chapcrap wrote:This suggestion will no longer be considered rejected. Regardless of policy, there is a real issue with server space with this suggestion. However, it had been determined that it should not be rejected based on that reason. Feel free to discuss this option further. Please read the summation that was previously made by agentcom below.
agentcom wrote:MOD EDIT:
This feature has been suggested and rejected many, many times. At the time of this post (July 30, 2012) I am merging over 20 topics, some of which are already merged topics.
There are two main formats of this suggestion. First, players would like to see the ownership of territories over the course of the game. This is not available as a site feature, but the necessary information can be deduced from the Game Log. Unsurprisingly, some users have created a tool which allows you to "visualize" the "Game History." It is available here: viewtopic.php?f=527&t=123669. As a site feature, this feature has been promised before, but it has never been implemented. In fact, all such suggestions have been moved to rejected by previous moderators.
The second type of suggestion along these lines goes further: It would allow a user to replay the game but also includes the troop counts on the territories. In addition to the fact that the previously mentioned and more basic suggestion has been rejected, this augmented suggestion requires data that CC traditionally has not stored during the game; namely the results of dice rolls. In the early days, the wait for Subject: Game Log 2.0 was often cited as the reason for the delay in implementing this suggestion. However, 6 years later, it is anyone's guess whether Game Log 2.0 will ever come about. A limited amount of dice roll data is now stored in order to provide user's with their Dice Stats, but not enough is stored to allow for the type of replay suggested. As Tech Contributor ender516 explains:ender516 wrote:Herbas wrote:ender516 wrote:As I understand it, the biggest stumbling block for Game Log 2.0 (or at least, the level of detail required to replay a game) is the enormous amount of data storage. Recording every action would take a lot of space -- much more than the space now required to summarize dice results.
I don't think that it needs much extra space when:
1) all dice rolls are already saved in "My dice stats" (exact dice rolls, your and particular opponent's matchups, etc.);
2) non-dice info is already saved in the current game log.
What else is needed in addition to such information in order to have a replay?
Collecting dice statistics is just a matter of accumulating counts of how many rolls are wins and how many are losses, and that might be enough to get things done, if we are willing to look at generic representations of dice rolls (e.g. a 2 troop win in a 3 v 2 roll, or a 1 troop loss in a 2 v 1). But this information is recorded on a per-player basis, not a per-game basis, and it is a summary, not a complete record. Also, to recreate a game action, you have to record which territories were involved, and for complete recreation of the game, the precise order of the attacks. There might be some savings if only net effects of a turn were recorded, that is, the change in the number of troops on each territory over the course of one player's turn, but I would much prefer to see which attack an opponent pressed first, and when he or she stopped and changed tactics.
Ender does suggest a solution to this problem:ender516 wrote:If the replay information were to be sent in a PM, the storage problem would tend to be self limiting. The server could keep it available on request until the game was archived. But I do like the idea of an exportable format. A game review page could let you replay games that were still on the system, or in a PM or forum post, or from an exported file, possibly by direct access on your system, or by uploading.
In addition to the server requirements criticism, I can see one other important criticism that has been levied. That is the ability for future opponents to analyze a player's moves more easily.
Others have suggested making this only available to premium players or as downloadable files for a CC replay application.
On the other hand, the benefits of such a suggestion are obvious: it is a great way to review your games, to teach others and would be a great tool for C&A mods like Evil Semp.
Despite these benefits, both versions of this suggestion have been previously REJECTED. Feel free to lend your support to this idea or continue the discussion here, but if you would like to post a similar suggestion, we ask that you review the history of this one to ensure that your idea has not already been suggested. Please post in this thread or contact a Suggestions Moderator if you see any threads that should be merged here.
Finally, this suggestion is similar to suggestions for automatic BOB-style snapshots between rounds/turns/attacks that allow a player to review the flow of a game based on what he could see if he checked and snapped between every round/turn/attack. An example of such a suggestion is here: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=153100. This type of suggestion falls more appropriately under the heading of integrating BOB features into the site rather than the current topic.
If you see any topics that should be merged here, please post a link to them or inform a moderator. Thank you. --agentcom
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wondering whether it might be possible to implement a playback / replay mechanism to help make sense of completed games.
yes, a lot of relevant information is not logged, but i think it might be possible to provide a good idea of the flow and conquest of territories just using the information currently in the game logs and animating it on the screen.
the very first problem that is run into = initial territory ownership is not logged. i think this could be figured out by starting from the endgame position and working back reversing all the "x conquered from y" reports.
the next problem is that troops losses from conflicts are not logged. this i cannot think of a solution. maybe we can give a "good enough" idea of the flow of the game just by showing deployment and fortification troop movements?