WFMC - Fixed Expended Move Costs Round-to-Round and Added Color to the Reconfiguration Combo Box [Part 6/11]

While I was on travel with my company I actually did not get as much time to dedicate to working on WFMC as I had hoped - although I did get a few wandering eyes in the Houston Texas Airport during my 6 hour layover ... lol. Let me run through the changes which have been made over the last two weeks, though, and hopefully it will still not disappoint since there are some pretty cool changes.

WHERE WE LEFT OFF WITH PART 5/10

Here is what the application looked like on the 25th April 2015. Where we left off with it from the Part 5/10 post is shown below:

The goal that I had set for these last two weeks was:

• Color code the Formation Config Combo Box's Values to show what needed to be done to allow for the reconfiguration costs to be met
• Black = Current Baseline Configuration
• Blue = Requires at least an "At the Double!" to perform the reconfiguration
• Orange = Requires at least a Heroic Move to perform the reconfiguration
• Red = Impossible reconfiguration due to too high of a reconfiguration cost

The good news is that I've gotten more than just that put in, so let's go through some of the changes - I will cover them in detail since several of them require smaller/discrete steps.

MORE PROGRESS THAT HAS BEEN MADE

So, it turned out that the Expended Move Value (in the bottom middle of the dialog) was getting compounded round after round. This effectively made it so that any additional translating or rotating that was made was "cost" relative to the initial position of the formation at (0,0) and 0-deg of Rotation. That didn't work for using the End Round Button and increasing Round Numbers.

So the first thing that I did was not accrue cost against Move Value while placing the initial position and rotation of the formation. This way the formation could be placed at any location and the Remaining Move Value would not look "funny" as you were trying to get it into position.

Once the initial position has been set, and the "Set Baseline ..." button is clicked, the normal pop-up appears to ensure that the baseline will be committed.

Clicking OK on the pop-up commits the Baseline Configuration for the Round and added the Round Number (see the top right).

Now that the formation has been baselined, it will start to cost Move Value to move the formation. Here the formation has moved down and to the left, but maintained its configuration and rotation orientation. It has used up all 5" of its Move Value to get to this location.

Since there is no Remaining Move Value, we click the End Round button, which gives the Pop-up for that ...

Clicking OK on the pop-up increases the Round Number to 2, and resets the Expended Move Value and Remaining Move Value for the formation.

This time the formation has used its entire Move Value to Rotate Clock-Wise to change its heading, but has remained in the same translational position.

Again, since all the Move Value has been used, we End the Current Round (Round 2) again ...

Clicking OK, the Round Number is increased to 3 - and then Rotates Clock-Wise a little more, and translates to the left. (If I had not made the fix, the Expended Move Value at this point would be something like 15.0").

And finally Ending Round 3, it is progressed to Round 4 and here he has move more to the Left, again.

So, as you can see, Round after Round the Move Value costs are "reset" and allows to track how much has been expended within only the current Round. This makes a big jump forward in the actual usability of the application.

The next feature that has been added (as I'm sure you have already noticed in the screen shots from above) is that the 1" Grid Mark Lines Option has been implemented. The checkbox option is down in the bottom left of the dialog and is active at all times. When you check the checkbox, it draws in 1" reference lines that are to scale with the formations within the OpenGL View. Here is an example of the grid lines checked and displayed:

Ok, that's interesting, but let's see it with an actual formation drawn ...

I think that this helps to give more of a perception of "how big" formations are, and "how far" they are actually moving when reconfiguring and translating.

Finally, let's go over the color coding of Reconfigurations within the Formation Configuration Combo Box (which ironically was technically the only goal that was set for the last two weeks). The first thing that needs to be done is that the Faction, Unit, Number of Companies, Initial Configuration all need to be selected.

Once that is all done, the "Set Baseline ..." Button is enabled and the formation's position can be Baselined (as it has worked in the past). This then re-populates the Formation Configuration Combo Box with the list of "valid" reconfigurations now color coded based upon the feasibility of performing the reconfiguration. Here is the list for the Formation of Citadel Guard that are shown above after Baselining.

Notice that being an Infantry Formation comprised of 6 Companies in 3x2 Configuration, the formation cannot reconfigure to any of the other configurations, since the move value cost of all of them will exceed the 6" Move Value of the Formation. However, the 2x3 Configuration and 4x2 Configuration can be performed if the Formation performs and passes an "At the Double!", increasing their Remaining Move Value to 12" (hence they are colored Blue). Likewise, if the Formation declared a Heroic Move, increasing their Remaining Move Value to 18" they could reconfigure to the 5x2 Configuration or 6x1 Configuration (hence they are colored Orange). Notice that the Baseline Configuration (3x2 Configuration) costs 0" to reconfigure (which is less than the remaining Move Value), so it is thusly still colored Black.

Below is another example of a Formation of Mordor's Mordor Orc Warband comprised of 9 Companies initially in 1x9 Configuration. Notice that the Reconfiguration to the 5x2 Configuration would exceed 19" (performing a Heroic Move and including a Drummer), so it is not even feasible in the current 1x9 Configuration (hence it is colored Red).

Similar to what we had 2 weeks ago, if you attempt to select any of the colored reconfiguration options, the application will still display the warning dialog pop-up and provide the cost to perform the reconfiguration. For example, we selected the Blue configuration from the list and the following warning pop-up was displayed:

Is everyone getting excited, yet? The only problem is that the colors are still a little buggy ... I get cases where the selection has its color attributes associated to it and the OpenGL View doesn't know how to "draw" it properly with the color tag ... I think I know how to fix it, but it's going to take a lot more refactoring to get it in entirely.

LINKS TO OTHER PARTS OF THE WFMC PROGRESS SERIES

• WotR Formation Movement Calculator - Work in Progress [Part 1/11]
• WotR Formation Movement Calculator - Update ... Progress still being Made [Part 2/11]
• WotR Formation Movement Calculator - WFMC Continuing to Come Together [Part 3/11]
• WotR Formation Movement Calculator - Formations Look Like REAL Formations and Groundwork for Reconfig Costs Put in Place [Part 4/11]
• WotR Formation Movement Calculator - Load Previous Data & Reconfig Costs/Restrictions [Part 5/11]
• WotR Formation Movement Calculator - Fixed Expended Move Costs Round-to-Round and Added Color to the Reconfiguration Combo Box [Part 6/11]
• WotR Formation Movement Calculator - Movement Modifier Checkboxes Work Properly and Zoom Capability [Part 7/11]
• WotR Formation Movement Calculator - Implementing the Options for Rotation [Part 8/11]
• WotR Formation Movement Calculator - Calculating the Translation Distance for Vanilla WotR Rules of Movement [Part 9a/11]
• WotR Formation Movement Calculator - Calculating the Translation Distance for Vanilla WotR Rules of Movement (Continued) [Part 9b/11]
• WotR Formation Movement Calculator - Starting the Implementation of the Mobile Version on iPhone/iPad [Part 10/11]
• TBD [Part 11/11]

LINKS TO OTHER PARTS OF MOVEMENT TYPES AND LIMITS SERIES

• Movement Types and Limits Series - Translational and Rotational Movement [Part 1/23]

• Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Infantry Formations Comprised of 2-3 Companies [Part 2/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Infantry Formations Comprised of 4 Companies [Part 3/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Infantry Formations Comprised of 5 Companies [Part 4/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Infantry Formations Comprised of 6 Companies [Part 5/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Infantry Formations Comprised of 7 Companies [Part 6/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Infantry Formations Comprised of 8 Companies [Part 7/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Infantry Formations Comprised of 9 Companies [Part 8/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Summary of Infantry Formations by Company Size [Part 9/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Infantry Restrictions of Reconfiguration by Formation Name Summary [Part 10/23]

• Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Cavalry Formations Comprised of 2-3 Companies [Part 11/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Cavalry Formations Comprised for 4 Companies [Part 12/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Cavalry Formations Comprised of 5 Companies [Part 13/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Cavalry Formations Comprised of 6 Companies [Part 14/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Cavalry Formations Comprised of 7 Companies [Part 15/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Cavalry Formations Comprised of 8 Companies [Part 16/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Movement of Infantry Formations Comprised of 9 Companies [Part 17/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Cavalry Movement Example 1 from Page 33 of WotR Rulebook Analysis [Part 18/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Cavalry Movement Example 2 from Page 33 of WotR Rulebook Analysis [Part 19/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Cavalry Movement Example 3 from Page 33 of WotR Rulebook Analysis [Part 20/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Reconfiguration Summary of Cavalry Formations by Company Size [Part 21/23]
• Movement Types and Limits Series - Cavalry Restrictions of Reconfiguration by Formation Name Summary [Part 22/23]
• Using WFMC to Verify Movement Examples [Part 23/23]