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Sorry, couldn't resist the slowed title

I've been thinking of doing a java program for building armies for board games. Now, don't get too exited, I'm known for not finishing what I start. Also, I will probably only get real development done by July.

The way I'm thinking, it's going to be open source, there will be NO RULES on the default program, but I will try to make it as easy as possible to create new ones. So after some initial hassle you'll be able to create your army fairly easy.


The main feature (if you may call it that): the user interface is going to be as intuitive as possible. I'm not going to finish this project unless I enjoy using it, so no worries there.


My main problem is I'm interested in knowing if there's a problem with doing it. Mainly the legal sort.

Don't call it an Army Builder, obviously.

There's a few Open Source projects to do this kind of thing out there, but most of them seem to stall. Your best bet might be to try to get a workable if early release done before worrying about getting other people to contribute.

What platforms do you plan to make it for? What languages?

yaaaa you said the secret word pee wee.......Don't you all know that we can't say Army Builder ... without getting a C&D.


But yea Crushy that sounds like a good idea... esp if your going to run it in java.
Good luck.. I would offer to help but i suck at writing code!

Crushy wrote:I've been thinking of doing a java program for building armies for board games.

My main problem is I'm interested in knowing if there's a problem with doing it. Mainly the legal sort.

Nomoreso than anybody else making an Army Builder for board games. I think you should proceed to make an Army Builder for Heroscape and another Army Builder for Navia Dratp. Everybody would like this.

Not a lawyer, so I can't comment on the legality, but LRD seems to get off the hook by producing the engine and letting the community develop the datafiles. You might try some similar arrangement, maybe even making it capable of being compatible with AB files (DEFINITELY not sure of the legality there though.) Though I'm very much so not a fan of java, I'd use it if you made naively Linux compatible. I'm getting really far ahead of myself, but if you offered some sort of modular plugin system for different filetypes, that would be awesome too. I'd actually pay money for a Linux version.

IP will always be an issue, so you'd have to keep it as generic as possible and allow the community to build the list options for different IP, and even then then can get a C&D for that specific plugin or script.

A good example of some of the benefits and issues can be seen looking at (Vassal. As an example, I am pretty sure the 40k set for Vassal was removed because of a C&D from Games Workshop.

Would the community appreciate an army construction tool that looked good, was easy to use, and was easy to maintain to keep up with current rulesets... YES! Would whoever published the army construction script for Games Workshop get a C&D... ALMOST ABSOLUTELY! Other publishers are more forgiving and recognize these tools as actually helping and growing the community, others like GW are really unforgiving, even if they have no plans to compete, they just want their share... and Lone Wolf is there source for that share right now.

Seems like good idea though.




Make it usable on a mobile phone. That would be a killer app

If I ever make it it's going to be java.

It's definately going to run on Linux: infact I hate developing on Windows very much.

Has anyone got any links for those version left halfway done? I'd hate to befall the same fate as them, might as well continue someone else's job.