Software for Fleet Management

[deeplogic]

Hello Armada,

I’m the Fleet General for The Disciples of Morn and The House of Morn, but my day job is as a software engineer. I created a program when the export feature was released to streamline our fleets’ promotion process and inactivity monitoring. The program would display on-top of the game window and, as soon as the roster file was exported, display which members needed a promotion and which were inactive.

Our promotions are fleet credit-based for the lower ranks and we remove members based on the number of days inactive, with that value increasing for each progressive rank. The process that took us several minutes was reduced to just a few seconds. I was pretty happy with the results, but I thought it would be nice to turn this into a program others could use. As it stood, it was hard-coded to our fleets’ setups.

I set out on that task in early December and came up with, what I think, is a pretty handy program. It allows you to create separate profiles; profiles containing fleets and your STO game path. While most people will have one profile, if you have multiple STO installations and want to manage across them, you can. While I knew most people wouldn’t use this feature, I thought it important to at least make it available.

When adding a fleet, you can specify the name of the fleet, of course, the names for each fleet rank, the number of days members of any given rank can be offline before being considered inactive and the number of fleet credits required to be promoted to that rank. If a rank doesn’t have a fleet credit requirement, or doesn’t have an activity requirement, the values can be left at 0.

Once you’ve specified how you want each fleet setup, and where your game is located, the program begins watching the STO folder for new CSV files exported from the Fleet Window’s roster tab (or by using the console command). When it detects a new export, it immediately loads the relevant fleet’s data and scans the file. It then allows you to select from various categories to drill down into the data. Examples of these are: Ungranted Promotions, Non-Contributors, Inactive Members, Members Comments and Officer Comments.

After selecting a category, you’ll see a simple list with all the relevant members. You can also see the raw data in a list view, similar to the view you’d see in a spreadsheet. You can choose to export what you’re viewing to a CSV file at anytime. This is great for sharing specific results with members of the fleet.

A “PADD” is available as well, which mimics the functionality we had in the beginning: It’s a small window that can display on-top of the game window when it’s in windowed mode that displays what data you’ve selected in the main window. You can also flip between categories with selection arrows. I find this especially handy. The main window can be made to stay on top as well, but requires a larger screen footprint; not terribly handy when in-game.

My usual pattern is to open the program, open STO, hop over to the Roster tab, click Export. Within 3 to 4 seconds the application shows me whether there are any promotions that need to be granted. I don’t scan for inactivity everyday, so I check our projects, our bank and then hop over to the other allegiance. I click the Export button there and, within 3 to 4 seconds, I see whether I have any promotions for that fleet. If I were to want to check for inactivity, I would just click the right arrow on the “PADD”.

Beyond the data related functions, I’ve included a basic web browser and notes function. I chose to include the web browser because I find myself checking my fleet’s website at the same time I intend to perform my daily management duties. I thought it would be nice to have it all in one place. While I’m not going to be relying on the browser for any heavy lifting, it works just fine for basic browsing; the notes utility is not dissimilar. I use the it to store various form letters and certain multi-line messages I put into chat before performing certain tasks. Will I write a novel with it? No.

And, I just have to mention: The interface is done entirely in LCARS format, with beeping and a full-screen mode that is, well, just plain neat. :geek:

I just wanted to get this in-front of the Armada with the hopes that it can help some of our fleets. So, take a glance if it intrigues you. I’ve left it completely free of branding, and you can export and import the configuration files used, so it makes it very easy to pass the configuration along to other fleet members once you’ve gotten yours setup. While your game path might be different, the program will detect that upon startup for the other member and simply ask them to specify a new one.

I’ll be adding more features within the next couple of months, so if you grab it and like it, stay tuned. I’m going to be allowing for custom categories, themes, and retooling the PADD just to name a few. This is something I’m using every day, so I can’t help but keep an eye out for improvements, but, if you do use it and have an idea, please pass it along.

You’ll find it here: http://www.thehouseofmorn.com/software. Oh, and it is, and always will be, free.

Good luck out there, Qapla’ and Jolan Tru!

[Marcase]

Hello Aaron,

Thank you for sharing this, the LCARS layout is a nice touch!

As it is, we in the 44th are using a similar program developed ‘in house’, by our own fleet (staff) member Defcon, and has turned out to be an indispensable tool for fleet management. Especially when, as is the case with the Mighty 44th, you run three fleets as one, personnel management can and will become true labor.

Thanks again for sharing this, we’ll certainly take a serious look at your system.

Regards,
Marcase

[attachment=0:1ftiqbbn]44pers.JPG[/attachment:1ftiqbbn]

"Boldly bashing Borg to bits since 2012..."

[defcon1776]

Thanks for the contribution! :ugeek: I’ll check this out a bit later when I get on my Windows machine.

[deeplogic]

Thanks for taking a look! It’s good to know the spirit of innovation is alive and well; good luck with your efforts Defcon. I hope we continue to see these sorts of features from the team at Cryptic. I was always hopeful that the Gateway would become more fleshed out and things like this wouldn’t be needed, but, hey, at least they’re opening us up to our own solutions.

[Author]

Posts