Inventory Feature for AB?

Well back before I bought Army Builder I used Excel. The only thing I miss
about that now that I am using Army Builder is the Inventory feature. But I
am not sure how easily it would translate over into a Army Builder system.
Basically I entered the information from the model into a spreadsheet,
including Stats. Then I would create a second sheet laid out like an amry
listing: HQ, Elite, etc. I would then move entries from the inventory list
to the appropraite place on the second sheet. The key was I had to decided
when I input the info into the Inventory side if it was a Soldier or
Sybarite etc, weapons and wargear.
This would of course require a lot more work for Army Builder. Would it
work to just input the WYSIWYG info on the invetory side and then when you
assign it on the Army List then you Identify the type it calculates the
costs and assign the stats?
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[rob]

At 11:33 PM 4/13/01 +0100, you wrote:
>How could Items (wargear, magic items, etc) be handled?

Items would be treated exactly the same as options as far as the inventory
mechanism was concerned. This is because many items are simple special
types of options (e.g. a "magic" sword). The inventory mechanism would only
care that it's a sword and nothing more.

>How much extra work would it require from the data-file writers?

Unknown. My objective would be to decouple the inventory mechanism from the
data files as much as possible. This would isolate the inventory-related
stuff from the current data file stuff substantively. One of the keys to a
good solution is how well I set up a clean mapping between the two. To the
extent that I decouple things and setup a clean mapping, the effort
required of the data file authors will be minimized. Keep your fingers
crossed I do this right. :-)

>I try to avoid wrecking things nowadays, but quite often
>units don't work correctly after implementing the latest set of
>corrections GW publish (or even the latest set of corrections to bugs
>that I introduce .

This is definitely a concern for me. It will be critical that changes to
one set of data won't completely screw up the other - and vice versa.
You're getting a good sense of some of the nasty challenges involved in
doing a product like this "right". :-)

Thanks, Rob

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Bowes (rob@wolflair.com) (650) 726-9689
Lone Wolf Development www.wolflair.com

This is a thought I just had. Would it be possible and helpful to kinda
reverse things. What I mean is to be able to input items into the Inventory
listing using the data from the datafile?
I can see issues with this but it was a thought I wanted to throw out.
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That's what I was referring to earlier in my other post about the
inventory. Went back and read it and didn't know if what I said was
clear. Basically creating a miniature inventory based on configs from the
data files and then you can choose what configuration to use each mini as
that you choose. It's basically creating "units" in AB and instead of
just loading a saved unit from file, you load the "saved unit" that you
want from your inventory list.

-Dennis

On Tue, 17 Apr 2001, D K wrote:

> This is a thought I just had. Would it be possible and helpful to kinda
> reverse things. What I mean is to be able to input items into the Inventory
> listing using the data from the datafile?
> I can see issues with this but it was a thought I wanted to throw out.
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I think the Inventory feature soundls like a great enhancement to AB.

It would be good if you could hold an image against a model, that
could optionally be printed on the roster, the location where the
miniature is stored, a cost so that you could easily value your
collection for insurance purposes and a link to the troop type that
it could be used to portray.

Idealy you could record inventory at different levels i.e. figures,
bases, units.

Just some thoughts.


Chris Abbey
http://www.wargamesworld.com