Version 11 is up, a small bugfix; "Export" did not work when you have added Commissars in a platoon.

Just bumping back to front page.

Wish we could get this stickied…

Really happy to say that this Force Builder is now available through the Dust-War.com homepage too!

em_en_oh_pee said:

Yes, OldHat and I are teaming up and affiliating Dust Warfare Force Builder with Dust-War.com. The official link will soon change (still working out some of the kinks). When everything is working good I will do a HTTP 301 automatic redirect at the old URL.

EDIT: Looks like it was just my FireFox caching the old page prior to the DNS propagation.

The new URL for the Dust Warfare Force Builder is now officially http://builder.dust-war.com/

301 redirect will be up tonight hopefully, and soon there will be a dust-war.com badge and link-back.

Lets return this to the front page!

Fell off front page, halfway onto second, bumping.

I will add the new book as soon as it comes out and someone sends me a copy. I do not intend to purchase it for myself (I have not done any gaming in a while due to too much real life getting in the way).

I can't thank you enough for this program! It's saved me so much time over using a pen and paper, and there's no chance of my horrible math skills mucking up my point totals.

Thanks for all of your work, and I hope Real Life lets you get back to gaming. I know I'd go crazy without my weekly gaming therapy.

Version 12 is up.

First pass at Campaign Book: Hades. Red Platoon and all new units added.

No support for Unit Upgrades yet - this is going to be tricky and may require me to redesign portions of the code.

Great work Maine! Looking forward to playing with the Red Guard.

I did notice a little hiccup at the moment: most of the support options for defense and political platoons don't cost any points, that is to say they don't add their points cost to the army total.

Wow, that was fast!

I'm getting the "free" unit bug too. I'm playing with it trying to determine the exact trigger, but can't figure it out just yet. It seems like I don't see it until I add a second platoon….

Fast work indeed!

I get the freebie bug in Defense and Political platoons no matter the structure. Only the Snipers and Observers work, the rest are free. Red Guard works though.

I fixed a bug with Supports on the night of the 10th - if this bug is sitll occurring, please hard-refresh the page (shift-F5, usually), it should say "REVISION 13" near the top.

If that doesn't fix it, let me know - I could not reproduce the issue today through casual testing using Firefox.

Also, thank you to everyone who has donated, either to me or to the Snow Leopard Trust (I do not know if anyone has donated to that). If you donate directly to me via Paypal, please be aware that for donations of $2 or less, Paypal takes more than half. Your money will go much further if sent to the Snow Leopard Trust in that case.

Your donations have allowed me to purchase Campaign Book: Hades, and will cover Campaign Book: Icarus when it releases.

Unit upgrades are still pending, I have to redesign the UI and clean up portions of the code.

Additionally, soon I will have to break compatability with the Force Links (the URLs you can use to save or share your armies). The original implementation imposes certain restrictions that make it harder and harder to support the new options being added with the latest books.

At this point I have also decided I will not be adding support for full army printouts (e.g, detailed unit information), for reasons technical, ethical, and personal. This would make the tool very heavy weight, goes too far (in my opinion) towards copyright infringement, and would take an extraordinary amount of time I cannot dedicate at this point in time.

Thank's for everything your doing Maine. It's a great builder and I know FFG keeps throwing you curve balls with all the different sutff they add like unit upgrades and the like. You are spot on brother!

Status update:

I've completed most of the code reorganization and cleanup. The old saved Forces URLs won't work anymore, but I am considering a couple options, including a link translator, or redirecting to a stripped down, partially functional version of the old page.

Error reporting has been improved immensely. Every error now has a descriptive error, and the top level "Errors" popup now lists EVERY error!

I'm upgrading to newer JQuery and Twitter Bootstrap, and then I'm going to be working on the layout changes necessary to support Unit Upgrades.

Maine, your hardwork is greatly appreciated by many.

Version 14 is up, with a slew of new features:

- Unit Upgrades are in! There is a > icon next to Section/Support labels which will expand the Upgrade area when an eligible unit is picked. If you collapse it, any chosen upgrade will be removed (this was a deliberate design decision).

- Improved error reporting

- Platoons can be re-ordered, and even collapsed down to the header (type+points+name)

- Previously chosen faction is now remembered (javascript client-side cookie)

It is now 2 AM and I have to leave for work in less than 8 hours, so I am going to sleep.

Version 15 is up.

- Old Force Links are now converted to the new format

You are too awesome.

Version 16 is up.

On a whim I decided to dabble in jQuery UI, and I added the ability to drag-reorder your platoons. I left the up/down buttons in place as well.

First, I'd like to thank you for all your time and effort in creating and maintaining this fantastic resource. As a former software engineer, I can appreciate what is involved.

A unit can have only one upgrade (the program mostly reflects this), including the unit-specific upgrades for Battle Grenadiers and the Gunners. Right now, the program allows both of those units to take two upgrades. Here is a link to the official ruling on this: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=311&efcid=6&efidt=757340 . Sorry.

Mike J said:

I had recently heard this was the case, and was waiting for official confirmation on it (FAQ), but I'll take the posts in that thread as confirmation.

Actually, I like this, as I can now get rid of these upgrade units and roll it all into one system.

I'll look into doing an update this weekend.

Revision 17, 'Apocalypse Edition'

- Unit Upgrades from Core Rulebook and Zverograd are now no longer separate [upgrade] units, rolled into Unit Upgrade list.

If you have saved Force Links with [upgrade] units, they will automatically convert to the original unit, and the appropriate Upgrade will be chosen; if you had a previous additional Upgrade chosen, it will be discarded.

Upgrade names:

Combat Rangers: "Additional Ranger"

M3 walkers: "M3 Amphibious Upgrade"

Battle Grenadiers: "Additional Grenadier"

MPW III-A Wotan: "Wotan Upgrade To Vehicle 6"

Originally I displayed the source of non-Core rulebook units (e.g, (Zv) for Zverograd units).

I removed this with one of the more recent revisions, however if there is enough interest I can reinstate the notation:

[Zv] = Zverograd

[Hd] = Hades

I would add this to all choices (units, platoons, unit options, new platoon options with the next book) where applicable as part of the unit's name.

Let me know how you feel about this.

The improvement on "The Gunners" from one bazooka to two overrides the unit's ability to upgrade the unit to carry M9-D bazookas? I'm not so sure about that one. It sort of makes that upgrade pointless unless you give it to the "Death Dealers".

I'm going to pose this question over on the rules forum to get a consensus. I'm just not too sure about that call.

Etna''s Vassal said:

This has been anwered by Zach: