Still Working on the Vampire Reader

Hey all,

So my time has been broken up between working on the vampire reader, which will take in a .GEX file and read in the vampire data, and researching ways to make it slightly more efficient.

Hopefully everything I've been doing hasn't been the exact opposite of useful, but I'm finding out there are things built into Java that read XML data easier than the way I've been doing it, so it's looking not so likely.  Good learning I guess, but I wanted to bring this to market soon and not have it be a freshmen style project. Frustrations aside, I'll keep plugging away at it.

It seems like a lot of people want tabs, so I'll see what I can do when I get it reading the vampires in correctly, and definitely have it available by the time I start reading in all old WoD critters.

Take time out to vote if you haven't already!

How should Applet Grapevine look?
	One Big Display
	Tabs
	Size Dependent
pollcode.com free polls

If you can see ads on this page but don't have money to donate, please click on them.  I get paid a little bit per click, but every little bit helps.

ZBott Out

Another rough draft

Hey all,

I got some progress today, and I wanted to share it with you all (or Y'all if you are so inclined):

To cover some details: Advantages hasn't been filled out yet, nor has the buttons for adding new traits, ability, or backgrounds.  Not visible is the fact I'm failing to get the boxes for traits, abilities and backgrounds to update when I change to a new character.  Luckily, I have two days off in a row, and my job has moved me into a new position that has slightly better hours.

Now here is a question for you the reader: Do you like the layout so far?  As Grapevine uses tabs, I wasn't sure if I should use tabs as well in my applet version.  Mobile Grapevine will be using it, but that is due to space limitations.

How should Applet Grapevine look?
	One Big Display
	Tabs
	Size Dependent
pollcode.com free polls

Anyways, let me know what you think,
ZBott out!

Update 1: New Screenshot!  Took less time than I thought, but I finished up Advantages, and broke Merits and Flaws into it's own panel.  Still exceedingly rough, but let me know what you think:

Raw Applet Grapevine.  Will work on spacing and proper loading tonight (5/20) and tomorrow (5/21).

Update 2: Got the fields to populate correctly, today is progressing along swimmingly.

Applet in the Raw

Hey all,

Layouts are tough, but I'm tougher, or however the hyperbole goes.  I've gotten the character info pane together enough for a screen shot:

Now I'm going to be bringing in Traits, Abilities, and Advantages into the mix.  Then Vampires will get a treatment, followed by saving and generating an XML GEX file.  Once all of those are together, I'll be find a place to host it and putting it online!  My hope is by June, but as May is half way done and I'm struggling to find time to work on this, no promises just yet.

Details on the Applet's next step:

Traits Pane: Physical, Social, Mental.  Each will just be populating into a text box and allow entries to be highlighted.  The highlighted entries can have their level raised or lowered, but once they hit zero, they delete out.  There will also be an "Add ** Trait" where the stars are the specific category.  Adding will launch a pop up where you can enter the name, level, and any notes.

Abilities Pane: A lot like the Traits pane, but only one box and one add button.  Removing all levels from an ability will drop it.  Adding will launch a popup as well.

Advantages Pane: This one will be a little bit different from the other two, as it will have subpanes of Tempers, Renown, Merits, Flaws, Health, Rites, and Gifts.  Tempers will detail temp and perm levels of Rage, Gnosis, Willpower.  Renown will look like Tempers but cover Glory, Honor, and Wisdom.  Merits and Flaws will be similar to Traits and Abilities.  Rites and Gifts will have the ability to pick between Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced, with an out of BTA button to add +1 to the cost.  Health will be closer to Exalted (For those familiar) by having a number of check boxes, some autofilled to normal levels.

With the Vampire update I'll be pulling non-generic info out of the Character pane into a separate venue specific one, where Vampire's will cover things Clan and Coterie, and Werewolf will cover things like Tribe and Auspice.  The Advantage section will be the only other thing that will change, reflecting Disciplines instead of Gifts, Blood instead of Rage or Gnosis, and Combo Disciplines and Rituals instead of Rites.

Once launched, I'll be letting people play with it, finding errors and fixing them, while I work on the next part that'll deal with experience and expenditures, and saving a catalog of previously entered options.  This will in turn be savable to the users computer.  I might even be able to make Applet Grapevine mimic most if not all the functionality of the Grapevine application, so then anyone with access to the internet could use it.  That will be an interesting bonus on the way to Mobile Grapevine!

As usual, let me know what you want to see, any questions you have, or feel free to donate either to my Paypal or by checking out my advertisers, because I'm not above begging.

ZBott out!

Alpha Applet Are Arrrrgrivating

Hey all,

I've gotten started on my applet viewer, and a shiny new screen shot! (Hands off, Corax!)

As is visible in the background, I'm posting it over my code to show it's as raw as it gets.  Right now it's just pulling data and dumping it into the 3 fields I'm using to test that it works.  When I get to publishing it online, it'll allow players to generate new characters, or turn .gex XML (still outright refusing to work with binary files, even Adam Cerling said it wasn't worth it) into human readable text, or even allow editing!

The applet will be the quintessential format for Mobile Grapevine V.10 to V.40, except, you know, on the phone!  I might even skip a lot of sub-levels (like moving to support all old WoD games at V.40, for example), and start working on handling in game spends, and transferring info from one player/storyteller to another.

Feel free to ask questions, even for clarification on stuff I've covered.  It helps me polish my my ideas.

ZBott out!

PS: If you see anything you like on this page, click on it please.

Subminor update, and a question

Hey all,

I'm working on the Vampires next to help me correct a dumb error, but I don't have them entered in just yet: 

As I was working on this, I was looking over some other house ex miscellaneous (Ha, a Hermetic joke!) info that Grapevine can share, like Players, Experience, and Rumors.  Does anyone really want that?  If not, I'll skip trying to work it into the system neatly.

As my current plan stands, a storyteller passing a sheet to a character can send just the character or choose to add player and location info.  This will be passable back to the original Grapevine the same way.  Will this work for most games?  Either way, let me know, I'd like to help build this for your games, not just mine.

ZBott out!

I'm on 4, I mean 5, I mean I'm on fire!

Moving away from the console, I've gotten the text to do dialog boxes and popups:

That screen cap shows the program (over source code) pulling in strictly .gex files, and in the background it shows that only XML format will be taken.

The next one shows a character being displayed for the verification.  Not pictured: Pop Ups for creation of Text and HTML versions of the character.

Next step is to populate the character over to an editor, and printed it back out into XML .gex format.  I'm trying to decide if I step straight into screwing around with an applet or keep dealing with a non-webbernet style window.  My next update will include sexier screen shots instead of code and boxes.

For anyone not interested in jargon and techspeak (it's like newspeak, but better!), since I've decided to do a strictly computron version first, when I finally migrate to android I'll be far enough along to go straight to all oWoD support instead of one venue at a time.  Hopefully this should make people happy.

ZBott out

.gexXML to .HTML

Hey, two updates in a week?  I must be on something!  Joking aside, I'm vaguely proud of this new direction taking off.

Why am I proud(vaguely)?  I can now churn a character sheet into HTML!  No more ugly text, now boring text!  It also means I'm getting closer to making the applet converter!

For proof of life, I mean the project, not mine, I'm literally programming on my free time:

I'll be polishing it for a bit (working on the Rites display) and then going to character generator next.

ZBott out

Status Update, May 2013 Style

Hey all,

I've swapped directions again while trying to get things to run.  I was first attempting to build a data structure, but that got to be a wild randomAnimal.insert() problem.  So instead of trying to think beyond Grapevine for now, I went back to think about just getting Grapevine files onto the phone.  I've turned this GEX file:

Into this TXT file: 

A good start, pulling each piece of data out and printing it off in human readable drab text, but nothing that Grapevine doesn't already do and do so better.  The next step from here will be building a data type of a "Werewolf", then of course all of the other World of Darkness game types, and then play with the data.

I've also got some new people following my work, as calling them my followers makes me feel like I need robes and secret handshakes.  I'll be trying to make more posts, with hopefully more intelligent writing to go along with it.

Feel free to leave comments, and or suggestions.

ZBott

PS: If people want to know if I'm alive I'll also start just dumping ideas I've been having down, as my current day job gives me lots of time just to think.

PSS: Also, I have updated the look, as I think I'll be posting more black text on white in the future.  This'll make my screen shots from Notepad less obnoxious.