Hello Wumpus
Neither, the source code is closed, and the license forbids reverse engineering/disassembling my application.
Neither, the source code is closed, and the license forbids reverse engineering/disassembling my application.
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So far the program has done really well, I have only had a few star league era mech not load correctly, you might check them out on your side. The vanilla ones. I do have a request though. Can you make a vehicle version on this program?
Please attach mechdefs and chassidefs of the mechs, I will take a look.
Sorry, that's out of scope.
I do have another request that I really hope is not out of scope. Especially, since now that the you have the devs attention and I hope my previous requests at least sit on the back burner. But I really would love to have an automatic calculator for my mech designs. I have spent a lot of time on the costs of my parts, and now that my mechs are not stock...at all. I would like to see it sum up the parts, the chassis, and then have a changeable fraction for the mech part cost. Then with a simple click of the button the mech could update the cost. Using the chassis as the reference cost, then the Mechdef could be updated when saved. The game uses the mechdef values I believe. I would not think this would be hard to implement at all. That my friend would save me another 40 hours at least.
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Hmmm...while that's not out of scope (too much anyway) I need to ponder where to put cost info. Initial idea is under Ammo Stock/Consumption area, but I need to test if there is enough space here.
Will back with a prototype soon.
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Some like this @Xeryx ? I advise top left corner location, as here the cost won't be covered by new equipment dialog. And just to ensure I get it correctly - you'd like to have total cost of the mech here, based on chassis cost + equipped stuff cost?
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Yes, that would be great. Can we have a button to automatically fill in the mech field? and the mech parts field? with a an adjustable multiplier in the setup, and later in the settings. My goal is to make the mech parts more expensive. Instead of 1/10 the cost I would like them to be 25% the total cost of the mech. If I can adjust this that would make me very happy!
Also, would it be possible to be able to look at all the details of the items, via mouse-over, or by clicking on the item. I know it takes time to get it all together, and the program is awesome! just need a bit more info to make sure I am building the mechs with the right items. Even just adding the name or model info can help. I don't think the full description is needed.
Also, would it be possible to be able to look at all the details of the items, via mouse-over, or by clicking on the item. I know it takes time to get it all together, and the program is awesome! just need a bit more info to make sure I am building the mechs with the right items. Even just adding the name or model info can help. I don't think the full description is needed.
Ok, I can do it (cost calculation display), but I need more data:
1) there is difference in Description > Cost field in mechdef and chassidef .json. What does it mean, chassidef is just an empty mech (with armor perhaps?), while value inside mechdef is empty mech + sum of stock equipment costs?
2) which field do you have in mind here
1) there is difference in Description > Cost field in mechdef and chassidef .json. What does it mean, chassidef is just an empty mech (with armor perhaps?), while value inside mechdef is empty mech + sum of stock equipment costs?
2) which field do you have in mind here
Hmm, will ask in main forum about details.
Yes, tooltips for items, similar to these we have in Battletech mechlab are planned. Don't know why item manufacturer is important, though, personally I always cared about bonuses an item provided.
That is great news that the info will come later! The reason for the name is important for one reason. If I am making a lore accurate mech. Then, I might need a particular laser or AC/20 for that model of mech. Don't give me wrong, I can figure that stuff out the hard way, by having to open another editor to look at the .jsons. Who wants to have to do that.? I can tell with the upgrades what everything does instantly, because those show the name of the items. I agree the bonuses, are important as well, and should be the first thing we can see.
I typically use the "manufacture" name then I put in the model of the item in the manufacture field, so that doesn't have to be seen with a mouse over in the game. HBS, did not do a great job in being overly descriptive on many things, I however am being so.
Also, I would assume the chassis cost is based on the structure and the Mech cost is based on the armor and components but you may have to ask HBS on that one.
BTW, From my understanding, rarity is not used in the game anymore so that field could be removed. I things are busy, but if you want to release another beta I will test it more.
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Back to game costs. From what I can see, we are correct that the chassis cost, is the base cost of the mech. Even though their costs are different than say what I pull up in my Heavy Metal Pro.(an old mech designing program for TT) I would definitely say that they adjusted the cost of the variant mechdef based on the load out of weapons.
I think this would be the best way to accomplish the cost calculator. Now with my fancy dancy Heavy metal Pro, I could go in and figure out base costs of all the actual chassis based on engine, armor, etc and get a pretty close approximation of the chassis and I do believe that is exactly what HBS did.
This is very important to understand, variants do not have to have a matching chassis file. Technically speaking, you can make many different variants based on a single chassis. Because the Chassis is what contains the engine (speed) armor, hard points and the base cost of a mech is reflected here.
So then if I made 3 different variants based on that mech chassis, the differences in the load out should change accordingly and recorded in the mechdef. That is as simple as it gets man!
I think this would be the best way to accomplish the cost calculator. Now with my fancy dancy Heavy metal Pro, I could go in and figure out base costs of all the actual chassis based on engine, armor, etc and get a pretty close approximation of the chassis and I do believe that is exactly what HBS did.
This is very important to understand, variants do not have to have a matching chassis file. Technically speaking, you can make many different variants based on a single chassis. Because the Chassis is what contains the engine (speed) armor, hard points and the base cost of a mech is reflected here.
So then if I made 3 different variants based on that mech chassis, the differences in the load out should change accordingly and recorded in the mechdef. That is as simple as it gets man!
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@Xeryx
Here is prototype for including manufacturer name in add new weapon dialog. How do you like it?
Also, does it matter just for weapons, or other stuff as well?
About mech cost - as it turned out such calculations are more complex, hopefully with @HBS_RedMenace's help all the mysteries of that process will be revealed^^.
Worry not my friend, I'm going to implement cost calculator, but 1st I need knowledge how to do it.
Here is prototype for including manufacturer name in add new weapon dialog. How do you like it?
Also, does it matter just for weapons, or other stuff as well?
About mech cost - as it turned out such calculations are more complex, hopefully with @HBS_RedMenace's help all the mysteries of that process will be revealed^^.
Worry not my friend, I'm going to implement cost calculator, but 1st I need knowledge how to do it.
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I think that will work just fine!! but there is only one way to find out.
Edit, I didn't have an issue with other items, only the weapons.
Edit, I didn't have an issue with other items, only the weapons.
Tooltip for equipment items example - it is placed below Ammunition stock and consumption. It inherits background of the item, and in case of weapon displays damage (+heat damage if present), stability damage, and generated heat in the bottom line.
Will appear in v0.74
Will appear in v0.74
Looks nice, but I'm not sure how it'll work - does this mean we click there to open the add equipment dialog instead of / in addition to clicking the Mechs location?
Naay, it's just a tooltip - it appears on mouse hover over an item, and hides when there is no equipment under cursor.
Hi @MasterBLB and my apologies for the late reply (minor as the issue is); I must not have seen the notification three weeks ago when you replied to my disappointment.
I find it unfortunate that the source code for your app is not available, because that makes it impractical for me to use. After almost forty years working with software, I've come to the conclusion that in my personal life, it's not worth my time to deal with "free" software when the source code is closed or unavailable. I'll certainly use closed-source commercial software (like Battletech!) from time to time, if it is sufficiently awesome and well supported. But in the absence of commercial-quality support, the likelihood that your program will be useful to me is almost zero. If I want to change how it operates, I cannot do so, and although I'm sure the design decisions you made are appropriate for you, they are less likely to be exactly what I would have wanted.
Since your source code is not available, fixing or adjusting such things myself is not an option.
Since you do not provide commercial support for your software, expecting you to make changes specific to my needs would be ridiculous, and the turnaround time too slow even if for some reason you were enthusiastic about such things.
And so, rather than downloading or using your software, I just hacked up something more appropriate to my needs. If your source code had been available, it would have saved me a few hours of effort, and I could have submitted any useful patches back to you in case you wanted to consider incorporating them. Both of those results would have been fortunate.
Since neither of those results occurred, that's why I used the word "unfortunate".