More Sorting Fun: Gun Tanks, Cruiser Tanks, and Infantry Tanks

[Copernicus]

I was noticing (For the USA at least) that sorting by Unit Type or Unit Class puts Gun Tanks, Cruiser Tanks, and Infantry Tanks many pages away from all the other tanks.

Wouldn't it be better if they were adjacent to all the other tanks in sorting order?

[DRG]

Its sorted by unit class NOT unit type

[Copernicus]

Originally Posted by DRG

Its sorted by unit class NOT unit type

As I said, the problem occurs when sorting either by unit class or unit type - some tanks are way off by themselves, pages away from all the other tanks.

[DRG]

Andy will be looking into it, it's his code. I never have the need to use it

[Mobhack]

There are 4 sorts, shown on the LHS column:

Default order is the OOB order. That is how the designer put his units into the OOB. Its the standard Encyclopaedia view.

Unit type uses the internal game types (CT_TANK, CT_APC, CT_GUN etc) which aren't a "Mobhack" available field. Just something that the internal game code uses e.g. for AI purposes. That will put all the generic tank-like "types" together, or all the guns but not in any particular unit class order.

Unit class will put all the units of a UC together, but unit classes are not allocated in blocks, so all tank types aren't together in one block of UC numbers. All Infantry tank, Cruiser Gun Tank etc will be - but in numeric UC blocks mixed up with infantry etc in between.

Date Available is a different sort - and will show an apparent jumbled mess of units since it is a sort on start dates. Its not a sort on type or unit class.

The 2 filters on the RHS are basically "all dates" which shows all the unit dates, and "current date" which filters down to stuff available at the current battle date. If you are in a game, that date will be the battle date, but if you are in the main game screens and bring up the encyclopaedia there, then it will use the default battle date as set in your preferences. Neither of the 2 filters on the RHS are date-ordered sub sorts - just a filter for showing "all stuff" or "current stuff only".

This could be what is confusing?. The only date order sort is the one on the LHS, which is all units sorted by start date. There is not any way to sort by "unit type" or "Unit class" sub-sorted into availability date order.

I'll probably move date order to its own separate (a third) filter, probably under "all dates" and "current date" since as a stand-alone sort on its own it is not that useful. So then you could sort by unit type, in availability date order, filtered for all or current date only.

[Copernicus]

Actually, I started a separate thread here because this doesn't have anything to do with date order.

My issue was that none of the sort functions would put all the tanks in one place. All of them have some stragglers way off on the far side of the sort order.

[Copernicus]

That is a good idea, though, so long as the current date sorting is preserved (and fixed, of course).

[Copernicus]

Originally Posted by Mobhack

Unit type uses the internal game types (CT_TANK, CT_APC, CT_GUN etc) which aren't a "Mobhack" available field. Just something that the internal game code uses e.g. for AI purposes. That will put all the generic tank-like "types" together, or all the guns but not in any particular unit class order.

That's just the thing, though. It doesn't put all the generic tank-like types together. Several groups of them are way off, pages away. But if it isn't a Mobhack field which designates them, then what (if anything) can be done?

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Copernicus

That's just the thing, though. It doesn't put all the generic tank-like types together. Several groups of them are way off, pages away. But if it isn't a Mobhack field which designates them, then what (if anything) can be done?

Well, since the internal class types used do not seem to produce worthwhile results, then we simply delete the "type" sort as useless for end users. One less sort type to worry about, then.

Meanwhile, if an end user really wants to analyse things to death, then he can simply do a CSV dump of the OOB data and then spreadsheet it to death at leisure.

Quite frankly - I never use the encyclopaedia other than for a quick peek at something. If I need detail then I boot up Mobhack alongside the game. Since I play in windowed mode they can co-exist together. And I can open up multiple copies of Mobhack, if I need to compare several things data simultaneously.

[Copernicus]

I'll do that, then.