baldrick0712
Topic Author
Posts: 672
Joined: Fri 28 May 2021, 12:29

Lifepath Character Generator

Sun 13 Jun 2021, 22:05

Hi all. For the last few days I've been writing a computer program to generate characters using the "Life Path" method. It is now more or less finished. Here is an example of the output. The program randomly picks careers and makes promotion checks for raised skills following the rules for "Life Path" character creation. It's pretty solid now. The question now is, what to do with it? I'd be quite tempted to just give it to Free League if they were interested in publishing a supplement of pre-generated characters fleshed out from the raw stats.

Age: 36
Attributes:
- - STR: A; AGL: B; INT: C; EMP: B; CUF: B
Combat:
- - Hit Capacity: 6, Stress Capacity: 5
Skills:
- - Persuasion: A, Tech: A, Medical Aid: C, Close Combat: D, Ranged Combat: D, Survival: D
Specialties:
- - Combat Medic, Communications, Electrician, Hunter*, Mechanic
Radiation:
- - Permanent Rads: 4
Childhood:
- - Intellectual
Careers:
- - Liberal Arts (1 year)
- - Mechanic (3 years)
- - Combat Service Support, PFC (6 years, promoted to Corporal)
- - Combat Service Support, Corporal (5 years, promoted to Sergeant)
- - Liberal Arts (3 years)
The Draft: If not civilian in warzone, replace starred (*) specialty with Rifleman
 
baldrick0712
Topic Author
Posts: 672
Joined: Fri 28 May 2021, 12:29

Re: Lifepath Character Generator

Sun 13 Jun 2021, 22:43

The program can be run from command line and outputs to your web browser. Screenshot of it in operation...
T2kCharacterGenerator-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jpg
T2kCharacterGenerator-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jpg (105.25 KiB) Viewed 2629 times
 
Dijon
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri 26 Feb 2021, 18:11

Re: Lifepath Character Generator

Sun 13 Jun 2021, 22:51

Would it be difficult to specify the final career, rather than having it random?
 
baldrick0712
Topic Author
Posts: 672
Joined: Fri 28 May 2021, 12:29

Re: Lifepath Character Generator

Sun 13 Jun 2021, 23:04

Would it be difficult to specify the final career, rather than having it random?
Not at all. It could be done in several ways. One way would be to accept a parameter in the web URL like...
"http://localhost:8080/t2kchargen/generate?final=combatarms"
 
Dijon
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri 26 Feb 2021, 18:11

Re: Lifepath Character Generator

Sun 13 Jun 2021, 23:08

Great, thanks. Is it your intent to release this to the community (it would be great for making pregens), or only to FL?
 
baldrick0712
Topic Author
Posts: 672
Joined: Fri 28 May 2021, 12:29

Re: Lifepath Character Generator

Sun 13 Jun 2021, 23:11

Great, thanks. Is it your intent to release this to the community (it would be great for making pregens), or only to FL?
Don't really know what to do with it. It's a REST service written in Java so if FL had the knowledge they could host it on a server farm and hook it into their website.

[EDIT] Might require some thought from their legal department though re. Java licensing for commercial use.
 
Dijon
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri 26 Feb 2021, 18:11

Re: Lifepath Character Generator

Sun 13 Jun 2021, 23:36

Have you considered using OpenJDK instead? I have a hard time with Oracle’s business practices
 
baldrick0712
Topic Author
Posts: 672
Joined: Fri 28 May 2021, 12:29

Re: Lifepath Character Generator

Mon 14 Jun 2021, 04:34

Have you considered using OpenJDK instead? I have a hard time with Oracle’s business practices
Never tried it. The app was developed and tested using Java 8 JDK..
 
baldrick0712
Topic Author
Posts: 672
Joined: Fri 28 May 2021, 12:29

Re: Lifepath Character Generator

Mon 14 Jun 2021, 11:14

Would it be difficult to specify the final career, rather than having it random?
Not at all. It could be done in several ways. One way would be to accept a parameter in the web URL like...
"http://localhost:8080/t2kchargen/generate?final=combatarms"
Problem with this is if character doesn't qualify for combat arms. Maybe better to specify only the career group rather than the specific branch
 
baldrick0712
Topic Author
Posts: 672
Joined: Fri 28 May 2021, 12:29

Re: Lifepath Character Generator

Tue 15 Jun 2021, 11:11

This has now been modified to accept an optional query string "lastCareer"...
http://localhost:8080/t2kchargen/generate?lastCareer=MilitaryService
This always picks a branch of the specified career as the last career before "At War". It might require some tweaking to avoid endless loop if the character does not qualify for any branch in that career though. Output from test...

Age: 37
Attributes:
- - STR: A; AGL: D; INT: B; EMP: B; CUF: C
Combat:
- - Hit Capacity: 5, Stress Capacity: 5
Skills:
- - Ranged Combat: A, Close Combat: C, Tech: C, Command: D, Driving: D, Mobility: D, Persuasion: D, Stamina: D
Specialties:
- - Load Carrier, NBC, Psy Ops
Radiation:
- - Permanent Rads: 5
Childhood:
- - Working Class
Careers:
- - Police Officer (1 year)
- - Hustler (5 years)
- - Gang Member (6 years)
- - Police Officer (6 years)
- - Combat Support, PFC (1 year, promoted to Corporal)

[EDIT]

Log output for the above so you can get an idea of what the program is doing...

: ========================================================
: In createCharacter method: LastCareer is MilitaryService
: ========================================================
: Number of attribute increases rolled: 5
: Increased STR to level B
: Increased EMP to level B
: Increased EMP to level A
: Increased STR to level A
: Increased INT to level B
: Childhood Working Class: Gained Tech at level D
: Childhood Working Class: Gained Load Carrier specialty
: ...
: Career Police Officer: Gained Mobility at level D
: Career Police Officer: Gained Ranged Combat at level D
: 1st skill raised: AGL='C', Mobility(AGL)='D': base dice = d8, d6
: 2nd skill raised: AGL='C', Ranged Combat(AGL)='D': base dice = d8, d6
: Mobility roll: d8=2, d6=5: 0 successes
: ...
: Career Hustler: Gained Stamina at level D
: Career Hustler: Gained Persuasion at level D
: 1st skill raised: STR='A', Stamina(STR)='D': base dice = d12, d6
: 2nd skill raised: EMP='A', Persuasion(EMP)='D': base dice = d12, d6
: Stamina roll: d12=2, d6=5: 0 successes
: ...
: Career Gang Member: Raised Ranged Combat to level C
: Career Gang Member: Gained Driving at level D
: 1st skill raised: AGL='C', Ranged Combat(AGL)='C': base dice = d8, d8
: 2nd skill raised: AGL='C', Driving(AGL)='D': base dice = d8, d6
: Ranged Combat roll: d8=5, d8=5: 0 successes
: ...
: Career Police Officer: Gained Close Combat at level D
: Career Police Officer: Raised Ranged Combat to level B
: 1st skill raised: STR='A', Close Combat(STR)='D': base dice = d12, d6
: 2nd skill raised: AGL='C', Ranged Combat(AGL)='B': base dice = d8, d10
: Close Combat roll: d12=2, d6=2: 0 successes
: Effects of age: AGL dropped to level D
: ...
: Career Combat Support (boot camp): Raised Ranged Combat to level A
: Career Combat Support: Raised Tech to level C
: 1st skill raised: AGL='D', Ranged Combat(AGL)='A': base dice = d6, d12
: 2nd skill raised: INT='B', Tech(INT)='C': base dice = d10, d8
: Ranged Combat roll: d6=3, d12=7: 1 success (promoted) <-- Sum of base dice sizes determines skill to test but d10,d8 is 69% compared to d6,d12 65% so may need tweak
: Gained Psy Ops specialty
: Effects of age: EMP dropped to level B
: ...
: Career At War: Raised Close Combat to level C
: Career At War: Gained Command at level D
: Gained NBC specialty

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