Just a typo note - on the Inventory & Gear page, it's spelled "Encumberance" when the correct spelling should be "Encumbrance". Thanks for the great tool!

Thx

I also just noticed I wrote "Fringers's" on the splash screen, so there are probably more typos lurking...

Also, a Zabrak's automatic Advantage on Coercion shows up as a red die with a line through it, rather than the advantage symbol in Oggdude. I don't know if that generalizes to all automatic Advantage traits/gear/etc.

Looks like the Auto advantage is just not implemented, I will add it.

The red dice with the line in it is a "difficulty downgrade". It will turn a red dice into a purple. You probably have that from some other Talent like INTIMIDATING.

When you click on the Coercion dice pool you will probably see that the downgrade is optional (which means you have to select it from the checklist). This will then cost you Strain which will be automatically added to your current Strain total when you leave the Dice Pool dialog.

Yeah, sorry about that. I noticed that just after posting, but then couldn't edit. Thanks for looking into the auto-Advantage, though.

Of course the latest update is live, and while the generator does have bugs, it may be worth looking at getting the new stuff in the datapad, such as the new companions tab.

Come to think of it...I don't see any vehicles in the datapad either.

I have no plans to add companions or vehicles any time soon (although this would be really cool!). So, you will have to stick to using printouts for this stuff at the moment.

Fortunately the character sheet information on vehicles (and companions I assume) is not so dynamic and does not change as much as the actual character information, so having this stuff in Datapad would not make that much of a difference to usability.

Well one of the things that attracted me to your program is that it is electronic. I don't have access to a printer and don't like to inconvenience my friends, plus as an electronic source it is arguably easier to keep orderly and under control. The only thing I use paper for is note taking. I would like to see companions, and vehicles added to the datapad if possible.

One area where vehicle information can change as rapidly as character information is hull damage, system strain, and critical injuries. The fact that the (character) critical injury table is included so you just enter the d100 roll is quite handy, and so I'd agree that similarly tracking vehicle information would be useful. (Though as the pilot/mechanic, all the ship record-keeping falls to me, so I may definitely be biased. )

One area where vehicle information can change as rapidly as character information is hull damage, system strain, and critical injuries. The fact that the (character) critical injury table is included so you just enter the d100 roll is quite handy, and so I'd agree that similarly tracking vehicle information would be useful. (Though as the pilot/mechanic, all the ship record-keeping falls to me, so I may definitely be biased. )

Actually I just noticed a bug in the critical injury stuff. Looks like the program crashes when you entire certain percentages over 100%, so just a heads up on that. I will fix this in the next version.

And a couple of other bugs:

- When clicking a Skill dice pool the program will sometimes bring up the Weapon dice pool template.

- In the "Add Inventory Dialog" adding a comment when adjusting inventory does not seem to work.

Of course the latest update is live, and while the generator does have bugs, it may be worth looking at getting the new stuff in the datapad, such as the new companions tab.

Come to think of it...I don't see any vehicles in the datapad either.

I have no plans to add companions or vehicles any time soon (although this would be really cool!). So, you will have to stick to using printouts for this stuff at the moment.

Fortunately the character sheet information on vehicles (and companions I assume) is not so dynamic and does not change as much as the actual character information, so having this stuff in Datapad would not make that much of a difference to usability.

Well one of the things that attracted me to your program is that it is electronic. I don't have access to a printer and don't like to inconvenience my friends, plus as an electronic source it is arguably easier to keep orderly and under control. The only thing I use paper for is note taking. I would like to see companions, and vehicles added to the datapad if possible.

Would be really cool, but more work than is possible at the moment.

Okay, for some reason the datapad is listing my Brawn as 3 when it should be 2 and I have no idea why. The character generator says 2, but when I import it, even if I delete all old data it has my brawn as 3, the rest of my stats are fine. I have nothing that would increase my brawn.

I do know that having a companion gave me the stats of the companion, so I tried removing the vehicle, and it had no effect. It also has me listed as having 18 strain when I should have 16 (base 14, but morality is at 99 giving me +2). It also has me at 9 encumbrance rather than 8 (7 base, +1 for utility belt). I think it's doubling whatever bonuses things seem to give to stats. Although I have no idea where the brawn comes from.

I do want to continue to test and use the Datapad, but if it can't give me accurate stats then I unfortunately would have to switch to a print out or just using a PDF reader. I really do like the application, but it can be a little clunky, it's inaccurate. It has promise but I think more care and testing also needs to be done by yourself Fringer. No disrespect intended of course.

Naturally when a new version is released I will give it a try, and I am still willing to answer any questions and test features, but for now I have to cease using the program.

Okay, for some reason the datapad is listing my Brawn as 3 when it should be 2 and I have no idea why. The character generator says 2, but when I import it, even if I delete all old data it has my brawn as 3, the rest of my stats are fine. I have nothing that would increase my brawn.

I do know that having a companion gave me the stats of the companion, so I tried removing the vehicle, and it had no effect. It also has me listed as having 18 strain when I should have 16 (base 14, but morality is at 99 giving me +2). It also has me at 9 encumbrance rather than 8 (7 base, +1 for utility belt). I think it's doubling whatever bonuses things seem to give to stats. Although I have no idea where the brawn comes from.

I do want to continue to test and use the Datapad, but if it can't give me accurate stats then I unfortunately would have to switch to a print out or just using a PDF reader. I really do like the application, but it can be a little clunky, it's inaccurate. It has promise but I think more care and testing also needs to be done by yourself Fringer. No disrespect intended of course.

Naturally when a new version is released I will give it a try, and I am still willing to answer any questions and test features, but for now I have to cease using the program.

Hi Ebak,

Thanks for the feedback. I will look into the bugs you mention.

I suspect the problem is that you are using the latest version of the SWDataGen (version 1.8?) which I have not tested or used myself. So the input XML to the program has changed somehow, and the program is interpreting things incorrectly.

This is a problem that will not go away no matter how hard I test because I cannot predict what might change in the future. And, of course, no-one wants to restrict Oggdude as to how he change his XML files, or force him to ensure that he remains compatible with Datapad on each iteration.

Basically I am reverse engineered Oggdude's work to produce the Datapad. There is no documentation or formal API which tells me what to do, and what has changed in each new version.

Anyway, I put out Datapad as a favour to the community. I don't earn any money on it, if fact, it costs me money to make it available to everyone. Not just time, but also the cost of the Apple developer account and the server.

Ebak, I am not complaining! You have been a great support as an "early adopter", and someone who is prepared to give some feedback. I cannot ask for more!

Besides, I knew exactly what I was getting into when I published the program. I have experience writing community software. I love the games, and want to give something back. But, in some cases I think I was not clear about what I wanted from the users and ended up doing the work all myself.

So, in the meantime, I am convinced that the community program must be a community effort. That means the users have a responsibility as well.

Obviously no-one is forced to use the program! But to those who do use it, or see the potential and want to give something to the gaming community:

Help us out!

Ebak, I am not speaking to you here. You contribute enough to the community by what you do on this forum. But we all know, there are a lot of passive "consumers" out there.

Well, that's the end of my rant. Thanks for hearing me out.

Version 1.2 of Fringer's Datapad is now available from the App Store.

I think I have fixed all the bugs reported in this forum.

Here are the changes:

- Times of added and changed items are now stored in the .xpad files.

Any plans to update to support the latest version of the Generator?

On 4/16/2017 at 9:02 PM, grahamcd said:

Any plans to update to support the latest version of the Generator?

It's working for me, what problems are you having with latest version of the Generator?

6 hours ago, JediNite said:

It's working for me, what problems are you having with latest version of the Generator?

Mostly I was just curious to see if there were plans for future development to increase usability and ensure compatibility with the latest release of the Generator. The only "problems" I have come across is the Mk III backpack is not recognized properly and it doesn't seem to calculate the defenses properly. Though I am sure there are other things. I still have it installed, but have stopped using it. Honestly, I think it is a great start but it needs refining and documentation. I want to use it, but in it's state now it is not better than a paper sheet.

Say, it's not clear to me in the description, but can this be used without the character generator? I ask because I have bad luck with that awesome tool, and manual data entry isn't an issue for me.

49 minutes ago, grahamcd said:

Mostly I was just curious to see if there were plans for future development to increase usability and ensure compatibility with the latest release of the Generator. The only "problems" I have come across is the Mk III backpack is not recognized properly and it doesn't seem to calculate the defenses properly. Though I am sure there are other things. I still have it installed, but have stopped using it. Honestly, I think it is a great start but it needs refining and documentation. I want to use it, but in it's state now it is not better than a paper sheet.

Thanks for the feedback. I would be glad to fix the problems you are having.

What I cannot do is ensure that everything works. It is just too much work. It is amazing how Oggdude has done it with the character generator, but I really don't have the time to implement everything.

New stuff may work, but often an attachment, piece of equipment, armor, weapon, talent etc. needs a bit of custom programming to make it work correctly.

So, if you would like to use the program, but you are having problems with some aspects of your character, send me a PM with your login email and the name of the character file that is not working. I will then test it out and fix the problems. When it is fixed I will let you know when I have uploaded the new version to the Apple Store so that you can check it out.

About the documentation, I will see what I can do. I realise there are probably a number of cool things in the App that are not being used because people don't realise they are there...

But personally, the feature that I find most useful is that it dynamically calculates things like encumbrance and soak during play. For example if you pick up or drop some gear, throw a grenade, spend money, change your outfit, or whatever during a session, the Datapad can track this, and keeps all your stats up to date.

37 minutes ago, themensch said:

Say, it's not clear to me in the description, but can this be used without the character generator? I ask because I have bad luck with that awesome tool, and manual data entry isn't an issue for me.

Yes, the Datapad requires a character sheet exported from Oggdude's character generator. You can also export your custom datasets, and import them into Datapad.

What problems have you had with the generator? I have it running on my Mac under VM Fusion and Windows 7, and it works fine

11 minutes ago, Fringer said:

Yes, the Datapad requires a character sheet exported from Oggdude's character generator. You can also export your custom datasets, and import them into Datapad.

What problems have you had with the generator? I have it running on my Mac under VM Fusion and Windows 7, and it works fine

Thanks for the info.

So I've been trying to run it the same exact way, Win7 VM on my mac via Fusion. Even when I give the VM plenty of resources, the app doesn't work so well for me. I try it again about twice a year, but it always seems to have some problem for me and I don't feel like bugging OggDude about it since it's just me. I have tried a win7 reinstall and fwiw I sling VMs around all day for a living so I doubt I'm inept here. I won't go into the distasteful mechanism that exists to acquire datasets to import, either, but I have a problem with that too. I won't argue about the quality of the tool, it's quite good and I appreciate that it's been made, but it's not for me and I am always in search of new tools.

2 hours ago, themensch said:

Thanks for the info.

So I've been trying to run it the same exact way, Win7 VM on my mac via Fusion. Even when I give the VM plenty of resources, the app doesn't work so well for me. I try it again about twice a year, but it always seems to have some problem for me and I don't feel like bugging OggDude about it since it's just me. I have tried a win7 reinstall and fwiw I sling VMs around all day for a living so I doubt I'm inept here. I won't go into the distasteful mechanism that exists to acquire datasets to import, either, but I have a problem with that too. I won't argue about the quality of the tool, it's quite good and I appreciate that it's been made, but it's not for me and I am always in search of new tools.

Hmmm, that is strange. Do you have the latest version of .NET installed? That is the only thing I can think of. Otherwise, I just copy an unzipped version of the program to "Program Files", double-click, to start, and it works.

I not sure what other tools are out there. But, seriously doubt that any other tool is keeping up with the increasing complexity of the game, and the amount of material. There are so many options now, that I find you cannot do without the Generator for anything more than a starting character. I have been playing the game for 5 years and I still would not like to have to put some of the dice pools together, that are required by a weapon with 3 or 4 attachments. And calculating encumbrance, you are almost certain of making a mistake.

Anyway, one reason I created Datapad was to get away from constantly having to make a new printout of my character sheet. Before every session you make another printout, and throw away the old one. It is time consuming and a waste of ink and paper. Of course, an electronic character sheet can also save you time and provide flexibility in other ways.

Just one example: you want to buy something but the GM says you have to roll for it in the next session. So, do you include it in your character sheet or not? If you include it, you may fail the roll. In this case, the calculated encumbrance, and your credit total are wrong. Datapad allows you do add stuff you buy, or remove things from your inventory, on the fly, and remembers this, even when your character sheet changes.

1 hour ago, Fringer said:

Hmmm, that is strange. Do you have the latest version of .NET installed? That is the only thing I can think of. Otherwise, I just copy an unzipped version of the program to "Program Files", double-click, to start, and it works.

I not sure what other tools are out there. But, seriously doubt that any other tool is keeping up with the increasing complexity of the game, and the amount of material. There are so many options now, that I find you cannot do without the Generator for anything more than a starting character. I have been playing the game for 5 years and I still would not like to have to put some of the dice pools together, that are required by a weapon with 3 or 4 attachments. And calculating encumbrance, you are almost certain of making a mistake.

Yeah I 'm pretty sure I do have the latest .net, to be honest I haven't spent a ton of time looking at it. It definitely feels like a .net issue with weird button placement and whatnot, but I could be incorrectly recalling my experiences. Eh, it's really not that big a deal for me.

There have been other tools to come and go (swsheets, for example) but yeah, there's nothing really like this out there, but I keep looking. I still manage to be able to wrangle high-XP pcs, I guess I have gotten a lot of practice since the Edge beta. I do use a spreadsheet to hold my characters but I don't do any fancy calculations with it. I haven't had many issues with encumbrance - that was actually pretty easy for me to track in a table. There's still a desire for the web-based alternative, but the desire to produce it has not yet caught up with the desire to use it, so here we are!

10 hours ago, themensch said:

Yeah I 'm pretty sure I do have the latest .net, to be honest I haven't spent a ton of time looking at it. It definitely feels like a .net issue with weird button placement and whatnot, but I could be incorrectly recalling my experiences. Eh, it's really not that big a deal for me.

There have been other tools to come and go (swsheets, for example) but yeah, there's nothing really like this out there, but I keep looking. I still manage to be able to wrangle high-XP pcs, I guess I have gotten a lot of practice since the Edge beta. I do use a spreadsheet to hold my characters but I don't do any fancy calculations with it. I haven't had many issues with encumbrance - that was actually pretty easy for me to track in a table. There's still a desire for the web-based alternative, but the desire to produce it has not yet caught up with the desire to use it, so here we are!

Interesting, so you could produce a web-based character sheet.

Expanding the input capabilities for Datapad is also an alternative, but that would be a lot of work.

The program is open source, so if you would to take a look yourself, and can program C++ and Qt, send me a PM and I will help you get started.

Anyway, if you do decide to do something, I would recommend that you use the data (in particular the default dataset) produced by Oggdude as the basis for input. It contains all the information in the books in electronic form (minus copyright materials, of course), and that is something that you really don't want to have to enter yourself.

That is a lot of work, and I am very thankful to Oggy for providing us with this great resource!

5 hours ago, Fringer said:

Anyway, if you do decide to do something, I would recommend that you use the data (in particular the default dataset) produced by Oggdude as the basis for input. It contains all the information in the books in electronic form (minus copyright materials, of course), and that is something that you really don't want to have to enter yourself.

That is a lot of work, and I am very thankful to Oggy for providing us with this great resource!

I am unlikely to make such a thing. I desire a simple online character sheet, it doesn't need all the bells and whistles.

OggDude's tool is exemplary to be sure, it's an important tool that has opened up this game to so many people.

6 minutes ago, themensch said:

I am unlikely to make such a thing. I desire a simple online character sheet, it doesn't need all the bells and whistles.

I am just now sure how you would do simple. Does it basically mean entering everything yourself, as you go along?

So for example, if you want to add a weapon to your inventory, you have to type in the weapon name, add the names of the attachments, work out the dice pool and damage, and enter that, add the encumbrance to a total, change your credits total, etc.

Obviously this is what FFG expects you to do with the pen and paper character sheets, or they would provide a character generator of their own (like they did for D&D 4e). But, I really think the number of options now available (with over 20 books!), is way beyond what can be done with pen and paper (or some equivalent).

So it seams to me that FFG is totally relying on the Character Generator, because only Oggdude's tool makes it possible to incorporate new source books into a campaign!

21 minutes ago, Fringer said:

I am just now sure how you would do simple. Does it basically mean entering everything yourself, as you go along?

Well...I have kinda been doing that for over 30 years now, so it's not a big deal.

5 minutes ago, themensch said:

Well...I have kinda been doing that for over 30 years now, so it's not a big deal.

Well, if you do decide to do it, then let me know. Maybe we could add your efforts to http://fringer.space/ , and make it so that the character data entered could be downloaded to Datapad.

That would be really cool!

This is the description of the "Characteristics and Attributes" page of Fringer's Datapad .

This page allows you to track current values such as: Wound and Strain threshold, Morality and Conflict levels and Critical Wounds. One of the most useful features of this page is the ability to track committed force dice , which can effect a number of stats and dice pools (see below).

1. Tap this icon to open the menu. This is actually not necessary because all menu items are also available from icons in this bar. However, I may add other items to the menu in future versions.
2. This is quick indicator of your current Wound and Strain level, taping on this area brings you to the "Characteristics and Attributes" page.
3. This icon takes you to the "Skills" page.
4. Tap this icon to go the "Description and Background" page.
5. This icon hides the display of your credit and experience totals, as these are values you may not want someone else to see.
6. This icon will take you to the "Talents and Experience" page.
7. Tap here to bring out the "Inventory Activity List" dialog. This dialog shows a history of items and credits, bought, sold and otherwise acquired. This list is used to calculate your current Credit total. You can add and remove items on this list from the dialog.
8. Tap this icon to go to the "Weapons and Armor" page.
9. This area is a quick indicator of your Encumbrance and Cumbersome total. Tap here to go to the "Inventory and Gear" page, which provide details on what you are carrying other than weapons and armor.
10. This icon opens up the "Preferences" dialog. Here you can enter your login to connect to the fringer.space web-site.
11. These are your characters attributes. Tapping on an one of these brings up the "Dice Pool" dialog, which helps you to create a dice pool by listing possible additions, that you may have due to Talents or Equipment.
12. This is your Wound threshold. Tapping here allows you to make a temporary adjustment to the threshold.
13. Your current Wounds. Tap here to add or remove Wounds. The grey numbers show a history of your Wound level.
14. This is your Strain threshold. Tap here to apply a temporary adjustment, for example due to activation of an Obligation for a session. Changes due to Morality level is applied automatically.
15. Your current Strain level. Tap here to make adjustments.
16. This is your current Soak. It will change automatically as required if you equip or remove armor or any other item that affects Soak.
17. Your current Melee Defence. Click here to bring up the "Dice Pool" dialog for melee defence. The checklist helps you to remember what Talents and equipment you have that apply do your defence.
18. This is your current Ranged Defence. Click here to bring up the "Dice Pool" dialog for ranged defence. The checklist provided is specific to defence.
19. Here you can add a critical injury by just tapping in an empty space. After that, just enter the percentage of the injury, the App will then display the Severity and effect. Tap on a exiting critical Wound to bring up the option to remove it.
20. Your current Morality. Tap to adjust at the end of a session. After a change is made, the Datapad takes over tracking Morality, and changes made to your character sheet in the SWCharGen are ignored. You can undo changes made here by deleting an "Experience item" on the "Talents and Experience" page.
21. Track your Conflict level during a session here. At the end of the session, after rolling a d10 to determine the Morality adjustment set this value back down to 0.
22. This is the number of Force Points you have. Tap here to commit force dice if you have the appropriate Force Powers (not all Force Powers have been implemented - let me know if I should add yours). When you commit Force dice, the App will adjust your dice pools, and anything else that is effected by committing a force dice, such as Characteristics and Defences. If you have no Force Points, this area is greyed out.
23. The RESET button allows you to reset the Stimpack and ERP usage in this section. If you have used medication, then do this once, at the start of a new day.
24. Tap here to apply a Stimpack. Datapad will adjust your Wound level according to the number of Stimpacks you have used so far. The numbers below indicate the number of Stimpacks you are carrying, and the total number you possess in total . If you have any, the App will automatically remove one from your inventory, beginning with those you are carrying. If you want to undo this removal (for example, because someone else gave you the Stimpack) bring up the "Inventory Activity List" dialog, and delete the associated item.
25. Tap here to apply an ERP (Emergency Repair Patch). This may only be used by Droids and (if permitted by the GM) Cyborgs. Applying an ERP works similar to applying a Stimpack.

Fringer, just used this tool last night and loved it! Thank you! I did not notice any glaring issues but if I do I will let you know. I have been looking for something like this to complement Ogg's tool since the beginning. Great job! I do wish there was a way to write the data file back for SWCharGen import, though. That little bit of manual work may be minor but it is a nuisance.

I liked adding equipment found on-the-fly and adjusting wounds/strain during play. I did not know about dice pools by touching stat block until I read this.

Any comments from Oggdude? Does he want to collaborate so you are not reverse engineering and keep in synch as he adjusts his tool?

I'm trying to upload my data. I've done a backup on my default data set to get the .zip file, but every time i try to upload it, the upload errors out as "the connection was reset." Am I overlooking something simple? Do I need to copy all of my edited data to a different data set for the upload to recognize the zip file?