Inventory application thoughts

Okay... I've been thinking more about this, and trying to think less from
the historical side This is sort of stream-of-consciousness, but I
think there's some good ideas in here.

The best way to design something is to think of what you're trying to do
with it. What problems is it trying to solve, etc. This is a set of
problems I've thought of:

1. I bought this figure, what can I do with it?
It's not always clear, particularly for historicals. A box of Night
Goblins could be spearmen or archers. A generic Arab mounted command
figure could be used in 20 different armies. At this point, you'd enter
into your database manufacturer, code number, quantity, etc. There's a lot
of potential coolness in here. Things like "quality of fit." For example,
the Gotrek and Felix figures are a perfect match for a Gotrek and Felix
Dogs of War unit. They may be also usable as characters in an RPG. A
mounted knight may be a perfect fit for late 14th century Italy, sort of
work for early 15th century Germany, and be rather far off (though usable)
for the Wars of the Roses.
So, I buy a pack of figures, enter them into the database, and tell AB
what games and armies (and units within those armies) they're good
for. The inventory app would load the data files and present me a list of
choices instead of relying on me to input data that matches.

2. I've assembled (and possibly) painted up this figure, here's how I'm
using it.
Assembling and painting a miniature necessarily reduces its
usefulness. Those Night Goblins are now archers. Those Arab mounted
command figures could have been good for any Crusades-era army, but if I
give them a black flag, they're Abbasids.
I'd go to the inventory app, choose an unpainted figure, and indicate that
it's painted, and what games/armies/units the figure is still usable
for. For games that base multiple figures on a base, you'd probably also
want to change what you're counting here from figures to bases. I don't
care that I've got nine mounted knights painted up. They're actually 3
bases of Knights for DBM.

3. This is the army I want to play, what figures do I need?
In AB, you could build your roster, then select a menu item that cross
references your database and tells you that you're 27% painted, own 88% of
the figures, and (if you've input the data) it will cost you $X to get the
rest. You could have options here that are strict/lax in matching figures
to units. For example, if you're building a tournament WHFB army, you'd
only consider GW figures. Or, you may not want to morph your Nikephorian
Byzantine spearmen into Early Byzantine spearmen when going to Historicon,
but it'll do just fine, thank you, when playing your buddy at his house.
I even plan out my painting schedule. If I know I want to get an army
done by a certain date (read: convention) then I want to know how many
figures I need to paint every week to make it on time. I do this in Excel
now, but it could easily be done with the same reporting mechanism.

So, I see three primary uses: Unpainted figure inventory, painted figure
inventory, and army building support/report generation.

Another thing that hit me as an offshoot of this is a suggestion for AB as
a whole: Opposing orders of battle. When designing an army, you could name
it such (or have a new data field that contains a name) that it's geared
for a certain battle. Battle of Five Armies or Beiden Pass or Waterloo,
for example. You then indicate its opponent(s). When you print out your
roster, you'd have the option of printing _all_ the rosters from the
scenario. Also, the inventory x-checker would also make sure you've got
enough figures to go around, and would not assign the same figure to two
armies (for civil wars, or somesuch.)

Just some thoughts...