Ok, SBF is simply broken

Plug for my patreon site, which I skip charges on, but lets you let me know you are a fan :D
https://www.patreon.com/BattletechEngineer

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.

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.

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.

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.

Some other changes I think I will make to the rules, though I have not gone through all of them yet:

- 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.

Does anybody still read this?

Just asking if folks can chime in if they still read this.  I have never followed a blog, and not even sure it is still a valid medium for folks.

I created a patreon which is set to $1/month, but I disable billing every month so it should be free:

https://www.patreon.com/BattletechEngineer

Anyway, just a quick update as I'm not sure if anybody even reads this.  I have been working on a Strategic Battleforce PC game, and made some pretty good progress, but the rules are simply broken.  I had lots of questions, some fan asked if he could post them on the forums to which I said "sure!", but his post quickly got locked, then deleted.  I also had one of the people that had been *trying* to answer my questions that was affiliated with CGL/Forums/etc back out as apparently they REALLY fucking hate me there.  Extremely unprofessional if you ask me, especially since I am a HUGE contributor, HUGE supporter, and my alleged violations are either not true, or really insignificant.  Oh well, there are still 2 folks talking to me that still help me out, and they laugh at the drama and show me some really "funny" posts from some of my haters out there.  I try to empathize, but at this point its just getting to Trump levels of stupid.

A pic:

I am not debating on if I can even finish this as the rules are simply VERY broken, unplayable broken, and I'll bet somebody 500 clan invasion kickstarter miniatures that they did NOT fix them in the new Battleforce reprint book due out soon.  If I decide to just say "forget their broke ass rules", I'll create something that I think is more in line with their goal, and make it more streamlined at other scales, and then finish it by filling in my own rules that fall back on CBT rules when possible as a computer can handle the details for you!

If I finish it, I'll also release the source code, but right now its really ugly and has a lot of "TODO" comments in it I want to clean up first.

Anyway, let me know if you read this, or whatever.  I am not sure of the best way to communicate with those who actually want to see new battletech products get created.

Oh, my engineer site sucks and is broken.  I haven't touched it in years, and never really finished it.  It started as something similar to the masterunitlist.info site, but with CBT stats, and if I got it closer to done I was going to give to to CGL and let them charge $1 or something every month for it, which basically replaces the need to print TROs and Record sheets, and just lets people print them on demand based on what they want in it.  Residual income is a GREAT thing for companies, and for some reason CGL has never figured that out.  They are not very good with technology and seem to shit on those that are who offer to help (not just me, there have been others).

Have some happy holidays!

Some Updates, New Card Maker Released!

Been a while, haven't been into Battletech much.  However I got a new server, moved the site over, and in so doing made a LOT of updates.  However, I am still making a LOT of updates so expect errors still.  I also need to update the database with recent new units.

Anyway, first thing is somebody asked, and I delivered, a new version of the card maker!

http://www.battletechengineer.com/AlphaStrikeCardMaker132.zip (Note, this is v1.31 that fixes LAM/Jump if you are using hexes vs inches)

Next, a big chunk of why I am getting back into Battletech is the new Clan Invasion kickstarter!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/450703636/battletech-clan-invasion/

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.

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.

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.

Still chugging away!

Ok, first sorry I didn't reply earlier to the comments.  My job has been eating up a LOT of my time the last month, and for the next week or two.  That is very unusual for me, typically I'm 40 hours a week and no more.  This job will probably not last too long, but enough of that.

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?!?!?".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

But, thanks for the support for the few of you still hanging around.  I do have a facebook group called "Battletech Design Works" if you want to join.  Sometimes it gets more updates, sometimes less, than this blog.

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.

Have a great spring!

Server is down, and that is good news?

Ok, wee bit of an update.  Nothing special as I'm still burned out on Battletech.  The whole "donate money to get my design app" completely bombed.  Folks will pay $50 to $100 for all the HeavyMetal products, but only *ONE* person gave me (and thus the SPCA) a whopping $10.  I'll be sending him the money back instead, as I already donate to the SPCA, purely on principal.  So, if you want a designer, you had your chance, so suck it :).

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.

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.

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.  

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.

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.

Anyway, enjoy the spring, I sure as hell am!

Its a new year!

Ok, quick 2017 update.  TLDR version:

• I'm still alive
• I am still into games
• I am still healthy (minor scare with a kidney stone surgery, all good now)
• I am still keeping up with battletech (the field manual beta thing was great)
• I have done zero work on battletech since the last update.

The reasons I haven't touched battletech are:

• I feel the community doesn't care about what I have to offer
• I can't get my questions about rules answered
• I am not playing anymore

 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

Drink water, and till next time!

Bad Syntax

Burn In Designs

Well a minor update, since I haven't done one in a while, to let folks know I'm alive.

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 :)

What has happened in the last couple months:

• New Job, -2 to -4 hours a day on hobbies for various reasons (Used to be about 6-8)
• Sick wife, spent a week in the hospital, still not doing so hot
• Received my Heavy Gear kickstarter.  Unpacked it, haven't done much else.
• 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.
• 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 :)
• 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.
• Got back into Games Workshop epic for a couple weeks.  I REALLY wanna make some counters with vassal40K artwork, but its a pain.
• 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.
• 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).

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.

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:

• 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".
• 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.

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.

Then, for a *really* stupid reason I probably should have argued more, I got banned.

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.

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.

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.

So basically the community has said "Fuck off Bad Syntax, we don't want you here."

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.

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.

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.

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.

Shortest in front, stuff to left front is walls

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.

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!

Why I'm not sure, I'm not actively playing anything :(