Feature Requests

[Craig Micallef]

Some wizards have begun offering suggestions on possible enhancements to the software. I figured it would be good to open this up to everyone. While everything will be considered, I cannot guarantee that any given request will be implemented, as there are a few factors to be weighed.

First, we have a responsibility both to you, the customer, and to the stewardship of Michael's legacy. Changes which may cause conflicts between the two will need very careful consideration. Many things within ValueCapper, both great and small, were done in a deliberate fashion, and so changes must be compared with the original intent.

Second, features which would provide the biggest benefit to the most people will be given greater weight. Something which enhances usability or makes things more convenient could be a good candidate.

Third, the complexity in implementing any feature will be a major factor. The funny thing about software is that some features which appear to be simple can often involve more effort than you'd expect. Even developers with decades of experience can misjudge the amount of effort required to implement something. Along those same lines, once functionality is added to software, it rarely (if ever) gets removed because someone might rely on it. That means it must be maintained indefinitely -- which has a cost.

Finally, please keep in mind that we are all at different stages in our ValueCapping journey. A feature which may help you might create confusion for another, particularly those who are still new to the whole process. It will be imperative that any changes made can be turned off or hidden, so that the experience does not become too cluttered.

With all that said, please feel free to add your suggestions or comments to this thread.

[M_Walk]

Hey Craig, I think the simplest and easiest thing to start with is making everything available on the drop menu. There would be no need to go into black magic anymore to see AFP's, MP numbers or anything else.

[loblolly74]

Hi Mark, I hope you're not suggesting for Craig to drop Black Magic totally, I among several others are still using it, matter of fact, I scored nicely today, I won't go into what I did because it might influence techniques presented in the latest program, after all I have a lot of years and thousands of hours invested in Blam

Rich

[Bob Harris]

You're good, Rich.

VC allows users to look at Black Magic too by accessing through a drop down menu. Mark is just requesting that some of the columns he likes from BM be visible on the VC summary grid without going through the menu.

Black Magic users wouldn't be effected.

[M_Walk]

I'm not saying drop BM. I don't even have VC and have never used it before. I love BM and wouldn’t be here without it! What I'm saying is I noticed on a lot of videos Michael would go into BM to see MP ratings, APF etc. If the drop menu has everything that's available to be seen you could select the columns that are most important to you that very well may be a mixture of both programs on one screen.

[RSKERK]

Correct me if I am wrong on this. When we VC users go to the Blam screen, it's not Black Magic. It's just the interface of BM with the ValueCapper's numbers. I remember the back and forth confusion when VC was released............Rob

[Craig Micallef]

Correct me if I am wrong on this. When we VC users go to the Blam screen, it's not Black Magic. It's just the interface of BM with the ValueCapper's numbers. I remember the back and forth confusion when VC was released............Rob

You are correct, Rob. In VC, you have the option of 3 different modes: VC (the default), Black Magic, and the One-Minute Expert (OME). Each of these modes has its own set of columns available in the summary grid, along with a slightly different set of form cycle window options.

The idea of having 3 modes was to keep the default VC screen as clean and uncluttered as possible, while still allowing users to show the familiar Blam columns if they preferred that. So, perhaps make all columns available regardless of mode, while still allowing things to be reset to their default layout.

[Sjmeola]

Hi all,

Craig said it perfectly MP was a big believer that less is more and
wanted the summary screen unlcuttered.

I can certainly understand why Mr Walk would make such a suggestion.
I had similar thoughts while VC was in beta and asked Michael this question.

"Why can't I see what kind a pattern a horse has ?

MP "Valuecapper flags all patterns, that is more than enough"

I would possibly support the idea of moving a few things over such as plus factors or a few others that
Frank (Fpolk) has suggested in another thread like late fraction etc. It's a real slippery slope that will need
further discussion.

Watching Michael play for many hours over the years with VC, he never sorted or clicked around much or hardly ever.
He really did practice what he preached.

Michael really wanted his students (myself included) to really trust the line and make almost all decisions based on line and price.
It's so much more than just an oddsline that almost every handicapping software on the planet has.

This is the number one reason I believe why valuecapper was even created in the first place.

I also wanted to make a point for those that have never realized the obvious:

If you are using black magic within valuecapper you are essentially using valuecapper anyway
with a black magic visual astestic and nothing more. That is why when you switch back and forth between
modes the rankings of the horses do not change. There are ratings that are only on the blam side
but they are made from the valuecapper ratings, adjustments and secret sauce and not old valuecapper.

To use black Magic in the purest sense you would have to be using Black Magic in it's stand alone form
and not in valuecapper. I am sure there are players here that never upgraded to valuecapper such as Loblolly and others.
Nothing wrong with that. Michael once said to me "Sam I love all my children"

[optionpro]

Hey Craig,

Through the years I've often thought that it would be helpful to have a search function that works much like the portfolios, where you could save a specific search for the kind of races someone likes to play.

As an example only, maybe I am looking for HP races with an ARC of five or less with a single closer in the ARC. If I could search for those races and save that search I would have my own unique portfolio to go to without effecting how ValueCapper works for others.

As I was just going thru the races today, I was thinking it would save time if I could create a 5* reverser portfolio of fiverrs just in the ARC. The search combinations are almost endless, but all of the variables are already in place.

Thanks,

Les

[Jdhanover]

Hey Craig,

Through the years I've often thought that it would be helpful to have a search function that works much like the portfolios, where you could save a specific search for the kind of races someone likes to play.

As an example only, maybe I am looking for HP races with an ARC of five or less with a single closer in the ARC. If I could search for those races and save that search I would have my own unique portfolio to go to without effecting how ValueCapper works for others.

As I was just going thru the races today, I was thinking it would save time if I could create a 5* reverser portfolio of fiverrs just in the ARC. The search combinations are almost endless, but all of the variables are already in place.

Thanks,

Les

I like this. I'd also like the ability to highlight all maiden races in a click of a button (it is the one type of race where I do some things not associated with VC). And the ability to highlight races where the field size is greater than 5 or 6 (really to eliminate the small fields).

Add'l ideas for food for thought:

The ability to adjust the post times for a given track or race by 'x' minutes. Sometimes a track gets off schedule (or the program has the wrong times for a couple of races - saw this with Colonial Downs I think).

The ability to star a subset of races by, say highlighting a race, then hold the shift key, click fifteen races down and then some click to star those..... Sometimes I will print the races to pdf to send to my phone if I will be away from my computer for a while.

Ability to 'anti-star' races - IOW words hide a set of races (e.g. hide all 'red' races).

Break the portfolio for yellow races into 'proceed with care' and 'proceed with great caution'

A zoom feature (maybe this exists somehow with the computer? I have a SurfacePro so maybe there is a way to do that?) so that more columns/info can be on screen

will post more as I think of thme