Development Update

[heruca]

For v1.0.9, I am adding clear figure bases without a facing indicator (the yellow line), for games that don't use facing.

[heruca]

Hex grid users should be happy to hear that v1.0.9 is getting a lot of hex attention.

In addition to snap-to-grid now working on hex maps, and clear hex bases without a facing indicator being added, I'm also adding Friendly (green-tinted) and Hostile (red-tinted) figure bases for all five hex base sizes.

The alignment of hex-based gridded Area of Effect overlays and hex-shaped health status halos has also been improved.

[Farland]

Any chance a distance measurement tool could make it into 109?

[heruca]

That's going into v1.1. It's actually very related to the drawing tools which will be the focus of that version.

[heruca]

Adobe has announced that there will be a Sneak Peek Demo of Director 11 on October 3rd. Director 11 is due out sometime this year.

I probably won't be updating to Director 10.1, and will instead skip right to v11.

[heruca]

Just an update to say that work is progressing on v1.0.9. I didn't get too much coding done last week, but this weekend I made some good headway on the Dice Macro panel. The code for selecting the dice (mixing and matching dice types and die colors) is done and working nicely, and the code for adding modifiers to each die and to the total roll is also done.

This coming week I intend to work on actually being able to roll a configured Dice Macro, have it evaluate the resulting roll (e.g., handle open-ended rolls, count successes, etc.), and then present the results in the desired format (sorted or not sorted, with or without totaling the dice, etc.). I also need to add functions to Save and Load dice macros.

I'm still at least two weeks away from a release, but I just wanted to keep you all apprised of what's being done.

[heruca]

A minor but useful change, for v1.0.9:
The tilde key (right below the Esc key) is now reserved for use with VOIP programs like Ventrilo that have a "push-to-talk" feature. You can now use the tilde key for this purpose, even with the chat window open; it won't get typed into the chat input field.

[Kepli]

Very nice ... no switching programs anymore

[heruca]

This coming week I intend to work on actually being able to roll a configured Dice Macro, have it evaluate the resulting roll (e.g., handle open-ended rolls, count successes, etc.), and then present the results in the desired format (sorted or not sorted, with or without totaling the dice, etc.). I also need to add functions to Save and Load dice macros.

I decided to do that last part first. Saving and loading of Dice Macros is now 90% complete, and I hope to finish that up tomorrow. On Monday I'll add the ability to attach Dice Macros to specific units (both figures and objects), and the rest of the week will focus on rolling and evaluating the Dice Macros, as described above.

[tdwyer11b]

This coming week I intend to work on actually being able to roll a configured Dice Macro, have it evaluate the resulting roll (e.g., handle open-ended rolls, count successes, etc.), and then present the results in the desired format (sorted or not sorted, with or without totaling the dice, etc.). I also need to add functions to Save and Load dice macros.

I decided to do that last part first. Saving and loading of Dice Macros is now 90% complete, and I hope to finish that up tomorrow. On Monday I'll add the ability to attach Dice Macros to specific units (both figures and objects), and the rest of the week will focus on rolling and evaluating the Dice Macros, as described above.

Thanx for the update Heruca, I can definately say I'm looking forward to 1.09.

[heruca]

I rolled the first Dice Macro-generated roll today.

It's working, at least in a very basic sense, for all dice except d100 and dX (and I hope to get those working tomorrow).

[tdwyer11b]

Sounds like you're getting close!! Any chance we can get a teaser of the new dice rolling panel?

[heruca]

Sure.

Here's the top portion of the Dice Macro creation panel.

The button to add a modifier is just a placeholder for now. I'll come up with something nicer looking.

You can enable or disable each die type along the top, btw, so if your system doesn't use certain dice, they're easy to get rid of. The only one not shown here is the dX (x-sided die).

The little "+" buttons are 4-way toggles, so you can set them to "-", "x" and "/", if you want, just by clicking on them until you get to the setting you want. But in this example, I'm not bothering to mod the individual dice.

[tdwyer11b]

WOW!! Now I'm really getting excited

[heruca]

Just for kicks, I added some simple animation to the dice rolling. It's optional, of course.

I'm not attempting to mimic the physics of bouncing dice, or anything that fancy. Basically I'm just cycling each die through a couple of random possible results before landing on the actual result, and varying the size and rotation of each die a little bit between "bounces". The overall effect is pretty subtle, but hopefully it adds a little to the feel of rolling real dice.

[tdwyer11b]

Just for kicks, I added some simple animation to the dice rolling. It's optional, of course.

I'm not attempting to mimic the physics of bouncing dice, or anything that fancy. Basically I'm just cycling each die through a couple of random possible results before landing on the actual result, and varying the size and rotation of each die a little bit between "bounces". The overall effect is pretty subtle, but hopefully it adds a little to the feel of rolling real dice.

This will be interesting to see. Once this is released, it will pretty much cover the basics for every game I play. Can't wait to try it out.

[greytale]

That looks fantastic Heruca. Great work.

[Farland]

I hope you'll set these new optional features to off as the default setting, because I really don't need most of them, and I don't relish having to go through and turn them all off.

[heruca]

I hope you'll set these new optional features to off as the default setting, because I really don't need most of them, and I don't relish having to go through and turn them all off.

Well, this is what the top of the panel looks like prior to configuring the Dice Macro. There isn't much there for you to turn off, other than the dice that appear along the top (which, as I mentioned before, can be disabled permanently by turning off the "plug-in" for each die type and die color).

[heruca]

In v1.0.9, it's now possible to rotate objects in 15-degree increments, by holding down the Control key while rotating the unit. This will provide finer rotation control for those who need it.

[heruca]

Here's a quick recap of where things stand in v1.0.9's development, in regards to the Dice Macro features.

Completed:
Dice macro panel interface design
Roll Result panel interface design
"Plug-in" system for managing die types and die colors
Mix & match different die types and die colors in the same roll
Save and load dice macros
X-sided dice and Fudge dice
Apply modifiers to each die (+, -, x, / )
Apply modifiers to the total roll (+, -, x, / )
Count successes, including optional rules (e.g., botches, doubles, etc.)
Re-roll 1s
Raises and Difficulty Level
Open-ended rolls
Hackmaster Penetration mechanic supported (i.e., rerolls are at -1)
Discard lowest die and/or discard highest die
Sort the die results (in ascending or descending order)
Fudging rolls (GM-only)
Roll evaluation (success, failure, critical success, critical failure)
Roll Summary options (die roll totaling, show margin of success/failure)
Die rolling "animation"
Die roll sound effects
Inspect the dice macro that generated a roll (so that the GM can verify that the proper settings were used)
Dynamically generate visuals of x-sided die roll results
Attach dice macro to unit
Activate a dice macro from a unit's contextual popup menu
Activate a dice macro from the BG button's popup menu
Cross-reference the final die roll with a table, and report the result
Networking of dice macro rolling
Polish & fine-tuning
Playtesting, both for accuracy (to find any bugs) and to ensure that as many RPG game systems as possible are supported by the dice macro functions provided
Ability to step through the dice roll history

Still to do:
Report dice macro roll results in the chat window

I have decided to do incremental releases to get this all done and not keep you all waiting too much longer. BRPG v1.0.9 will be released around October 1st, so that you all can start helping me with the playtesting. BRPG v1.0.9a will follow a couple of weeks later. It will address the remaining items listed above, and fix whatever bugs have been reported for v1.0.9.

Edit 11/27/07: Updated the list to reflect items that have now been completed.

[tdwyer11b]

WOW!! That is a long list. Thanx Heruca for all your hard work.

[Farland]

Wish I could say I'm excited, but I just don't use the dice rolling feature because I use BRPG for face to face games. Other features would be more valuable to me. But I know others use it and will love the dice roller, so good job, h.

[heruca]

Then you'll just have to settle for the non-dice-related improvements in v1.0.9.

¢ Screen capture feature
¢ Snap-to-grid on hexgrids (finally!)
¢ Mousewheel support for Mac users
¢ More precise object rotation (15 degree increments)
¢ Facingless bases (much requested by users)
¢ More hex base styles to choose from
¢ Support for a push-to-talk key (for VOIP programs like Ventrilo)
¢ Improved AoE Overlay alignment on hexgrids
¢ Bug fixes

[Farland]

Oh yeah, now some of those below I can use, especially these:

Then you'll just have to settle for the non-dice-related improvements in v1.0.9.

¢ Screen capture feature
¢ More precise object rotation (15 degree increments)
¢ Facingless bases (much requested by users)
¢ Bug fixes

Sweet!