Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Gamemasters' Lounge => Topic started by: prismite on <02-16-15/1840:52>
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Hi All!
Let me re-introduce the Mook Generator I've been working on! It's complete and fully functional, for a Version 1.0 release, anyway. Please download and try this out! I'd love to get feedback and/or bug alerts!
Get it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0cWLUCJD5oZX2Nxc29VczNLalU/view?usp=sharing (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0cWLUCJD5oZX2Nxc29VczNLalU/view?usp=sharing)!
So, without further ado, let me explain some things...
What it is NOT meant to do:
Replace the need to draw out named bad-guys
Give skills that are not immediately needed for combat or stealth
Flesh out any sort of Personality
Provide any sort of magic/resonance (this is planned for a future update)
Provide random qualities (again, planned in the future)
Provide random 'ware (as above)
Generate a non-human NPC
Generate a PC
What it IS meant to do:
Give you access to quick bad guys that you do not care about
Give you a cash loot for each guy
Give you a name for said bad guy or gal (Chosen randomly. There are over 240 million possible combinations ... literally)
Provide an easy to use/read printable txt document for said NPC (Complete with damage track at the bottom)
Create archetype-based gear (You wont see a SWAT member with a Thunderstruck and Synth Leather armor, etc)
The program has 3 columns to choose from. On the left is "Normal", middle is "Tough" and the right most column is "Baddass". In the future I might Narrow this to be a set of fillable bullets so that we have more space, but for now, this is the format in use.
The "Normal" version of any character should closely match up (with minor discrepancies due to the random element of stats and skills introduced by the generator) to the NPC of similar name mentioned in the Core rule book. IE, the "Cop" Mook will closely resemble the Professional Rating 3 of the same archetype, etc.
The "Tough" version of any character should closely resemble the "Lieutenant" of its archetype, as listed in the book. This is only true if the Lieutenant stayed a similar type and didn't transition to a hacker or magician, as was the case in some examples. In these cases I used an approximate formula based off the other patterned characters to come up with what I thought was suitable advancement.
The "Baddass" version of any character is a SUBSTANTIAL increase, introducing a harsh power creep. These guys will be the extreme of these archetypes. For example, sticking with the Cop example from above, the Baddass Cop could be used as a SWAT member or even as a low-grade HRT member.
While this mook generator is far from perfect or done, it already has all existing books coded in it (in regards to Armor and Weapons, anyway), though not all have been implemented in a mook as yet. This "Version 1" of the generator is being provided to hopefully garner some interest, suggestions, thoughts, etc from the general public so please share your thoughts!
Things I hope to implement still:
The ability to add or create Resonance based characters
The ability to add or create Magic based characters
Add ability to give random attachments to weapons
Add ability to give random modifications to armor
Randomize Cyberware on relevant NPCs
Randomize Qualities for all mooks
Add additional relevant gear to loot (Commlinks, drugs, etc)
Create an 'odds & ends' loot section (Filled with things that could spark additional missions / tasks / hooks, etc)
Add buttons to instantly generate a random weapon / armor / quality / 'ware / spell / adept power, etc
Add a race button so as to select the species of any given mook
...and surely more that I have already forgotten.
Update 1: Corrected an issue where users were unable to open created mooks when using a program other than notepad.
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if and when you generate a character, you cannot open the character with the program still running, i have found after generating a character and trying to read the txt file, it opens and says "file in use by another program" and closes it.
also happens wether i make 1 character, or i make 12 characters. they are all "locked" until i close the program
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if and when you generate a character, you cannot open the character with the program still running, i have found after generating a character and trying to read the txt file, it opens and says "file in use by another program" and closes it.
also happens wether i make 1 character, or i make 12 characters. they are all "locked" until i close the program
Hmm. This is pretty interesting. I tried it on 2 machines and didnt see this. For additional info, what is your OS?
Also, try putting the .exe into its own folder and see if the problem persists.
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Nice, which language did you build it in and would you mind handing out the source? :)
if and when you generate a character, you cannot open the character with the program still running, i have found after generating a character and trying to read the txt file, it opens and says "file in use by another program" and closes it.
also happens wether i make 1 character, or i make 12 characters. they are all "locked" until i close the program
Which program do you use to open the text-file? I open it with Notepad.exe under Windows 8.1 x64 and there it doesn't happen.
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Very nice. Looking forward to seeing even more features! I know Michael Chandra made a mook generator, but it wasn't software. I'll try to find it and PM you a link. It might give you some ideas if nothing else. :)
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@Namikaze: Hmm. Yes, I can see some additional content to include into the generator in future versions. Thanks Nami! (And thanks to Chandra for the initial sheet creation, there)
@LordGrizzle: The programming language is not a normal program to make stuff like this and I am not, by profession, a coder so I'm a little embarrassed to say that its done in "AutoIT." I literally taught myself every bit of code as I went and found need for whatever. To answer your 2nd question, yes, I will make the code available as I believe in open source material. However, I'm not real proud of it just yet and want to cover some other bases, too, before I release it ... but I will.
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@LordGrizzle: The programming language is not a normal program to make stuff like this and I am not, by profession, a coder so I'm a little embarrassed to say that its done in "AutoIT." I literally taught myself every bit of code as I went and found need for whatever. To answer your 2nd question, yes, I will make the code available as I believe in open source material. However, I'm not real proud of it just yet and want to cover some other bases, too, before I release it ... but I will.
Nothing to be ashamed of. It's a useful tool and you can be proud of yourself, especially if everything was self taught :).
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I've been coding things for the better part of 25 years now, and I still look at my code and think "OMG this is horrible, I can't show that to anyone!"
So that feeling never goes away :)
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I've been coding things for the better part of 25 years now, and I still look at my code and think "OMG this is horrible, I can't show that to anyone!"
So that feeling never goes away :)
Well, that makes me feel a little better. I think. Hehe.
Has anyone ran into any issues or come up with any thoughts on additional content?
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Win 7 64 bit, and it was opening with wordpad.
however, when i force it to open with notepad, it will work fine.
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Win 7 64 bit, and it was opening with wordpad.
however, when i force it to open with notepad, it will work fine.
That makes sense, Notepad does not place an exclusive lock on the file while WordPad does.
@Prismite: Still, it's the tool's fault. You should drop the lock on the file you generated after you did it.
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@Prismite: Still, it's the tool's fault. You should drop the lock on the file you generated after you did it.
I will look into this.
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@Prismite: Still, it's the tool's fault. You should drop the lock on the file you generated after you did it.
I will look into this.
You probably just need to use FileClose( filehandle )
Based on a quick web search, as I've never heard of AutoIT.
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Thanks for making/posting this! I'm excited to give it a try.
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@Prismite: Still, it's the tool's fault. You should drop the lock on the file you generated after you did it.
I will look into this.
You probably just need to use FileClose( filehandle )
Based on a quick web search, as I've never heard of AutoIT.
Auto IT is a sort of BASIC dialect For Windows UI scripts d call lik FileHandle.Close () might not exists like that. But I have never programmed in any BASIC-Dialect but Visual so I do not know anything about it in fact.
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Sorry for the delay guys. I've got the file fixed so that the above error (files are protected) wont happen again. I've been under the weather today so I'll update tomorrow morning with the fixed version!
Really appreciate the feedback. Lets keep it comin!
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Update: Ownership issue has been corrected. Please re-download for the updated version, V1.1.
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no, i refuse! not until i get credit for the bug report in an official capacity!
;) kidding, working great!
whats the chance you can add in one for melee weapon specialist (non adept) or infiltration specialist
i know we could just go with the die pools listed and get it working good enough by changing the skill, but its more fun to read the names it comes up with. :)
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no, i refuse! not until i get credit for the bug report in an official capacity!
;) kidding, working great!
whats the chance you can add in one for melee weapon specialist (non adept) or infiltration specialist
i know we could just go with the die pools listed and get it working good enough by changing the skill, but its more fun to read the names it comes up with. :)
Haha, yes, the name generator is a bit ... eccentric at times :P
I've already begun working on the next update, hopefully including some more stuff like more archetypes, random feature rollers and more. Its a while away, unfortunately, but it should be a substantial update that brings tons of new material and updated stuff that others have requested.
If anyone has anymore suggestions, feel free to let me know!
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I think this is a great tool! Thanks for sharing this. I've downloaded it and will definately use it in my mission creation.
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Just wanted to give everyone a shot of what the updated version looks like.
(http://i.imgur.com/nsrK1U1.png)
Not ALL of the buttons are working yet, but they will. So far, the first 6 archetypes work. All races work. All difficulty selections work. Progress is a'comin. Still, open to suggestions and ideas if anyone has any.
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Great progress!
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Super neat! Just checked it out now, will use it to churn out a few baddies I need for my next run tomorrow.
Thoughts:
1. Better define what Normal/Tough/Bad-Ass are supposed to mean. You could do this by their largest dice pool and/or average critical dice pool, for example.
2. Give checkboxes that allow us to select optional features for a mook instead of hard-coding it in. For example, cyberware off/on, non-lethal weapons off/on, aspected magician off/on.
3. Summarize the condition monitors into a single number. I record their monitors as "Physical HP: 10/10" and it takes me an extra second to count :-)
4. This will take some serious charting, but allow us to specify max cost of single inventory item. For example, no item exceeds 1,000¥.
5. For skill ranks, don't list them using square brackets []. Since that's typically used for limits (even in your own file) it's a bit confusing. You can just list them without extra syntax, e.g. "Automatics 5" instead of "Automatics [5]".
edit: Noticed that your new version already included some of #2, nice! But if it's only an on/off option it should be a checkbox and not a radio button :-P (the UI designer in me coming out)
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I don't want to sound rude but when can we expect 2.0 version to be released? 1.0 was big use for me and I just can't wait :P
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Thanks for creating this tool!!
I have just got it now and will be using it to populate baddies for my runs :)
Really appreciate the time you must have put in this. Ill be keeping my eye out for the next release as the extra options and content in the look killer!
Cheers chummer
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Got Version 1 - its pretty cool, I expect I will be using it to build some random encounters for my game. Esp maybe ones I didn't expect to turn into a fight.
Might I suggest some sort of personality or quirk that it randomly generates with the NPC ? I mean I can make up my own chart or just come up with something on the fly. But sometimes the most memorable NPCs had just that extra bit of flavor to make them stand out more and it would be nice to have it thrown in there to use or not to use when appropriate.
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This is more for quickly generating some mooks to be gunned down by the players rather than a proper NPC..
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This is more for quickly generating some mooks to be gunned down by the players rather than a proper NPC..
I do realize that - just a random description of said mook would be kinda interesting. "Walks with a Limp" - "Smells Bad" - " Bad teeth" ... Like I said I can do this myself, just thought it would be an interesting feature.