Log Viewer Enhancements

The topic came up on how to better advertise for winbolo. I think that the log viewer is a great way to get people familiar with what bolo is all about, but in its current form it is somewhat difficult to fire up a log and quickly see the action. Some things that might help:

1) Center the map. I know this can be tricky, but may I suggest using the base locations to find an avg x and y location for the center. For most maps this may work quite well. It would be like a center of gravity type calculation using only the bases.

2) Need the ability to jump to the first base take... Or perhaps 5 to 10 seconds right before this take. (For some games, I'll spend 30 to 40 seconds repeately clicking the forward button to jump to the game start.)

3) Opening a log should start in play mode (not paused or stopped), and using 2) above jump to right before the first base take.

4) Auto-color. Most bolo games involve 2 teams, and if at the first base take you can detect that there are only 2 teams, then make one of them red and one of them green. The user can still change the team colors manually, but this auto-color mode should be enabled by default.

With the above, I could send a log to my friend and have him see what bolo is like, without having to explain how to set team colors, how to center the map, and how to advance to a point in the game where the action starts.

Just suggestions... Log Viewer rocks!

Yeah it does, I think another suggestion would be... Make Logviewer... live... so it can be like watching tv... enterntainment bolo. I think it would be handier than having people in the actual game. Who knows how that would work though.

Until we see some of the above enhancements, I'd like to propose that we come up with some demo games that we can put on the website for people new to the game to download/view.

In order to do this, we'll need a new map with the content in the far upper-left corner. I suggest Chew Toy 3 since that is the most commonly played tourny map. If a map-maker could take the current Chew Toy 3 and modify it to be put in the corner so that log viewer does not need to be recentered, that would be great. We'll need to take into account log viewers default window size.

Then we'll need some actual games. I'd like to see (at least) a demo 1x1 and 2x2. I'd like to see it so that one team is green and the other is red (based on the default color scheme of log viewer), if that is possible. The game should start very quickly with no waiting. Players should join and begin, perhaps with some scripted dialog to form teams, lock, and call go. Preferably the game should be a reasonable game (no quick spikes or extended pill wars) demontrating some common bolo strategies and tactics. (Exactly what those are is perhaps a topic for another thread.)

Thoughts? If someone could post a map (or email me), I can start a dedicated chew toy 3 server and see if we can get any that fit the above.

Fermat wrote:

I'd like to see (at least) a demo 1x1 and 2x2.

Acro should be featured in one of the demos as an example of what not to do in a Winbolo game.

CF

Fermat wrote:

Until we see some of the above enhancements, I'd like to propose that we come up with some demo games that we can put on the website for people new to the game to download/view.

i think this is a great idea, maybe put the game log in a different video format? maybe wmv. or mov.so u dont have to dl the log viewer to look at this stuff so the avg. joe can watch it and be like "hmmm, i think i might like to play this game."

could get some much needed new meat not just intrested in open games.

Fermat, I'm modifying the CT3 map. I'll post here when ready.

Done : http://winbolo.net/mapcollectioninfo.php?id=6687

Alain wrote:

Done : http://winbolo.net/mapcollectioninfo.php?id=6687

Thanks Alain. But in trying it out in log viewer, it appears log viewer is set to center the coordinates based on the non-water content. In particular, it seems to center at the right-bottom edge of non-water content. Can anyone confirm this? (Elvis!) If that is the case, there isn't anything we can do to have the map auto-centered.

I'm not sure if I understand the problem here, Fermat, but hopefully this solves it:

http://winbolo.net/mapcollectioninfo.php?id=6688

I'll try it... But I suspect it will have the same issue.

But... it just occured to me... We could put the map in the lower-right corner of the map, and it may force lv to show the entire map. We will have to experiment.

I think the issue here is that WinBolo automatically centers the map, not the log viewer. I just tried Alain's map and I think that's the case. On my map I have a boat in the lower left-hand corner, which aughta work.

Fermat, did the "boats galore" map work?

"But... it just occured to me... We could put the map in the lower-right corner of the map, and it may force lv to show the entire map. We will have to experiment."

Problem with that is now there is deep sea mines close to the map and that changes how the game is played.

By the way I fully agree with your suggestions. Winbolo game play is difficult to understand as is, having a complicated procedure to see a game in action only makes it more difficult to promote. Those suggestions, though I am by no means a programmer, from what I can tell seem fairly easy to implement. Finding center of map would just be a quick calc. if the screen needs to have a start position for the top left corner, then simply take center point calculated point, and use some arithmatic to get to that point (10 to the left, 10 up or whatever it is, not sure)