Author Topic: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0  (Read 536740 times)

Offline Arthanor

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Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0
« Reply #855 on: July 22, 2015, 06:06:52 pm »
It seems like such a small change, but it actually makes quite a big difference in that section. I'm glad you like it :) I can look into polishing the text after that, although Ivan did a great job with it. And we can think of which awards should go where (which is a fair amount of work with 60+ of them!) I'll recompile from git tonight or tomorrow to see the UI improvements.

This is only my first attempt at using commendations, after being interested for so long. I'm doing an almost completely unmodded playthrough now. My suggestion of adding your own category was so that it would be easier to import the XAE into my next playthrough ;)

I have noticed that medium scouts count towards Order of Earth (supposed to be 3 missions, Large scouts or bigger). I actually would suggest making it 3 missions: medium UFO or bigger, or terror/base defence/base attack. All the small UFOs are too routine to deserve an award I think.

I assume that the kills problem also affects Taking Names? I've had that one awarded too much too.

@wsmithjr: Are you sure your installation is looking at the right ruleset? In theory, mods should have a metadata file that would cover that, which now is missing so the game tries to display the default string, which also is missing. That, to me, points towards your installation trying to run off data from an older version of OpenXCom.

Offline Shoes

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Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0
« Reply #856 on: July 22, 2015, 06:35:21 pm »
I took a look at the Order of Earth, wondering what exactly the problem was: I am handing it out for every mission. I have a list of mission "types" that aren't counted, but then I list "ufos" as the types. Meaning nothing is not counted.

I am going to change it's behavior though, and award a point towards Order of Earth for any mission that was not a UFO Recovery. It's not entirely fair, but it is future proof: by singling out which UFOs this counts for or not, any future mod that adds UFOs will not interact desirably with the commendation. This also means that a small UFO that lands will grant Order of Earth, but I think it's still appropriate. You're assaulting the UFO, you're not cleaning up after your interceptors.

Offline Arthanor

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Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0
« Reply #857 on: July 22, 2015, 08:32:17 pm »
That's an interesting take on it. Could it use the size class of the UFO instead? Something like anything medium (or large?) and above count regardless of if it is a recovery or an assault. Assaulting a medium scout is nowhere near as difficult as cleaning up a terror ship or battleship.

Any modded UFO will also have a size class (for the radar/hyperwave feedback), so that would be future proof as well. The only difference with the current intended behaviour would be that large scouts would be excluded as well, which really isn't that bad since those are quite routine (and thus not really worthy of a reward).

I guess it is easier to implement: "Anything but recovery" than "recovery&assaults of UFOs medium and larger, plus anything but recovery&assaults" ;)

Offline Shoes

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Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0
« Reply #858 on: July 23, 2015, 12:32:52 am »
I'm glad I did a bit of research before replying to you, otherwise I would be eating my words ;p It seems like going with UFO size is the easiest thing; up until now I did not know UFOs actually had a size. It seems like going with Medium size and up gets rid of the scouts, or going with Large size and up gets rid of harvesters and abductors as well. I don't mind going with medium and up. The way I will code it though is, if a mission was _not_ against a small or very small UFO, then it was important. That way, base missions will still be important.

Offline Arthanor

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Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0
« Reply #859 on: July 23, 2015, 02:09:55 am »
That's awesome! I'm glad I could help. I think medium and up are indeed worthy foes. Anything but small UFOs keeps terrors, base attack/defense and any other crazy stuff people are bound to come up with :D

Offline DracoGriffin

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Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0
« Reply #860 on: July 23, 2015, 02:16:50 am »
@DracoGriffin, thanks for the input! Standardization is something I do want to do, even in the source code I use interchangeably "commendation" and "medal" and "award". I'm not able to properly look at the commend_compare.txt; it looks like a git diff file, but I don't know how to look at those independently. I use a CLI for git, so any advice there would be appreciated.

One of my goals for this mod is to be itself moddable and usable by other mods, so I would definitely want a more "neural" tone to the commendations. It's funny timing that you would mention creating a definition for what is a "medal" and what is a "cross" and all that, as Arthanor is hoping to put some order in the commendations listings.

I will add this to my growing list of things to keep in mind! (found here: https://gist.github.com/Shoes01/3af40f402d287ae9c229 )

Yeah, if you download that .txt and change the .txt to .htm, it'll work. It's just a WinMerge Report.

And I think Arthanor misunderstood me...

But anyway, Shoes, if your goal is both source code inclusion and moddability, it would be best to gear towards the XCOM feel (by fitting the tone/theme of other UFOpedia entries), but having commented lines so modders can easily make changes. An open standard established by you would be great for people like me (I love to edit wikis; ask Hobbes :P).

So uh, let me know if you want me to do more work or not, based on previous convo looks like you guys moved onto bigger and brighter. lol

edit: Also, what I meant about the award thingy:
(general, everyone gets) Commendations - awarded for surviving first mission, or surviving first month with XCOM
(moderate, most soldiers will get if specialized/live long enough) Medals - attained certain rank, captured X enemies, killed Y enemies with grenades
(rare stuff, the commemorate those "Picard" hero types) Star - hit a target with less than 5% chance, mind-controlled an Ethereal (or an enemy with over X Psi-Defense)
« Last Edit: July 23, 2015, 02:29:11 am by DracoGriffin »

Offline Shoes

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Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0
« Reply #861 on: July 23, 2015, 02:32:14 am »
Yeah, if you download that .txt and change the .txt to .htm, it'll work. It's just a WinMerge Report.

...

So uh, let me know if you want me to do more work or not, based on previous convo looks liek you guys moved onto bigger and brighter. lol

Wow, you did a lot of work! I think those changes are great. What other changes did you have in mind? It seems like you already touched on a majority of strings. Anything that adds polish to this project is more than welcome!

Offline DracoGriffin

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Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0
« Reply #862 on: July 23, 2015, 02:51:29 am »
Wow, you did a lot of work! I think those changes are great. What other changes did you have in mind? It seems like you already touched on a majority of strings. Anything that adds polish to this project is more than welcome!

If you notice, they aren't completely uniform. Some were just cleaned up, and some were altered with a neutral point of view; kind of to serve as a mock sample. I have no problem doing more work, as I was getting started on the British version but I'd rather do the work with your approval and how you'd like it to look. :D

Offline Shoes

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Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0
« Reply #863 on: July 23, 2015, 05:51:07 am »
If you notice, they aren't completely uniform. Some were just cleaned up, and some were altered with a neutral point of view; kind of to serve as a mock sample. I have no problem doing more work, as I was getting started on the British version but I'd rather do the work with your approval and how you'd like it to look. :D

I say have your fill! My only concern would be the ufopaedia entries, as those were all done up by ivandogovich. If you have big plans with those entries, I would suggest checking in with him for some feedback.

With the work you're doing, and the work Arthanor has done, this mod is gonna feel pretty good.

Offline Arthanor

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Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0
« Reply #864 on: July 23, 2015, 06:38:03 am »
And I think Arthanor misunderstood me...

Halfway ;) The way you presented your example (XCom first, Neutral second) confused me. I didn't understand what you meant for the tone and thought you wanted to make it neutral as in not flavoured for any one application. Rereading your post now, I see that it wasn't the case and that we, in fact, agree on a lot.

As for vocabulary, it is probably easiest to say "alien" for the aliens, as that seems to be what they are most often refered as, with enemy being a decent substitute to avoid too much repetition within articles (since it is Enemy Unknown, I feel like it keeps the same vibe). Soldiers for soldiers.

The order of awards you have (Commendation -> Medal -> Star, from easy to rare) is similar to what I was suggesting, but I think it would be good to keep some other terms, something like, from common to rare:

Citation (soldier is cited as an example):
The "easy" stuff, surviving, total kill numbers, flanking, backstabbing, headshots, total missions

Commendation (soldier is commended for his action) :
Somewhat exceptional, but not something that would get you a medal. ex: Long distance shots, lucky shots, killing multiple enemies with explosives, stats improvement

Medal (soldier is honored for something worthy):
The first special thing (for absolute number of kills, number of kills per missions), going on X missions, going on Y (less than X) night mission

Order (soldier joins an elite order made of outstanding individuals, like the French Légion d'Honneur):
For things that only a few would manage to do, but also have a "personality". XenoCide is a good example, where you would expect soldiers that excel at killing a certain alien to share a certain "bond", like members of an order would. Stunning lots of aliens and saving all civilians could fit here too. It would be neat to have ranks here be knight, officer, commander, grand officer and grand cross, or something similar, to give the impression of an Order.

Cross:
Really hard/rare stuff, like capturing leaders and commanders, drawing fire a lot

Stars:
The almost impossible stuff, like killing/stunning all aliens in a mission, doing a mission all by yourself. Checks have to be made so that you can't do those against a small scout ;)

I've just updated my spreadsheet with all the requirements for awards and made it editable. I'll start listing what I feel those should be based on the above, feel free to edit it (the link should allow that)

Offline wsmithjr

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Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0
« Reply #865 on: July 23, 2015, 07:27:24 am »
@wsmithjr: Are you sure your installation is looking at the right ruleset? In theory, mods should have a metadata file that would cover that, which now is missing so the game tries to display the default string, which also is missing. That, to me, points towards your installation trying to run off data from an older version of OpenXCom.

Arthanor,

Thanks for the help.  That makes a lot of sense.  I did have a bunch of old folders lying about, so I went and deleted every last reference to OpenXcom from both my install drive and my user folder.  Reinstalled everything from scratch exactly as above.  Problem still exists.

I looked at the openxcom.log file and can't get anything out of that which makes sense.  It does mention E:\Users\Warren.Warren-PC\Documents\OpenXcom\ under Data search but that folder actually does not exist.  Instead of using that, the game just created the user folder in my install folder, D:\Games\OXC.  It says both user and config folder is set to D:\Games\OXC\user.  If there's something extra in there, I didn't put it there myself and I can't figure out what it is or where it could be as the whole folder was wiped before doing a complete reinstall.

Here's the log file which shows where it is searching for and finding everything.  Also, at the end it does show that I'm missing 3 strings from en-us.  But, why are they missing when they are not for others and I haven't touched that file and there's no other file around it could be loading instead?

Spoiler:
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   Data folder is:
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   Data search is:
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - E:\Users\Warren.Warren-PC\Documents\OpenXcom\
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - D:\Games\OXC
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - D:\Games\OXC
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   User folder is: D:\Games\OXC\user\
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   Config folder is: D:\Games\OXC\user\
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   Options loaded successfully.
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   Scanning standard mods in 'standard'...
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/Aliens_Pick_Up_Weapons
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/Commendations
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/Limit_Craft_Item_Capacities
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/PSX_Static_Cydonia_Map
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/UFOextender_Gun_Melee
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/UFOextender_Psionic_Line_Of_Fire
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/UFOextender_Starting_Avalanches
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/XcomUtil_Always_Daytime
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/XcomUtil_Always_Nighttime
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/XcomUtil_Fighter_Transports
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/XcomUtil_High_Explosive_Damage
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/XcomUtil_Improved_Ground_Tanks
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/XcomUtil_Improved_Heavy_Laser
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/XcomUtil_No_Psionics
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/XcomUtil_Pistol_Auto_Shot
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/XcomUtil_Skyranger_Weapon_Slot
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/XcomUtil_Starting_Defensive_Base
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/XcomUtil_Starting_Defensive_Improved_Base
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/XcomUtil_Starting_Improved_Base
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/XcomUtil_Statstrings
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom2
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   Scanning user mods in 'D:\Games\OXC\user\mods'...
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   Mapping resource files...
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]     mapping resources in: standard/Commendations
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]     mapping resources in: standard/xcom1
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]     mapping resources in: UFO
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]     mapping resources in: common
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   SDL initialized successfully.
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   SDL_mixer initialized successfully.
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   Attempting to set display to 640x400x8...
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   Display set to 640x400x8.
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   Loading rulesets...
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/alienDeployments.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/alienItemLevels.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/alienMissions.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/alienRaces.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/armors.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/countries.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/craftWeapons.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:56]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/crafts.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/cutscenes.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/extraSprites.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/facilities.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/globe.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/interfaces.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/inventories.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/items.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/manufacture.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/mapScripts.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/mcdPatches.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/music.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/regions.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/research.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/soldiers.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/startingBase.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/terrains.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/ufoTrajectories.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/ufopaedia.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/ufos.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/units.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/xcom1/vars.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   - standard/Commendations/Commendations.rul
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   Rulesets loaded successfully.
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   Loading resources...
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   Loading font... Font.dat
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   Loading extra resources from ruleset...
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   Resources loaded successfully.
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   Loading language...
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   Language loaded successfully.
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   OpenXcom started successfully!
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   Playing flx, 320x200, 890 frames
[23-07-2015 00:16:57]   [INFO]   Using software scaling routine. For best results, try an OpenGL filter.
[23-07-2015 00:16:59]   [INFO]   SDL_mixer initialized successfully.
[23-07-2015 00:16:59]   [INFO]   SDL_mixer initialized successfully.
[23-07-2015 00:17:01]   [WARN]   STR_1_5X not found in en-us
[23-07-2015 00:17:02]   [WARN]   STR_GAME_TYPE not found in en-us
[23-07-2015 00:17:02]   [WARN]   STR_MODS_TOOLTIP not found in en-us

I beginning to think that this really isn't worth the effort.  As far as I can tell, it doesn't affect game play, only some missing strings.  It just doesn't make sense and *that* is what is driving me up a wall.

I had a similar problem when trying the UFO Redux mod but without Commendations.  A scripted mission kept crashing, but my save ran fine on other computers.  There's gotta be a reason for both of these issues, but I'm completely baffled.

Thanks.  I really appreciate the efforts to help track this down.
« Last Edit: July 23, 2015, 07:30:38 am by wsmithjr »

Offline Shoes

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Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0
« Reply #866 on: July 23, 2015, 04:27:39 pm »
Arthanor, I think those are great guidelines. Again, if you have suggestions about existing commendations needing to be bumped up or down the rarity scale, that can easily be done.

Offline Arthanor

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Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0
« Reply #867 on: July 23, 2015, 05:29:07 pm »
@wsmithjr: Alright.. I think I know what's happening here. It's not that you have an old ruleset lying about, it's that you have too new of a ruleset! You have downloaded the Nightly for July 13th, but you have Commendations for May 25th. That's almost two months of updates in the Nightly that aren't in Commendations.

Particularly, on June 21st, SupSuper changed how languages are handled and, amongst other things, moved STR_MODS_TOOLTIP, STR_1_5X and STR_GAME_TYPE from bin/standard/xcom1/Language/en-US.yml to bin/common/Language/en-US.yml. So when you put the "old" Commendations executable in your folder, it looks in the wrong file and can't find what it's looking for.

Honestly I'm surprised the game managed to work with this setup :P The good news is that Shoes just updated Commendations to July 22nd. I suggest you grab the July 22nd Nightly, the July 22nd Commendations and give that a try :)

@Shoes: I've added a new column in my spreadsheet of what I think commendations should be, and there's a fair few changes I would do. If anyone would like to take a look (and make their own column with what they think it should be), then we can start thinking about changing names. If nobody else takes interest, I'll submit a new ruleset with my suggested changes this weekend or something.

Offline Shoes

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Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0
« Reply #868 on: July 23, 2015, 08:36:06 pm »
Those name changes look good. I see that Ribbons and badges were axed, but I think they could stay for one-of commendations. At the moment there are only like two of them I think, the first month of service and the first to serve. However, first to serve might be a good  example of an order. I might have time tomorrow to put down a column of my own.

Offline Arthanor

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Re: [STAT TRACKING] Soldier Diaries 1.0
« Reply #869 on: July 23, 2015, 08:57:42 pm »
I was trying to slim down the variety. It looks odd to have many categories with few items in them, ideally you have a medium number of categories with a medium number of entries. I'm not entirely sure how it looks for number/category right now though.

Thinking more about it now, we might want to replace commendations with ribbons, actually (I think there is only one with the name commendation right now). Commendations is already the name of the mod/UFOPaedia section and kind of the general term for all of these. Ribbons would fit well between citations and medals.

Badges.. Actually we could keep badges for certain "role" things. Grenadier, field surgeon, maybe a breacher badge for close range kills and a sniper badge for long range. Kind of a way to make the different soldier roles more official.