current version: Jackpoint One

Jackpoint is a windows based suite of programs for Shadowrun Third Edition. i realize that SR3 is now a legacy system, but perhaps there's still a demand for new products based on it. (and, perhaps one day...if you're good, I'll add SR4 functionality)

here is the link:

Jackpoint

any feedback is appreciated. this is something that i hope many people will enjoy using.

for a current list of bugs and feature suggestions, see the website.

I mean, I have yet to toy with the program.

But... The design... So... Clean. And simple. And. Oh wow.

I greatly look forward to toying with this thing.

Wow. I am impressed. I would love to try out the beta for you.

Actually, I would like to see something other than Japaneese symbols on the opening page.

ok, well...only good things so far, so that's good! i want you guys to know that i plan to have the beta up for download within two weeks with at least all of the features mentioned here. I just want to make sure that i have as many bases covered as possible so that hopefully it doesn’t break too much in your guys’ hands

and if I get any feature comments before that two weeks is up, then I’ll look into adding those features before that release (assuming I choose to run with said feature).

thanks again for the support!

The look is fine, I just don't read Japanese. Having the mouse over is good enough for me. Although the translations make me laugh...

Dear Sweet Dunkie on a pogo-stick. archimagus, I love you.

Aside from the amusing kanji, maybe you could replace the Shadowrun logo with a Jackpoint one? I have a couple of vague ideas for a new opening screen, I'll take a poke around in paintshop and see if I can pull 'em out of my head.

Hmm...

Could you use this as the core of a game engine, I wonder...

I vote for more accurate kanji.

Quick question. Bear with me, I am a programming noob. Will this be compiled for a specific processor, OS, or whatever (like Intel versus Asus, or XP versus OSX) or cross platform and cross processor?

That looks like a really cool program. I like the look and feel as depicted by the snapshots in the user manual. And while I had no idea which kanji those were, I agree that they shouldn't be entirely random if possible. There are enough people internationally who play SR that someone who speaks japanese is likely to grab this and really wonder.

I'd love to beta test it for you.

So, when is beta going to be released at this rate, Mr. 20000 lines of code-dude?

That is some grade-A user interface design, archimagus. I'm eagerly looking forward to the beta.

thanks for all the support so far - i honestly wasn't sure how this would be received.

and now i'm really looking forward to the release to see how the actual product holds up.

i said within 2 weeks on friday, and so far i'm sticking to that...unless i have less to do than i think or can do it faster than i think. but there's no reason that it'll be any later than 2/12 as a worst-case date.

I have to admit this program rocks so far, from the looks of it.

I have no request/suggestion. Is it possible to make a grid map with addable and movable markers for both map building and interactive combat? Would make it every GMs dream

If you decide to use different kanji, here are my feeble suggestions.

#1: king (gamemaster)
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin...cgi?3439_%B2%A6
god
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin...cgi?0912_%BF%C0

#2: make
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin...cgi?0068_%BA%EE

#3: change
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin...cgi?2069_%CA%D1

#4: nothing
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin...cgi?2135_%CC%B5
not yet, future
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin...cgi?3506_%CC%A4

#5: notify, inform
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin...cgi?2409_%B9%F0
what?
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin...cgi?0065_%B2%BF


Of course, these are bitmaps and require permission to use (which I don't imagine would be hard to obtain). Another option is to install a free Japanese font and type them up yourself. I wouldn't recommend drawing them yourself.

thanks beck - i'm not sure exactly what direction i'm gonna go, but trying to find a kanji font is a good idea.

OMYFRKNGOWD!!@!@#@$@!#@

Okay. I have just recently started using a computer while I GM (I used to be among the "it'll distract me too much and separate me from my players" crowd. I am now reformed.) I thought I'd revolutionized my games just by keeping word documents with stats and stuff open....

Can I have your drop bear?

Count me in for the Beta testing. I have a five player group that meets for around 10-15 hours every Saturday, so it that doesn't beat it to hell, nothing will.

As for kanjies, why not included Kane (Gold or money) http://ww1.baywell.ne.jp/fpweb/drlatham/ni.../less7/kane.gif and maybe our beloved nuyen?

Drawing them just take a few tries ... except if through calligraphy. That's just near impossible
If you use WinXp Japanese fonts are included, you just need to activate them.

I would love to help test this software! It looks absolutely excellent.


Cheers,

Okkam

i updated the features list in post one.

So...um....about to go to game....

any chance of a beta in the next hour or so?

Can't wait to see it man.

Oh my...yes when can we get a hold of this beautiful thing...

man, i didn't mean to be a tease or anything - but you understand...a guy just can't put out too soon

i doubt i'll be ok with releasing it anytime this week. when you get it i'll still consider it unpolished - but for now it really is too unpolished to release. next weekend will be the unveiling, i promise.

Me? Excited? No... Well, yes.

Can't wait to try it out!

Ok, so Jackpoint Beta is posted for download. You can visit the first post in this thread to find the link to the site.

Some things i have to explain about Beta:

1. The Character Sheet that opens in your web browser at the save and print stage is very simplistic right now. expect it to look much better in the first actual release.

2. I only have one half-made sample character from SR3 in the system. i plan to have them all made and available in the first release.

3. There is no 'Character Updater' right now - so once you create any characters you can't load them up to change them. This is because i am going to use the 'Character Creater' as the foundation for the Updater, and i want to make sure you guys get the chance to test the creator first so we can weed out all the bugs in it before i copy the code over and modify it for the Updater.

4. the 'about' button leads nowhere right now.

5. I need all the help you can provide. i'm in the midst of changing jobs right now (i start my new job on monday) - so for the next week or 2 if you could just report anything that is wrong/doesn't look good/is missing/etc. i would greatly appreitate it. i'll look on here every day and update all bugs/known issues in the first post, and i'll let them pile up until i've settled into my new position.

as soon as i can, i'll start updating Jackpoint, getting it ready for it's official release (1.0) - but for now i'm looking forward to a little time off from this project while my brain can heal from all the thinking.

i hope everyone finds Jackpoint Beta to be a good foundation to a great SR3 tool (that could one day find a new home in the world of 2070)

Well, not many complaints, but here they are nonetheless:

1) Skills. Don't know if it's StyleXP or if it's Jackpoint, but the skills only show up (as in, can be read) if you click them. (After being bought, that is.)

2) BP for skills. When purchasing Assault Rifles 6 with Quickness 5, it subtracts 6 points only, when it should be 7. It does get the correct amount eventually, but the BP display is wrong.

3) Gear. It could be a little more sorted, I feel. It's tough scrolling through tons and tons of 'ware, only to miss it and have to repeat.

Now that that is out of the way...

oh, and now that my brain has had some sleep (what the hell happened to SNL last night? am i nuts or did it not come on?)...

critters are something else that are not working at the moment...there is a button for them in the GMConsole, but you cannot add any to play yet.

in the grid map, you can rename the markers with 1-2 alpha-numeric characters of your choosing by right-clicking on them.

there are not many people in the random person generator yet...only a sampling of about 30 so far.

those are the only new notes i can think of for now...

another thing i would like people to test are the generators...most specifically the security system generator. i just want to make sure that it's making realistic security systems.

and remember - it was built to make 'em random, so some may seem off-balance...like having lots of cameras but not much else on a rating 3 system - maybe that company put all of their small security budget into cameras.

but if you hit generate over and over and each system that it makes seems not quite right for the type or rating you selected, please let me know how it seems off so i can tweak the decision-making logic.

an example would be a rating 2 home security system having mono-wire topped fencing...that just wouldn't seem right. a rating > 7 maybe, 'cus now we're probably talkin' about a corp owned neighborhood - but not a 2.

Not so much a bug, really, just a typo. When you click "Initiate" in the character creator, the buttons read "OK" and "Cancle".

Other than that, although I've only done a very brief poking around,

In the GM Console, under "Character Stats", the 'clone' button should reselect the character cloned, so that it's possible to (say) generate six identical gangers by pressing 'clone' six times, rather than having to go back and reselect the original ganger by hand each time.

Also, how do you give an NPC combat pool? My cloned adepts all showed up with a combat pool of zero, and I couldn't figure out how to give them any. Clicking the little arrows did nothing.

The security system creator seems fine. Fewer lines of defense than something I'd write by hand, but since those defenses have to be aware of one another that's a bit outside the scope of a random generator.

The magical group generator is great.

Why is it irreversible to buy knowledge points? You can infer from Intelligence how many knowledge points the character "ought" to have, so it's possible to know how many bought unspent knowledge skill points are remaining. Similarly, buying language skill points with knowledge skill points can be reversed, since you know how many language points are unsellable.

It's friggin' awesome.

I seem to have found a fairly nasty bug.

I'm trying to create a full shaman. I set the attributes, make him a full shaman using the drop down, and then start picking skills. This is where I run into the bug.

When I try to give him Sorcery, the box pops up asking me what rating I want it at. When I click a rating and hit okay, it adds "Sorcery/Knowledge/(blank)" to the skills list, and the "pick a rating" box comes right back up. (It charges you build points twice in the process.) When I pick a rating, I get the following error message:

Can't get it to load on any of my machines, I am sad.

AMDs, WinXP Pro and home.

I can't help but feel I am missing out.

New ?bug?.

I got this error message, the gist of which was that it couldn't find the file "Jackpoint>JPFs>DBs>Stuff.xml"

I got to looking, and it appears that nearly every file was installed with the extention ".jpf". I backed up the Stuff.jpf file in another folder, and renamed the original to "Stuff.xml" and it fixed the problem.

I'm wondering if everything is supposed to be an xml file? Right now, I'm just going to keep playing with things until I get bugs and see if I can't figure out how to work around them.

I guess my main question regarding this one is how is everything supposed to look when installed? What are the various files supposed to be? (as in XML, JPF, etc.) Should I just rename everything as XML files? And if so, any clues as to why it would have installed everything so wonky? I'm wondering if it's just my machine.

New bug.

I added the edge "Bonus Charisma Point", but then decided that I'd rather the character have a bonus intelligence point, so I removed "Charisma Point". However, when I tried to then give him the bonus intelligence point, it gave me a dialog box that said "You have already used the Bonus Attribute Edge to raise an attribute above it's limit" and wouldn't let me do it.

New bug.

Before I describe it, I should note that this only comes up when you try to use the program in a manner other than intended: typing things directly in rather than selecting them through buttons. Therefore, it isn't so much a bug as something you might want to consider making impossible to do. You'll see why:

Under edges and flaws: You can type in anything you like into the boxes (this isn't the bug). For example, I typed in "Cool Hair Cut" and gave it a value of 5.

First part of bug: When I assign a typed in value to something, it doesn't reflect in the "points left" box.

Second part: Then, I highlighted Cool Hair Cut and hit "Remove". When I removed it, it gave me 5 free build points. Munchkins are gonna love this. SHHHHHHH, don't tell them.

Oops. It appears that when the program is starting up, it looks for the file "Stuff.jpf". Since I had changed Stuff to an XML to work around the other problem I was having, it wouldn't start correctly.

Current workaround seems to be keeping a copy of Stuff as both an XML (see above for why) and as a JPF. Testing now...

Program opens normally if both files are present in DBs directory.

This seems to be more stylistic than anything, but when buying cyber, if you select something at alpha, and the math causes it to be a repeating number (my alpha headware 200MP ended up being .6666666666666666667 E, for example) it actually carries it out for several decimals before rounding. I don't know if this is intentional for calculation purposes, unintentional but does factor in to the calculations, or something that could be limited without any effect.