Orc Sneek Peak

Main Screen

Attack Screen


Add Player Screen

Here some screen shots of Orc 1.02 which reflects the changes I felt were necessary after some actual play testing a few weekends ago. As you can see I have streamlined a few things and even added some features. Here's a run down:

• Main screen has been streamlined to only include the Character Name, initiative value, Hit points, power points, an action status, bleed and any penalties. The action status tells the user the condition of the player, for example, is the player stunned, down, out, dead, etc. It does not indicate the number of rounds as this is something I feel isn't all that necessary to know on a constant basis however you can get that information from the Critical Detail window if the player asks.
  
• Any action Orc would have taken based on the action status is eliminated in favor of a warning box to remind the user what condition the character is in. Before Orc would not allow you to attack if the player was stunned. Here the user can do anything they want that fits whatever rules they are using for that particular action. Orc leaves the appropriate action to the user.
  
• Weapon selection added to the target area in attack window so user can adjust this value immediately.
  
• Also I have eliminated Use Adrenal Defense and cover selections in favor of user fields.
  
• User Fields allow the player to define specific player values that can be used during melee. You can add four different values per user field: a value for Melee, MissileBolt, AreaBall or a default value. The user field selection window will display the appropriate value based on the attack. If no value exists, the default value is displayed.
  
• Quickness bonus, adrenal bonus, armor bonus and other bonuses have been eliminated in favor of MeleeDB, MissileBoltDB and AreaBallDB. This is to reflect the specific bonus based on each type of attack to the player. This eliminates the specific rules that Rolemaster uses in favor of any house rules that might be in place which calculates these values. These values do not include your shield bonus or your adrenal defense bonus. This is important to remember. The reason for this is because Adrenal Defense is a rare skill and it different per attack and has rules when it can be used. Shields also have different values per attack and have rules on when they can be used.
  
• Adrenal Defense has been removed from the Add Attack tab in the AddPlayer Window. Again this is a user field and is not necessary to define it for an attack. This is something the GM can and should do on his own per house rules.
• I have also added a UserFields.xml file to define the basic userfields for melee such as cover, lighting and positional modifiers. Go ahead and add to this file any other fields you can think of that each player should have. These fields will display for all players. The userfields you define PER player in the AddPlayer window is displayed ONLY for that player.
  
• Cleaned up main window to remove values that are zero. Therefore only values that have meaning display on the main window.
• Clicking Done on the attack windows saves and closes the window. Save and Attack will save and clear all values for another attack. Use this if the player gets another critical, attack, etc. A message box will appear for criticals that get two rolls each for a different table if you click done. The critical information is automatically updated.
  

Things not yet added but I plan to at some point.

• "Player overrides stun" checkbox. User checks this if a maneuver was performed that can override the stun for a round. This tells the program NOT to reduce the stun value by 1.
• I would like to bold the text in the Action Status so that it stands out a bit more.
  
• I would like to add a column so the user can select an action the player is going to perform that round. This allows the user to know who is doing what. This field will be controlled entirely by the user as it should.
  
• Calculating experience points for the whole melee when finished.
  
• Keeping track of exhaustion points however how many people really want this?
  

Things not changed

• I have not changed the Spell Casting window or Maneuver windows. (exception: I added a default value of 5 to the maneuver window for the Feet per Hex value.
  
• You can still add ranks to the critical in order to get a spread of criticals you can scroll through.

I am hoping I can make Orc available soon. I have and continue to use this program and I think it is a pretty solid application. Used in conjunction with Battlegrounds makes for a rather fun experience. In fact I now run ALL my combats using Battlegrounds and Orc.

Updates on Orc

1) The idea of creating this as Open Source is looking rather impossible. Everything boils down to the database which is copyrighted by ICE. The only real solution that would be to create a completely original database which still might not be enough if ICE also owns the "structure" and "rules" which I also believe is the case. In the end, Orc is a bit too specialized to be Open Source. Streamlining it is also a solution where Orc becomes generic enough to be able to handle most attack systems in a very basic manner. I will be discussing a possible license with ICE when it comes to Orc so yes, I have removed Orc from being Open Source.

2) Ran through Orc during a game and I was actually impressed. If a program doesn't work I will usually jettison it in favor for something I am used to, but with Orc I not only used it once for a big combat I used it twice for another big combat. A few issues get crop up, for example Hit Points were not getting applied except if you hit the apply button and the program forces the user a bit too much. So I am going through Orc to create a program that is a bit more streamlined:

• Message boxes will appear reminding GM's on events or statuses of players. For example, if a player is stunned, the program will no longer control your actions on the stun, it will simply tell you the player is stunned. This allows for House rules as well.
  
• I am going to remove a LOT of fields from the add player in favor of having fixed values for defense: Melee DB, Missile/Bolt DB, Area/Ball DB and that's it. I will still have a field to adjust DB with or without shield.
  
• User fields/GM Screen. There will two buttons, one for the player and one for the target that the user can bring up for user fields. These fields can be used for shadow or lighting, cover or elevation, etc. It can also be used for Adrenal Defense or Adrenal Evasion values as well. Adding User fields will be another tab in the add players dialog where you can add as many user fields as you want for the player. A general user field XML will be created that will always display for every player.
• Re-arranging the GUI's for a bit more of a streamlined look and to make certain values stand out and easier to read such as the hit attack and the critical areas.
  

Orc: Version 1.01 is available

Orc Version 1.01 is now available. Features include a new Database structure, more critical and attack logic added, multiple attacks now supported, Active Spell Pane and now the ability to change player properties during combat, for example a spell that increases hit points, or they pick up a weapon.

This release is still in beta. It seems pretty stable. I ran through a combat test run and didn't have any issues. I'll will try more combat runs during the week.

Download Orc 1:01b

Testing for 1.01 Underway

I have completed development for version 1.0 and all that is needed to be done now is some database entry for final testing. Here are the new features for 1.01

• Main: Completely refurbished database in order to support the idea of ICE acquiring it. The reason for this was to format for an already created database by someone else who had already made the XML database work under an XSL template. These templates are just fantastic and are very close to looking like an actual page from the book. There is also an index.htm which lists all of the XML files which when clicked will render an attack table or critical table. These databases are 100% customizable however I do not recommend changing the node names or attribute names as a lot of them are used by Orc. Again the XML database submitted in the program will be empty save for the template itself. However I do not plan to change the format in the near future or ever as this is a format that works well and in my mind is pretty solid.
  
• Secondary: New fields and logic for AddPlayer so that a player can create characters that cannot stun or bleed.
  
• Logic for armor bonuses and other bonuses for defense.
• Can now link an attack to another attack. This allows a player to define two attack weapons such as the skill Two Weapon fighting or if you created a Martial Artist whose style allows for a second attack. Also a field to link this attack only if a critical happen which helps with creatures who attack with one natural weapon and if they crit can attack with another.
  
• Added a Spell Pane which now lists all active spells. To make a spell active, go into the spell dialog window, select a spell from the list and click cast. If the spell casts normally it will appear in the Active Spell Pane.
  
• Also this version links large creatures and super large creatures to the large and super large critical table.
  
• Also this version allows a player to mark their weapon as magical, mithril, holy or slaying.

There is also some new logic for attacks:

• The ability to define more than one critical for a result. For example an F crit shown in the book can be defined as an E crit with a table and a C crit on another table for example.
  
• Also if a condition is a part of the critical, for example if the critical asks if the target has arm greeves you can select this condition over the regular critical and apply it. This works with bracketing criticals as well.
  
• Also criticals keep track of more information such as initiatives, parry penalties, death and death in rounds, knocked out, knocked down and prone.
  

That's all I can think of for now. I'm looking forward to having this version finished and done so I can move on to bigger things like the Character Generator.

Also: again, for anyone interested in helping to develop Orc, want to add new things, fix things, make it work under Linux or a Mac (everything is coded using wxWidgets and C++ and XML so integration into these Operating Systems should be easy and standard) or if you are interested in being a beta tester. Again source code will be available and if you setup Code::Blocks all you have to do is load the project file and you are all set.

New Database Design

For those who may have downloaded the program and have started their own database work, you might want to stop for now until I have loaded into Orc my new database design that I am working on with Vroomfogle who let me tinker with his rather incredible piece of database work. I have a draft finished and will start moving this draft into the code here. Hopefully I will have something by next week. It will be in version 1.01.

This database I've been working on though is just awesome. Imagine if you will having the ability to just click a link on your browser (unfortunately right now it's IE only) and have an exact replica of an attack sheet in front of you, or a critical table sheet. Not only does this database do that, but software developers will and should be able to utilize it as well as I plan to prove with Orc.

Once we have this database finalized then hopefully we can get ICE to acquire it. We shall see.

(the reason is it IE only right now is that Mozilla is not capable of reading a DOCTYPE ENTITY to load an XML file into another XML file. It's a limitation of Mozilla unless I can find a solution).

Beta is now available!

I have made Orc .10Beta available to the public. Things to note with this release.

1) This is not a stable version and therefore could be prone to a few bugs and crashes. If it does crash I would love to know when the crash happened and what you were doing at the time so I can address the issue.

2) The XML Database again are all templates with no data in them. Copyright issues prevent me from making full databases available to the public. Also please don't ask me to send you these files as an aside. If I can't make them available in this application then I can't send them via email as well.

3) If you think there is a bug in the program please send me an email on it and I will address the issue in time.

4) I also accept enhancement requests if you have ideas. I already have a few of my own which include the following (Active Spells pane on the main window listing all active spells, better functionality for creatures and beasts and help files). I'm aware there is no automation of phases in Orc. This is a feature I do plan to have in time, but I need to think about a design first. ;)

Enjoy!

Beta is almost up

I have completed the development phase of Orc and will now move into play testing. Hopefully the testing will go smoothly and I can have a beta ready for testing by next week. I will post more information on the beta when I am ready as there is legal-ise that needs to be mentioned as well. If you are interested in being a beta tester, please send me an email at brdavid@gmail.com.

Here are some screenshots of Orc as it stands for Version 1.0.

Main Window

Add Player

Attack Window

Maneuver Window

Spell Window