Printable Version of Topic

Click here to view this topic in its original format

Dumpshock Forums _ Community Projects _ Vehicle/Weapon Modification Program

Posted by: Dashifen Jan 29 2008, 07:48 PM

Would there be interest in a vehicle and/or weapon modification program? Essentially something that let you choose a stock vehicle and the modifications that you want to apply to it. Frankly, the Arsenal rules are very simple to handle, but it might be nice to have everything at your fingertips rather than having to page through the book (or PDF) to find what you're looking for.

I can also envision tools to build ally spirits, spells, commlinks, etc. all being available one day, too. If people like the idea, I'll give it a whirl.

Posted by: Stahlseele Jan 29 2008, 08:23 PM

oh yes here me!
very much!
Man-At-Arms and NSRCG and this would make most of SR3 Building computer possible ^^
then there'd only have to be something for decking/matrix and magic/spirits *g*
i'd say to take drones into it instead of firearms because man at arms includes the weapon build rules from canon companion

Posted by: Dashifen Jan 29 2008, 08:31 PM

Whoops; I'm talking about SR4, Stahlseele.

Posted by: Fortune Jan 29 2008, 08:35 PM

QUOTE (Stahlseele)

... Man-At-Arms ...

???

Posted by: lunchbox311 Jan 29 2008, 09:12 PM

I am VERY MUCH interested in this.

Posted by: Stahlseele Jan 29 2008, 09:25 PM

*hits him*
post in the 4th boards then <.< . . *grumbles*

Posted by: Dashifen Jan 29 2008, 09:30 PM

I didn't think it would be appropriate because this is about a project that I'd like to do for the community for which I wanted to gauge interest. Incidentally, this forum is for projects relating to both SR4 and SR3. I probably should have specified in the first post, but I thought the reference to the new SR4 book, Arsenal, would be enough.

Sorry for the confusion

Posted by: Raij Jan 29 2008, 10:10 PM

That would be great! I would definitely make use of such a program.

Posted by: Stahlseele Jan 29 2008, 10:43 PM

Arsenal is the German Name for Canon Companion by the way . . and because this forum is a sub to the SR3 forum i thought it was posted there when clicking on last active topic on the main forums overview x.x

Posted by: Fortune Jan 29 2008, 10:46 PM

QUOTE (Stahlseele)

post in the 4th boards then

This is the appropriate forum.

Now, were you going to answer my question?

Posted by: Fortune Jan 29 2008, 10:49 PM

QUOTE (Stahlseele @ Jan 30 2008, 09:43 AM)

... because this forum is a sub to the SR3 forum ...

There is no SR3 forum! There is a generic Shadowrun forum and an SR4-specific forum. This is a sub-forum of the generic Shadowrun Forum, which applies to all editions of the game. This specific forum is for all types of community projects related to Shadowrun, no matter what edition that project is geared toward.

Posted by: Stahlseele Jan 29 2008, 10:56 PM

sorry, did not see your question as i was at work then x.x
Man At Arms is an German tool incorporatiing the Canon Companion Rules for building weapons . .
>Dumpshock Forums>Discussion>Shadowrun>Community Projects
is how it is displayed to me, and because there is an dedicated 4th i think of it as the 3rd board . . so i'd say it's an sub to 3rd board x.x

Posted by: Fortune Jan 29 2008, 11:31 PM

QUOTE (Stahlseele)

Dumpshock Forums>Discussion>Shadowrun>Community Projects
is how it is displayed to me, and because there is an dedicated 4th i think of it as the 3rd board . . so i'd say it's an sub to 3rd board

I don't see SR3 displayed anywhere there. What about the previous two editions of the game? Are they not still valid fodder for questions? If not, then neither is SR3, being the now officially unsupported older edition that it is.

Seriously, there are threads where this very subject has been debated to death. But I am hoping that the Administration will be cleaning up this constant-little-misundertanding-waiting-to-happen when they move to the new software (and format).

Oh, and thanks for the info on the program.

Posted by: Stahlseele Jan 29 2008, 11:47 PM

no problem.. i am lazy and try to know such things *g*

Posted by: swirler Feb 6 2008, 05:05 PM

please please do this
if i could code i would offer to help
but since I can't, all i can offer is encouragement and adoration

Posted by: Dashifen Feb 7 2008, 05:26 PM

I'm working on it. I have all the vehicles in a database along with all the modifications. I just finished connecting standard modifications and equipment to each vehicle. The next step is to code the incompatibilities between one modification and another (like how SunCell and Reflective Hull can't be added to the same vehicle). Once that's done, I can mock up some basic vehicle customization capabilities. Next step is to get all the weapons built into the system along with their mods and the associated compatibilities there in. Then, the gun accessories and ammunition should go into the system. Finally, you can start to customize weapons and attach weapons to vehicles, and then the project is probably at beta In other words, this is going to be a reasonably complex system to put together.

To that end, if you want to help, eventually I'll need the statistics for weapons and weapon modifications built into specific formats. I can post the formats that I'll use (probably Excel files to start and I'll convert them to databases for use within the programming) and if you want to spend some time copying information out of the various rule books for use in the system, that might be a very big help allowing me to write the code rather than spend three days copying data out of the books.

Eventually, I wonder if this system (which I've been calling The Shop) couldn't be used to build custom cybereyes/ears packages, limbs, etc., too......

Posted by: Kairo Feb 7 2008, 05:39 PM

Interested? I'm extremely interested. Can't wait to see what you've got in store for it. Just a thought, but if you're planning on doing this in Excel form, and if there was interest on your end, maybe you could talk with Feshy to see about joining forces and combining the Vehicle and Weapon modifications as worksheets in the SR4 Excel Character Generator?

Posted by: Kyoto Kid Feb 7 2008, 08:05 PM

QUOTE (Dashifen @ Jan 29 2008, 11:48 AM)

...what? And ruin all the fun of paging back and forth and back and forth endlessly looking up references and sticking pencils between the pages to bookmark them thus splitting the binding and...[Foley Effect] <*slap*>

...right, a vehicle and weapon modification utility programme? Capital idea.

Posted by: Dashifen Feb 7 2008, 09:09 PM

I might take a stab at a character generator but not until after Unwired is out. I'd want to have as many of the rules for characters out and available to people before taking on a project like that. I was about 70% of the way through a generator based on SR4 and Street Magic and then Aug came out with all of the extra stuff and it made me feel like I should probably wait for the other books before continuing.

With respect to other Excel projects, this would not be software written in Excel. It'll be online, I just use Excel to prepare information for my databases. Thus, I can extract information from the PDFs, put it into Excel and then go from Excel into databases (MySQL on my laptop, yeah for freeness) and from there I can do what ever I need to do to the data as I work.

Thus, I may tap other people to handle the creation of those Excel sheets for the weapons that will eventually be a part of this system.

Posted by: Cadmus Mar 4 2008, 04:37 AM

Just poping my head in to see if this is still in the works and if so...Have I mentioned I love you and your my hero?

Posted by: bjorn Mar 4 2008, 02:46 PM

I would be willing to format data into Excel for this project if you still need help.

Posted by: Dashifen Mar 4 2008, 05:40 PM

I had let it fall by the wayside because a number of Excel based system arrived in the mean time. I need to finish the Shadownet system and then come back to this one. Incidentally, just about everything is already in the database for vehicles, but I'll keep your name in my mind, bjorn.

Posted by: DarkLloyd Mar 25 2008, 05:39 PM

Damn good Idea.

Any movement on this?

Posted by: Dashifen Mar 27 2008, 02:57 PM

Not yet. As indicated in my previous post, I'm trying to finish up a different tool first and then move onto this one.

Posted by: WeaverMount Mar 28 2008, 07:13 PM

I would love to pitch in coding, I was kicking around some design ideas for this myself. I mostly work in Flash and PHP. would either be helpful?

Posted by: Dashifen Mar 28 2008, 08:14 PM

I'll be coding in PHP primarily, I tend to stay away from flash myself. I'll keep you in mind, but realistically, it might be well into June before I get to this one. Especially with the Excel based systems that have been developed already. I have to write a character generator for a different game before I can get back to this one and I'm desperately trying to finish up my Shadownet chatting system and make it usable but there's a few more tweaks that I have to do before I can release that to the masses.

Posted by: cREbralFIX Mar 29 2008, 04:54 PM

Dashifen,

1) I am working on a SR4 random character generator in Perl. I'm not using a database at the moment in order to minimize user installation requirements (though I'll work on a MySQL importation script).

2) I am interested in your database. Is it possible to get access? Even a read-only account would be great. I could then leverage it for rigger characters.

3) PHP coding. I have started learning the language and this may be a good project to work on. Are you looking for assistance?