least line up the results to follow them in a meaningful way.  Parenthises would help here.

I don't think a column to define the action type is necessary.

Ian deploys 5 units to Alberta
Ian attacks Trevor Ontario>Quebec (6,6,6) (1,1)
Ian attacks Trevor Ontario>Quebec (6,6,6) (1,1)
Ian attacks Trevor Ontario>Quebec (6,6,6) (1,1)
Ian attacks Trevor Ontario>Quebec (6,6,6) (1,1) and captures it transferring 12 troops.

You could colour code the names to represent the colour of the players, or put their box colour next to the person you're attacking in the attack field.

As it is I find the history field difficult to follow in that it seems a sea of text rather than an overview of events.

I wouldn't mind a view link to a snapshot of the map at the end of each turn either :)

What is the (0,0) at the end of each line?

Also your flash player is suffering from problems.  I'll post a bug report, I couldn't say if it was my imagination until I went through the history tab.

 Ah, yyou got in before I posted.

I love how you tied the history in with the viewer - though I don't like that it obscures the viewer.

Andernut wrote:

3. Don't lock the history into the flash window, I have a widescreen and a lot of space to either side of my flash player that I could place the history in.

I love how you tied the history in with the viewer - though I don't like that it obscures the viewer.

Right. This sounds simple to do but isn't.

Thanks for the feedback Andernut - I'll implement your ideas regarding changing the layout of the history text.

The (0,0) is the border modifiers - I'll drop this for borders where there are no modifiers, any suggestions for how this should be displayed when there is a modifier?

You can use the 'Previous Turn' / 'Next Turn' buttons to jump between turns, is that what you mean?

I'm not so sure the default view should be the raw log - I think the player is more user friendly for newbies especially. Unfortunately as per the above, there is no way of spawning another window for the history log or increasing the existing window size so I have to work within those constraints.

No, scrollable should be for the text version.

Previous Turn/Next Turn buttons should be next to each other for easy cycling rather than "my last turn" being in the middle.

My text history button seems to have been replaced by a refresh button :(

Perhaps there could be an option to change the default history viewer? I'm all for graphical prettiness, but I like to see numbers!

As well, there are glitches in the game viewer - I mentioned this in support thread at least on the user side, though it appears the game mechanics are intact - ie. it looks like he's attacking 3 units in australia, but there is only 1 unit there. I would post the event number if I could access the history viewer...

Edit: My text was zoomed from another page I had been on and had evidently zoomed in on the flash player as well so that the history button was cut-off.

Edit:   In this game  http://www.wargear.net/games/player/4092 

Event 302 - claims my opponent is attacking a neutral territory, which is in fact owned by me.  Event 306 claims opponent is attacking himself, with 3 dice against 1 defender, the board illustrates me having 3 armies at this event in time, though I am aware that I had left only one army on that spot.

Yes, there's definitely some glitches there, I'm aware of them and will fix up.

One other little thing - I clicked to History and opened the text viewer before beginning my turn. I used only the text viewer scroll bar. Once satisfied, I clicked back to "play" in the Player to begin my turn - the history text log is still there. Should probably go itself away when clicking out of History, no?

I have no history tab in my game! I also have lost the game due to several turns of nasty rolling, and I'd like to see just how nasty so I can gripe about losing with superior army income and superior positioning. Mind you losing 7 whilst killing 1 is often your death in a 2-player game.

Only Premium accounts get access to the History viewer...

I would rather see the info button go to the premium accounts than the history viewer. Info is a convenience to be paid for, I feel like not having a history viewer severely hampers anyones playing and for me would be game-breaking. You should be able to see what your opponents did.

I'm easing into the site, but can't jump ship yet. When I want to get my friends to switch over it will be when we the map base is established and the BAO has arrived.

Paying to see what happened seems a bit extreme.

Have to agree. History should be complimentary like a continental breakfast. Stats/info can be considered more a luxury item, like turn-down service.

I think the Info either already is or will be Premium only (or maybe tom changed his mind). History does seem a bit weird to be Premium only, but I think that's mainly because WF had it for free, reading the Premium account info here (History Viewer - see what your opponents did in between turns) kind of seems to make it sound like a good Premium only option, but it can be very very useful.

The reason I feel this way is not that WF had it for free, but because it seems essential when you play. When I play with friends I can see what they did, when I play online I need to see what happened since my last turn. It shouldn't be a luxury.

If you want to go history-log-viewer only and make the graphical interface premium-only okay, but I don't want to see a gimped interface for non-premium members.

With warfish I played for a few months before I got really got drawn in, and a few months after before I sprang for the membership. I think if I could only see what the board looked like rather than what happened I wouldn't have stuck around, especially in the intricate maps.

Mind you, if I do make a switch I'll go Premium anyways, but to me this site costs twice as much (a factor when I'm paying for a couple of family members and my girl friend) and it's more "beta" for me than WF.

Forums and community response are far better than WF, but game-base, user-base, and BAO are absent for me right now.

Agreed on all counts. History is a necessity for adequate gameplay. Not a luxury.

As well with the general statements about WarGear wrt other sites. Game base is being worked on, user base will come.

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

I would lean toward having history of the text form (like the Fish has) for standard members and have the text, history movie and stats for premium. that way both have the same info but premiums have the info in a nicer easier to use package.