So I've been toying with an idea and upon request have designed some stuff for tight measurements. I may have a few distance one sticks with side tabs available soon. It was brought to my attention that having a small tab on your range 1 acrylic is very handy for making those hard to reach squadron measurements. Expanding upon this idea, I plan on making rulers with either tabs or sticks for all or most the ranges and distances...



I'm considering both, but if you had to chose between:

A.) An acrylic ruler with a tab built into the side, to be read perpendicular.

or

B.) An acrylic ruler with a hardwood dowel perpendicular to the face, that's read by laying the ruler flat.

Which would you chose?


**UPDATE**

See post below for finished pics

a

They both work, but “A” looks nicer.

A. As I can see myself accidentally knocking over a Squadron with an inadvertent spin of B.

Yep, I'd go with A too. I mean, I know the length of the ruler - the whole point is that I want to see if something is in distance one, but can't reach into it normally. Having a narrow ruler just to test distance is thus the best. It doesn't even need a face, really, just enough material to be solid. The face is, I assume, there so it can also be used normally?

4 minutes ago, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

The face is, I assume, there so it can also be used normally?

Pretty much.

I prefer A, although if you made the stick for B about two feet long I might have to change my vote.

1 hour ago, moodswing5537 said:

a

1 hour ago, Admiral Calkins said:

They both work, but “A” looks nicer.

12 minutes ago, cynanbloodbane said:

A. As I can see myself accidentally knocking over a Squadron with an inadvertent spin of B.

11 minutes ago, GhostofNobodyInParticular said:

Yep, I'd go with A too. I mean, I know the length of the ruler - the whole point is that I want to see if something is in distance one, but can't reach into it normally. Having a narrow ruler just to test distance is thus the best. It doesn't even need a face, really, just enough material to be solid. The face is, I assume, there so it can also be used normally?

Just now, connivingmole said:

I prefer A, although if you made the stick for B about two feet long I might have to change my vote.

The original idea was to have the tabbed version shown on the left be for distances, which are centered around squadrons, as the tab doesn't need to be very large at all to give the player room to measure. However the pegged version shown on the right would be used for ranges as ship sizes and heights all vary and measuring is often done flat faced to see cardboard to cardboard. The pegged version would come with a 6-8" peg to allow players to do their ship to ships without reaching between models.

Considering this, would you still prefer tabs (left) for all? or would you consider pegs (right) for ship ranges? (also a distance 1 for bombers measuring to ships)

B. Spinning it would fun while I wait for my opponent to move

Armada fidget spinner...

I'd use either one, but I think I prefer B to have a knob with some kind of nurling or a hex-bolt on it to avoid the aforementioned accidental spinning.

Storage makes "a" better in my mind.

If you set a magnet in the range ruler, and another on the end of the dowel, then B would both store easily and convert to a regular range ruler when the handle isn’t needed.

6 hours ago, connivingmole said:

I prefer A, although if you made the stick for B about two feet long I might have to change my vote.

I made some of those rakes for other RPG / miniatures games. They can be really handy!

I ended up putting cabinet door knobs on the handle side of the rod, because I found that my players had a propensity to start swinging them around like wooden rapiers, and I was worried somebody might lose an eye.

A.

But please add it to a flick knife / switch blade mechanism!

A long handed B could be useful. I can also see using it as a token rake as well.

9 hours ago, Irokenics said:

A.

But please add it to a flick knife / switch blade mechanism!

These are gonna be budget items, I think developing them that far would be very cost inefficient

6 hours ago, cynanbloodbane said:

A long handed B could be useful. I can also see using it as a token rake as well.

6-8" is where I was aiming.

A

B looks fragile

7 minutes ago, X Wing Nut said:

A

B looks fragile

another person suggested the peg on B be made of acrylic, in which case, it would be fairly sturdy. I certainly wouldn't provide lemons.

11 hours ago, Darth Sanguis said:

These are gonna be budget items, I think developing them that far would be very cost inefficient

Ah i should've added an emoji to suggest that i was joking ?

Dude in San Antonio was 3D printing these for a while, not sure if he still does it or not. Super handy little doodad, also does what you're looking at with option A:

I usually find the inseam difficult to measure by myself. Usually easier to just let the tailor do it....

3 hours ago, Ardaedhel said:

Dude in San Antonio was 3D printing these for a while, not sure if he still does it or not. Super handy little doodad, also does what you're looking at with option A:

This may be the superior design, actually.

Even better, combined this with version B, but make version B work by adding a magnet inside the ruler and at the end of the holder peg.

Recreator Studios makes distance 1 markers with that design. He was handing out one to I think all the Armada players at Worlds.