Modules for ABattlemap

Yeah, I’m trying we will see how it goes.

@ksmckay:

Yeah, I’m trying we will see how it goes.

Just take it one step at a time.  If you have any questions that are not answered by the tutorial, let me know.  Some of the parts that take the longest are things like making the map look good that are really just up to you how much time you want to put into it.  So long as you have everything else right, you can always make aesthetic changes to the Map.bmp file later without any problems or hassles for players (assuming you are not changing the placement of the actual territories and borders).  You can also go without the sector information entirely, and the module will just be pieces on a board like the real game without any statistics or analytical info.

Do i need sectors for the ipc counts and turn number?

@ksmckay:

Do i need sectors for the ipc counts and turn number?

sectors are required for all the information in the top five rows of the infoview window.  without the sectors, you would have to put a production chart area on the map.bmp image and the players can keep track of production manually just like they would in a face-to-face game.  Does that make sense?

I’m not sure what you mean by turn number. if you’re wanting the game to display how many rounds have gone by, I don’t think there’s any way for the program to calculate that automatically.  players would just manually count/keep track… you could easily put a space on the map for them to do this.  Am I understanding you correctly?

If i put two of some unit or flag in an area and other units in another what keeps them from stacking.  Isn’t it the borders of the territory which are what sectors are?  Otherwise how does the program know when two placed say infantry are in the same vicinity.  So at the bottom of the map when you stack flag markers to indicate how many ipcs you have for each country our what turn it is, the two sets of flags don’t combine because they are not in the same defined space.  If that isn’t a sector then what defines the borders of that space?  Just a black line?

@ksmckay:

If i put two of some unit or flag in an area and other units in another what keeps them from stacking.  Isn’t it the borders of the territory which are what sectors are?  Otherwise how does the program know when two placed say infantry are in the same vicinity.  So at the bottom of the map when you stack flag markers to indicate how many ipcs you have for each country our what turn it is, the two sets of flags don’t combine because they are not in the same defined space.  If that isn’t a sector then what defines the borders of that space?  Just a black line?

Great question.  Hopefully my memory will serve me well here in my answer, I could be slightly off (I no longer have Abattlemap on my pc):
You are right about the program stacking all of the same kind of pieces that are within a sector.  however, even on a map with sectors, you can have space that doesn’t correspond to any sector at all (this is just black space on the sektorinfo.bmp image).  If I remember right, pieces placed in one of these areas I think will [only] stack if you try to stack them (you literally have to click in the vicinity of the existing pieces), but don’t stack automatically.  You can try this by placing pieces of the same type exactly on the border line between two sea zones in an existing module.  They should not stack unless you place them really close together.  In most modules the borders are a non-sector pixel/space, which you can verify by seeing no sector name in the title bar of the application when you hover your cursor on the line, and you can also see on the sektorinfo.bmp (if you have it) that the line is black (color 000000) there.

I think this is also how it works if you don’t have any sektorinfo.bmp or sektorinfo.sek files at all.

It could be that you just have to create a big black sektorinfo.bmp and use that, but I don’t think this is the case.  Per the tutorial (emphasis added):
@Stoney229:

SektorInfo.map contains the information of which sector (territory, sea zone, space, etc.) each pixel on the map belongs to.  It is not required, but if used, it does require the accompaniment of SektorInfo.sekL.  Without these two files, a module will not contain any distinction of territories or sea zones, so IPC income calculations in the program�s �InfoView� window are not possible.

@Stoney229:

SektorInfo.sek contains all the information (except map/board location) about specific sectors, including name (as displayed in ABattleMap�s title bar), type (land or water), IPC value, original owner, and much more.  It also includes other special sector-related information, such as damage/�convoy disruption� criteria.  It is not required, but if used, it does require the accompaniment of SektorInfo.mapF.  Without these two files, a module will not contain any distinction of territories or sea zones, so IPC income calculations in the program�s �InfoView� window are not possible.

Does that make sense?  Did I answer your question?

Is this the latest version of AbattleMap being used for games today?

The new map looks really good compared to the old one; the only thing I noticed which is a little annoying is it seems the numbers listing the IPC value of the territory is not there like the older versions; it’s still there if I hover over the territory but that’s it; have you guys solved this yet?

@NoMercy:

Is this the latest version of AbattleMap being used for games today?

The new map looks really good compared to the old one; the only thing I noticed which is a little annoying is it seems the numbers listing the IPC value of the territory is not there like the older versions; it’s still there if I hover over the territory but that’s it; have you guys solved this yet?

Which module are you using?

It seems to say Version 0.80 Alpha1

I’m also using the following downloaded starting map:

• AaA1940global_a3_FinalSetup.AAM (9.76 KB - downloaded 3 times.)

@NoMercy:

I’m also using the following downloaded starting map:

• AaA1940global_a3_FinalSetup.AAM (9.76 KB - downloaded 3 times.)

Thank you.  Your module, in this case, would be the 1940 Global one.
Coding the location of those numbers for each territory is very tedious and most people who make the modules probably won’t find it worth their time (I don’t disagree).  Frankly, that feature in the program is not even necessary, since you can put the IPC numbers directly onto the map image.  If you would like to do this for yourself, you can open your Map.bmp file in an image-editting program such as Paint.net, add the IPC number value on each territory where you would like it to appear, and then save again as Map.bmp.  As long as you don’t change anything else on the map (namely the location of the borders), it will not adversely affect your module or compatibility with playing with others who use the original map.bmp.

If you do this, you could upload your file for others to use too if they also want the IPC values displayed on their map.

Does this help?

can anyone steer me in the direction of a link to the newest(or best) abattlemap map for the global game?  please and thank you.

@katfishkris:

can anyone steer me in the direction of a link to the newest(or best) abattlemap map for the global game?  please and thank you.

I wouldn’t know - but if you go to the PBF board and look for some players  playing a global game, you could ask them on their game thread.  I don’t even know what the latest global axis & allies game is, but if you’re looking for global 1940, they’ll probably call that “G40”.  (Perhaps this shows how behind the times I am)

katfishkris - I remember you from a few years ago…

Everyone in the league uses Triple A now.  You can get it easily by going to tripleasourceforge.net

You should read my list of rules that Triple A does not correctly observe.  The good news is, it is easy to use edit mode to take care of these differences when they come up

Triple A problems.doc

Long live battlemap!  Down with the tripleA pretendership! :P

There a D-Day module for AAA?

I am sure there is Jen.
I downloaded it to check. Looked the same game, so switched off.

@Cmdr:

Long live battlemap!  Down with the tripleA pretendership! :P

I like Battlemap and miss it also. I especially like the Forum dice better than the TripleA dice engine. Seems like TripleA rolls strings of numbers rather being truly random.

@Commando:

@Cmdr:

Long live battlemap!  Down with the tripleA pretendership! :P

I like Battlemap and miss it also. I especially like the Forum dice better than the TripleA dice engine. Seems like TripleA rolls strings of numbers rather being truly random.

The problem comes in collecting enough data to prove it though.

Seen a lot of battles where one side has 5% odds to “win” but that win is supposed to be 1 maybe 2 units left and they come out next to unscathed while the attacker dies to whithering fire.  Almost makes you want to take the 95% odd from a calculator for all battles (round down) lol

@Cmdr:

@Commando:

@Cmdr:

Long live battlemap!�  Down with the tripleA pretendership! :P

I like Battlemap and miss it also. I especially like the Forum dice better than the TripleA dice engine. Seems like TripleA rolls strings of numbers rather being truly random.

The problem comes in collecting enough data to prove it though.

Seen a lot of battles where one side has 5% odds to “win” but that win is supposed to be 1 maybe 2 units left and they come out next to unscathed while the attacker dies to whithering fire.  Almost makes you want to take the 95% odd from a calculator for all battles (round down) lol

Collecting data is not the only way to prove it.  Just find out (e.g. by asking the developers or looking at code) how the “random” numbers are being generated.  I’m no expert, but by my understanding, the characteristics you describe are typical of pseudorandom number generation (a computer program is generating the random number).  That is, you should be getting a random distribution of numbers given enough rolls, but the particular sequence of the numbers may not be truly random (given a first roll of number N, the probability distribution between N and non-N numbers on the next roll is not truly random).  This method is very easy to code (you can learn how to write a program to do it in a couple hours with no prior programming experience), but it is not good for axis and allies dice purposes.

The only way of generating truly random digits is by harvesting data from entropy using special hardware.  One way of doing this without actually generating the data in real-time is by having a huge database of a random sequence of numbers which were generated using a truly random number generator.  This database can be built into the software and the numbers can be retrieved instead of generated when an instance calls for it.  I think this is how conquerclub generates their dice rolls, and may be how the forum dice roller here works as well.

I recall reading a post somewhere on this forum which explains how to call the dice on the forum, and it may explain how the dice numbers are generated.  I don’t know if you can find the relevant counterpart for TripleA.