Thursday, January 14, 2016

A new squad builder



Happy new year 2016 and plenty of nice games for you !

There are plenty of novelties in X-Wing miniature for the end of 2015/Jan. 2016, with G-1A description, TIE Advanced Prototype, Imperial Veterans. Most of them have been integrated in Squadron Benchmark, with some additional features and bug corrections !

New squad builder

Its features are:

All units available in a few mouse moves
A new pilots with all its characteristics and upgrades
  • All units of a faction can be browsed quickly, comparing their statistics. For a given ship, all pilots are listed with their cost, skill and elite slot (if any). Pilot characteristics are available within just a few mouse moves (or with a few clicks for an ipad).  
  • New pilots, including the Inquisitor, VCX-100 pilots, Assault Shuttle pilots, G-1A pilots.   All pilots have now their own picture ((c) FFG).
  •  You can either see for each unit/pilot the ship image, as used in the combat simulator, with its shields/hull/agility or the dial of its maneuvers. Simply click on the image/dial to switch.
  • Type your squad composition and use autocompletion (tab/shift+tab)
  •  Alternatively, you can directly type your squad composition, or modify an existing one, in the text areas. Use the autocompletion, with TAB / shift+TAB keys for cycling through possible completions. When finish, press "Import" to add the squad to the list of squads. This works in English and French. XWS3.0 format has been disabled for now (temporary).
  • Alternatively, you can directly select squads (from version 0.7)  from the list of 70+ squads from the community.

Maps 

http://xws-bench.github.io/bench/png/turbolaser.png
A Turbolaser turret
For combat, from version 0.7.3, you can now pick the map you wish to use, among 4 existing maps. You cannot create a map (yet) or a mission. Among the maps, the Death Star itself and its trench (not straight  section, for increased difficulty). Put a few turbo laser turrets and a heat exhaust port at the end of the trench, and try to destroy it with Proton missiles while an AI Vader is trying to shoot you ! May the force be with you, you will need it !

New units and upgrades

 The units from Wave VIII: G-1A, VCX-100, Attack Shuttle, TIE Adv. Prototype are now available in the app. Most of the pilots, shown by FFG, are fully implemented. New upgrades are also available, with the first Dual upgrade, Adaptability, working in particular. TIE Shuttle is also fully functional, Just select them in the squadron builder, the help will tell you whether there are implemented or not, or look at the console.
A turbolaser turret and an Exhaust port for Empire have appeared also for the fun of playing in the trench of the Death Star :-) The exhaust port costs 100points, so the rebels can win even if they are nearly all destroyed. 

 Artificial Intelligence Player

The AI improves, even if it's still simple. To determine its moves, it proceeds as follows:
  • Find viable positions, that are positions that allow the unit to stay on the area for 2 turns. Preference is given to positions that do not collide obstacles.
  • Compute the "average" viable position of all enemy units. This does not take into account 180degree turns.
  • Select among the viable positions the one that minimizes the number of dice the enemy can throw, when they will be in their "average" position, and maximizing the number of dice of an attack (all weapons considered). Priority is first given to defense, not exposing the unit, and then to maximise attack.
To fire, the AI considers its missiles, torpedoes, turret, cannon, only if the prerequisites are fufilled (such as a focus, target lock, ...). For actions such as accelerate and barrel roll, positions are evaluated as before.  Mines are not yet used by the AI.
By selecting a unit and pressing "m", you can see its "mean" position. Pressing "p" reveals all possible positions with colors (green: ok, white: collision with unit, yellow: obstacle, red: out of area, this turn or the following).  shift+p removes these positions.

Stability and bug corrections and reports

  Many bugs, including some deep ones that halted the app, have been corrected. Bugs for many units also have been corrected, including bugs occurring with the interaction of different units/upgrades (additional moves such as "Stay on target", ionization, bombs for a few).

Thanks for all of you who have made a bug report !  This helps greatly !
If your bug is not yet corrected, this is just a matter of time :-)
The app is much more stable now, even if they are for sure some remaining bugs. Some things that were working before are sometimes broken for a time. This is because I'm refactoring some code, rewriting it to make it nicer to read for external contributors :-)
Please, continue to send bug reports, here in this blog or in the different forums where announces for Benchmark Squadron are posted (boardgamegeek, FFG, sw-xwing).

Thanks also for all of you who have made posts about this app ! Users and testers are essential when the number of upgrades and pilots to test grows.

Feel free to leave comments on the features or the features you would like !

If you appreciate the app and you use it, feel free also to donate (top right menu in Squadron Benchmark, > Donate)  what you wish or send encouragement, bug reports, suggestions, they all will be appreciated ! :-)

47 comments:

  1. Sometimes it will stop applying hits. I just was flying Whisper who spent focus and target lock who got 5 hits on a IG88 who got 1 evade and he took no damage. Next turn she got 3 hits and he got no evades and took no damage again. If it matters, Whisper has FCS and Stygium, the IG88B had HLC, IG2000, FCS and Autothrusters.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fixed ! The problem was with Whisper. Thanks for the report

      Delete
  2. bugs noticed today:

    Ysanne and Kenkirk are both failing to trigger
    TIE/v1 title not granting Evade
    Darth Vader still granted actions after collision
    R2-D2 Astromech not regenerating shield on green maneuver

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ysanne, Kenkirk and R2-D2 had the same bug. Corrected. Besides, Ysanne and Kenkirk were triggered only when the shields were down, and the hull damaged. Now they trigger when a damage has been dealt.
      TIE/v1 was not implemented, so not granting Evade. Implemented now :-)
      For Vader, not corrected yet but I see the error.
      Thanks for the report !

      Delete
  3. and bombs are using the 2-straight template rather than the 1-straight as expected.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The drop distance was indeed incorrect, now it's F1.

      Delete
  4. The new interface is unusable on Firefox - cards disappear - Even on Chrome i feel it over-complicates what was an easy process before. :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, this is very annoying ! I've checked on different browsers (firefox, opera, safari on mac, ipad and android), but not the same version as yours obviously. When does the card disappear ? In the top row or the bottom row ?
      The process before was much simpler technically indeed, but was also buggy and couldn't handle limited/unique correctly in all cases. And there is less code now than before !
      I understand your remark however, and it will probably evolve in a simpler version, with less bells and whistles :-) (christmas was not a long time ago)

      Delete
  5. Hello,

    First, sorry my poor English, and thank you the program.

    I have two problems:

    -Redline not have 2 target lock when he acquire.
    -When I have use TIE/Fighter the Youngster ability (Expert Handling EPT) do nothing. No barrel roll movement shade visible, and when I next ship move, after the game no running on (no other move button or action bar). Sorry my English, please check this situation. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the bug report !
      For Redline, if found it working: actually, it gives you two locks on the same unit. You only choose one target.
      For Youngster, corrected !
      Cheers !

      Delete
    2. Thank you the Youngster update. I think, the Redline problem is not the two target lock, sorry the wrong bug report. My build and problem: Redline + Cluster missile + Fire control system. When fire the cluster missle in first shot not able the target lock.

      Delete
    3. I testing a little time, and I think found the main problem. If shot Redline with torpedo/rocket the target lock is not able. So the problem is not only cluster missile.

      Delete
  6. Biggs is protecting the entire board instead of just the ships within range 1 of him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Corrected, Mamma Biggs is only protecting those near him :-)
      Thanks!

      Delete
  7. Absolutely love what you started here, made some noise for you on reddit and sent some well deserved euros your way.

    Two things I noticed:
    - unhinged Astromech was not working all the time on my Y-Wing as in, a 3-turn didn't clear the stress or even gave him some

    - I used Gunner and Glitterstim on a Firespray-31. When in the attack phase, I clicked skip on the Glitterstim after attacking and then the whole game was not able to progress. Like it didn't switch to the next ship that would be able to fire now.

    Really wish you the best of luck for the future and hope you can go a long way with this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks a lot !
      For unhinged astromech, I've not seen the bug so far. 3-turns are displayed as green. Do you have other maneuver modifiers associated to the Y-Wing ?
      For Glitterstim, this should work better now. It was not activating at the beginning of the combat phase but right before a combat.
      Thanks again for your encouragements !

      Delete
  8. This is great. BTW Epsilon Leader removes stress from itself too.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is really great!

    Just want to report a bug with Boba Fett (possibly Firespray in general): when firing from the auxiliary (rear) arc you don't get an button to fire (you only get the rolls) and therefore the game freezes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bossk's hits also don't seem to register (not sure if it's on A-Wings only or on every ship - also not sure if it's Bossk's issue or a YV666 issue)

      Thanks!

      Delete
    2. For Bossk, I think it's fixed. For Boba Fett, I was not able to reproduce the bug for now. Next time maybe.
      Cheers !

      Delete
  10. There seems to be a bug when taking some critical damage recovery actions. I think damaged sensor array is one. The roll doesn't happen and it hangs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Repairing a Weapons Malfunction has the same problem.

      Delete
    2. Indeed, most criticals have now a new repairing function.

      Delete
  11. When I equip R2-D2 and a Shield Upgrade, shields only regenerate to the unmodified level, not the upgraded one. (At least this is true for Horton Salm in his Y-wing.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah yes, nicely seen ! I've modified Shield and Hull upgrades so they modify the max level of shield/hull. Thanks !

      Delete
  12. This is an amazing tool and exactly what I've been looking for. Thank you so much for developing it!

    When I go to drop a Proximity Mine with Deathrain the AI player sometimes executes their maneuver before I actually get to finish placing the bomb, which prevents me from being able to drop it physically on their base and detonate immediately.

    Also, when I go Back from a game to Setup it seems to reset to both players being AI.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks a lot !
      When dropping a bomb, it's corrected and the AI waits the end of the placement.
      For the setup, corrected.
      Cheers !

      Delete
  13. A pilot-specific issue
    * "Epsilon Leader" should clear his own stress at the start of the combat phase, since his is considered at range 1 of himself
    * "Epsilon Leader" doesn't have an EPT

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi,

    Thanks for this awesome simulator! Been playing almost 20 games already to practice movement against many squads.

    One big issue i have come across is that Gunner is not working properly on my doom shuttle (Gunner + Vader). Whenever the first shot misses the second shot will have no dice to shoot with.

    Further a feature to auto setup asteroid and AI units would be cool

    Thanks for this awesome tool!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks a lot !
      For Gunner, now it's corrected. The "Fire" button was appearing too soon, when Vader effect triggered and before dice were rolled.
      Cheers !

      Delete
  15. Jan Ors (pilot) ability doesn't seem to work quite right. It should be rolling an additional die, but I think this implements it as a reroll.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Thank you for the awesome app! Quick bug report though, I ran a y-wing with bb-8, and bomb loadout + seismic charges. Every time I tried to drop a bomb, it instead brought up BB-8's ability.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, solved ! The problem was general when multiple actions were available at the same time as bombs. Cheers !

      Delete
  17. Keyan Farlander's ability doesn't work properly when he rolls no focus results. Even without an eyeball die, he should be able to remove a stress when he attacks (it just doesn't affect any dice). The button to trigger the ability appears properly, but the stress doesn't seem to go away.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Proton Rockets don't work quite right. They require a Focus token, but don't consume one, so one should be able to spend that token to modify the focus dice rolls to hits.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Corrected ! As all munitions requiring focus/target lock but not consuming it. Cheers !

      Delete
  19. Thanks for fixing all the bugs I've reported! This is a great app and it's awesome that you're working to make it even better.

    Here's another bug. Swarm Tactics should expire at the end of the combat phase, but it persists from turn to turn.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Chewbacca the pilot doesn't work right. His ability should be to flip face-up damage face-down, but it seems to be implemented as discarding face-up damage.

    ReplyDelete
  21. When Darth Vader (the pilot) collides with another ship, he doesn't lose his action phase the way he should.

    ReplyDelete
  22. When generating a new build REBELS certain pilots such as Nien Numb in T70 is bugged.... there seems to be an error. Rgds and good job

    ReplyDelete
  23. I created a squad with bomb loadout on y-wings but when I start the mission the bombs are no longer there. I tried several pilots, both rebel and scum with no success.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hi, first perfect app !!!

    Problem i have each time.

    With Scarlet, Firespray Scum, impossible to add "Slave one" and "Extra munition". It works when i build a new squad with this but disappear after when i launch the game... Apparantly only with Firespray...

    Thx for your job!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Hi! Many problems here with the builder. Usually keep the ships selected but lost all upgrades I add when launch the simulator.

    Thanks for the job

    ReplyDelete