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Post by flutterz on Sept 20, 2010 20:57:10 GMT -5
We're up and running. I dare say that's enough photoshop for a while. As to the time slapping SSD's together with these parts, a bitmap program like paint is going to be slow going. Personally, I'm in photoshop, so I have a base template geared up with all the writing already plugged in as text and saved as a .PSD file. That way, all the alignment's taken care of and I just edit the text real quick (new shield values and so on), so it literally takes about three minutes to crunch a ship from the .xls ship builder files. I can see that this might be more like 15-20 minutes in paint, with some of that being rather monotonous pixel counting. Anyway, here's the base template. Attachments:
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Post by flutterz on Sept 20, 2010 20:58:01 GMT -5
Here's the beam weapons.....minor alterations to the gatling lasers and layout. Attachments:
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Post by flutterz on Sept 20, 2010 20:59:21 GMT -5
The boomers..... Attachments:
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Post by flutterz on Sept 20, 2010 21:01:39 GMT -5
Nick nacks and paddy-wacks.... I need to work out a proper reference sheet, but that might be a litle while, so I'll just throw up a sample ship in a few minutes, the little square in the upper right on the base display if for the ship role. Attachments:
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Post by toaster on Sept 20, 2010 22:00:21 GMT -5
Great work, I like what you've done with my idea. First thing I'm going to do of course is just print out sheets of the blank template and see how well they work with just drawing in the systems for a pickup game where you don't have time to design your fleet beforehand. I realise it means all your hard work on weapons gets ignored but hopefully once a campaign starts and we can roll up next weeks battle at the end of the one before then there will be time for the whole lot.
Robert
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Post by flutterz on Sept 21, 2010 18:54:19 GMT -5
Here's a PDF of an assortment of ships from a faction, currently dubbed the "Dalhome Union', though I might alter that a touch. The icon up in the top left is just a faction ID tag and has no effect on game play. The discretion class there is pretty ugly as the Gatling-AC's are just kind of big, but at least they fit. I have a few ideas on how to work around this in the future, but I'm just going with this for now. Attachments:
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Post by warchariot on Sept 22, 2010 19:03:26 GMT -5
Thanks for posting all of this. It really is nice work.
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Post by kealios on Jan 26, 2011 13:14:00 GMT -5
These are certainly fantastic. Any chance of some of this being loaded into the Ship Builder? I'd make it as 2 extra worksheets - 1 would be the SSD that pulls info from the Builder (just like the existing template but in a cooler form) and another for the icons scattered on a page, ready for "copy and paste".
I had dreams of making my own version of the ship template, but only to really change the way shields are repesented (I'd try to make a hexagon with 6 sections to represent the 6 facings of the ship, and have it pull info from the builder).
Regardless, amazing work. Seriously!
EDIT: Actually, without Photoshop, any way to make each of these icons "moveable"? That way I can monkey around with the Ship Builder myself and see if I cant get some of these images to mesh with the data input?
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hamilton
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 141
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Post by hamilton on Jun 10, 2011 15:20:43 GMT -5
After seeing all of this, I decided to make a graphical representation within the ship builder. This version is completely automated, whatever is done in the template appears here. Ammo counters, fighter squadron boxes, attack/pen bonuses - everything is dynamic. I built the UACS Vanguard class to give you an idea what it looks like. I plan to make a color version next, and tweak it so I can fit more to a page (just two/page right now, I think I can get 4). Attachments:
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hamilton
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 141
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Post by hamilton on Jun 10, 2011 15:27:50 GMT -5
Here are the icons for items that can change based on user selections. I used a lot of the ideas from the graphics that have been posted here to date. Attachments:
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Post by toaster on Jun 10, 2011 20:46:59 GMT -5
Cool, I look forward to the automated builder being posted, it will save me a lot of time.
Robert
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Post by warchariot on Jun 10, 2011 23:34:26 GMT -5
Cool, I look forward to the automated builder being posted, it will save me a lot of time. Robert Me too!
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hamilton
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 141
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Post by hamilton on Jun 13, 2011 17:19:29 GMT -5
I wonder how to do this for a couple of reasons:
1. It seems we only get the spreadsheet when purchasing the game, so I don't want to simply attach my modified spreadsheet. 2. I don't have excel, I built my mods in openoffic
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hamilton
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 141
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Post by hamilton on Jun 13, 2011 17:25:54 GMT -5
Sorry, posting from a tablet on vacation!
I built my modifications in openoffice calc, and I'm sure it won't just work as is in excel. I'd personally love to see the official spreadsheets built to odf format since not everyone has excel, but that is probably unlikely.
I did try to avoid some functions I know are OOo-specific even though they would have made the job much simpler (STYLE for example), but won't know for sure until someone tries it in excel.
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hamilton
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 141
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Post by hamilton on Jun 22, 2011 18:39:24 GMT -5
I think I'm done with the B/W version. I cleaned up the layout a bit and made a 2x2 multi version as well that I'm attaching. I may work on a color version, but I don't know if that will really add anything and may not look good with the black blocks unless the colors are pretty light. I think instead of color I'll probably work on making a version for MvM, I just haven't moved on from the core rules yet - sorry I'm a bit behind the curve This was a fun project. It was very frustrating trying to get images in the spreadsheet to behave the way I wanted. They wouldn't anchor properly, resizing or adding/removing rows/columns would wreck hours of careful alignment, etc. All because Excel (and because of that Calc) won't allow a cell to contain an image as the data. I ended up abandoning the images and just made a spreadsheet with a really tight grid (0.02" squares) and used black/white fills to simulate a bitmap. What you see is the spreadsheet printed to postscript file and then converted to a jpeg. That's why it is a bit blocky. I considered making the cells 0.01" and getting 4x the resolution, but I was already far down this road and have shelved that for now. ** Reposting because I had trouble with the image the first time ** Attachments:
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Post by toaster on Jun 23, 2011 14:45:22 GMT -5
That sounds like a lot of work (unless open office makes it a lot easier than it would be in excel. One option for posting is just to post your graphical worksheet for people to import into their own copy of the builder, that way your not posting any of the official stuff and only those who have brought the builder can use it.
Robert
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hamilton
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 141
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Post by hamilton on Jun 23, 2011 16:56:59 GMT -5
I can do that, but I use a lot of named ranges that don't get copied over when you copy/paste, so I'll have to create an instruction sheet for how to define those after you consolidate the sheets.
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hamilton
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 141
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Post by hamilton on Jun 23, 2011 21:51:45 GMT -5
Ok, here's my spreadsheet with the paid content removed. I left the tabs in as placeholders because I lose the sheet references if I delete them completely. Again, this is built in OpenOffice and saved in ODF format, so you'll probably need that or LibreOffice. I have not tried saving it in Excel format as I only have a really old version on my work laptop that can't do a spreadsheet this large, so I have no way to see what Excel will do with it. I suggest just copying the new sheets into a copy of the official spreadsheet. Make sure the new sheets are cell height and width 0.02", although Excel measurements may be different. The 'SDC Icons' sheet contains the cell bitmaps that are used to represent weapons and equipment. The weapon and equipment icons are 19x19 cells and need to be named ranges. This will probably not copy over, so you'll have to highlight each 19x19 area and name it the same as the label below it. This is the reference used to call the array and is the same as the name used by the template with all spaces, commas, and hyphens removed. Change the icons here, not in the other sheets. That should be it. I hope it works for you. EDIT - it doesn't look good at 100%, try looking at it at 150-200%. EDIT - Oh, I also ended up modifying the faction and role bonus descriptions to help them fit better. I thought the official sheet wording was excessive so I pared them down a bit. That's all I modified in the original sheet, but it isn't reflected here since I deleted that content. Attachments:
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hamilton
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 141
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Post by hamilton on Jun 25, 2011 14:33:51 GMT -5
I got around to MvM this weekend and I've started a dynamic graphic SDC for it as well. Attached is an Acropolis Refit. I made some changes to how the hardpoints display, got rid of shields and used the space for shield regen as a structural damage counter. I'm pretty happy with it, I have all of the fighter profile info displaying as well as the marines on the gunships. I also made displaying weapon shield damage a toggle so you can get rid of it if you aren't doing a cross-genre encounter. Attachments:
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hamilton
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 141
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Post by hamilton on Jul 2, 2011 14:36:55 GMT -5
Ok, I think I'm mostly done with my MvM version, I just haven't made a 6 per page version yet. I was able to rework my hardpoint block to shrink it a bit. The upper left of the HP is the HP ID# for crits. To the right of that is either an ammo track or squadon boxes (or just black of neither applies). If it is a gunship with boarders, the additional marines are displayed as well, with a hollow diamond for d6 or a solid diamond for d10. Between the ammo/squadron boxes and the weapon icon are the weapon or fighter specials. Weapon abbreviations are the usual, fighters are B(X)=Boarding, E=ECM, I=Cyber-Infiltration, M=Micro-Jump, N=Nuke/CRASH-N, R=Recon. I added the MvM specific elements to the weapon icons - the new fighters, resurrection chamber, cargo bays. The upper right of the HP gives tick boxes for crits, one per weapon or just one if it is a fighter HP. The info displayed below the weapon icon varies based on the hardpoint being occupied by a weapon or fighters. When it is a weapon, the 6 blocks are: Row 1 - ATT, # of Weaps, PEN; Row 2 - Shield Dmg (if you choose to display), ARC, Hull Dmg. When it is a fighter, the 6 blocks are: Row 1 - Dogfight, # of Fighters, PEN; Row 2 - Defense, Damage, Speed. I updated the FC icon to try to make it look like a DRADIS console - you be the judge if I was successful I also tried to incorporate the 'clipped corners' look of colonial documents into the layout, and made a new icon/tracking box for FTL spin-up. I added the d6/d10 symbol to Security Forces and to Marines as Equipment. I also tried to change any of the static icons (the non-hardpoint icons) to use cell borders and diagonals to make them look a little more appealing. The dynamic icons are still based on black/white blocks due to conditional formatting limitations. I made the colonial and cyborg single ship and 2x2 displays distinct so I could do different layouts. The cyborg layout is currently static, trying to depict a 3-blade hull. The colonial layout displays no pod arms for non-carriers and fighter transports, 2 pod arms per side for size 1-4 carriers/battlercarriers, and 3 pod arms per side for size class 5 carriers/battlecarriers. The ship info box also determines if a ship is a carrier, fighter transport, or non-carrier and displays the appropriate launch/recovery/control range. Let me know if anyone was able to get the base shipyard sheets I posted to work. If there is demand, I'll post the MvM sheets as well. I did change a lot more in the MvM original tabs than I did for the base shipyard - I defined lookup ranges to avoid having to type the ranges by cell repeatedly and to make the formulas shorter and more readable, I fixed some spelling errors ('Hazzard' has been bugging me), and I again shortened some of the role and faction benefits. I removed ship-building benefits from the role descriptions since that is taken care of during the build itself and only left rules-modifying benefits such as damage control for all systems, micro-jumps, etc. That makes applying my sheets to the original a bit more difficult.
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