NationStates Jolt Archive

Ok for all you Warhammer Fantasy Battles players out there.

I want to announce that my nerdness has reached critical mass. I am working on a program, Alpha version is just about finished, meant to simulate individual hand to hand fights between individual units.

That's right. No more wondering which would be more effective against a unit of Empire Spearmen: VC Skeletons with spears and shields, or no spears? I can find out without spending all day chucking dice. I can tell the program to simulate that fight as many times as I want and examine the results.

I can experiment with different size units, different equipment, different unit frontage, and do complete analyses in seconds to maximize my units' potential. Are my Bretonnian Men-At-Arms more effective with spears or halberds? Does it depend on the enemy unit? Now I can find out!

So how many of you guys have written software to boost your uberness in your gaming?

Ok for all you Warhammer Fantasy Battles players out there.

I want to announce that my nerdness has reached critical mass. I am working on a program, Alpha version is just about finished, meant to simulate individual hand to hand fights between individual units.

That's right. No more wondering which would be more effective against a unit of Empire Spearmen: VC Skeletons with spears and shields, or no spears? I can find out without spending all day chucking dice. I can tell the program to simulate that fight as many times as I want and examine the results.

I can experiment with different size units, different equipment, different unit frontage, and do complete analyses in seconds to maximize my units' potential. Are my Bretonnian Men-At-Arms more effective with spears or halberds? Does it depend on the enemy unit? Now I can find out!

So how many of you guys have written software to boost your uberness in your gaming?

Raises hand.

C# is for losers who don't know how to program.

Raises hand.

C# is for losers who don't know how to program.

My inadequacy regarding programming is highlit by the fact that until recently, I thought C# was just a musical note...

Aha! I always wondered if the Bretonnia meant anything :D

Thats my army. And no, I can't help, I don't know shit about programing.

Raises hand.

C# is for losers who don't know how to program.

Please tell me you use Java so I can unleash a torrent of similar remarks :D

ha, real programmers only use C and python.

But yea, that is awesome. The closest thing I done to that would be a dice rolling program that averages 100,000,000 xDy's.

Back in the day I wrote a mod for Quake (I or II, I don't remember) which turned the rail gun into a constant stream of death. It was amusing.

I use C# at work. It's easy to make complex apps with. I have to do a lot of multi-threaded networking stuff which would take too long in C++. I refuse to touch Java.

I wish I knew how to program, it would certainly help. Hmm, good for you though :)

Rolling squid;13829388']ha, real programmers only use C and python.

But yea, that is awesome. The closest thing I done to that would be a dice rolling program that averages 100,000,000 xDy's.

Bah C is for masochists. (I'm sorry but I LIKE having a string for a primitive type instead of a char[]. ugh.)

Back in the day I wrote a mod for Quake (I or II, I don't remember) which turned the rail gun into a constant stream of death. It was amusing.

I use C# at work. It's easy to make complex apps with. I have to do a lot of multi-threaded networking stuff which would take too long in C++. I refuse to touch Java.

Anyone who's tried C# can never go back to Java.

Ever.

I wish I knew how to program, it would certainly help. Hmm, good for you though :)

Thanks!

Now I just need to find some testers

Umm does an Excel spread sheet that automaticlay roles up random Role Master charectors count?

Bah C is for masochists. (I'm sorry but I LIKE having a string for a primitive type instead of a char[]. ugh.)

Anyone who's tried C# can never go back to Java.

Ever.

Anyone who's tried Ruby can never go back to anything else (except perhaps Smalltalk).

Umm does an Excel spread sheet that automaticlay roles up random Role Master charectors count?

Absolutely!

Bah C is for masochists. (I'm sorry but I LIKE having a string for a primitive type instead of a char[]. ugh.)


C is for people who both know what they're doing and learned to program in the eighties. People who's first language was BASIC, and who aren't afraid of 'goto'.

That's right. No more wondering which would be more effective against a unit of Empire Spearmen: VC Skeletons with spears and shields, or no spears?
You mean you don't know these facts off by heart?


*shuns*

Anyone who's tried Ruby can never go back to anything else (except perhaps Smalltalk).

"You've painted up your lips and rolled and curled your tinted hair
Ruby are you contemplating going out somewhere"

Smalltalk is all very well for testing out an idea but would you really want to do any major programming in it?

Rolling squid;13829444']C is for people who both know what they're doing and learned to program in the eighties. People who's first language was BASIC, and who aren't afraid of 'goto'.
C is also for people writing things like TCP stack handling and other networking or low end performance necessitated applications

"You've painted up your lips and rolled and curled your tinted hair
Ruby are you contemplating going out somewhere"

Smalltalk is all very well for testing out an idea but would you really want to do a ny major programming in it?

There's a fair amount of Smalltalk still around in the US. It was fairly well received 10 years ago in insurance and banking. So there's a lot of legacy stuff there, especially on IBM mainframes.

Ruby, however, is beautiful stuff. It approaches the elegance of Smalltalk, and with none of the half-assed nature of Java or C#.

I wrote some simple programs to automate certain aspects of a MUD I was playing. I guess the standard stuff like your MUD client triggers and aliases and such don't count, but I also had a few tools written in C that could for example walk back and forth certain preset paths, and stop and reverse at any point in between. It was highly useful for killing mobs that walked certain roads, and I'd never get lost on the way.

There's a fair amount of Smalltalk still around in the US. It was fairly well received 10 years ago in insurance and banking. So there's a lot of legacy stuff there, especially on IBM mainframes.

Ruby, however, is beautiful stuff. It approaches the elegance of Smalltalk, and with none of the half-assed nature of Java or C#.

Smalltalk was the first language I studied, I was much happier when I moved to C++.

C is also for people writing things like TCP stack handling and other networking or low end performance necessitated applications

well, right. But I'm talking about using it to write programs like the one in the OP.

Rolling squid;13829444']C is for people who both know what they're doing and learned to program in the eighties. People who's first language was BASIC, and who aren't afraid of 'goto'.
I know Pascal...

Can I play with the big boys?

Rolling squid;13829444']C is for people who both know what they're doing and learned to program in the eighties. People who's first language was BASIC, and who aren't afraid of 'goto'.

Like I said... masochists.

Who needs goto when you have functions?

C is also for people writing things like TCP stack handling and other networking or low end performance necessitated applications

masochists. ;)

Smalltalk was the first language I studied, I was much happier when I moved to C++.

C++ is for sado-masochists.

(In seriousness, I'm only teasing about the C stuff. I've used it too and it's the very best if performance is priority#1 or you need to use a lot of system calls.)

I know Pascal...

Can I play with the big boys?

Believe it or not I've heard they're implementing Pascal.NET

Hmm, I coded primitive programs to calculate damage per second and mana regen for my priest in World of Warcraft. For warhammer (I play both 40k and fantasy battle) I've used the Army Builder program as the only computer aid - I could try to make my own version of it but why bother when someone better suited for it has already done it :p

Then again, I think I should practice my programming a bit so if I find some gaming-related problem that is at the same time complex and easy enough for me, I'll probably spend few hours to make a code for it.

I wish I knew how to code. I'm still trying to learn C++*Le sigh*. Good for you though! I hope it works out! Now you just need to make animations with it, and you're an internet phenomenon!

I wish I knew how to code. I'm still trying to learn C++*Le sigh*. Good for you though! I hope it works out! Now you just need to make animations with it, and you're an internet phenomenon!

Actually I've got to be REALLY careful. Games Workshop has a reputation for aggressively squishing projects like this where the rules are being used as part of the program. I think I'm okay as long as it's just for my own personal use and maybe share it with friends, but if I were to try and distribute it, even for free, I'd get nailed.

There used to be a Japan based online army builder for Warhammer Fantasy. We all used it. One day, my buddy casually mentioned to a redshirt that he had built his army from that site. I got a weird feeling as I watched the redshirt carefully memorize the url for the site on my buddy's printout...

24 hours later that site was GONE.

Coincidence? I think not.

I'm a Warhammer fantasy fan.

I also thought C# was a musical note. Of course, I don't know shit about computer languages or programming.

Yet, I could volunteer as a tester. Please send me your version of the software ASAP, and I'll tell you how it works.

I'm a Warhammer fantasy fan.

I also thought C# was a musical note. Of course, I don't know shit about computer languages or programming.

Yet, I could volunteer as a tester. Please send me your version of the software ASAP, and I'll tell you how it works.

Hey if you're serious about helping with the testing then by all means TG me with an E-mail address and I'll send it to you.

That goes for anyone else who's interested, just keep it discreet because I'm not looking to get into trouble with GW!

Hey if you're serious about helping with the testing then by all means TG me with an E-mail address and I'll send it to you.

That goes for anyone else who's interested, just keep it discreet because I'm not looking to get into trouble with GW!

Check your TG.

I wish I knew how to code. I'm still trying to learn C++*Le sigh*. Good for you though! I hope it works out! Now you just need to make animations with it, and you're an internet phenomenon!

Don't try C++ as your first language. Go with something easier like Java (not Java 5.0, though, it's more complicated and thus defeats the whole use the language). If you get that to work, you can go on to C++.

Don't try C++ as your first language. Go with something easier like Java (not Java 5.0, though, it's more complicated and thus defeats the whole use the language). If you get that to work, you can go on to C++.

C++ is by the first language taught by most computer science departments (way more then something like Java) ... to be honest with a lot of experience in both it and Java C++ is a lot easier to get a good handle on programming before moving on

I would recommended a C++ as a first language

C++ is by the first language taught by most computer science departments (way more then something like Java) ... to be honest with a lot of experience in both it and Java C++ is a lot easier to get a good handle on programming before moving on

I would recommended a C++ as a first language

Well, you certainly can get results more quickly in C++ (cout << "hello world" and stuff), but it allows way too much for a complete newbie to learn good programming. Without a good teacher, it can be quite confusing ( operator<< just being one example - while it's handy to use, I'd prefer always using object.method() for beginners) and you may pick up bad habits (like external objects, or goto in the wrong place. Not that goto didn't have its uses).

You also don't have to care about deleting objects or running into beginner mistakes like storing the address of a local object permanently. I think just when you begin to feel uneasy about some restrictions posed by Java, you are about ready to begin learning C++. Though that's just my opinion.

Frankly I think the best starter language is C. It forces you to think carefully about what you're doing.

But if you're going Object Oriented, and most CS departments are, then yes C++ or Java is the flavor if the day.

At U of MD I learned Java in my Computer Science major and C++ was in the Computer/Info Science Major. I picked those as my major and minor, in that order, so I basically learned both simultaneously. Java is better for learning OOP on because it forces you to use OOP where C++ is a grotesque bastardized mishmosh of a zillion different approaches and can be OOP, or not, subject to the whim of the programmer.

I use C# now because it does everything Java set out to do in terms of language, only better, cleaner and more consistently.

The downside is no cross platform functionality, but what do you expect from Microsoft?

Rolling squid;13829444']C is for people who both know what they're doing and learned to program in the eighties. People who's first language was BASIC, and who aren't afraid of 'goto'.

I've used goto once in a C program and few times in Pascal.

I've always felt dirty afterwards :(

Frankly I think the best starter language is C. It forces you to think carefully about what you're doing.
C is ok, C++ is worse than Satan.

If you want objects, go with an object language like Java.

So how many of you guys have written software to boost your uberness in your gaming?
I'm somewhat planning to write a D&D character gen program during my downtime on my business trip to St Louis.

C++ is by the first language taught by most computer science departments (way more then something like Java) ... to be honest with a lot of experience in both it and Java C++ is a lot easier to get a good handle on programming before moving on

I would recommended a C++ as a first language

My university started with C++ 1st semester and then Java 2nd semester. I aced both courses, but didn't feel like I learned anything. So I'm teaching myself C, which is probably my "first" language since it's the only one in which I've learned what all the syntax means (no coverage of structs, unions, bitwise operators, etc in the beginner courses at ALL).

the problem is I know as a CS major I'm going to need to know several languages and it's a bit overwhelming to try and teach myself all of them in a timely fashion. granted I'm only starting my sophomore year but I still don't feel like I'm in a good position knowledge wise.

If you're looking to start with a language, go with Python. The synatx is simple, and a lot of the things you have to remember with C, java, ect, are gone. It's object oriented too.

My university started with C++ 1st semester and then Java 2nd semester. I aced both courses, but didn't feel like I learned anything. So I'm teaching myself C, which is probably my "first" language since it's the only one in which I've learned what all the syntax means (no coverage of structs, unions, bitwise operators, etc in the beginner courses at ALL).

the problem is I know as a CS major I'm going to need to know several languages and it's a bit overwhelming to try and teach myself all of them in a timely fashion. granted I'm only starting my sophomore year but I still don't feel like I'm in a good position knowledge wise.

Projects Projects Projects

When you find something to DO with any of them to make YOUR life easier it helps expand both understanding and depth

To be honest I have after spending all that time fallen back to mainly C++ bash and Vbscript as thoes types are the most useful for automating things as a server admin ... I dont really need to create more then a couple hundred lines at a time

Rolling squid;13830705']If you're looking to start with a language, go with Python. The synatx is simple, and a lot of the things you have to remember with C, java, ect, are gone. It's object oriented too.

While I am a fan of python C++ has always been a bit better in my opinion for learning basic programming constructs

Like VBS, bash and other such languages it is incredibly powerful but tends to be used to do some crazy one off stuff that come later after getting the basics down

Don't try C++ as your first language. Go with something easier like Java (not Java 5.0, though, it's more complicated and thus defeats the whole use the language). If you get that to work, you can go on to C++.

But..But.. I've already got a $30 book on C++! You want me to waste good money?

While I am a fan of python C++ has always been a bit better in my opinion for learning basic programming constructs
C++ is only good if you want to concentrate on syntax rather than structure.

Heck, even Scheme is better for learning programming.

Only computer language I know, and that poorly, is AppleBasic for the Apple IIe.

never needed more, never bothered learning more than I absolutely needed to hack a few lines of code to run a program as I wanted it rather than how the programmer wanted it.

C# is nice. I'm currently porting a markov chaining irc bot (with a few other touches) from Python to it. It's technically already passed the turing test, but unfortunately, I don't know if that proves the turing test is bunk or of the intelligence of your average irc user.

I'm not really a fan of ruby.