BattleMaster Community
BattleMaster => Development => Feature Requests => Topic started by: Ocean Yong Kiran on February 25, 2019, 09:27:38 AM
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every day, a new idea! ;D ;D ;D
Title:
Scout from map
Summary:
Have ability to click on region on map and scout
Details :
Maybe a new icon, or maybe only a button on the region page. It must check if you are okay to scout that region
Benefits:
To me it is more instictive to look at map and say "What is there?". The other page is good but I don't see everything happening in world when I'm thinking
Possible Downsides/Exploits:
I don't know
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Just to be clear, do you intend for this to allow you to scout regions beyond what is immediately adjacent to your current location?
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No, only as is now. Just a simpler way to do it
I notice every day I must open many tabs at the same time when planning. I think more things from the map is maybe easier
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No, only as is now. Just a simpler way to do it
I notice every day I must open many tabs at the same time when planning. I think more things from the map is maybe easier
So you want to interact with the map more? Like clicking regions on the map to scout instead of clicking text names of those regions?
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For this idea, yes.
I have other ideas - maybe when hover over name, also says hours to travel, maybe tells infrastructure or useful infos
But I know some is hard and all this needs time, so one idea at a time
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Once regions have been scouted and you have the report, you can look at the political map and refer to the scout reports from there.
Still opens more tabs, but you can start with the overall picture with the political map and refer to the reports you need from there.
I do not often use the dynamic maps much, but from what I understand, they present more like what you are asking for.
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Thank you, but I think this is the opposite end of what I am trying to describe.
I want to scout and see region informations *from* the map starting place
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BM map isn't very interactive. I am not even sure devs will put what little time they have on something like this since they already have a huge list of things they want to work on.
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I don't have an issue with clicking to scout neighbouring regions via the dynamic map(s).
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I don't have an issue with clicking to scout neighbouring regions via the dynamic map(s).
If it is doable, that would be really cool. So I guess we will have a button under detail if you do decide to implement? Would you be able to add move to the region button as well?
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I never use the dynamic map really. Don't like it very much.
Scouting from a map does sound cool. I'd prefer to have it from political map, then. But well.
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Really with the systems available to us now we should be looking to consolidate the maps into one anyway
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The problem with that is you've got different people who have very different strong opinions in what they want from their maps.
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The problem with that is you've got different people who have very different strong opinions in what they want from their maps.
What aspect of the political map could not be provided on the dynamic map via layers?
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system resources.
The political map loads quicker and burns less resources to look at.
The other map I think is probably java based and sucks resources on borderline or non-optimized systems like a squirrel on caffeine...
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system resources.
The political map loads quicker and burns less resources to look at.
The other map I think is probably java based and sucks resources on borderline or non-optimized systems like a squirrel on caffeine...
It uses javascript sure, just like 90% of websites these days. As does the political map for doing things like hiding different icons when you want to.
The dynamic map only loads what you want. So when you select new layers it has to poll the server and retrieve that info. In terms of system resources my system is telling me that the dynamic map page is using a whole 20,000k more memory then this forum and 10,000k more then the political map. Enabling every single layer on Dwilight only adds another 20,000k memory footprint. So even on this ten year old laptop I notice no real issue in terms of performance.
For reference the Dynamic Map makes use of https://openlayers.org/ . This is a very mature and reasonably well coded open source library. M&F uses an old version of the library for a world that consists of many many more regions then any Battlemaster map (my realm alone consists of over 200 regions in M&F and it is not the largest realm in the game, which has more then 400 regions within their borders) and that loads okay even on my old pixel phone.
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How would you avoid scouting from misclicks?
Perhaps a map when you click Send out scouts that you can click to scout a region would work, but I wouldn't put this on the political map.
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And that's why I avoid 90% of the websites out there that are resource hogs and information scarce.
Oh sure, now that I've updated machines, the dynamic map doesn't drag my machine to its knees like it did my old netbooks. And the less said about what it did to my older android devices the better.
But the political map is still just easier and quicker to open. The dynamic isn't as annoying as it used to be, but I shouldn't have to upgrade a computer to play a text-based game because it relies on sloppy java code. Not saying YOUR coding is sloppy. Saying that java is sloppy, and there just isn't much you can do about that. Other than stay the hell away from it.
But that's my Old Man Website Coder fingers doing the talking.
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And that's why I avoid 90% of the websites out there that are resource hogs and information scarce.
Oh sure, now that I've updated machines, the dynamic map doesn't drag my machine to its knees like it did my old netbooks. And the less said about what it did to my older android devices the better.
But the political map is still just easier and quicker to open. The dynamic isn't as annoying as it used to be, but I shouldn't have to upgrade a computer to play a text-based game because it relies on sloppy java code. Not saying YOUR coding is sloppy. Saying that java is sloppy, and there just isn't much you can do about that. Other than stay the hell away from it.
But that's my Old Man Website Coder fingers doing the talking.
JavaScript, it is an entirely different beast to Java. It worked fine on my old google pixel, it works fine on my 10 year old laptop.
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Yeah. Javascript is not Java. But gotta say I love Javascript more than Java. Seriously !@#$ Java.
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And that's why I avoid 90% of the websites out there that are resource hogs and information scarce.
Oh sure, now that I've updated machines, the dynamic map doesn't drag my machine to its knees like it did my old netbooks. And the less said about what it did to my older android devices the better.
But the political map is still just easier and quicker to open. The dynamic isn't as annoying as it used to be, but I shouldn't have to upgrade a computer to play a text-based game because it relies on sloppy java code. Not saying YOUR coding is sloppy. Saying that java is sloppy, and there just isn't much you can do about that. Other than stay the hell away from it.
But that's my Old Man Website Coder fingers doing the talking.
I do not mean to cause the offense, but any person who calls javascript "java" knows little or nothing about the modern programming and should not have strong opinions in the matter
The politcal map uses less javascript and memory than your email client you use everyday. or almost any other page you visit, anywhere
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You don't mean to offensive, and then you go total offensive.
I cut my teeth doing computer programming when both java and javascript were being implemented.
I remember well the introduction of both and what they made it possible to do across the computer landscape. Mindblowing options across every computer platform that changed computing.
I also know very well how inefficient and insecure both can be when it comes to computer resources and computer security. Javascript is one of the primary ways of distributing viruses, for example.
Hence why I do not install java on most of the computers in my network, and why I install javascript blockers to keep scripts from running unless I specifically enable them.
I have strong opinions on anything that uses the name java in any way. Yes, I recognize that they are amazingly powerful, and I recognize that they can do things nothing else can do. But they are my last resort when it comes to doing things, not my first. Because I care about the system resources and security of the people who visit my websites.
As for the political map...yeah. That's exactly the point I've been making. The political map is an excellent example of a page that uses minimal system resources and gets maximal benefit out of it. It runs perfectly on any machine built in the last twenty years without any hiccups.
The dynamic map when it first came out worked well on systems that were modern at the time, but brought five or ten year old systems to their knees because they didn't have enough memory or processing power. Most of those older machines have now been retired, even by computer professionals who know how to keep them working, because computers built in the 20teens are generally superior. Or because the spare parts to keep the older machines working are getting harder to find. Take your pick.
The dynamic map no longer bothers my current computer systems like it did when it first came out. Because I've upgraded over the years and newer machines just don't slog down on it. But I remember well when it did, and continue to use the political map as my goto resource because it works well and does what I need.
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I shall say this in a different way.
Web pages are on one's own computer. Programmers have tools to analyse these pages.
If you analyse this map, you see there is almost zero javascript. This map is rendered with php on the server.
Your fears are not something real.
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I think we can get back to the point of this discussion now.
Scouting from the map or not.
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BattleMaster is essentially a TEXT based game.
This feature would not really add anything to the game that is not already possible.
A little less convenient and maybe not as "pretty", but possible with a few clicks of existing options.
Personally, I would rather see Dev time spent on things that would add to or improve the game.
For me it seems like this request is trying to move the game more towards a graphic oriented game where we can click on pictures for actions instead of words.
I am also a firm user of the political map. I find the dynamic map very aggravating as every time I try to move the map around to see a different area, a little box pops up (a nice box if that is what you want) and hides part of the screen. I close the box and as soon as I touch the screen again, the box pops up again to block my view.
As for scouting from the political map, I do not always want a scout report when I am looking at a region on this map. I would hate to loose hours receiving scout reports that I did not specifically want.
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I don't think it would be too difficult to add a link to the box that pops up on the Dynamic Map when you click a region that lets you scout that region.
Adding more icons to the Political Map would, I think, be a mistake.
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BattleMaster is essentially a TEXT based game.
This feature would not really add anything to the game that is not already possible.
A little less convenient and maybe not as "pretty", but possible with a few clicks of existing options.
Personally, I would rather see Dev time spent on things that would add to or improve the game.
For me it seems like this request is trying to move the game more towards a graphic oriented game where we can click on pictures for actions instead of words.
I am also a firm user of the political map. I find the dynamic map very aggravating as every time I try to move the map around to see a different area, a little box pops up (a nice box if that is what you want) and hides part of the screen. I close the box and as soon as I touch the screen again, the box pops up again to block my view.
As for scouting from the political map, I do not always want a scout report when I am looking at a region on this map. I would hate to loose hours receiving scout reports that I did not specifically want.
I'm finding myself strongly agreeing with this.
It's a 'nice to have', but certainly not something worth current DEV time to be honest.
I don't think it would be too difficult to add a link to the box that pops up on the Dynamic Map when you click a region that lets you scout that region.
Adding more icons to the Political Map would, I think, be a mistake.
Unfortunately I'm also not a very big fan of Dynamic map and even if such button would be added, I would continue to not use that map :)
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I don't think it would be too difficult to add a link to the box that pops up on the Dynamic Map when you click a region that lets you scout that region.
Adding more icons to the Political Map would, I think, be a mistake.
Why not put this in a popup on the *political* map? Perhaps this will work? If not, dynamic map is a little clunky but it can be a good first place to try.
I think some peoples here underestimate how much time is wasted running around finding new pages. This is not attempt for more graphic game. This is attempt to make small improvement to - I am sorry for the insult, but is very true - a very bad, very inconvenient UX. With such bad UX, people play the game less for the time it takes to do even the simple tasks. With good UX people can use the time for talking.
Please - if you are not a developer, do not use "dev time" as excuse. The logic already exists. This is 20 minutes of work. If I must, I will volunteer and make myself, if this is the only point against
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Fah!
I am on my island, I think to move to next region, i click travel page...wait! I mean to scout first. I must go to other page, look for scouting, send scout report while I am here. Okay, I am looking at scout report of region I want to go - yes! I will go here, where is "Travel to this region" link?...no, must first go back to travel, find again the link to click. Fah! I forgot to scout other regions! Must I stop for do this? I do not bother then, and now I am not so much interested in having talk with realm that does not talk much anyway.
All of us love the big, new ideas, the "roadmaps". But it is too much easy to look past all of the little things that can make something fun or a pain.
I think a collection of ideas of these small things, a small time to say yes/no on each, a weekend of coding - you have a game so much more convenient you are truly amazed
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Scouting from the travel page is actually something I've had sort of poking at the back of my mind for a long time. I think something like that would be an excellent idea—just have multiple links after each region you can travel to, one for travel, one for scouting. (Suitably separated, to make it harder to misclick.)
The political map doesn't currently have popups, and it would be non-trivial to add them.
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I will make a new thread for this idea.
Already there is jquery, so this is completely trivial. There are already countless libraries with the jquery or with even the css now
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it is faster in Orders > Send Scouts than Information > Map > Region > Scouts.. maybe you just need more time to familiarize with the links tree. at some point you wont even need to open map to know which region you need to scout (well when you scout you need to scout every/most surrounding regions, otherwise youre doing it wrong. enemies might attack you in surprise if you dont. and in this condition, current link is just perfect)
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I think some peoples here underestimate how much time is wasted running around finding new pages. This is not attempt for more graphic game. This is attempt to make small improvement to - I am sorry for the insult, but is very true - a very bad, very inconvenient UX. With such bad UX, people play the game less for the time it takes to do even the simple tasks. With good UX people can use the time for talking.
Please - if you are not a developer, do not use "dev time" as excuse. The logic already exists. This is 20 minutes of work. If I must, I will volunteer and make myself, if this is the only point against
I understand that I might be about to break the forum rules and I stand ready for any punishment that I am due for what I am about to write.
It needs to be said.
Who do you think you are???
I am no DEV, but if I were, I believe I would be very offended by what you have written here (and in some other places).
Several people have set aside as much of their spare time as they are willing to set aside to keep the game up and running for almost 20 years.
Have you offered your great and vast abilities to help our current DEVS to help make the game better for EVERYONE?
I see that you are willing to put aside 20 minutes of your time to make the game better for YOU (if you must), but are you willing to set aside hundreds of hours of YOUR spare time to make the game better for others? Then face some newcomer to the game that says all of your previous work is essentially crap?
I do not use "dev time" as an excuse, THE DEVS do.
Since I respect the fact that they are VOLUNTEERS providing a "service" that I can not do myself nor likely get elsewhere for FREE, I happily accept "dev time" as an excuse.
If the development of a game were so easy and quick, I suspect a person of your great expertise would be off running their own game, that they have designed, without flaws and not be here looking to shoot down our Devs and poking holes in their game.
From the posts that I have seen here on the forums, I truly get the impression that there is little, if anything, that you like about the current version of BattleMaster. You have expressed, in many places, things that YOU don't like about our game. You have repeatedly expressed how WE can make the game more fun for YOU.
We all play BattleMaster different ways for different reasons.
When insisting things will make the game "better" we must also consider if these things will make the game "better" for the bulk of the players or a select few.
When you belittle the devs by complaining about their work and suggesting that things are trivial to change/implement you are just being conceited and probably not even a very good programmer. It may be easy to slap together a few lines of code to accomplish a small thing like turning a green light on, but trying to implant/mesh that code into existing programming that already runs thousands of panels of lights and switches and dials takes much more work.
What DO you like about BattleMaster, why do you keep checking in?
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I read other day thread similar to idea I had, was doing the researching. Everyone like the idea.
From seven years in the past.
With the people saying "I wish I am dev, can help". The same people still here saying "I wish I am dev, can help"
For seven years, could learn to help. But they do not, I think, so much.
THIS is what I do not like.
If my idea is good, if my idea is bad - I *shrug*. But I do not like the only negative all the time talkers.
Already I ask about the volunteering to Vita. I will volunteer for where ever the need is.
YES! I am the new player, only 3 weeks in the game, and already I ask "How can I help"
This is more I think than many talkers who are here only talking for the 20 years
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I read other day thread similar to idea I had, was doing the researching. Everyone like the idea.
From seven years in the past.
With the people saying "I wish I am dev, can help". The same people still here saying "I wish I am dev, can help"
For seven years, could learn to help. But they do not, I think, so much.
THIS is what I do not like.
If my idea is good, if my idea is bad - I *shrug*. But I do not like the only negative all the time talkers.
Already I ask about the volunteering to Vita. I will volunteer for where ever the need is.
YES! I am the new player, only 3 weeks in the game, and already I ask "How can I help"
This is more I think than many talkers who are here only talking for the 20 years
Hold one mate.
A lot of people want to help. A lot of people do in various ways.
But a lot of people would offer their help in a blink of an eye if they could provide something useful.
Learning to code is not something all people are open to in sparetime. And that is alright, pretty normal thing.
Don't judge people for playing a game and just occasionally logging a feature request idea instead of offering to code it for us 'because they could have learnt it in the past 20 years'. That logic just doesn't add up.
We appreciate your efforts on proposing new stuff. Hell, new players are an absolutely important source to help us know what could keep newbies around and what not.
But please keep it civil.
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Scouting from the travel page is actually something I've had sort of poking at the back of my mind for a long time. I think something like that would be an excellent idea—just have multiple links after each region you can travel to, one for travel, one for scouting. (Suitably separated, to make it harder to misclick.)
The political map doesn't currently have popups, and it would be non-trivial to add them.
Yes, I agree with Delvin & you OYK, that is a good idea we should be looking at.