AMIUBCSMAS 0.3 DESCRIPTION OF FLEET DISPLAY If you have not read the planets.txt file then go and read it. The fleet display mechanism is identical and this file assumes you're already "familiar" with the meaning of view, function, filter, marker, flag, etc. etc. PLANETS vs. FLEETS The main difference between the two displays is that while Stars! planetary reports contain (almost) all the relevant data for a decent display, the fleet reports are missing some fundamental stuff, such as EXACT fleet composition. I have devised a method to provide the information to starana, but it costs time, since it requires you to encode the fleet composition in the fleet name. It also requires you to enter the ship design information in the master file, to have starana know about things like max fuel or max cargo. While this information is not, in general, required to obtain a fleet display, there are some functions (those dealing with specific designs or max cargo space, for example) who REQUIRE the additional information. I have tried to arrange things so that there are no "half-working" functions. If you try to use one of the functions that require the information without providing it then the result will be consistent: e.g. ALL fleets get filtered, regardless of what you asked (so you can notice that something's wrong). FLEET DUPLICATES If more that one fleet reports is given (typical in a team game) then starana will have a hard time trying to figure out the duplicates (and removing them). The basic idea used by starana is that a fleet is identified by the couple owner+id number. It is then important not to screw up this information. Basically this means that you must NOT alter the #??? which appears at the end of the default fleet name. Use whatever you want for the name, but keep that part intact, otherwise starana will be unable to detect the duplicate and you'll see "weird" fleets appear on the display. Another problem: if you generate the report AFTER you've played the turn, after you've had fun splitting/merging fleet, this will cause your fleet ids to be altered and thus become inconsistent with the reports given by your allies. If you need to have accurate displays of the team fleets generate the report BEFORE you play the turn. You can then regenerate them when you're fine-tuning the shipping routes and using starana's simulation capability to see how much minerals you will have on your production worlds in 5 years..... PROVIDING FLEET INFORMATION TO STARANA There are two steps: 1) giving design information to starana. 2) altering the fleet name to give indication of the composition. How the design information is given can be seen by looking at the example file sa-complex.smf. It's the same thing as sa.smf, but all the comments relative to the stuff explained in sa.smf has been removed and the commented part is the "new" one, i.e. design specification and fleet naming. Go and read sa-complex.smf now, it'll take a short time. Ok, now you can understand the rest... :) Apart from all the useful information given in the design { .. } specification there's one vital part: the composition abbreviation. I suggest to keep it SHORT, I usually use mnemonic things like SFX for Super Fuel Xports or CoH for Change of Heart, etc. You then use as a fleet name a string which is a sequence of abbreviation and ship numbers. For example "CoH2 SFX1 #132" to indicate 2 Change of Hearts and one Super Fuel Xport. NOTE that you must not kill the #id number in the process!!! NOTE also that the abbreviation can't contain numbers/ Otherwise starana will never be able to say when the abbreviation ends and when the number of ships starts!!! Ok, so this fleet naming looks extremely annoying. Trust me, it is :) Actually it's less annoying than you think, for two reasons. I find useful to use the abbreviations since they also tell ME what the fleet composition is. "Destroyer+" doesn't say much about all the layers/freighters/bombers/SFXs which may be flying with the destroyers. Also, to make life easier starana will check the consistency of the number of ships and of the total fleet mass between the report and the composition it got from the name, and complain about all those fleet who don't match. The information is available in the Fleet Analysis part of the report-log file. FLEET INFORMATION "GENERATED" By STARANA Starana uses the position and movement vector of enemy fleets to determine the origin and destination of the fleet. In order to avoid ridiculous results (e.g. scout will arrive at XXX in 120 turns) it limits the ETA of the fleets to the number of turns in the future which was requested. For friendly fleets (whose destination is known) only the origin determination is performed. AVAILABLE FLEET FUNCTIONS ********* null function, do nothing at all name: - (nothing) - category: General description: This function does nothing at all. ********* associate a marker to a fleet name: Set Marker category: General description: This function associates a marker to a fleet:\n[3]1=dot, 2=cross, 3=box, 4=square, 5=circle, 6=flag. [3] Marker type ********* associate fixed data to a fleet name: Set Data category: General description: This function associates single value data to a fleet.\n[3] Data is assumed to be in the range [0,100]. [3] Data value ********* set marker color name: Color: marker category: General description: This function sets the color of the marker of the fleet.\n[0] specify the color number or 0 to indicate the color of the owner. [0] Color ********* set color of single pieslice data name: Color: data category: General description: This function sets the color of the data associated to a fleet\n(only if it's single-valued).\n[0] specify the color number or 0 to indicate the color of the owner. [0] Color ********* associate circles to a fleet name: Set Circles category: Movement description: This function associates a series of circles to a fleet.\n[0] use 0 to specify the owner's color. [0] Color [3] Circle radius [4] N. of circles ********* random filter name: Filter: random category: General description: Randomly filters the fleet out. [1] Fields affect mask [2] Negate filter [3] Chance % [4] Random seed ********* unconditional filter name: Filter: unconditional category: General description: Filters out all fleets. [1] Fields affect mask [2] Negate filter ********* filter on owner name: Filter: owner category: General description: Filters fleets depending on their owner.\n[0] use race number or 0 for current viewpoint. [0] Race [1] Fields affect mask [2] Negate filter ********* filter if orbiting a world name: Filter: orbiting category: General description: Filters fleets which are orbiting around a planet. [1] Fields affect mask [2] Negate filter ********* filter on distance name: Filter: distance category: General description: Filter fleets depending on their distance from a planet.[0] use -1 or -2 to specify the first or second selected planet. [0] Planet id [1] Fields affect mask [2] Negate filter [3] Min. distance [4] Max. distance ********* associate scanning circle(s) to a fleet name: Scanning category: Capabilities description: This function generates a circle with a size based on the fleet's\nscanning ranges. ********* associate pie with size depending on cargo name: Cargo category: Capabilities description: This function associates data to a fleet depending on its cargo.\nNOTE: right now it's a single-value display! [4] Full triangle at [5] Show ironium [6] Show boranium [7] Show germanium [8] Show colonists ********* associate pie with size depending on cargo space name: Cargo space category: Capabilities description: This function associates data to a fleet depending on its cargo space.\n[5] wheneter to use the total cargo space or the currently available space. [4] Full triangle at [5] Show available ********* filter on ship cargo name: Filter: cargo category: Capabilities description: Filters fleets depending on their cargo.\n[3..8] use min=0 max=0 to ignore the field. [1] Fields affect mask [2] Negate filter [3] Min ironium [4] Max ironium [5] Min boranium [6] Max boranium [7] Min germanium [8] Max germanium ********* filter on ship colonists name: Filter: colonists category: Capabilities description: Filters fleets depending on their colonists cargo.\n[3,4] selected interval. [1] Fields affect mask [2] Negate filter [3] Min colonists [4] Max colonists ********* filter fleet on available cargo space name: Filter: cargo space category: Capabilities description: Filters fleets depending on their current empty cargo space.\n[3,4] selected range. [1] Fields affect mask [2] Negate filter [3] Min space [4] Max space ********* associate pie with size depending on mass name: Mass category: Composition description: This function associates data to a fleet depending on the total fleet mass. [4] Full triangle at ********* associate pie with size depending on generic composition name: Composition category: Composition description: This function associates data to a fleet depending on the number of\nships in the fleet. You can exclude certain classes from the count.\n[5..9] select what classes NOT to include in the count. [4] Full triangle at [5] Exclude scouts [6] Exclude unarmed [7] Exclude warship [8] Exclude utility [9] Exclude bomber ********* add a line from fleet to its origin name: Destination category: Movement description: This function adds a line which indicates where the fleet is going. ********* add a line from fleet to its destination name: Origin category: Movement description: This function adds a line which indicates where the fleet is coming from. ********* this function sets the color of the line name: Line: color category: Movement description: This function sets the color of a line associated to a fleet.\n[0] specify the color number or 0 to indicate the color of the owner. [0] Color ********* kill on destination planet name: Filter: destination category: Movement description: Filter fleets whose destination is the specified planet.\n[0] specify id 0 for any planet or -1/-2 to indicate the 1st or 2nd selected.\n[3] specify 0 to ignore, 1 to filter only friendly fleets, 2 for enemy fleets\n [0] Planet ID [1] Fields affect mask [2] Negate filter [3] Friend ********* the default fleet name functions name: Set Fleet Name category: Names description: This function associates a name (but no ID) to a fleet. ********* set name composed of fleet name and fleet id name: Set Fleet Name+Id category: Names description: This function associates to a fleet a name identical to that used in Stars!. ********* use the # of ships in a fleet to set the name name: Set # of ships category: Names description: This function associates to a fleet a name which is the number of ships\nin the fleet.\nNOTE: contrary to Stars! superimposed fleets are NOT summed.\n[5..9] select what classes NOT to include in the count. [5] Exclude scouts [6] Exclude unarmed [7] Exclude warship [8] Exclude utility [9] Exclude bomber ********* set name color name: Color: name category: Names description: This function sets the color of the name of the fleet.\n[0] use 0 to specify the owner's color. [0] Color ADDING FLEET FUNCTIONS Identical to the planet case....