Group Id assignment

[TonyE]

Thoughts?

 

Current State:

There are two pools of Group Ids.  Sometimes scenarios are large enough that Pool #1 of Ids is exhausted and new groups cannot be created.

Pool #1 - 676 groups 

  Group Ids are two upper-case characters AA -> ZZ.

  Blue groups start from AA and work toward ZZ

  Red groups start from ZZ and work toward AA

  So with a large, long scenario you could have a Blue air group ZZA if the original Red group ZZ was destroyed.

 

Pool #2

  Group Ids are a digit followed by an upper-case character

  Green/Neutral groups start from 0A and work toward 9Z

 

(Near) Future State:

This is where your input is needed.  In the short term we have two characters to work with.  How should they be assigned?  Some options:

1. Similar model to current state but add in lower-case and force separate Blue and Red pools.  Blue AA->Mz (so both upper and lowercase).  Red ZZ -> NA.  This gives 1352 groups per major Blue and Red sides.  That up from a current 26*26=676 groups spread unevenly between Red and Blue

2. Pool all 2704 Ids and assign them on a first in, first out method.  So the first group created no matter the side/color would be AA?, second would be AB?, ...  One would have to look at the color/side of the group to know which side it is on rather than relying on the Group Id itself.

3. Pool all 2704 Ids and assign them randomly

4. Expand the pool further with non-numeric characters like [, ], (, ), ...

 

Far Future State:

Years back I expanded the group structure with an 8 character Id which would allow 6 characters for the Id, one for the group type, and one for the trailing null.  It hasn't been promulgated to all of the places where a group id is used so we can't quickly go here.  

[Warhorse64]

Is there a way to recycle group names that are no longer in use? Otherwise, I would say go with whatever system gives the largest pool of possible group names, and start Blue and Red from opposite ends.

[TonyE]

1 hour ago, Warhorse64 said:

Is there a way to recycle group names that are no longer in use? Otherwise, I would say go with whatever system gives the largest pool of possible group names, and start Blue and Red from opposite ends.

Yes, group ids are recycled.  That's one vote for suggesting side by group id.

[Tony]

I would vote selection one as it seems to be the most similar to the system in place now. I have thought they always recycled after reaching HZ. It would the go and just reuse the first empty Id from AA after that with new group creation. 

[donaldseadog]

I think I'd dislike #2 and #3 as my brain is very used to the blue\red\neutral alphabet regime (although I never realised the neutral started with zero I thought it was letter O 😳).

#3 I'm wary of as I'm prejudice against non alpha numerics but something like A1a wouldn't worry me.

#1 seems quite reasonable and hardly any different to what we have. It should give enough extra names that the problem (I'm guessing) should never eventuate.

So I'd vote for #1.

 

 

[TonyE]

Allrighty, I started  in on a slight variant of #1, see evidence in the screenshot

 

[TonyE]

Implemented recycling of Ids upon freeing of the group last night.  Stress testing it with one of Eric's smaller saves (I'll let him run one that blows past the old group limit) is going well here.  It is jarring though seeing previously unthinkable group ids like T4A.  I'm hoping to release the ExportDLL tonight.  I'll have to enable ExportDLLs for the SE at some point as well to allow the wider swath of Ids.

 

[TonyE]

The logic used to assign group ids in the GroupIdManager v002 ExportDLL is:

 Assign Blue Group Ids from AA to Mz and aA to mz.
 Assign Red Group Ids from Zz to NA and zz to nA.
 Assign Greed Group Ids from 0A to 9z.
 Recycle used Group Ids.
 Note, the pools of group ids no longer overlap so
  you won't see a Blue group ZZ? or a Red group AA?

[eeustice]

Running the first version of of the GroupidManager I found when starting a new game the GE crashes.

If you play a  saved game the GroupidManagerworks great.

I have had it up to 715 groups. 196 Blue and 519 Red in my test scenario.

It looks like Tony finally broke the 676 group ID limit!

[TonyE]

2022.006 is looking good but won't be released for a bit.  It will allow one to start a new game (shocking, I know).  Thank you for giving it a workout Eric!