Tournament App Build 2.5.3 Ready for Test

Here is my newest build if people want to try testing it out.

http://fowcanada.forumotion.ca/f26-development

If you want to help test you'll need to sign up on our forum so you can report bugs. 

I finally had a chance to fully test the app at a tournament.  But I ran into a problem with blue on blue match-ups not calculating scores properly.  other then that it worked pretty good.  The blue on blue match-ups have been fixed.  I've also removed the blue on blue option for the setup.  the app will automatically determine if blue on blue needs to happen.  If it does it will still only do blue on blue match-ups as a last resort. 

Here are the changes.

I went to a weighted scoring only.  Seeing how the New Zealand nationals were weighted.  No matter what kind of options you take for scoring you will end up with a score out of 100.  So, when sportsmanship is set to 20% it really means 20%.  Not 20% of your total sports score, so it could end up being 4.5% or 45% of your overall score.

I've really been able to clean scoring up because of this.  There is now a check box for judges.  What this means that if this is checked, judges will decide paint score.  1-6 judges will be able to give their scores for all players.

The Fav %, is for the % of score that player votes will count for.  Whether you use judges or player scoring every player can vote for their favorite paint.  The % is part of your overall 100% but cannot go over your max Historic weight.  This will be subtracted from our Historic weight.  So if you set Historic to 20% and Favorite % to 5%.  Your Judging will be worth 15% and player pics will be worth 5%, for a total of 20% for Historic.

If you have 18 players in your tournament, all 18 players would have to judge your army as the best in order to get the FULL 5%.  Even if you make it 2%, this seems to really eliminate ties.

If you select 0% for Fav %, obviously none will be counted to your overall score.  However those votes will still be added together for a Favorite opponent award.

Similarly there is a Score Fav check box.  If this box is checked.  players can vote on a favorite opponent for an extra point that will count towards your overall score.  You will only be able to vote for players you play against  If the box is unchecked no Favorite opponent votes will count towards your overall score, however like Historic those votes will still count towards a favorite opponent award.

Favorite opponent votes are also used in tiebreakers, if people didn't know that.

The next major add on will be to add groups into match-ups.  I've been meaning to add this in for a while, but at this tournament I tested at, a bunch of out of town players ended up playing each other.  This is what the groups will be for.  You create a group for players that don't' want to play each other.  Maybe you have several clubs.  Just create a group for each and assign players to those groups.  Then those players won't play each other for at least the first round.

Any way, we are closing in on 6 months for this project and I've done very little painting.  If you want your say before this gets released, please sign up and do some testing for me.

Appreciate it.
Curtis.

The Most Famous Gun in History!

Well, its been a very long time since I've actually posted something painting related.  I've been very busy getting the app going for Battlefront.

It seems strange but you can get out of practice painting.  I felt very rusty painting these German 88's.  Even taking pictures of them takes practice.  I couldn't remember any settings.  I had to play around with camera settings again.  It was almost like starting the hobby all over again.

But with the App nearing completion I've found time to begin painting again.  I've been into Flames of War for almost 5 years now.  And these 88's were probably one of the first models I bought.  I even took them to a tournament this past weekend.  To bad 88's stick.  The entire platoon was wiped out in every battle.

I did a little bit of research into the 88's ammo.  AA ammo had a brass casing with a yellow head.  And strangely enough anti-tank ammo has a black head with an iron casing.  I'm not sure why the different casings.  Must have something to do with the burn of the gun powder or something?  If anyone knows be sure to let me know.

I even added rare earth magnets, but after its all put together...you can't turn the damn thing anyway.  All the guys are in the way.   

Anyway, hopefully I will begin to have more painting updates soon.  I'll be getting 2 sets of hezters done for Shawn.  Probably with in the week.  I re-did one set of them.  I the ambush pattern marks were to big.  So, I'm doing those 4 in what shawn calls...chicken pox patter...

I look forward to hear from all my old friends, enjoy.

FoW Air Squadron Part I

Vintage Wings of Canada

One of my favorite things about Version 3 is the use of only one aircraft instead of 3.  Now I could assemble and paint all the different variations of each aircraft.  So, yesterday, I pulled out all my aircraft, planned and built each one based on what I was going to do.

In the end I've come up with 15 aircraft I'm going to paint all at the same time.  I also decided I was going to dedicate these airplanes to our friend Todd Lemieux and Vintage Wings of Canada.


Here are the plans for my 15 aircraft.

British Aircarft
For the British I have 2 Hurricanes (a C & D), and a Typhoon.

Vintage Wings of Canada actually has a Hurricane IV so I am going to paint the IIc the same as it looks to have the same weapons.

Vintage Wings Hurricane MkIV

 Because I don't want another desert airplane I will probably paint the Hurricane IId this colour\

Hurricane IId

Then I'll paint the Typhoon the obvious choice.  Although i'm not too sure how hard those stripes are going to be.

Hawkers Typhoon

Soviet Aircarft

I will paint 2 Strumoviks.  I think this is just a beautiful aircraft.  Its just right up there with the Spitfire in terms of looks.  I'll paint one the 'regular' Eastern Front way.

The second one, I'm going to paint this really cool blue way.  I think this was flown by some famous Soviet Ace in Chine against Japan...you know when the Soviets "didn't know" the war was over and kept on fighting the Japanese. 

For the last Hurricane I have, I may actually turn this into a Soviet aircraft.  I believe the hurricane was one of the very first Lend-Lease pieces of equipment the allies gave the soviets.  Can't use it in the game....yet.

Stuka JU-87
I have 6 Stuka's.  I scooped probably the last box of 3 around.  I have 3 already painted but decided I would repaint them.  They were OK, but I can do better.  I've learned a lot since painting these babies.

One of the painted ones I'm just going to add a winter wash.  Should be pretty easy.  I will also repaint a Stuka D, and paint up a Stuka G.  A 4th one I'm not sure yet.  I may paint one in Africa or Sicily colours.  I will leave one unpainted and maybe trade it or paint it later.   The Stuka D I'm thinking about trying in more of a panzer grey colour.  I can find a few pictures, but it could be that the colour is faded.

Winter Camo

Stuka G

Stuka D Grey?

Henschel HS-129 B

Did I mention that I love FoW is only using 1 aircraft now?  And it's mostly because of this one.  I can now have both the HS-129 B and the HS-129 B-3.  I will have one of each, and then the 3rd one I am painting a winter HS-129 B-3 for my Kampfgruppe Bäke.

This is the most common paint of a HS-129 B.  But I'm not sure if its correct.  I read "somewhere" that the propeller cones on the Eastern Front were blue because the Soviet Nose cones were red.  And I think the yellow tail stripe means Russian Front. 

I hope this next one exists.  I may actually paint one of them black like this.

And a Winterized one....looks more like a cow.

Italian Aircraft
I did say I would paint 5 Stuka's.  Well the 5th one will be an Italian Stuka for the Eastern Front.  Along with that I will paint 2 CR42 Falco's.  I will paint 1 CR42 for Africa/Sicily, and one for Greece or somewhere they wouldn't have desert camo.  I don't believe any were used on the Eastern Front except by the Hungarians, but i'll paint one that way anyway.   Apparently the Falco was the worlds last operational combat biplane.

Italian Stuka

CR42 Falco

other options

 
Maybe I bit off more then I can chew since I'm still painting Strelkovy and working on the tournament app, but we'll see.

Tournament App
Just a quick preview, here is something new I added to the app.  Country colour and unit designations on the matchup screen.  This was actually Joe Krones idea and I think it turned out awesome.  A tool time will also appear over each icon telling you exactly what company it is.

FoW Tournament App Ready for Testing

Well after almost 4 months of development, I believe (and hope) this app is ready for testing.
I've even actually been able to start painting some Strelkovy.  Which really just makes me want to work on the app more...:)

Here is a document on how to use the app and what it can do so far.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8y4bybvfxT8RGlrMkNESjhKems

If you wish to help test, join the FoW Canada Forum.
http://fowcanada.forumotion.ca/

You'll find a FoW tournament app section where you can download the software.
I've also created  a section for tracking issues that you find.

Just remember this is not a finished product.  This is only the basics of what I have planned for it.  Once its totally stable and idiot...I mean User Proof...I will begin expanding and refining the app.

Remember, for those that have never been around the development world, I want you to break it.
The more you break it the better it will be in the end.

Note:  Once the app is installed, Vista and Win 7 users must either turn down their UAC or hold down 'Shift', Right click, and run as administrator.

Auckland Here I Come!

My app is  a huge hit with Battlefront

Battlefront has made it official. They like what I've done on this tournament app so much that they have offered me a job.

 I'll be moving to Auckland in September to be part of their development team.

Thank you Joe Krone for the opportunity to work on this project. 

The app is 100% working now, and I will be looking for some testers very soon.

D-Day Commission Project.

The board is coming together.  Here is what Shawn has done with the stuff I painted for the board.

You can see more of his stuff here.

http://theterrainstudio.blogspot.ca/

Fow Tournament App Moving Along

I haven't disappeared.  I've been diligently working on the FoW Tournament app over the last 2 months.  Working with Joe Krone to get it the way Battlefront wants it.  Unfortunately this also means I've done ZERO painting.

Its getting close to being done.  The biggest challenge without getting too technical was getting drop downs to individually filter in a grid and being able to write it back to the database without a big performance hit.  This is so things could be edited on the fly, sorta speak.  I wanted to be able to edit the tournament with out opening up umpteen new windows.  In my research on how to do this, it sounds like I'm not the only one who has trouble with combo boxes (as they are really called) in a datagrid.  Not with out buying some crazy 3rd party tool anyway.  No one seemed to be able to build a data grid, and filter individual combo boxes based on other combo boxes and then save it back to the database. 

Since "some" of the Saskatoon guys already think I'm too cocky there is no sense holding back now.  So I'll say it, "I'm an F'n genius."  I finally figured it out.  I'm now 100% happy the direction this project is taking.

Anyway, here's where its at.
Mission Generator is 100% working and updated to Version 3 missions.  Check the missions you want and it will randomly generate one for you.  This is a standalone tool, but will be incorporated into the tournament.

Just added buttons to check or uncheck all missions of a group. 

  
Add players to your database.  I've been working on adding Provinces/States of countries around the world.  Provinces will be filtered based on the country that you select.  You will also put your RHQ rank and # in here.  you can always come back here to edit existing players or add new ones.  this does not add them to your tournaments.

You can load tournaments in progress.  You can (theoretically) run multiply tournaments at the same time.  Haven't tested the database hit yet.  Just click button with the tournament name you want.

It will Auto Generate matchups for you and randomly assign the pair to a table.  You can view different rounds by selecting the round you want from the drop down.  Once populated you can edit the dropdowns to manually set tables and matchups.  Soon I will be adding random missions, and if it detects 2 Fortified armies will automatically assign that pair to the No Man's Land mission.

I'm still working on the logic for it to assign matchups in later rounds based on standings.  Groups have also been added.  You can assign players to a group.  Maybe you don't want players from the same club to play each other until later rounds.  Players from the same group won't be matched up.

Also has a timer for strickly keeping track of a round.  The timer will turn red when it gets to 30 minutes let.  I've thought about also having it do some kind of sound like machine gun fire or something. 

Go to set up to change the rules of your tournament.  Still working on what battlefront wants here.  and how it will look. 

Set your rosters.  This screen is the main reason why I wanted to get these dropdowns in data grids working.

A HUGE Thank you to Gregg Sitter from EasyArmy for providing me with army lists.

You can select a source a country and an alignment and it will filter your list of armies to choose from.  I will also have it filter by era of the tournament that is running.  I think there is a lot of potential for EasyArmy and this app to talk to each other in the future.  Could even validate your lists from EasyArmy to make sure the era and points total match. 

I am also working on Steve's  idea of drag and drop for adding players to your tournament.  But for now it will just be checkboxes.  Clicking add players will give you the list of all players in your database. check their box to add them to the current tournament.

And as above it has a mission generator for your tournament.  you can choose random missions or assign them yourself.  Either way you will only be able to select the ones you checkbox.

So, I'm getting there.  I applogize to my millions and millions of fans (or 1) for being away so long.  But I really am working hard on this.  I haven't disappeared.  I really want to get going on my Kampfengrupe Bake Kompanie.

Rules Nazi Note

I am ABSOLUTELY loving Version 3.  I don't know about everyone else.  To the point where I can't even stand to look at the old Version 2 book.  But the Rules Nazi will be back.  I've already found a couple of...issues.  Maybe they've been resolved already on the forum but we'll see.

Hope to talk to everyone soon.  My goal is to have this app completely working (minus a few options) and ready for test before the end of March.