Auto Snap (BOB) on game starts

[ViperOverLord]

A great enhancement would be to create an auto snap option for BOB on game starts. This means that BOB takes automatically snaps the map once the last player has joined the game. Is it feasible? I don't know. I'm just suggesting it.

[ender516]

Not really feasible. BOB can only act on what is in a page you have open. If you can get the page to open automatically when the game is initialized, then BOB might have a shot at doing such a thing.

[docchaos]

I thought about something similar, that is actually not impossible: Autosnap each time you end your turn (of course with an option to turn it off).
What do you think about that? I figure it's not even much work


And this could even have more features, I'm thinking about a complete history of the game.
I'll try to paint you a picture (It goes ithout saying, that all of this only applies to sunny games):
- First, the controls for browsing snaps should be changed, something like forward/backward/jump to start/jump to live view while the links in the chat should become invisible
- On the first turn of each players turn, BOB could post some sort of "activation code" to the game chat, something not to intrusive to not disturb the game chat too much.
- If all players have posted this code, BOB notices that. That means that all players in the game are using BOB and have turned this option on
- From that point on, BOB posts all snaps publicly

Of course there would have to be some safety measures, to prevent users from turning that option off and posting the activation code themselves, thus getting to see other players snaps without giving away their own snaps.
This could be:
- BOB ignores it's settings if the code has been posted (i.e. if you turn that option off but post the code, BOB starts posting the snaps anyway)
- If a user has turned the option off and posts the code, BOB immediately posts a deactivation code
- If a user has turned the option off, BOB monitors what the user tries to post and stops it form being sent to the server, if the user tries to sneak in the activation code

I'll admit, that's probably a lot of work to do. But I think it would be great to have this feature.

[ender516]

I doubt there would be much support for BOB sharing all the snapshots to all players, but the auto-snap at the end of a turn is something I have considered often. I may have more spare time in September and October, so I might be able to do something about this then.

[Fewnix]

Is it feasible that the Auto snap option could put the snap in team chat ( or note to self) rather than into the general game chat ? I really like the auto snap at the end of a turn option, especially for team play.. I have been trying to get trainees to snap at the end of their turn so when the succeeding team mate logs on he can

CHECK OUT the situation-- for example. read the Report and Recommendations of the team mate who preceded you, click on the Snap in chat and hit Show Difference to see what the oppo who followed your team mate did,

[docchaos]

I doubt there would be much support for BOB sharing all the snapshots to all players, but the auto-snap at the end of a turn is something I have considered often. I may have more spare time in September and October, so I might be able to do something about this then.

I'm not sure. I for one often wished, there was some sort of history, where I could exactly see what everybody else did on their turn and I can't be the only one. So if you tell everyone, that there could be a history feature and all they would have to do is share their snaps, it might work. Plus, this is just like a live game, where you can see even more of what your opponents do.
But even if there's not enough support for the game history: That thing about changing the controls for browsing the snaps, so they would be easily accessible and BOB could actually filter them from the game chat, so it wouldn't look that cluttered...what do you think about that?

Is it feasible that the Auto snap option could put the snap in team chat ( or note to self) rather than into the general game chat ?

And thanks for destroying my point.
Yeah, that game history idea is just an extension of the auro-snap idea.

[ender516]

Is it feasible that the Auto snap option could put the snap in team chat ( or note to self) rather than into the general game chat ? I really like the auto snap at the end of a turn option, especially for team play.. I have been trying to get trainees to snap at the end of their turn so when the succeeding team mate logs on he can

CHECK OUT the situation-- for example. read the Report and Recommendations of the team mate who preceded you, click on the Snap in chat and hit Show Difference to see what the oppo who followed your team mate did,

All snaps are currently posted in team chat or note to self mode. Automating the snap would not change this, unless we specifically wanted it to change.

I doubt there would be much support for BOB sharing all the snapshots to all players, but the auto-snap at the end of a turn is something I have considered often. I may have more spare time in September and October, so I might be able to do something about this then.

I'm not sure. I for one often wished, there was some sort of history, where I could exactly see what everybody else did on their turn and I can't be the only one. So if you tell everyone, that there could be a history feature and all they would have to do is share their snaps, it might work. Plus, this is just like a live game, where you can see even more of what your opponents do.
But even if there's not enough support for the game history: That thing about changing the controls for browsing the snaps, so they would be easily accessible and BOB could actually filter them from the game chat, so it wouldn't look that cluttered...what do you think about that?

Is it feasible that the Auto snap option could put the snap in team chat ( or note to self) rather than into the general game chat ?

And thanks for destroying my point.
Yeah, that game history idea is just an extension of the auro-snap idea.

The Handy Game History script gives you the ability to visualize the ownership of the territories action by action, turn by turn, and round by round. True, it does not give you the number of troops on the territories (and getting that level of detail has been suggested elsewhere). I do like the idea of adding some extra ways to navigate the snaps. I'm not sure I would go so far as to make the snaps invisible in the chat, as their position can relate to ordinary chat which comments on them.

[docchaos]

I do like the idea of adding some extra ways to navigate the snaps. I'm not sure I would go so far as to make the snaps invisible in the chat, as their position can relate to ordinary chat which comments on them.

You're right, I didn't think about that.
Anyway, Autosnap and better navigation would still be cool (and at least autosnap can probably be done by just one line of code).

EDIT:
Actually, I was just curious if it's as easy as I thought, so I took a look at the code and implemented this for myself. It was a bit more than just one line, maybe 10. After I tested it, I can give you a diff if you want to, so you can patch my changes into the public version.

[ender516]

I would be very interested to see your work, docchaos.

[docchaos]

I hit a small roadblock, I thought it would be enough to call snapToChat() on the end of the turn. What happens is that the snap is taken, but the turn isn't ended. My guess is, that the submit-event that's triggered by snapToChat() seems to cancel the submit-event for the button that has actually been clicked, i.e. "End Reinforcements". Interestingly, if I introduce a delay (i put an alert in there somewhere, so there's a delay after the submit in snapToChat) everything works like a charm. At the moment I can't explain why this would happen, to my knowledge triggerEvent() doesn't work asynchronously, so this shouldn't happen at all.
Do you have any idea how to solve this other than completely rewriting the submit-code and constructing the http-requests ourselves?
I'll send you a diff anyway as soon as I get to make one, probably in a couple of hours.

[sherkaner]

Hmm, you'll get an update after ending the turn, you could set a variable before ending the turn, and when the update is processed, take the snapshot (and reset the variable).

[docchaos]

Thanks sherkaner, that did the trick.
Here are, like I promised, my changes:

diff
Full Script

Please note, that I didn't change the version number so I won't miss an update, so if you want to use this as the next update, you'll still have to change the version.
And I don't guarantee that this will work for everyone, I only tested it on FF22.0 with GM1.11

[docchaos]

I just found a bug in my code that caused the snap to be taken before the fortification on games with adjacent or chained fortifications. I think I fixed it but I'll have to wait for my turn on one of my games to test it, I'll update the above links as soon as I'm sure that I fixed it.

[ender516]

I am still working with limited access to the Internet, but I really do plan to look at your work.

[ElricTheGreat]

this really sounds like a good implementation ... has there been any followup ... is this working or still has a little bug?

[Foxglove]

this really sounds like a good implementation ... has there been any followup ... is this working or still has a little bug?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but none of this changes the fact that someone has to have an account logged into CC to check for changes in order for this to work.

Now that the new owner of CC has proven to be so willing to make updates to the site, this seems like a prime candidate for something that CC should do. I'll believe I'll head over to the suggestions forum right now.

[ender516]

Quite right, but I have always only wanted to be sure I had a snapshot at the end of my turn when playing fog, so I can compare it to the situation when my turn comes up again. I don't think there will be much hope of the site doing anything to record anything like a snapshot for players who are not online.

[Foxglove]

Quite right, but I have always only wanted to be sure I had a snapshot at the end of my turn when playing fog, so I can compare it to the situation when my turn comes up again. I don't think there will be much hope of the site doing anything to record anything like a snapshot for players who are not online.

Why not, ender? Everyone in the game has the ability to see the game at any point - should they be logged in to do so (or, whatever they can see through the fog). This suggestion will help even the playing field for players who don't have the ability to be online as frequently as their opponents and who don't use add on scripts. This suggestion won't give anyone any information that they wouldn't be able normally get - it will just make it more easily available to every player.

Oops: I thought I was responding to my post in the suggestions forum about adding snapshots to CC. Similar topics.

If you love BOB snapshots and make use of them, please go support the suggestion!

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=192998

[docchaos]

this really sounds like a good implementation ... has there been any followup ... is this working or still has a little bug?

Uh, sorry, I forgot to post the corrected version, the one I posted has a slight bug, as described in my last posting.
On top of that, what I did is based on BOB 5.2.6, once I've updated to 5.3.0, I'll post a working and up-to-date version.
Thanks for showing some interest in my work.