As I cranked out some code tonight I got to thinking about the interfaces available to ExportDLLs in the game and how they might lend themselves to automated statistics tracking.

 

This would entail the user...

1. Opening a harpgamer.com forum account if they don't have one

2. Downloading and unzipping a DLL to the ExportDLLs folder

3. Upon running the game, answer a few one-time questions such as:

3a. What is your harpgamer username?

3b. What is the statistics key from your profile view? (this is a value only that user would see in their profile)

3c. Mark my statistics anonymous? (yes/no to list either by username or as anonymous)

 

Now when the user starts a scenario, various statistics would be tracked (see attached document for rough example) and uploaded periodically to harpgamer.com.

 

Site visitors can then go to the statistics page, see overall hours spent in the game across all reporting users, then allow selection of individual users. When a user is selected, show a timeline of the scenarios they have played, each one is a link leading to stats somewhat like the attached.

 

Please add your thoughts, this would be a basic start with more capabilities down the road (periodic screenshots? static kml snapshots for viewing in Google Earth,...)

 

Thanks!

StatsTracking_20101126.doc

Hi Tony,

 

interesting idea. Maybe it could lead to attracting more players to the site and the sim. Are these the goals or what exactly are you heading for with this tool?

 

I would liketo have it anonymously, though.

 

Regards,

Ralf

Thank you for the feedback Ralf.

 

I agree that such a tool could bring a few more people to the game and more visitors to the site.

 

Brad caught my underlying motivation with this when he said, "[20:15] seems like another stepping stone toward MP in a way". Yep, step-by-step with some tangible side-benefits along the way.

 

Part of my motivation also comes from my enjoyment of the expenditures screen that is part of the H2/3/ANW evaluation screen where you see what material was used, destroyed, and damaged during the scenario. Someday I'd like to see monetary costs associated with that (a million dollar TLAM here, a million dollar TLAM there). But for now I'd be more than happy to know that I lost 5 x F/A-18 and killed 52 x Mig-21bis.

 

And the 'way down the road' motivation is for an almost self-writing AAR; this could be the start of that.

 

The biggest challenge I see is figuring out when the player is continuing an old game and matching it up with the correct prior session. I've got an approach that may work (storing the original scenario file name in the saved game and matching saved game size/hash).

As I cranked out some code tonight I got to thinking about the interfaces available to ExportDLLs in the game and how they might lend themselves to automated statistics tracking.

...

Please add your thoughts, this would be a basic start with more capabilities down the road (periodic screenshots? static kml snapshots for viewing in Google Earth,...)

 

Thanks!

 

 

As I am considered to be the perennial naysayer around here, let me continue by playing devil's advocate... but first some positive thoughts:

• I like the idea of the detailed statistical report, as suggested - and more.
   
  The future possibility of an automatic AAR is also pretty interesting.
  

Now for my concerns:

• My first and biggest concern is "big brotherism". Something rubs me the wrong way about having my game play publically tracked, analyzed, discussed, or who-knows-what, without even my own participation... and makes me worry that any benefits might be far outweighed by the possibilities for anonymous abuse by others, for whatever agendas they may have.
   
  That leads directly to my second concern of what the collectors of this uploaded data might actually be able to do with it - especially uses that are well outside the scope of what we game users might assume those uses to be.
   
  Would this statistics tracking mechanism prevent the game from being played "off network" - for instance, on a non-Internet computer? If so, this would be a BIG drawback for me, personally.
   
  My other concern is that the effort put into this may well take away from the work of improving the game engine and mechanisms - especially leaving certain long-standing aspects and issues languishing in a state of status quo. (Yeah, I'm a bit selfish here in that there are things on my wish list and fix list that to me are a much higher priority than this statistical data collection aspect).
  

 

All that being said, I certainly would enjoy having the sort of statistical info and AARs as a LOCAL output for my own use... but I'm rather nervous about public or even semi-public dissemination of my game play.

 

Just my two cents...

I can appreciate JoeK's comments about folks being concerned about their information being uploaded somewhere else. A natural response in this day and age.

 

The idea, of course, would be to let you see exactly what statistics are being gathered and displayed.

 

As for the effort taking away from continuing work on the GE and other important aspects of HCE, that's a non-issue. No chance of that.

 

In fact, sometimes approaching the HCE project from a different angle serves to keep this volunteer effort healthy, creative and worthwhile.

Since some yeasr ago I use an Access database to track my Harpoon games, I take note of relevant info during game and then I feed the db with it.

It would be helpful to have a tracking system (on or off line).

Since some yeasr ago I use an Access database to track my Harpoon games, I take note of relevant info during game and then I feed the db with it.

It would be helpful to have a tracking system (on or off line).

 

Awesome!

 

Would you share this Access database, the template with others? I´d love to use it!

 

Regards,

Ralf