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AB datafile Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter tomw at icss.net
  • Start date Start date
T

tomw at icss.net

Guest
How official are the ArmyBuilder data files? I mean, are they used by
events to "bless" or "deny" armies? Getting GW GT/Conflicts or RTTs or
even non-GW events (Indy GTs come to mind) to specifically state that
they will be entering all armies into AB using datafile x.y.z would go a
long way to stopping the "illegal" army statements and make AB a more
"official" product.

Don't get me wrong, I like AB. I am not exactly sure I use the printout
correctly when I play, but it sure beats doing it by hand.

Tom

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NOTICE: This electronic message (including attachments) is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. 2510-2521. It is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any retention, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. Please reply to the sender that you have received the message in error and then destroy the communication. Thank You.
 
They aren't. The data files are made by the maintainers themselves
(ab40k3.homelinux.net). The fact that 40k exists for armybuilder is a very
nice coincidence, since army builder was designed to make rosters for
anything that people felt like making data files for - and someone decided
to make files for 40k.

Lone Wolf Development stays as far away from an individual game system as
possible (of which 40k is a rather sticky one) because that means they get
to continue making their product unharassed - yay!

As for whether showing up with an armybuilder printout will somehow be a
sort of authenticity stamp for the event.. I don't think that will ever go
anywhere, because while the datafiles are made by the maintainers, they
are readily changeable by someone with an authoring kit (which isn't
openly available just yet but can be asked for, to my knowledge). So
a list being deemed 'legal' because it came from armybuilder is just not
going to happen.

<EOL>
Tib


On Fri, 18 Feb 2005, Thomas J. Willard wrote:

>
> How official are the ArmyBuilder data files? I mean, are they used by
> events to "bless" or "deny" armies? Getting GW GT/Conflicts or RTTs or
> even non-GW events (Indy GTs come to mind) to specifically state that
> they will be entering all armies into AB using datafile x.y.z would go a
> long way to stopping the "illegal" army statements and make AB a more
> "official" product.
>
> Don't get me wrong, I like AB. I am not exactly sure I use the printout
> correctly when I play, but it sure beats doing it by hand.
>
> Tom
>
>
 
I never meant that showing up with an AB printout would be validation.
What I meant was before a tournament that the players turn in a list and
the lists are validated against AB and the stated version of the
datafile (40K, WHFB, whatever).

I know at least one event is verifying army lists through their licensed
version of AB and the WHFB datafile and I for one am glad of it. I have
always hated the feeling of not knowing whether an army was truly legit
(at least as far as the accuracy of the datafile). And I hate to see
all the bickering that occurs after tournaments about "illegal" armies
and such. Such comments, warranted or not, should have been handled by
the event organizers prior to the events start.

And, yes, I understand that Lone Wolf Development has to stay a certain
distance away from an individual game system. Doesn't mean the
tournament organizers have to do so as well.

Just my two cents worth.

Tom



Tib wrote:

>They aren't. The data files are made by the maintainers themselves
>(ab40k3.homelinux.net). The fact that 40k exists for armybuilder is a very
>nice coincidence, since army builder was designed to make rosters for
>anything that people felt like making data files for - and someone decided
>to make files for 40k.
>
>Lone Wolf Development stays as far away from an individual game system as
>possible (of which 40k is a rather sticky one) because that means they get
>to continue making their product unharassed - yay!
>
>As for whether showing up with an armybuilder printout will somehow be a
>sort of authenticity stamp for the event.. I don't think that will ever go
>anywhere, because while the datafiles are made by the maintainers, they
>are readily changeable by someone with an authoring kit (which isn't
>openly available just yet but can be asked for, to my knowledge). So
>a list being deemed 'legal' because it came from armybuilder is just not
>going to happen.
>
><EOL>
>Tib
>
>
>On Fri, 18 Feb 2005, Thomas J. Willard wrote:
>
>
>
>>How official are the ArmyBuilder data files? I mean, are they used by
>>events to "bless" or "deny" armies? Getting GW GT/Conflicts or RTTs or
>>even non-GW events (Indy GTs come to mind) to specifically state that
>>they will be entering all armies into AB using datafile x.y.z would go a
>>long way to stopping the "illegal" army statements and make AB a more
>>"official" product.
>>
>>Don't get me wrong, I like AB. I am not exactly sure I use the printout
>>correctly when I play, but it sure beats doing it by hand.
>>
>>Tom
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, email
>
>armybuilder-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

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NOTICE: This electronic message (including attachments) is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. 2510-2521. It is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any retention, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. Please reply to the sender that you have received the message in error and then destroy the communication. Thank You.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
 
On Fri, 18 Feb 2005, Thomas J. Willard wrote:

> I never meant that showing up with an AB printout would be validation.
> What I meant was before a tournament that the players turn in a list and
> the lists are validated against AB and the stated version of the
> datafile (40K, WHFB, whatever).
>
> I know at least one event is verifying army lists through their licensed
> version of AB and the WHFB datafile and I for one am glad of it.

Interesting. I suppose that would be up to the event manager more than
anyone else, but I agree that it's a neat idea. You could process lists
fairly quickly and then mark the paper in some way to prevent switching
after the games are in progress.

I would bet though that being a GW sanctioned event, GW would probably
want their own product used than a third party one.

<EOL>
Tib
 
There are actually quite a few tournament organizers that use AB to
"validate" army lists. In the tournaments I've witnessed and heard about,
rosters must be submitted either in advance or at the start of the
tournament. The tournament organizers then enter the army lists into an
undoctored copy of AB on their computer and flag any discrepancies, which
are then double-checked with the player and the books. If the player is
fielding an illegal roster, he is docked points in the tournament and
forced to make adjustments prior to the second game of the tournie.

At no time is AB considered the authority, but it's great for flagging
problems. If a discrepancy is found, the player is consulted and the
official books are checked to find out whether the player made a mistake or
the AB files were in error. But AB provides a very quick and easy way of
sanity checking the rosters and identifying the discrepancies, so it offers
a great deal of value to tournament organizers. This also provides a solid
sense of security to all the players, since they know that all the rosters
are being validated by the organizers.

We provide free licneses to stores for use on in-store computers to support
just this usage. We've also done this for a few established tournament
organizers who run the tournie on their laptop. This approach has been used
in numerous RTTs that I'm aware of.

-Rob

At 11:30 PM 2/18/2005 -0600, you wrote:
>I never meant that showing up with an AB printout would be validation.
>What I meant was before a tournament that the players turn in a list and
>the lists are validated against AB and the stated version of the
>datafile (40K, WHFB, whatever).
>
>I know at least one event is verifying army lists through their licensed
>version of AB and the WHFB datafile and I for one am glad of it. I have
>always hated the feeling of not knowing whether an army was truly legit
>(at least as far as the accuracy of the datafile). And I hate to see
>all the bickering that occurs after tournaments about "illegal" armies
>and such. Such comments, warranted or not, should have been handled by
>the event organizers prior to the events start.
>
>And, yes, I understand that Lone Wolf Development has to stay a certain
>distance away from an individual game system. Doesn't mean the
>tournament organizers have to do so as well.
>
>Just my two cents worth.
>
>Tom
>
>
>
>Tib wrote:
>
> >They aren't. The data files are made by the maintainers themselves
> >(ab40k3.homelinux.net). The fact that 40k exists for armybuilder is a very
> >nice coincidence, since army builder was designed to make rosters for
> >anything that people felt like making data files for - and someone decided
> >to make files for 40k.
> >
> >Lone Wolf Development stays as far away from an individual game system as
> >possible (of which 40k is a rather sticky one) because that means they get
> >to continue making their product unharassed - yay!
> >
> >As for whether showing up with an armybuilder printout will somehow be a
> >sort of authenticity stamp for the event.. I don't think that will ever go
> >anywhere, because while the datafiles are made by the maintainers, they
> >are readily changeable by someone with an authoring kit (which isn't
> >openly available just yet but can be asked for, to my knowledge). So
> >a list being deemed 'legal' because it came from armybuilder is just not
> >going to happen.
> >
> ><EOL>
> >Tib
> >
> >
> >On Fri, 18 Feb 2005, Thomas J. Willard wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >>How official are the ArmyBuilder data files? I mean, are they used by
> >>events to "bless" or "deny" armies? Getting GW GT/Conflicts or RTTs or
> >>even non-GW events (Indy GTs come to mind) to specifically state that
> >>they will be entering all armies into AB using datafile x.y.z would go a
> >>long way to stopping the "illegal" army statements and make AB a more
> >>"official" product.
> >>
> >>Don't get me wrong, I like AB. I am not exactly sure I use the printout
> >>correctly when I play, but it sure beats doing it by hand.
> >>
> >>Tom


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Rob Bowes (rob@wolflair.com) (650) 588-8252
Lone Wolf Development www.wolflair.com
 
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