tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34694273748263393572024-03-05T12:50:05.007-06:00BattleTech EngineerBad Syntaxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05952088688624485275noreply@blogger.comBlogger188125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3469427374826339357.post-8995301819607089632021-12-10T14:17:00.001-06:002021-12-10T14:17:24.665-06:00Ok, SBF is simply broken<div style="text-align: left;">Plug for my patreon site, which I skip charges on, but lets you let me know you are a fan :D<br /><a href="https://www.patreon.com/BattletechEngineer">https://www.patreon.com/BattletechEngineer</a></div><p><br /></p><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="3tvts" data-offset-key="5bjdi-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #241e12; font-family: aktiv-grotesk, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5bjdi-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="5bjdi-0-0">Ok, I haven't touched SBF in a few weeks now. During this time I have read the rules countless times trying to make sense out of it. Final result is, SBF is 100% broken and unplayable. The rules do not make sense, are contradictory, do not address too many common situations in gameplay, and are just missing too many things.</span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="3tvts" data-offset-key="82b6d-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #241e12; font-family: aktiv-grotesk, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="82b6d-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="82b6d-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="3tvts" data-offset-key="bivja-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #241e12; font-family: aktiv-grotesk, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="bivja-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="bivja-0-0">But I've already put quite a bit of work into this (probably 20-30 hours), so I'll keep going until it is playable. </span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="3tvts" data-offset-key="7f2h7-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #241e12; font-family: aktiv-grotesk, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7f2h7-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="7f2h7-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="3tvts" data-offset-key="e0q6q-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #241e12; font-family: aktiv-grotesk, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="e0q6q-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="e0q6q-0-0">As of now I am not totally sure of how I'll do engagement control. Those rules are completely broken. I am thinking that the engagement control roll is only made at the END of the turn to see how the battle pans out in the next turn. If you want to fight an engagement simply move into a hex for an enemy unit that already moved, and stop there, thus creating an engagement. If you want to force an engagement or evade from one this is the time you determine that, and can then move out of the hex if you win the engagement and choose not to engage at all. I think that'll work better.</span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="3tvts" data-offset-key="5e3it-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #241e12; font-family: aktiv-grotesk, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="5e3it-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="5e3it-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="3tvts" data-offset-key="9sk68-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #241e12; font-family: aktiv-grotesk, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="9sk68-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="9sk68-0-0">I love the idea of the tactical rating, but can't imagine it having a significant effect in combat over just their skill rating. From a BT perspective, to me anyway, tactics at this scale should maybe give you the ability to choose the ranges at which each element fights. So, say you are a clan trinary with a low tactical rating vs an inner sphere company with a higher tactical rating. 3 elements (stars) vs 3 elements (lances). Having the superior tactical level should probably allow you to either increase or decrease the engagement range by one range band, but I can't imagine any other benefit. On the tabletop superior tactics just gives you a modifier to initiative, which at the SBF level is not factored in directly.</span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="3tvts" data-offset-key="3fal9-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #241e12; font-family: aktiv-grotesk, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3fal9-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="3fal9-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="3tvts" data-offset-key="44he7-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #241e12; font-family: aktiv-grotesk, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="44he7-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="44he7-0-0">Some other changes I think I will make to the rules, though I have not gone through all of them yet:</span></div></div><div class="_2TO-components-SimpleRichTextEditor--paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="3tvts" data-offset-key="ctjm3-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #241e12; font-family: aktiv-grotesk, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="ctjm3-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="ctjm3-0-0">- Each MP you spend, does a sensor roll AND visual detection roll against all units within range automatically. You can still choose at any time during movement to spend 1 MP to do a recon scan against 1 target. These are goofy though as movement is simultaneous, and you may scan a unit that was never really within range because they moved, or what if you ran by an enemy surely they would see you before you ran back out of range? Proper implementation of these really need a phased movement system where units all move 1 MP at a time based on their speed.
- Sprinting/evasive. These are 1 BT turn maneuvers, not something that should be used strategically as both are probably quite exhausting. I left them in, but these I feel should not be allowed in SBF and I will probably remove them at some point.
- Only units with RCN can do a recon scan? Gotta be *some* reason scout mechs exist right?
- Eliminate the line of sight determination table on p239 of IO. If you are adjacent, you can fight (granted, the rules are sparse on the ability to fight things outside your hex)
- The rules do not ever indicate what a 'Tier#' leader is, so I'll assume tier 1 = lance/star/L2, tier 2=company/binary/trinary/2xL2, tier 3=battalion/cluster/L3, tier 4=higher. This is for the initiative modifier table on p265. You don't want the tiers to go to high and give 1 side a +9 or something.
- I won't support splitting/reforming/adhoc units during gameplay. These are totally real things, that happen in real life and in the BTU, but not within 3 minute turn increments. Do this admin level stuff before the game.
Hopefully more to come pretty soon.</span></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- Start of Woopra Code -->
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Anyway, first thing is somebody asked, and I delivered, a new version of the card maker!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.battletechengineer.com/AlphaStrikeCardMaker130.zip">http://www.battletechengineer.com/AlphaStrikeCardMaker132.zip</a> (Note, this is v1.31 that fixes LAM/Jump if you are using hexes vs inches)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Next, a big chunk of why I am getting back into Battletech is the new Clan Invasion kickstarter!<br /><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/450703636/battletech-clan-invasion/">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/450703636/battletech-clan-invasion/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm backed at the Full Kerensky level, though since all it appears to be now is gaming with a bunch of people that don't like me, I will probably downgrade my pledge unless they make it better somehow.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Also, MORE good news. The ONE thing preventing me from going forward with my real time battletech game was a decent 2D graphics engine I could use. Waaay back when I started I used DirectX, and while it still worked, all support for it was deprecated and it just way out of date.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, once I finish updating my site so everything works (its back end systems will also be what i use in my game, so its a dependency), and finish my database update, my next project should be my real time battletech game. By real time I mean 10 seconds in game = 1 turn = 10 seconds real life. If your match took 5 minutes of game time to play on the tabletop (30 turns), it will last 5 minutes in this game. At first it'll be solaris style battles, 1v1, hopefully up to 256v256, but even 12v12 is great. If the game takes off, surely I can find a better programmer than myself to create the network code.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- Start of Woopra Code -->
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I *AM* still chugging away on the site update. At first I was like "Oh, I'll put in a few hours and update the site" and now I'm like "OMG, wtf did I get myself into?!?!?".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Basically, I have an equipment table that has 3400 or so items that can be on units. This table ended up completely different than the original. I had to change the vast majority of it, 131 columns * 3400 rows. Ugh.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On top of that, I've had to rewrite HUGE chunks of code. Whatever idiot wrote this crap should be shot. However, I am making progress. As of now, I know an AS7-D Atlas, WHM-6R warhammer, Manticore, and Behemoth tank work, have the correct weight/cost. I can get a McKenna up, and a Stuka. Hopefully I have gone through the last of my major bugs that require me repopulate my entire database as those updates take a lot of time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I also have some wonky issue with my PC where when I access a network drive, where my 10TB+ of stuff is, I have to wait a full minute to rename a file, copy a file, etc. Its horribly frustrating. I have copied all the code locally and since resolved it, but there were a lot of lockups that ate through time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I also ended up having to go back through my megamek assets and clean them up. Now there is a new megamek I probably need to integrate as well. That was a huge pain, but luckily the new mech shading works fine with my existing camo code.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once I get the majority of mechs, combat vehicles, aerospace fighters, dropships, jumpships, warships, and small craft working I'll do a quick release. After that I'll work on battle armor, infantry, and support vehicles. Lastly will come buildings, mobile structures, and bases. RPG characters is another project for a later time, if ever.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When I finish that first part, I may get distracted with my real time battletech project (where 10 seconds in real time = 10 seconds game time). This is really ambitious but I have figured out ways to map 3000 worlds, with persistent damage, with hundreds of thousands of players (I'm trying for 200 on screen at a time, with a max zoom of 2km per screen that is a LOT of units). We'll see though.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But, thanks for the support for the few of you still hanging around. I do have a facebook group called "Battletech Design Works</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">" if you want to join. Sometimes it gets more updates, sometimes less, than this blog.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I also think I figured out a way past the hardest aspect of a unit designer, the part that slow me down on my last attempt.... not sure what'll come of that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Have a great spring!</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- Start of Woopra Code -->
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But, better news. So I took my server down. It needed updating, so I pulled it out of the datacenter. Quite a few folks were apparently using it though, enough to motivate me to fix it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Good news is I'm taking the code I never rolled out that had new features and stuff, and working on updating that. The database has some more recent stuff, new megamek shaded icons, and should be faster once I hammer out some database queries.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I won't give an ETA, as I've put 40 *extra* hours into my job this last week (that is NOT good for me, no matter how much I make). I will say I am working on it though, and will get it up and working. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Aside from that my Battletech life is dead. I still get some MWO miniatures painted up nicely, though they haven't seen a battle yet. I've been getting closer to the idea of selling off all my unpainted BattleTech stuff. If that was easy, it'd be sold already, but its a PITA so I keep blowing it off. I am not real sure I'll keep the books either, I have every single one in PDF, and 6 linear feet of shelf space would be put to better use by games I'm more interested in.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the past few months I've wrote a couple of traveller utilities (a ship designer and character creator), worked a lot on my military database, and played quite a few games, and contemplated running for office again (even my poop is better than most of Congress/Senate/Judicial/Executive morons). Dawn of War III may postpone my life for a while as well, or who knows.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyway, enjoy the spring, I sure as hell am!</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- Start of Woopra Code -->
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<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm still alive</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am still into games</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am still healthy (minor scare with a kidney stone surgery, all good now)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am still keeping up with battletech (the field manual beta thing was great)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have done zero work on battletech since the last update.</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The reasons I haven't touched battletech are:</span></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I feel the community doesn't care about what I have to offer</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I can't get my questions about rules answered</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am not playing anymore</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> Over 100K views on this blog though. On top of that, there have been over 5000 units from the database viewed (many with bugs, I know). So apparently some people still occasionally use the site.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, tell ya what. Since I am not one to let folks down, and honestly I have a ton of time for hobbies that I am simply choosing to spend on OTHER things, I have a proposal.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If I can get $1000 donated to my bad_syntax at yahoo.com paypal account, I will start working on Battletech again, and will stick to it as I'll feel obligated because people gave me money.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Oh, and the money? 100% of it will be donated to the ASPCA, I won't keep a single dime (even if $1k isn't reached). I'll post updates on here as to the amount if it gets to a significant number. That isn't the point of this. I just want to see if there is enough interest left in me bothering trying to write the designer, and anything else for a while.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Note: I have estimated that development time and resources for such a project (and I do often do projects like this at work) would be at least $300K, so .3% of that is a deal :)</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Drink water, and </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">till next time!</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Bad Syntax</span></div>
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<!-- End of Woopra Code --></div>Bad Syntaxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05952088688624485275noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3469427374826339357.post-12734334475659556192016-09-25T15:55:00.002-05:002016-09-25T15:57:26.657-05:00Burn In Designs<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Well a minor update, since I haven't done one in a while, to let folks know I'm alive.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">EDIT: For those of you with better things to do than waste time reading my rant, just skip to the pics and click on your next tab, I don't say anything important here :)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What has happened in the last couple months:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">New Job, -2 to -4 hours a day on hobbies for various reasons (Used to be about 6-8)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sick wife, spent a week in the hospital, still not doing so hot</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Received my Heavy Gear kickstarter. Unpacked it, haven't done much else.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Finally got my HUGE Burn In Designs order. Buildings, more than enough for a 4' x 8' table now (I still need to make some road/pavement and hex sized bases for them, but mostly assembled). This sucked up a LOT of time over the last couple weeks at least. I'll show some pics.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Been buying a lot of the old games I had which were punched, in new unpunched mint versions. No reason really, not like I'll EVER play Grav Armor by Microgaming, but I really wanted a new copy :)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Got a lot more military books. Mostly the 4 sets of Conways Fighting Ships from 1860 to 1995, a few more Janes, and a couple other miscellaneous military books.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Got back into Games Workshop epic for a couple weeks. I REALLY wanna make some counters with vassal40K artwork, but its a pain.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Got back into 40K a *bit*. I love the artwork, love the universe, loathe the 7 editions of rules now and super duper expensive *everything*. Snagged the rules, and now have a copy of most of the 7E stuff. Started tinkering with making a 100% tabletop to PC port of the game. While I can do it as some graphics are available, once I started getting into the rules more and more, I decided it is becoming infinitely more complicated. I may knock out a "Space Marines vs Tyranids" thing, but I don't know if I can get that into it, if it has a market (I am 20 years out of date with 40K), and I'm sure GW would call their lawyers on me. Still though, as screwed up as GW is as a company, their $50 codex books are such high quality they are kinda worth the money. Beautiful artwork, just very well done books. Their miniatures may be pricey, but aren't they damned good as well? Granted, my space marines and Tyranids date back to 2E but that recent space hulk game I got had GREAT miniatures in it.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Played a few PC games. No Man's Sky was stupid, I got a refund. Bought the new 40K Escalation game, it is *horrible* right now, but hopefully will get better. Played through the 2 Armageddon 40K panzer general clone games, with all their DLC. Also played Rimworld (fun!) and some Homeworld remastered (and the deserts of karnak ground based version).</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, for a battletech blog, notice how battletech is completely missing? I know it was my #1 priority, and it is still always on my mind, but it isn't in my work flow.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I think its a subconscious thing. By being pretty much completely thrown out of the community I just don't think I want to work on it anymore. No matter what I am telling myself, or the few followers I have left, the fact is my brain is still stuck with the mentality of "if you don't like me, why the fuck would I spend a minute of time making something you want?". It is a stupid mindset, but let me tell you a *little* something about the way I am:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I don't have but a couple friends. I often moved every year growing up, and even in my adult life. I have now lived in one place for 5 years, and its a record for me at 43. So, I'm used to not requiring social interaction to "be".</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am very generous, very kind, and often go out of my way to help *anybody*. So, if I count you as a friend, you can call me at 4am saying you need a ride home and I'll be there, EVERY time. You can ask me for money and I will flat out *give* it to you (loans + friends = bad). You can ask me to do something for you and I will. If I say I'll be somewhere at a specific time to meet, I will, every time, zero exceptions. BUT, when I have a friend who constantly misses meetings with me with no warning, who takes advantage of me, any BS like that, I'll drop them quicker than a dog that just pooped on me.</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, in this case, I was being a friend, offering my time (which is money), my experience (which is a lot of money), and my desire to help the community. I was active in the forums, I posted errata for everything, I answered questions, I often wrote little utilities to do things, I did all sorts of what I thought was productive things.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then, for a *really* stupid reason I probably should have argued more, I got banned.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Whatever. I eventually got mostly over that, and moved onto facebook. It was ok, and I was able to get a bit of an audience for something I wanted to help out with. It was working ok.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then I sold some miniatures I thought were real, to somebody who begged me to sell them to him (I wasn't actually trying to sell them), I posted very high res pics, comparisons, and told him I'd refund his money fully if he thought they were fake. He bought them, sat on them a couple months, then RESOLD them (I never would have sold them had he not said he wanted to field them). Apparently he sold them to an "expert", who said they were fake. Then the idiots who run the groups decided to take his word for it, without a copy of the conversation, and not only kicked me but banned me from even contacting them without getting BOTH sides of the story. On top of that, they justified it by saying I had thousands of miniatures and should have "known better", even though I still to this day think they were real, and that same justification should have meant they took my side.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Around that point I also decided that too many of the guys I was gaming with were just assholes to each other. That, combined with what I felt was a really silly campaign system they ran, and 90% of my time spent gaming just sitting there, I decided to pull out of that and not game anymore.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So basically the community has said "Fuck off Bad Syntax, we don't want you here."</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And though I keep trying to look past them, facts are, it got to me enough that part of my brain doesn't want to go back to Battletech. At ALL. That part keeps winning.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It could change, but nobody will make it so. I could "reinvent" myself, I know more than enough about technology to create a new nickname, new emails, new profile, new IPs, and so forth that I could be a completely new person, though I'd still know the truth and that part still eats at me.<br /><br />Anyway, not sure where I was going with this, my blog sucks. I dunno when my next update will be, nor if it'll have new content or be another cry for attention, but I'll do another one.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For now though, the good part, some pics of my new city! NOTE: All the buildings I have laid out are from Burn In Designs. I have quite a few more from GCMiniatures and will hopefully find a bigger table to get them all setup soon.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivSAYYE5C65EJUlqjiPdGZMH23NGvgnc3Q0AVZ6IrRLiRZ3oqEwmBGF-gPknXLldxmMWB_-JenLlBUgaCqD1kLK-YhUk0mb_m2Gs_Dx6gzGKNj7Z5VfcsiICJs3nh2kUEbIUH3mXPN834/s1600/Buildings1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivSAYYE5C65EJUlqjiPdGZMH23NGvgnc3Q0AVZ6IrRLiRZ3oqEwmBGF-gPknXLldxmMWB_-JenLlBUgaCqD1kLK-YhUk0mb_m2Gs_Dx6gzGKNj7Z5VfcsiICJs3nh2kUEbIUH3mXPN834/s320/Buildings1.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Shortest in front, stuff to left front is walls</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfnOSM1VLFQ7lDQJMYmFIORdvhrA6cRYtXVvrd0-5cFBZs0tJbmsX2-fPhy54vBqD9gAULQCfGBKeCqRbEd7e-XGlrk28GBqS_Vsla3kq26-Aq2RXEKeKJP5XUs6gW52V57viDXYBJbEk/s1600/Buildings2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfnOSM1VLFQ7lDQJMYmFIORdvhrA6cRYtXVvrd0-5cFBZs0tJbmsX2-fPhy54vBqD9gAULQCfGBKeCqRbEd7e-XGlrk28GBqS_Vsla3kq26-Aq2RXEKeKJP5XUs6gW52V57viDXYBJbEk/s320/Buildings2.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjruCkfsdzS2RG0vfflVJk0Nh4bp7_QFLZHWli4qTawtKEkCvan7wpcrMfS3mbRsqx7q3iWYj5HDTpFtyPOzTZ1qrXn0D-Dkr3VhFjELnSZvL9VYKgxNK-G3mgHMLTQc1iWNuSniawKDEI/s1600/Buildings3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjruCkfsdzS2RG0vfflVJk0Nh4bp7_QFLZHWli4qTawtKEkCvan7wpcrMfS3mbRsqx7q3iWYj5HDTpFtyPOzTZ1qrXn0D-Dkr3VhFjELnSZvL9VYKgxNK-G3mgHMLTQc1iWNuSniawKDEI/s320/Buildings3.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrIYdA_uQxWKFwCFWBKxA8CHUljF3GwlX8jw6TE7Z0DVYnbmOdhl8WFKhLEkwXZDISd2esyh9vRDCMAoWA73JdGCqApR0QArjSOyVMFOTon6p_BUv2f7mJs7PwsygiMmTB47IdEtDHn5c/s1600/Buildings4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrIYdA_uQxWKFwCFWBKxA8CHUljF3GwlX8jw6TE7Z0DVYnbmOdhl8WFKhLEkwXZDISd2esyh9vRDCMAoWA73JdGCqApR0QArjSOyVMFOTon6p_BUv2f7mJs7PwsygiMmTB47IdEtDHn5c/s320/Buildings4.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The aftermath. My hobby room. What can't be seen is all the little wood parts in my carpet that I'll have to vacuum up.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Next I'll get these painted, get some dark plastic to put behind for all the windows, and perhaps light them. Then I'll make hex bases for each building to fit the maps I use, create some road templates, and then I'll have my city!<br /><br />Why I'm not sure, I'm not actively playing anything :(</span></div>
</div>
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<!-- End of Woopra Code --></div>Bad Syntaxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05952088688624485275noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3469427374826339357.post-66470054441614363912016-06-19T23:18:00.003-05:002016-06-19T23:29:14.328-05:00She turned me into a newt!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Skip to the bottom couple of lines if you don't want to read my silly soapbox rant:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Well first let me apologize. So there I was, heavy into programming, working on Battletech Design Works day and night, not thinking of anything else, making great progress.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then it stopped. Completely. I could sit down in front of my computer, with time, nothing else to do, saying to myself "I need to go work on this", and *nothing*.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Time and time again.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have no idea what happened. Perhaps its a pattern? I know throughout my life I've gotten "into" one game for a while, then it goes away and I move onto others. Eventually I loop back around to my favorites. This has happened a LOT in my life, and now that it was so obvious I'm now curious if there was some mental pattern to it. Perhaps I got bored, frustrated, annoyed, came to my senses, or any number of things. But anyway, from that last update until about a couple weeks ago I made ZERO progress.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Then somebody wrote me an email asking for my "new" version of my <a href="http://bte.battletechengineer.com/AlphaStrikeCardMaker121.zip" target="_blank">Alpha Strike Card Maker</a> (new version, 1.21, more on that in a sec). At that point apparently the battletech fire under my ass was re-ignited.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, I jump into the code. I quickly realized that the cards were simply not sufficient. Not enough space. So, I create a new algorithm to completely redesign the cards for 3" x 5" (which is much better for so many of us older folks with crappy eyeballs) so I can support every kind of unit on it. A few days later I'm done with that, and start plugging in some warship data. I get through a couple hundred dropships and warships, everything is going ok, then I start to find various errata sort of things to my formulas. I make a few updates, and then eventually realize that I'm wasting my time and need to be using my database instead of printed stats as something like a gauss rifle doesn't do 15-15-15 damage like various TRO's show. The stats are all wrong, ugh.<br /><br />So, I start working on an Alpha Strike Converter. This is basically just the code that takes a unit, and creates the Alpha Strike stats from it. I got to the weapons, and then realized I didn't finish updating my data from the release of Interstellar Operations... ugh </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, I start doing that. I get about 10% done, and decide to redo some database structure. I've long kept the same one to support my <a href="http://bte.battletechengineer.com/" target="_blank">encyclopedia site</a>, but that is now completely unsupported (though still pretty up to date and functions).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So here I am, back to excel on one monitor and multiple PDFs on the other. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That may sound crappy, but hey, at least I'm working on Battletech again. For those of you that follow me you know that once I start working on something, I typically make a lot of progress pretty quickly.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, that is my focus now. I am going through all ~3800 items in my database and updating them. I'm making sure all data is accurate between TW/TM/TO/SO/IO/etc. I'm noting EVERYTHING I am not sure of so eventually I can post a HUGE list of questions that need errata (Humans often overlook many, many, many rules and situations. Computers can't do that and need crystal clear rules.)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As of today, I have 3797 pieces of equipment a unit can have on it (ALL canon, 13 more are from an April Fools TRO). I am currently about 8.6% complete and working on autocannons and their ammo and when completed (a couple hours, TOPS, I'll be at 13.3%). When this is done, I'll go finish the code to convert all 6932 units (335 are not canon) in my database to Alpha Strike, and create cards for them all. I'll then put that code into my card maker, and then finally copy that code over to the Battletech Design Works.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There was a pretty big wall I had to overcome with Battletech Design Works. It *is* possible that frustrated me to the point I didn't want to overcome it. However, I have since figured out an easy way to handle that, and the next time I get into BDW I should start making a lot of progress quickly.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It seems pretty obvious at this point that Catalyst would rather not have *complete* design software (SSW/MML are *very* far from complete) than communicate with me again, They asked for some help on some thread a while back, but nobody who has the skills is going to dedicate the required time to create such a project. I manage projects like this in real life, and would easily charge $200K-$300K for such a project, and I doubt it could break even. Most developers are $40-$150 per hour, and almost all of them come with some baggage that will cause issues.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So, since that is the case, and nobody has ever once asked me not to, I'm not going to worry about trying to "be nice" or "be professional" anymore. I'll do things the way I want them done, and if I offend somebody well, they should have spoken up. If they'd rather send me a cease and desist instead of just a nice email, they'll quickly find out I know more about how the internet works than their lawyers do ;) The offer to help them will always stand though, but I'll need some rules questions answered before I accept any offer.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I will say that based on my experience with a few of the volunteers for the game, as well as quite a few demo guys, has been quite pleasant and cordial. The official forums are pretty commonly avoided by many fans due to the BS over there, so I haven't felt alone ;)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For those of you smart enough to skip the rest of the message:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">New <a href="http://bte.battletechengineer.com/AlphaStrikeCardMaker121.zip" target="_blank">Alpha Strike Card Maker</a> out, v1.21</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Working on Battletech Design Works again</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here is a couple of new record sheets, all possible with the new card maker:</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk7LDIRjQTVSi51IFfxRNb4RA5am0jXkCGxPk9r-rak0UJIH5SNB7DTfHl0ClqjLp8uQMDgYAf-iMytV8eo39CFT1u4vTq_2fRUQej6I7649CemtEDIvwjdOxqBLZFz6gAnmHsRGJLTZA/s1600/ASCard.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk7LDIRjQTVSi51IFfxRNb4RA5am0jXkCGxPk9r-rak0UJIH5SNB7DTfHl0ClqjLp8uQMDgYAf-iMytV8eo39CFT1u4vTq_2fRUQej6I7649CemtEDIvwjdOxqBLZFz6gAnmHsRGJLTZA/s320/ASCard.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Leviathan attacks are probably wrong:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFD1SzzzuhumaDGvkGvc5onOzvg4eQ9hK_eyz6IqY42kLOiKnHYgDU9q9dTFeJR_LhlO_VMRLAwvMqwDMM5HFUA4clLxbQGqYINyA1k56qTR_yQIQ0htGq5qdETJ-A-ZqPB-ej8GCJ9D8/s1600/ASCard.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFD1SzzzuhumaDGvkGvc5onOzvg4eQ9hK_eyz6IqY42kLOiKnHYgDU9q9dTFeJR_LhlO_VMRLAwvMqwDMM5HFUA4clLxbQGqYINyA1k56qTR_yQIQ0htGq5qdETJ-A-ZqPB-ej8GCJ9D8/s320/ASCard.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Still need mobility hits:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDG2AQHo4N1_SWaYGGG-cmV32fj2uE0t7aznIyU11PNkB96VlG8rjZHl_Bho1kDVW_ArHoNiaZO6gK4AIfrLrlb212FhOe4BiQ6Q_jQMRWCtrLmM-PWaziWjE52IqHAsNJxqO7mE9XVMk/s1600/ASCard.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgozbvlv7En1U-T90rj5UJpopNihAmcJ8lFDkEqj4l52MqN7CE-M3i2z2u9VJiknTr3SuqZrf9hWi5HVDKxp-_Pz9bDaJM48y0uiAZNfWSzPGR3AUkdButfpIRTosGPIpzz_kM2jkO3aNU/s1600/ASCard.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgozbvlv7En1U-T90rj5UJpopNihAmcJ8lFDkEqj4l52MqN7CE-M3i2z2u9VJiknTr3SuqZrf9hWi5HVDKxp-_Pz9bDaJM48y0uiAZNfWSzPGR3AUkdButfpIRTosGPIpzz_kM2jkO3aNU/s320/ASCard.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dropships, woot:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbdCLhghIhAHYSHXDofSdfrbN6Xy98yD1SCEzClafffgu7qziPoIbUcAJjmx-iWZQsh5G9UsZTBri77nTltgydzbPb2KCsTvbfGse0SduepvkKNMdOfFgVpgXnzH_8rIyzd2laq-LqMZE/s1600/ASCard.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbdCLhghIhAHYSHXDofSdfrbN6Xy98yD1SCEzClafffgu7qziPoIbUcAJjmx-iWZQsh5G9UsZTBri77nTltgydzbPb2KCsTvbfGse0SduepvkKNMdOfFgVpgXnzH_8rIyzd2laq-LqMZE/s320/ASCard.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Again, attacks probably wrong:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRVFGIe-LSkpdaEYdvK-4zUqfU9QQ3eh1h2DVXaMBvwUsxZMSadu-0jsk0R9aoRieplKV9x1Q8zkQHfIYu_nuUkFyjWSxiJGwE-RdK7h3WhxE-q5eXIRT4_Z2FGIyeX-0jQJUYmnua63o/s1600/ASCard.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRVFGIe-LSkpdaEYdvK-4zUqfU9QQ3eh1h2DVXaMBvwUsxZMSadu-0jsk0R9aoRieplKV9x1Q8zkQHfIYu_nuUkFyjWSxiJGwE-RdK7h3WhxE-q5eXIRT4_Z2FGIyeX-0jQJUYmnua63o/s320/ASCard.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will eventually add some color/textures, and maybe scale down to 2.5x3.5 in size, or up to 8.5x11 for the Leviathan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This week I finished up a lot of the code flow, tweaked the way actuators work, made a LOT of little bug fixes, and started working on supporting all the armor options.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Funny thing. Buildings can be up to 30 hexes in size, and up to 30 levels tall, and each hex can have a turret. This means to track building damage you need 900 groups of CF (1 per hex, 1 per level) of up to 150 (1500 for capital scale), PLUS armor, PLUS turrets.... its horrible. I'll have to create a dynamic system to be able to handle that sort of system... no biggie, just didn't realize it was THAT mind boggling!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I also have costs *mostly* working now. I can create an AS7-D Atlas and the cost is right except the lower arm and hand actuators, which I haven't written up the actuator allocation part yet (things like PPCs on omni's replace hand actuators, need special handling).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Years of availability are also right, so you know when a unit is available as experimental, advanced, standard, and tournament legal. Weights are also working in most cases.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think I'm only getting about 4-6 hours per week on this, so for the 10 weeks I've been working on it it is really only a full week, though probably not that much as I've had a lot come up.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyway, chugging along. I'll try to finish up all the armor combinations for various units next, and maybe work on the critical allocation system after that, dunno yet.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Other battletech news: I bought 11 of the new lance packs, for the cards and the 2 new miniatures. Nice stuff. I *really* hope the alpha strike boxed has 13 reseen miniatures, plus 10 or so clanners and some nifty design, but we'll see. If they are that, I'll take a dozen please! :)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Been a couple weeks now since the Battletech Kickstarter closed. I haven't seen a pledge manager yet to add on the $140 in books, but based on their past kickstarters we will only see a communication a month so I guess maybe in a couple weeks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not a lot new to show, but that doesn't mean the week was without progres! This week was mostly interface tweaks, adding things like tooltips and changing of the way various item lists are displayed. I also implemented fuel, and made numerous behind-the-scenes changes, and added saving some defaults to speed up my development time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am still tinkering with the interface a bit more before I dive into the 200 or so unique variables applied to various equipment in order to make sure all designs are legal. This is kinda time consuming, but not really all that hard due to the way I designed the application. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once I get those variables done I have to focus on equipment selection. I want to only show ammo for items you have put on your unit. I need to ensure proper arcs are shown as an option, consolidate multiple similar items down to 1 line, show the arcs on the same line, and implement "addon" support for things like Artemis, Apollo, Pintles, One-Shot, MG Arrays, and so forth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'll then have some minor things that are pretty easy to do, like bay allocation for DS/WS/JS/SS, crew allocation, frankenmech support, and crew augmentations (both for vehicular pilots and infantry platoons). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After those it'll be BV, which I want to make sure all other things are done first. Weight, cost, availability, tech rating, and years for each rule level are all ready pretty much done. BV will be the last consolidation thing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then I'll go add the alpha strike conversions, which isn't too hard.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And finally record sheets. After which I'll start focusing on all the extra bells and whistles I promised.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am developing slow though, due to a few reasons:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#1. War Thunder. I play this game a lot, and sometimes when my brain isn't "into" coding instead of focusing it, I take my tank and go blow stuff up :)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#2. Real life. I do have a wife that requires a certain amount of attention or she'll kill me. Therefore at least 1-2 hours a night I usually spend with her. This usually means the earliest I code on weeknights is 8:30-9.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#3. Sleep. I can stay up till 11-12 just fine, but sometimes when you are doing things on a computer your brain says "Uhhh, nap time!" and I kinda fall asleep in my chair. It doesn't happen too much, but it happens often. I'll usually go play war thunder when I get too tired. I have MS and a slew of veterans related issues, which doesn't help things.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#4. Sometimes I get a new group of toys in, miniatures/books/etc, that can kill the nights development. I have 3 tripods on the way and 11 boxes of lance packs for example :) I also have a LOT of GHQ 1/285 and 1/2400 stuff I still haven't finished assembly on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#5. I still play battletech with my group here in DFW. I often run games, to stay busier during play, but it still eats through 1-1.5 days for prep time and game play.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#6. Sometimes I get sidetracked by things. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My anniversary is tomorrow the 11th (married in 11/11/01!) which is also veterans day, but I took Thursday/Friday off to hopefully get a good 8-16 hours by the next update.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I doubt I've put in 40 hours on coding at this point, which means I'm only probably getting a good 4 hours a week in on it :( It'll get done, but not as speedy as any of us would like.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The official software request thread from CGL on the forums that made me start doing this has ended up where all of them end up. Zero progress, and 2 sides bickering over all digital or all paper. One guy did some great HTML5 work, and had a great interface, but we've all seen many mech designers for 3025 stuff with some 3050 thrown in (I could do a designer in excel for any single item in under a day with *most* stuff supported), it is orders of magnitude more complicated to support everything and all the rules.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyway, thanks for stopping by!</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- Start of Woopra Code -->
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Again, I go into more detail on my <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/611778248964724/" target="_blank">daily facebook group</a>, so this is just the highlights.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now, it all isn't done, there are numerous issues I can point out in the attached picture, but it is pretty considerable progress.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Though not 100%, the following parts are now working:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- Total weights (no ammo counted, also did not exclude free HS that come with engine yet)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- Total unit cost (missing life support, sensors, chassis multiplier, free HS, and musculature in pic)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- Overall tech rating of unit, so you know where you can get one.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- Availability of the unit in all 4 (yes 4 now, thanks IOBeta!) eras</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">- The 5 years are determined (Prototype/L3/Exp, Introduction/L2/Adv, Common/L1/TL, Extinction, and reintroduction) so you know when what you are designing could possibly have been built, and went it become extinct.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRteUr4MG22Cm63j31abknBoZsDuwoY-gFnUGZngIlnInOv2rLOS0rkoMGgxvoRzRTq1pGvEHt3EsCQyK-vDWHcNLszB1raj2uR5lsBdhVGbv4ZDKa6qgNGzyuWqGLs12UpYeDFHzOFVY/s400/DevDiaryWeek8.png" width="400" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><i style="font-size: small;">Sorry it isn't sized right, blame blogspot. </i><i style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://bte.battletechengineer.com/devdiaryweek8.png" target="_blank">Click here for full size.</a></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I still have a lot of cleanup, and some item renaming, but getting closer. It'd help if I spent more than 4 hours a week on it, but you know, life. :(</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Other stuff:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I already found a bug in the way SSW deals with actuator cost, which apparently has resulted in at least the AS7-D cost on the </span><a href="http://masterunitlist.info/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">MUL</a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> being incorrect, though I suspect many others may be affected, and this was just an original 3025 design! Hopefully SkyHigh will notice and fix it. Not sure if MegaMekLab does it right, hope so I guess, but I don't really care as nothing ever written in Java hasn't sucked (interface/stability wise - not the developers faults) and I don't use MML. :(</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I wrote a little excel spreadsheet to track the necessary roll and time it takes for a repair based on rules in Strategic Operations. Note that you always want the best possible techs you get, else you will always be sending your mechs back to the factory for refits, else they fall apart on you. Interesting stuff, anyway link </span><a href="http://bte.battletechengineer.com/repairtracker.zip" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Looks like the <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/battletech/" target="_blank">HBS Battletech kickstarter</a> met all its goals, with plenty of time to spare, woot. Stretch goals are pretty weak IMO which hurt it, and I have like 5% faith the game won't be boring as heck (War machine was made into a great looking turn based game, but it plays so slow I just can't keep interest). Nothing like waiting 15 minutes for your opponent to move something as you sit there and twiddle your thumbs. They aren't implementing the features necessary for it to have a long life (custom maps, custom units, modding) and are using the unity engine, which nearly always results in nothing more than mediocrity. But I funded it anyway, because its battletech!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A whopping 12 views last week, probably mostly on my facebook group, hopefully once I'm done the community finds out about it. I'd hate to think only the 30 or so users on my facebook group are going to be users, but that'd still be enough ;)</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- Start of Woopra Code -->
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In short, I am now at the point I need to total up the weight of a unit, then its cost, then years/availability, and finally BV. Still some little tweaks to make here and there, but darned close to a somewhat usable product. Record sheets will come later, as they are kinda easy in a way but very time consuming. I have already done most of them before though, and may get lazy and fall back on those methods which worked fairly well instead of reinventing the wheel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I won't bore you with the details, as I'm sure if I did some of you would have fallen asleep already, so I'll show a current work in progress screenshot of the unit design page:</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY0SuIPfbd8_kKoVQvmYN3nfDWL6gmCboIx3UQm_ZgbHIDd3CtsaSIlwAOJtCkx5b0XkxSociLv8LENqWagYFMxJMmTAuJukZfY6aZfet_slH5C9HOBqHuqYvXyxDn7lFYMsdmkHTT4_Y/s1600/DevDiaryDay46.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY0SuIPfbd8_kKoVQvmYN3nfDWL6gmCboIx3UQm_ZgbHIDd3CtsaSIlwAOJtCkx5b0XkxSociLv8LENqWagYFMxJMmTAuJukZfY6aZfet_slH5C9HOBqHuqYvXyxDn7lFYMsdmkHTT4_Y/s400/DevDiaryDay46.png" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Still a few interface changes yet to take place, but getting there!</span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />I figure another month or so until I get all the design bugs worked out, maybe sooner, kinda depends on how many nights I have time, am not sleepy, and am in the mood to code.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- Start of Woopra Code -->
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">More great progress this week. All the major database changes have been done, and code is coming along very smoothly. I've been able to implement features that in my mind would have taken days, sometimes in minutes. There have been a few hiccups, as there will always be, but so far nothing game changing or too distracting from the end goal.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I go into a lot more daily details on the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/611778248964724/" target="_blank">facebook thread</a>, which I update daily, but I'll give the compressed version here. Those users will have access to the alpha and beta when they are released as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Essentially right now I can do pretty much everything to design a unit. What I am working on now is the weight, cost, BV, years, and availability of said units. This shouldn't take too long, and I've done it before on my <a href="http://bte.battletechengineer.com/" target="_blank">encyclopedia</a> site, but I am doing it all from scratch to incorporate various lessons learned since the encyclopedia.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once those calculations are done, I'll run it against my 6000+ unit database and work through the bugs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After that is'll be onto record sheets and other feature implementation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, making great progress, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel already.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here is a current screenshot, though pretty much every aspect about the interface is subject to change:</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisMxE8ZoOYGyF5QGLCnooKRBSLQPKaC5Qfs1i57NeCi-IRqDFsIz2cfePGTCk2FNbk6NYR9Ratb9AV_y4jdDnszb8vsQHDPnqgb45IAF5MgHGA_gwZIxk7ItccEAcCFWS1EjIfycMT2KQ/s1600/DevDiaryWeek6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisMxE8ZoOYGyF5QGLCnooKRBSLQPKaC5Qfs1i57NeCi-IRqDFsIz2cfePGTCk2FNbk6NYR9Ratb9AV_y4jdDnszb8vsQHDPnqgb45IAF5MgHGA_gwZIxk7ItccEAcCFWS1EjIfycMT2KQ/s400/DevDiaryWeek6.png" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Feel free to recommend any features you'd like to see, and I'll add them to my "todo" list of features (assuming I haven't thought of them already!.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- Start of Woopra Code -->
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Howdy folks! This last month has been mostly me importing all the Interstellar Operations Beta data. There was a LOT of issues, and it is a Beta so I'll have to do this all over again when it is released. While the issues were plentiful, luckily none will prevent me from moving forward with development. In the end I'll have to assume a lot of things and there could be buggy units pop up for years to come until I get all my questions answered and Catalyst Game Labs fixes all their errors, inconsistencies, and missing data.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here is the current software functionality:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tech base selection (Inner Sphere, Clan, or Mixed).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">General class selection (mech, industrial mech, protomech, SV, BA, JS, WS, DS, etc. All but hand-held weapons, conventional infantry, maglev's, rails, and roads work right now).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mobility type (hover, wheeled, fixed-wing, aerodyne, etc) selection for those units.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Weight class (assault, heavy, light, etc) and tonnage (a number in that range) for those units.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So not a huge amount of coding progress, but I only really started coding today ;)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Issues though:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#1. Medium/Large Support vehicles are indicated as having .5 ton tonnage increments. While this is fine technically and it currently works, it means when you select a 9 hex naval vehicle that goes from 30,000.5 to 100,000 tons, I have to populate a drop down with like 140,000 items! This takes 80 seconds on my machine, which is pretty beefy (all others take about .05 seconds, except small support vehicles with their 1kg weight increments that takes .3 seconds, but is acceptable today). So I am going to stray from canon a wee bit. With large naval/submarine support vehicles that are over 500 tons, I am going to change the increment from 0.5 to 5 tons and 25 tons for the 30,000+ tons. This will basically fix that issue. Eventually I will re-implement the 0.5 ton increments, or add in a way to just put in any number you want. For now however I'm removing it for performance reasons.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#2. I will not be using "primitive" as a tech base. Just clan, inner sphere, both, and mixed. Later I'll include "3rd Generation" as a possibility to support the April Fools product that had that in there (a sign of things to come?). This is mostly because there aren't really primitive weapons, just prototype. So primitive just applies to chassis. The way I'm doing jumpships for example I have 6 rows, one for each tonnage increment that results in differing fuel points per ton and burn rates. I now have 4 MORE sets where I set the weight class to things like "Primitive (Terran Hegemony)" where you can select a primitive chassis, which can be differing tonnages, instead of creating entirely new everything to support primitive. So, you WILL be able to make 100% canon primitive stuff, but it won't be a new tech base (clan/IS already confuse stuff enough!).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And a new screenshot, which I'll try to include in each update, though they won't be very pretty for a while :)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKLxjbf46gBua2W4aKvFjzn4niznLhemuaaeM34cGHTDJHwXYhIXZH55kwuiEDnfckMI7czxdTQPQ40APQHv5zbWpq8GyxSx0dM_-KrbKp9tWx13T9RvOz31DgBY5j_tmi1E6U7sYb78g/s1600/DevDiaryWeek5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKLxjbf46gBua2W4aKvFjzn4niznLhemuaaeM34cGHTDJHwXYhIXZH55kwuiEDnfckMI7czxdTQPQ40APQHv5zbWpq8GyxSx0dM_-KrbKp9tWx13T9RvOz31DgBY5j_tmi1E6U7sYb78g/s400/DevDiaryWeek5.png" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>(yes, according to IOBeta, the Terran Hegemony had 1.8M ton jumpships in 2400!)</i></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I also have some functionality I am working on that'll show various other drop down boxes popup depending on the unit. A mech has a required cockpit, engine, musculature, and actuator types for example so it'll see 4 more drop downs popup. The gyro may popup if you select all but 1 cockpit type. Many units don't have many other options like that, so the interface will stay cleaner.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have tested all of these, and all work except the conventional infantry (they are kinda different), hand-held weapons (will need some work), maglev/rails/roads (not sure if these will even stay in, they are not really units but perhaps I'll treat them as addons to units). I should have all errors removed from those in the next development session.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My goal is by the next update to have all the additional popups working which will let you basically design a unit up to the point of adding equipment. I won't have things like tonnage totals, costs, BV, availability, etc, etc, but all the other stuff should be functional, and those sums/values are extremely easy to implement.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If I am very productive this week, which I don't suspect as the wife will have been out of town for 4 days and will want some quality time, I hope to actually implement the equipment selection as well. After that I'll start running through all canon units validating designs and fixing all the little bugs that will come up. That'll take me at least another week or two, maybe even a month, as I'll constantly find little things I gotta go fix in code, my data, or even have to restructure in my data to make it work in the best possible way.<br /><br />Anyway, a lot more to come, and I think progress will be very quick if I can stay focused!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Again, feel free to request access to daily updates on my <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/611778248964724/622841277858421/" target="_blank">facebook site</a> which I have been pretty good about updating daily.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ok, next topic. This week I used the 3028 battle on Crossing between the Wolf's Dragoons against 4 Galedon Regulars regiments (after losing nearly half their force against Ryuken a few months earlier, and fighting those same 4 Galedon regiments on 3 planets after that!) as inspiration for a scenario here in Dallas. We used a mech to represent a company, and so the Galedon Regulars and DEST commando's had a total of 41 3025 old tech mechs. The "Dragoons", in this case the "Iron Phoenix Legion" which is what our group calls themselves, had the dozen or so mechs in defense in a caldera. It played out pretty well, and I think folks had fun, but it ate through some of my code time this week setting it up.<br /><br />ANYWAY, to my point, I didn't want 41 pieces of paper to track mechs, so I figured out a way to put 4 mechs on a single page of paper. It worked pretty well in the game, and when taking a dozen SRM2 hits it really sped things up. I tweaked after and made a little excel file if you need to have a bunch of simple mechs in a game and don't want all the record sheets. Some stuff is missing (heat chart mostly) but 4 mechs on a page seemed like a fair tradeoff :) <a href="http://bte.battletechengineer.com/10oct2015.zip" target="_blank">Here is the link</a>, hope it proves useful or inspires you in some way!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wow, nearly a month already! Still on target though, and updating daily!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have now successfully imported all the new data from the IO Beta into my data. This was very painful and time consuming as every single item needed the years of introduction rechecked (this kinda replaced rules levels in a way), the availability updated, and in many cases various other stats changed. I know IO Beta is just a beta, and based on the absolutely mind blowing number of errors (no judgement, its a beta) I've encountered with it I know I'll have to basically redo a few weeks worth of work whenever it released. However, in doing this it gained me a bit closer to what CGL has in mind for the future of Battletech, and in that way my designer systems will have less growth necessary when they take that next step.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On top of this, I had never implemented ammunition in my system in any way. I didn't really need to before, as nothing really cares about costs/BV based on ammo. However, it had to be done, so now I have all the ammo types for all the weapons done.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am now at 3,885 unique weapons, equipment, items, and so forth that can be added to units.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have 814 total unique chassis implemented.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have 6,562 unique *CANON* units (6302 with images, a third with 2+ of them, and many with megamek icons) from the battletech universe in my database now, many with images/fluff/MM Icons (but many more still need those added). This compares very closely with the MUL, and the units I'm missing are those that simply aren't published yet.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I still have a bit of cleanup left on the data to make things consistent, as it took me a few tries before I got the way I wanted to store some data down. However, this should be done in the next couple days.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After I finish the data cleanup, it is back to the fun stuff, writing the designer! Since my project is data driven, instead of code driven, progress will go VERY fast until I get to the various ways of presenting data to the user. Things like record sheets, TRO views, and so forth will take time to make look pretty as they are all time consuming. However, me being able to design a unit of various types I could see working within a few weeks of dev time. I doubt I'll release an alpha until a couple months down the road though, and then only to the folks reading my facebook daily update page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/611778248964724" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I had a friend tell me to watermark any record sheets, very faintly, to prove that my app created them so I know when it gets used. Not sure I'll do that, maybe, but I probably at the least put some goofy pixel at least somewhere so I always know sheets were generated with my software with a quick glance at the sheet.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- Start of Woopra Code -->
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am already running into the headaches I knew I'd get without the ability to get questions to rules answered. Some of the unanswered questions I have:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Can ProtoMech/Battle Armor LRM/SRM's use special ammunition?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Do the prototype and clan improved SRM/LRMs have torpedo versions?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Is requiring "fusion", like a Heavy Gauss Rifle, the same as requiring "fission"?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Do sub-capital weapons require power amps?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Can sub-capital weapons on a large support vehicle utilize a targeting computer?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Are all the various kinds of ATOW ordnance available to the Clans?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- The Mechwarrior combat suit has a common date before its prototype date.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- The Mechwarrior cooling suit (CL and IS) have a prototype date before its introduction.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Is the Artemis IV Prototype really 1 slot on a support vehicle?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- A lot of the hardpoint weapons (like bomb's) don't have weights.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Many capital weapons with ammo don't indicate if the BV is per shot, or per ton.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Since a Long Tom arty can fit on a superheavy mech, can it split locations and be on one?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Was ATM ER Ammo introduced by CSA, or CCY?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- How much damage do iATM improved inferno rounds do in an explosion, and are they subject to inferno heat ammo explosion avoidance?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another huge issue, kinda related to the first item above, is ammunition. Typically I would track ammunition like other design software had. That would be a year of availability, a cost mod, a BV mod, and maybe a damage mod. The thing is that simply isn't sufficient. We now have weapons that have a different effect for each ammo type, different availability for ammo types, and all sorts of unique situations where trying to track the ammo so "lightly" will simply lead to limitations and issues in the future.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, I have to track each ammo, for each weapon class separately. Ammo can change any parameter of the weapon itself, from rate of fire, to ranges, to damage, costs, BV, even the battleforce abilities. This allows complete versatility in the future to bend to whatever possible ammo CGL thinks up for its 3rd Generation Tech.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Right now, I have 16 LRM systems (4 classes, each of Inner Sphere, Clan, Clan Improved, and Prototype), 12 SRM systems (3 classes, each same as LRM), 4 MML's (4 classes). I have 23 LRM and 17 SRM ammo types (11 and 7 respectively are IS only). On top of that, I have 30 more types of LRM classes for ProtoMechs and BA, and 18 more for SRM. Confusing right? That can be up to 2740 types of ammunition combinations. If the PM/BA SRM/LRM's don't get special ammo, that reduces it in half or so, but still, daunting eh?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And yes, it has to be done that way in order to be versatile enough for the future, and for the data to be used in other sources, like a real time megamek game.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another thing I have to do that most design software never did was actually look at all the data. Many games may just say "C" for cluster, but I can't do that. I also have to track the # of clusters, the damage each, and the damage grouping. I can't track artillery as a string like "20/10", but I have to track each of those as a number. I can't take those string like shortcuts and let players interpret them. I *have* to be able to have a computer read every single value, and that means no strings.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A potential huge issue is all the rumors that BV2 will be replaced with something else. I may have to revisit every single piece of equipment to update some value whenever that is adopted. While a pain sure, it shouldn't prevent me from quick adoption of whatever it may be.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">CGL needs a MUL for equipment. I guess I could make one, but I gotta finish this first :D</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My goal this week is to finish the data update. Hopefully by next weekend I'll be coding again. What is really funny is even though I'm not coding, it is constantly on my mind. As of right now, the code itself seems trivial (though time consuming) in comparison to getting all the data done. The application is just a skeleton and will just read in all that data to determine how it functions. The program will be data driven, making for easy updates and a long lifespan.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thank you for all the support. If anybody wants to help I won't accept money, but your time could be useful. Some of the things I'll need are:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Somebody to translate everything to German, or any other language. This will be later once the application is in beta. I simply can't do this, or would have to rely on flaky online translators.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Somebody to go through all the record sheets, get the best resolution PNG of an empty version, and then plot the X/Y coordinate of everywhere data can be inputted as well as the font size, and maximum length/height. Also the coordinates of a region where the armor dots will go. This takes me a long time to do, as there are a lot of record sheets, and it would help me focus on the coding. These will be user configurable, so if they wanted to mod their record sheets they could.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Somebody who can go post on the forums in the questions area all the questions I have. I'll email them a question, they can send me the link for it so I can keep track.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And finally, for the heck of it:</span><br />
<span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Whoever can get me reinstated on the official forums (so I can ask my own questions and pimp my product), I'll send, at ZERO cost, a full company of a dozen unassembled, unseen, old school lead, Battledroids Marauders. If you can get CGL to officially sanction my designer, I'll send you 2 companies :D</b></span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This isn't the kind of work that lets me show you much, but it does need to be done. I have to make sure I have full support for 4 availability ratings, not 3, as well as a lot more information on years and factions equipment is available and what its production state is. A couple changes that if I hard-coded things, would have been a serious pain to fix.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So over the next week I plan on finishing up the data import from IO Beta (about 12-16 hours I think). At that point I'll tweak my data once more (another 8 hours) and be ready to jump back into the code.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The main portion of the code I'll be working on first is ensuring I can design out units down to the equipment level. This means tonnage, speeds, engine/gyro/cockpit/etc types, and even armor type. All of these should fall pretty fast once I start coding on them, so that is good. This could take from a few days to a few weeks, depending on how much I finish before moving onto the next item. For example, I may not worry about calculating cost or BV right now (isn't there a new BV anyway?) so may just skip those. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Equipment critical allocation is a big step. This only applies to mechs/industrialmechs, and is the process of placing criticals in particular locations. I know people like dragging stuff around, and moving slots to particular numbers, but all 6 or 12 locations have the *exact* same chance to hit, so the actual # is 100% irrelevant. So, I was thinking when I get to that part just skipping the allocation completely. Actuators would go first, then equipment that can take a critical, and finally things like armor/structure that are "reroll on hit". I know this may upset some folks, but it really shouldn't. I may do something later to let you rearrange them, but for right now that interface is pretty time consuming for me to write, and it'll be skipped the first time around I think. If you think location matters, read the rules again, when you roll 1 dice for upper/lower, and another for 1-6, and you get a reroll or something that has already been hit, you reroll BOTH dice, not just one. I know numerous people who have made that mistake (and that WOULD affect locations of stuff, dramatically). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyway, just a quick update to know things are progressing. If I had to guess right now, which is a wild guess, I'd say I have about 2-4 months before having something you can do designs with. There are a LOT of variables in there, but mostly it just comes down to hours I have available (most of which are spent on this).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you want to help, I have already done all the hard stuff, and all that is left is coding. Splitting coding to a team IMO reduces the quality of the code, so I'll be doing it all myself. If you really want to help PM some moderators on the forums and have them reinstate me, not like they haven't done that before to perma-banned folks that were far worse than I was. However, at some point perhaps I'd be better off just forgetting about it like most of my fellow BT players have with the "I don't use the forums because of the politics" comments.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, week 1, a lot of progress, but not nearly as much as I had hoped. I had a family drama night, got tied up another night (literally, haha), and I have vendors here until about 6 or so working on my house siding, but I still got a few good nights of coding in there! I also put together a few IWM LAM miniatures, which are a freaking pain (hands separate, REALLY?!?!?!), and got a few dozen more micro-armor pieces assembled in preparation for me learning to airbrush in the next couple weeks (which yes, will cut back code time a bit).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'll keep these updates much less verbose than my daily's, so here goes:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wrote initial code to parse the classes. I can now start up the app, choose a tech base (clan, IS, etc), chassis type (mech, proto, sv, cv, etc), a mobility type (quad, lam, hover, etc), a weight class (light, medium, etc), and a tonnage. I also now properly parse structure, cockpits/control, engines, gyros, and armor. None of these sum up weights or costs or anything, but that will come soon enough. Still a couple minor bugs (an infantry platoon crashes it) but these are also easily fixed as I get to them.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cleaned up my chassis data source.This is 177 unique values for 653 unique chassis (400k of data right now) that does things like determine the tonnage, structure points, what parts (arms, legs, turret, etc) a unit has, and various other things. This is a critical first step to moving forward.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cleaned up a large chunk of my equipment data source. This file has 115 unique values (one of which that can be 20 or so other values) for 2232 pieces of equipment (9mb of data right now).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Added objects so I can load all the chassis, equipment, as well as my 6845 unique element types (45mb of data right now) upon startup. It currently takes about 14 seconds at most to do all this, but it isn't optimized or multi-threaded yet and should be much faster upon release.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I created a feature list. I'll post it at the bottom as I think that is important enough to post on the weekly update. Please comment if I am missing something that should be there!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Created a method to dynamically populate an object from my tables. This may not sound like much, but it went from a thousand or more lines of code to 3. Plus, this allows the fans to create their own datasets to use quite easily, which I think most folks will like.</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Currently planned feature list:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>ABSOLUTE PRIORITY</b><br />- Designer for BattleMech/IndustrialMech<br />- Designer for ProtoMech<br />- Designer for Battle Armor<br />- Designer for Conventional Infantry<br />- Designer for Combat Vehicle (WiGE, VTOL, Hover, Wheeled, Hydrofoil, Naval, Submarine)<br />- Designer for Support Vehicle (WiGE, VTOL, Hover, Wheeled, Naval, Fixed-Wing, Rail, Airship)<br />- Designer for Aerospace Fighters and Conventional Fighters<br />- Designer for Small Craft<br />- Designer for Dropships<br />- Designer for Jumpships<br />- Designer for Warships<br />- Designer for Space Stations<br />- Designer for Buildings<br />- Designer for Mobile Structures<br />- Automatic Update support<br />- Output record sheets to PDF<br />- Output to Alpha Strike cards<br />- Load/Read all canon designs (including full search capabilities, including by weapons loadouts and owned miniature inventory)<br />- MUL integration<br />- Links to art, megamek icons, faction/unit logos, etc, all of which can be added to the record sheets<br />- Support for Strategic Battle Force and ACS<br />- Force tracker<br />- Designers can have limits by year, tech rating, technology type, rules level, faction availability, and allow for prototype equipment<br />- Support for canon and custom integral, with custom always having a note on them so it is obvious<br />- Pre-existing damage<br />- Support for atmospheric conditions and scale differences when creating record sheets<br />- Ability to input damage to units and track them, repair times are calculated.<br />- Support for quirks<br />- Support for ALL rules will be implemented, even stuff in various April Fools products (though obviously marked as non-cannon)<br />- Support for uploading designs to a centeral location, for others to download</span></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>HIGH PRIORITY</b><br />- Custom Equipment Types<br />- Output record sheets to PNG<br />- Ability to output a TRO format to PDF<br />- Ability to output a TRO like equipment rulset to PDF (this would include all errata)<br />- Random Force Generator, with support for RATs from all the books od a more dynamic system<br />- Random Star System Generator<br />- Random Scenario Generator<br />- Take a design, make changes, return the refit level, amount of time it takes, rolls, etc<br />- Export designs to XML<br />- Export designs to Text<br />- Multiple language support (this requires design changes in the app, but languages can be added easily after)<br />- Option for some of my special rules (mostly alpha strike, things like tracking how some units may only have 1-2 turns of ammo, repair costs, underwater attacks, rocket launchers as an abiliity, and so forth)<br />- Option to use my own "above alpha strike" system. Essentially AS is now at a 4:1 scale for elements:maneuver units, I'll add support for 12:1, 36:1, and 108:1 (plus clan/wob/CS equivalents) to better support strategic games (ACS is completely broke IMO)</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>MEDIUM PRIORITY</b><br />- Designer for Base Layouts<br />- Illegal Designs<br />- Output Unit data to Megamek MTF<br />- Integrated combat simulator (real time battletech with megamek style graphics)<br />- Support for special pilot abilities<br />- Inner sphere hex map with factories and planet data<br />- Designer for A Time of War characters (LOTS of data entry needed, could be a late feature)<br />- Dynamic record sheets. Basically a record sheet you bring up and can mark damage/crits to instead of using paper.<br />- Unit availability list. Essentially each element gets a popularity, from 1 to 100, by era, and then random tables can be created dynamically from that.<br />- Box of Death</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>LOW PRIORITY</b><br />- Random unit generator (not sure how well I could do this)<br />- warchest campaign support<br />- New unit acquisition<br />- Support for custom rankings on all units. Think Mech A is the best ever? Give it 10/10, think Mech C is the worst? Give it 1/1. All the users upload that data and when you view mechs, you can also sort by player rank.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>VERY LOW PRIORITY</b><br />- QR Codes on Record Sheets<br />- Random Map Generator<br />- Full inner sphere in flames game. I'll have to custom the rules, as published ones won't work at all.<br />- Export to HeavyMetal Pro (probably end up getting dropped as HMP doesn't support everything, and it may just be a PITA)<br />- Export to SSW (probably end up getting dropped as SSW doesn't support everything, and it may just be a PITA)<br />- My own proprietary system to map out entire planets, accurate to the hex, for only a few mb of space.<br />- Icon Generator (something to make unit icons from Strategic Ops)<br />- Tables (basically a page to select any of the tables from the game, and press a button to roll on them)<br />- Custom record sheet designs (this may just happen anyway, depending on how I write the code. The old BTE site EASILY allowed for this, so I'll try to keep that process)<br />- Color themed record sheets (faction colors?)<br />- Ability to recolor black and white graphics on images (I did this on the BTE site, I could specify a few colors and the drawings would be recolored, might implement that same thing)<br />- Integral combat map. Basically draw the game map in the app, and you can use it to track things like doubleblind, building damage, terrain damage, fires, smoke, illum, etc<br />- Web based version of the product, or perhaps just one published for folks to use on non-windows devices.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; line-height: 19.32px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; display: inline; line-height: 19.32px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>CURRENT ISSUES</b><br />- Many unit types have no alpha strike cards. I'll have to design these if CGL doesn't release one.<br />- Some units don't even have record sheet designs, so again I'll probably have to design these.<br />- PDF creation can be tricky, I want to find a fast way to do it without any 3rd party libraries, but may be forced to use them.<br />- I still have a lot of questions on rules and equipment that haven't been answered, these will often result in "bugs". I'd ask on the forums but....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am coding for Battletech again! After a long hiatus, lots of frustration, many other games, and far too many purchases of Micro-Armor recently, I am going to start coding for Battletech again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There were a few things that brought me to this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#1. I still play Battletech every couple weekends with 8-12 people. This means I *need* the ability to design a mobile structure, infantry platoon, or support vehicle. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#2. There was a thread started a couple weeks ago on the official <a href="http://bg.battletech.com/forums/computerconsole-games/new-battletech-software-and-you/" target="_blank">Battletech forums</a>. While I can't post over there, it is obvious CGL is back into the "OMG, we can't design stuff because its too hard!" mentality. A couple years ago, long before I was banned, I was approached by somebody who sent me a copy of an email that Herb had sent out. Basically he was freaking out about the fact nobody could build things consistently without tons of bugs. I said I could do it, then basically sent a list of "holes" in their design systems that needed fixing. I think the list was too long, that was the last I heard from them. Apparently though they are still just as bad off, which is no surprise, I don't think anybody but myself really understand the scope of a product that can design *everything*. As far as I know, I'm the only one who has entered in the 120+ pieces of data, per 2200 or so pieces of equipment, that is *required* for construction. This is on top of 170 or so pieces of data for around 650 unique chassis! Its just daunting, really. This is why the HeavyMetal products haven't been updated since Total War, and why I personally don't think they ever will. This is also why no company would want to take this on, as it is minimal profit (if any) and a *HUGE* amount of work. But anyway.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#3. I went through and cleaned up years of email in my inbox. I saw a lot of emails in there from various people who have been interested in my projects over the years. A lot of good support in there, and it made me feel bad. As I've mentioned many times, I don't like to let people down, and if 50 people emailed me every day asking for something I could do I'd damned sure get it done because I don't want to let them down. It isn't like there is much in my life that is all that important (Just the wife/dogs, everything else is transitive).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, I wrote a few people I knew emails for that were moderators in some form or fashion, but don't expect any replies. If folks want to pop over to the <a href="http://bg.battletech.com/forums/computerconsole-games/new-battletech-software-discussion-thread/" target="_blank">thread</a> and maybe mention me (though it could get deleted, if history repeats itself) or at least PM Bosefius about me, it could get them on my side. I am not sure of the relationships between the moderators and the actual CGL employees, but surely one can trump another. About 25% of the reason I went to GenCon in 2014 was to talk to Randall and see if he could get me unbanned based on my development skills. He gave me a card and told me to write him, but was very busy and slammed with fans while there. I wrote after GenCon, unsurprisingly haven't heard anything.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, official or not, I'm going to build a designer for *everything* in universe. I mean *everything*, and yes it'll even be crazy stuff like a character generator for a time of war (that'll be last though, completely different code set). I'll do what I can to support importing/exporting to megamek and HMP formats, though no guarantees as both of those formats have some pretty serious flaws. I'll also be supporting the IO Beta rules, so LAMs and stuff, though until IO is no longer beta those units will be flagged as not-canon. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, here is what this downloadable application will design:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- BattleMechs (15-300 tons), 2, 3, or 4 legged, plus LAM/Quad-Vee</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- IndustrialMechs (15-300 tons), 2, 3, or 4 legged</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- ProtoMechs (3-15 tons)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Battle Armor</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Conventional Infantry Platoons</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Combat Vehicles (including superheavies, Wheeled, Tracked, VTOL, Hover, WiGE)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Support Vehicles of all types and sizes (Even things like 100kt naval, satellites, and maglev)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Aerospace and Conventional Fighters</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Small Craft</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Dropships</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Jumpships</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Space Stations</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Warships</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Mobile Structures</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Buildings</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Integration with the MUL</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Multi-Structure Bases (lower priority)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Character Generator (lowest priority)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Application will update itself as necessary, run on Windows, and probably be under 10mb total with no 3rd party application dependencies.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So *everything*.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am currently planning on supporting the following features, though subject to change:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Import/Export to MegaMek</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Import/Export to Heavy metal Pro</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Import/Export to Solaris Skunk Werks</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Import/Export to XML</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Import/Export to Text</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Export to HTML</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Export to PDF</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Export to PNG</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Export to a PDF Record Sheet (same format as canon record sheets)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Custom components</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Printing of record sheets with all environmental considerations applied</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Ability to modify a dynamic record sheet (for the few of you that hate paper)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Various refit and repair calculations</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- A lot of support for campaign games</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Force builder/tracker, including noting which miniatures you own</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Planet/System Generator (pending rules getting published)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Random unit tables</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Full support for Alpha Strike in every way</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Full support for *ALL* published rules, even the April Fools stuff </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- I plan on including as much support for German as I can, though my google translations may suck and need some typos fixed :)</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- When I release this application, I'll kill my engineer site as it will no longer be necessary. I suck with web code anyway :D</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some things I'm thinking about, but not sure yet:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Map Maker</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Planet Mapper (stitch maps together, make a planet)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Combat simulator (think real time megamek, but with any unit types)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Random unit designer</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Planetary database</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Dynamic system for mech availability that would allow creation of random units based on any era, by denoting how popular a mech is per faction, per era.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Inner Sphere in Flames, or whatever it is to be called, game. I can't use current IO Beta stuff though, its very broken and would not allow for recreations of in-universe events (1 planet can make more mech regiments than all of the Capellan Confederation in 3025 could in a single year!).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Stellar map support. I kinda already wrote this with my ISMapper thing, but this will be an updated version that is a bit less klunky.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Obstacles I may encounter:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Hitting a wall with the way certain rules are implemented. For example humans kind of assume a lot when we are reading about rules. Computers though, they can't do that. So I can come across a system that simply has an unknown interaction with another system. Or worse, and I know I'll encounter this often, many systems are missing certain data or the data is inconsistent. What is the BV of the Centurion Weapon System from Jihad Hot Spots: Conspiracies? Does a full head ejection system count as an ejection seat in Alpha Strike? Can a combat vehicle really have an aerospace cubicle? Maglev's have no availability or introduction dates! There are a lot of things like this I'll have to work around, note, and correct whenever I can get an answer.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Real life. I can't predict what will happen, but in the past few months I flooded my house, almost died and had to have a surgery to fix what the army screwed up and said was fine 10 years ago, got sick for 2 weeks, had to take a work trip, and various other things that just kill free time. I'm also a 90% disabled veteran who has all sorts of medical issues that could interfere.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Project creep. I will document EVERY feature when I start, and will stick to that list as much as I can. I will add other things once I get certain portions done so I don't end up with endless project creep (where I never finish as I'm always adding new features).</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- hmmm.... actually, I think that is it, everything else with this project is within my capabilities.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will release beta's once certain portions are finished. I'll have more info on how to apply when I actually have one.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'll try to post an update a month, and an update with any significant milestones, but don't hold me too closely to that :)</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I need to go architect this out, but I should have some rudimentary screenshots of the interface within a month. Luckily the *really* time consuming part I have already finished :D</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Off to start design work!</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>MINOR UPDATE:</b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you got this far congratulations, you get a cookie! Ok, no cookie, but I did start a facebook group for kind of a dev diary and a place to discuss features and issues. I am BadSyntax on facebook, and the group is "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 18.6000003814697px; text-indent: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/611778248964724/" target="_blank">Battletech Design Works</a>" though it is currently closed and you have to request access.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 18.6000003814697px; text-indent: 2px; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
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<br />
No update to the site. In fact, if it does get an update I'll probably rewrite it from scratch. I have made a new TRO like page for mechs, which looks better I think, but haven't pushed it out. I keep my own database updated with the latest releases, but haven't pushed those out yet either.<br />
<br />
I play battletech, on average, about once every 2-3 weeks still. What I don't have is motivation to dive back into the site.<br />
<br />
My life in the last 6 months:<br />
- Bought a new car<br />
- Bought the wife a new car<br />
- Flooded my game rooms trying to wash said new car in April, still not totally done fixing<br />
- Started playing the hell out of WarThunder, a pretty decent tank sim<br />
- Moved from battletech to real world stuff as my primary interest<br />
- Watched more TV/movies. Decided I'd much rather see nudity than violence (Game of Thrones, I'm looking at YOU).<br />
- Got my Micro 3D printer. Printed 2 things, it broke, got a replacement, printed 10 things, seems broke again. Can't really do 1/285 armor or mechs. I printed a 4" skull that looked good, and a 1/100 Tiger tank that looked like crap. It is great at straight lines, details it sucks.<br />
- Became completely disillusioned with Kickstarter. I'll never back another technology or "little" KS on it, and will be VERY cautious on any others. In fact, if they don't have enough bonus crap to be worth it, I'll just wait for retail. Lose less money that way, less pain, less BS, etc.<br />
- Decided our best presidential candidate is Bernie Sanders, all the rest suck horribly and he has some really good ideas if you can look past the hair. I was hoping for John Stewart, but I think he's too chicken. Oh well.<br />
<br />
Maybe when IO comes out (or one of the 2-3 books IO turned into) it'll motivate me again to get back into Battletech, but I don't know. Without much of a fan base, no forums to post and get feedback, I can't see enough demand to justify my time. I haven't even purchased the last couple products, and not sure if I'll even keep up with errata anymore.<br />
<br />
I do still want to make a real time, planetary scale, BT game using megamek icons that is 100% faithful to the board game. However, there may not be much of an audience for it so I may be wasting time even thinking about it.<br />
<br />
Anyway, that is why there has been zero progress. Sorry, but the battletech folks basically said "they don't want me anymore". Stupid reasons got me banned (no, I wasn't a troll/ass/mean/etc) and they decided that one of their few community developers they had producing new contact was not worth any energy. I went ballistic after that, probably cemented my chances at 0 for ever getting back in, and now all my projects have basically died. Perhaps if they re-admitted me on the forums I'd consider jumping back in, but being insulted for volunteering thousands of hours of your own time kinda makes it hard to get over. I even tried talking to Randall at Gencon, who said email him, and who has never replied to me.<br />
<br />
I still respond to emails if you have anything to ask, but I probably won't be doing anything Battletech related for quite a while. <br />
<br />
So, if you still read this, assume me and all of my Battletech projects are dead until further notice.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- Start of Woopra Code -->
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I fixed a few bugs on the record sheets as well, like some internal structure not being correct. I still want to add a few more things as well, like showing the armor/structure type *by location* to support frankenmechs and patchwork armor, but these are pretty easy to knock out.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The next website update will be HUGE. I will be redoing all the TRO like pages, making them more like what you see in the TRO's. I'll change the colors when I do so you'll know its been updated (it'll probably be black on white instead of the gray background that is there now).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I also inputted all the new units from the RS IndustrialMechs and the other new books that came out recently.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I also got my 16 boxes of <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/7xpl5nvfnvxjl5h/RRT_Wave1.jpg?dl=0" target="_blank">Robotech RPG Tactics</a>, oh boy, that is a LOT of models!!!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Catalyst released a playtest of the "Abstract Combat System". I really wanted to love this, but can't :( The system "map" is too small, the planet map WAY too small, the amount of record keeping too large, and the "mini-game" just doesn't seem very fun to me :( Oh well, hopefully we'll see something better soon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think I had more to say, but this was a quick update to just let ya'll know I am indeed still playing with Battletech stuff. I'll try to do a much better update when I finish the site updates and push them out over the next few weeks.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- Start of Woopra Code -->
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But first, I did get the 2 new products, the The Operation Revival, and the Record Sheets Industrialmechs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For the first time in a really long time, out of all the Battletech products I've purchased, I can honestly say these two were 'meh', and cannot recommend anyone purchasing them unless they just want to throw money at the Catalyst folks. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Revival PDF, well, *I* never cared about the trials of the clans in 3048 in determining who invaded, but maybe somebody did. The only thing in this book even closely useful in my opinion were random tables for mechs/fighters/tanks for the clans in 3048. Aside from that.... well, 'meh'.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then we have industrial mechs and exoskeletons. I think this is the way many may have felt about the TRO Vehicle Annex a while back. Its a bunch of units, mostly without any combat capability, that I have a hard time thinking anybody gives a crap about. I'll eventually enter them into my site, and will undoubtly find tons of issues like I always do, but it'll be reluctant as they are almost without a doubt stupid. I'm sure somebody may want to plop one on a tabletop, and use a MWDA figure, but 'meh'.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I still have not heard back from Randall about my forum access. At first I'm like "wtf, do these people not read email??!?", and then I found an email I sent a year or more before I got banned that I sent him and never saw a reply to either. Then I did a bit of research and found some dubious character flaws on the CGL side, and just said "fuck it, their loss".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So here is what all I've done in the last month or so since gencon:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Assembled my RRT miniatures from the free core box I got. I'm happy with them, so some are a serious pain to assemble. I'll get them painted up soon and post some pics.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Got my <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1621774283/battle-systemstm-sci-fi-modular-terrain" target="_blank">Battle Systems Sci-Fi</a> kickstarter stuff. Squares a bit smaller than I would have liked (why the hell don't we have HEXES for this stuff??? squares are stupid and inaccurate) but its decent quality.... for a paper product (and thus not real durable). I paid about $400 for 140 card sheets of terrain... ouch.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Got my <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/920034824/wasteland-game-studio-6mm-scale-wargame-buildings" target="_blank">Wasteland Game Studio</a> kickstarter stuff in. I got 6 VTOL platforms and 20 bunkers (which fit perfectly in a heroscape hex). Good quality stuff.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Got all of my <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1538673930/heroes-of-normandie" target="_blank">Heroes of Normandie</a> stuff in, well, the stuff that wasn't moved to another KS as a crappy "wave 2" move. It was quality stuff though, and looks like a pretty cool game. I was looking forward to the Sliterine PC version, but now it looks like that may be just for iPad, so oh well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- Bought another 32 little $0.37 clamps at home depot. These things ROCKED for putting miniatures together. Also got a few plastic things to make into 6mm buildings. And I got a "cracked ice" cover for lights that I'll paint sea blue and hope that it looks like good water.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- I went through all my books and inserted the posted errata out there. 28 pages for the Alpha Strike Companion, sheesh!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ok, back to Battletech!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I do update my data when I see errata so things stay *mostly* updated. However, until CGL learns about data consistency there will never be a good, accurate, designer for all units. I tried to help with this a few years back when Peter Smith sent me an email about it (Herb went ballistic internally about the errors in the record sheets). It seemed to go somewhere, then I presented the amount of data that was currently missing or inaccurate and never heard from them again. I think they have implemented some method internally though, as record sheets over the past couple years have gotten better. However, we still don't have things like building construction, warship construction, protomech construction, RPG "construction", support vehicle construction, mobile structure construction, etc, etc, utilities. I am closer to most on this, but it requires me do up a pretty web interface and my motivation is pretty small :(</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My real time battletech game, dead. Why? Well, I got bored I think. I wanted the world to move and rotate around the mech, instead of the mech moving in the world, so it was a major change I just wasn't ready to bite off. I still think folks would like it, especially if I can make it run on a phone. Dead though, but I may play with it at some point later.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alpha Strike Card Utility. I wanted to do this, then the Alpha Strike Companion came out. It implemented a few more things which I fixed in the code. The part that killed progress was, well, the interface. I had it very close to workable, and may still finish it, but I need to basically mentally start over from scratch. Too long of a break and I forgot my thought process at the time. Not dead yet, but not being worked currently either.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://bte.battletechengineer.com/" target="_blank">Battletech Engineer Encyclopedia</a> site. This still works, and I make occasional changes to it. Every time somebody posts a bug I go try to fix it. Well, almost every time. Somebody submits a bug with just a mech name that doesn't match the one on the screen. They've done this like 20 times, and I don't know what the actual error is. My best guess is they are using some old index or something. If you are that person, please add more information to the little blank, or throw in your email in there (that email is NOT saved anywhere, I'll have to manually reply back) so I can actually resolve any issue.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ok, what am I doing?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, played some Deadpool the last few days, as well as quite a few hours in FireFall. Watched Person of Interest the other night, even with all the new shows out this is the BEST SHOW ON TV (yes, better than game of thrones, but granted not any boobies).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ok, what are my plans?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well I still love Battletech, and if a new *good* product comes out I may jump right back into it. In my head right now I'm thinking we *REALLY* need a strategic game, but with Interstellar Operations due out sometime in the near future any work I do may become invalidated. So the Alpha Strike Card Maker, or minor updates to the BTE site, are probably all I may do.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BUT.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am thinking maybe I should just write my own Mecha based game, with my own universe (which I wrote up a long time ago), that would be much like battletech in some ways, and fulfill that desire for big robots, but make more sense and have better written rules. I'd do up the rules, playtest the crap out of them, make a mini-tro with great art (and associated 3D models) and a miniature line (with those 3D models 3D printed). I don't have a lot of desire to do this, but it has been in my mind and may see some fruition.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As it stands now though, my interjection of Battletech desire has been pretty darned low. If I got an email saying I could get back on the forums, or a huge number of people show support for me doing BT stuff, I would start doing Battletech stuff again, but without that interjection my motivation is just really low.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My forum is pretty dead too. I blame myself for not posting to it constantly and keeping people engaged, but that all falls back to my declining motivation for Battletech :(</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Feel free to offer up any ideas to motivate me again, I feel like I'm in hobby limbo until my 16 boxes of Robotech RPG Tactics show up.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- Start of Woopra Code -->
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As I mentioned, I went to GenCon this year. It was my first, and at the last moment I would have refunded everything if I could have as I *really* didn't think I'd enjoy it. However, I think I ended up having fun, and for me being the grumpy old man I am, was a pleasant surprise.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First, some things I learned at GenCon:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#1. If you fly in that day, put your crap somewhere and do NOT try to walk around with it all day. It'll deplete your energy faster.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#2. Get one hell of a great pair of shoes, just for this event. Your feet and back will thank you (I'm a disabled veteran, this convention hurt!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#3. Take various snacks and drinks in a backpack. The gouge you with prices, and often you'll be in the middle of a game and not be able to step away.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#4. Get a hotel as close as you can, even if it sucks (you won't be in it much anyway), and use a cab to get to/from. Buses are annoying and unreliable, and I've hard parking is a nightmare.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#5. Make a plan, and stick to it. Its a freaking HUGE convention, and I missed all sorts of things because I didn't even know they existed or where they were.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#6. Take some Ricola for your throat, it will thank you. You scream the whole time, and your throat is killing you even on day 2.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, all the stuff I did:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- I walked around to every exhibit in the, umm... sales part. Some impressed me like Hawk wargames and Dropzone Command, Star Trek Armada, and the Dwarven Forge Kickstarter (which blew me away it looked so good, glad I ordered like 10 painted sets!). This took a day basically, minus stops. Lots to see.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- I spoke with the DP9 folks about my unhappiness as to the direction their game is turning. I don't think they really cared, nor should they. I was however told to post stuff on their forums and that DP9 would put their "canon" sorta official stamp on it if it was a good product. That was cool, though I still don't like any Heavy Gear since 2nd edition :(</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- I bought 2 of the new Ad Hoc Alpha Strike Card sets, which are great. I presume folks have done a review out there, if not let me know and I'll do one. I also got a mousepad for battletech, which like most mousepads, is too small for me to use (but its still cool!). I also bought the Scapa 9 tank box, a couple Leviathan 2 miniatures (which suck for quality btw), and an old school Charger I used for scale pictures.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- I took some Robotech RPG Tactics 1/285 miniatures with me and gave them to the Palladium booth. I ended up speaking with them for a long time, got permission to take scale pictures of everything, and had some unprecedented access to them. In the end, I ended up getting one of the 3 boxed sets that exist in the US for *FREE*. I did an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA6SRhp6WT4" target="_blank">unboxing video</a> as quick as I could, and have been struggling through the miniatures for the last few days. There is a lot more on it out there if your interested, but this is a Battletech blog.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And finally, to Battletech!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I signed up for all sorts of things. I ended up playing 1 alpha strike game (that was fun, I still don't care for the all-or-nothing damage system, but the game is great as an *alternative* to battletech) but most of my time was spent on the Grinder. The grinder let me pop in, take horrible designs, die gloriously teaching somebody new the game, and it was quite fun. I got lots of pins, which I gave away to newer folks. I ended up with a couple left. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will say all the Catalyst demo folks I dealt with, as well as the other players (both new and old), were all in the greatest of moods and we all continually had a great time, even after 12+ hours of play in some cases. It was great to have a place I could show up to at any point, and start playing (having a good place to sit helped!).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was a very positive experience overall. People were all very nice, police, and I didn't notice body oder at all (I was actually worried about that!). I was quite surprised just how positive of a place it was. Its a great experience, even if you do it only once. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I doubt I'll ever go back again, but maybe.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I did speak with Randall for 30 seconds about getting re-instated on the forums. I figure its worth a shot as I'm the only one actively producing new software for Battletech, and can save them and their volunteers many of hours of work by some of my automated processes. He told me to email him about it after some other game convention this week. I know what getting back can be like after being gone, so I'll probably wait till next week.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If I get denied, I will probably try very hard to back away from Battletech though, maybe to focus on Robotech, or more likely just go back to playing computer games to pass the time. I kinda need the community feedback to feel like I'm not wasting my time. The blog helps, and honestly is the only reason I'm still into BT at all, but I don't get a lot of views.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Till next time!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wouldn't plan on the Alpha Strike Utility being done, even in Alpha, before Gencon (which is next week!). Just been too busy, and too side tracked. Sorry.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have too many miniatures... seriously, I think something is wrong with me.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I created a Cyberboard module for the Reunification war, specifically the invasion of the Taurian Concordat. Each hex is 5 LY, and I have all systems on it. I will probably post it once I get a bit more done. My biggest goal ever with BT had been a game that lets you model things like the Reunification War, Succession Wars, Age of War, etc. I want to model at least down to company level (meaning a company has a counter) though most units will be regimental and sometimes brigades. This was so I could start working on the prototype rules I did up a while back. Expect more at some point in the future.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've also always had an idea for a real time, top down (megamek graphics) battletech game, that is online, allowing hundreds if not thousands of players at once. I've tinkered with this in the past on and off, but never really had anything to show for it. I kinda wanna just use GDI (what draws the windows on your screen) but DirectX (what 3D games use) has a lot of potential too. Anyway, over the last 2 days I used GDI to create a real time system to draw mechs running around shooting at each other:</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGvRrtQ8aguD_9vrOdGB7hOHDWAv-bBhgV3T-gsHuhfYnxsvOm-JwwOztlrEi7S4eQHPzSJ8mGia7wI4qy5LVV40m6ffs1HyEPGNpetoZGZkT01AB01szl4sNjO4Ft5wc_bJ6BsZrxU8o/s1600/Oops.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGvRrtQ8aguD_9vrOdGB7hOHDWAv-bBhgV3T-gsHuhfYnxsvOm-JwwOztlrEi7S4eQHPzSJ8mGia7wI4qy5LVV40m6ffs1HyEPGNpetoZGZkT01AB01szl4sNjO4Ft5wc_bJ6BsZrxU8o/s1600/Oops.png" height="219" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The warhammer has the Marauder targeted, and has fired a couple weapons (the grey # is the 10 second countdown to fire them again). Damage on the right is the target. Still little bugs here and there to work out, but 1 more day's worth of work I should have them done, and criticals implemented. At that point I'll make it a bit easier for users to edit and will release it for folks to play with. The neat thing is it requires no 3D hardware to run (though I think it may help). I can even play it on a remote desktop window! Once I release the single player version hopefully with some rudimentary AI, I'll create a network version. It is really only 3025 now, but most other tech could be easily implemented. This is just a concept I guess though. I'll go farther as its not fully fleshed out as a concept, and will work on it lots of interest is there, but it may fall by the wayside to something else more interesting if interest isn't overwhelming. Oh, and I'm trying to keep it 100% as faithful to the board game as possible, with 10 second "turns", turning slowing you down, using piloting skill rolls, etc, etc, though some things will have to be tweaked to work in real time.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Oh, and finally, since I'll be prepping for GenCon and going/recovering over the next 2-3 weeks, I doubt I'll have an update or much progress for a while. Anybody who wants to meet up at GenCon feel free to email me (Bad_Syntax at yahoo.com).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#1. I worked on those counters, and worked on them a LOT. I eventually created like 2500 counters (individual files) probably 100 times. I am not happy with them, and created a re-design, but haven't implemented yet (these counters will have more symbols/colors, and less letters/numbers). Then I started working on the map, and made a bit of progress, then remembered this whole path was off track, so I stopped. However, thanks to one persistent user I did create a pretty darned neato HTML5 Canvas map of the <a href="http://bte.battletechengineer.com/HTML5CanvasMap/3140.htm" target="_blank">Inner Sphere in 3140</a>. I can make these very quickly for most eras, and can do a LOT more with it. This was a proof of concept, feel free to use the code.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#2. MASSIVE updates to my <a href="http://bte.battletechengineer.com/" target="_blank">BattletechEngineer</a> database. Aside from some infantry and buildings, I can go through all 6500 or so units and generate their alpha strike stats, based on the new rules in the alpha strike companion. I am still tweaking things, but the database is a lot more consistent now and I have fixed many errors folks had noticed. Once I make a bit more progress, I'll create a PDF for every record sheet book made real quick and move on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#3. Kinda off topic, as this is Robotech, but as a HUGE investor (over 300 regults incoming!) in the project I'm happy to see progress being made. However, as a big fan of the other generations I didn't want to wait, and am having my own models done. Take a looksie at my 3D printed prototypes, all in perfect 6mm or 1/285 scale:</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUPUe3pw-OjiH5lXS-EwZ-aQfDWSC-J5gLQgN9pX8p3-T4Kd23r8BGMsScbA7QkFrW3CuXtHNpMq2d4VFmo-mmH5ElZMlKDf4y9pqGusTQQCt3iBXz9NTLaySQizMxfeJG62ReZpQckx0/s1600/GroupShot1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUPUe3pw-OjiH5lXS-EwZ-aQfDWSC-J5gLQgN9pX8p3-T4Kd23r8BGMsScbA7QkFrW3CuXtHNpMq2d4VFmo-mmH5ElZMlKDf4y9pqGusTQQCt3iBXz9NTLaySQizMxfeJG62ReZpQckx0/s1600/GroupShot1.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#4. I'm going to GenCon, woot! I *really* hope I enjoy myself. Unfortunately while I LOVE Battletech and games with lots of numbers and statistics, I haven't had a lot of fun playing them in the last few years. Its only ok and hasn't recreated the fun I've had with WW2 and moden micro armor from the early 90s.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">#5. An Alpha Strike Freebie! Hand-Held Weapons in alpha strike, here is a PDF you should be able to use pretty easily for now, though you'll need to know what mechs have 2 hands as it isn't denoted on cards (yet!). I envisioned counters for the hand-held weapons, as they can be dropped/moved around easily, though I haven't made any yet. Download the <a href="http://bte.battletechengineer.com/Alpha%20Strike%20Hand-Held%20Weapons.pdf" target="_blank">PDF here</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">NEXT:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Next I'll focus on finishing up the Alpha Strike cleanup, updating the point values, and tweaking some values to work. I'll also finish up and test all the designs with all the "Bad_Syntax Optimizations" turned on (things like RL #/#/# for a 1 strike rocket launcher attack, TUR(#/#/#) for mechs that can flip arms, STR # for fighter strafing, average rounding, and all sorts of other things). Once this is done I'll hope back into my Alpha Strike Utility as I *really* want to get it working by GenCon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">May you pass your piloting skill rolls!</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- Start of Woopra Code -->
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