SR4 Dice Roller, Python Powered! Options

[Dashifen]

Windows Installer
Source Code (requires python and tkinter to run)

Currently in 1.6 and windows only because I couldn't get packages built for other platforms over lunch. For non-windows types, you can download the source code and try to run it yourselves. I had to instal MacPython and the TclTkAqua package myself, though, so you might have to do a little digging to get it to work. I have no access to a linux or unix maching so if someone wants to test it out and let me know if it works, I'd appreciate it.

Figured with people beginning to game with SR4 online here or elsewhere, it might be nice to have a dice roller that counts hits rather than successes. Currently it just rolls one set of dice and tells you the roll and the hits. Very simply and not very idiotproof (putting text or a non-number in the entry fields will cause it to fail) but I'll idiot-proof it for a sub-version number.

Known Bugs:

• The sixth column of numbers in the roll results text area is hidden by the scroll bar. But, if you select the text and copy/paste it (use keyboard shortcuts for now) the sixth column will be copied as well.

Things to complete:

• Error messages and idiot proofing
• Copy and paste the roll results
• Announcements of glitches and critical glitches
• Rolling more than one set of dice at a time (i.e. for GMs who pre-roll before a game)
• Extended Test Mode
• Advanced Mode

If you have any suggestions let me know.

Enjoy!

[Fortune]

Would it be possible to include something that announces when Glitches (and Critical Glitches) occur?

[Dashifen]

Totally should have thought of that one myself. Excellent suggestion :) Edited the first post to include that feature in the list.

[Slacker]

Are the brackets at the begining and end of rolls really necessary? The rolls are already in their own textbox.
The only reason I ask is because the bracket at the beginning looks very close to a 1 if you just glance at it.

[Dashifen]

Probably not, but I haven't bothered to remove them from the python print out of the roll. I'll get rid of it. Also, trying to figure out why the message widget is wrapping lines early when I run the program. I'd rather it use all of the available space but it never seems to do that. I'll try to remove the brackets for you ;)

[Fortune]

Thanks Dash. You're doing some great work for the Shadowrun community as a whole, not just with this, but with your other projects as well, and don't for a minute think it goes unappreciated. :)

[Dashifen]

Coded more. Got the idiotproofing and the glitching notifications done. Haven't uploaded it yet because I don't have the windows installer packaging programs at home and can't find them online (don't remember what their called ... it's midnight, forgive me :D). Probably tomorrow at lunch time (CDT, -5 GMT) I'll get version 1.2 uploaded for Windows. Then, once I get the other things running that I want to (specifically the pre-rolling capabilities with file writting and stuff like that) I'll make an installer for other platforms. If a Mac or Unix/Linux person really wants me to, I'll figure out how to build you an executable --- or just send you the python code --- if you want me to.

[Little Tim]

Just to try and steal some of Dashifen's thunder, I've made a SR 4 dice roller and stuffed it on the net. It uses java so you'll want the JRE from java.com if you don't have it already. It should work under Windows, Linux, Macs, and even BeOS.

SR4Dice

[Ranneko]

But your one doesn't run on my computer Little Tim =(

[Little Tim]

[Ranneko]

I'm using Tiger (OS X 10.4.2) and when I try to run it I get this nice lot of errors:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: sr4dice/Main (Unsupported major.minor version 49.0)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass0(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:539)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:123)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:251)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:55)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:194)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:187)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:289)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:274)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:235)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:302)

[Little Tim]

Thanks for the trace, Foolish me, I assumed that Macs had the most recent version of Java available.

I have it working on my 10.3 machine. I hope this means it will work for others too.

[EDIT: I have tested the recompiled copy, and it works (for me at least) on Win XP, Mac OS 10.3, and SuSe Linux 9.2 If anyone has any problems or suggestions, please give a yell.]

[Ranneko]

Yeah, alas Macs always get a nice long lag period before the newer version of Java comes out for them it seems.

[Dashifen]

I actually really like the re-roll non-hits option for edge spending. I might try to work that into mine, too. No thunder stolen, but if people start asking for features or changes to your software, I'd appreciate it if you start a new thread so we're not chasing each others bugs :D

[Dashifen]

New version (1.2) with error messages and alerts when glitches (critical and otherwise) occur has been uploaded.

[Fortune]

Is it possible (or even desirable) to somehow differentiate between the different factors that make up the Pool (Attribute/Skill/Edge/Augmentation/etc)?

[Dashifen]

It's possible, I don't see it as desirable, though. I suppose the real benefit is that you could enter the attribute, skill, and modifiers (or skill and program rating for hacking) and the system would add those numbers together to create the dice pool, but I think most people can handle that on their own.

Plus, there's a question of whether or not the person using the program knows the modifiers. SR4 has opened up a interesting problem for online gaming in that players need to be more aware of the situation than before as the modifiers do not alter a target number but rather the number of dice they roll. Because of thise fact, I figure game masters online will most likely need to determine the dice pool that the player needs to roll since only the GM will know all of the circumstances of the moment (unless someone is really descriptive in their posts). Thus, players (and gamemasters of course) will know the whole dice pool but not necessarily the parts that make it up, specifically the modifiers. Thus, breaking things down may actually be more problematic than leaving it as is.

[Adam]

[Slacker]

[Fortune]

Is there not a time where it is necessary to differentiate Edge dice from any others rolled for a test? If not, then I guess there really would be no point, but I thought that there might come the time when it is necessary to seperate one aspect or another (especially Edge).

[Dashifen]

Not so far in my experience. The only seperation is whether or not edge is rolled as a part of the original roll (declared before the roll) or as an augmentation to the original roll (declared after the roll). I like the advanced option, though, I may work that into the system.

[Dashifen]

uploaded the source code (and icon)

[Slacker]

Something else that might be helpful would be the ability to roll extended tests. Let the user specify the Dice Pool and Threshold, and maybe the time interval too. Then it tells them how long (in either # of rolls or using the time interval given) it takes to succeed.

[Dashifen]

Excellent! That idea and the "advanced" mode that you mentioned above, however, will require seperate dialogs. I'll have to work on those for a little while, thus, this weekend seems to be the best bet there. I can even track a glitch and when it happened so a GM could decide what that means in their games ... I love it!

So, roadmap moment: for version 2.0 the following will be included

• extended test mode
• pre-rolling for game masters (probable exporting as text files or something)
• advanced mode for breaking down the dice pool

Probably, I'll work on things in that order.

Anyone know how to get this thing running on Macs or Linux/Unix machines? I've been fighting with my Mac (OS 10.3) for a while now but it's not happening yet.

[Little Tim]

If you're going to have an extended test it would be good to have rush job option. Glitches with a 1 or 2. An optional -1D6 hits when a glitch is rolled would be nice too. Things I over looked and I saw pointed out in another thread.