A little sneak peak

I've mentioned before that I think it'd be cool to recolor mechs.  I mentioned it on the forums and nobody seemed interested, but I was, so I did it anyway.


So here is the process.  Take an image, spend 5 minutes in paint.net (or whatever app you want) with the magic wand.  Select the regions you want to have different colors, and change their color from white (RGB 255,255,255) to 254/253/252.  With a new update to my site coming soon, you'll be able to select your 3 colors.  Then, the mechs on your record sheets will be recolored when your record sheet is generated!  So basically, if you print out your force, everybody will know it was yours and your mechs will have a common paint scheme!  Cool huh?  Well *I* thought so.  I took a Deimos from TRO 3085 Supplementel (as it was a nice clean graphic and a great drawing), spent 5 minutes in paint.net, then I can recolor it instantly in milliseconds.  Take a look at how bad my color schemes can be.

I'll be able to draw a unit logo on them pretty soon as well, which you define a position *and* size, so it can be skewed if it should be drawn at an angle on the unit.

UPDATE:  Here is one with a camo applied instead of the colors, they don't seem to look too good with colors *and* camos, and in fact very few camo's look good (they are meant for top-down, most mechs are a perspective and would need "new" camo's)

Star League Colors:

MAJOR updates coming soon, feedback is appreciated!

Battletech Encyclopedia (Formerly Master Unit List) Updates

The  Battletech Encyclopedia , my version of the MasterUnitList, is chugging along.  At this point I have over 99% image coverage (buildings/infantry are the only empty ones), and all stats are synched up with the official MasterUnitList (really only the years, as the official MasterUnitList is horribly inaccurate in every other way).  I didn't copy over any of the faction users, as there are just too many errors, and the official MasterUnitList is only looking at the Jihad anyway (under 10 units have any data for any other eras).


There are still lots of little issues, and your just as likely to see an incorrect mech record sheet as a correct one, but I'm working through bugs.


It'd be helpful if somebody posted a couple links to my site on the BT forums, as apparently that is where nearly all my traffic was coming from (google too, but I think most people found me through images there)


I do still have hexes for armor points on mechs, I think they work ok (I do hope to center them a bit better in the future) and set my record sheets apart from any canon produced ones.  I can change it to circles easy enough, and will if enough people complain, but at this point nobody has said either way how they feel about them.


I update the Battletech Encyclopedia page often multiple times a day, so it is a much more constant stream of news and what I'm working on.


I have no idea why I'm still doing so much of this, perhaps because I spent a HUGE amount of time getting to the point where I got the axe, and didn't want that effort to be for nothing.


I will say that even though my version isn't as pretty as the canon MasterUnitList, it is more accurate, and far more complete, and at least sometimes right now lets you see mech record sheets.  So if you aren't building a force, my data is far more useful than the canon MasterUnitList.  


I will have an equipment version up soon, the app is using it, the database built, and I plan on linking all the equipment on TROs to their appropriate pages.  Basically, all the behind the scenes code is complete, I just need the presentation layer.


I am thinking about making an "Issues" page, that queries the database for all units/equipment with issues until they get resolved from official errata.  I couldn't tell you how many times I've submitted errata to not see it make it into an updated product (hell just look at the latest WOR supplemental update to see all the screwed up record sheets) or how many times errata is just forgotten or lost.  So basically I'll keep track of it on here.  I don't care about grammer, just data, so it should be easier to read and deal with than the silly forums over at Battletech, The Board Game, plus, I will actually keep it updated a LOT more than TPTB there do.  They are obviously too busy being ass-hat moderators to care about product accuracy.


Here is the latest tidbit on my Battletech Encyclopedia page


Currently Known Issues:
 - Text for mechs isn't pretty, its a high priority fix
 - Items with split locations don't show up at all
 - Some items, like a retractable blade, should have a different crit description for slot #1
 - Items like hatchets and swords, that get criticals from their weight, aren't displayed yet
 - I have no support for Frankenmechs with different tech bases for each structure type yet, same with patchwork armor (I don't think there is any canon unit that does either of these)
 - No support yet for multiple images
 - I've only tinkered with battle armor and mechs, everything else is "raw" and unformatted, and BA/BM/IM aren't done yet
 - I could have typos anywhere, let me know if you see any and I'll fix em quickly


Planned:
 - Support for Quad record sheets, easy to implement, just not very fun :)
 - Ability for you to submit a change online for any typos you ever encounter
 - Better formatted TRO like text for all unit types
 - Construction validation (this has the side effect of letting you design a unit online, and validate its legality) for all units
   - Cost, BV1, years available/extinct/etc, tech ratings, and availabilities will all be determined
 - QS/BF stats and QS/BF cards.  I already did this with a QS program, so its just a matter of copy/pasting the code into the website.
 - Go through all books and add all images to units, and add support for which one you want to print
 - Add megamek icon with your preferred camo scheme on the initial search list
 - Add LOTS more features to the search page, and the resulting table (BF/QS data will be added pretty soon on the resulting search page)
 - Pretty it all up a bit, just need to find a few good stylesheets...
 - Add color coatings to units.  Basically the B&W images will have maybe 2-4 images and a spot for a logo, and based on your settings, it can color those images when you look at them automatically
 - Add all fluff and manufacturing data, which is all searchable.  Also, the manufacturing still will allow a production map so you can see where all the parts from units come from
   - Side affect will be a method, based on where parts come from and final assembly location, a dynamic way of determining what factions have what units
 - Unit combat simulator.  Pick 2 units, pick a range, and the two will slug it out until one dies, multiple times, to let you know which is "better", more features will eventually be added
 - Save to Megamek, SSW, HMP, etc
 - "Export PDF" option, that basically takes a known published book, and creates a PDF with all those units in typical TRO format, optionally with record sheets within or at the end of the PDF.
 - Ability for you to upload your own designs, that can be selected as an option when doing searches (by default they will always be off however)


 Ideas:
 - A system that lets you use this site to track your mech stats in game, even against an opponent
   - You can select weapons your firing, and the modifiers to hit, and it'll do everything else
   - All players can see their own mechs, or a limited view of their opponents mechs, without any paper or pencils required!
   - Stats can be saved and resumed later
   - If mapsheets are used, it would be possible to use this for double blind, and it'll let you know when you put a unit on the table
   - The system can tell you BV at any given time, calculate repairs between games, etc, etc


Over on the BT forums, notably this one, there were some good comments I thought on improving Quickstrike/Battleforce.  I'll implement some of these following rules as options when you generate QS/BF stats:
- Attacks are divided by 5 and rounded normally, not 10 and rounded up
- Armor is divided by 15, not 30
- Range brackets will be 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, for +0/+2/+3/+4/+5/+6, each is still 90m.
- I'll have the option to generate energy only, and with ammunition (along with the # of turns it can be sustained) attack factors, not just 1 generic one.
- I'll give the option to calculate "best possible", which determines the best possible attack for each range band with available heat sinks, instead of the methods already given.  This will be much more accurate to BT.
- I was thinking of doing something special with XL/XXL/Light/etc engines.  Instead of reducing structure points, add a critical for them if they exist, and adding an ability like "XL", "LE", or "XXL" to the units.
- Instead of doing all damage from left to right, what about rolling 1d6 and starting that many points in?  Perhaps a minimum armor equal to size class can be avoided (so an assault mech always has at least 4 armor, a light 1).  This would replace "head criticals", and often result in dead units with a few points of armor remaining.  I need to think about how to do it more, but just think how often a mech dies with an untouched leg or quite a bit of armor remaining.
- Now in BF you have stats for 4 elements in a lance, I am going to create the ability to average all that out into a single statistic, allowing an entire company to be represented by 1 "element" (which is really a lance).  I'll do the same thing for a battalion, where each "element" is a company.  Computers are awesome for stuff like this ;)
- It wouldn't be too hard to write a computer based version of quick strike or battleforce.


On to an unrelated topic, the Ogre Kickstarter project is now over $420K with 8 days left, holy hell that is awesome!  I am thinking about increasing my order from the $335 level to something a bit higher.  If you haven't bought into it yet, you really should, its a fun game that isn't played near enough, and would be a welcome relief with its simple rules, fast gameplay, and zero arguments over Battletech.


And onto some other quick gaming stuff:
I found this Strike Legion game system and was quite impressed.  I typically hate the whole die based system of games (like stargrunt and dirtside) but this guy has made a really complete system, where you can have aliens, steampunk, floating battleships, naval units, ground units, ogres, starship, strategic starship, walkers/mecha, and now released a preliminary version of a squad based system, all interact.  I bought everything for it, and it is pretty good stuff.


And because people love to see images in google image search, here is a Record Sheet created with my site, that I think is all correct:

Battletech Encyclopedia

I've spent most of my BT time the last week working on creating recordsheets and cleaning up the "Battletech Encyclopedia", which I think will be the new name of my version of the "Master Unit List".  I currently have mech record sheets *mostly* working.  Connector lines aren't showing yet (a ... is a continued piece of equipment) and I need to work on addon equipment (Artemis, Apollo, Capacitor, Insulator, One-shot, MG Array, stuff like that) but its darned close.  See what I've been doing on that at http://goodsects.ddns.net/bte.  I used hexes instead of circles to make my record sheets different than canon ones so people will instantly know I didn't just scan stuff in ;)  All mine are dynamically generated (and cached, so the first load is the slowest).  I also cleaned up a bit of how other mech data was displayed, and added about 900 new images.  You should be able to use the Encyclopedia to print out recordsheets for most of the 3025 mechs at this point, and many of the other ones.

I'll update the site at http://goodsects.ddns.net/bte a lot more often than I will the blog, so just because I didn't update the blog, doesn't mean I wasn't doing lots of work on the record sheets.

After mechs I'll do combat vehicles, battle armor, infantry, protomechs, support vehicles, dropships, warships/jumpship/stations, and then mobile structures.  I'll probably stick to that order unless the couple of viewers out there decide they want something else faster and let me know.

I am still thinking about the idea of making this into a system that lets you track unit status in games.  Basically I'll make a simple web page that lets you apply damage, see stats, show the enemy the unit stats, etc, etc, so you could use this site on a phone, tablet, or laptop to help track your game.  Of course I'll have die rollers, and probably even automatically resolve damage between 2 units.  You'll have teams, and you and your opponent(s) can all sign in and play against each other, save the game and continue later, show little animations of armor damage after the game is over, and possible I'll even expand it to support doing repairs.  Still just thinking about it at this point, I don't play BT and couldn't use the tool much myself, so its all about what you viewers (or people you can get to become viewers, hint hint) say you want me to work on.

I thrive on feedback and input, and without it I tend to jump around between projects a lot and don't have a lot of direction.  Not many people read this blog so if you have any ideas to get more people interested in what I'm doing I'm all ears.

Well I'm done with the Master Unit List for a while, I searched IIS logs and found people looked up like 3 mechs with it in the last week.  Soooo, if nobody else is using it (for now anyway, it isn't like I'm advertising anywhere else) I'm going to stop working on it until people do start using it.  I'll keep it updated with new products (notice the HTP Luzerne mechs are in there).  You can view my history of changes by just going to the master unit list at http://goodsects.gotdns.com/bte (if this link doesn't work for you, shoot me an email at bad_syntax@ yahoo.com and I'll see what's up, there should be no reason it doesn't work).


If people start using this, I can import the factions, format the text so its easier to read (and much more TRO like), and basically make it at *least* as useful as the battletech master unit list.  I can also pretty easily go through and update all the images, add multiple images per unit (something the canon battletech master unit list doesn't currently support), add a record sheet download (that is updated as the data is updated, so its always up to date), perhaps add some tracking so you can use it to track your units on a phone or tablet/ipad, and lots of other new features.


Oh, and battle armor is pretty much done, a few minor bugs (years, turrets with empty slots, and BF data), but all the designs, when the page is loaded, get validated according to the tech manual rules.  Granted, there is a LOT of things in the various total warfare books that needs fixing, and some stuff I have repeatedly added to errata forums that has *still* not been added (like the battle armor automatic grenade launcher, no ammo/weight stats).


If you have any requests on it let me know, I can probably make them.  But like I said, as of now, it doesn't look like anybody is visiting, and since I've stopped "advertising" on various forums nobody comes here anymore anyway.  My banning and lack of advertising may be bad for the future of things I've been working on.


And though these rules are NOT finished, not by a long shot, and just about every word and table and order will have to be redone, here is a VERY VERY VERY early version of my Succession Wars style game, I'm calling "The Interstellar Wars".  Essentially it'll be kind of an "open source" wargame.  The rules should work fine for counters and maps, but all the detailed ones will be implemented into a computer game.  You'll be able to make your own maps, units, factories, etc, etc (to make it identical to BT), but I won't call it BT or have any BT content in it.  It isn't BT that I love, its the high level universe that was created around it (lots of war, 5 major factions, 1 big high tech faction, high tech faction falls, everybody fights for a long time, technology lost, etc) so that is what I'm trying to model with it.  Here is a download link to the 120k word docx file.  Please give me any feedback, but know that much of it will still be rewritten.

Updates!

Sorry if anybody has had an error on the BTE the last day or two, I've been editing it a lot.  Though I don't think anybody else has looked at it, and I may just be talking to myself :)


Anyway, lots of updates on it.  It has images for just about everything now, links to the canon battletech master unit list, and lots of other changes.  Go take a looksie:  http://goodsects.gotdns.com/bte.  At this point the only thing I don't have (aside from visual appeal) the canon version has is the BF2 stats and force maker thing.  I'll probably never have the force maker thing, I don't see a need, and the BF2 stats I'm planning on programatically generating to get rid of the massive amounts of errors in the canon version.


Oh, if anybody has a better name than "battletech master unit list" let me know, 2 master unit list's are 1 too many, perhaps BTE for battletech encyclopedia?  I dunno, let me know what you think.


And also, if anybody is interested in a succession wars style interstellar game and would like to help me clarify and finalize some rules please email me or leave a comment.  I've got quite a bit done on the written rules, and I want to get it finished up soon so I can start working on some generic counters, and perhaps a "battletech module".

BTE's Master Unit List

Ok, I think I'm done with BT, at least for a while (until IO comes out maybe).  I was reading FM3085, and I have 2 *serious* issues with the BTU:


#1.  They won't reduce the populations, and thus FASAnomics completely breaks the universe (and IO for that matter).  I know humans can easily be in the trillions, but western nations now are starting to drop down into very low growth rates, some western nations even dropping.  Its very possible that when everybody has enough food, shelter, medicine, and the things they need, our entire planet will reach an equilibrium.  Populations should be .1% to 1% of what they are published at.


#2.  Their QA sucks ass.  They just released FIFTY pages of errata for Tactical Operations.  FIFTY!!!  Not sure about ya'll, but I'd be fired (or get an F) if 12% of anything I produced was in error.  Granted, a page or so are new things, which is always nice, but sheesh, thats pathetic.


Oh, and battlecorps sucks horribly, I was dumb enough to pay $60 right before they banned me, and there is ZERO content over there.  I guess you get a 5% discount, but they don't release $300 in 6 months so that really isn't a selling point.  Anyway, in case you were wondering, its crap.


Ok, now on to the goodies. 


This is a VERY VERY early, quick (about an hour or two) MUL of mine.  I have no images (yet, but they are on my hard drives), no links to equipment, no links to the canon MUL, and the formatting is, well, non-existent.  BUT, it is there now. Just go to http://goodsects.gotdns.com/bte and enter in something your looking for, then click on one to see all the information I have about it, including any issues that were encountered during data entry.


I *think* I have done enough to prevent any sql injection attacks, but honestly if somebody breaks in and formats the server its no biggie, if they wipe the database I can recreate it in 5 minutes through scripts I wrote, so no worries.


It might be slow depending on how many people are hitting it, my back end server speed is decent but I do have like a dozen VM's running on it.  Also, its on a crappy 2mbps or 3mbps upstream time warner cable modem so that is a bottleneck.


Anyway, take a look, let me know if it works for you (I have a style sheet, so it should be ok looking, but I didn't test with every browser, and they are all considerably different).  If you get errors let me know.  


I'll try to get the MUL links, images, and hotlinks for the equipment (which brings up a detailed page for equipment info) done before I back off BT for awhile.


Oh, and Randall never wrote me back when I asked about publishing this, so if they can't be bothered to tell me so it'll be hard for them to justify a C&D after the fact.  I have lawyers too ;)


Oh, and some of the codes may be cryptic, so if you don't know what something is post a comment and I'll fill you in.


Oh, and unrelated, I have about 20 pages now typed up for my "The Interstellar Wars" game, which will be a board game, with optional detail levels increasing the complexity up until the point you pretty much need a computer to play.  And when its done, I'll start on the coding for it ;)

MUL, almost done

A few of you have requested the MUL, It is a huge XLS file that many of you will hate opening.  Once I get the data cleaned up I'll throw it in a database and build a website around it so you can just rip it that way (bandwidth permitting).  Right now I'm in my final phase of cleanup, and will be finishing it up maybe by the end of this weekend.


If for some reason I decide not to spend the time to do that (kinda likely, I have to at least try to run for congress, even if my desire is to loose), I will throw the excel file up here for all to download... even though I may not really use it in the future, I spend hundreds of hours putting this data together, and have started this probably 5 times over the last decade.  I finished thanks to my wife letting me not work for a month.


Anyway, just to wet your appetite a bit, here are some notes I'm putting together on it.

615 out of 5491 canon MUL units have not been released yet.  However, all of these units may not be valid, and when I use only valid MUL entries, there are only 256 of my 5153 units are not on the canon MUL


Here are the 175 products I used as sources for my data:
AE2ER
AT1E
AT2E
Battle of Coventry
Battlepack:4th SW
BattleSpace
Black Thorns
Black Widow Company
Bloodright
Chaos March
CityTech 1E
Clan Jade Falcon
Clan Wolf
Combat Equipment
ComStar
Cranston Snord's Irregulars
DATP:Liao
DATP:Vega
Day of Heroes
DOS:Jason Zaklan
DOS:Youling Zhanshi
DS&JS
ED:Age of War
ED:Golden Century
Explorer Corps
Fall of Terra
First Strike
Fist and Falcon
FM:CC
FM:Crusader Clans
FM:CS
FM:DC
FM:FS
FM:FWL
FM:LA
FM:Mercenaries:Supplemental Update
FM:Periphery
FM:Warden Clans
Frst and Falcon
HB:Davion
HB:Liao
HB:Marik
HB:Periphery
HB:Steiner
HexPack Promotion 1
House Liao
HTP:Galtor
HTP:Glengarry
HTP:Mallory's World
HTP:Misery
Interstellar Players
Invading Clans
JHS:3070
JHS:3072
JHS:3076
JHS:Blake Documents
JHS:Terra
Jihad Conspiracies
Jihad Final Reckoning
JTP:Atreus
JTP:Dieron
JTP:Luthien
JTP:New Avalon
JTP:Sian
JTP:Tharkad
Klondike
Lamenkovs Liability
Liberation Of Terra 1
LostTech
Luthien
MapPack:Solaris VII
McCarron's Armored Cavalry
Mechwarrior Companion
MW1E
Northwind Highlanders
Objective Raids
OTP:Death to Mercenaries
OTP:Death to Mercenaries
OTP:Falcon Incursion
OTP:Red Corsair
Periphery
Reinforcements 2
Reunification War
Rhonda's Irregulars
Royalty and Rogues
RS:3025 & 3026
RS:3025 Reinforcements
RS:3039
RS:3039 Unabridged
RS:3050
RS:3050 Upgrade Clan/SLDF
RS:3050 Upgrade IS
RS:3050 Upgrade Print
RS:3050 Upgrade Unabridged Clan/SLDF
RS:3050 Upgrade Unabridged IS
RS:3055 & 3058
RS:3055 Unabridged
RS:3055 Upgrade
RS:3058 Unabridged Clan/SLDF/BA
RS:3058 Unabridged IS
RS:3058 Upgrade v1.1
RS:3060
RS:3060 Print
RS:3060 Unabridged
RS:3067
RS:3072
RS:3075 Print
RS:3075 Unabridged
RS:3085 Print
RS:3085 Unabridged - Old Is The New New
RS:3085 Unabridged - Phoenix
RS:3085 Unabridged - The Cutting Edge
RS:Aerotech 2
RS:Klondike
RS:MWDA1
RS:Prototypes
RS:Upgrades
RS:V1:Light Mechs
RS:V2:Medium Mechs
RS:V3:Heavy Mechs
RS:V4:Assault Mechs
RS:V5:Vehicles
RS:V6:3055 Mechs
Salazar Tsakalotos
Solaris The Reaches
Somerset Strikers
Sorenson's Sabres
Sword and Dragon
Tales of the Black Widow
The Dragon Roars
TRO:2750
TRO:3025
TRO:3025 Reprint
TRO:3026
TRO:3026 Revised
TRO:3039
TRO:3050
TRO:3050 Revised
TRO:3050 Upgrade
TRO:3055
TRO:3055 Upgrade
TRO:3057
TRO:3057R
TRO:3058
TRO:3058 Upgrade
TRO:3060
TRO:3067
TRO:3075
TRO:3085
TRO:3085 Supp
TRO:Phoenix
TRO:Prototypes
TRO:Vehicles
Tukayyid
Unbound
War of Reaving
Wolf and Blake Starterbook
Wolf's Dragoons
XTRO
XTRO:Boondocks
XTRO:Clans
XTRO:ComStar
XTRO:Corporations
XTRO:Davion
XTRO:Gladiators
XTRO:Kurita
XTRO:Liao
XTRO:Marik
XTRO:Mercs
XTRO:Periphery
XTRO:Pirates
XTRO:PrimitivesV1
XTRO:PrimitivesV2
XTRO:RetroTech
XTRO:Steiner


I downloaded the following from PRI, where I got fluff info, though I may not end up including it in the final document:
hmp_2750
hmp_3025
hmp_3050
hmp_3055_3058
hmp_3060
hmp_3067
hmp_3075
hmp_3085
hmp_3085_se
hmp_exp
hmp_fieldmanuals
hmp_project_phoenix
hmp_rs_da_mechs
hmp_solaris
hmp_upgrades
hmp_clan_refits


1976 Designs
1565 matched
21 had 3 matches
358 had 2 matches
32 had no matches


I then matched up all the entries with their appropriate canon MUL entries (to link back), from 14 MAR 2012.
Total of 5491 canon entries, 542 entries on the canon MUL I have no data for as they aren't published yet, 4472 of these entries have images


So, in the end, I have:
5152 Units entered
178 are not on the MUL
421 either don't have enough information to recreate, or some of the data is questionable
There was 1 unit missing from RS:Reinforcements 1, my page was ripped out, I don't know what it was


Some notes:

• I have *NO* fluff data, no manufacturing stuff, no big text blocks, just hard data
• Many of the values are shortend, I use "MicPL" for micro Pulse Laser, or "LRM15:Artemis IV", stuff like that
• Some of the data isn't consistently entered, mostly equipment.  For example some units may have "2-ERML-RT", others may have "1-ERML-RT" and "1-ERML-RT", and yet others "1-ERML-RT,RT".  I want to clean that up, but the data is still good
• Some of the page numbers on the TROs/RSs I provide are of a bit, they all need re-indexed, but most of the ones I got the data from are correct
• Some of the data is formulas.  Armor tons and engine ratings for conventional/mech forces
• Most battle armor weapons don't show the # of shots on the RS or TRO, I flagged these as incomplete until I can go back through and verify
• Some of the naming schemes/variants/etc aren't consistent.  I will work on them as I see them to get a good standard.
• If the MUL didn't have BV, I grabbed it from the TRO, if it wasn't there I used the RS, if no BV I flagged it, but for many units it won't be correct
• I didn't mark slots for advanced armor on conventional or aerospace forces.  It should be easy enough afterwards.
• I'm not 100% sure I like the way I put data in for buildings and mobile structures, I was thinking of making each hex its own line, still not sure how I'll do it but the data is in there.
• There are bound to be lots of errors all over the place, mostly typos, once I get a construction algorithm to verify them it should help clean them up, though with the amount of unfixed errata out there it'll be painful
• All of the equipment links to another big spreadsheet I put together that has *ALL* the equipment for the universe, and *ALL* the stats for it.  Unfortunately there is a large amount of missing data TPTB seem to not want to fix (I've asked them about it a few times only to be ignored).  This is why some things have short abbreviations.  Hopefully you can figure out what they are easy enough.
• I tried to make illegal items fix, like the buildings from McCarron's Armored Cavalry, the Super Wasp/Super Griffin, and the original vehicles from the MW1 RPG, some fit better than others.

I'd really like to put together a database that can allow you to submit edits to it, perhaps even in real time, so as you see an issue you can fix it (I'll get an approval log each day to accept any changes as final), but like I mentioned, I am really not sure I can stay motivated with BT after the childish activity on the forums.

Stay Tuned!