Hard at work!

Ok, quick update, minimal rants.

#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 Inner Sphere in 3140.  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.

#2.  MASSIVE updates to my BattletechEngineer 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.

#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:

#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.

#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 PDF here.

NEXT:

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.

May you pass your piloting skill rolls!

Worst Blogger EVER!

Ok, first, like I so often do, let me apologize for being so late between my updates!  No excuses, just laziness and distractions on my part, with a touch of procrastination.  I suck, now lets get moving.

I'll keep this update brief, as at this point I have probably lost half my short reader list anyway ;)

New Releases!
    Alpha Strike Companion - GREAT book if you are into Alpha Strike at all, a "must have".  It was nice to see some of my ideas make the rules, like RearX/X/X, HtX/X/X, and some versions of variable damage (my favorite version is just use a missile hit table for the damage amount, start at 7, and add/remove the margin of success/failure on the attack to determine damage done).  Anyway, buy it, I did!

    LCAF 2765 - Woot, I *love* these books.  We finally get to see all the units in the 2765 era.  Hopefully we'll get a periphery version soon (or multiple), and I'd still die for a new SLDF version with a listing of all the divisions and their quality/morale (broken into regiments would be awesome, but not very likely).

Alpha Strike Utility
    It took me a really long time to figure out how to deal with generating/storing units.  However, I finally got it, and an interface to manipulate them.  I haven't finished it, but the only hold up now is sitting down to knock out chunks of code.  I can now generate any sized unit (well, galaxy/division/regiment level) with random units from XOTL's tables for now (soon many more).  Clicking on each unit will show you my AS card, or the MUL AS card.  Beta not ready yet, but soon as it will be those of you who emailed me wanting to be a part of it will get a copy.  I also need to implement new rules/formulas from the Alpha Strike Companion in there.  This is my #1 focus, though I still get sidetracked (see next entry) as I want to have it finished and working by GenCon.

Succession Wars
    Thanks to the 2765 LCAF book, I made counters for every regiment in 2765.  I have also created a 278x235 hex map with all the planets (1 hex with 4 systems, 1 with 3, and 13 with 2, but all other hexes have just 1 system!) on it.  Each hex is 5 LY, so you can jump 6 hexes.  I did all this in Cyberboard, which is a great utility to play counter based games online.  I also imported all 500 or so of the counters into it, though it is 100% non-functional now, it was just me playing.  Here are the counters for you, though I may end up redoing them entirely:

    Basically I was thinking of having these counters on the map, and each held a counter for each battalion (which could even be broken up into companies, though not very often).  Counters would have steps of damage, representing lances destroyed.  I have pages and pages of this stuff, one day I'll finish it.

Battletech Engineer Website
    I have been making updates as people pointed out errors, and a few other things I've caught, as well as adding new megamek icons Dreadborder puts out, but I haven't yet updated the site yet.  I think I may completely redo it, as I'm not real happy with the format (I made it to complicated!).  I did find a new method to do the PDFs though, which will be MUCH faster I think.

GenCon
    I have always kinda wanted to go to GenCon, and this year I will be going, all 4 days.  I am going mostly to see the Robotech RPG Tactics stuff, but as they are all sold out I signed up for like 15 battletech games of various types.  I *really* hope I don't think it blows, like I did with BGGCon last winter here in Dallas, but at least I can say I went one day.  If anybody wants to meet shoot me an email and we can coordinate something.

Other things I'm working on:

• Once I get my AS data updated, or maybe even before using MUL data, I'll generate a PDF with record sheets for each TRO and Record Sheet book released for folks to download.
• I want to create new AS cards that look great, but I'm no artist.  I can copy the beautiful ones CGL made, but I also wanted some colors in there for each faction.  I like the new designs with criticals, but not the way they are implemented and there are situations where those criticals will become problematic.  If anybody wants to make some great card templates, I can quickly write the code to make an AS Card out of them.
• I have entered in over 4400 random tables from various products.  These will all be included in the Alpha Strike Utility though I need to figure out some standardization for them, as some of the newer tables have quite a few results that break the whole 2d6 thing.  Not that its a bad thing, its actually great, but it'll take some coding to do.
• I entered in all the data from the Clan Wolf book, and merged it with Alpha Strike.  First, something interesting, not a single name of a warrior was ever duplicated, not in like a thousand units.  Some had blood names, but the first name was always unique!  Next, want to know what each galaxy would look like if the galaxy was a single Alpha Strike card (Armor=Armor+Structure divided by some divisor, attack=Medium Range but divided by some divisor, PV beta and not skill modified, I think they all move 3)?
• Alpha Galaxy, 662 PV, Medium Mech, Elite, 21 Attack, 38 Armor
• Cumulative abilities:
• CASE180,OMNI224, ARTAC-40, AMS17, PRB37, RCN37, ECM7, TAG2,VSTOL66,SPC66,BOMB202,PNT15,IF70,MEC69,AM69,CAR345,SNARC2,FLK19/41/32,LRM28/28/48,SRM57/57 (obviously these would be modified for a galaxy level battle)
• Beta Galaxy, 529 PV, Medium Mech, Elite, 17 Attack, 31 Armor
• Gamma Galaxy, 555 PV, Medium Mech, Elite, 19 Attack, 32 Armor
• Delta Galaxy, 616 PV, Medium Mech, Elite, 20 Attack, 34 Armor
• Epsilon Galaxy, 453 PV, Medium Mech, Regular, 15 attack, 46 Armor

        Or would you prefer each cluster?

• Trinary Clan Command, 40 PV, Elite, Medium Mech, 4 Attack, 7 Armor
• 13th Wolf Guards Cluster, 106 PV, Veteran, Medium Mech, 10 Attack, 18 Armor
• 328th Assault Cluster, 183 PV, Elite, Heavy Mech, 17 Attack, 32 Armor
• 4th Wolf Guards Cluster, 179 PV, Elite, Heavy Mech, 17 Attack, 33 Armor
• 279th Battle Cluster, 154 PV, Elite, Medium Mech, 15 Attack, 25 Armor
• Galaxy Command, 82 PV, Elite, Heavy Mech, 7 Attack, 14 Armor
• 341st Assault Cluster, 133 PV, Elite, Medium Mech, 13 Attack, 25 Armor
• 352nd Assault Cluster, 149 PV, Elite, Medium Mech, 14 Attack, 26 Armor
• 3rd Battle Cluster, 164 PV, Elite, Medium Mech, 16 Attack, 27 Armor
• 7th Battle Cluster, 159 PV, Elite, Medium Mech, 16 Attack, 26 Armor
• 16th Battle Cluster, 141 PV, Elite, Medium Mech, 15 Attack, 25 Armor
• 11th Battle Cluster, 181 PV, Elite, Medium Mech, 18 Attack, 30 Armor
• 11th Wolf Guards Cluster, 167 PV, Elite, Medium Mech, 16 Attack, 27 Armor
• 37th Striker Cluster, 161 PV, Elite, Medium Mech, 16 Attack, 26 Armor
• 4th Striker Cluster, 177 PV, Elite, Medium Mech, 18 Attack, 31 Armor
• Nega Garrison Cluster, 101 PV, Regular, Medium Mech, 11 Attack, 31 Armor
• Choyer Garrison Cluster, 96 PV, Regular, Medium Mech, 10 Attack, 30 Armor
• Gurbeng Garrison Cluster, 99 PV, Regular, Medium Mech, 10 Attack, 31 Armor
• Dorbeng Garrison Cluster, 103 PV, Regular, Medium Mech, 11 Attack, 32 Armor

        Eventually I'll get Clan Jade Falcon done too, then the other clans inputted and RATs fixed for them, but for now this was an interesting side project.

Forum

    I made a forum but its hardly used, I will respond to stuff on it very quickly compared to the blog.  Oh well, if it stays dead in a few more months I'll probably just end up removing it as supporting it is a lot of work.