After thinking about this some more and reading what others have suggested,
I envision the system functioning maybe like this...
Step 1
Inventory your mini collection.
For example, the mini I want to inventory is a SM w/ Bolter and a Power
Weapon ( the mini is actually a converted standard bearer). He may function
as the following in my army:
Sgnt w/ Bolter+CCW
Vet. Sgnt w/ Bolter+CCW
Vet. Sgnt w/ Bolter+Power Weapon
These are the options for this mini that I have in my inventory.
I would say to prevent having 100 possible combinations per mini, that the
mini should only be inventoried with weapon options and not from the
equipment list. Equipment can be added to the mini in the army list
(grenades, auspex, etc. etc.) Hmmm... however, this does bring up the
question of whether or not a player uses a WYSIWYG army. I would think that
most of us don't. For example, I know that sometimes I add an auspex to
mini's that don't have one attached. (Heheh... however with the new lictor
rules, it really isn't worth it anymore).
Maybe I am just not envisioning all the possibilities, but I really don't
see how you could make the inventory system auto-identify mini's that you
informed it about without an extreme amount of work. I don't think... " Hey
Mr. PC, I just bought GW's mini #5483FR and what all can I do with it?"
That lookup db would be huge and under constant maintenance (how many game
systems does AB support now?!? Yikes!!!) I'd say building a db record of a
"new mini" based on the army list would be better. That gives you total
control over what exactly the player wants the mini to represent (with
variations even). This does however bring up a possible roadblock (imo)
that I will write about in my next e-mail.
Step 2
Build an army list. Your army list is not only validated vs. army/codex
rules (the rules) but it is also compared against your inventory (if you are
substituting mini's for a particular game the inventory check could be
turned off). Army Builder wouldn't prevent you from adding a mini that you
don't have in your collection but it would warn you that you don't have a
mini defined for that unit or squad or whatever. Potentially you could
print a "pick list" as well for your inventory and use it with your army
list to pick your mini's.
I REALLY like the picture idea except for that auto-identify the mini (HA!).
This ain't the 22nd century. How about just the ability to save a small
thumbnail image that could be added to the inventory record for each mini.
Thumbnail... small... like 128x128 or something tiny but identifiable. This
could also optionally be printed on the pick list if desired. This kind of
thing would really be helpful to someone with large mini collections from
multiple game systems I think (god I know it would help me out even with my
med. sized collection). Also, since several mini's (your standard trooper,
grunt, whatever) would have identical records, an inventory record could
also know that I have 42 painted standard marines (or whatever) and will
track how many of those I use to build my army. Save room in inventory db
as well as be able to only have 1 pic for all those identical mini's.
Granted, I only really have exp. w/ Army builder using GW armies in
40k/Fantasy/BFG, but I would assume that these "stats" that inventory would
track are pretty generic so this idea might work for all the different games
that Armybuilder supports. Someone else better than I would be able to
decide that part. I just want to help and put an idea out there to throw
darts at. I've been waiting on a mini inventory system in AB for two years.
All of my gaming group is drooling too since I passed on the info about this
discussion.
One last idea... inventory might also track a location for the mini. I say
this because I knew a guy that has so many miniatures in his collection that
his mini cases are numbered as well as the slots in the mini case. He used
Excel to track his collection. Now that's a collector... heheh. I could
put in the inventory that the particular mini that I want to use is in case
2, tray 3, slot 4 or whatever. This could be just a text field where the
user puts in whatever location info they desire.
Okay... enough for now. =)
-Dennis
> -----Original Message-----
> From: DiPonio [mailto
iPonio@voyager.net]
> Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2001 12:14 PM
> To:
armybuilder@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [AB] Inventory Feature for AB?
>
>
> >> And remember, we are not trying to inventory "Chaos
> >> Marine Havocs" we are trying (or at least I am) to
> >> inventlry "Chaos Space Marines with (insert weapon
> >> combo)" It doesn't make a lick of difference if
> >> it's a veterian/normal/havoc marine, just that it is
> >> a chaos marine model with (insert weapon combo).
> >>
> >> Hope that makes sense......
> >
> >
> >While on the contrary I would want to inventory the
> >exact model type in addition to armament variables.
> >Thereby I could see readily what units I could easily
> >put together.
> >
> >RK
>
>
> Ahh...well, I was thinking that a marine with a bolt gun could be
>
> 1. A basic Marine
> 2. A veterian Marine
> 3. A devistator Marine
> etc...
>
> So, by having a number of "models with bolt gun" you could
> then make your army, and count how many of these you are
> using, be they basic, veterian or
> devistator...then you can see how many of that model you
> have. And this would even work for something like this:
>
> Unit Options
> Marine Bolter
> Bolt Pistol CCw (doesn't matter if it is
> specifically a power weapon as you can change the description
> of the unit to "marine with powerweapon")
> Heavy Bolter
> Bolt Pistol
> Power Fist
> etc etc
>
> Then when you look at your models, you can just create the
> unit (with unlimited size) that matches what you have.
>
> Oh well,
> =]
> Paul
>
>
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