It doesn't annoy me as much but I do wonder if it is neccessary for tourney play?

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Friday, November 12, 2010 - 03:41 am: Edit

Paul, I noticed recently that I have got proficient in guessing when my opponent is going to launch a seeker. Whenever he he cancel an IA window, that he activated himself, and then after a shorttime activated it again, is a likely time. The reason? My opponent had forgot to change the plasma load out in the expendables window, and had to correct that in order to launch...

By Gregg Dieckhaus (Gdieck) on Friday, November 12, 2010 - 09:24 am: Edit

Very True... I do that all the time...
Is it possible to always have EPT in the drop down?
Or ... if you really want to get fancy add it if arming power is greater than 5 in EA..

By Jonathan Biggar (Jonb) on Friday, November 12, 2010 - 10:03 pm: Edit

Carl: easy way to avoid giving away information. Just pick an earlier step than plasma launch in the IA window, go change your plasma loads and then change the step back to plasma launch.

No fuss, no muss.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Saturday, November 13, 2010 - 11:46 am: Edit

Carl,
Also, you don't need to dismiss the window to change the plasma load out. Just make sure that you are not in that segment and switch the the Expendables tab and change the load out and switch back to the IA window and select the "Launch Plasma" segment.

BTW, if you have select the "Launch Plasma" segment. All you need to do is switch to a different segment temporarily and change the Expendables and switch back.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Saturday, November 13, 2010 - 04:41 pm: Edit

Ok, tnx. I want have any more trouble with that, but I expect others will continue to have that. Good for me!

By Tony Moskowec (Teemo) on Monday, November 22, 2010 - 08:23 pm: Edit

Hi Paul. Is there a way for the client to handle ballistic Type III "Tame Boar" drones that use FD7.34 Random Targetting? In order to launch the drones from a rack I need a target but of course the target is not known until the drones are within their own lock-on range. Or, if not, do you think that listing the drone targets once acquired in EA notes would suffice? Thanks for your time. TM

By Josh Driscol (Gfb) on Wednesday, December 08, 2010 - 03:05 am: Edit

What i would love to see is carrier ready racks as a tab in expendables. Currently I have to use the notes tab for Carrier Deck crew activities. If there were a Carrier Ready Rack Expendable tab you could load drones from storage as easily as you do when loading a scatter pack.

It would really help with speeding up carrier activities, particularly on drone Fighters. I know the ready racks are identical to the fighters the carrier carries and you can track it in notes but a little automation would let you enjoy the game more and feel less like a drone warehouse manager.

As for the type III drone question above it would be nice if the client were able to set random targets for type III and Scatter Packs from available targets that fit the target criteria.

Something similar to what Teemo is suggesting would be nice for Scatter Packs also. Specifically where should you note the targeting information in FD7.3. I have been using the shuttle notes for this info.

But when it comes to determining random targets a "random target generator" in the client would be nice. For example say your SP was set to release at 4 damage pts couldn't the client blossom the SP when the shuttle recieved enough damage.

Im sure these things are easier said than done, and the client does save alot of paperwork already. Its a great tool, getting better all the time.

Oh one little think the map overlay tool in hex borders the numbers of the border don't match the norm of the no 1 being at the top and going clockwise around the hex. With a little renumbering of the hex border numbers in the map overlay tool it would be so much easier to do hex borders.

Im slowly getting the hang of it as it is, but cant help but feel like the 1 should be at the top.

Anyway just some ideas to think about. Keep up the good work, and thanks for the client its lovely.

By Josh Driscol (Gfb) on Friday, December 17, 2010 - 04:52 pm: Edit

Is it possible to renew someone's subscription for them. Without their user password, just Callsign and email. There is a player who I know could use a Three Month SFB renewal to continue his campaign. I would be willing to do that for him, but don't know how.

I cant imagine it would matter to you who the money came from.

Thanks,

Josh Driscol-GFB

By Josh Driscol (Gfb) on Friday, December 17, 2010 - 04:58 pm: Edit

I found the answer on my own the Gift subscription of course.

Should have looked harder, thanks Paul, ill fix him up for the winter.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, December 21, 2010 - 08:38 pm: Edit

Anyone know off the top of their head what tablets the client runs on?

Obviously not the iPad, as it's not on the Apple store.

What about Android tablets? It's a proprietary OS, of course, but it IS Java based, so...?

What else is out there? Not really looking at 'tablet PCs', but things roughly the size of the iPad.

Curious what might exist that one could run the SFB Online Client on, in addition to being able to read the new e23 SFB Master Rulebook. The idea of being able to play SFB on such a tiny little pad is...very awesome...

By Ken Burnside (Ken_Burnside) on Tuesday, December 21, 2010 - 10:38 pm: Edit

Xander, right now, the minimum usable screen resolution I can get SFBOL to run on is greater tan any usable Android tablet.

It can theoretically work on 1024x768. And by theoretically, we mean "It really sucks and you can lose entire dialog boxes because they get buried under something that you miss."

However, the application is not tuned for a multi-touch user interface, and I would be astonished if even the hooks to do it exist, given the libraries Paul Franz is working with. (He seems to be using Java Swing for the UI).

By Gregg Dieckhaus (Gdieck) on Tuesday, December 21, 2010 - 11:52 pm: Edit

I have recently been doing some android coding, and I dont think the client will be able to run on a tablet. While apps are written in java, they have to use the android API to write to the screen etc.
Short version - its probably a lot of work to get it to run on a tablet.
Gregg

By Barry Kirk (Barrykirk) on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - 07:17 pm: Edit

How about a netbook?

By Ken Burnside (Ken_Burnside) on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - 11:21 pm: Edit

Barry, I run SFBOL on my laptop just fine.

The problem isn't the computing hardware, it's the touch/tablet interface.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Thursday, December 23, 2010 - 06:33 pm: Edit

As Gregg points out Android uses a different API for drawing and interacting therefore it is non-trivial task to port to it.

It is possible, that if Windows 7 gets ported to a tablet device that the JVM and Swing would run on it.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Thursday, December 30, 2010 - 06:18 pm: Edit

When using the map overlay tool I need to cut some imported images to avoid weird result when stretching or centering them. So, what are the ideal dimension for images?

By Tim Kinnaird (Cptcrybaby) on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 - 06:55 pm: Edit

Is there a way to change the images for POT and POS in the client? I don't have dual monitors so my map is often at a size that makes it difficult for me to tell POS from POT. I'd like to be able to recognize them at a glance. Would be nice if they were an appropriately colored chit with a big "T" and "S" on them.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 - 07:46 pm: Edit

Currently, there is no way to change the images for POT/POS.

By Tim Kinnaird (Cptcrybaby) on Saturday, February 26, 2011 - 09:45 am: Edit

Can my opponent see any LOS strings that I put on the board?

I know that if they sync up they can see radius rings. Was wondering if the same is true for LOS.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Saturday, February 26, 2011 - 11:06 am: Edit

Tim,
No. Your opponent can not see LOS strings. These are tool to help the player on their side to check the LOS of stuff.

By Jacob Karpel (Psybomb) on Tuesday, March 08, 2011 - 05:51 pm: Edit

Tried to do some solo simulator work today and noticed that the Qari are missing from the library. Are there any plans to include them?

... And if this is a bug, how do I get them to show up? :D

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Tuesday, March 08, 2011 - 06:25 pm: Edit

It is not a bug. But this is a good place to request it as any other.

By William T Wilson (Sheap) on Thursday, March 17, 2011 - 10:00 pm: Edit

Some scenarios require the "draw a counter from a cup" mechanic. This allows a particular random number to be chosen, saved for later, and then revealed at some point. In some cases, the player doing the drawing is allowed to look at it (but keep it secret from the opponent), and in other cases they aren't.

One example of such a scenario would be, I don't have my scenario books right now to look up the name and number, but it is an early Andromedan scenario in Module C2 where the Andromedan player must draw a counter to choose his mission. Possible missions are abduct crew, peaceful contact, general damage, or collect scientific information. Obviously, the Andromedan player knows, but his opponent doesn't.

In other cases the drawn counter is used to represent something that will happen in the future, like reinforcements arriving, but neither player knows what it is until it actually happens.

I seem to remember there was some facility in SFBOL that could be used to simulate this, but I can't find it now. Wondering if I imagined it.

By Paul Franz (Andromedan) on Friday, March 18, 2011 - 05:43 am: Edit

William,
To my knowledge there has never been a facility to directly support this. The closest thing was for the first part where you could roll a dice privately (i.e. in another room) and then place it in a log and reveal the log later.

Definitely sounds like a useful feature to add though.