characterassistant for Linux

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

Hello,
does anybody know if Stev Jackson games is planning a tool like the
characterassistant for other operating systems?

If not, would someone like to help me write one? I am an experienced
programmer in the linux environment, and have some experience with
platform independent programming, but I lack the time to write such
a tool alone.

Greetings,
Johannes


--
http://www.5sl.org/~bretscher/mert/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

Johannes Bretscher wrote:
> Hello,
> does anybody know if Stev Jackson games is planning a tool like the
> characterassistant for other operating systems?
>
> If not, would someone like to help me write one? I am an experienced
> programmer in the linux environment, and have some experience with
> platform independent programming, but I lack the time to write such
> a tool alone.
>
> Greetings,
> Johannes
>
>


You know, as a person in a similar position (a skilled programmer on an
alternate os with too little time) a thought occurs to me; this might be
a small business opportunity for SJ Games.

Make a web based character generation utility.

To promote it, let users (tracked by login, cookie, or other means) make
their first N character free. Afterwards, charge enough to cover
bandwidth/server costs plus a small bit, or make it require a pyramid
subscription or something similar. Or perhaps a small paypal fee to
download a nicely formatted PDF for printing ?

If only a modest bit of care is taken, it's not hard to write webapps
that are platform neutral (I've written some that run on windows, mac,
and linux, under ie, mozilla, opera, safari, and firefox). And there
are lots and lots of skilled web application developers out there these
days, many who are currently unemployed, so lack of expertese should not
be an issue.

Add a few more features like allowing users to upload and share skill
packages and what have you, and output a nice PDF file for printing, and
there you go.

Well, there's my two cents.

-- Pat

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

Patrick Spinler wrote:

> You know, as a person in a similar position (a skilled programmer on
> an alternate os with too little time) a thought occurs to me; this
> might be a small business opportunity for SJ Games.
>
> Make a web based character generation utility.
>
> To promote it, let users (tracked by login, cookie, or other means)
> make their first N character free. Afterwards, charge enough to cover
> bandwidth/server costs plus a small bit, or make it require a pyramid
> subscription or something similar. Or perhaps a small paypal fee to
> download a nicely formatted PDF for printing ?
>
> If only a modest bit of care is taken, it's not hard to write webapps
> that are platform neutral (I've written some that run on windows, mac,
> and linux, under ie, mozilla, opera, safari, and firefox). And there
> are lots and lots of skilled web application developers out there
> these days, many who are currently unemployed, so lack of expertese
> should not be an issue.
>
> Add a few more features like allowing users to upload and share skill
> packages and what have you, and output a nice PDF file for printing,
> and there you go.
>
> Well, there's my two cents.


There are many hurdles to doing a project like that, though. First, your
customers need to have internet access /around/ the gaming table (not
everyone totes their computer with them gaming, of those that do not
everyone bothers with internet access while there).

Second, people get annoyed when they can't access "their" program because of
a server glitch, or something similar.

Third, you lose a significant amount of flexibility in design. If you've
ever used GCA you'de know that one of the neatest things about it is just
how flexible the datafiles are - you can implement nearly any house rule you
want within the program - and GCA3 is /considerably/ more flexible than GCA2
was, and yet I managed to finagle quite a bit out of GCA2 because of just
how flexible it was. Making it compatiable with G4e was a challange, making
equipment work in it was also a toughie; GCA3 shouldn't ever need the kind
of finageling I did with GCA2 to do these kinds of changes in the future (I
think I honestly surprised Armin when I announced one day that I'd figured
out how to do equipment with GCA2).

--
_ _ _ http://home.stny.rr.com/gurpsland
|_ ,_ . _ |_> (_` _ . _|_ |_
|_ | | (_ |_> __) ||| | | | | @earthling.net

"Every society honors its live conformists and its dead
troublemakers." - Mignon McLaughlin

 

[Roger]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

On 2004-11-17, Johannes Bretscher <bretscher@5sl.org> wrote:
> Hello,
> does anybody know if Stev Jackson games is planning a tool like the
> characterassistant for other operating systems?
>
> If not, would someone like to help me write one? I am an experienced
> programmer in the linux environment, and have some experience with

I've considered it.

However I've always found I can get enough of what I want out
of a simple spreadsheet.

This is especially true of gurps. I don't try to make the spreadsheet
handle all cases. The current situation of my GURPs 4e spreadsheet
template (for openoffice) is that it handles the numbers for the main
stats well, the secondaries ok, but could be improved . (It cant
distinguish between use default level an pin to X)

Advantages are handled as freeform entry.

A table for skills is used but the you have to entry hte skill name
and difficulty code an the spreadsheet uses the last to wokr out
the cost. A 'modifier' column exists so that advantages which give skill
modifiers can be takn into account but it up the user to transcribe the
data.

There is no support for techniques.

I'm likely at some point or other to sort out the pin to/use default
problem with secondaries and add technique costing.

But with a games as flexible as GURPs I think it is simpler not to make the
program/spreadsheet to complex. t just increases the case which it
doesn't handle smoothly. With the simple case there is normally as
simple hack to handle most situations.

TTFN
--
Roger. Home| http://www.sandman.uklinux.net/
Master of Peng Shui. (Ancient oriental art of Penguin Arranging)
Work|Independent Sys Consultant | http://www.computer-surgery.co.uk/
So what are the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of 'The Matrix'? --anon

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

Eric B. Smith wrote:
> There are many hurdles to doing a project like that, though. First, your
> customers need to have internet access /around/ the gaming table (not
> everyone totes their computer with them gaming, of those that do not
> everyone bothers with internet access while there).
>
> Second, people get annoyed when they can't access "their" program because of
> a server glitch, or something similar.

Grant you these points. Only market research or prototyping would show
how much of an obsticle they would be.

> Third, you lose a significant amount of flexibility in design. If you've
> ever used GCA you'de know that one of the neatest things about it is just
> how flexible the datafiles are - you can implement nearly any house rule you
> want within the program - and GCA3 is /considerably/ more flexible than GCA2
> was, and yet I managed to finagle quite a bit out of GCA2 because of just
> how flexible it was. Making it compatiable with G4e was a challange, making
> equipment work in it was also a toughie; GCA3 shouldn't ever need the kind
> of finageling I did with GCA2 to do these kinds of changes in the future (I
> think I honestly surprised Armin when I announced one day that I'd figured
> out how to do equipment with GCA2).

Great ! But pish tosh about loosing data file flexibility just because
it's a web app.

Granted the presentation will have fewer available elements, but the
back end engine could be exactly the same.

-- Pat

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

Johannes Bretscher wrote:

> Hello,
> does anybody know if Stev Jackson games is planning a tool like the
> characterassistant for other operating systems?
>
> If not, would someone like to help me write one? I am an experienced
> programmer in the linux environment, and have some experience with
> platform independent programming, but I lack the time to write such
> a tool alone.

There is an RPG character program on Sourceforge; probably for D20 (or
even D&D) but I haven't looked at it.

OK, looked. It is for D20. It's in Java, and the home page is here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pcgen/

(still haven't looked at the program, though)

> Greetings,
> Johannes

Tom A.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

If you want something for linux, it means that you are on-line (I can't
imagine linux off-line....), so a web-based tool for character creation
would be a nice thing.
If someone has a website with a little space for this page-creation, and
someone has a little of time to do some work, we could set-up a working
group to realize this little project, money-free!!!!
Let's think about it, it could be even enjoying!

Cesare

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

Eric B. Smith wrote:
> There are many hurdles to doing a project like that, though. First, your
> customers need to have internet access /around/ the gaming table (not
> everyone totes their computer with them gaming, of those that do not
> everyone bothers with internet access while there).

Ack.

>
> Second, people get annoyed when they can't access "their" program because of
> a server glitch, or something similar.
>

Ack. But most servers nowadays are higly stable.

> Third, you lose a significant amount of flexibility in design.

Nack.

>If you've
> ever used GCA you'de know that one of the neatest things about it is just
> how flexible the datafiles are - you can implement nearly any house rule you
> want within the program - and GCA3 is

You could, for example, use GCA as background application on the server,
wit a option to upload own datafiles and save them locally if changed.

> /considerably/ more flexible than GCA2
> was, and yet I managed to finagle quite a bit out of GCA2 because of just
> how flexible it was. Making it compatiable with G4e was a challange, making
> equipment work in it was also a toughie; GCA3 shouldn't ever need the kind
> of finageling I did with GCA2 to do these kinds of changes in the future (I
> think I honestly surprised Armin when I announced one day that I'd figured
> out how to do equipment with GCA2).
>

So, how can we help to make GCA platform independent?

Greetings,
Johannes

--
http://www.5sl.org/~bretscher/mert/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

Johannes Bretscher wrote:
> You could, for example, use GCA as background application on the
> server, wit a option to upload own datafiles and save them locally if
> changed.

Maybe, but then you end up loading the server down with the web based
application. There's also the problem of keeping the program flexible yet
keeping the page loading time small if you're going web-based - not everyone
is on broadband.


>
> So, how can we help to make GCA platform independent?

I'm not sure there's much that you can do, on an individual level. Armin has
made comments about writing GCA with an eye towards future porting to other
platforms - but he has also said he would need to learn to program with
REALBasic in order to do a port. So it's not like it's anything that's going
to be soon in coming.

--
_ _ _ http://home.stny.rr.com/gurpsland
|_ ,_ . _ |_> (_` _ . _|_ |_
|_ | | (_ |_> __) ||| | | | | @earthling.net

"Every society honors its live conformists and its dead
troublemakers." - Mignon McLaughlin

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

In article <Xi5nd.1960$Uf.653@twister.nyroc.rr.com>,
"Eric B. Smith" <smithericb@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Johannes Bretscher wrote:
> > You could, for example, use GCA as background application on the
> > server, wit a option to upload own datafiles and save them locally if
> > changed.
>
> Maybe, but then you end up loading the server down with the web based
> application. There's also the problem of keeping the program flexible yet
> keeping the page loading time small if you're going web-based - not everyone
> is on broadband.
>
>
> >
> > So, how can we help to make GCA platform independent?
>
> I'm not sure there's much that you can do, on an individual level. Armin has
> made comments about writing GCA with an eye towards future porting to other
> platforms - but he has also said he would need to learn to program with
> REALBasic in order to do a port. So it's not like it's anything that's going
> to be soon in coming.

Well the fact is that as noted by the survey Pyramid just did a full FIFTH
of readers are using MacOS X/Unix. Several cities have gotten off the
Windows bandwagon and gone Linix, Sam Club's cheapest computer is a Linix
box and rumor mill is the Xbox 2 will have a G5 (a Macintosh CPU) in it.

The fact of the matter is Unix is on the rise and cutting off this
potential customer is not a good idea.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

>>>>> "c" == cesare <cesare@a.com> writes:

c> If you want something for linux, it means that you are on-line
c> (I can't imagine linux off-line....), so a web-based tool for
c> character creation would be a nice thing. If someone has a
c> website with a little space for this page-creation, and someone
c> has a little of time to do some work, we could set-up a working
c> group to realize this little project, money-free!!!! Let's
c> think about it, it could be even enjoying!

And who's going to deal with the lawyers?

Steve Jackson Games do *not* consider GURPS free for all takers; they
have a license policy that you must agree to and comply with before
you can distribute GURPS software, and they have taken steps to
enforce it in the past. I'm not sure how the license policy would
handle open source; my suspicion, given that the license requires a
finished product for SJG staff to evaluate, that you'd probably need
to come up with a separate agreement with SJG. I'd recommend doing
this *before* starting any serious work on the program.

Charlton



--
cwilbur at chromatico dot net
cwilbur at mac dot com

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

In our last thrilling episode, roger <roger@computer-surgery.co.uk>
was pushed over the cliffs of rec.games.frp.gurps on 17 Nov 2004
22:15:32 GMT by Zoog, minion of Zathar. As he fell, he screamed:

>However I've always found I can get enough of what I want out
>of a simple spreadsheet.
>
>This is especially true of gurps. I don't try to make the spreadsheet
>handle all cases. The current situation of my GURPs 4e spreadsheet
>template (for openoffice) is that it handles the numbers for the main
>stats well, the secondaries ok, but could be improved . (It cant
>distinguish between use default level an pin to X)

Could I have a copy of that?
--

Douglas E. Berry Do the OBVIOUS thing to send e-mail
Atheist #2147, Atheist Vet #5

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as
when they do it from religious conviction."
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pense'es, #894.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

Douglas Berry wrote:

> In our last thrilling episode, roger <roger@computer-surgery.co.uk>
> was pushed over the cliffs of rec.games.frp.gurps on 17 Nov 2004
> 22:15:32 GMT by Zoog, minion of Zathar. As he fell, he screamed:
>
>
>>However I've always found I can get enough of what I want out
>>of a simple spreadsheet.
>>
>>This is especially true of gurps. I don't try to make the spreadsheet
>>handle all cases. The current situation of my GURPs 4e spreadsheet
>>template (for openoffice) is that it handles the numbers for the main
>>stats well, the secondaries ok, but could be improved . (It cant
>>distinguish between use default level an pin to X)
>
>
> Could I have a copy of that?

Yes, please. I had just started working on this, and got bogged down in
the Skills formula (does openoffice functions have variables? 🙂

Tom A.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

> Yes, please. I had just started working on this, and got bogged down in
> the Skills formula (does openoffice functions have variables? 🙂

I already designed a spreadsheet for GURPS 4E in OpenOffice. I'm not
sure what you mean? It wasn't much trouble to do the Skills formula. I
have always found it easier in spreadsheets to have separate cells to
store intermediate values.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

Arthur Samuels wrote:

>> Yes, please. I had just started working on this, and got bogged down
>> in the Skills formula (does openoffice functions have variables? 🙂
>
>
> I already designed a spreadsheet for GURPS 4E in OpenOffice.

I understand. I started working on one a day or so before I saw your post.

> I'm not
> sure what you mean? It wasn't much trouble to do the Skills formula. I
> have always found it easier in spreadsheets to have separate cells to
> store intermediate values.

OK. I'm just a novice at spreadsheets. I can make cells add up, but
beyond that it's almost Greek to me.

 

[Roger]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

Sorry for the delay - I tend to spent my weekends away
from usenet..

On 2004-11-18, Tom A. <meteoricshipyards@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Douglas Berry wrote:
>>
>> Could I have a copy of that?

For you? *boggle*. Of course. (Spot the traveller player ;-).

> Yes, please. I had just started working on this, and got bogged down in
> the Skills formula (does openoffice functions have variables? 🙂

Ok, you can find the raw template at:

http://www.sandman.uklinux.net/odds/GURP4.sxc

and a simple character built with it at:-

http://www.sandman.uklinux.net/odds/Lefold.sxc

Patches, correction documentation greatfully accepted (by email), and
at some point I'll pkg it up if interest remains.

TTFN
--
Roger. Home| http://www.sandman.uklinux.net/
Master of Peng Shui. (Ancient oriental art of Penguin Arranging)
Work|Independent Sys Consultant | http://www.computer-surgery.co.uk/
So what are the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of 'The Matrix'? --anon

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

On 17 Nov 2004 22:15:32 GMT, roger
<roger@computer-surgery.co.uk> wrote:

>On 2004-11-17, Johannes Bretscher <bretscher@5sl.org> wrote:
>> Hello,
>> does anybody know if Stev Jackson games is planning a tool like the
>> characterassistant for other operating systems?
>>
>> If not, would someone like to help me write one? I am an experienced
>> programmer in the linux environment, and have some experience with
>
>I've considered it.
>
>However I've always found I can get enough of what I want out
>of a simple spreadsheet.

Agreed. A spreadsheet takes little time to do and is useful for
quickly turning out templates or pre-generated characters.
But..., something like characterassistant would be more useful
to most people who can't write spreadsheet formulas nor macros.

>This is especially true of gurps. I don't try to make the spreadsheet
>handle all cases. The current situation of my GURPs 4e spreadsheet
>template (for openoffice) is that it handles the numbers for the main
>stats well, the secondaries ok, but could be improved . (It cant
>distinguish between use default level an pin to X)
>
>Advantages are handled as freeform entry.
>
>A table for skills is used but the you have to entry hte skill name
>and difficulty code an the spreadsheet uses the last to wokr out
>the cost. A 'modifier' column exists so that advantages which give skill
>modifiers can be takn into account but it up the user to transcribe the
>data.
>
>There is no support for techniques.
>
>I'm likely at some point or other to sort out the pin to/use default
>problem with secondaries and add technique costing.
>
>But with a games as flexible as GURPs I think it is simpler not to make the
>program/spreadsheet to complex. t just increases the case which it
>doesn't handle smoothly. With the simple case there is normally as
>simple hack to handle most situations.
>
>TTFN

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

Johannes Bretscher wrote:
> Hello,
> does anybody know if Stev Jackson games is planning a tool like the
> characterassistant for other operating systems?
>
> If not, would someone like to help me write one? I am an experienced
> programmer in the linux environment, and have some experience with
> platform independent programming, but I lack the time to write such
> a tool alone.
>
> Greetings,
> Johannes
>
>
I'm planning on a Java Character Assistant. Due to my problems at
University, the progress is slow at the moment. But you can see a
screenshot at http://wuerm.dyndns.org (my computer, so it's only
available if it's running).