PC Character Generator

So I just recently got into this game, mostly for the campaign system as I've never played an RPG (but own many).

Anyway, I REALLY liked what I saw, bought all the books, regretted missing the kickstarter.

So I went through, just doing my usual thing teaching myself the system, and wrote a little PC app to generate characters.  This is NOT finished, not by any means.  I didn't even touch the players handbook, don't have any output/printing ability, and many things are missing.  This was just kind of a proof of concept to see if there was a lot of desire for me to continue.

I hard-coded the classes, and didn't realize there were so many more in the players companion, so if I update it I'll have to re-enter in all the character data into excel and just read that data in the app (better solution anyway) instead.  I can do the printing, and much of the other stuff as well... again, just a proof of concept.

Anyway, here is a linksie, let me know whatcha think:
http://bte.battletechengineer.com/ACKSCharGen.zip (.net framework 3.5, should run on any updated windows 7 or newer PC)

I'd LOVE to see this game as a counter/hex map thing, and will probably tinker with that, over just an RPG.  I think it'll do it, but am still really new to the system (hence me writing this as I learn).  Great system!  Really loving it so far!

very cool. one small note: rules as written generating a player character permits you to roll 3d6x6 in order 5 times and choose the set of six you like best. However, the infinite rerolls did give me warm fuzzy memories of old school PC RPGs.

Well as it is a computer program, you can generate your character a thousand times if you so choose.  I *could* implement a system that not only uses the random.org random number generators (the best digital ones in existence), but also does the "5 sets of 3d6*6 and lets you choose".  It'll send an email with a specific code before you do the initial roll of those 5 sets, and another email with the 5 sets created and your selection with that same specific code, which may sufficice for your GM to think you didn't cheat in any way.  

I'd also implement the "reduce 1 attribute by 2 to gain 1 to a primary attribute", though right now I'm not sure how that works with 2 primaries like STR/DEX.  I haven't been through the errata yet though, it could be clarified in there.  Computers aren't very good at assuming :)

I could actually make this a website pretty easily, though it'd never be a pretty site as my artistic ability SUCKS.

If anybody wants to help the data from pages 58-73 of the PC needs inputted.  I can't really copy/paste, as "t", "tf", "fi", and other wacky things get removed.  Same with entering in all the spells.  Basically a text file, or excel, with all the values so I can quickly get them added without having to go through line-by-line and copy/paste into code would help a LOT as that is extremely time consuming.  Not sure how this interacts with basic copy protection though, somebody feel free to tell me "you can't do that!" and I'll stop.

Ok, well doesn't look like a huge amount of interest, I'll push it to the back burner to work on some other projects.

You may want to give it a bit more time, as the summer seems to slow things down for commenting, especially as we move into gen con week.

 

I think you and I learn new systems similarly - I've implemented a character class creators in javascript/jQuery; there are a few bugs here and there, but it mostly works: http://rpg.i-arman.com/spells/index.html (and yes, it's a fairly ugly website; ah well). I realize it's a bit more complex than you're looking for, but it breaks down creating character classes, races, and spells, so you don't have to do that work. But keep up the good work!

[quote="Arman"]

I think you and I learn new systems similarly - I've implemented a character class creators in javascript/jQuery; there are a few bugs here and there, but it mostly works: http://rpg.i-arman.com/spells/index.html (and yes, it's a fairly ugly website; ah well). I realize it's a bit more complex than you're looking for, but it breaks down creating character classes, races, and spells, so you don't have to do that work. But keep up the good work!

[/quote]

Well that looks pretty good!  Far be it from me to critisize the way ANY website looks with crap like this (http://bte.battletechengineer.com or http://bte.battletechengineer.com/BTRandomSystemGenerator coming from me).

You made much more progress than I did, maybe you should just finish a character generator instead of me doing anything further ;)

 

I may look at ACKS more in the future, but right now I gotta commit to a pretty hefty battletech project I've been blowing off for too long.