Awesome!

Oops, the record sheets weren't showing up due to a stupid development/production environment bug.  All fixed now, now to figure out why nobody said anything :(


On another note, got a new Samsung Galaxy II S Epic 4G Touch (That name is excessively long) android phone... my first phone upgrade in 6 years (HTC Mogul previously).  I *might* tinker around with android development soon.


Check out the settings page!

Another Update!

Another really big update to the Battletech Encyclopedia!

• I noticed quite a few units have a # of items listed = to ammo on board.  I went through and fixed I think all of these.
• Major database update so items under weapons and equipment will be listed with a count, not 1 per line
• Added all fluff information from TRO:Prototypes (many of these units had issues as well, copy/paste errors from XTRO's mostly)
• I updated the code so when megamek icons are created, it'll shrink the camo file to the size of the actual image before merging them.
•   For example, the Davion Guards is red in the middle, then white, and then blue stripes on the outside
•   Megamek will make really small units only red and white with no blue.  My code will shrink the camo down, so all units have the same percentage of color on them
• I changed all the unseen art from the black silhouettes, to the 3025 unseen art, and updated the IIC original unseen art
• MasterOfCaps has produced some cool unique variants for those unseen, especially warhammers and marauders (plus flashman, thug, and 1 Stone Rhino).  I made his images the primary for those unseen designs.
• I added mechwarrior online and mechwarrior tactics as potential images
• I re-indexed the page numbers for RS:Prototypes, they had some issues.  If you didn't know, that is what the number in parenthesis after the source or TRO title
• Mechwarrior Online Repaints is *exactly* what I was trying to attempt with my recoloring, I was told nobody would be interested, but that thread is *AWESOME*
•   Of course my implementation sucks ass.  2 reasons.  #1, I am using PURE colors, not additive colors, which makes them look more cartoony.  #2.  I'm working with MUCH crappier images
• I downloaded nearly 600 images from Mechwarrior Online Repaints of recolored mechwarrior online art.  I'll include it eventually, but need support for hundreds of images, not just 10 like I have now.
• Added 5 units with fluff descriptions in Era Report 2750 (p135-139), though I'm not 100% sure on the details of any of them... especially the BLR-1GHE which surely doesn't have 9.5 tons of armor
• Trimmed all images (95 lines of unoptimized code!), that is removed even a single extra byte of space around them.  It appears it reduced my average size of images by about 33%, woot!  They'll look better on Record sheets now too.
• Updated the MUL data from the canon  masterunitlist.info site
• Implemented http://jquery.com/ and http://tablesorter.com to allow you to click on cell columns for instant sorting
• Implemented ajax to get auto complete working on the search box... just start typing stuff in and click enter when you match up!
• Screwed with the look/feel yet again through style sheets and some various tweaks
• Quite a few image updates
• Added the art from the canon masterunitlist.info as secondary images, though they aren't viewable from the site yet.
• Completly updated the settings page to show you, as you select them, how changes in camo's or your colors will appear

Next on my list is getting record sheets working for most of the other units.  It isn't that hard, just painful.  I am making it very modular though, so the system will allow you to make your own custom record sheets quite easily once I'm done.  After that is quick strike/battleforce cards, multiple image support, and a blank on every page for you to submit any errors you see with it.

Once I get all the record sheets done, if I don't notice people using it for a while I may turn off my database server.  So if you like what you see, please put the word out there so you can bring more traffic here.  Note, I am not making any money at all on this site (notice, no ads, even without adblock) so am purely doing it to help the community.

Only 1-2 of you have figured out how to do searches and show megamek icons with textures.  Soon as you go to the site, go to settings and update your camo and save it.  After that when you do a search you can change the "Search Return Output Method" to "MegaMek Icons" and it'll show you a table of megamek icons in your camo!

Also, I've only seen 1-2 people figure out which mechs are recolored.  Basically its the Deimos, and the units from the ORIGINAL 2750 TRO (not 3039).  So update your settings, change your colors, do a search for MECHS in TRO 2750, and click on one of those to see "repainted" ones.  

And in other news, I updated my map program for Star Fleet Battles Federation and Empire.  Basically I made it a usable program, made all the settings configurable, and included 6400 or so ship counters (though non-federation ships need their files renamed)!  You can download it here.  Email me for the source.

HUGE Update!

Another HUGE BattleTech Encyclopedia Master Unit List Update.  I think this will be my last that revolves around those darned mech record sheets, which are easily the most complicated of any record sheet in the game.  I'll do vehicle record sheets next, which should take me only an hour or two, then fighters, dropships, battle armor, infantry, etc, etc... I'll save warships, mobile structures, and buildings for last as they can be pretty complex.


Oh, and I'm adding some links to additional pages off the main page, mostly with stuff related to the BattleTech Encyclopedia.


In short, I redid the search page, fixed a huge number of bugs, verified 100% of the units work with the BF stat validation, added the ability for you to save/define your favorite colors and megamek camo, and allow you to have search results returned as megamek icons, in your favorite camo pattern!  Try just changing the source to a technical readout, the general type to 'any', and of course click on the settings page and set a camo.  Then when you search, you can see a megamek icon (all link to a TRO and RS for the unit) for every unit in the TRO, on a SINGLE page!  It could take a bit of time to generate the first time, but in my testing it rarely took over 5-10 seconds for the largest TROs.  Of course you can just view a table if you prefer with no graphics, or a mix of the two that is a table list with just a plain megamek icon.  Only the TRO 2750 units have fluff data at this time, though all of them have it, and also only the Deimos and TRO 2750 mechs have color coatings, and I'm not real happy with the results.


I haven't seen anybody use the site in a few days, and when somebody does use it they only click on a couple mechs before moving on, any ideas on what I need to do to increase traffic a bit or make the site more usuable?


Here is a detailed list of changes, which can also be found on the history page that I keep more updated than the blog.

• Completely changed the stylesheet, though its still really not what I want, it made some stuff more usable.
• Replaced the search page with a completely new one, with a bit more detail
• Updated default page to have links for history/issues/etc instead of making the page ugly and excessively large over time
• LOTS of minor updates to the database.  Tweaked the way cargo was handled, renamed a bunch of things to make them easier to read, remove duplicate command consoles, etc.
• Went through about 900 mech sheets, any issues that I noticed were resolved (however there were very few that weren't just text size related)
• Full head ejection system (FHES) listed on W&E list
• Units with armored actuators or cockpit components now show armored correctly
• Changed "[cont]" that was added to multislot equipment to "... " before the item name, I still need those darned lines tho!
• Modular armor now adds hexes to the armor of the location it is in, they are bolded to show a difference between that and normal armor hexes
• Fixed some issues with heat sink counts on the TRO weapons and equipment table, usually a negative number was involved
• All units from TRO2750 have full fluff, all the mechs also have colorized images (the Exterminator however was anti-aliased, and it looks like ass, sorry)
• These drawings sucked hard, not sure why, maybe the PDF I had.  Most of them I had to fill in some lines so I could do fills and such.  
• I won't do any other units, these were here to prove I could do it and if ya'll like it, well, you'll have to colorize units yourself, I'm simply not motivated to
• Added support for URL parameters, you can now append the following to the http://goodsects.gotdns.com/bte/default.aspx line to get started faster.  Here is a demo line to get you started.  However this is not fully functional yet (I tested searchstring, but not the rest), I'll work on it if anybody complains.
• Each has options that should match any options in the list boxes
• Sourcebook
• GeneralType
• SpecificType
• Mobility
• Canon
• TechBase
• RulesLevel
• DataIssues
• OutputMethod
• SearchString
• If this one is presented, a search is automatically performed when the page is loaded

Bugs!

Well I guess its a Battletech curse to have bugs huh? :)


I just noticed a big one I "implemented" today in the Battletech Encyclopedia (the Master Unit List update), DOH!


I did a minor change last night to support things that have 1 slot per ton of weight, and it made, well, everything add a number of crits per ton of weight!  I noticed this as many of you looked at designs that had things like 5 slot LPPCs, or 2 slot MPLs.


Fixed now :)  Feel free to look again, they should be good now.

Era Report 2750

Well I was anxiously awaiting this product, as I love the Star League era, but after shelling out $50 for the PDF and book combo, I couldn't have been any more disappointed.


162 pages.


First 37 are fluff on the era, which isn't much more than a recap on what we already know.  I doubt I'll read it.


2 page map of 2750, thats nice, too bad we already had it.


27 pages of faction details.  Basically a bit on the factions, which is already known, and some VERY high level details on a few units.  Nothing to add to playing the game.


30 pages of major personas.  Seriously?  No piloting or gunnery, Out of *maybe* 10K worldwide BT players, how many are playing the RPG?  10% of that maybe?  Ugh, this is *not* how to keep people in a game system.


8 pages of describing advanced tech we already know and 2 pages of what could be interesting mega engineering stuff.


30 pages of era tracks.  I guess the warchest system is the way TPTB want people to play campaigns... if so, why the hell is interstellar ops even being done???


10 pages of "playing in 2750", which has a few special abilities for half a dozen regiments (out of hundreds) per faction, and some useless random unit tables.


The rest is RPG specific stuff, some slight details on major personas and new RPG character creation tables.


And that is it.  I don't play the RPG, nor warchest, so essentially this book was a total waste of $50.  If you haven't bought it yet, I would not recommend it.


They could have at least thrown in a few unit designs or something, but nothing, nada, zip for content.


One more book like this, and I'll never purchase without looking at it again, garbage.  And they say they aren't printing novels anymore.


But at least the update to TacOps is now out, though I'm still pretty frustrated they released the original in such piss-poor condition, and now I have to buy it twice if I wanted an updated copy on my shelf.

Oops

A minor issue with paths broke some units.  Basically, I develop this site on my workstation, then copy it to my server here at the house for ya'll to see.  However, ya'll view the stuff by going to a dynamic website, and I can't go to the same URL to view it (I have to use an internal IP).  Its all pretty painful and annoying, but it should be worked out now.


Here are some direct links to the units that are colorized, these could break on the next update though.


In hindsight, I should have colored these units with a main color, a secondary color, and a highlight color, instead of the way I did it, which would make the units look better.  Anyway, here are the links:


Deimos Primary
Deimos A
Deimos B
Deimos C
Deimos S
Deimos 2
Mongoose
Mercury
Thorn
Hermes


Notice, the colors in the top image change each time you refresh the page, and the ones in the bottom are static and *currently* hard-coded to those 3 colors, but soon you will be able to pick your default 3 colors for all designs that support recoloring.


Also, these are the only units that have any fluff data, so if you want to see an example of full details, they are the best examples at the moment.

New Release

Yet another new version of BattleTech Encyclopedia (My version of the BattleTech Master Unit List, but far more comprehensive) released, I should probably add version numbers eh?


I have made a LOT of progress since the last major update, and it works for most mechs now (I'm slowing going through all 2800 or so of them, ensuring they are correct).


I'm not done yet, but have been churning through bugs.  Mech Record sheets are now pretty much correct, though I do still need a few minor things like connector lines instead of [cont] and ensuring text fits on lines.  Plus there can be issues with *really* complex designs (that luckily as of now, don't exist in the BT universe).


I added a few BattleTechnology units that had decent artwork, and marked them as non-canon.  You can search for the OSP-15 Osprey or Wolfman to see an example (the Rhino, another mech I love, breaks right now, I'll fix it soon).  LAMs will break too, I haven't looked into why yet.


Battleforce data should be good, and is far more "accurate" than the canon conversion would do.  Basically I calculate heat efficiency PER RANGE BAND, not for the whole design.  According to Strategic Operations, a mech with 30 heat sinks, 10 medium lasers, and 2 inner sphere ER PPC's would have an attack factor of 2/1/1 with an overheat of 3 (I think the overheat is right).  Well that isn't right, as long range those 2 PPC's should do a full 20 damage, and up close it should be doing 3 damage.  So I calculate the efficiency per band, which means my values would be 3/2/2, far more accurate to BT than SO would have you believe.  Also, I calculate heat efficiency completely separate for the indirect fire factor, so it may be a bit higher sometimes.  And finally, I don't round damage UP, that is stupid as if anything it should have been rounded down.  Instead, I just round everything normally.  If a special attack like AC, LRM, SRM, FLK, etc, doesn't have 5 or more attack, it doesn't show up separately, and is just added to the standard attack factor.  


I also add battleforce/quickstrike noticeable quirks to end of the special abilities line, in brackets so you can ignore them if you desire (as very few designs have them published right now).


I should have Battleforce/Quickstrike sheets up VERY soon, the code is all written, just need to copy/paste it.


If you see ANY errors let me know and I'll have it fixed probably within a day or two, if not an hour or two.


Oh, right now there are only 5 mechs with any fluff, manufacturer data, or that support my method of colorizing mechs based on your favorite colors, they are:
Deimos
2750 Hermes
2750 Mercury
2750 Thorn
2750 Mongoose


If you view those mechs, the top image is randomly colored, the record sheet will be Red/Black/Yellow (You will be able to change your colors very soon).


I have randomly clicked on dozens of mechs now with no sign of an error, but surely when ya'll do every one will break :)  Please click on as many units you can and see if the record sheets appear ok, I'll be viewing those that get generated as well so any issues should be resolved pretty quickly.


If you want to help, here are some things you could easily do to assist:
#1.  Take this image, and get x, y, width, and height coordinates (in pixels, easy to do in paint or any image editing app), and write them down.  Here is the file I use to load up the settings to make a record sheet and the biped image file is here, and you can see that this method will VERY easily let you make your own record sheet templates.


#2.  Load up images, any image, and color them like you'd want, using red, green, or blue (like RGB 255,0,0 or RGB 0,255,0 or RGB 0,0,255 respectively), then send it to me.  I'll replace the original immediately.


#3.  I need massive amounts of fluff stuff entered, especially for non-mechs.


#4.  Got more images for a unit?  Shoot it to me, higher res the better.  I'll have multiple image support soon, and have only used the single image from TROs, even though a lot of other art may exist for designs (especially those unseen ones!)


#5.  Get the word out, I haven't seen many people use it, and granted, there aren't many people out there playing BT anyway, but the more users I see using the tool and complaining of any issues (or complements!), the more likely I am to stay focused.  Places like this would be ideal.


#6.  I could use some nice style sheets, my pages are simple, mostly tables, if you can put some nice colors together I'd be happy to update my site to use them.


Hope ya'll enjoy it!