Sunday, March 19, 2017

Wave 10, scenarios, squad creation with new metrics, guide and more



Back to Squadron Benchmark, after a few months of hard work !
Quite a few new features in this release. Many thanks to Ynot for keeping the simulator alive was I was away from it.

In brief, this release has the following features:
  • New design for the page: All in one page, with 4 main areas, a home showing main features of the web app, one screen for squad building, for combat and for the hangar.
  • Wave 10 units: Nearly all units have been implemented. New units, upgrades and condition cards. That's 238 pilots and 248 upgrades working (or nearly working, depending on bugs). Many bugs have been corrected. Now the AI is starting to move in formation. That's a start.
  • Squad builder: I integrated small parts of the Beginner Strategy Guide from Flipperoverlord. There is much more in the guide than what you will see in the squad builder. Upgrades and pilots are given stars and a small advice to guide beginners is integrated. For each pilot, you have access to 2 graphs: one is the "Hitmap", a nice 2D display of both the maneuverability of a pilot and its capacity to hit an enemy, the other, titled "Moves", just shows the set of positions that can reach a pilot after a maneuver and an action. Finally, you can print the lists, export them as a link or as XWS JSON.
  • Combat: Now there are scenarios ! To begin with, there are 4 scenarios. Expect different areas of play, some challenges (I hope) and moving asteroids...The page shows also the lists of the latest 5 tournaments entered in X-Wing List Juggler web site. It's updated automatically, so it will be modified regularly. Edit, modify, print the recent lists. 
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    EDIT: Hangar page no longer exist, merged with Combat page to minimize the clicks.
     
Squad Builder Screen
 For each pilot and upgrade, you now have access to the advice given in the Beginner's Strategy Guide from Flipperoverlord. Stars are also given. The stars given to the pilots are mine, deducted from the advice in the Strategy Guide. This guide is a great source of advice for all players.
For ships, you can now see if it has a primary weapon that is a turret, a simple laser or another weapon with auxiliary firing arc.
You can filter pilots and ships according to their cost, their maneuver, their upgrade, action or their wave number. You can also filter by text: For instance, if you put "additional attack die" in the top text line, you will see only pilots that have "additional attack die" in their explanation.


Once a pilot has been selected, you have access to different menus: Upgrades, Moves, Hitmap and Dial. Upgrades is for selecting upgrades, dial shows the dial (dynamically updated according to upgrades), Moves displays the different positions that the pilot can reach after one maneuver and one action. No slam yet.
The red square shows the starting position.


The Hitmap is a bit more complex and this will be discussed in details in the future post: The objective of this graph is to show if your pilot, with his upgrades, is a strong jouster, and at which range. Assume your pilot is firing at an Academy Pilot. The Academy Pilot has no upgrade, no modification, no focus, nothing and he has already moved.  How much chance do you have to inflict at least 1 damage to this ship after one move, one maneuver and one shot ? The Academy Pilot rolls green dices. Of course, it depends on where the Academy Pilot is.
The plot shows this. The initial position of  your pilot is given by the small square, marked with a red cross. For the different positions of the Academy Pilot, there is one pixel of color representing the % of chance to hit him. For instance, the white cross shows that if the Academy Pilot is at this position, you have a 72.23% chance to hit him. In order to have this percentage, a possible maneuver is 3 straight and choosing a target lock.
You can see there is some gradient of colors. The orange one shows the highest %, because you shoot at the Academy Pilot at range 1, with a Target Lock. Greener zones indicate a higher range, or positions that can be fired at after an acceleration (no target lock), boost or a red maneuver.  The scale goes from intense red (nearly 100% chance to hit) to dark green (0%).  When several moves and actions allow to shoot at the same position, only the best % is shown. For instance, a 5 straight + targetlock and a 3 straight + a boost leads to the same location, but the target lock improves greatly the % to hit, so only this value of % is shown.


The hitmap is a  tool to compare different pilots, the effects of upgrades, new weapons, titles, ...Of course, only the offensive effects are shown here. Support pilots have a value but this is not shown here. Only one shoot is shown (cluster and TLT shoot twice however). Finally, the actions considered are only target lock, focus, evade, roll, boost and cloak, so far. Additional actions provided by crew, astromech, ... are not taken into account. Push the limit should work, but this may increase dramatically the time to compute the hitmap. All these images are computed in your browser (nothing is precomputed), so it's probably better to test this with a recent enough computer, and a powerful enough.
Feel free to play  and comment this new feature !

Combat Screen
You can still make a free combat, choosing both team 1 and 2, either building them, typing them directly in the text area, pasting there an XWS export or selecting one of the teams available in the Hangar.
You can also play a scenario. For this, simply select your team 1 and press "play" for the scenario. A scenario is only a particular setup, where one of the team is predefined (the one played by the AI). You can still choose your  squadlist , as you wish. For "A secret trench", it's possible to do it with only one fast ship. For large ships, this will be a bit challenging. For the battle of Yavin, 3 ships (X-Wings ?) are nice. For the 2 other scenarios, any 100pts squad list can be chosen. Remember that the zone of play is indicated by dotted white points. Going outside of this zone after a move means instant death. This is particularly true for the 2 Death Star scenarios, for both sides. And for the "Pirate Magic Roundabout", only the scum pirates have a very limited zone.

You can also design new scenarios. Up for now, it is not possible to publish them, but you can replay them as you wish and they will be saved in your browser. Next version, it will be possible to publish them and maybe to make campaigns.
A scenario is just defined by its title, a short introduction, a squad list for the opposing force and a setup (background and limits of play). You have access, for scenario, to a few additional setups and to moving asteroid option.

Now the combat screen itself, in the simulator. You can change asteroids by clicking on them and then clicking on the "change" button. Just select the asteroid you wish. There are new tokens now, including for tractor beam and stress ! Thanks to the new x-wing font ! The top menu allows to go back to the home screen, to go back to any previous turn (and then, just reload the web page to go back to this round again), to import a new background image or to save the current game and export it as a link.

EDIT: Hangar page has been removed. Now in Combat Screen

Tournament lists

Find the latest tournament lists directly in Squadron Benchmark ! There are automatically imported from X-Wing List Juggler, so they change daily.

So far, only the flag of the country where the tournament took place, and its date and type are displayed.

Using the top button "Saved Squads" and "Latest", you can switch between tournament lists and your own.



Cheers !

64 comments:

  1. Great to have you back! Love your work

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  2. Awesome work. I am having an issue where the second player ships are appearing on top of each other in the top right corner and are not displayed as ships in the second players pane.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks ! It was a free combat ? Do you remember the squad list ?

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    2. Squad 1: Corran Horn + Push the Limit + Fire-Control System + R2-D2 + Engine Upgrade
      Miranda Doni + Twin Laser Turret + Extra Munitions + Homing Missiles + Sabine Wren + Cluster Mines + Ion Bombs + Advanced SLAM


      Squad 2 (taken from top 10): Bossk + Crack Shot + Zuckuss + Dengar + Glitterstim + Countermeasures
      Ketsu Onyo + Push the Limit + K4 Security Droid + Glitterstim + Burnout Slam + Engine Upgrade + Shadow Caster

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    3. Combat Sim had all the default settings

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    4. It seems to be the large based scum ships

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    5. Ok, a function for auxiliary firing arc had a bug. Corrected, maybe it was your bug...Cheers!

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  3. this is great thanks. i believe the HoR han solo has the wrong ability on his card.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks ! Is it the text ? For the ability, actually, the Hor Han Solo pilot does...nothing, as you can place as you wish manually all units. Tell me if I missed something.
      Cheers !

      Delete
  4. Just started using the app. Great idea. But I can't get past the second activation phase without the ship bouncing around the map. Used several different ships, tie defenders, y wing, Norra Wesley, Asajj, a wings. It always happens.

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    Replies
    1. Bouncing around ? Which ones, the AI ships ? Sorry, I missed something here. Cheers !

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  5. At the end of the a game, even when sound it set to as low as possible (muted) all of the sounds play as if there was no sounds slider at all.

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    Replies
    1. Still happens ? I don't see where it comes from so far...Cheers !

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  6. Cikatro Vizago crew is not listed as an upgrade in the scum fleet, and is not mentioned as an upgrade not yet implemented.

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  7. Guidance chips seems to reset whether or not various dice modification options have occured, including focuses, target locks, guidance chips itself, 4-Lom, and R4 Agromech

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    Replies
    1. Hmm, Guidance Chips replaces 1 blank if any, or 1 focus if any, or a hit (if replacing by a crit). The order of the dice displayed is changed, but the replacement seems ok to me.

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  8. Captain Yorr takes possible stress tokens from other ships without asking permittion of player, while pilot card clearly states "you may receive that token" meaning you are not obliged to do this.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, it's fully automatic now. I'll have to change this.

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  9. Sorry for all of the spam, just calling bugs as I spot them.

    The X to close the console is exactly on top of the up arrow, and takes priority over the up arrow

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  10. Suggestion: Give opacity to the ship panels in the builder. Its really hard to piece together what is going on when when the ship to the left's scroll bar is covering up info.

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  11. Welcome back! love the updates.

    is there still the old alt-number function to add/remove tokens?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks ! Yes, it still works with alt keyboard. I realize the shortcut menu has disappeared...Added back.

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  12. love this program but its become unplayable for me since the update.
    im having similar things happening that matt mentioned. Ships randomly start bouncing around the map.

    Also the game seems to get stuck when the computer is trying to pick its maneuver. the Next button is greyed out with spinning wheel and it just sits there.

    The first 2 games i tried since the update worked great. just havent been able to use it since.

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    Replies
    1. Sorry for the inconvenience, probably a transient problem. With the latest update, still bouncing around ?
      Cheers !

      Delete
  13. Is it only me, but there are no debris and nowhere to add them from

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    1. There's an "Change" menu attached to the obstacles now, during setup. Use it and it opens a new window for choosing asteroid/debris. Cheers !

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  14. Well, it seems AI sometimes enters endless cycle. There were few situations on activation phase when AI opponent can't proceed with move. After choosing freezed ship it teleports to the planned location, but enters new cycle with action choosing.

    Also on attack phase there were some problems with shooting button when it's nobody in range. It solves by pressing 'Esc', but almos every time that leads to previous situation.

    Sadly, AI cannot process fleets with TIE/sf — at board generation it crashes the process with some stack overflow (ship appears at upper left corner of battlefield but not in opponents roaster. Ship's base is full of different tokens lined in regular order — looks like stack overflow. Board creation is freezed and asteroids are absent).

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    1. i had this problem too. It desapears after delet historic, cookie and make clear and refresh after home page. then try again.

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    2. The setup state was a bit bugged (recent changes). I think I corrected this with the 0.99.1 version. Now for the AI, I've not made any correction yet...There's a new AI function where it tries to move in formation. It's time consuming and probably still bugged. I've added a menu in the setup phase where you can choose the AI: either move in formation (bugged) or individually (as before). Cheers !

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  15. Thanks so much for all the great work!

    I noticed that whenever I try to fly a list with Nora Wexley,the game will freeze up after the 1 round.

    I'd love to see this working!

    Thanks again!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks ! There was a bug with an auxiliary firing arc function. Corrected, and Norra works !
      Cheers !

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    2. Awesome! Thank you so much for all the work you put into this. It's helped me a great deal in practicing and learning the game.

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  16. Excellent work.

    Everything is fine when i creat a squadron, except i have to zoom (-) my google windows to can see right card.

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    1. Thanks ! What type of display are you using (pad, phone, computer ? ) Do you know how large is your display, in pixels ? I need to improve responsiveness :-)

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  17. Excellent work and welcome back Denis! Are conditions already working? used kylo ren (crew) and the game stops after i click in the kylo action.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks ! And yes, it works, but I forgot to upload the sources...It should be better now :-)

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  18. Haven't been able to get to a third turn yet using Chrome. essentially non-functional.

    My squads don't save, as well.

    Can't scroll to the right on the builder page, forcing me to search by wave until a small enough set of ships are on the screen.

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    Replies
    1. Ah too bad. Sorry it doesn't work. I fixed a problem with auxiliary weapons that stalled the game. I changed the building screen (smaller ships, filtering as a menu) so it should be better. Cheers !

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  19. http://xws-bench.github.io/bench/index.html?MwNgNATBYgHGBGCxEQJyICwgFwHY9EBWFNABgG5RJo5UUkMFscpUExyrw26kH0WXARgYuseL3j9UGYAlYdqXAGQIyGNpkJoikdfUTBMOWJg54yYALRcEBrYQiEZCY6aLgEeaLcortTDAiBD03MEpkIIgHLwpneCIyaJ4KTFgrCFglOSpdMGAJMHNiihB7AvTK4JUAFwAnAFcAUxUAMwBDABsAZ1aAYS6Onp6ASwBjFQB9awAFawQFmfnFiGWF62B1xcwpiGsAW2sAMSJrMmsITDI96wBRW+OAeVuAZQAVKcWj0-PL66+90Bz0BHymFx+ZwuVxuFweFxBFzBZxBZweZ2RhxOwD+EDINzOPVqU0wJxepIepLBpJ+OOh+JJ1iJUxxkNxAJxIJxDxxYLmGyIUzObT+CEZIouYv2ItJsOsMvO4tF4OszSF8uVFx6S35+y21gA6ipjWQgA#

    Errors with the Juke interaction and timing of IG-B gunner effect.

    Juke triggers when I shoot at the A-wing which has Juke attached.
    IG-B gunner effect triggered at PS0 step after other ships had shot.

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  20. Hey, game get totaly stuck when I use large scum ships... Next button is greyed out, sometimes browser freezes. Tried different browsers, cleaning cash etc. Always ends same way :/

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    Replies
    1. Ok, I think I removed a recent bug...Should be better now. Cheers !

      Delete
  21. This is my primary form of practice for tournaments, I really appreciate it!

    I've been having trouble with ships not setting up correctly as others. I think it's the large Scum ships too.

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    Replies
    1. Same as before, try it now, just removed a high impact bug. Cheers !

      Delete
  22. Upgrade cards that give an option freezes the AI, cards like Jan Ors (AI cant choose between focus or evade when perform a focus action or assign a focus token).

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  23. Cikatro Vizago crew never triggers at end of combat.

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  24. Hi! Having lots of fun with the simulator. Just one bug- crack shot works backwards against AI so I end up cancelling my own evades.

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  25. Hi Denis,
    awesome new interface and good that you implement new stuff so fast.
    But it is literally a bugfest right now.
    I can't play against most squads since there will be no asteroids and enemy ships are stuck in the top left corner with nothing to do. The script also often stops working, and a lot of the new abilities just have no effect whatsoever, despite not having the note "not implemented". Just a few xamples of what goes wrong.
    - Some ships like Rex do not only have no effect at all, they also "jump" over the map when clicked on sometimes.
    - Deathrains Bombs can't be deployed correctly forward (and he cant shoot afterwards i think)
    - Captured Tie has no effect at all (can still be shot at by everyone despite having lower PS and not having shot with the TIE.
    The list takes no end, these are only a very few that came to my mind.
    I hope you fix the bugs before you implement even more stuff, as the app is getting totally unstable atm.

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    Replies
    1. I fixed the listed bugs. Concerning the misfunctioning simulator, I found a large impact bug (recently added). Should be better now.
      Regarding the bugnest, I agree. This is still version 0.99. When it'll move to version 1.0, I'll make 2 versions: a stable one (less bugs), and a dev one (more bugs, more features). When the dev version is stable enough, it'll become the next stable version, so that there'll be always a stable version available. Cheers !

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  26. I am having problems with tractor beams. When I use them in my squad and they trigger i can't move the opposing ship and the game halts. can't continue.

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  27. Wow! Thank You for doing so much work. It was really pleasant to see that you are reading this comments and thats really nice that you but answer and trying to fix issues mentioned. You are really amazing guy, Denis!

    P.S. It's a pity, that long page design is scrapped - i liked it.

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    Replies
    1. Through comments and bug reports, you really help in fixing bugs! Now, at some point, I also answer to comments :-)
      Cheers !

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    2. Thanks for the long pageç I liked it too :-) but I found it not very easy to manipulate on some browsers, with mouse (no trackpad).

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  28. Good point ! It helped me find the big bug from a recent correction that plagued the simulator. Corrected !

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  29. I'm not able to add Biggs Darklighter to a squadron, and when I use him in a preset list, the ships are stuck in the upper right corner off the play area and can't be moved. Bottom line, I can't play any games with Biggs.

    Thanks again for all your great work!

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  30. i'm not able to perform attacks with stressbot y-wing equipped the BTLA4 title. Thank you for all the hard work you put into this program.

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  31. A great new look and everything works fine, mostly. One bug, already mentioned above: Crack Shot works backwards against AI.

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  32. Snap Shot is not working correctly. It causes the firing ship to skip it's attack in the combat phase. The simulation will then lock up in the following round.

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  33. Great program, but I think there might be a bug with R4D6, Biggs ends up with far too much stress (30+ after a round or two of combat).

    This is the replay link it gave me, hope this helps. Oh, and I had to use Chrome to play, Firefox wouldn't let me add ships.

    http://xws-bench.github.io/bench/index.html?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-9-ur2bParwrOCdZ5o2i7LgQq5svCnZDqcfaKkcgpbkcw79hKqjPCanzgv2GJ7NO5J4pqm7GgCepuua0zgoe36unaZ5OqoNpMf6mz3ixAAmap0gcYEHOs3I4ZRQIoT8aF8rGI7jiqTzEVS4LzhOOoAhomoaka2FqW8prfCsBz0faByfHaXpMaZmoZh+tnfn+v6akBapxge+ZogcRb-l8JkhumcwrHAN50kFwkQiiTwyjMyDzEKol6Z8syYVq-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-4EAA

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  34. Crack Shot is no longer working correctly. Instead of giving the option when attacking, it's giving me the option when I'm defending. If you click it, it indeed removes an evade, obviously this isn't helpful when I'm the one defending lol.

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    Replies
    1. That seems to be the case with a few upgrades and abiltiies. M9-G8 and Maarek Stele are both affecting the opposite ship to the one they should. Maarek affects ships in your own squadron when they take damage!

      Delete