Author Topic: Flechs Sheets (Digital Record Sheets)  (Read 71995 times)

Bison AIs

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Flechs Sheets (Digital Record Sheets)
« on: 23 January 2019, 12:54:43 »
Hi all, I made a thing.

Overview videos here: https://sheets.flechs.net/tutorials.html

Flechs Sheets 3 alpha (http://sheets.flechs.net/) is a 'game aid' that allows damage tracking and attack resolution for (most) (biped) mechs from 3025 and printable (biped) mechs up through ~3067 3130's. (Markability is dependent on equipment. See here: https://sheets.flechs.net/equipmentLimitations.html)

It is designed specifically for tablets (with HIDPI screens 2880x1800+) but is web-based (Chrome 69+, Firefox 63+, or Safari 11+ req.) so it will also run on cursor-based systems, e.g. laptops. (A HIDPI screen and short viewing distance are more or less required though.)

It has network capabilities. After resolving shots, damage can be 'sent to' or 'declared for' sheets on other devices in the same 'operation', i.e. game room.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
BIG ASK:

I'm really interested in finding out about things that are certainly wrong, e.g. piloting safety checks taken during falling after failed shutdown rolls should only be +x instead of +y, or attacking with an AC/5 does not decrement the ammo, or that pressing A and then B causes the system to stop responding, etc.

I'm interested in other things too...

If you're in southWEST Ohio area, additional user-testers would be rad.

That said, best to assume there's no plans for anything more than fixing typos. (Though I guess I'd restart the server if it went down...)


Cheers!
« Last Edit: 08 August 2020, 11:49:27 by Bison AIs »

Bedwyr

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #1 on: 23 January 2019, 14:50:47 »
I'll look at this later, but trying it out on my laptop, I can only seem to get walk/run/jump to respond via mouse.
Alas poor Photobucket. I knew him Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #2 on: 23 January 2019, 16:18:44 »
Using the Network function, are you setting up online a means for two people using their devices to fight one another?  Using the code under network?
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Bison AIs

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #3 on: 23 January 2019, 17:16:13 »
I'll look at this later, but trying it out on my laptop, I can only seem to get walk/run/jump to respond via mouse.

Interesting... The only thing that should cause that is the unit not being from 3025—marking is only supported for units from 3025.

That said, movement modes should not even be clickable for units outside of 3025, so that's good to know!
« Last Edit: 23 January 2019, 17:34:08 by Bison AIs »

Bison AIs

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #4 on: 23 January 2019, 17:20:45 »
Using the Network function, are you setting up online a means for two people using their devices to fight one another?

Yes?
If by 'fight' you mean 'send attack results to a target sheet on another person's device and have that damage applied.' Players still need a map and figures.

Using the code under network?

If you mean the three word operation name, yes.

If not, I'm confused. This video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-njP-w31P1A) provides a quick example, though it may not be clear that the each sheet is in its own browser—the demonstrated behavior holds for cases where the two sheets are on two separate devices entirely. Let me know if this doesn't answer your question.
« Last Edit: 11 August 2019, 13:48:12 by Bison AIs »

Bedwyr

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #5 on: 23 January 2019, 17:50:52 »
Interesting... The only thing that should cause that is the unit not being from 3025—marking is only supported for units from 3025.

That said, movement modes should not even be clickable for units outside of 3025, so that's good to know!

Oh shoot, you're right. I had a 3055 unit up.
Alas poor Photobucket. I knew him Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.

Bosefius

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #6 on: 23 January 2019, 21:19:46 »
This thread is being moved to the computer software section.
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Bison AIs

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #7 on: 24 January 2019, 07:54:29 »
This thread is being moved to the computer software section.

Ah, ok makes sense. But why into the computer software's child MegaMek board?

[Edit: answered in DM: Closest thing to a 'non-licensed software' board.  ]
« Last Edit: 24 January 2019, 10:24:02 by Bison AIs »

Bison AIs

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #8 on: 10 April 2019, 15:52:07 »
Oh shoot, you're right. I had a 3055 unit up.

Head's up, significant updates have made thousands of units beyond 3025 markable, though with some equipment-specific limitations. (See here: https://sheets.flechs.net/equipmentLimitations.html )
« Last Edit: 11 August 2019, 13:48:30 by Bison AIs »

grimlock1

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #9 on: 11 April 2019, 11:04:59 »
First item, this works well on a Surface Go, in tablet mode.  The popup menus took a minute to get used to.

It took a moment to realize that setting the TH number, not the range modifier, to the right of the weapons table.  But what if you are shooing to matched weapons at different targets?  Say a medium laser at short range target and a medium laser at a long range target?
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Bedwyr

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #10 on: 11 April 2019, 11:20:11 »
Is there a reason all units I bring up remain faded and non-responsive to a cursor-based system, including the Archer unit you were demonstrating on?
Alas poor Photobucket. I knew him Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.

Bison AIs

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #11 on: 11 April 2019, 19:43:57 »
Thanks for taking a spin grimlock1!

...what if you are shooting two matched weapons at different targets?

Support for secondary targets is on the shortlist.  :thumbsup:

Bison AIs

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #12 on: 11 April 2019, 20:06:24 »
Hi Bedwyr, thanks for taking a look. Sorry you ran into an issue but thanks for giving a heads up about it.

What browser (version) were you using when you ran into this? (A screenshot might be helpful too.)

Is there a reason all units I bring up remain faded and non-responsive to a cursor-based system, including the Archer unit you were demonstrating on?

I have hit an occasional snag the first time I load a new live version. A simple refresh usually does the trick. Beyond that I might try clearing the browser's cache.

Sheets stay greyed-out until the data is loaded, parsed and presented, so if they remain that way then there's a problem in that pipeline... but such an issue should be accompanied by an error message...

There may be an incompatibility issue with the specific browser/version, but possible incompatibility should be preceded by a note about browser requirements at launch (e.g. 'Flechs Sheets may not work in this browser...')... Though I have had issues in the past with this alert not displaying all the time on all unsupported browsers... Just in case, the minimum requirements are Chrome 69+, Firefox 63+, or Safari 11+.

Thanks again for speaking up. I'll try taking a better guess at what's going on once I know a little more about what you're surfing with.
« Last Edit: 11 April 2019, 20:11:30 by Bison AIs »

Bartok

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #13 on: 11 April 2019, 20:19:45 »
I'm seeing the not loading as well.  Up to date Chrome on Mac OSX.  Here's a screenshot of it.


Bedwyr

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #14 on: 11 April 2019, 20:20:57 »
Firefox updated to current. If it means anything, ublock origin as well
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grimlock1

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #15 on: 11 April 2019, 20:37:00 »
The TH for kicks is wrong.  PSR is 5, kick is -2, so it should be TH 3.

CASE doesn't work on Clan mechs.  I hit a Timby from behind until it critted the MG ammo, which killed the mech.

Some icons in the 3rd pick didn't render.  Possibly b/c I was offline at the time.

When I try to "pencil in" damage dots with a stylus, I have to drag it across at least 3 dots, and the first two don't register.  20+ damage that's applied this way doesn't trigger a PSR the way the drop down does.   Also, there's no "erase" or undo for damage applied with the stylus.

I have screen caps of the 1st three items if you want them.

All that said, this program has the potential to be freaking AWESOME.
I'm rarely right... Except when I am.  ---  Idle question.  What is the BV2 of dread?
Apollo's Law- if it needs Clan tech to make it useable, It doesn't deserve those resources in the first place.
Sure it isn't the most practical 'mech ever designed, but it's a hundred ton axe-murderer. If loving that is wrong I don't wanna be right.

Bison AIs

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #16 on: 11 April 2019, 23:44:10 »
Thanks for all the notes!

The TH for kicks is wrong.  PSR is 5, kick is -2, so it should be TH 3.

Hah, yes, it is wrong. I had (and then ripped out) a calculator long ago, and since the TNs were modifiable I just stopped worrying why the default value was off  xp .

CASE doesn't work on Clan mechs.  I hit a Timby from behind until it critted the MG ammo, which killed the mech.

A picture of this would be wonderful. I'm having a hard time reproducing it. Manually criting the ammo and plinking 1 pointers to the right rear seems to resolve as it should. (FWIW, auto-eject is on by default, so it could very well have spat out the pilot and marked the sheet "abandoned"...)

Some icons in the 3rd pick didn't render.  Possibly b/c I was offline at the time.

Mmm. Were they dice related? If so, very possible being offline affected this.

When I try to "pencil in" damage dots with a stylus, I have to drag it across at least 3 dots, and the first two don't register.  20+ damage that's applied this way doesn't trigger a PSR the way the drop down does.   Also, there's no "erase" or undo for damage applied with the stylus.

Yea... While dot-by-dot stylus input is "in" there, it was (is) real experimental. (Just try it on a prone mech =P !) Once the finger-based pull down applicator was working well enough, I tabled stylus bubbling. I want to get back into this real bad, but it comes with a few more gotachs than I can justify dealing with while other things (like secondary targeting) still can't be done at all. This is to say I'm probably not getting to this one soon :/ .

All that said, this program has the potential to be freaking AWESOME.

Thanks!

Bison AIs

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #17 on: 12 April 2019, 00:08:24 »
I'm seeing the not loading as well.  Up to date Chrome on Mac OSX.  Here's a screenshot of it.

Interesting... Sorry you're running into an issue too.

If you could do me a big favor, could you:
(1) in Chrome, go to View > Developer > Javascript Console.
(2) Reload the page, attempt to access the same unit.
(3) (assuming things don't work) Right click in Chrome's console and select 'save as...'
(4) DM me the log file?

[ I'll add 'send error log to server' to my todo list. ]

Bison AIs

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #18 on: 12 April 2019, 00:20:00 »
If it means anything, ublock origin as well

Ahhhh.... A cursory look around reveals some reported conflicts between uBlock and Service Workers (which I'm literally required to use in order to support add-to-homescreen) and/or Google Analytics (which is not required, but whose non-function shouldn't impact anything at all)... This could be an interesting bug indeed...

In short, Ima take a look into this. For now, you might give things a try in Chrome (or Safari if you're on a Mac).
« Last Edit: 12 April 2019, 00:21:41 by Bison AIs »

grimlock1

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #19 on: 12 April 2019, 10:44:25 »
Hah, yes, it is wrong. I had (and then ripped out) a calculator long ago, and since the TNs were modifiable I just stopped worrying why the default value was off  xp .
So how would you set a kick TN manually?

A picture of this would be wonderful. I'm having a hard time reproducing it. Manually criting the ammo and plinking 1 pointers to the right rear seems to resolve as it should. (FWIW, auto-eject is on by default, so it could very well have spat out the pilot and marked the sheet "abandoned"...)
The CASE work when the MG ammo got hit, but that explosion seems to have set off the LRM ammo


Mmm. Were they dice related? If so, very possible being offline affected this.
yes
I'm rarely right... Except when I am.  ---  Idle question.  What is the BV2 of dread?
Apollo's Law- if it needs Clan tech to make it useable, It doesn't deserve those resources in the first place.
Sure it isn't the most practical 'mech ever designed, but it's a hundred ton axe-murderer. If loving that is wrong I don't wanna be right.

grimlock1

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #20 on: 12 April 2019, 10:45:56 »
Icons didn't render right.
I'm rarely right... Except when I am.  ---  Idle question.  What is the BV2 of dread?
Apollo's Law- if it needs Clan tech to make it useable, It doesn't deserve those resources in the first place.
Sure it isn't the most practical 'mech ever designed, but it's a hundred ton axe-murderer. If loving that is wrong I don't wanna be right.

Bison AIs

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #21 on: 13 April 2019, 10:05:03 »
Icons didn't render right.

Ah, yes. Bingo. Going offline at some point could cause that if the system hadn't shown those specific dice values yet. I've been meaning to preload them anyway to prevent popping.

Bison AIs

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #22 on: 13 April 2019, 10:09:56 »
So how would you set a kick TN manually?

Should be able to touch it and set just like with the target numbers for weapons.

The CASE work when the MG ammo got hit, but that explosion seems to have set off the LRM ammo

Oh wow... Yea, the second explosion went right through... and... that would do it! 99.99% sure I check for location destruction before applying damage, so it doesn't even get to the CASE check. Nice Catch!


grimlock1

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #23 on: 13 April 2019, 19:13:55 »
Should be able to touch it and set just like with the target numbers for weapons.

Oh wow... Yea, the second explosion went right through... and... that would do it! 99.99% sure I check for location destruction before applying damage, so it doesn't even get to the CASE check. Nice Catch!
I did some temp work as a bug hunter. :-)
I'm rarely right... Except when I am.  ---  Idle question.  What is the BV2 of dread?
Apollo's Law- if it needs Clan tech to make it useable, It doesn't deserve those resources in the first place.
Sure it isn't the most practical 'mech ever designed, but it's a hundred ton axe-murderer. If loving that is wrong I don't wanna be right.

grimlock1

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #24 on: 13 April 2019, 19:55:42 »
If you select a melee attack first, then choose to fire a weapon from that arm, in strict order, the prog will let that happen.  Similarly, if you choose to kick, and hatchet in the same turn, that will be allowed.

choosing an arm mounted weapon greys out that arms punch, as expected, but the same check isn't there for legs.  So a viking could fire its machine guns and still look eligible to kick
I'm rarely right... Except when I am.  ---  Idle question.  What is the BV2 of dread?
Apollo's Law- if it needs Clan tech to make it useable, It doesn't deserve those resources in the first place.
Sure it isn't the most practical 'mech ever designed, but it's a hundred ton axe-murderer. If loving that is wrong I don't wanna be right.

Bedwyr

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #25 on: 13 April 2019, 21:15:34 »
BTW: Disabling uBlock (which you can do per page) makes it work fine.
Alas poor Photobucket. I knew him Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.

Bedwyr

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #26 on: 14 April 2019, 10:48:16 »
So I've tried this out on PC, iPad mini, and iPhone so far. It's good. Like, really good. The UX is very thoughtfully designed and makes a lot of sense. The remaining obstacle to making this a near automatic tabletop tool is probably the phone vs. tablet use case. Tablet is obviously optimal. However, the one device my guests and players are near guaranteed to have is a phone.

I have no idea how locked in the design decisions have made the record sheet display as-is, but if I were to appeal a use case, it would be the ability to pan or swap sections on a zoomed in screen on the phone. I think it would nearly guarantee greater interest in playing the game in the first place as it would create a personal link with the device in peoples' hands. Plus there wouldn't need to be 2-4 tablets on-hand before using it (vs. a personal allowance by that one person who has a tablet, much as we had 4 players with paper and 1 with an app or Hero Lab).

edit: One UI concept alternative I just thought of is that you could expand the functionality of those side popup displays while also allowing the finger to slide-and-select. It's similar to the magnifying glass used when selecting text on your phone.
« Last Edit: 14 April 2019, 11:38:14 by Bedwyr »
Alas poor Photobucket. I knew him Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.

Bison AIs

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #27 on: 15 April 2019, 08:35:06 »
Bartok and Bedwyr,

I've pushed an update that fixes the issue you experienced running uBlock. Things should work normally now even with it running! Thanks again for noting the issue!

grimlock1,

The CASE issue is fixed! Crit as many ammo bins as you want!

(In either case, if the issues persists, just try an extra refresh or clearing the browser's cache.)

NeonKnight

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #28 on: 15 April 2019, 08:39:48 »
I'm interested in this, but am stuck at the cap of 3067, as I'm in 3078 territory :(

Any plans to bring further up in the time line?
AGENT #575, Vancouver Canada

Bison AIs

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Re: 'Digital' Record Sheets
« Reply #29 on: 15 April 2019, 08:48:09 »
If you select a melee attack first, then choose to fire a weapon from that arm, in strict order, the prog will let that happen.  Similarly, if you choose to kick, and hatchet in the same turn, that will be allowed.


Yea, I've been dragging my feet on that for a few reasons, but I think I'll change it soon to match the weapons behavior.

choosing an arm mounted weapon greys out that arms punch, as expected, but the same check isn't there for legs.  So a viking could fire its machine guns and still look eligible to kick.

*Shakes fist at Vikings and Crusaders*

 

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