New Anathema Character Management - Anathema Reincarnated

[wonderandawe]

Are you still going to use XML for the charm library?

Also, if you are not using any of the original code, it may be a good idea to rename the project.

[Arian Dynas]

Are you still going to use XML for the charm library?

Also, if you are not using any of the original code, it may be a good idea to rename the project.

Actually we've written our own file format for them. I'm of course only the design and rules consultant guy, so Kenai could explain better than I.

As for the name, well that's why the full title is "Anathema Reincarnated" rather than just "Anathema 3". Reincarnated, in the same sense as "Redux" or "Remastered" or well, any variation of a single word that starts in R that usually comes after a title. Not in the same sense as Revengeance though

Oh yes I am familiar with Urs' codebase, and if you are writing a new system I don't think there is any problem with starting over.

(This isn't intended as snark, Anathema is just like any other long-running software project.)

By which you mean it tends to carry alot of baggage that can often complicate things, much in the same sense that the Exalted Devs started the new edition over basically from first principles?

[AtG]

By which you mean it tends to carry alot of baggage that can often complicate things, much in the same sense that the Exalted Devs started the new edition over basically from first principles?

That, and it's particularly committed to a specific architecture that's grown complex and takes a decent amount of time to figure out.

[rungok]

Right now we need help with unit testing. All of my development time has been spent adding features, and I have completely neglected automated testing. If you help get unit tests up and running, and keep involved with the testing process, dev time will be considerably sped up and the quality of the app will stay high! Not exactly a flashy job, but it's an important one that I don't have much time for.

I have an exalted game on Saturday. I will try running this now and see if I can track any bugs.

[Arian Dynas]

That, and it's particularly committed to a specific architecture that's grown complex and takes a decent amount of time to figure out.

Why sir, are you a Haxxor? ;p

[bartkusa]

I'm also building a combat tracker, but it's web-based: http://bartkusa.com/ex/.

I'm a bit overwhelmed by your UI, but I'm really excited by how many more features you have than me (eg health, battlegroups, willpower)! Very cool.

Maybe one day we can work together! It'd be cool if we could import/export data between our apps.

[wonderandawe]

I keep thinking about building a Charm Database with an API for other people's apps, but I keep deciding that is too much like my job. :P

[Kenai]

I'm also building a combat tracker, but it's web-based: http://bartkusa.com/ex/.

I'm a bit overwhelmed by your UI, but I'm really excited by how many more features you have than me (eg health, battlegroups, willpower)! Very cool.

Good job, and thank you! I rushed to get the tracker functional first and foremost, so usability/polish suffered a little bit. If you have CSS chops, maybe you could help us with JavaFX skinning!

A note about health- don't feel bad about not having it. Storyteller Health is hard. If you PM me your skype or whatsapp details, I can explain how I did it, but I had to embrace the Ballmer peak before I could crack that particular egg.

Maybe one day we can work together! It'd be cool if we could import/export data between our apps.

I keep thinking about building a Charm Database with an API for other people's apps, but I keep deciding that is too much like my job. :P

I'm already thinking along those lines, my friends. Google GSON + use of Kotlin data classes means that I can quite easily share data around. I won't publically release a Chronicle editor until I'm done with Sorcery and Martial arts (at which point I'll be ready to release an alpha version of the solar tracker), but once I do it will be rather easy to get custom stuff into computer-usable form. In the meanwhile, feel free to branch the repo if you want to play around with what I already have.

For reference, here's the crappy testing .chron file that I'm using to develop the Solar Tracker

[bartkusa]

Good job, and thank you! I rushed to get the tracker functional first and foremost, so usability/polish suffered a little bit.

I think you made the right choice. First make it, then make it better.

[wonderandawe]

I'm already thinking along those lines, my friends. Google GSON + use of https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/data-classes.html"]Kotlin data classes[/URL] means that I can quite easily share data around. I won't publically release a Chronicle editor until I'm done with Sorcery and Martial arts (at which point I'll be ready to release an alpha version of the solar tracker), but once I do it will be rather easy to get custom stuff into computer-usable form. In the meanwhile, feel free to branch the repo if you want to play around with what I already have.

For reference, https://bitbucket.org/blakwurm/anathema-reincarnated/src/df9a26b53ba78da0d82e5bd4afabdb95c8abf79c/src/main/resources/bookdata/testing.chron?at=master&fileviewer=file-view-default"]here's the crappy testing .chron file that I'm using to develop the Solar Tracker[/URL]

I'll admit I'm a really bad developer. I have not done any coding besides perl scripting since VB. Net in grad school about five years ago. Working for our corporate overlords has made my skills rusty.

My idea was a mySQL database with Web service. Other developers can use the API to pull the charms into thier apps. If someone wants to develop an android app, they already got the charms, spells, martial arts, etc. I got some very rough notes on a database design. I just don't have time!

[BlueWinds]

I'll admit I'm a really bad developer. I have not done any coding besides perl scripting since VB. Net in grad school about five years ago. Working for our corporate overlords has made my skills rusty.

My idea was a mySQL database with Web service. Other developers can use the API to pull the charms into thier apps. If someone wants to develop an android app, they already got the charms, spells, martial arts, etc. I got some very rough notes on a database design. I just don't have time!

mySQL is probably the wrong tool for this - charms are structured data, rather than relational data. SQL is a very powerful and general tool, and it's all many developers know, but there are often easier ways to do things if you look further afield

I'd probably try couchDB (serve your charms to the internet!) / pouchDB (client side, download your charms from the internet!) myself - it already does tons of what you want. Just choose your data source(s) (the charm "repositories", publicly accessible couchDB instances), trigger a replication, and bam, you have a local copy of the all the data, merged together into an easily querieable set of JSON documents. Define a couple of "views" (couchDB's equivalent to "saved queries", sort of) for "Charms of a specific ability" and "Charms I can buy with Ability 3 or less and Essence 2 or less" and away you go.

[wonderandawe]

mySQL is probably the wrong tool for this - charms are structured data, rather than relational data. SQL is a very powerful and general tool, and it's all many developers know, but there are often easier ways to do things if you look further afield

I'd probably try couchDB (serve your charms to the internet!) / pouchDB (client side, download your charms from the internet!) myself - it already does tons of what you want. Just choose your data source(s) (the charm "repositories", publicly accessible couchDB instances), trigger a replication, and bam, you have a local copy of the all the data, merged together into an easily querieable set of JSON documents. Define a couple of "views" (couchDB's equivalent to "saved queries", sort of) for "Charms of a specific ability" and "Charms I can buy with Ability 3 or less and Essence 2 or less" and away you go.

A quick Wiki search tells me that this CouchDB is some sort of new fangled NoSQL thing. I'll have to do more research on it later. I use oracle, linux, and perl at work, so I haven't really kept up on the new tech.

Eh. It's mostly an idea I had that will never come to fruition. I spend all day working with code. Coming home and working with even more code sounds like hell.

[Arian Dynas]

Well in our case, our method actually uses a tool for charm and merit data entry. Which is also going to be bundled into future versions of Anathema Reincarnated as the Chronicle Editor, which means that in the future there's actually going to be quite a bit of support for custom merits and charms. Which I'm told saves into the .json format anyway.

[haren]

Well in our case, our method actually uses a tool for charm and merit data entry. Which is also going to be bundled into future versions of Anathema Reincarnated as the Chronicle Editor, which means that in the future there's actually going to be quite a bit of support for custom merits and charms. Which I'm told saves into the .json format anyway.

I'm of the opinion that all .json files should live in the Crystal Lake folder. Seriously though, thank you for this.

[Elkovash]

Okay so I gave it a whirl.

First impressions was that it's a LOT to take in all at once. A bit like the EX3 Manual it's a little intimidating from a first look.It actually does quite a lot for running a battle and that's actually really good, but its presented in such a way as to make tracking that information not really different from using a notepad or some such. I don't think the 'apply damage' mechanic is really useful for withering attacks until the utility is tracking dice pools and penalties (as that seems to be what you're working towards).

I did not encounter any glitches with using it, thought i didn't do much other than add two combatants and run a simple combat. I did notice that there are a lot of edge cases where withering damage works differently due to the attacks and actions taken that made manual control of the initiative tracks more simple than trying to use the inbuilt damage component.

I'm running an actual game tomorrow, so I'll muck about with it and come back with an appraisal of how easy it is to set up and track a full combat with multiple people.