aliens

Author Topic: Statistics soldiers  (Read 21610 times)

Offline Ethereal

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 684
    • View Profile
Statistics soldiers
« on: September 16, 2017, 10:55:50 am »
I propose to alter the statistics of soldiers. Who can a bild miniature version of the statistics of soldiers, a separate option, with the excision of the memory of each specific mission? To just how many killed, who and what weapons.
Example -

        diary:
          killList:
            - STR_FLOATER_SOLDIER: 4
            - STR_GILLMAN_NAVIGATOR: 2
            - STR_SECTOID_COMMANDER: 1
          killWeapon:
            - STR_GRENADE: 3
            - STR_PROXIMITY_GRENADE: 1
            - STR_SHOTGUN: 3

Ie - without indicating which specific mission and when each enemy was killed. And any successful action against the opponent, whether psionic, murder, stunning, or killing "improvisation", is saved only for the current battle and until its end, and then recorded in a common heap, as indicated above.

Simply, the current system very slows down the Save / Load process. When you have 250-300 soldiers who have committed 7-10 missions and killed 20-30 opponents each, the Save or Load process can take up to a minute.

Simply put, I propose also clear the memory of each destroyed unit. And you can write them down after the fight with a list in a common heap. This will also free up the memory and the size of the file "sav" will decrease.

Offline Yankes

  • Global Moderator
  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 3349
    • View Profile
Re: Statistics soldiers
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2017, 04:21:32 pm »
Another solution is change way how statistics are stored in save. Similar how battlespace map is saved.
This will speed up process and reduce space used by it. Only thing that could be problematic are is aliens names as strings (arbitrary length string complicate binary formats) but this could be avoided storing unique string used by diary in separate yaml array and refer to it by index from binary representation.

Offline Ethereal

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 684
    • View Profile
Re: Statistics soldiers
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2017, 06:20:48 pm »
Another solution is to take all the statistics to a separate file, paralleled with ".sav" (111.sav + 111.stsav), which will not be affected when saving / loading in tactical missions. As practice has shown, even with the statistics disabled, it is still conducted, but only for the current mission. Then it is reset, if it continues and loads after the battle. Could save the current statistics in a separate file, at the end of the battle, which is activated only when accessing the soldier's statistics in the window in base.

Offline Yankes

  • Global Moderator
  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 3349
    • View Profile
Re: Statistics soldiers
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2017, 08:18:41 pm »
This would need lot more work to do because when you save in battlescape you save geoscape too. All state need be loaded and saved even if it in separate file.
Changing this would require rebuilding whole logic responsible for changing states.

Offline SupSuper

  • Lazy Developer
  • Administrator
  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 2162
    • View Profile
Re: Statistics soldiers
« Reply #4 on: September 17, 2017, 10:33:27 pm »
You can disable soldier diary saving in the "soldierDiaries" option in options.cfg, I've been meaning to expose this in the game somewhere.

The problem with just getting rid of the individual stats is that medal mods depend on this minutae, and they can use any combination they want. So the simplest saving optimization is an "all or nothing" approach.

That isn't to say stuff couldn't be trimmed down, there are probably a lot of redundant/obsolete/inconsistent stats in there, stuff you can just deduce or calculate on the fly, etc. But the developer of soldier diaries doesn't have time to work on it anymore, and I doubt anyone else wants to take it apart and implement it more efficiently.

Offline Ethereal

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 684
    • View Profile
Re: Statistics soldiers
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2017, 11:21:58 pm »
You can disable soldier diary saving in the "soldierDiaries" option in options.cfg, I've been meaning to expose this in the game somewhere.

Well, have to play without statistics, because in the form in which it is at the moment, it is not workable.

I understand that in the first months everything looks wonderful, but when it comes to building up the eighth base, the month on the twelfth, everything is not so happy anymore. The saturation of statistical data begins to create problems for the game process.

Anyway. We played before OpenXcom in UFO 1-2 without any statistics and did not complain. Probably not destiny.

Offline Countdown

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 246
    • View Profile
Re: Statistics soldiers
« Reply #6 on: September 18, 2017, 07:44:30 am »
Is this slow saving/loading issue a common problem? I haven't ran into it and my current TFTD campaign is extremely long (89 missions so far, 388 soldiers recruited). Although I have way less kills than 20-30 each, so maybe that is why I haven't had an issue.

I don't think it's very common for soldiers to have 20-30 kills each ... probably only my select few top guys have broke the 20 kill barrier. Most die with 1-2 or even 0 kills to their name, haha  :-[. But I'm playing a vanilla TFTD campaign so I'm sure experience with different mods can vary wildly. I haven't played Piratez, but from what I've read the campaigns are much longer.

Offline Ethereal

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 684
    • View Profile
Re: Statistics soldiers
« Reply #7 on: September 18, 2017, 11:09:35 am »
Quote
I don't think it's very common for soldiers to have 20-30 kills each ... probably only my select few top guys have broke the 20 kill barrier. Most die with 1-2 or even 0 kills to their name, haha  :-[

If you fight like this, you can stay without money for a second month. Tell me, you not lose zrbit interceptors? : D

All the same, probably in the concept of my mod. Those. once the aliens have a a society of a bee swarm, then they are fighting more quantity, not quality.Therefore of their number on missions from 20 to small UFOs, to 60 on terror and bases. In the second year of the game, the number of killed aliens reaches 10,000. So, we get an overload of statistics. But since no one is interested in this problem, one has to play without statistics at all.

Offline Meridian

  • Global Moderator
  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 9084
    • View Profile
Re: Statistics soldiers
« Reply #8 on: September 18, 2017, 11:27:21 am »
2855 aliens killed, 424 soldiers recruited... that's 6 per soldier... not 20-30.

Also... 0 soldiers lost ?? ??
Man, you must be save scumming like crazy... do you even enjoy the game? No wonder you're complaining about slow save/load if you're doing it every 2 minutes.

EDIT: sick days: 1 ?? ?? wtf man? you have a serious problem...

And for what do you need 424 soldiers if you didn't lose a single one?
I can easily play a vanilla game with about 100 soldiers total, 50+ of them lost.
« Last Edit: September 18, 2017, 11:30:41 am by Meridian »

Offline Ethereal

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 684
    • View Profile
Re: Statistics soldiers
« Reply #9 on: September 18, 2017, 12:01:49 pm »
2855 aliens killed, 424 soldiers recruited... that's 6 per soldier... not 20-30.

Also... 0 soldiers lost ?? ??
Man, you must be save scumming like crazy... do you even enjoy the game? No wonder you're complaining about slow save/load if you're doing it every 2 minutes.

EDIT: sick days: 1 ?? ?? wtf man? you have a serious problem...

And for what do you need 424 soldiers if you didn't lose a single one?
I can easily play a vanilla game with about 100 soldiers total, 50+ of them lost.

Smoke and tanks. In addition, the tank - it's TANK! And it's not so easy to kill even with heavy plasma. In addition, there are a bunch of robots and cyborgs, behind which the infantry hides, like a shield. Armored vehicles lost a lot, yes, but for it there are no strings in the statistics.

Offline Meridian

  • Global Moderator
  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 9084
    • View Profile
Re: Statistics soldiers
« Reply #10 on: September 18, 2017, 12:14:29 pm »
That's really sad.

Offline Countdown

  • Colonel
  • ****
  • Posts: 246
    • View Profile
Re: Statistics soldiers
« Reply #11 on: September 19, 2017, 11:46:48 am »
If you fight like this, you can stay without money for a second month. Tell me, you not lose zrbit interceptors? : D

All the same, probably in the concept of my mod. Those. once the aliens have a a society of a bee swarm, then they are fighting more quantity, not quality.Therefore of their number on missions from 20 to small UFOs, to 60 on terror and bases. In the second year of the game, the number of killed aliens reaches 10,000. So, we get an overload of statistics. But since no one is interested in this problem, one has to play without statistics at all.

Well the reason you're having this loading problem and it seems the rest of us aren't is because you're essentially playing a different game than the rest of us. And with 424 soldiers recruited, 2855 alien kills, but not even one casualty, that game you're playing isn't even XCOM.

Of course, you're free to play whatever game you enjoy, but losing soldiers is part of traditional XCOM. Not that you want them to die, but "permadeath" is one of the most celebrated aspects of the entire XCOM series and you're missing out on it.

You should read Meridian's post here about how to make the game harder ... aka enjoy the game more.

Not reloading is the single most effective way of making the game harder. ... Your best soldier dying is part of the game. Your most favourite soldier dying is part of the game ... Soldiers have a life expectancy between 1 and 20 missions. Supersoldiers break the balance of the game. "Allow them to die" for the planet, with honour.
« Last Edit: September 19, 2017, 11:49:19 am by Countdown »

Offline Ethereal

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 684
    • View Profile
Re: Statistics soldiers
« Reply #12 on: September 19, 2017, 01:52:49 pm »
Well the reason you're having this loading problem and it seems the rest of us aren't is because you're essentially playing a different game than the rest of us. And with 424 soldiers recruited, 2855 alien kills, but not even one casualty, that game you're playing isn't even XCOM.

The point is in tactics. At me the basic blow prinemajut on itself tanks and a different sort cyborgs. They bear losses. But the loss of HWP is nowhere fixed. Incidentally, this, too, must be corrected.

Offline animal310

  • Captain
  • ***
  • Posts: 54
    • View Profile
Re: Statistics soldiers
« Reply #13 on: October 14, 2017, 08:03:15 pm »
Yeah this function should stay as it is. I love the statistics and think it adds a lot to the game. 
« Last Edit: October 15, 2017, 12:15:28 am by animal310 »

Offline Ethereal

  • Commander
  • *****
  • Posts: 684
    • View Profile
Re: Statistics soldiers
« Reply #14 on: February 19, 2018, 05:03:42 pm »
Comrades programmers, could you make the statistics of soldiers so that the game does not have to store information about each destroyed unit since the start of the game? What would the destroyed units be summed up in statistics and not hammered in memory, since downloads lasting MINUTE (!), on the 11-12 month, are extremely straining. And to play without statistics at all, boring and sadly.