Topic: Rolemaster Combat Minion - RM combat tracking software

[tbigness]

Well I tried again with a change in the browser not to clear history and cookies after close and it seems to be holding for now. I will experiment with it more.

[Merkir]

Well I tried again with a change in the browser not to clear history and cookies after close and it seems to be holding for now. I will experiment with it more.

Yes, that will be it. You must have changed your browser settings at some point to clear all data on exit. Like all web apps, Minion uses browser local storage to store the database. If you clear cookies, most browsers will also clear the local storage even though it's a different storage type. Unfortunately, there's no way for a web app to detect what settings you've set up on your browser (that would be a big security issue), so everyone will just have to remember to not clear your browser cookies on browser exit.

And IMPORTANT - back up your minion database of characters. It takes about 10 seconds, and you'll have a nice neat little text file with all of your characters which you can import into any Minion on any browser/device. Go to the Backup/Restore option in the settings.

For the technically minded, here's a nice intro to HTML5 browser local storage and its use within web apps:
http://diveintohtml5.info/storage.html

[tbigness]

Yup that is what happened. I have a question though... is there a way to back up the creature information that is being put in? I would hate to have all that data disappear again after all the time putting it in the system. Or is this also saved with character information.

[Merkir]

The whole lot is saved together in one file - PCs and NPCs/Monsters/Creatures.

[dagorhir]

For the technically minded, here's a nice intro to HTML5 browser local storage and its use within web apps:
http://diveintohtml5.info/storage.html

Thanks, this was quite interesting.

[tbigness]

Great that is what I was hoping for. I had 50 creatures with notes on move crit tables/size advantages/disadvantages and more that was lost the first time around. I will save and update my saves each time now.

[Merkir]

Also I highly recommend that after you add just one or two PCs and NPCs, you test the restore function. So do a backup, save the file, then restore it back into minion. In fact why not restore on a different browser which starts with an empty database - just to become confident with the backup/restore process before entering too many characters/creatures.

[nivho]

I have a couple quick questions.

1 - Holding actions: if I player has a high initiative but wants to "hold" their action for opportunity, how do I take that into account.

2 - Haste (and similar): how do I account for split initiative with things like haste where the spell or potion gives 2 actions - one at +50% init and one at -50% init

and finally...

3 - I realize that I have to build a database of my encounters but was wondering if there is a "generic database" of monsters or random encounters.

Thanks for taking the time to read!

---Vinnie

[Merkir]

1 - Holding actions: if I player has a high initiative but wants to "hold" their action for opportunity, how do I take that into account.

Note that any PC or NPC can take an action at any time. It's completely independent of the initiative sequence because the software doesn't enforce that (nor should it). If you're really pedantic, you can also go back into Initiative mid-round and change the initiative results to whatever you want and re-save. Then come back out and flick through to the current actor again and go from there.

2 - Haste (and similar): how do I account for split initiative with things like haste where the spell or potion gives 2 actions - one at +50% init and one at -50% init

At the start of the round I would add to the Initiative total for this char to account for their first action, then make a note of where their 2nd action would fall within the rest of the actor sequence. This is difficult to answer from the fact that the different versions of RM do initiative and sequencing differently. The current Minion initiative system is meant more as a place-holder system which you can vary as you see fit by changing init modifiers.

and finally...

3 - I realize that I have to build a database of my encounters but was wondering if there is a "generic database" of monsters or random encounters.

Not yet, but it's already been mentioned in this and other threads that it would be a great addition. We just need someone to go ahead and create a nice Minion DB of generic monsters/encounters. Right now I could easily provide my minion 100+ NPCs DB but I think it would be too campaign-specific. If anyone has a more general DB of Monsters/NPCs, they could simply use the backup function and post the file here for anyone else to use (via the restore function).

Thanks for the feedback.

[Khorah]

Hey Merkir (or anyone else that could show me where it is..),
Any chance we could get a link back to how to build custom charts again or maybe even a thread on it?
I bought the license (although "I" personally am a tad miffed that you don't get something out of this but that is just me..) but my current characters weapon, the typh, is not in the list.
While I do know that I "could" just use the flail table with the bonus, I would prefer to use the actual weapon chart plus have some flexibility for other "odd" weapons that we may run across.

Thanks!

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

I bought the license (although "I" personally am a tad miffed that you don't get something out of this but that is just me..)

Merkir insisted on not being paid despite the best efforts of John Seal and myself to persuade him to take a royalty on each sale.

Best wishes,
Nicholas

[Khorah]

Well.. I stand corrected..
/salute Merkir

Now.. gimme my typh table 

[tulgurth]

Nicholas, correct me if I am wrong.

Khorah, the last I heard, the program that converts the data tables in Minion format is on hold.  It's release is being held until ICE sees how the RCM release goes.  They did not want custom tables interfering with Minions release and sales.  Or at least that is how I understood it when it was discussed in the forums.

[Merkir]

A few posts to catch up on...

Hey Merkir (or anyone else that could show me where it is..),
Any chance we could get a link back to how to build custom charts again or maybe even a thread on it?
I bought the license (although "I" personally am a tad miffed that you don't get something out of this but that is just me..) but my current characters weapon, the typh, is not in the list.
While I do know that I "could" just use the flail table with the bonus, I would prefer to use the actual weapon chart plus have some flexibility for other "odd" weapons that we may run across.

Thanks!

Custom weapons are still on the ToDo list. Thanks for your concern regarding royalties, but there's a good reason I didn't want royalties and that is because I can't guarantee support or development timelines. I'm uncomfortable taking money for a product that I would describe as hobby software that has no formal support or upgrade schedule.

Note that up until about Feb/March I was reasonably happy with the delivery schedule and upgrades. Since then RL has intervened and things have slowed. On a personal note our last Rolemaster campaign session was 18 May and I still haven't even written up the session report and scheduled the next session... sorry to all my fellow Sydney campaign RM players if you're reading this!

I bought the license (although "I" personally am a tad miffed that you don't get something out of this but that is just me..)

Merkir insisted on not being paid despite the best efforts of John Seal and myself to persuade him to take a royalty on each sale.

Best wishes,
Nicholas

I confirm Nicholas and John have been nothing but genuine and generous in their attempts to disburse royalties. See above.

Khorah, the last I heard, the program that converts the data tables in Minion format is on hold.  It's release is being held until ICE sees how the RCM release goes.  They did not want custom tables interfering with Minions release and sales.  Or at least that is how I understood it when it was discussed in the forums.

I'll step in here. Yes there was 3rd party software which does some type of conversion and I have to agree with Nicholas/ICE that there's probably some IP issues that need to be dealt with on that front.

But specifically with Khorah's question on getting his "typh" weapon into Minion, this would ideally be done when the custom weapons functionality is available within Minion itself. Again, this is on the ToDo list.

[markc]

Merkir again you are a true prince among us mortals and I hope that a mysterious check finds it way into your mail box.
MDC

[nivho]

Thanks for the feedback.

Oh, thank you!

[Khorah]

Merkir again you are a true prince among us mortals and I hope that a mysterious check finds it way into your mail box.
MDC

^^^ This +1

Thanks Merkir! I remembered the initial discussion about being able to add custom tables, but then couldnt find how to do it, so I was confused (not that that is too hard to do..)

We ran out session this weekend, using Minion and overall, it went pretty smoothly. I ran into a few issues. In one crit, the NPC was killed, but that wasnt flagged automatically.
The other issue that was cumbersome was initiative. We had a lot of movement and several folks hasted, and manually adjusting the initiative was cumbersome. I think I woulda been better off handling it manually. Sadly, after talking with our group, we couldnt come up with an "easy" method to adjust it.

One thing I would like to add to the "wish list" is either a 200 point initiative counter OR a counter that I can toggle so I can easily keep up where I am in a 200 point system. While the use of the 100 point system wasnt bad, I still would lose track of where I was at times.

Overall, "I" think that Minion did do a good job of speeding up combat and keepign things logged for me as GM.

[Moostik]

To me, a "save current encounter"-function would be awesome. That way I can turn the PC off and resume the fight later. We play PBP quite a lot, a fight can progress at a rate of 1 round per day or worse, but we're playing every day
It's not really a problem to just resume with the next round being marked as round 1- however, initiative and the combat log is lost.

In other news, Minion as it is has already made my life as GM a LOT easier. Can't thank you enough, Merkir. I'd wish you a lovely summer, but then is it really summer in Australia...? Anyway, have a nice July.

[Warl]

can anyone tell me what the License email is titled? I can't find it in my e-mail in order to update my tables.

[tulgurth]

Mine is titled rpgnow.com warl.