I can make a battlerecorder....

[Magyar Khan]

Dear Guys, with some small help of our CA friends i can make a battle recorder viewer programm, to watch your battle after the game. I need just 1 thing from the programmers, they need to output some unit data. for example just data every 15 seconds of the game about:

OVERALL
number of men
map and so on


and for each player
PLAYER 1
UNIT Xcoor Ycoor formation numberofmenleft whatisunitdoing facing

I just need the coordinates of the main flag bearers. This can result in a not real accurate battle viewer but i think it will be good enough to reveal the main battletactics.

a badexplained example why it can go wrong: an unit is 120 men wide spread out in 1 rank. it will show on the viewer as just 1 small unit and not 1 spread out line. Afterwards others viewing youir battle might think why u did not surrounded the other, 120 men in 1 line is hard to encircle.

But i am sure just the unitdata will still be enough.I think that outputting all soldiers data of even 4 vs 4 with 120 per unit may lag the online game.

What do U think? And will the developers help?

[The Black Ship]

Hmmmm...

I like the idea Magy, it would be great watching a well done wheel flanking! Or watching your ca come barreling down your opponents backside!

But I'd love it if you made your log reader for multi-player first! I love looking at the files, but half the time my army isn't listed! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[ShadowKill]

He said he was going to work on it http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

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Fear not the sword to your front, but the blade at your back.

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[Magyar Khan]

How many of u do want the battle recorder anyway!?

me me me
http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif

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the great lord http://www.geocities.com/vinyljock/monn_t.gif jd

[Rob]

Me Too! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[Dwimmerlaik]

I would give you a year's worth of ears for one...

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To be happy it is necessary not to be too intelligent
- Flaubert-

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[Vanya]

I think this would be best as an Event Recorder. There would be 3 types of events: Movement, Formation, and Kill. Movement events specify the unit/group, direction and speed. Formation events would describe the change in a unit formation, ie, from 2 rows deep to 4 rows deep. Kill events would be soldier 1 of unit A kills soldier 3 of unit F. Movement speeds would be March, Charge, Stop and Rout.

This prevents the event log from being filled up with data about nothing new. Only changes are thus recorded. The spike in events when the killing starts will die down as men are killed.

So, a camper that does nothing will have NO events recorded for him until the fighting begins. And a rusher may have only one event until the fighting begins: a movement event for the whole army.

The start of the logfile would have the starting positions of all the units.

I think that if we can get the developers to output this event data, any reader we make will be more accurate and fun to watch.

What do you think? How do you compare this to the capture of just coordinate positions every so many seconds?

[Magyar Khan]

hmm not only movementdata, but imo it would be so simple to output the small data amount every 15 sec or maybe 30 sec.
OR even a TGA file of the radarminimap every 15 seconds will be fine.

But if i can have the data in a file i can make the programm as i like it, i want to make it Now!

Vanya i can hardly imagine how it will work and really benefits us. In my idea i see a similar viewer like the one in Sid Meiers Gettysburg

[Shiro]

Put me down for wanting one!
-Shiro

[Vanya]

Sorry, but I don't have "Gettysburg", so I have no frame of reference here...

[Rob]

There definitely should be some kind of battle recorder facility within the game itself IMO. I know it won't make it into patch 1.13, but hopefully in a future patch/sequel we will have the ability to play battles back from within the game.

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Honour to Clan Akai Ken

[The Black Ship]

The radar minimap idea would be great for watching tactics (or lack of), you could see those generals that have a good grasp of combined tactics for static action, and those with good dynamic skills too! http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

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Niger Navis Navis Sesquiculus ShipOfFear

[Magyar Khan]

nothing heard from the developers so far
THE SHOGUN?

[FeartheolD]

have a look at the recorder in Homeworld somethink like that would be really useful

Comeone EA make something simiar to the recorder in Homeworld plz

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Keep you exits clear and your needles clean

[Hirosito]

does any1 remember the old 'expansion recorder' from civilisation? http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/cool.gif that was good enough for its time shouldn't be 'too' hard to implemnet something like that. Gettysburgs batlle recorder was really good it showed the movement and terrain and unit types (correct me if i am wrong http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/confused.gif magyar) in a top down view. speed was changeable i remember

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Hirosito Mori

A warrior's wisdom is shown in the treating of his defeated opponent http://cgi.tripod.com/smilecwm/cgi-bin/s/owen/sid.gif

[Magyar Khan]

yeah gettysburg was the best i have seen