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