Thursday, November 14, 2013

Alpha Strike Card Maker Update Next

Well thanks to the whopping 5 people that voted, I know what I'll work on next!  The overwhelming majority (3 of 5!) said they wanted an Alpha Strike Card Maker Update.  So, I'll start working on over the next few days.  My preliminary list of "todo's" for it.  Let me know if I'm missing something you wanted:

Primary Enhancements, WILL be in the update:

  • Define all the colors, textures, fonts, font sizes, orientation, location, etc.  These settings can be saved/applied in various ways.
  • Ability to highlight certain special abilities in different colors.  Weapons could be red and defenses green for example.
  • Ability to create a "roster" you can load/save/print.
  • Ability to specify special Alpha Strike abilities (those on the Ad-Hoc cards from ATOW) on your cards.
  • Option for each of my various enhancements like separate rocket launcher attacks and rounding.
  • The heat area is hidden for units that do not use heat.  Weapons area gets larger for units with multiple arcs, etc.
  • Dropships and all smaller units will work.  Mobile Structures/Warships/Stations/Jumpships may not however.
  • Search and filter ability with the MUL data.  This includes filtering by special ability, faciton, TRO, type, as well as tech/cost/year which isnt really supported in AS anyway.
  • Specify DPI and card size, and the output will be scaled accordingly
  • Option for hex or miniature play.  Hex = 1 MP per Inch, Miniature = 2" per MP.


Optional Enhancements, will probably be in the update:

  • Use my data as well as the MUL
  • Output a "roster" to PDF for printing, or sending to a specific company for printing on playing cards.  A back image would have to be specified as well in this case.
  • Pre-existing damage.  Crosses through circles, abilities crossed out, etc.
  • Ability to print out counters, on square or hex
  • Options for circles, ovals, or hexagons for the armor/structure
  • Submit a bug, auto-update check


Possible Enhancements, *might* be in the update:

  • Option for my custom looking cards
  • I may support much of the data I have as well, like factories, weapon types, various equipment, etc.
  • Ability to colorize units, much like what I do on my BTE website.
  • Interface to track your cards, and fill in circles/add crits, from a web interface.
  • Support various random unit tables, and my unit generator I built a while back, to generate a PDF for a unit of any size.
  • Cards like this, but for planets.  Shows their location, nearby worlds, who owns them in each era, various stellar/world attribute, units on planet, etc, etc.
  • Pre-existing lists of units.  Royal mechs, phoenix mechs, WoB units, etc.
So in short, it'll be a vast improvement over the previous version.  Stay tuned!

6 comments:

  1. Only thing i can think of is a dedicated area with iconography (look at my designs) for critical hits. Something you can cross out if you got a hit in the engine and so forth.
    Fh

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  2. I can't wait for your update! and I promise I'll give my feedback this tiem

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  3. Just downloaded AS card generator and it's quite impressive. I'll definitely be referring my club members to it.

    Had you considered adding an option to have the base "to-hit" number displayed on the card? We end up writing that on all our cards anyway. When you have a number you can just tell your opponent what to add their cover and range modifiers to it speeds things up nicely.

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    1. Thanks! I will be adding it to the next version!

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  4. Where can I find a good link for the card generator??

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    1. The latest is version 1.21, you can get it from the 2nd to the last link on my forum at http://www.battletechengineer.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5#p54, though you'll have to create an account.

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