Sneak Peak

I've spent quite a bit of time the last month or so on a certain "secret" BattleScribe project. The time is almost here for it to be released to the world, so here's a quick screenshot of what's to come. Enjoy...

Can you tell what it is yet?

BattleScribe v1.10b Pre1 Released

The first pre-release of BattleScribe v1.10b is now available. Release notes and download link can be found in this forum post. There have been several changes to the way BattleScribe reads and writes your files, so use this at your own risk (although it will back up files before changing them).

If you are the adventurous type, feel free to download and have a play. If you notice anything strange, please let me know on the forum post and I'll get right on fixing it. I'll update the post with an amended pre-release. Once it's been out a day or so with no issues, it will be released properly on the BattleScribe site.

As always, your help is very much appreciated :)

Development News

First up, a progress update on BattleScribe 1.10b. The changes in this release are mostly under the bonnet. I've changed the XML library I'm using to Simple XML, which means a change to the file format. As before, your data files and rosters will be automatically upgraded to the new format. This really has no visible effect in day-to-day usage, though it has been a big job to do.

So why bother? Firstly, I am able to re-organise some of the code, making it easier for me to maintain in future. Second, the new XML format is more "industry standard," making it easier to read. Finally, it paves the way for an upcoming project I have in the works. You'll have to wait and see what it is, but I think you'll like it...

There are also a couple of bug fixes and new features coming up. Take a look at the three tasks marked as "started" on the UserVoice page.

As before, I'll post a pre-release version up in the forum for the brave of heart to have a go with before the final release. This should help make sure there are no glaring problems.

Some News

Firstly, I've gone ahead and added a few Google text ads to the BattleScribe site, which will hopefully bring in a little cash to help pay for the web hosting. I'm not going to go crazy plastering them everywhere though - I'd rather go for the subtle approach than annoying everybody with flashing "click the monkey" ads. To that end, it'll just be some low-key, text-only adverts for the time-being.

Next, the Dark Heresy campaign I spoke about in the last post kicked off last week - and we recorded it. I've written up a little introduction to the campaign, and I'm in the process of chopping the recording into half-hour segments to be released as a podcast over the coming weeks.

With that out of the way, it's now time to get back on the BattleScribe case and get a new version properly on the go. Stay tuned...

Edit: I've also implemented a new question/answer style captcha when signing up to the forum. This should help prevent the spam issue we've been having lately. I've also disabled all of the accounts that had made zero posts. Thanks go to Zere for pointing out the number of inactive, spammy users! I should have listened to you sooner...

BattleScribe 1.09b Released!

Just in time for Christmas, here's the latest version of BattleScribe. There is a slew of bug fixes in this one that resolve a bunch of annoying issues in Roster Editor, whereby you sometimes couldn't select or edit certain selections. In addition, there are a few more features, including the ability to give your selections custom names and descriptions.

• Added a modifiers system in Game System editor, so the properties of categories can be modified based on the contents of other categories, or the points limit of the roster.
• Custom names and descriptions can be given to units in your roster.
• Points totals for categories are now shown in Roster Editor and the view/print roster dialogue box.
• Various bug fixes and tweaks around what can be selected and edited in Roster Editor.
• Fixed issue whereby some root units (specifically those with modifiers) could not be removed from a roster.
• Cleaned up Game System Editor to bring it more in line with Roster/Catalogue Editor. Also remembers it's window size/position and position of split-panes. 
• View/print roster now includes "No Category" selections.
• Fixed bug whereby some modifiers were not being applied if a parent entry also had modifiers.

 Available to download at http://www.battlescribe.net/.

BattleScribe 1.08b Released!

Another BattleScribe release today - they're coming thick and fast at the moment. There were a few annoying little bugs left in the last version so I decided to get them fixed sooner rather than later. There are also some nice new features added, including more improvements to the view roster dialogue box.

• Added extra output options to the view roster dialogue in Roster Editor (show/hide points values, profile summary and rule summary).
• Allowed modifiers to change the points value of entries in Catalogue Editor.
• Added "min/max in roster" properties to entry groups, similar to those on entries.
• Added "type" property to entries that indicates if it is a unit, model or upgrade.
• Added exporting of rosters to other formats via XML stylesheets. It's under the file menu of Roster Editor.
• Correct controls are now displayed to make selections from entries that only have collective children.
• Fixed bug in Roster Editor where the duplicate button wouldn't work.
• Fixed bug where converting game system files to the new format prevented profiles from being entered or being displayed correctly in catalogue editor (any profiles entered in a catalogue are OK though).
• Fixed bug where some entry groups within entry groups would not be available to select from.

IMPORTANT: Because of the bug converting game system files, it is highly recommended that you head over to the data project site and download the latest game system files.

Help Updated

The help pages on the website for Catalogue Editor and Roster Editor have been updated to bring them in line with the newer versions. There should be some more useful information on there than before as well. If there is anything else you'd like to see on there, or if there is something you're not sure about, head over to the forum and let me know.

Forum Down For Maintenance (Updated)

The BattleScribe forum is going to be down for the next hour or so. This is because I want to move the news blog onto a Wordpress install on my web host, rather than use this external Blogger site. Both the forum and the Wordpress blog will need to share my one available MySQL database, and as luck would have it, Wordpress thinks the name of the existing database is too long. Nothing's ever easy is it?

I need to take down the forum, rename the database to something shorter and then bring it back up again. Hopefully shouldn't be longer than an hour or so, as long as I don't screw anything up too bad.

Wish me luck, and thanks for your patience.

Update: Looks like I'm restricted to one database, and Wordpress and the forum can't share. Oh well this will have to wait for another time. Forum back up and running.

BattleScribe 1.07b Released!

So it turns out there were a few bugs in version 1.06b, so here is a quick release to get things fixed up again. There's also a bonus new feature.

• Stopped all controls from showing hiding themselves in Roster Editor. This also resolved a bug where entry groups were either not being displayed or were being hidden so they couldn't be further selected from in Roster Editor.
• Fixed a bug when editing a modifier in Catalogue Editor where some fields were not being saved properly.
• Bonus Feature: Copy and paste enabled between running copies of Catalogue Editor, so you can copy an entry or other item from one catalogue to another.

To help stop any particularly nasty bugs getting into future versions, I will start posting an "in progress" version to the forums for people to have a play with if they want.

BattleScribe 1.06b Released!

After a bit of a delay (I was "blessed" by Father Nurgle...), BattleScribe 1.06b is finally here. There are some big changes in this release (for those of you who edit catalogues anyway). This should be the last major change to core functionality for BattleScribe, at least for the foreseeable future. After this it's going to be all new features, and I should be able to start getting through the UserVoice requests.

• Available options get shown/hidden in roster editor, depending on what you have selected so far. This is kind of experimental, so please let me know if you're a fan of this.
• "Dependencies" have been replaced with "Modifiers" in catalogue files. This should allow for much more accurate and flexible catalogue files in future.
• The format of the XML for game system, catalogue and roster files has been updated. Much less use of attributes and much more use of elements.
• Automatic processing of pre-1.06b files into the new format, so you do not have to re-download all your files.
• A few minor bug fixes and improvements.

Note: Since there are some fundamental changes to core parts of the program, there may be a few bugs introduced in this version. If something isn't working as you would expect, please let me know as soon as possible on UserVoice or in this forum thread.