character generator/creator?

[PurpleDragon]

I did a google search for Battletech Character creator and found a program page that claims to use AToW/w link to CGs main, and lifestage systems.  Anybody here familiar with/ use it? 

[Wombat]

I'd be interested in seeing it. Pop me a link!  :)

[Daryk]

As I recall, there was a Russian site that claimed to have a character generator that turned out to be a trojan horse, so be careful.

[monbvol]

I've never had any virus problems with the one at bthub.net.  It's a little quirky but seems to work alright.

Aside from that there are the various spreadsheets that users have built scattered about.

I don't plug mine too much anymore because it requires Open Office to work correctly but if that isn't a problem it works mostly okay.

[salcor]

Hopefully with lone wolf doing shadowrun for herolab they will work on an STOW module as well.

Salcor

[Peter Smith]

Would be nice, but I'm not sure if it would be in CGL's best interest to devote resources. Shadowrun is the RPG, whereas AToW is just one part of BattleTech.

[Bluemax]

Would be nice, but I'm not sure if it would be in CGL's best interest to devote resources. Shadowrun is the RPG, whereas AToW is just one part of BattleTech.

That logic is hard to argue.  There is a further point that could be possibly made, but its left assumed.

Assumption:
It is not expected, or desired, that non Battletech players are drawn to AToW.

Founding of assumption:
Most of the AToW material past the base book has been mixed into BattleTech publications

This isn't an attack on anyone.  Realistic goals keep projects alive.

If the assumption is false, then all of the logic can be drawn into question.

BlueMax
/Casual Battletech player
// Giant MW2 RPG player
/// Getting used to AToW and loving it.

[PurpleDragon]

I'd be interested in seeing it. Pop me a link!  :)

http://bthub.net/projects/battletech-character-creator/

I've downloaded it, installed it, and it seems to be a pretty nifty program.  I even showed Phacade a character sheet printed by the program.  It does have it's drawbacks...   for example, if you want to print a character it can't have any more than eight traits, total, whether positive or negative.  In some places you can choose from subskills and in others it just gives a blanket skill e.g. language, or protocol.  When using the lifestages, it threw a message that I needed to put a minimum xp towards a trait or attribute and after I had done so, it kept throwing the message every time I clicked a button...

Don't get me wrong, there is the option to do a strait xp buy on the characters.  It looks like it'll be a great program if they work all the kinks out of it. 

[Maverick]

Would be nice, but I'm not sure if it would be in CGL's best interest to devote resources. Shadowrun is the RPG, whereas AToW is just one part of BattleTech.

If they license Lone Wolf to do it, then the only resources they would be devoting would be cash, right?  Other than an editor/tester to make sure that it handles characters properly.  Lone Wolf would do all of the programming.  They certainly have the experience base by now, even though AToW is a whole different beast from most of the other RPGs they've programmed for HeroLab.

As a user of HeroLab for Mutants and Masterminds and Pathfinder, I find the program to be great, and would love to see them do AToW as well.

[ColonelCody]

Hopefully with lone wolf doing shadowrun for herolab they will work on an STOW module as well.

Salcor

Any idea when it'll be available? the Shadowrun one i mean.

[Dread Moores]

At GenCon, was the last I heard. Herolab was apparently discounted recently, to get folks to purchase the core package early.

[Onisuzume]

http://bthub.net/projects/battletech-character-creator/

I've downloaded it, installed it, and it seems to be a pretty nifty program.  I even showed Phacade a character sheet printed by the program.  It does have it's drawbacks...   for example, if you want to print a character it can't have any more than eight traits, total, whether positive or negative.  In some places you can choose from subskills and in others it just gives a blanket skill e.g. language, or protocol.  When using the lifestages, it threw a message that I needed to put a minimum xp towards a trait or attribute and after I had done so, it kept throwing the message every time I clicked a button...

Don't get me wrong, there is the option to do a strait xp buy on the characters.  It looks like it'll be a great program if they work all the kinks out of it.

Indeed, it still has some rather... irritating... bugs.
The skills one in particular. I know I did some work on editing the file containing all the skills to add the subskills, but its far from done. Another irritation is only being able to put XP 10 points at the time into traits (when not using the wizard). Goes really well with those high-XP traits.

[ColonelCody]

At GenCon, was the last I heard. Herolab was apparently discounted recently, to get folks to purchase the core package early.

I already have Pathfinder & Mutants & Masterminds for the Herolabs stuff. I'd love to see Shadowrun and AToW done in Herolabs too.

[Cannon_Fodder]

With EVE Online there is a wealth of fan made programs to help with most aspects of the game. AToW must have the wrong kind of geeks.

[Daryk]

Given some of the shenanigans that have been pulled on EVE, I'm not sure we'd want their "kind of geeks".

[Peter Smith]

If they license Lone Wolf to do it, then the only resources they would be devoting would be cash, right?

Lone Wolf's cash. They're going to balance the costs of working on AToW against revenue taken in by the people who purchase the dataset, as well as the cost to acquire the license.

As a user of HeroLab for Mutants and Masterminds and Pathfinder, I find the program to be great, and would love to see them do AToW as well.

More looking forward to Shadowrun myself.

[Cannon_Fodder]

Given some of the shenanigans that have been pulled on EVE, I'm not sure we'd want their "kind of geeks".

TBH the 2 events that made that list barely make the top 10 of real eve shenanigans. Its an old list.

#2 on that list may be second life and not EVE but the Something Awful forums who's members pulled that off are also the founders and members of Goon Swarm, a very large EVE Alliance.

The people who tend to make the programs are normally not the ass-hats.

[Bad_Syntax]

Wow, its nice to see somebody else wrote a ATOW character generator.

I had actually started one, mine was a LOT more dynamic.  Each stage type had its own little text file, so you could make your own stages.  I got discouraged after entering in all the data as I wasn't real sure how people wanted to go about building a character.  One of the biggest parts of that was did I need to support going BACK a stage or not.  If not its a lot easier, otherwise I have to save all the changes for each stage so I can undo them.  Since I already have all base and stage 0 stuff done, as well as all the skills/traits entered in, I could probably finish this in a couple hours given some motivation.

Anybody have a list of all the additional ATOW traits/stages/etc that have been put out in other books?  It'd save me some time :)  Course if nobody really cares I'll just forget about it all together and move on to other things.

[monbvol]

I haven't pulled stuff from the new books but you are welcome to pull anything useful from my spreadsheet you find helpful.  I can't promise the data entry is 100% accurate but it should have most everything that isn't a multiple choice option in the modules filled out.

A link for convienance's sake.

[Bad_Syntax]

Thanks for the offer, but this is the file format I was planning on using, to make it easier to 'mod':

Here is a FS stage 0 config file (/Any is special, it lets you pick text for things like career, or choose from a subfield for skills that support it):

Code: [Select]

Primary_Affiliation=Federated Suns
Description=The social and cultural structure of the Federated Suns hails mostly from feudal England, with additional influences from France and other Western European societies. Ever mindful of its political and military situation, the Suns is divided into military sub-states called Marches, where the threat of invasion from nearby realms colors everyday life. This “border culture” is in stark contrast to the realm’s more sophisticated and affluent inner worlds, or the oft-neglected worlds of the Periphery Outback.
Cost=150
Primary_Affiliation_Language=English
Secondary_Affiliation_Language=French,German,Hindi,Russian

CHOOSE:1,Min_INT:4=Natural Aptitude/Protocol=100,Natural Aptitude/Strategy=100
Protocol/Federated Suns=10

Secondary_Affiliation=Capellan March
WIL=40
Connections=25
Compulsion/Hatred of Capellan Confederation=-50
Protocol/Federated Suns=10
Interest/Federated Suns History=10
CHOOSE:1=Language/Cantonese=5,Language/German=5,Language/Mandarin=5,Language/Spanish=5,Language/Russian=5

Secondary_Affiliation=Crucis March
WIL=50
EDG=-50
Arts/%ANY%=10
Protocol/Federated Suns=15
Interest/Federated Suns History=15

Secondary_Affiliation=Draconis March
EDG=25
Connections=20
Compulsion/Hatred of Draconis Combine=-30
Arts/Any=10
Protocol/Federated Suns=5
Interest/Federated Suns History=10

Secondary_Affiliation=Outback
STR=50
BOD=150
WIL=100
INT=-100
Illerate=-50
Reputation=-50
Wealth=-100
CHOOSE:1=Arts/Any=10,Interest/Any=10
Streetwise=Federated Suns=10
Survival/Any=20

I have all the stage 0 stuff typed up, and they don't take too long... I just thought I remembered some different stages in recent books, but don't know which ones :(

[Daryk]

Era Report: 3052 has about three and a half pages (pp. 156-159) of affiliation adjustments for that era (e.g. pre-schism ComStar).

[monbvol]

I might have something else potentially helpful then.  It is a little large to attach to the forums so I can shoot you either an e-mail or another megaupload link.  I don't have Era Report 3062 yet and that includes some AToW affiliations as well.

And if you can keep it that straight forward for modding I would be most happy to make use of anything you'd code.

[Hammer]

I'd be willing to help as well.  I don't have any experience programming but the config files look pretty straight forward to make.

[Bad_Syntax]

Bunch of stuff in era report 3052!  Wowza!

Yes, all the config files are *that* easy to read.  When it creates your character it simply forwards the blocks in the code you selected, the character generator part parses that code applying the values as specified.  It'll break more often if you screw up modding it, but its versatile enough you can do *anything* with it.

I was thinking of a random version too, click on a button and BAM, a character, shouldn't be very hard to implement, and I needed that for a large scale BT game.

I'll take a look at it again, I think I have to store each stage selected as a complete and stand alone object, this way you can "back up" a stage if necessary.  There are 20 or so special rules I have to take into account that I need to look at and see if there is a better way to parse them, but it shouldn't be *too* bad.  I'll see if I can free up a few hours this weekend to work on it.

Any features ya'll may want better speak up now :)

[Daryk]

Bunch of stuff in era report 3052!  Wowza!
...

That's exactly why I voted for more Era Reports in Herb's latest poll.  As far as implementing rules, you may have already addressed the ones I worked out in my spreadsheet (tiered skills et al.), but you're certainly free to use any of those algorithms (as crudely implemented as they are).

[peterbehere]

Hi everyone!  I'm a long time admirer of the Battletech universe, and I recently discovered AToW.

About the Character Generator, I think bthub.net is awesome, and I've been working with the creator (bearchik) to make adjustments.  He's rather enthusiastic about changing the program every time I report an issue.  Currently, we are adjusting the program to account for the VAST list of subskills for characters.  I mean, who wouldn't want a skill/sub like:

Protocol/Empire of Peterbehere
or
Interests/Game Mastering

Anyway,  please give advice on the forum at bthub.net on how we can better this generator...that is, unless you have a better one!

[Daryk]

I dealt with that issue by essentially leaving the sub-skills as free text.  Granted, mine's only a spreadsheet accounting aid, but it was the easiest way to implement it.

[JamesPryde]

It's times like this I wish I knew some programing to make one though time to do it would be hard anyway. does anyone know of any base programs that could be modified to suit it?

[peterbehere]

Drayk - I looked at the xls, but at first glance, it looks confusing.  I think BTCC [bthub.net] utilizes a good wizard for creation.  I hope that the next  version or two will include a wizard for adding XP in gameplay -- after the finishing touches of creation.

[Drop Bear]

ATM I'm trying to learn to navigate the character generator from bthub, I've found out that if you mess up most of the time you have to scrap the build and start over.

I'd prefer if Felexables where at the end of each module and you could starting at late childhood choose to exit to either a Stage 3 Module or a Stage 4 Module and perhaps adding in an audit at the end of each module that tells you if you've missed anything, also their is the bit about opposed traits not cancelling each other out.

but the thing is still in development, so for an Alpha stage product it's darn good, I'm expecting big things by the time it reaches Beta stage, by then I'll have learnt to navigate it properly.