Author Topic: BTS! Unit Maker Program  (Read 7849 times)

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Offline Haegan2005 (OP)

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BTS! Unit Maker Program
« on: May 04, 2009, 06:57:53 PM »
The BTS! Unit Maker Program is intended to permit fast and easy creation of templates for players and GM's to use. Eventually it will allow a player or GM have a racial file of saved units That can be reloaded for modernization and changes and give the player of GM the difference in costs, etc.

Eventually, we hope to have all the disparate programs merged into a single App that will make everyones job easier.  :lol:
 

Offline Haegan2005 (OP)

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Re: BTS! Unit Maker Program
« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2009, 09:06:15 PM »
We have a basic structure setup and now are working on saving it to a file.

Sample from current file:

"Light Cruiser: 5000CC"
"122wu /210pp /1BE   30 mos prod time"

This has required additional programming as the BE was not included by me in my original unit file. It is Now though!

The primary concern so far was setting it up so Maintenance was added corrrectly. I think this is done,

Cargo capacity is also working now.


Need to do:

Deck Points need to be displayed and the two cap types for it looked for.

We ned to add in basic command points as well, but this will require modifying the units template file as this was not thought of when I put the file together :AE .

Only two unit templates are currently included. Simple and Complex Navies. The other types will be added as time and programming allows, though because of the modular design, I should only need to add about 40 lines of code to get the ball rolling for army and air templates.

Each unit template file has IUU, WU, Fuel, and Reduced caps files for it as well.

IIRC, the unit printout will have to be changed to reflect the template type(complex navy or army or ...) being used. Not hard, just a bit of tappin to do.

CC must be checking for Size as well and multiply the CC acordingly as army and aviation units can be made larger and smaller and this effects their Cargo Capacity.

My estimate is about 20 more hours of work to get a basic running program up and going for simple and complex navy templates and another  5 hours each for the others. The time difference is because of the way the templates are able to use most of hte same code!

Ken, I am sure there is more, but my mind just can't figure anything else out right now. Anything I have missed, let me know!
« Last Edit: July 10, 2009, 10:15:46 PM by Haegan2005 »
 

Offline Haegan2005 (OP)

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Re: BTS! Unit Maker Program
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2009, 09:08:43 PM »
I have given version .302 etc to ken to break, er, test. hopefully i will get back some good ideas. I did warn him that I have not added in the error control, so any errors will drop him out of the program.
 

Offline Haegan2005 (OP)

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BTS! Unit Maker Program Update!
« Reply #3 on: July 01, 2009, 10:04:02 PM »
The program does the following.

Calculates the WU cost

Calculates the PP cost

Calculates months to produce and adjusts the divisor for tech level

Prints to a file the finished unit (simple and complex naval only for now.)

Calculates the CC(Cargo Capacity) based off of the chosen caps. It does not check to see if the player is mixing normal and specialty cargo caps.

Calculates the DC(Deck Capacity) based off of the chosen caps. It does not check to see if the player is mixing normal and specialty deck capacity caps.

Shows the available number of caps based off of tech level. A TL 8 is limited to 4 caps total as an example.

Limits the size of the cap based off of the tech level. Tl 8 is limit to a +4 on a cap, for instance.

The Unit Name text box may have its description altered(ie. rename the ship!) without effecting anything.  :bs


Things to do immediately:

Fix the damn maintenance calc!

generate a popup box that can copy and paste out of!

Add in candy and whistles!!

add in code for handling the air and ground templates!
 

Offline Haegan2005 (OP)

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Re: BTS! Unit Maker Program
« Reply #4 on: July 04, 2009, 02:36:47 PM »
Things done:

Finished adding in the Complex Naval Unit Templates.

Fixed the damn maintenance calc!

Generated a popup box that we can copy and paste out of! into another doc, like excel!


STILL TO DO:

Adjust the CC for the tech level. Right now it defaults to the TL 7 capacity.

Add in candy and whistles!!

add in code for handling the air and ground templates!

Need to finish adding in the Complex Naval Caps.

Add in code, templates, and caps for Ground and Air units.
 

Offline Haegan2005 (OP)

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Re: BTS! Unit Maker Program
« Reply #5 on: July 09, 2009, 10:26:16 PM »
Ken pointed out something I had forgotten. We use engine caps on both wet and space ships. So that is my current project to add in. He had also pointed out that we needed to add in the Command ratings as well.

The command ratings are now added in, but the engines are actually caps, and need to be added in as such. This will require notable coding, but much of it is a matter of copying and pasting and changing some names in the copied code.

I also need to add in the code to blank out the boxes when someone removes a cap! That was so obvious I did not even think of it. I was trying to get the code to do the production cost, wealth cost, and maintenance correctly and did not even think about removing a cap. Well, the DUH has been caught and will be fixed!
 

Offline Haegan2005 (OP)

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Re: BTS! Unit Maker Program
« Reply #6 on: July 10, 2009, 10:14:16 PM »
The removal of a cap now resets the boxes associated with it.
 

Offline Haegan2005 (OP)

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Re: BTS! Unit Maker Program
« Reply #7 on: July 10, 2009, 10:36:58 PM »
Sample unit:

Battleship:  CR: 7
218wu /672pp /4BE   96 mos prod time
Industrial Upkeep: 0.6, Wealth Upkeep: 0.4, Fuel Upkeep: 0.6
AR 6/2 DR 5/2 AM 6/6 12 PP
TL 7, +3 Weapons, +3 Armor, +3 Sensors
Deck Capacity of 1 Aircraft Squadrons
DPs may only be used for aviation type of aircraft


The CR: 7 is the Command rating and represents the number of ships it can command, including itself. The sensors cap added +2 to the CR. Without Sensors, it would be a 5.

I am still coding the engine caps code so they do not show up here yet.
 

Offline Haegan2005 (OP)

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Re: BTS! Unit Maker Program
« Reply #8 on: July 12, 2009, 12:01:59 AM »
We fixed the rounding in the Production point costs and now have engines working for complex and simple navies. Simple is defined as no later then WW II.

Light Cruiser:  CR: 3,  10000CC
138wu /144pp /1BE   16 mos prod time
Industrial Upkeep: 0.1, Wealth Upkeep: 0.1, Fuel Upkeep: 0.8
AR 4/4 DR 3/2 AM 2/2 10 PP
TL 8, +1 System Drive Reaction: Chemical Cyrogenic, +4 Sensors, +4 Weapons
Deck Capacity of 1 Aircraft Squadrons
DPs may only be used for aviation type of aircraft

This is a Light Cruiser spaceship with rather primitive engines. But it is maxed out for weapons(laser, thus fuel maint) and sensors. Both of these have driven its Fuel maintenance up to a really high level(+.3 and +.3). Most powered engines also add to the fuel maintenace bill as well and this one adds .1 to its fuel bill. And, of course, you have the basic maintenance of any complex unit of .1 fuel, .1 Wealth, and .1 Industrial upkeep(spare parts!)
 

Offline Haegan2005 (OP)

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Re: BTS! Unit Maker Program
« Reply #9 on: July 21, 2009, 12:56:12 AM »
The coding has been added to load simple and complex army units and the Complex army template file is now done. The Production point cost subroutine needs to be modified to allow the army units to have proper costs. The naval and army formulas are different and I need to put in a check to see which one needs to be used!

The Simple Army templates are not as numerous as the Complex, Thank god! Tight now the Simple units template file is a copy of the complex template file.

caps files need to be done for both simple and complex army units. They are curently copies of Naval caps and as such give odd caps(like torpedoes and docking collars!!!).
 

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Re: BTS! Unit Maker Program
« Reply #10 on: July 21, 2009, 01:16:43 AM »
All of the current naval caps are now entered and accounted for in Maintenance. I had forgotten about a few that required maintenance from multiple categories and one in particular(Fast) that doubles the Fuel Maintenance after everything else has been added in. As of now, any cap should be able to be added or modded to fit into one of the existing ways of adding to maintenance.

I will be leaving the simple navy, ground, and air unit templates and Caps alone for now. The templates wil be copies of their Complex cousins.

Our testing is currently around tech level 8.5, which would be about year 2030 for real life. This means that we are trying hard to push out the ability to make Complex units with relative ease with the Unit Maker as that will be a significant time saver when making units for new powers and Non-Player powers.

I have two goals for this upcoming weekend. Get the Complex ground Caps source files finished and program in how the Caps effect the Attack Ratings(AR), Defense Ratings(DR), and Armor (AM) for the chosen templates.

Once this is done we will be needing to add in the effects of certain caps like Compact and Silos as this effects the CC and DP of the units they are on respectively. Also, the Reducers(its like a negative Cap) need to have their effects programed in as well. I will also need to add in coding to prevent a Reducer from being chosen more then once. This should not be hard, but will still require time to do.

The more I do this, the more I respect Steves skills and willingness to step through code and debug it. It can be time
consuming and frustrating to boot! But the payoff when it does what you want it to do!!! Well, that mostly makes it worth the hair pulling, cursing, and general french speaking that I go through when I fix something while breaking somethhing else. Darned order of operations is so picky...  

Ok, my rant is done.
 

Offline Haegan2005 (OP)

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Re: BTS! Unit Maker Program
« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2009, 12:00:36 AM »
Light Cruiser: CR: 3, 10000CC
138wu /144pp /1BE 16 mos prod time
Industrial Upkeep: 0.1, Wealth Upkeep: 0.1, Fuel Upkeep: 0.8
AR 4/4 DR 3/2 AM 2/2 10 PP
TL 8, +1 System Drive Reaction: Chemical Cyrogenic, +4 Sensors, +4 Weapons
Deck Capacity of 1 Aircraft Squadrons
DPs may only be used for aviation type of aircraft


After Stats fixes: (The AR has been modified by the weapons cap.)

Light Cruiser: CR: 3, 10000CC
138wu /144pp /1BE 16 mos prod time
Industrial Upkeep: 0.1, Wealth Upkeep: 0.1, Fuel Upkeep: 0.8
AR 8/8 DR 3/2 AM 2/2 10 PP
TL 8, +4 Sensors, +4 Energy Weapons, +1 System Drive Reaction: Chemical Cyrogenic
Deck Capacity of 1 Aircraft Squadrons
DPs may only be used for aviation type of aircraft


This the light cruiser capped out with all four caps used and the free engine slot used as well. No External caps have been used as they are even more maintenance intensive.

Light Cruiser:  CR: 3,  10000CC
154wu /176pp /1BE   20 mos prod time
Industrial Upkeep: 0.1, Wealth Upkeep: 0.1, Fuel Upkeep: 1.1
AR 8/8 DR 7/6 AM 6/6 10 PP
TL 8, +4 Sensors, +4 Energy Weapons, +1 System Drive Reaction: Chemical Cyrogenic, +4 Shields, +4 Armor
Deck Capacity of 1 Aircraft Squadrons
DPs may only be used for aviation type of aircraft


The Fuel maintenance is horrifically expensive(becomes an 11 if undergoing training or war time circumstances) but the ship is potentially far more effective then its less capped sister above. It also takes much more production points to make(176 vs 144) and more wealth units to pay for(154 vs 138). This does not count production time either(20 vs 16 months each.) The highly capped cruiser is beyond my industries ability to make, even if I pay for overtime which doubles my available Production Points in space. Though if it was a wet naval ship I could do it barely (89 *2 = 178).
 

Offline Haegan2005 (OP)

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Re: BTS! Unit Maker Program
« Reply #12 on: August 08, 2009, 11:27:05 PM »
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Okay, we have the complex air templates typed in and working. The program will also change the stars for DR to GA and AM to EW for naval and ship templates when you are going back and forth. The printouts for them have not been fixed yet.

A check box has been placed to allow a aircraft to be marked as a sensors aircraft and it adds half the base PP to the PP total.

A check box has been placed to mark a unit as a missile. The stats will be added to the 2nd GA value in this case instead of all of them.

The CC switching for the two forms of CC calc for air units has been entered as well and placed in the complex air templates as well as has had a subroutine looking for it as well.

Things to do for air units.

finish the Complex Air caps.
Enter the Simple Air templates
do the Simple air caps
Enter coding for the missiles (have to wait on ken for this.)
I need to add in code to act off of the reducing caps. right now they only effect PP and WU costs.

In addition we have the following programming to do:

Addd in code to zero out the AR's for a sub before adding in the caps adj. Will lIkley have to run a search once through all combo boxes for 'submersible.' first, then run the rest of the code for stats adjustment.

I also need to do the simple army caps. The army is using a copy of the Complex army caps as a place holder.

I am wanting to add teams in as well, but that is taking a back seat right now.

Even once the program is up and running i have several hours of data entry! The net result should be a modable program that players can alter to make their own universes units within the BTS! rule sets. We have been able to make  star wars and units from our stories using this program and we expect it to only get better as tweaking and time allows.
 

Offline Haegan2005 (OP)

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Re: BTS! Unit Maker Program
« Reply #13 on: August 14, 2009, 10:36:37 PM »
Code has been added to load air units, handle their Cargo capacity, deck points for airships, and the complex caps and unit templates are done for Complex Air units. Complex air units are choppers, transports, shuttles, fighter to bomber types, and blimps(airships). This also includes interplanetary probes and satellites.

Needless to say, this template file for the complex air units is the biggest yet.

It also has some of the most specific code as well. There are two different ways to calc Cargo Capacity as well as specialist templates for missiles and Awacs craft. Both of which require special coding to handle costs and how caps effect them.

Onward!
 

Offline Haegan2005 (OP)

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Re: BTS! Unit Maker Program
« Reply #14 on: August 14, 2009, 10:41:50 PM »
Quote from: "Haegan2005"
Code has been added to load air units, handle their Cargo capacity, deck points for airships, and the complex caps and unit templates are done for Complex Air units. Complex air units are choppers, transports, shuttles, fighter to bomber types, and blimps(airships). This also includes interplanetary probes and satellites.

Needless to say, this template file for the complex air units is the biggest yet.

It also has some of the most specific code as well. There are two different ways to calc Cargo Capacity as well as specialist templates for missiles and Awacs craft. Both of which require special coding to handle costs and how caps effect them. The Awacs code is done, but the missile code is waiting for us to see how it should fit together.

Onward!