The MUL is now 94% complete! The rest are a few models of things scattered about. Often units that were in an older record sheet book and not in the newer ones. 2% of those left represents about 80 of these situations. I got rid of most of the duplicates, match up variants described with no model to ones with models, and identified a bunch of units missing from the official MUL. Right now, excluding the stuff I list below, I have 4674 units. There are another 672 that the canon MUL has that I don't, about half will be matched up as I finish the rest, many of the others don't have any sources in the canon MUL, so I may just skip them until more data is available.
There are 500 more units I still have to go through, these are:
205 Support Vehicles - mostly just cleanup
40 Buildings - mostly just cleanup
120 Dropships
17 Jumpships
2 Mobile Structures
24 Space Stations
92 Warships
I saved the more complicated units for last, as I needed to come up with a method to save crazy stuff like warship bays with 3 items in them, 2 of which have doors, but only 1 door type can launch, weapon bays with 4 weapon types, all with unique ammo. Heck, I'm still not sure if I should track ammo in DS/JS/WS/SS by entire unit, or by bay (I have a question open on the official forums that hasn't been answered yet). Mobile structures can get *really* complex, as I have to track 20 hexes, 20 turrets, dozens of item types, etc, etc. Still tho, I can knock out all the rest in a couple days.
However, I have a *LOT* of cleanup to do. Gotta make sure stuff is consistently inputted, clean up my excel file, go back through the hundred or so items I have marked as having some issue and see if I can find errata or a fix as to why it was a broken design, etc, etc.
I also want to go through and rip all the text out of heavy metal files (fluff stuff) and push it into this database (including credits if they were in there) and make a lot of the images that aren't on the canon MUL.
In the next week or two I'll make a website that'll let you peruse the data, as well as functionality to let you make a change to it to fix errors. I won't have support yet to print out PDFs of lists of units, and may not end up ever allowing that support to be available to the public to avoid CGL loosing any sales.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
MUL Comming Along!
Just a little updated on the MUL....
Now 72% completed.
Saving Warships, Jumpships, Space Stations, Dropships, Mobile Structures, and Support Vehicles until last due to their complexity.
Also started working on the design document for the full blown succession wars style game I'm doing. However, I'm writing it up as a rules set, so if you want to make your own counters you could fight out any sized battle, even entire succession wars, in your own living room (assuming ample space of course), or just use the rules to fight a small region. These rules will be the core of the rules in the game I'm doing, though eventually I'll be able to scale down to individual elements in the computer conversion, while the rules only really go down to company level (and not very detailed companies) at the lowest.
I also spent quite a bit of time looking for BT models, and the papercraft ones look to be low poly, have decent textures, but still no animations and they are in some PDO format I'm not sure if I can reverse back into something like the directx model format. Regardless I still need the animations to be motivated to do a 3D game, without them its just too boring ;)
Once the MUL is complete I'll create a system to allow people to individually validate entries, without giving global access to everything for everybody. This way hopefully people can check my work, though I do plan on having a design system verify the designs as well.
Got my hardcopy of FM3085 and RS:Prototypes today, kinda sucks that I already looked them over as PDFs :(. But the FM3085 maps really pop out, full screen color, they look great.
Its funny how officially, RATs are pretty much worthless and inaccurate, yet somehow, in FM3085 there are 36 pages of them, and new rules for using them based on equipment levels and stuff. If these things are just for "pickup games", why so much detail??? Really seems there is something up there, and I'm pretty sure, even though officially they are crap, I'll be using various RATs for randomly generating units in the computer games as they look pretty good to me. Besides, only an idiot would want 50 different designs in his regiment, the logistics would quickly decimate the unit before any contact, a dozen different designs is even pushing it in some situations IMO.
Anyway, working hard, more to come soon.
Now 72% completed.
Saving Warships, Jumpships, Space Stations, Dropships, Mobile Structures, and Support Vehicles until last due to their complexity.
Also started working on the design document for the full blown succession wars style game I'm doing. However, I'm writing it up as a rules set, so if you want to make your own counters you could fight out any sized battle, even entire succession wars, in your own living room (assuming ample space of course), or just use the rules to fight a small region. These rules will be the core of the rules in the game I'm doing, though eventually I'll be able to scale down to individual elements in the computer conversion, while the rules only really go down to company level (and not very detailed companies) at the lowest.
I also spent quite a bit of time looking for BT models, and the papercraft ones look to be low poly, have decent textures, but still no animations and they are in some PDO format I'm not sure if I can reverse back into something like the directx model format. Regardless I still need the animations to be motivated to do a 3D game, without them its just too boring ;)
Once the MUL is complete I'll create a system to allow people to individually validate entries, without giving global access to everything for everybody. This way hopefully people can check my work, though I do plan on having a design system verify the designs as well.
Got my hardcopy of FM3085 and RS:Prototypes today, kinda sucks that I already looked them over as PDFs :(. But the FM3085 maps really pop out, full screen color, they look great.
Its funny how officially, RATs are pretty much worthless and inaccurate, yet somehow, in FM3085 there are 36 pages of them, and new rules for using them based on equipment levels and stuff. If these things are just for "pickup games", why so much detail??? Really seems there is something up there, and I'm pretty sure, even though officially they are crap, I'll be using various RATs for randomly generating units in the computer games as they look pretty good to me. Besides, only an idiot would want 50 different designs in his regiment, the logistics would quickly decimate the unit before any contact, a dozen different designs is even pushing it in some situations IMO.
Anyway, working hard, more to come soon.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Some new stuff...
I made a quick BT based random system generator using the methods in the ComStar book. You can access it at http://goodsects.gotdns.com/btrandomsystemgenerator
Here is a very early version of a method to map out entire worlds, accurate to single BT hexes (well there is no hard coding, I've rendered 7.2 TRILLION BT hex worlds which is basically earth accurate to 100', but there are no defined limits).
The map in the upper right is a satellite view of a planet. Each pixel on that map is 12km. The map right under it is just a zoomed in version. The map below that is the same map, but showing the biomes instead of the satellite imagery. The 9 little boxes to the right determine transitions, they'll go away when I finish that code.
The big map on the left. I don't have water transitions at all yet, and my transitions between terrain types looks like crap. I need for the terrain to have little fingers that go in and out, like a puzzle, not the random scattering of both terrains where different terrain types meet up. The code isn't real optimized either. But, the overall random placement of terrrain on each region (12km is a region) is done with perlin noise, and I'm happy with the results. Each of those 9 maps that are in that 1 big window are 24 hexes across (so you can see the terrain), but in the final version they'll be 300 hexes across (I've already rendered this so it does work, but it takes a few seconds ;)). This view won't be used much, but I have to build the methods to map out an entire planet, so you can move your battalions/lances/companies/corps/etc around on the map. I'm using some megamek hexes as I simply don't have a good set of hexes to use. I need one that has all the tacops combinations, and some random variations between them to avoid patterns, but this will work for now and those can be added later. I haven't added the height code yet, but it'll be much like the existing stuff and not be too hard to implement. Algorithms really kick my butt tho so every little stupid thing takes me way longer than it would an intelligent person.
This map will allow things like persistent damage, dynamic weather, and any number of objects (buildings, destroyed units, whatever isn't terrain) on a planet to be defined and interacted with.
My MUL is now 60% complete. I've been working hard :) This is much like the official MUL, but I'll have everything about every unit, like heat sinks, weapons, armor per arc, critical slots, etc, etc. Eventually I'd like to add fluff too, but it may just be too time consuming for me. If I had the fluff added, I'd be able to print a selection of units that'd look almost exactly like the official TRO's or RSs, except hopefully without all the errors :)
I'm pretty sure this is an old blog, but it is dated recently. The whole concept of range with 250km hexes is about the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I've played hundreds of wargames, and never, ever, ever, at a scale anywhere close to that, do units have a "range". Blogs like this really make me question the ability of TPTB to produce a decent strategy game. This saddens me, as its the one thing I've been waiting for since I first read the 4th Succession War Atlases so many years ago.
Oh, and about Congress. I'm thinking I will forget it. It looks like I'll have to spend 2 full months, going house to house, to get anywhere close to 500 signatures I'll need. Without a dozen or so people to help me, there is no way I can get my name on the ballot. I thought about making a youtube video to see if it could help recruit volunteers, but I don't think people tend to like me much as I'm a bit abrasive, so maybe I should just find another way to help save my country :(
Here is a very early version of a method to map out entire worlds, accurate to single BT hexes (well there is no hard coding, I've rendered 7.2 TRILLION BT hex worlds which is basically earth accurate to 100', but there are no defined limits).
The map in the upper right is a satellite view of a planet. Each pixel on that map is 12km. The map right under it is just a zoomed in version. The map below that is the same map, but showing the biomes instead of the satellite imagery. The 9 little boxes to the right determine transitions, they'll go away when I finish that code.
The big map on the left. I don't have water transitions at all yet, and my transitions between terrain types looks like crap. I need for the terrain to have little fingers that go in and out, like a puzzle, not the random scattering of both terrains where different terrain types meet up. The code isn't real optimized either. But, the overall random placement of terrrain on each region (12km is a region) is done with perlin noise, and I'm happy with the results. Each of those 9 maps that are in that 1 big window are 24 hexes across (so you can see the terrain), but in the final version they'll be 300 hexes across (I've already rendered this so it does work, but it takes a few seconds ;)). This view won't be used much, but I have to build the methods to map out an entire planet, so you can move your battalions/lances/companies/corps/etc around on the map. I'm using some megamek hexes as I simply don't have a good set of hexes to use. I need one that has all the tacops combinations, and some random variations between them to avoid patterns, but this will work for now and those can be added later. I haven't added the height code yet, but it'll be much like the existing stuff and not be too hard to implement. Algorithms really kick my butt tho so every little stupid thing takes me way longer than it would an intelligent person.
This map will allow things like persistent damage, dynamic weather, and any number of objects (buildings, destroyed units, whatever isn't terrain) on a planet to be defined and interacted with.
My MUL is now 60% complete. I've been working hard :) This is much like the official MUL, but I'll have everything about every unit, like heat sinks, weapons, armor per arc, critical slots, etc, etc. Eventually I'd like to add fluff too, but it may just be too time consuming for me. If I had the fluff added, I'd be able to print a selection of units that'd look almost exactly like the official TRO's or RSs, except hopefully without all the errors :)
I'm pretty sure this is an old blog, but it is dated recently. The whole concept of range with 250km hexes is about the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I've played hundreds of wargames, and never, ever, ever, at a scale anywhere close to that, do units have a "range". Blogs like this really make me question the ability of TPTB to produce a decent strategy game. This saddens me, as its the one thing I've been waiting for since I first read the 4th Succession War Atlases so many years ago.
Oh, and about Congress. I'm thinking I will forget it. It looks like I'll have to spend 2 full months, going house to house, to get anywhere close to 500 signatures I'll need. Without a dozen or so people to help me, there is no way I can get my name on the ballot. I thought about making a youtube video to see if it could help recruit volunteers, but I don't think people tend to like me much as I'm a bit abrasive, so maybe I should just find another way to help save my country :(
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Mid-Month Update
Since I've been happily unemployed the last month or so I've been able to dedicate a lot more time to some pet projects (My wife and I were smart enough to ensure we could live off only the lowest salary, so no rush in that job search).
So here is what I've been working on, BT wise:
So here is what I've been working on, BT wise:
- I started working on an intermediate version of BT, something between QS and BT. Then, sitting there going over notes I made years ago on such a system, I said "wtf am I doing? Computers are the future..." and dumped it.
- I have been working on my own MUL for a while. I went through every single product, wrote down every single unit and every product it was in (not just the latest). I finished that a while back, and started adding in all the data needed to construct those units (so no fluffy stuff like capabilities or manufacturers). It is now 34% complete (27 MAR update, 47%). I am saving dropships, space stations, and warships for last since they have wacky weapon bays, and those represent about 4%. I've finished all battle armor, aerospace fighters, conventional fighters, infantry platoons, and many conventional vehicles. I've also done quite a few mechs, but as my percentage says, I still have 2/3rds to complete. This is basically like the MUL, but it'll actually have details of what every mech has, and eventually you'll be able to select say 50 mechs, and print a TRO, that comes out just like the TROs printed by CGL. I'm not 100% sure this will be available to everybody though, as I don't want to take away from CGL sales. Perhaps they'll let me link to them so if you buy a PDF version of a product, you get a login. Anyway this is a major focus.
- I started going through to write a quick aerospace fighter game. Real time, control a fighter and fight it out online against others. There are 2 things that stalled this. #1 was designing an interface, I made one up, but I think it looks like crap, see for yourself:
The other thing that stalled it was the way I was coding it. Basically any future thing like this I'll be doing in DirectX. I currently have an engine that allows me to recreate a dynamic control (I completely redid the Dawn of War 2 interface in DX to test it) and have a large chunk of work done in a sprite editor. Most of the stuff on this page works (not the blinky lights or animations yet, and some other controls need some tweaks), but have a looksie:
That is a Behemoth tank from MegaMek, with a separately skinned turret (I need to split the smaller turrets too, but oh well). I'll need a lot of graphics like this in order to make a real time game, and I simply don't have the talent for graphics. Volunteers feel free to apply :) I need to finish this editor before I can move on to other parts of code, like networking, particles, and the landscape engine. Also, this is a DIRECTX render of the tank, not some GDI thing, its actually a sprite rendering engine I wrote for DirectX in vb.net. However VB.NET support, and even C# without using XNA, is pretty scarce online with DX, so I am not real sure I can complete it with all the bells and whistles.
- I worked a bit on a method to map out an entire planet using the smallest amount of drive space as possible. I think I got it down to a reasonable size, but then I hit a major snag. Basically I need a method of dynamic terrain generation for a world (right now I use Fractal Terrains), and dynamic terrain generation for 10km regions on that planet, with transitions between regions and some uniqueness. Fractal world creators are all quite lacking IMO, and none produce very realistic results in many cases. I started tinkering with the idea on "how to generate a world" with my poor math skills, but can't get any further because of those skills. Basically, here is how to generate a world:
- Create some polygons on a planet with fractally inspired lines (but still pretty linear). Essentially these become your "plates".
- Determine how these plates interact. Basically they can be grinding against each other, separating, or closing.
- Plates pushing together form a mountain, pulling apart a ridge and valley, grinding a bit of both.
- Then, based on the movement of the plates against each other, move them for millions of years. As they move, determine wind (based on planet rotation rate, temperature, and axial tilt) erosion based on the soil type (stuff that was once an ocean erodes fast, rock up from the bottom doesn't) and also calculate rainfall and water erosion (and rivers/lakes).
- Volcanoes typically form where plates are together, but could randomly form anywhere. They can change terrain dramatically.
- Add some random big meteor strikes, they make big holes
- Depending on temperature, occasionally have some glaciers that simply move down from the top of map, eroding the soil like wind/water.
- I think this would all work, but I'm too stupid to figure out how to code it :(
- I am finding a LOT of errata going through books entering in units. Obviously CGL needs some automation on designing/printing units.. I'd help them, but they don't ask :)
Thanks for reading and the comments (and private emails)!
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
March's Ramblings
Been out of a job an entire month now, sure doesn't seem like it, and I haven't been nearly as productive (non-bt wise anyway) as I would have liked, I think waiting for my severance and all the cash sent my job not really have "closure" for a few weeks. Its wacky working somewhere 7 years and not being there anymore. I've never even lived anywhere over 2 years before, so for me it was, well, weird. However, its quite nice to have time to do things, and not always feel stressed. I highly recommend not working if you can get away with it ;)
Ok, onto Battletech!
First I'd like to say thank you VERY much to CGL for producing the Liberation of Terra historical. I am *SO* much more interested in 2500-3025 than I am 3075+, and the book is pretty darned good. I would have liked a few more #s (like how many of what kinda SDS per system, and a breakdown of all the divisions, all that detail stuff) but its a great purchase! I also bought the 2 hard cardstock things, just to support them, as I haven't played in a long time and doubt I will anytime soon.
I made a HUGE amount of changes to the MUL_QS thing, its really a finished application now. I do plan on one more update I think, and that'll be reading in data from a CSV so you can make your own BF/QS stats. I was thinking of using the SSW BF file, with a column added for image location and skills.
I spent a lot of the last few days helping out the upcoming fan produced TRO3063 over at Battletech Reader which is coming along nicely, and I think a lot of you will enjoy. But it gave me some ideas.
Idea #1: Using a list of SSW files (or whatever format I eventually go with, probably my own), create your own TRO. This would take all the fluff/images and stuff from design software, and create a PDF that reads like any modern TRO. Same thing with a record sheet file. If I could produce something like that, CGL could make new TROs and RS's with a lot less errors a lot easier.... *IF* they used it.
Idea #2. A Reunification War board game. I played with this earlier, made a map and some counters, but just didn't have enough detail to finish it out. I started doing the same thing with a Liberation of Terra game, basically a map, maybe 3' x 3', that lets you use 1 counter per division (or maybe corps) and slug out the battle towards Terra. I decided I'd wait until the next volume to pursue it further.
Idea #3. A real time version of battletech, with a top down view, utilizing megamek style icons with camo applied. You would control 1 unit (perhaps more later), initially just 3039 units and basic rules. I actually wrote up a system that allocated damage and criticals to mechs using megamek data files. It worked great, then project creep set in, and I got off track. I eventually decided to just have tanks for now, as the rules are far simpler (loading up all the crits on mechs was an issue, split criticals, artemis, multiple slot items, it all just got annoying), and could have something pretty soon. This leads to #4.
Idea #4. For *years* I have wanted a fully blown game of BT. By fully blown I mean you control every single lance (or just the regiments if desired) for an entire house, and battle it out. If we had 100% data on units, production numbers, planets, etc, I would have finished this years ago, but since I never wanted to fill in the blanks with my own stuff, it always stalled. Stupid reason, but it wasn't like I had a deadline. Anyway, based on #3 I decide I *had* to have a map system to go further. I designed this map system years ago, so I could map out an entire planet in 32mb or less, with single hex accuracy and persistency. So I finally wrote it, and its working. My 10km "regional" maps are all pretty darned boring, but the whole system works, and though all terrain will be flat with only trees and rough, I think I may start moving forward with a real time game based on this. This means with a mech moving 12 MP per turn, it will take you nearly 2 weeks of *REAL* time to run around the entire world. Yes, its *that* big, and honestly I have no idea why games aren't all that big, technology has been here to do it for years.
And the bad news. I talked with the Secretary of State today, and apparently I processed my paperwork correctly, so I can indeed be a US Congressional Candidate (District 32, Texas) in 2012. I was hoping I messed it up, as I do NOT want that job, but feel it is my duty to do it until somebody who gives a crap about their constituents steps up and lets me forget about it. And this year for Texas elections are wacky, we had some redistricting that went to court, and tinkered with our election cycle and areas. As I refuse to run as an idiotic republican, an idiot democrat, or any of the other crappy parties, I am running independent. This means I need 500 signatures to get my name on the ballot. Normally I get 30 days or so to do that after the primaries, but this year I get like 3 months! Woot! So I need to knock out my website, some various flyers/cards/signs, and start going door to door. Hopefully people will want to help with their time, as I refused to accept any monetary donations from anyone, as people may have a different amount of money, but everybody has 24 hours in a day. Anyway, back to BT, assuming you read past this, most people *hate* talking about politics, even though its their own lives that suffer when they ignore it.
So I'm staying focused on this project this time. This last BT project I actually named "DoItOrForgetIt". If I don't finish this, or start to stray, I'll give up on it. It has been nearly 10 years since my first thoughts of it, and without progress I can call it a dream and move on.
There are a few parts of this last project:
Part #1. A designer for every type of unit in the universe. The interface is by far, the hardest part of this, and the one that has caused me the most headache. However I'm about 30% on my way to finishing it.
Part #2. A system to map out and fight on up to an entire planet. Though I don't have random 10km regional maps like I'd like, what I do have no will work good enough to continue.
Part #3. Data entry. I need everything in the universe put into a computer format. I have a *LOT* of this done already, and can fill in the blanks with random stuff if absolutely necessary.
Part #4. A stellar interface. This is much like my Cartographer was, but with more game functionality. This will be the core part of the game system. I've written 90% of it once, so doing it again (my code wasn't real efficient, and I want directx in the next version) shouldn't be a problem
Part #5. Automated battle system. This will scale from you controlling a single trooper on the battlefield, up to launching a full 8 RCT's against Tikonov with just a few mouse clicks. The level of detailed desired is configurable.
So, I'm off to work on #2 and #5, those will be my focus for a short time, followed by going back to #1, adn lastly #4 and #5.
If *anybody* can help me out with 10km tileable map generation I *really* could use the help. My maps will suck horribly until I get some, as I just can't seem to get a decent grasp on how to create it.
Oh, and I have a stack of battletech and starfleet battles books if anybody wants them, I put an add on craigslist but haven't gotten any hits. Pay for shipping and $10 for my time and *all* of it is yours. Its a stack of books like 15" tall, not sure what that'll cost to ship. If your local (DFW) and want to stop by its yours for free.
Ok, onto Battletech!
First I'd like to say thank you VERY much to CGL for producing the Liberation of Terra historical. I am *SO* much more interested in 2500-3025 than I am 3075+, and the book is pretty darned good. I would have liked a few more #s (like how many of what kinda SDS per system, and a breakdown of all the divisions, all that detail stuff) but its a great purchase! I also bought the 2 hard cardstock things, just to support them, as I haven't played in a long time and doubt I will anytime soon.
I made a HUGE amount of changes to the MUL_QS thing, its really a finished application now. I do plan on one more update I think, and that'll be reading in data from a CSV so you can make your own BF/QS stats. I was thinking of using the SSW BF file, with a column added for image location and skills.
I spent a lot of the last few days helping out the upcoming fan produced TRO3063 over at Battletech Reader which is coming along nicely, and I think a lot of you will enjoy. But it gave me some ideas.
Idea #1: Using a list of SSW files (or whatever format I eventually go with, probably my own), create your own TRO. This would take all the fluff/images and stuff from design software, and create a PDF that reads like any modern TRO. Same thing with a record sheet file. If I could produce something like that, CGL could make new TROs and RS's with a lot less errors a lot easier.... *IF* they used it.
Idea #2. A Reunification War board game. I played with this earlier, made a map and some counters, but just didn't have enough detail to finish it out. I started doing the same thing with a Liberation of Terra game, basically a map, maybe 3' x 3', that lets you use 1 counter per division (or maybe corps) and slug out the battle towards Terra. I decided I'd wait until the next volume to pursue it further.
Idea #3. A real time version of battletech, with a top down view, utilizing megamek style icons with camo applied. You would control 1 unit (perhaps more later), initially just 3039 units and basic rules. I actually wrote up a system that allocated damage and criticals to mechs using megamek data files. It worked great, then project creep set in, and I got off track. I eventually decided to just have tanks for now, as the rules are far simpler (loading up all the crits on mechs was an issue, split criticals, artemis, multiple slot items, it all just got annoying), and could have something pretty soon. This leads to #4.
Idea #4. For *years* I have wanted a fully blown game of BT. By fully blown I mean you control every single lance (or just the regiments if desired) for an entire house, and battle it out. If we had 100% data on units, production numbers, planets, etc, I would have finished this years ago, but since I never wanted to fill in the blanks with my own stuff, it always stalled. Stupid reason, but it wasn't like I had a deadline. Anyway, based on #3 I decide I *had* to have a map system to go further. I designed this map system years ago, so I could map out an entire planet in 32mb or less, with single hex accuracy and persistency. So I finally wrote it, and its working. My 10km "regional" maps are all pretty darned boring, but the whole system works, and though all terrain will be flat with only trees and rough, I think I may start moving forward with a real time game based on this. This means with a mech moving 12 MP per turn, it will take you nearly 2 weeks of *REAL* time to run around the entire world. Yes, its *that* big, and honestly I have no idea why games aren't all that big, technology has been here to do it for years.
And the bad news. I talked with the Secretary of State today, and apparently I processed my paperwork correctly, so I can indeed be a US Congressional Candidate (District 32, Texas) in 2012. I was hoping I messed it up, as I do NOT want that job, but feel it is my duty to do it until somebody who gives a crap about their constituents steps up and lets me forget about it. And this year for Texas elections are wacky, we had some redistricting that went to court, and tinkered with our election cycle and areas. As I refuse to run as an idiotic republican, an idiot democrat, or any of the other crappy parties, I am running independent. This means I need 500 signatures to get my name on the ballot. Normally I get 30 days or so to do that after the primaries, but this year I get like 3 months! Woot! So I need to knock out my website, some various flyers/cards/signs, and start going door to door. Hopefully people will want to help with their time, as I refused to accept any monetary donations from anyone, as people may have a different amount of money, but everybody has 24 hours in a day. Anyway, back to BT, assuming you read past this, most people *hate* talking about politics, even though its their own lives that suffer when they ignore it.
So I'm staying focused on this project this time. This last BT project I actually named "DoItOrForgetIt". If I don't finish this, or start to stray, I'll give up on it. It has been nearly 10 years since my first thoughts of it, and without progress I can call it a dream and move on.
There are a few parts of this last project:
Part #1. A designer for every type of unit in the universe. The interface is by far, the hardest part of this, and the one that has caused me the most headache. However I'm about 30% on my way to finishing it.
Part #2. A system to map out and fight on up to an entire planet. Though I don't have random 10km regional maps like I'd like, what I do have no will work good enough to continue.
Part #3. Data entry. I need everything in the universe put into a computer format. I have a *LOT* of this done already, and can fill in the blanks with random stuff if absolutely necessary.
Part #4. A stellar interface. This is much like my Cartographer was, but with more game functionality. This will be the core part of the game system. I've written 90% of it once, so doing it again (my code wasn't real efficient, and I want directx in the next version) shouldn't be a problem
Part #5. Automated battle system. This will scale from you controlling a single trooper on the battlefield, up to launching a full 8 RCT's against Tikonov with just a few mouse clicks. The level of detailed desired is configurable.
So, I'm off to work on #2 and #5, those will be my focus for a short time, followed by going back to #1, adn lastly #4 and #5.
If *anybody* can help me out with 10km tileable map generation I *really* could use the help. My maps will suck horribly until I get some, as I just can't seem to get a decent grasp on how to create it.
Oh, and I have a stack of battletech and starfleet battles books if anybody wants them, I put an add on craigslist but haven't gotten any hits. Pay for shipping and $10 for my time and *all* of it is yours. Its a stack of books like 15" tall, not sure what that'll cost to ship. If your local (DFW) and want to stop by its yours for free.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Feburary's Blabbering
My company was nice enough to "eliminate my position" this last week, but with a nice severance, my vacation, and last years bonus I don't really have to work anymore... ever (my wife has a great job). While I don't want to waste all my time doing BT stuff, I am going to waste some of it :)
Today I spent a couple hours tinkering with the quick strike cards. I had recently "re-ripped" the entire MUL site to get some data for another project, and many of the MUL units had QS/BF2 data (lots of errata needed though). So I basically wrote up a quick app that uses that data I downloaded, and then lets you scroll through what is essentially the MUL, but in a quick strike card format instead of a web format. You can copy the cards but I didn't write in any printer functionality, copy them to word or something if you want them printed. I have included just about everything from the MUL as well, and it'll even attempt to download the images (which are saved locally in a cache) too!
This program lacks any polish, but it is a single EXE that requires the .NET 4.0 Redistributable (google can find it for you). Actually, if you don't have that installed you really need to go to update.microsoft.com or your control panel and run *all* the MSFT updates... if you get something bad chances are it was from an exploit that was recently patched.
Anyway, back to the app. If this gets popular for some reason, I can do a lot more with it. I can add print support, force creating, a list to more quickly find units, allow you to have your own skins and define where the variables are printed (font, x, y, size, etc). There are some *really* nice color ones people have done, but they weren't canon so I didn't add them, but the code can support it easy enough. Also, somebody is doing some mod that I've seen that has pilots and some stats by each card, that also could be easily supported. I can also support using a text input file for all the variables and stuff, so you can quickly print out your company or whatever for each week in a campaign game.
Also, MANY units will simply not work on the canon QS cards, period. Just try to put a dropship, large templated naval vehicle, warship, etc on them, it just doesn't work. IMO they need a more standard format that can simply be extended vertically (or horizontally) for units with a lot more data. Oh, and if you know what font I need let me know... I tried Eurostile but it didn't look right, so I just fell back to Verdana which was ok. Link is http://goodsects.gotdns.com/MUL_QS.zip
Other BT stuff I've been working on:
- My encyclopedia of all units in the universe seems to be a never ending task. I started pulling MUL stuff, which is why I eventually ripped the site, but found a *huge* number of errors and just gave up on the whole thing for a while.
- I went through a bunch of production data from the new objective books. While I like the books, I do wish they listed some hard numbers... not like we don't have hard #s on mech regiments, not sure why production numbers are such a big deal. I did come up with some numbers that are a guestimates from published figures:
- For each ONE mech regiment, there are:
- I took a look at ripping/linking to the sarna.net site for various information, but inconsistent URLs killed the idea pretty quick.
- I took a new look at cartographer, the amount settings are getting crazy, as well as the amount of stuff I was having to generate/render each loop. I may look at starting it over again, using DirectX and caching a lot more data to help performance. All of the settings will be in a text file and easily editable, plus you can save multiple ones. I'll be sure to have a lot more support for things like waves of a war, units, factories, changing system ownership, system stats, moving units around, etc, etc. A complete rewrite though, which isn't as bad as it sounds (its only a few thousand lines of code).
- And for those of you who read this far, a special announcement. One of the dependencies I have for a game, and many other BT things, is a freaking editor for stuff. I need to know how much stuff costs, ensure all the designs are valid, programatically do damage and repairs, and many other things. Well We have a couple mech editors out there, all of which aren't very versatile and extremely fixed. There are no designers for thing like buildings, mobile structures, support vehicles, etc. I'm a big fan of object oriented stuff, basically keeping a project into very set and fixed blocks that inter communicate only when necessary. I have a huge excel file of all the equipment in BT, basically a compilation of every table in the 5 core rule books, plus all the additional rules scattered everywhere for stuff like retrotech and superheavy mechs. I am writing an editor that dynamically looks at all of this data, and lets you use a single interface to build *anything* in the universe (well except infantry platoons, which may be added later, and RPG stuff which will probably never be in there as thats another project). Right now I can get to the point of choosing equipment, but it isn't a real fast interface. Changing a mech from 10 to 15 tons may involve tens of thousands of loops through lots of text. I have some thoughts to speed it up, so it'll get better. This application will never be beautiful or well designed, but what it will be is versatile and dynamic. If TPTB add a new piece of equipment in a new book it'll be easy for anybody, no coding involved, to add it to the system. The ONE *major* issue with this program is errata. There are multiple printings of each rule book, errata and questions scattered all over the place, and a large number of inconsistencies, missing data, and outright errors on those tables that haven't been resolved. I have the descrepancies flagged, but TPTB haven't been very kind in answering them.... in fact, they usually just ignore them, and I know they need this application as much as or more than everybody else to make new products and print out a freaking record sheet book or XTRO without a bunch of typos.
If anybody wants to help with the designer, scouring the forums and errata for the latest and correct answers I could use the help, and you can have access to the application... well, now :)
I do plan on an RPG designer using a very modular system too, but simply haven't wanted to type up every single career path everywhere.... if somebody wants to do it I'll write the software around it ;)
Some pictures of various things I've worked on, cuz everybody likes em:
Today I spent a couple hours tinkering with the quick strike cards. I had recently "re-ripped" the entire MUL site to get some data for another project, and many of the MUL units had QS/BF2 data (lots of errata needed though). So I basically wrote up a quick app that uses that data I downloaded, and then lets you scroll through what is essentially the MUL, but in a quick strike card format instead of a web format. You can copy the cards but I didn't write in any printer functionality, copy them to word or something if you want them printed. I have included just about everything from the MUL as well, and it'll even attempt to download the images (which are saved locally in a cache) too!
This program lacks any polish, but it is a single EXE that requires the .NET 4.0 Redistributable (google can find it for you). Actually, if you don't have that installed you really need to go to update.microsoft.com or your control panel and run *all* the MSFT updates... if you get something bad chances are it was from an exploit that was recently patched.
Anyway, back to the app. If this gets popular for some reason, I can do a lot more with it. I can add print support, force creating, a list to more quickly find units, allow you to have your own skins and define where the variables are printed (font, x, y, size, etc). There are some *really* nice color ones people have done, but they weren't canon so I didn't add them, but the code can support it easy enough. Also, somebody is doing some mod that I've seen that has pilots and some stats by each card, that also could be easily supported. I can also support using a text input file for all the variables and stuff, so you can quickly print out your company or whatever for each week in a campaign game.
Also, MANY units will simply not work on the canon QS cards, period. Just try to put a dropship, large templated naval vehicle, warship, etc on them, it just doesn't work. IMO they need a more standard format that can simply be extended vertically (or horizontally) for units with a lot more data. Oh, and if you know what font I need let me know... I tried Eurostile but it didn't look right, so I just fell back to Verdana which was ok. Link is http://goodsects.gotdns.com/MUL_QS.zip
Other BT stuff I've been working on:
- My encyclopedia of all units in the universe seems to be a never ending task. I started pulling MUL stuff, which is why I eventually ripped the site, but found a *huge* number of errors and just gave up on the whole thing for a while.
- I went through a bunch of production data from the new objective books. While I like the books, I do wish they listed some hard numbers... not like we don't have hard #s on mech regiments, not sure why production numbers are such a big deal. I did come up with some numbers that are a guestimates from published figures:
- 8 mechs are produced per regiment in service per year
- Fighter production is 2/3rds mech production
- I'm betting vehicle production is 2x mech production
- 1 Dropship per year per about 666 dropships in service
- 1 Jumpship per year per about 180 jumpships in service
- For each ONE mech regiment, there are:
- 2 Tank Regiments (Roughly 25% are militia)
- 10 Infantry Regiments (Roughly 40% are militia)
- 2 Special service battalions (Artillery, Psyops, Specops, etc)
- 1.5 Aerospace Wings, typically 1.0 is with each mech regiment
- 5 Jumpships (Roughly 50% are civilian)
- 64 Dropships (Roughly 50% are civilian)
- Roughly 1 Warship, when any exist
- Defense (Defensive BV)
- Repair Cost (Tons of armor on unit)
- Energy Attack (Offensive BV, when all ammo consuming weapons removed)
- Support Attack (Offensive BV with just LRMs/Artillery)
- Support Attack Supply Consumption (Tons of supplies needed for Support Attack)
- Standard Attack (Offensive BV with no support weapons)
- Standard Attack Supply Consumption (Tons of supplies needed for Standard Attack)
- Assault Attack (Full offensive BV, uses Support+Standard supply)
- Movement rate (not 100% sure this is useful, Defensive BV takes it into account)
- Cost (as production lines are rated by cost, a line must have this capacity to produce this unit)
- I took a look at ripping/linking to the sarna.net site for various information, but inconsistent URLs killed the idea pretty quick.
- I took a new look at cartographer, the amount settings are getting crazy, as well as the amount of stuff I was having to generate/render each loop. I may look at starting it over again, using DirectX and caching a lot more data to help performance. All of the settings will be in a text file and easily editable, plus you can save multiple ones. I'll be sure to have a lot more support for things like waves of a war, units, factories, changing system ownership, system stats, moving units around, etc, etc. A complete rewrite though, which isn't as bad as it sounds (its only a few thousand lines of code).
- And for those of you who read this far, a special announcement. One of the dependencies I have for a game, and many other BT things, is a freaking editor for stuff. I need to know how much stuff costs, ensure all the designs are valid, programatically do damage and repairs, and many other things. Well We have a couple mech editors out there, all of which aren't very versatile and extremely fixed. There are no designers for thing like buildings, mobile structures, support vehicles, etc. I'm a big fan of object oriented stuff, basically keeping a project into very set and fixed blocks that inter communicate only when necessary. I have a huge excel file of all the equipment in BT, basically a compilation of every table in the 5 core rule books, plus all the additional rules scattered everywhere for stuff like retrotech and superheavy mechs. I am writing an editor that dynamically looks at all of this data, and lets you use a single interface to build *anything* in the universe (well except infantry platoons, which may be added later, and RPG stuff which will probably never be in there as thats another project). Right now I can get to the point of choosing equipment, but it isn't a real fast interface. Changing a mech from 10 to 15 tons may involve tens of thousands of loops through lots of text. I have some thoughts to speed it up, so it'll get better. This application will never be beautiful or well designed, but what it will be is versatile and dynamic. If TPTB add a new piece of equipment in a new book it'll be easy for anybody, no coding involved, to add it to the system. The ONE *major* issue with this program is errata. There are multiple printings of each rule book, errata and questions scattered all over the place, and a large number of inconsistencies, missing data, and outright errors on those tables that haven't been resolved. I have the descrepancies flagged, but TPTB haven't been very kind in answering them.... in fact, they usually just ignore them, and I know they need this application as much as or more than everybody else to make new products and print out a freaking record sheet book or XTRO without a bunch of typos.
If anybody wants to help with the designer, scouring the forums and errata for the latest and correct answers I could use the help, and you can have access to the application... well, now :)
I do plan on an RPG designer using a very modular system too, but simply haven't wanted to type up every single career path everywhere.... if somebody wants to do it I'll write the software around it ;)
Some pictures of various things I've worked on, cuz everybody likes em:
Using a single counter for all BF2 or QS stats:
The unit builder:
A little app I wrote to make MegaMek+Camo units
A 50% done app that makes icons
A random unit generator using SO rules
Another 1 mech = 1 counter idea
A thought for an icon for a large scale strategic BT game, showing a whole regiment on a screen at once if necesary
Just PART of a big excel worksheet I have showing sales of ships. Not sure how that Behemoth is gunna hook up to a scout....
My idea for "Intertech", a hybrid between QS and BT (made long before QS). Basically getting rid of record sheets, but mechs still play uniquely.
Another 1 company = 1 counter thing, eridani light horse was below it.
A quick strike idea, with more blanks for units that have IF 1, TUR 1/1, AC 1/1, LRM 1/1, SRM 1/1, FLK 1/1, etc, etc... Ammo could be tracked too
Yet another QS style idea, far more detail on the page
1 counter = 1 company, this was the latest counters I was referring to above
A much older idea for 1 counter = 1 regiment
This is a map I made a long time ago, I think it was 1 hex per 30 LY, and the X's are production factories. Plotters are great :) I even had all the counters for the 4th succession war and could slug it out! I don't have a pic, but I have a large posterboard with the same map in 1 hex = 7.5 LY, allowing jumpships to move 4... its not in color but it lets me fight out the 4th SW in significant detail.
This is a small tactical map I made for running campaigns at my kinda local gaming store. It gave a small planet, with every kind of terrain, every kind of weather, and would allow a pretty simple campaign game to be fought out... I think it had a page of rules, but that was too much apparently and it was never used.
I welcome any comments and questions!
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Never say never!
Well never say never I guess. Due to popular demand, and FM 3085 having *full* data for the whole IS in a single year (first, time EVER in the BTU), I'm slightly back into it.
The files are back online, but are probably out of date, get a newer version here:
http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=9578.new;topicseen#new
Cartographer is another story. I put together a quick DirectX version that ran *really* fast, but it'll require less than crap hardware to run. While normally I'd try to avoid that, I noticed that with a lot of eras and grids loaded cartographer was using nearly 2GB of ram anyway, so maybe I'm aiming for too low of a common denominator.
I have been tinkering with a design system. Something that lets you, within a SINGLE application, and a SINGLE interface, design the following unit types:
BattleMechs (including superheavy)
IndustrialMechs (including superheavy)
ProtoMechs (including ultraheavy)
Battle Armor
Combat Vehicles
Support Vehicles (including very large ones)
Conventional and Aerospace Fighters
Small Craft
Dropships
Jumpships
Warships
Space Stations
Mobile Structures
Buildings
What it doesn't have is infantry platoons and RPG characters. I *might* be able to have infantry platoons later, but the RPG stuff will never fall within this application.
This program will be highly dynamic and object oriented. It'll be versatile, so when new rules come out anybody can add them. Hardly anything is hard-coded. It won't be the fastest thing as there is a LOT of enumerating through 2000+ pieces of equipment and 200+ different chassis configurations, but it should work for *everything*, which is something we've never had before. Not sure if I'll finish it, I do have a congressional campaign that *should* be using up all my time (if only I really wanted to win, instead of feeling compelled to run) so no guarantees on anything.
I may post some succession wars ideas here soon, for posterity reasons just in case I can never finish my projects based on that.
The files are back online, but are probably out of date, get a newer version here:
http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=9578.new;topicseen#new
Cartographer is another story. I put together a quick DirectX version that ran *really* fast, but it'll require less than crap hardware to run. While normally I'd try to avoid that, I noticed that with a lot of eras and grids loaded cartographer was using nearly 2GB of ram anyway, so maybe I'm aiming for too low of a common denominator.
I have been tinkering with a design system. Something that lets you, within a SINGLE application, and a SINGLE interface, design the following unit types:
BattleMechs (including superheavy)
IndustrialMechs (including superheavy)
ProtoMechs (including ultraheavy)
Battle Armor
Combat Vehicles
Support Vehicles (including very large ones)
Conventional and Aerospace Fighters
Small Craft
Dropships
Jumpships
Warships
Space Stations
Mobile Structures
Buildings
What it doesn't have is infantry platoons and RPG characters. I *might* be able to have infantry platoons later, but the RPG stuff will never fall within this application.
This program will be highly dynamic and object oriented. It'll be versatile, so when new rules come out anybody can add them. Hardly anything is hard-coded. It won't be the fastest thing as there is a LOT of enumerating through 2000+ pieces of equipment and 200+ different chassis configurations, but it should work for *everything*, which is something we've never had before. Not sure if I'll finish it, I do have a congressional campaign that *should* be using up all my time (if only I really wanted to win, instead of feeling compelled to run) so no guarantees on anything.
I may post some succession wars ideas here soon, for posterity reasons just in case I can never finish my projects based on that.
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