(New) Draft Deck Software

[Multicron]

For a while, my group and I used the Surprisingly Tart army drafter. At one point, it seemed like it wasn't being maintained, and since our group had some other issues with it, I started looking into the card-based Draft Deck idea that someone had posted here. I liked how the threshold idea allowed you to tweak how many points you dropped (ie, couldn't draft any more units without going over the limit), as well as the 'skippable' concept for situation-based units (Taelord, Marro Hive, etc).

But since I like software more than cards (mainly for the ability to quickly nuke and re-deal), I built a small Java application, hosted here : http://www.filedropper.com/hsj .

(run : java -jar HSJ.jar )

Basically, set your number of teams, army limit, threshold, whether or not you want to include Marvel units, and hit Start Draft. If a player draws a skippable unit, it will ask if you want to skip drawing that card (doesn't count towards your threshold). If you draw a few more cards and later decide you want to drop that skippable unit, you may.

Teams may then draft their army out of the cards drawn, as well as performing one bonus or repeat draft. Pressing the Lock In Army button returns all undrafted units to the deck, and allows them to be drafted as bonus units by other teams.

Where this diverges slightly from the Draft Deck process is this -
All initial cards are drawn for all teams before bonus drafts or repeat drafts are allowed. This prevents the early teams from bonus drafting power units before later teams can even draw them.

Another small usage recommendation - before allowing players to bonus draft, quickly look over the lists of drawn units. If a team looks particularly weak, allow them to bonus draft first.

What do you think?

[Scapemage]

This is quite conveinent! Thanks! Great Program!

[Scapemage]

Oh, is there a way to edit which units can be drafted? I don't own everything and I find it hard when half the unit I have to choose from aren't available to me. Also, I don't know what's up with this thing, but apparently if you take a bonus unit, you can only take 1 (squad) and if so, you can't take multiples of anything else (which is also limited to 1 multiple).

[CapnRedChops]

I'm Java ignorant, but I have the latest version, and I know that the executable jar file is not exectuatable... but I can't run it.
Extracting it doesn't work, i.e. it won't extract (this was recommended by Yahoo! answers I think).
I don't know how to bring up the Java command line.
I've spent 20 mins googling learned a lot, but not solved my problem.

Point me in the direction of Java basics or spell it out to me please!

CRC

[Multicron]

Originally Posted by scapemage921

Oh, is there a way to edit which units can be drafted? I don't own everything and I find it hard when half the unit I have to choose from aren't available to me. Also, I don't know what's up with this thing, but apparently if you take a bonus unit, you can only take 1 (squad) and if so, you can't take multiples of anything else (which is also limited to 1 multiple).

As far as editing what units can be drafted, the technical answer is 'yes, kind of'. You could theoretically unzip the jar, edit the db.xml file to remove the units you don't have, and edit the dd.xml file to remove any references to those units. But that's not what you want. I probably need to add some method to customize how many of each unit you have available.

The bonus / repeatable unit behavior is deliberate. In the paper draft deck, you can only perform one bonus draft - either drafting a unit that synergizes with the units you've drafted (out of the ones you drew), or drafting multiples of a unit you've already drafted.

[Multicron]

Originally Posted by CapnRedChops

I'm Java ignorant, but I have the latest version, and I know that the executable jar file is not exectuatable... but I can't run it.
Extracting it doesn't work, i.e. it won't extract (this was recommended by Yahoo! answers I think).
I don't know how to bring up the Java command line.
I've spent 20 mins googling learned a lot, but not solved my problem.

Point me in the direction of Java basics or spell it out to me please!

CRC

I assume you've downloaded the jar file and saved it somewhere.
What Operating System do you use? If it's Windows, you can use Windows Explorer to navigate to that directory, and you should be able to double click on the jar file to run the application.

You can also use a command prompt (pre Vista: Start->Run , type "cmd" - no quotes) (Vista [and Windows 7?]: Start, type "cmd" into the search box -again, no quotes). Then you can use the cd command to move directories (.. is up a directory).

You said to spell it out - hope that helps!

[CapnRedChops]

Originally Posted by Multicron

I assume you've downloaded the jar file and saved it somewhere.
What Operating System do you use? If it's Windows, you can use Windows Explorer to navigate to that directory, and you should be able to double click on the jar file to run the application.

I'm on XP.

Yeah - this doesn't work. Instantaneous flash of hourglass, then nothing.

Opening with internet explorer returns:

Java Virtual Machine Launcher

Invalid or corrupt jarfile *location*

I've downloaded it twice.

You can also use a command prompt (pre Vista: Start->Run , type "cmd" - no quotes) (Vista [and Windows 7?]: Start, type "cmd" into the search box -again, no quotes). Then you can use the cd command to move directories (.. is up a directory).

You said to spell it out - hope that helps!

I get the theory: command prompt also returns:

Invalid or corrupt jarfile HSJ.jar

CRC

[Multicron]

Originally Posted by CapnRedChops

I'm on XP.
Yeah - this doesn't work. Instantaneous flash of hourglass, then nothing.
Opening with internet explorer returns:
Java Virtual Machine Launcher
Invalid or corrupt jarfile *location*
I've downloaded it twice.
Invalid or corrupt jarfile HSJ.jar
CRC

I've tried on 4 different XP machines and can't replicate your problem. Could you try downloading from a different machine?

[Multicron]

Originally Posted by scapemage921

Oh, is there a way to edit which units can be drafted? I don't own everything and I find it hard when half the unit I have to choose from aren't available to me.

I just put up a new version : http://www.filedropper.com/hsj_1

You can select rows from the top table, and increase or decrease the quantity to match what you have. If you don't have a unit, it won't be drawn or displayed as a bonus unit choice. If you don't have more than one of a common or uncommon unit, it won't show up as a repeat bonus option.

It will also save your inventory to local disk when you quit, so you only have to mess with it when you get new units.

[Scapemage]

Originally Posted by Multicron

I just put up a new version : http://www.filedropper.com/hsj_1

You can select rows from the top table, and increase or decrease the quantity to match what you have. If you don't have a unit, it won't be drawn or displayed as a bonus unit choice. If you don't have more than one of a common or uncommon unit, it won't show up as a repeat bonus option.

It will also save your inventory to local disk when you quit, so you only have to mess with it when you get new units.

Thanks.