Searchable QB unit database beta available online! (updated)

[forwardrecon]

Please try it out and make comments. Now updated with more units.

All American units, with the exception of entrenchments, are now available. German and British armour and vehicles and some infantry is available, as well as all german artillery. More units is to come. The graphics is still missing.

The focus has been in aiding PBEM QB purchases according to the Recon, Short-75 and Panther-76 rules.

Check it out at http://www.olofzone.pp.se/ForwardRecon/cmunits.html

[ 10-15-2001: Message edited by: forwardrecon ]

[GriffinCheng+]

Just to let you know that the image links are all broken.

[pilgrim]

...but other than that, it's a nifty little page. I like the ability to sort by the different columns and the shading for high point value items.

My only gripe might be that the "Unrestricted" column might be a little redundant, since everything is obviously permissable in an unrestricted battle. And, one suggestion: it might be a good thing to include a filterable-"Type" Category (Armor/Vehicle/Infantry/Support), since right now sorting by cost jumbles everything together. But, (1) I have no idea how much work that is, (2) I have no idea how much work you want to put into it.

Hopefully after you perfect your skills we can get you to do the same thing for CMBB.

[Wreck]

Hi recon. I posted my updated version of prices in the other thread. Please check it out -- the prices on johnno's site are often wrong. Mine might be wrong too, I guess, but I have a feeling they are not.

I agree with pilgrim. The Unrestricted field is redundant and should go, in the interest of a more compact page.

[The_Capt]

Are these costs for Regular troops. It should be scaleable for all experience levels.

Otherwise it is a good idea.

[Wolfe]

Hey, nice effort. I tried doing this once, but gave up. Too much work.

One annoyance with point values is the presence of tungsten. Its availability changes throughout the game, and so any unit that can fire tungsten will have different costs depending on the time of year. The US 76mm AT gun, for example, has 4 different costs depending on what month the QB is set in. The Fireflies also get HE in Sep44, which changes their cost even more.

But strangely, all the German infantry units stay at the same cost throughout CMBO's timespan even though they change to more effective fausts twice (PF-60 in Sep44, and PF-100 in Feb45).

Even so, good stuff. Thanks!

BTW, the Sexton should probably be allowed under Short-75. That was a typo on my part, and was never corrected.

- Chris

[forwardrecon]

OK, good points everyone. Thanks for the feedback.

I have removed the totally redundant "Unrestricted" column.

I will add a category filter shortly. It is not too difficult to fix.

It shouldn't be too difficult to fix support for CMBB. The database is generic and all we need is the data.

All troops are regular, and adding support for other experience levels is not a priority right now, unless it is easily done. For example, if a veteran unit always is 10% more expensive.

I think I also will ignore Tungsten right now. The table should act as a guideline for now.

The highest priority is to get all units into the database, and I suspect that users wants to see the axis data too.

[WineCape]

Good work forwardrecon!

Will bookmark this as a reference to send my future newbie PBEM opponents to. Eagerly awaiting the completion of the German/Canadian forces.

Kind regards,

Charl Theron

--------------------

"Sparkling Muscatel. One of the finest wines of Idaho!"

-- waiter in The Muppet Movie (1979)

[forwardrecon]

OK, updated the table with category selection. Now you can choose to only see armour or vehicles etc.

Will try to add all the rest of the American and British OB:s, as well as at least Heer tomorrow.

[forwardrecon]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Wolfe:

BTW, the Sexton should probably be allowed under Short-75. That was a typo on my part, and was never corrected.

- Chris<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes, I was wondering about that. Since the Churchill AVRE was permitted I wondered why the Sexton wasn't. But I figured, perhaps the Sexton carries a lot of AT rounds and didn't verify it myself.

Updated the table so the Sexton is allowed under Short-75.

[forwardrecon]

Database is updated with the entire American OB, except entrenchments, and German vehicles, armour and artillery.

[Jeff Heidman]

NIfty little tool.

How much are you going to put into this?

I could see all sorts of expansions, such as clickable weapon/armor stats, etc., etc.

If you want some help, I do HTML/database coding professionally. Drop me a line.

Jeff Heidman

[pilgrim]

Ahh, now it's really getting nice. The improvements made it worth adding to my Combat Mission folder of Favorites.

Thanks for implementing the suggestions that have been fired back at you.

[forwardrecon]

The next upcoming improvement (not including complete OB:s) is the ability to hide/show different forces. The list starts to become really long, so by clicking on a "Hide/Show" button next to for example "American Airborne" you can show or hide those troops.

Thanks for the offers of help. I code databasedriven web stuff professionally too. I won't put too much time into stuff, and the improvement above might take an hour to fix.

Getting and inputing unit data is the thing that takes time.

[Jeff Heidman]

What are you using for the DB?

A web interface to the DB could allow you to spread the work of data entry out to many other people, and allow for relatively easy updates and changes. A bit of work to initially code and protect though...

I would be willing to help; I did a LOT of that when I created teh very first CM unit spreadsheet back in the old days.

Jeff

[Silvio Manuel]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Wolfe:

BTW, the Sexton should probably be allowed under Short-75. That was a typo on my part, and was never corrected.

- Chris<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Good point about the Sexton. I was slack-jawed when I saw that it shoots at 610 m/s...and is thus a better AT weapon that a Sherman75mm....though only vs. thinly armored targets, since it has a tendency to reverse & protect its thin armor when faced w/ a StuG and up.

[forwardrecon]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jeff Heidman:

What are you using for the DB?

A web interface to the DB could allow you to spread the work of data entry out to many other people, and allow for relatively easy updates and changes. A bit of work to initially code and protect though...

I would be willing to help; I did a LOT of that when I created teh very first CM unit spreadsheet back in the old days.

Jeff<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Actually I'm using a flat textfile as the database. The textfile has the following format, one unit per line:

Force:Category :Designation:Weapon:Rules :Date:Cost

Where Force is one of AArmy,AAirborne,BArmy,BAirborne,CArmy,GArmy,GSS,GFJ,GBJ Category is one of Armour,Infantry,Support,Vehicle,Artillery,Entrenchment

Designation is the name as it is shown in the webpage.

Weapon is the main weapon, as shown in the webpage, ie MG,37mm,57mm,17pdr,128mm,FT etc

Rules is four letters with N or Y as possible values. N means "no", "Y" means yes. First letter is recon rule, second Short-75, third Panther-76, fourth not used right now, ie NYYY is Short-75 rule or worse.

Date is the first month that the unit is available. Format 4406,4407,4408,4501,4502 etc

Cost is the cost, format 123

So if someone wants to enter the remaining units, just whip up a textfile with the above format containing the missing units. Example:

AArmy:Infantry:Weapons platoon:-:YYYY:4406:175