Posts made by freezing

Yes, I will be updating it at some point after it has been used on the website for a bit. Want to try to give people a chance to try it before I go through the app submission process.

Hi A&A fans-

I’ve added an updated ruleset for 1914 to my battle calculator located here: http://dskelly.com/misc/aa/aasim.html?rules=1914

Give it a try, and see if you find any bugs with it. The 1914 rules are quite different than the other sets, so here are some of the 1914 specific rules:

1. always maintains 1 infantry in a battle (if there is one)
2. air supremacy - fighters are neutralized before any others
3. air supremacy - the side with leftover fighters gets promoted tanks and artillery
4. attacking tanks neutralize 1 hit
5. amphibious assault - defending artillery gets a pre-emptive bombardment

I’ve also added a short URL to the Share Battle button. This should make it pretty easy to share a battle setup. Example:

http://goo.gl/nsVaYR

@Crowninshield:

(why buy the board game if you can play it on your iPhone/iPad)

Well the app is just a numbers cruncher. It doesn’t play the game at all.

@Veqryn:

change all the art, and the name

I only use my own artwork. The name, yea.

As Dave said, you will have to contact them and give them a piece of the action to get a licence.

I think I’m going to try to avoid that route. I mean, I think of similar situations like - if you manufacture phone covers you wouldn’t need to get a license to make it fit the iphone right? But maybe you can’t call it iPhone Cover, but something like Phone Cover and then just say it fits the iphone.

Actually - I should clarify. I received it from Apple who received it from some Hasbro counsel.

_On 10/18/2012, we received a notice from Hasbro, Inc. that Hasbro, Inc. believes the app listed below infringes their intellectual property rights. In particular, Hasbro, Inc. believes you are infringing their copyright, trademark and app name. Please see their comments below.

A. Developer: David Skelly
Provider: David Skelly
App Title: Axis & Allies Combat Simulator
Apple ID: 329680627

Comments from Complainant: We are counsel for Hasbro, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast LLC, the owner and exclusive licensee of the AXIS & ALLIES game.  This developer’s unauthorized use of the AXIS & ALLIES mark and the copyrighted rules infringes these companies’ rights._

Hi David Jenson -

I’m the author of the app Axis & Allies Combat Simulator on the Apple app store. Just today I received a notice that the app was infringing on their intellectual property.

I was wondering if you’ve had this problem before? Seems like your website would fall under the same category. Any ideas?

Ah, thank you for the detailed input. I can try to make those changes happen.

I created the pie chart and sorted on probability thinking that would be useful - but probably not what advanced players are looking for. What exactly do you use that to determine, anyways? As a casual player, all I really want to determine is whether an attack is a good idea or not.

If nothing is entered in OOL I use the HTML5 placeholder attribute to display the default OOL. But it does look disabled - I might be able to change that text style or something.

“80% of it is error handling that hopefully never gets executed, hardly glamorous.”

It’s true. The good code (and all the error handling) never gets recognized, but a small mistake and it gets immediate recognition!

@MrMalachiCrunch:

The OOL problem for me was that the control was not active.  I could not click in the text box and get focus there in order to edit the contents of the box.  It works now.

This is an example of a bell curve chart.  (F 2%) chance attacker wins with 3 units remaining (no casualties), (D 14% chance attacker wins with 2 unites remaining (1 causality), orange part of graph 34% chance attacker wins with 1 unit remaining etc etc green 2 % defender wins without taking a causality.  It does not have to be multi-colour.  I just want to see what the odds are of winning with 3 pieces, and with 2 pieces, and with 1……not just the odds of winning true or false.

http://www.calcunation.com/calculators/miscellaneous/bell curve.PNG

AACalc does this sort of but its not as elegant looking

I gave it an update. Let me know what you think.

@MrMalachiCrunch:

The OOL problem for me was that the control was not active.  I could not click in the text box and get focus there in order to edit the contents of the box.  It works now.

This is an example of a bell curve chart.  (F 2%) chance attacker wins with 3 units remaining (no casualties), (D 14% chance attacker wins with 2 unites remaining (1 causality), orange part of graph 34% chance attacker wins with 1 unit remaining etc etc green 2 % defender wins without taking a causality.  It does not have to be multi-colour.  I just want to see what the odds are of winning with 3 pieces, and with 2 pieces, and with 1……not just the odds of winning true or false.

http://www.calcunation.com/calculators/miscellaneous/bell curve.PNG

AACalc does this sort of but its not as elegant looking

Hmmm, ok I’ll work on this and see what I can come up with.

Here is the sea battle:
http://dskelly.com/misc/aa/beta/?&rules=1&battleType=2&attFighter=18&attBomber=6&attSubmarine=12&defFighter=15&defSubmarine=9&defDestroyer=2&defAircraftCarrier=8&defBattleship=6

(ermmm, 2 posts marked as spam so I took out all the links to battles, unfortunately)

Heh, ok that didn’t take long to find the bugs !

I corrected the loop bug (problem with aircraft hits in sea battles) which should correct both the loop and the large sea battle.

Sea battle works.
2FvD1 battle now works.

OOL should work - perhaps I didn’t explain it well enough.
Try 3I 3A v 6I so that should be an even battle.
Now put in “AI” in the attacker OOL so that it takes artillery first. It now gives 33%v65%.

Can you give me a quick mock up of what a probability distribution graph would look like? Maybe in MSPaint or something? Or I can just dump the text - is that what frood does?

Additionally, I am using google charts API (google does some pretty amazing stuff), so if you can envision it in one of these graphs I can probably create that - http://code.google.com/apis/chart/interactive/docs/gallery.html

Check out http://code.google.com/apis/chart/interactive/docs/gallery.html

Rather than writing your own in Canvas just gather the data and let google render it!

Heh, ok that didn’t take long to find the bugs !

I corrected the loop bug (problem with aircraft hits in sea battles) which should correct both the loop and the large sea battle.

Here is the sea battle:
http://dskelly.com/misc/aa/beta/?&rules=1&battleType=2&attFighter=18&attBomber=6&attSubmarine=12&defFighter=15&defSubmarine=9&defDestroyer=2&defAircraftCarrier=8&defBattleship=6

Here is the 2Fv1D battle:
http://dskelly.com/misc/aa/beta/?&rules=1&battleType=2&attFighter=2&defDestroyer=1

OOL should work - perhaps I didn’t explain it well enough.
See for instance this a 3I 3A v 6I battle so should be even due to infantry getting a bonus with matching artillery if taking infantry casualties first (the default)
http://dskelly.com/misc/aa/beta/?&rules=1&attInfantry=3&attArtillery=3&defInfantry=6

See same battle changing the OOL on the attacking side to “AI”, and it gives 33%v65% due to taking artillery first
http://dskelly.com/misc/aa/beta/?&rules=1&attOOL=AI&attInfantry=3&attArtillery=3&defInfantry=6

Can you give me a quick mock up of what a probability distribution graph would look like? Maybe in MSPaint or something? Or I can just dump the text - is that what frood does?

Additionally, I am using google charts API (google does some pretty amazing stuff), so if you can envision it in one of these graphs I can probably create that - http://code.google.com/apis/chart/interactive/docs/gallery.html

Hey all - I’ve recently put out an update to my A&A battle calculator/simulator. I’ve added a couple nice new features. I’ve put up a preliminary version below. Let me know if you find any bugs or have any comments.

http://dskelly.com/misc/aa/aasim.html

@rockrobinoff:

The global rules on the App version are very screwed up. A mix of revised units and global units are being used. I emailed the developer a while back but have heard nothing. I paid for this app, and I would like it delivered as advertised.

I did not get that email - it looks like some of my email is being dropped.

Yes, I’m looking at it now, and the iphone 1940s version does have some of the revised values incorrectly inserted. I can post an update to that - but sometimes it takes up to 2 weeks for Apple to update.

@calvinhobbesliker:

@freezing:

@calvinhobbesliker:

Yeah…… b**** board…
Are you assuming a normal disribution, a t-distribution, a geometric distribution, beta distribution, or something else…
please elaborate

The sim runs by simulating a setup between your units and your opponents units. 1 round of combat is run with random dice rolls, and then units with lethal damage are taken out. Another round of combat is run and units with lethal damage are taken out, etc. until there can be no combat. The results are recorded, and then the whole thing starts all over again. After 1000 runs, all result averages are displayed.

The percentages I’ve found usually vary by ± 2%.

I did update both handheld versions of the sim. Usually with Apple there can be a lag time by up to 2 weeks from when I submit an update to them and when it finally gets published.

In what order are the units taken off? Are they taken off in order of increasing ipc(defending bombers after infantry) value, or increasing attack/defense(so defending bombers before infantry). Is it possible to add the option “must take territory,” which means that instead of taking the last land unit off, air units are taken off instead?

It appears some mod deleted all of my posts in this thread.

The order is slightly different for different rules sets, but for 1940 it’s

Infantry
MechInf
Artillery
Tank
Submarine
Transport
Fighter
Destroyer
TacticalBomber
Cruiser
Bomber
AircraftCarrier
Battleship

based mostly on IPC value. It’s the same for both attackers and defenders. The iphone version is a little more flexible (since I rewrote it), and will remove bombers on defense slightly earlier.

It does not have the option of taking territory but I can put that on my todo list.

I used a mac for about 10 years, then I’ve used a PC for about 8 years. I currently own both.

Personally I prefer a PC because it’s cheaper and it runs more games/software. They both have their uses, and they both have their drawbacks.

@a44bigdog:

You might want to look at the calculator in the link freezing. It does several things and in my opinion is about the best out there.

Frood’s calculator? Yes, it has many good options. My aim was for something quick and easy to use. If you are an expert player, you may want more in-depth statistics.

@gnasape:

Sorry about the confusion.

I remember someone had a battle calculator that showed all the different scenario round by round.

Let’s say you attack with 6 inf vs. 1 inf, it would show you as the attacker.
Scenario:   Attacker  Defender
Scenario 1: 0 hit       0 hit
Scenario 2: 1 hit       0 hit
Scenario 3: 2 hits      0 hit
Scenario 4: 3 hits      0 hit
Scenario 5: 4 hits      0 hit
Scenario 6: 5 hits      0 hit
Scenario 7: 6 hits      0 hit
Scenario 8: 0 hit        1 hit
…
Scenario 14: 6 hits      1 hit

It would give the % chance of each scenario and also per round.

I can’t find it again.

+1 karma for trying to understand my confusing post.

@freezing:

@gnasape:

Done!

5 stars!

Any chance you might add another feature that shows most most likely scenarios per round?

Thanks

Not sure exactly what you mean. After X number of rounds of combat what you have left? Or loaded presets where you can touch a button and it would automatically load a specific configuration?

Hmmm, that’s an interesting idea. I will put it on my list - but honestly, I’m not sure I’d put that in. It seems like an excessive amount of information with no good way to show it cleanly. What are you trying to discern - what your odds of losing/winning per round are?

@gnasape:

Done!

5 stars!

Any chance you might add another feature that shows most most likely scenarios per round?

Thanks

Not sure exactly what you mean. After X number of rounds of combat what you have left? Or loaded presets where you can touch a button and it would automatically load a specific configuration?

Hey thanks guys -

If you like it I’d appreciate a rating and/or comment too! http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=329680627&mt=8

Plus I’ve got 2 codes left …