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Dumpshock Forums _ Community Projects _ Shadowrun Group Maker

Posted by: Dashifen Dec 17 2003, 04:09 PM

Hello! Over the last few weeks, I've been working on a random group creator. Now, I think I'm at version 1.0 so you guys can all take a peak. This is what it does:

You choose the level of training that the group has from the list: average, semi-trained, trained, professional, elite. This represents what equipment the group has access to. The higher the level of training, the more options for weapons, armor, spells, and cyberware the group has.
You enter the level of quality the group is compared to the shadowrunning team from the list: fresh-meat, inferior, equal, superior, superhuman. This helps to add a modifier to the statistics for the group so that you get people wil stats that "match" the quality of the group.
Enter the number of metahumans of each race that are in the group and the program automatically adds the necessary racial modifications to the statistics of the group member.
Done entering the group information? Click the generate button and a well-formatted HTML page is created by the program. Open it in a browser and print it for your own record sheet.
Or, for those who GM via laptop, there is a condition monitor created in flash that automatically loads on the HTML page allowing you to keep track of the damage to your group online. There is also a handy combat pool field so you can keep track of how many pool dice your opposition is using.

What it can't do is skills -- so either just enter the skills on your own right into the HTML page or print it and write on the back, whatever. That'll probably be an addition for version 2.0. I want to move onto my ally spirit creator for a while and then come back to this one.

All of the code is included in the zip file download, so if your good with Visual C++ and know a little about the MFC, then go ahead and see if you have any alterations to make!

Anyway, if you've read down this far, you must be interested. So http://www.sharemation.com/dashifen/grp_mkr.zip. Installation for the software is hell because I don't know how to make an auto-installer. But, there is a README file within the zip archive that should help you out.

Post what you think -- your feedback will help the program grow!!

-- Dash --

Posted by: Phaeton Dec 19 2003, 07:54 PM

QUOTE (Dashifen)

Hello! Over the last few weeks, I've been working on a random group creator. Now, I think I'm at version 1.0 so you guys can all take a peak. This is what it does:

You choose the level of training that the group has from the list: average, semi-trained, trained, professional, elite. This represents what equipment the group has access to. The higher the level of training, the more options for weapons, armor, spells, and cyberware the group has.
You enter the level of quality the group is compared to the shadowrunning team from the list: fresh-meat, inferior, equal, superior, superhuman. This helps to add a modifier to the statistics for the group so that you get people wil stats that "match" the quality of the group.
Enter the number of metahumans of each race that are in the group and the program automatically adds the necessary racial modifications to the statistics of the group member.
Done entering the group information? Click the generate button and a well-formatted HTML page is created by the program. Open it in a browser and print it for your own record sheet.
Or, for those who GM via laptop, there is a condition monitor created in flash that automatically loads on the HTML page allowing you to keep track of the damage to your group online. There is also a handy combat pool field so you can keep track of how many pool dice your opposition is using.

...I haven't downloaded it yet, but it looks like I could use something like this...

Posted by: Nindaru Jan 1 2004, 01:47 AM

Ok, it crashes on my Win XP system after generating a group. I like the idea, but I think something is wrong. Also, when I look at the HTML page, it is nearly blank besides the name of the group and a refresh button.

Posted by: Dashifen Jan 7 2004, 08:39 PM

That's probably because it hasn't finished writing the output to the HTML prior to the crash. Unfortunately, I can't replicate this bug on my own or other XP machines. Let me look around in the code for a while one day and see if I can get it working.

-- Dash --

Posted by: Diesel Jan 15 2004, 07:19 AM

Links broken.

Posted by: Dashifen Jan 15 2004, 08:29 PM

I can't even get to sharemation.com today so give it some time and try again.
-- Dash --

Posted by: Yasha Feb 19 2004, 08:01 PM

It likes to lock up! After you hit generate group it just sits there.

Posted by: Dashifen Feb 26 2004, 07:29 PM

Depending on the size of the group you've created it could take a really long time. Oh well -- it was an idea that maybe doesn't work too well in this application. I'll be re-coding it in PHP for the web shortly. Watch for my other thread on the dashifen character record system shortly.

Posted by: Mardegun Mar 15 2004, 04:06 AM

First of let me applaud you on your efforts! However since you asked for commments here are mine

- You probably didn't get many responses, because you don't have a setup.exe I almost didn't use your program, because it didn't have a setup.
- In your readme it says

QUOTE

"In the list of possible data sources that pops up, click on the one that says Database for Microsoft Access (*.mdb) and then click next."

Well I didn't see "Database for Microsoft Access (*.mdb)", all that was there was
"Driver do Microsoft Access(*.mdb)"
"Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)"
"Microsoft Access-Treiber (*.mdb)"

So which is it? Everyone of them hung the program, expect the last one. Unfortunately even the Microsoft Access-Treiber (*.mdb) only works the first time and for the simplest group. Here is my test group

name:test
training:average
quality:equal
demographic: 1 human

Even with this case the program would hang most of the time. So in the end I couldn't really test your program. btw I am using windowsXp

All in all I like where this is going and it could be really useful. In a final state I would be willing to pay money for it.

Posted by: Dashifen Mar 15 2004, 04:08 PM

Interesting, it looks like you have a non-english language pack installed or something for the first and third options there. I've found the program to be a problem on any machine running XP home rather than XP pro, so that could be it. As my previous post said, it'll be recoded into PHP eventually and placed online with my Dashifen Character Record System, but there are other things that are a part of that system that I need to deal with first.

-- Dash --