New Standalone Fighter Generator

[Sports Fiend]

I have begun work on a standalone fighter generator. It already does what I basically wanted it to do, and I'm presently expanding it further and adding logic to it, such as aging, and other roleplaying elements. Rather than wait until I had the time to complete it (the end of January), I thought I'd release the basic version of it now, get some feedback, and release the final version at a later date.

FEATURES:
• First name (male/female), last name, and nickname generator built-in.
• Nearly all ratings controls included, some based on logic algorithyms, including Intellect, Endurance, Aggressiveness.
• Ability to override any control.
• Automatic Biography generation (very basic now, but expanding upon its logic).
• Print fighter record sheet, similar to fighter ratings screen, for easy data entry.

FUTURE FEATURES:
• Generate fighters based upon user-moddable questions and answers (roleplaying).
• Complete Biography generation.
• Ability to Save/Load fighters.
• Ability to Age fighter based on bell curve algorithym.

I've included two screenshots below:





There are no guarantees that the program is 100% bug-free. It is officially still in beta.

The installation package is about 550 KB, so I can't upload it here. If there's anyone with file space that would like to host it, please let me know.

[Antonin]

This sounds great!

Is it truly random? I mean, can you simply input that you want a 3-rated fighter and have the program generate one? Or can you input some ratings and have the program randomly choose the others?

[Rasmuth]

pretty cool!

[Sports Fiend]

Is it truly random? I mean, can you simply input that you want a 3-rated fighter and have the program generate one? Or can you input some ratings and have the program randomly choose the others?

Ratings presently aren't a part of the equation, but if I can figure out how they work, it wouldn't be difficult to add that feature.

Right now, the program randomly generates all numbers. It then takes into account some "behind the scenes" numbers that aren't a part of the game. For example, poverty may have an adverse affect on intellect, but it may also bump up aggressiveness. All numbers can be adjusted after they are generated randomly.

The alternate method for generating the numbers (which I haven't built in yet) is by asking the user a series of random questions, which adds to the roleplaying aspect.

For example:

When you were twelve, you were constantly bullied by a schoolmate. One day, he forced you into the schoolyard for a fight. Do you A) take a chance and fight him, despite the possibility of being severely hurt, B) refuse to sink to his level, or C) sucker punch him when he's not looking before you begin fighting?

Each answer adjusts the sliders accordingly.

Of course, I'm open to any suggestions

[bigtrouble77]

This is exactly the type of thing TBCB needs. The accumulated boxer data isn't really represented well in the game and it doesn't look like that's going to change(until the RPG).

Fiend, keep chuggin' away, your efforts are greatly appreciated. I may be able to stick it on my apache server, although it's heavily utilized for sendmail and webserver so bandwidth isn't spectacular. If the file's below 1mb i'll throw it up there.

-BT

[Hollywood Blond]

So is it up for download?

[Antonin]

Originally posted by Sports Fiend

FEATURES:
• First name (male/female), last name, and nickname generator built-in.

It would be nice if the player has the option of plugging in his/her own name files...txt files perhaps.

[Sports Fiend]

It would be nice if the player has the option of plugging in his/her own name files...txt files perhaps.

That was implemented. The names are stored in text files, which the user can modify/add to.

If anyone has the server space, please PM me with an e-mail address where I can send the file.

[guitarman]

Sport Fiend,

It is people like you who help keep the sim community going. Just look at all the utilities that Thomas Mink and Shawn Sullivan have created for games. You are in good company. Maybe your utilities for Title Bout will give Jim and Tom and company some great ideas for enhancing future versions of Title Bout.

Keep up the good work!
guitarman

[Antonin]

Originally posted by wildhawke11
...Short term this could increase sales but long term not so. Meaning of course that you might have killed any hope of Jim and Co plans for a future Role-Play game.

You might just have killed the goose that lays the Golden Eggs Mr Speed.

So some thoughts should be given by some of you Gentlemen before you join the applause that i hear ringing out in the Stadium.

I'm not in favor of anything that would degrade the value of the Trunzos work or take money out of their pockets. But my understanding of what Fiend is doing is that it is a stand-alone utility, and that he is not going to personally profit from it. It appears to be simply a utility that generates numbers for the player to plug into TBCB when he wants to create a boxer and remove his personal biases from the fighter creation process.

Players who are very knowledgeable about boxing and dedicated solely to historical replays may never use it, but to people like me, the ability to randomly generate my own guy and fight him against the RL greats is appealing.

I compare Fiend's effort to the many, many mods and utilities that exist for one of my other favorite games, Space Empires IV.

I don't know Fiend, and my antivirus software is not up to date, and so I would wait to see what others had to say about his utility before I DL and use it myself. But I look forward to eventually using it.

IMHO the create a random fighter capability should have been included in the game. One of the Trunzos, I think Jim, thought it was a good idea when I suggested it in the "suggested features" section. I assume it was not added because there were many more important things that needed to be dealt with. That's fine.

But I understand what you are saying, Wildhawke. If the Trunzos think this utility will hurt their trademark, then I won't use it.

[Andreas Raht]

This is great! Go on with that!

BTW: Please don't shout if some of this will be added to TBCB sometime. Don't tell us we've stolen your ideas if this happens :-)

[Sports Fiend]

Wildhawke11:

I can pretty much assertain from your comments that you're not very familiar with the rest of the sim sports community. That's okay. I don't fault you for it

Of course the utility is seperate from TBCB. It doesn't interface with it at all. It still requires the user to manually enter the values into TBCB.

The "Used Without Permission" part refers to Jim & Tom's article, which I included as part of the software to help the user understand the ratings.

Jim & Tom will of course work on add-ons for the game. They have promised RPG elements with the next version.

The utility is absolutely free! I (the only member of the team) am working on it in my spare time. It is a gift to the community, and helps aid a game that I love to play. It would be unethical for me to charge for such a utility.

I hope this clears things up.

[Sports Fiend]

BTW: Please don't shout if some of this will be added to TBCB sometime. Don't tell us we've stolen your ideas if this happens :-)

I won't shout.

But my lawyer might


Just kidding of course. Feel free to loot and pillage whatever hare-brained ideas I can cook up

[vistaman44]

Fiend;
This looks like a nice idea if the developers are OK with it (and Andreas seems "cool with it"). Keep up the good work!

[wildhawke11]

Antinon - your words
But I understand what you are saying, Wildhawke. If the Trunzos think this utility will hurt their trademark, then I won't use it.__________________


Without giving to much away, i recall the problems you are having at this stage of your life.

Yet you would have given up a free great add on if it had hurt the Trunzos and team in any form.

I am full of admiration for you, and i so hope things take a turn for the better for you in the New Year.
Your Truly a person i have full respect for.
Happy New Year my Boxing Friend.

[wildhawke11]

Originally posted by Sports Fiend
Wildhawke11:


The utility is absolutely free! I (the only member of the team) am working on it in my spare time. It is a gift to the community, and helps aid a game that I love to play. It would be unethical for me to charge for such a utility.
I hope this clears things up.

What can i now say?
Hung, Drawn and Quartered in my first comeback fight. I now know how Jim Jeffries must have felt when he made that foolish comeback against Jack Johnson.

In truth i was very impressed by your product but as i was unaware of the situation i of course made a wrong move. Once again i can only say Sorry.

Hey wish i could buy you a beer for the New Year.
Cheers
Danny
Anyway i am banking on you being to much of a gentleman to kick the hell out of an old boy of 64 plus i wear glasses

[Sports Fiend]

In truth i was very impressed by your product but as i was unaware of the situation i of course made a wrong move. Once again i can only say Sorry.

No hard feelings, Wildhawke.

It sounds plumb crazy that someone would want to devote spare time (of which little I have, with two small children and an adoring wife at home) making something that's free, but hey, it gives me kicks. Besides, it's done quite a lot for sports sims. Sports sims, I've found, (OOTP, ITP, TBCB, et. al.) are really a community effort. People make face packs, stadiums, etc., and help add realism to the game. I'm only doing my share

Happy New Year.

[wildhawke11]

As we say in UK England even if i am Irish
Owe You One --- means i owe you a favour.
Thanks
Happy New Year To You and Yours.
Now i will shut up LOL

[Sports Fiend]

As I wrote earlier, I'm waiting to hear back from the Trunzos to make sure they don't have a problem with a utility like this being distributed. I'm sure they won't -- utilities like this have always existed for sims. I'm keeping my fingers crossed just in case

In the meantime, I've put some more work into the utility and will continue to work on it over the long weekend. I don't plan on hearing back from the Trunzos until at least after New Years. After all, they deserve a little R&R, don't you think?

I just about have the "economic conditions" element working. If a user chooses to use economic conditions when creating a random fighter, it will look into a user-moddable text file full of variables, change numbers accordingly and add some flavor text to the fighter's biography.

For example, the following economic condition appears in the file:

APPRENTICE
Control vs Boxer=+1
Control vs Slugger=+1
Proficiency=+1
Description1=[FIRSTNAME] worked under legendary fighter [RANDOMFIRSTNAMEM] [RANDOMLASTNAME] for a short period of time, which gave him valuable fighting experience.

And another:

WEALTHY
Doesntworkwith=POVERTY
Intellect=+2
Killer Instinct=-1
Aggressiveness=-1
Description1=[FIRSTNAME] had the benefit of being born into a wealthy family. Because of this, [HESHE] had excellent schooling and didn't know a day of manual labor.
Description2=[FIRSTNAME] came from a family history of wealth. [HISHERPROPER] father was a successful businessman, and taught [FIRSTNAME] the value of a proper education.

As you can see, a user could add onto (or modify) the file. Each condition accepts multiple descriptions, so one fighter's biography won't look like another's.

Let me know what you all think.

[Antonin]

Originally posted by wildhawke11
...Yet you would have given up a free great add on if it had hurt the Trunzos and team in any form...

Wildhawke-
I was in a very obscure and specialized niche of the online publishing business for 21 years, so I understand and sympathize with the notion of someone wanting to protect his intellectual property.

It's great that Fiend is spending his free time to give something to the TBCB community. I wish I could also make some sort of contribution. Hey, since I'm an incurable facts-and-figures history geek...maybe I'll research and rate some very obscure current fighters, people nobody else could possibly be interested in...Arv Mittoo, anyone? 9 wins, 74 losses!!!!