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MasterBLB

MasterBLB

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Apr 30, 2018
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Greetings Mechwarriors

In this thread please share your opinions and experiences with my program, both positive and negative.
 
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A while ago I was designing a bunch of custom Mechs for my mod (at least 1-2 for each specific tonnage bracket) and had to do that using the in-game MechLab and exported them with the help of MechEngineer.

Even if MechDesigner doesn't support MechEngineer functionality (yet? :D), if I had used MechDesigner instead it would've taken me around half a day at most compared to two days of work I put it. (Not having to stare at loading screens for minutes at a time is a definite bonus, too!)

So yeah, I imagine now that it's available it'll help a lot of people, especially those into designing new missions and flashpoints with custom Mechs. The only reason I'm not using it for everything is that most of my custom Mechs are dependent on MechEngineer features, which I gotta add manually anyway.


tl;dr MechDesigner is great and if you haven't tried it yet you should! :cool:
 
This is really great and just what the community needs :). Keep up the good work.
 
Had a quick look at 0.74. I like that the cost of individual items is now being displayed as well. Every bit of information counts. :D

Speaking of cost, is there any progress on the Mech cost calculation front? From what I understand the formula is rather convoluted?
 
0.74 has cost calculator implemented, and working - base cost from chassisdef + equipment cost + MechStatisticsConstants.json::CBILLS_PER_ARMOR_POINT * totalArmorPoints, rounded up to 10k alignment results the same value stored in mechdef.json, as I tested. So, after exporting a loadout to .json internal game mechanics should process it further properly.
To observe this run Mech Designer in advanced mode, expand the right side to show "Tags and Description" data, and watch "Mech Cost" field.
I left possibility to manually edit the cost in case of someone would make a mech cheaper/more expensive.
 
MasterBLB said:
0.74 has cost calculator implemented, and working - base cost from chassisdef + equipment cost + MechStatisticsConstants.json::CBILLS_PER_ARMOR_POINT * totalArmorPoints, rounded up to 10k alignment results the same value stored in mechdef.json, as I tested. So, after exporting a loadout to .json internal game mechanics should process it further properly.
To observe this run Mech Designer in advanced mode, expand the right side to show "Tags and Description" data, and watch "Mech Cost" field.
I left possibility to manually edit the cost in case of someone would make a mech cheaper/more expensive.
Click to expand...

Ah, that makes sense! Didn't have time to switch to advanced mode earlier, so I missed it.

That's great, thanks for the hard work implementing it! :)
 
OK guys, I need you to chime in on this feature.

Now, that we have a cost calculator to figure up the total cost of the mech, I would like to have an additional button that replaces the rarity slot, since that is no longer used. This button would be used to calculate the mech part cost. The reason for it to be a button and not automatic, is that not every modder may want to modify the mech parts or for that matter even the total mech cost.The percentage can be put in the setup.ini (and later options)

For instance, I will put the mech part cost at 25% of the total mech cost. This would eliminate the exploitation of a cheap mech (that could be fully loaded) though stores that technically could cost as little as 25% (3 parts @ store discounted price) of the value of the mech. By changing these prices, this eliminates the need for people to play games that have up to 8 mech parts, so they don't feel like they are cheating.

By having a button that can instantly calculate and fill in this blank. I would be very happy to have this, anyway. Yes, I can do it manually now at least! But a button makes it sooo much easier!
 
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Xeryx said:
OK guys, I need you to chime in on this feature.

Now, that we have a cost calculator to figure up the total cost of the mech, I would like to have an additional button that replaces the rarity slot, since that is no longer used. This button would be used to calculate the mech part cost. The reason for it to be a button and not automatic, is that not every modder may want to modify the mech parts or for that matter even the total mech cost.The percentage can be put in the setup.ini (and later options)
Click to expand...

What a Great idea Xeryx!! I think it should be implemented!! Because trying to go and change the mechpart cost using a normal calculator takes way too long, I didn't sign up for Battletech to be an accountant too.

It would be vital to have a multiplier in the settings file for this, just so it can be changed to whatever the modder needs it to be.

RMAOF
 
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Actually @Xeryx, from today's works and experiments....
Mech Designer WIP.PNG
;)
 
Woooo hooo! That is too cool! can you PLEASE release it today??? I can try it out and report any bugs!

That is what I am working on this weekend and it would save me so much time!
 
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HBS_Eck said:
Your MechDesigner for Battletech looks really cool. I'm definitely going to share this with the design team to see if they can get some use out of it for Heavy Metal.

Nice work @MasterBLB!
- Eck
Click to expand...

Please don't take this the wrong way Eck, but I am curious as to why HBS never had a program like this? or for that matter use Jjson buddy to check format errors in jsons? 1.6.2 is a great example of this.

I also think it would be very fair and gracious of HBS to donate to the program which he made, especially if you guys intend use his program for commercial use. Which should NOT fall under the Battletech EULA.

We all have given HBS a bunch of our money, I think it is time to give some back.

I am sure the disagrees will be flying now!
 
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@MasterBLB thank you for this great tool! Just got finished making 6 custom mech variants for the Flashpoint I'm working on and Mech Designer has saved me a crazy amount of time in terms of looking for component names, double checking slot space, armor values, and tonnage.

I'm so glad you decided to keep working on this.
 
@mjbroekman add unit tags to that list :p And thanks for kind words, think about next level of gratitude mentioned in main window ;)

Btw, can you post your variants here, using "Screenshot" option?
 
@mjbroekman
You have invalid CombatGameConstants.json so you are 30 heat/turn short of cooling. Also, heat and distance for JJ's calculations don't work correctly.
Well, probably you have issues with Panther 9R too.
Go to my download thread, there, aside Mech Designer.rar, are corrected CombatGameConstants and mechdef_panther_PNT-9R. Replace the erroneous files with these provided by me.

This is how it should look like:
GHR-5H with correct CombatGameConstants.json.png
 
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mjbroekman said:
Does the invalid CombatGameConstants actually impact the exported JSON mechdef or is it just a display issue in MechDesigner?
Click to expand...
It doesn't affect exporting to mechdef, CombatGameConstants contains just data needed for heat calculation.

But Mech Designer will nag about unsuccessful parsing of these files each time you'll start it - and it's safe to replace the files, as the errors are just missing/superfluous comma.
 
Nope, but I have old version of Battletech. Can you confirm that fixed CombatGameConstants.json is the source of the issue?
The fix if I recall was to add missing/remove superfluous commas, nothing else.
 
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