Always Align The Same Named Units In The Battlecalculator If Any
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I think the battlecalculator would be better usable if the same named units would be always exactly aligned with each other.
This would also mean leaving empty spaces for units available to only one side.
This behaviour should not apply to games having no shared units. For example, it should not apply to "Total World War", unless a way to tell that, for example, "russianInfantry" and "germanInfantry" are the same.
This feature request would be complementary (both are not required, but each one would enhance the benefits of the other) to this other one:
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/613/a-displayname-for-different-elements
In case that f.r. would be implemented, this one should refer to the "displayName".
I believe this feature request can be made on its own as long as it is assured that it doesn't apply when the shared units are none.
Another item is that this feature would allow keeping alignment also in case defence only units are listed not last. So, it would partially cover what at:
https://forums.triplea-game.org/topic/553/improve-battle-calc-unit-ordering/19Here it is an image of how the "World At War" battlecalculator looks now, and, then, how I think would be more functionally looking, for the players of the game:
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I like this suggestion
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@cernel So TWW has some shared units and some that are nation specific. So this wouldn't work well. Also there are some maps with a few shared units but mostly unique units. Imagine something like LOTR with a few common units but 5-10 unique units per nation. Essentially, if you have 1 or a few units that are shared but the rest unique it breaks this suggestion.
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@redrum
Good point. Could there be XML options to turn it on or off? -
@crazyg Yeah, it would probably need to have a boolean XML property for each map that defaults to false.
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@redrum Well, an XML option would be per each game, not map, but I agree (per map, it would have to go in map.properties or something). The units are defined per game, so I agree with being in the XML (tho I doubt that there may be maps that need such a setting to differ per game).
Are you sure about TWW? Are there in the battlecalculator (meaning only the units that make into the battlecalculator) units that have the same name between not allied players? I've not played that game, but I've checked it (but I may easily missing something), and seen none.
I thought about LotR, and probably that one would get more confusion, for the big spaces, than benefit for the very few units aligned, but I guessed it was not terrible, since it has few units per player. The same is true for 270BC too. Editing it into the High Quality maps that need it should be easy (I think only these 3, also counting 270BC variants). An option would be in order; I should have inclueded it in the feature request.
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@cernel said in Always Align The Same Named Units In The Battlecalculator If Any:
Are you sure about TWW? Are there in the battlecalculator (meaning only the units that make into the battlecalculator) units that have the same name between not allied players? I've not played that game, but I've checked it (but I may easily missing something), and seen none.
Trucks, rail, flag and material are the same for all nations, but things like infantry aren't (germanInfantry and russianInfantry are used). I think its like this because of the need for technologies to affect terrain bonuses
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@crazyg Do any of those ever go in the battlecalculator? Like the Truck getting some att/def power or support ability during the game?
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@cernel said in Always Align The Same Named Units In The Battlecalculator If Any:
This behaviour should not apply to games having no shared units.
So, I have not been clear enough; with:
"This behaviour should not apply to games having no shared units."
I meant:
"This behaviour should not apply to games having no shared units that may be entered in the battlecalculator."
Like if "factory" is the only shared unit, and everything is different.
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@cernel
I don't think so. Maybe there could a property where units share a display type. For example, both russianInfantry and germanInfantry have displayType="infantry", so if they are facing each other in the battlecalc they line up. But this sounds like a lot of work for something that usually lines up anyways -
@redrum How about restricting it to apply only to games that have at least 1 same named unit, in the battlecalculator, shared between each and all selectable (not hidden, not null) players in the game?
While not absolutely safe, it would be a fairly consistent way to identify those games that have very different frontiers, and may just happen to share a few units here and there.
I can't think of an available game for which this would not be fine, as long as TWW never gets any of those shared units in the battlecalculator (as I assumed).
