Battletech

[Dgrm44]

Does Army Builder support the Battletech game system?

[jlong05]

I believe that the current Battletech game still uses a weight measurement for each unit. At its core, yes, AB could support that assignment, but given the high level of customization that is possible in Battletech, you would run into issues with ensuring crits/tons are available. You could do it potentially though.

It would be an interesting investment of time to see how the crit management and space allowances could be managed within the AB structure.

But for a basic game management with ONLY approved Mech models and no customization at all, you could easily do that in AB.

[Dgrm44]

When you say easily....exactly "how easily" are we talking? :-)
I would be happy with just the published Mechs being supported at this point.

[jlong05]

Well, at the basic level(no customization) you could enter each mech indicating its 'weight' as its point cost. Then add all weapons as weapons to the unit, etc. Probably something I could do in very short order(a few days to a week) if I had access to all the tech readouts. I guess if there is serious interest from the gaming community for this, I could get to work on a framework for the game which would at least be a start.

One note, this would NOT be able to replace the mech sheets used for damage allocation. I am not aware of a way in AB to handle that for armor, etc.. This would simply be a tool for creating units that can be included in an overall weight class being played.

[EODGunner]

I have a few years programming experience, and from that, I can say that this project is not only possible, but also, very easy to do, provided the programming language supports it.


For the armor, it's a simple matrix of circles or boxes for how many units of armor. As far as the crit slots, just make it a drag and drop system. Either that, or since it's based off of placement and 12 slots, you can easily make it to where it fills from the top down as long as the selected position has the slots available.

If you need help, information, or someone to bounce ideas off of, let me know.

[ratboy]

Yes, the project has been in development for several years. I can't really say anything else about it.

The amount of data entry is massive.

In the mean time, you can use Solaris Skunkworks.

[ratboy]

Originally Posted by jlong05

I believe that the current Battletech game still uses a weight measurement for each unit. At its core, yes, AB could support that assignment, but given the high level of customization that is possible in Battletech, you would run into issues with ensuring crits/tons are available. You could do it potentially though.
.

You can use Battle Value, Weight or Cost as force construction points.

[Russell]

I wrote some Battletech files for AB2 many years ago (including an HTML Mech output sheet extension - armour circles and all)... There didn't seem to be any interest in it so I never bothered updating it for AB3.