> >The vehicle generator alone doesn't seem to be worth $15.00 to me.
Mike, dude, if you have a prog. that will, (1) let you custom make ships, (2)
print said ships out in a ship record sheet as shown in the back of FT, and
(3) is shareware, tell me where it is! This is one reason why I like
Shareware. I too was a little skeptical of plunking down $15 for a CD that
could be anything; a great, do all, print all for DSII, or a simple ascii
text, BASIC coded prog that will (half the time) print out a vehicle sheet. At
least with Shareware, if you get it and don't like it, you purge the prog, and
you aren't out any money.....
> Date: Mon, 14 Jul 97 10:29:00 PDT
> Where can I find a vehicle generation program for Win 95/NT/3.1?
I must agree with another subscribers thoughts. Why pay $15.00 for a CD ROM
with a Vehicle Generator when I can visit Mr.Cowell's Web site and create my
vehicles for free? Unless there are a number of other items on that CD that
cannot be obtained elsewhere (such as point systems for SGII, SG Squad
generator, Ship generator, etc...) I'm not sure that such a product will
move... Phil P.
Where can I find a vehicle generation program for Win 95/NT/3.1?
Thanks,
> At 01:47 PM 7/14/97 +0000, you wrote:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Nils_A_Hedglin@ccm.fm.intel.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
> We'll be releasing one next month. We did have it scheduled for
Charging 15.00 for this is in my opinion a little silly. For example, there
are a number of FT starship generator spreadsheets on the web. Most are pretty
good. Now I doubt that anybody is making $15.00 a shot off of any of these.
Also Dream Pod 9, has released a vehical and Gear construction sheet for it's
Heavy Gear game, as a service to the people that play it's game. You can down
load this from many sites on the web and, be for they changed servers, the DP9
official site as well.
If you are really intent on making money on a vehical generatior for DSII,
my advice to you is to make it downloadable from your GEO-HEX website
for a small fee. This would lower your expenses in that you would not need to
put
it on CD-ROM or have to ship it. You may also get more visitors to your
website, which if I remember lists all of your products. They may just order
something in addition to the DSII Generator.
In closing I believe that you may be going about this the wrong way. Making
money off of a simple Vehical Generator even if it is packaged with a few
extras like Digitized Record sheets, and some graphics, is a little silly.
Especially if you are going to charge me $15.00 for it.
Thank you Joe. JNoll "Microbiologist by training,....Wargamer by choice"
> At 10:39 AM 7/15/97 -0700, Bill Nitsche wrote:
Still for a $15.00 program I hope there is something else on the disk with it.
If this system had all of the factors built in (oversized vehicles, etc) I
might be persuaded to buy it, but only if there are other support programs on
it.
In defense of KR, I've seen the output of the program (or an earlier rendition
of it) at a local mini convention and it comes out very nice and accurate.
It'll be interesting to see what is bundled with it. Also
realize that KR _is_ a businessman and would really like to be
reimbursed
for the time it took to produce it -- though I doubt it'll be a
money-maker. Most of that $15 will be production/shipping costs anyway.
As for the advertising potential of putting it up on the website, it'd be
like preaching to the converted -- those looking for it will be current
DS2 players who will already be purchasing either from Geo-hex or GZG
anyway (or a shop distributed to). And when you order the program, you might
pick up a mini or two at the same time, a sale that might not happen
if the program was available freely. ;) Besides, $15 isn't horrible --
the Rolemaster character management program from ICE is in the $30 range,
though I admit it's a bit more complex.
If it helps, I'll volunteer to pick it up when it's finally published and
write up a review for the list.
> On Tue, 15 Jul 1997, Phillip E. Pournelle wrote:
Yep -- a CD-ROM can hold 300 megabytes of stuff, and I certainly hope
that the DSII vehicle generator doesn't take up 300MB!
The vehicle generator alone doesn't seem to be worth $15.00 to me.
I'd hope that it would print out an index-card-size version of all the
relevant vehicle statistics, including the vehicle's movement per turn given
for all the different types of terrain.
I'd also like to see a FT ship generator on the CD-ROM that you can use
to create ship designs and print out a ship diagram with all the correct
symbols. Ideally, given a valid ship design, it should automatically create
the diagram!
I can dream, can't I?
> Rick Rutherford wrote:
> Yep -- a CD-ROM can hold 300 megabytes of stuff, and I certainly hope
Actually, a standard data CD can hold about 650MB.
> The vehicle generator alone doesn't seem to be worth $15.00 to me.
> I'd also like to see a FT ship generator on the CD-ROM that you can use
I've already created the bulk of an application for Win32 environments that
does this and more for FT. I've had to put this off for a while since I've
been busy. I was hoping to release it as shareware given Jon T's permission.
The only reason I do want not give it away for free is the all the time and
tools that I have invested in creating it. This would only pay for a small
fraction of the investment.
If KR has such an app for DSII available, I would recommend to make a
shareware version as well. I believe in the "try before you buy" concept. I'm
surprised how many have said they would not pay $15 for it. This is not
unreasonable if the product does what it is intended to do and makes you, the
user, happy. I have supported shareware software for years. I only register
the software if I actually intend to continue using it, i.e. I like it or use
it a lot.
I would think if KR plans to use a CD for the transport medium, there would be
suitable reason to do so. A single software tool will not fill the entire
contents of a CD, unless very poorly coded.;) The only reason I had considered
one myself was due the large nature of software to be included. It's not
difficult to find ways to fill a CD if your creative and have the
time. ;)
> At 10:39 AM 7/15/97 -0700, you wrote:
I agree with Chris. All the Excel spreadsheets and Web-based DS2
programs are OK but they all are missing something or have some glitch or
another.
If Geo-Hex can produce a nice, clean, thorough design program, I don't
think $15 is too much to ask.
> At 04:42 PM 7/15/97 -0400, you wrote:
Well if the program is larger than just a few megs than it's just as easy to
master CDs then a bunch of floppies.
I'm certainly not trying to start a platform war, but I certainly hope that
whatever is on the CD, it will not be Windows only. I know I'm not the only
Mac user here.
> On Tue, 15 Jul 1997, Gordon Peterson wrote:
> I'm certainly not trying to start a platform war, but I certainly hope
Here here, who needs anything else but MacOS and Unix (pick your flavor). Let
the bean counters work on mainframes. I wonder how much stock Gates has in
Game$ WorkShop....? Both turn out mediocre product that is way overpriced and
have crappy customer service.
I did have a fairly comprehensive spreadsheet for creating DS II vehicles.
Unfortunately its was in Lotus 123 for Windows..I now use Excel and for
whatever reason it just didn't convert from one to the other. If anyone wants
it (and presuming I can find it) let me know..
> I've already created the bulk of an application for Win32 environments
something like this would be worth a couple of bucks to me... and i'm sure
quite a few others. you might even be able to work out some agreement with Jon
and GZG...
CMC
In a message dated 97-07-16 14:02:23 EDT, you write:
<< if you have a prog. that will, (1) let you custom make ships, (2) print
said ships out in a ship record sheet as shown in the back of FT, and (3) is
shareware, tell me where it is! >>
I have one for Windows that does all except (2) [haven't gotten around to
getting it to print yet]. OTOH, my DSII generator does print and handles
walkers, VTOLs, oversized vehicles, etc. I'm not trying to compete with KR or
any of the official GZG stuff, but I have passed around some copies for
comment. So far, haven't received any.
> On Wed, 16 Jul 1997 DirtSider@aol.com wrote:
> I have one for Windows that does all except (2) [haven't gotten around
Hi there. I'd like a copy of the DSII generator please. I definitely would
provide some feedback for you.
> Paul J. Calvi Jr. wrote:
I really doubt it is larger than a few megs. Again, the medium of choice would
be based on ease of delivery to the client and cost effectiveness.
If
they can keep the file size small(especially with a compressed install) it
would be easy enough to send across the Internet with little cost.
> On Wed, 16 Jul 1997 DirtSider@aol.com wrote:
JaxxMan
> Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 23:42:02 -0400
> I'm certainly not trying to start a platform war, but I certainly hope
I've missed the release date on the CD to hopefully add more to the package,
but a Mac app is still on the distant horizon.
KR
On Mon, Jul 28, 1997 at 7:16:44 AM, "Geo-Hex" <geohex@teleport.com>
wrote:
> > Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 23:42:02 -0400 From: Gordon
> > Peterson <gpeterson@voyager.net> Reply-to: FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
> > To: FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
> > not the only Mac user here.
I'm joining this discussion real late, but if I were doing this project, I
would seriously explore doing such utilities in FileMaker Pro. It's fast,
easy to use, and cross-platform (databases created on Mac will run on
Windows and vice versa). With the Claris Solutions Development Kit you can
attach a runtime engine to the database to create standalone apps. (You have
to do a
separate one for each plaform, although the database is the same -- big
deal.)
FMP also gives you the ability to print out information in a variety of
formats and, perhaps most importantly for us, you can export a record
(i.e., a
design) as text, which can then be emailed to others and then imported into
their copy of the database. You get lookups, pulldown menus, checkboxes,
text, graphics, etc. -- basically, anything that Excel can do, FMP can
do, and you don't need the app to do it.
The main app is $200, with the membership in the Claris Solutions Alliance and
the Solutions Development Kit adding another $700-1000 more. This
sounds like a lot of money, but it's significantly cheaper than most
development
environments, and the CSA/SDK agreement includes unlimited distribution
rights
to the runtime engine. In other words, this is a one-time cost.
[For the record, I have been known to answer the question "What is your
favorite computer game?" with "Filemaker Pro."]