A Reply To My Ineptitude

I had a viewer send me this email, and wanted to reply back to everybody in case other people felt the same way (I believe all opinions should be heard).  My original text is in orange, his comments in green, and my replies in red.  Feel free to comment below or just send me an email at bad_syntax over at yahoo.com.  Sorry if your color blind (or if this posting MAKES you color blind) :)   I also made it smaller so its easier to skim, if its too small just hold down CTRL and use your mouse wheel.

If you don't care about opinions, just scroll to the very bottom and grab a copy of the system generator using these rules, as well as my earlier one using explorer corps rules.  Both are in excel, if you peruse my blog I think there is a website that does the same thing but I don't remember the URL, and am too lazy right now to go try to find it.

"The rules state that orbits 2-4 are in the life zone. However this means that often there are 2 or even 3 occupied terrestrial planets in a single system. There is no difference in these systems, all 3 could be a high population colony, or whatever. So in essence, many times, there is no single world in a system that is predominate."
No, it says that 2-4 are in the life zone. No where does it say that there are 2 or 3 occupied planets in any given system. And there are many differences, for example, you roll for equatorial temperature and that is modified by orbital slot. Different planets may have different atmospheres and gravity even. I doubt that modern day Venus (that would be in slot 2) is that same kind of planet as modern Mars (in slot 4). You pretty clearly didn't read these rules closely.

Actually it says *terrestrial* worlds in the life zone, which my (attached) spreadsheet takes into account.  No, not every system has 3 terrestrial planets in that zone, however, the rules state nothing about what happens if you do roll up 3 terrestrial planets in the life zone, as all 3 would have populations, which could each be in the billions if its an “important system”.

"The USILR code (p366-376 ATOW), or the A-B-A-D-E thing planets have is said to need to be created, but there is no way to do this without, well, pulling numbers out of your ass. You don't have any idea how many of any type of world there may be."
In response, "Settled worlds must also establish a USILR code (see pp. 366-376, AToW), as well as the nature of local government, the presence of recharge stations, HPGs and the like. ***These details are largely left up the gamemaster***, though pp. 146-149 offers a means to randomly determine a settled world’s government."
So best judgement on the gamemasters part. Its your game, do with it that you will.

Yes, like I said, if you are a GM, just make your own systems, these rules simply aren’t complete enough to randomly generate one.

"Giant/Dwarf terrestrials are mentioned to be habitable sometimes, but no rules, nor sizes, nor any details can be gained."
page 140, "For players interested in even greater levels of world-building
detail and development, a more sophisticated version of these rules will appear in the Interstellar Operations core rulebook." While you complaining that those rules aren't there is actually valid, the solution is already provided.

Yeah, again, the solution is just do it all yourself, and ignore these rules entirely… PERHAPS IO will have a very detailed and complete system, but I’d bet money it won’t as there isn't but a couple (like Galtor III) really detailed systems in the entire game.

"The stellar subtype, a number between 0 to 9, which can be considered a decimal number between 1 start type and the next, is on a 2d6 table. In stellar terms, this should be a 1d10 and there should be a pretty equal chance of each, not mostly 5's"
Maybe because they didn't want to make people use dice other than d6's. I.e., "The following rules represent a basic guide for generating detailed
star systems (page 140).

That was my assumption as well, but seriously, what person who would use these rules does NOT have a d10 around?  And there *are* ways of using d6 to produce 10% results, and they have been in the rules before (explorer corps book).

"Nothing whatsoever on terrain generation"
So what did you want, software provided that would generate terrain for you? Maybe you should use your imagination on what your planet should look like? If your planet has 70% water coverage...draw a planet with about 70% water coverage, and a variety of land cover types. Seems simple enough to me.

The Wars of Reaving book has terrain for planets, nothing too complicated but easy to implement rules, so that isn’t a new thing.  This book would have been a great place to have those.

"The record sheet has stats for only a single habitable world, when a system could have up to 3. This isn't really a flaw, as you would use one of these per world. However, it would have made a lot more sense to have a simple system sheet on 1 page, and a world sheet on another."
So print out three sheets if there are three planets!

That is what I basically said, but then with 3 world sheets, you have the system info 3 times, so its redundant and a waste.  They didn’t even include space for all the planet details that you could roll up.  An empty box would have been helpful for GMs.

"Overall its a very generic and abstract system without really giving much detail. If your a GM, and want a world, just make one up on your own and avoid this whole section. If you really want to generate a detailed system, avoid these rules entirely and go get GURPS Space 4e (or some of the older GURPS Traveller or Traveller products) which does a far better job at creating a more realistic system."
From page 140, "The following rules represent a basic guide for generating detailed star systems where players can set adventures and campaigns
in the BattleTech universe. As the universe itself is filled with infinite
possibility, this three-stage system is merely a means for GMs and players to create believable—yet unique—worlds without requiring advanced degrees in physics, geology, and astronomy to do so. For players interested in even greater levels of world-building detail and development, a more sophisticated version of these rules will appear in the Interstellar Operations core rulebook."

Which is what I said, if you want detail, don’t use these rules, but GURPS is FAR more detailed, and doesn’t require a degree in anything to accomplish far more.

"No details for moons, but we have lots of MW/MC games that have had moon based battles :("
Moons are small terrestrial bodies, maybe use some of the rules on terrestrial planets about making moons? I'm not an astronomer, but even I have enough of a clue to go there. Do you want orbits, and periods? I refer back to page 140, "worlds without requiring advanced degrees in physics, geology, and astronomy to do so."

So you are a GM, your players raid on a moon, and there is no method to determine gravity, atmosphere, etc.  So these are simply *not* rules by any means, as there is nothing complete about them at all.  They aren’t even a decent guideline, and are better left ignored.  Why in the heck would you print something that is best ignored and even in your own text say “these aren’t complete”???

"I'm sorry, but who really cares what the highest form of life is on a planet??? Isn't it always humans anyway? :) This is something that I think long ago should just be ignored, as it isn't very relevant when BT isn't as much about "exploring the universe" but "exploring ruins""
I wasn't aware that humans were native to every inhabited planet in the BattleTech universe, didn't they all come from Terra? Seriously, it even says, "Step 7: Determine Highest Local Life Form. To determine the highest native life form..." And why should it be ignored when a large section of the AToW *and* this book go into details about native life forms, how to make them, what they are good for, etc?

Because the GM will determine if there are dinosaurs on the planet, not these rules.  I was being a bit sarcastic though, as every planet with a population is going to have humans, and thus mammals are always the highest level of life J

To sum up my wall of text:
You need to:
A) Use your own imagination.
B) Read the book you are complaining about.
C) Stop assuming things

      A)    These are RULES, they are there to assist when my imagination can’t do it.  By that statement, why have any rule books at all, just “use your imagination”.

      B)     Uhhh, I did, I went through every single line of the system generation, often more than a few times

      C)    I didn’t assume anything, not sure where you got that

My main beef is why bother printing some half-assed rules, when you have a full system on the horizon, and even better stuff already printed?

While I can NOT recommend this book to people who want to generate systems (use this or cheaper/older this instead), it still looks go be a good book for any GM or people playing the RPG.  I haven't read through the new rules for battlearmor (that look cool at first glance), creature generation, high level npc generation, or some other sections that also may be awesome (or not).  

Here (right click, save as) is an old download, 2.8mb, that has a system generator using the older (and more detailed) explorer corps rules for system generation (as well as a bunch of other stuff in it that may not be updated).

And here is the new one.  Both are excel 2010 files.

A Time of War Companion System Generation

I jumped in excel today and spent a couple hours making a spreadsheet that can easily use the system in ATOW to generate, well, tens of thousands of systems in <1 second on my machine.  I now have gone through the whole system generation rules, and its fell short in a few ways.

• The rules state that orbits 2-4 are in the life zone.  However this means that often there are 2 or even 3 occupied terrestrial planets in a single system.  There is no difference in these systems, all 3 could be a high population colony, or whatever.  So in essence, many times, there is no single world in a system that is predominate.
• The USILR code (p366-376 ATOW), or the A-B-A-D-E thing planets have is said to need to be created, but there is no way to do this without, well, pulling numbers out of your ass.  You don't have any idea how many of any type of world there may be.
• Giant/Dwarf terrestrials are mentioned to be habitable sometimes, but no rules, nor sizes, nor any details can be gained.
• The stellar subtype, a number between 0 to 9, which can be considered a decimal number between 1 start type and the next, is on a 2d6 table.  In stellar terms, this should be a 1d10 and there should be a pretty equal chance of each, not mostly 5's
• Nothing whatsoever on terrain generation
• The record sheet has stats for only a single habitable world, when a system could have up to 3.  This isn't really a flaw, as you would use one of these per world.  However, it would have made a lot more sense to have a simple system sheet on 1 page, and a world sheet on another.
• Overall its a very generic and abstract system without really giving much detail.  If your a GM, and want a world, just make one up on your own and avoid this whole section.  If you really want to generate a detailed system, avoid these rules entirely and go get GURPS Space 4e (or some of the older GURPS Traveller or Traveller products) which does a far better job at creating a more realistic system.
• No details for moons, but we have lots of MW/MC games that have had moon based battles :(
• I'm sorry, but who really cares what the highest form of life is on a planet???  Isn't it always humans anyway? :)  This is something that I think long ago should just be ignored, as it isn't very relevant when BT isn't as much about "exploring the universe" but "exploring ruins".

Some EASY potential fixes:

• For a system with 2+ terrestrial worlds in the life zone, roll a 1d6/2 if 3, or 1d6/3 if 2, to determine which planet is the predominate one.  Other planets are always lesser population.  If the predominate planet is a colony, other planets must just be settlements.
• Random USILR codes.  Roll 2d6.  2-3 is an A, 4-5 is a B, 6-7 is a C, 8-9 is a D, 10-11 is E, and 12 is F.  Roll Technological, Industrialization, Raw Material, Industrial Output, and Agricultural dependence in order.  To make more sense add modifiers.  If Technology A, -4 to other rolls, if its a B -2, if its E +2, if its an F +4.  Raw material is never modified.
• Giant terrestrials are 14000+1d6*1000 km in diamater, dwarf are 1000+1d6*1000.
• Stellar subtypes are a d10 roll, treating a 10 as 0.

Overall like I mentioned, I'd use GURPS/Traveller to create a system.  They have rules for everything ATOWC has, and lots more, plus the ability to detail things out a lot.  Granted, their rules are far more complex, so go download Heaven & Earth and have a fully detailed system in minutes.

I had an epiphany last night on how to generate my own universe that feels like BT, but isn't.  One word:  Supernova.  More to come soon.

Oh, if anybody wants the spreadsheet, make a comment below or send me an email, its a bit under 300k with 50 worlds and a crappy record sheet generator.

A Time of War Companion Quick Review

First, I love new BT products, even if I don't really even use them.  There is something seriously wrong in my head I think.

Anyway, a quick review of the latest release. 

If you play the RPG, this book is mandatory.  Its filled full of new rules.  I'm sure there is a table of contents out there, and I'm not going into too much detail on stuff.  Here is what I thought was kinda cool though:

• Rank tables, both old and new for all factions
• New rules for battlesuit combat, including a critical sheet for battle armor that looks just like the mech criticals (6 slots per limb, 12 in body, etc).  
• Advanced creature creation... maybe I can write a computer program to randomize critters?
• System generation rules.  Some very simplistic ones anyway, but it beats the old ones in Explorer Corps.  I'll write a version that'll do it for you on the computer maybe this week.  I know I wrote an old one that I think is still around, so this will replace it.
• Rules for personal vehicles, basically some really simple stats (table, not a TRO) of the vehicles you see behind the infantry in TRO 3085.

I need to dig in and see how well the combat system works.  I had more fun playing Battletroops in about 1989-1990 than I have ever had playing Battletech.  With all the new rules in this book, if I get rid of extra stuff, rip out a few dozen pages, I may just have BattleTroops 3!  Hope so anyway.

And the negative.  I noticed quite a few pics in the book I'd seen somewhere before.  Not that big a deal  tho.  Page 272-273 is an add for battlecorps.com, which I was stupid and joined, and it is a waste of money (oooo, 5% discount, saved me $2.73 on this order).  And my biggest beef, the $60 for the book+PDF.  I go to amazon, the book is $30, i have to pay $7.50 through battlecorps for shipping, freaking outrageous (and they usually ship 1 book in a big empty box with lots of peanuts).  My biggest problem is I bought the hardcover, why in the hell am I also paying for the PDF????  I can see why you'd sell the PDF for $15 and the book for $30+, but if you buy the hardcopy, you should get the PDF for free, period.  Otherwise I see it as basically charging me twice for 1 product.

If you buy a physical book, the PDF should always be free, otherwise its just not ethical IMO.

But I buy it anyway, cuz I'm nuts, and I know I make more than most people who play this silly game and want to support it, but ugh, that is just wrong.

Anyway, enough ranting.  If you play the RPG a lot, I'd recommend buying this book, but I'd recommend buying the PDF as you can search it easier and it won't fall apart on you.

Oh, one more thing.  They do now have a map for planets, its the typical 20 triangle icoshedron that Traveller I think started decades ago.  It looks nice, but I had really been hoping that Interstellar Operations wouldn't make planetary level combat stupid, and this map really hints that it'll be lame.  First, there is only 1 size of map, meaning all maps will have different sized hexes, meaning that movement and stuff will be so abstracted to lose all sense of fun.  There is only 6 different sizes of planets (8000km+1d6*1000km).  The planet given is about 25 hexes in diameter.  On average about 450km per hex.  They could very easily have made 6 of them, from 20 to 32 hexes or so in diameter, so the hexes could be consistent and your regiment move at the same speed on every planet you land on.  Another thing, there simply isn't *enough* hexes.  North America would be at most probably 4 hexes across, and 2 hexes vertical, meaning all of North America is only about 8 total hexes to fight on.  How are you going to fight the retaking of Terra by Kerensky or from the WOB when all of NA, with divisions of divisions of troops, is on EIGHT hexes?  May as well just give you a counter per regiment, with an attack and defense, and really dumb it down.  Plenty of games follow that model and work I guess.  This is how I know that the planetary scale of BattleForce in Interstellar Operations will suck, just like the Planetary Assault rules from BF2 sucked.  Hopefully I'm wrong, and perhaps IO will come out with regional maps, where it is a "megahex" with perhaps 10-20 hexes across, and each represents a single hex on the planet.  A system like that would be cool as you may only be fighting in a few of them at a time, and each could probably fit on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper, and dozens could be create pretty easily (1 per terrain type on the planet).  If a system like this is done, there is still hope I think, otherwise imagine how non-fun it'll be to drop 8 counters on Tikonov in 3029, against 8 other counters, where you maybe move 1 hex per day, and no terrain really matters.  I sure hope they don't do drugs and decide to give units on this scale a range of combat, that'd just make me go ballistic.

MasterUnitList v2.0

Ok, design work has now begun on the new MasterUnitList.  The official MasterUnitList was just updated, though buggy I think it looks a bit better.  They did implement quick strike cards, but they are all text and would require you do a screenshot, jump to paint, paste, then crop the image to print it.  I'm sure they did this to save CPU on the web server, storage on the web server, and probably most of all bandwidth, but oh well.

The MasterUnitList 2.0, well, my BattleTech Encyclopedia 2.0, will have a LOT of new features.  I'll list them here, feel free to chime in any ideas you may have for it:

• A fully functional phpBB forum to discuss all things BattleTech, with far less censorship and moderation (if you want to be a mod, apply now!) as I am not a company :)
• A fully functional real time chat engine that supports die rollers and I'll add any tables such as random unit tables, Xotl's tables, location tables, etc.  It should run on your phone, and may help people play.
• Battletech record sheets for *everything*.  That includes things like warships, buildings, mobile structures, and even characters for ATOW/RPG.
• The website and chat logins will be the same as the forum password.
• You can create your own lists of units.  Create your own 2nd ACR, add all the units of any kind you want to the list, and print them out as QS, BF, or BT.  When you print, the output can be PNG or PDF.
• You can share your unit lists with some people, or everybody.
• The ability to search for units based on ANY criteria.  Want to find units with only 100 shots of MG ammo?  Done!
• You lists of units also map to lists of characters, so you can give each unit a pilot from your list (or have them randomly generated).
• All units in your list, as well as all personnel, can have all their attributes modified.  Want to use up some ammo on some units?  How about apply damage or do crits?  What about a refit?  Or give the unit some heat.  All will be implemented.
• With a single click, you can get the BV of a unit list, the time it takes to repair it, the cost of repairs, my own strategic scale battleforce data for a unit of any size, average armor or damage over the whole unit, heck, the sky is the limit :)
• A page to verify designs.  Not really a unit builder yet, but you'll be able to put in all the info, and it'll create a QS/BT/BF card, tell you the overall cost/BV/etc, and let you know if some rules  were broken in the design.
• Battle simulator.  Specify 2 units, give a range, give pilot skills, give modifiers to hit, and the simulator will determine with those circumstances, which unit will triumph and how often.
• Bug submission button on most pages to help me fix things you find that are broken.
• I *might* give the ability to export to megamek/SSW/etc, but I'm not real sure yet.  If I do, I'll probably be able to create an entity list for megamek scenarios based on your own unit lists.
• I *might* give the ability to upload your own record sheet backgrounds, but you'll have to spend some time configuring it if number layout is different than the ones I already did.
• And more I'll find when I finish going through notes :)

Due to my new job making me come up at 6, and spousal commitments, the best ETA on all this being done I can give is about January, but don't hold me much to it, as variables get thrown into the schedule of life more than I'd like.  

I did find it kinda funny that the canon MasterUnitList had a dozen or more people listed as assisting with the project, and it is nowhere as complete or detailed as mine is with only me doing it.  I actually have all the stats for every unit, not just some horribly inaccurate and partial faction lists.

More to come soon!

Forum, Webchat, and the meaning of life

EDIT:  Mk 33 TRO 3063 Record Sheet Here

So I've been all over the place the last week or two in regards to projects.  Been hard to focus on finishing the last one due to work and life, so I've been tinkering.

I installed and configured phpBB (forum software) and could open it to the world, well, by releasing the domain its located at.  No biggie, lots of forums out there, but I plan on using it to support my projects and allow a lot less moderated forum about various games I'm interested in.  However, it is on my home internet account, and I'm betting pretty darned slow if a few people are online.  Good news is I'm working at a hosting provider now, so I can probably get near infinite bandwidth by just plopping a server in our data center.  This will drastically speed up my site as well (the encyclopedia, the blog is on blogspot and out of my control) and hopefully make it a more pleasant experience once I get the updates out.

And also, I downloaded probably 20 examples of a chat software that is 100% browser based, that was versatile enough for me to add my own commands like "/roll 2d6" and such.  All the examples sucked in some way, so I decided to write my own.  It took me no more than an hour to do what I wasted 8 looking at others do.  I still need some polish, but basically when I launch the forum I'll have web chat that authenticates with the forum's password, that'll allow folks to talk together, do things like us it to get a real time die roll (believe it or not, I could find no app out there allowing this!), and integrate things like the random unit tables or search rules for references, the sky's the limit!  I did this part mostly for Federation and Empire support.  Basically when you play that game you do moves, 1 hex at a time, asking if the opponent reacts to your move.  Its MUCH easier over a real time system like this, plus, they can roll die (and even hide results until both do a /reveal).  I think it'll be awesome, though it'll need lots more polish (like a weeks worth of coding).

I haven't forgot about updating the site, my new job is just a lot more time consuming than my old one (or the 4 months I took off) and I don't usually get home till 6-6:30.

I blew $546 on the Reaper Kickstarter bones miniatures, not real sure why, I haven't played a game in well over a year, and no more than 5 in 10 years, but it seemed like a great deal.  Ogre got me started on Kickstarter, and I've also been a supporter for Traveller 5 and a few other projects.  One I'm excited about is FTL, which gets released tomorrow (buy it from their site for the best deal, they'll give you a steam key).  It looks well worth $10.

I stopped playing the MWO beta already, its just so boring, really kinda pissed I paid $120 for it.  I've said it once and I'll say it a hundred times, The F2P model destroys games.  People *DO* pay for games, look at COD or BF2, so these nickel-and-dime you out of a lot more than $60 over a year or two really suck.  I also really don't care what any developers say, the games are *always* "pay to win", and MWO is no exception regardless of what they tell you.

Speaking of games, I really wanted to do the Planetside 2 beta, $40 and your in.  However before I bought it I jumped back into Tribes Ascend, one of the better F2P games (but still pay or play excessively to win) and determined that the majority of people playing these games as just assholes.  In real life they'd get punched in the face or at least have zero friends for the way they treat other players, its horrible.  People are so uncivil, with comments so uncivilized that the next time I play, I'll just turn off the chat all together if I can, so I don't have to see the idiotic gibberish and childish insults flying back and forth.

I looked into Android development again, and it won't happen.  Its dumb to spend time writing code for an iPhone or Android, when both of those items have 24/7 internet access and a web browser.  Both of those devices are *completely* different code bases, have compatibility issues, etc, so I'll just write a browser based game and not care what device you look at it on.  It is the way of the future anyway, big companies want you online, so they can charge/track you more, and big companies get what they want.

And not to go off topic *too* much, ok, it is too much, just what the fuck does anybody see in Mitt Romney?  I'm not a democrat, nor a republican, I am proud to be American, but while I can see some redeeming factors about Obama, I seriously haven't seen one consistent or intelligent thing come from Mitt.  If your a supporter, please, and I mean PLEASE, shoot me an email or forum message and just let me know something you support about that man so I can hopefully understand why somebody would put his sticker on their car or go to a rally.  One catch, its gotta be true.

Another TRO 3063 Update

Well a few more changes, and enough complaining that I made the center torso criticals like "canon", and stopped putting all engine crits first.  Though the chances are identical, some just couldn't grasp it, and it was an easy code change.  Also could be some other updated files.  All those text files are ugly debug like code I use to determine if my BV, Cost, Availability, etc calculations are correct.  If you see an error take a look, let em know what you think it is, and I'll go fix it asap.

Still working on the Steel Legion unit designer, between work, my crazy biker dad being hunted by the Amigo's (like the Banditos, but less "nice"), plus playing SFB's Federation and Empire over cyberboard development hasn't gone too fast.  Soon as I finish the Strike Legion editor I'll get to updating the encyclopedia though, and will have things like warships and dropships done very soon after, then onto the whole logging in thing and generating force lists.

If ya'll could chime and let me know whatcha think of my mech/vehicle/fighter record sheets I'd appreciate any input, good or bad.

Here is the latest TRO 3063 link.

Oh, I have also been playing around with some web chat software.  This would allow you to log on with somebody else, roll dice, get various table results, etc.  However my ajax experience sucks, and I'm having a hard time using other people's code and adding in functions like /roll 1d6.  It seems simple, but I haven't gotten a good solution yet....