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Star Army Item Generator Thread

I don't plan to. I was thinking it'd be a safe way to take care of my character's mining, and have it able to be double checked easily if problems ever arise. But it didn't have mining. But then I was told I could use it for 1 roll a week salvage, so I was looking for an updated list
 
I suppose a mining list could be developed, if we could figure out lists of mining finds.
 
Yeah I was thinking about it myself, it looks like it wouldn't be too hard to make if you know what's in the area and the chance of finding it.
 
This was a pretty interesting tool. Did anyone ever create the mining list? Would probably be quite useful for 188604 or possibly the Dig-It asteroid mining mecha plot run by Legix. Could also be helpful for any future independent plots to have.
 
It's basically become abandonware at this point. It's not hard to add new lists, though.
 
I'm not sure. The program's source was lost so it can't be upgraded. But it would be possible for FMs to make updated lists for the old program.
 
Yeah, the lists are pretty outdated. I actually downloaded the program and used it for loot in one of the Baba Yaga JPs, so it works fine on Windows 10.
 
I would love to do a list of Ersetu items for it. I've had the generator on my win 7 machine for some time and it is functional, but I do not know how to do new lists for it.
 
It's got to be a txt file with 100 lines, and possibly no commas or semicolons in it (?)
 
The program does still work in Windows 10, and is essentially two sets of random number generators and two tiers of lists saved as 12 line and 100 line text files respectively.

You essentially select a location, a number of items, and a filename for the output list. That location which calls up a list/text file with a list of 12 lines for that specific location. It rolls a d12 to determine which list (defined usually by faction or even faction/era) to salvage from. Then THAT list/text file list is called up and a d100 is rolled to pick the specific item from that faction, in that location. This is repeated for all the items and saved in an "output" text file that can then be accessed.

Probability is influenced by duplicating entries and managing their proportions in the lists. It is possible for one faction to have multiple lists of 100, but they must be set up as separate lists.

The program still works in Windows 10 (even though it was coded in the Windows XP era), but even if it didn't, anyone with access to an online dice-rolling program could manage it. It might also be possible or even better to make a PHP-based version that even lacked the limitations of the current offering, but I lack the knowledge of that kind of coding.

The only real benefit to the program is that if there's suspicion of someone cheating, a mod can demand the original output list and make sure it's not tampered with. There is a "trip code" with each result that can be put into the moderator's version of the program to verify that the proper result was achieved, in the proper number of rolls.
 
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Huh. I could throw a new version together in a Java executable or such in less than a day if you wanted for future proofing or upgrades. Seems simple enough. Could have it read those text files containing whatever items your nation wants to run through the generator and print bulk results out to a text file easily.

Let me know if you're interested. Perks of knowing more than dozen programming languages lol. Could put some bells and whistles on it but the above would literally take me 15 minutes. Not even kidding.
 
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That'd be fantastic. My coding skills weren't that good, so I even had to have a silly thing where you told the program in a "master.txt" file what directory it was in to work. Exclusively because my skills were limited. I used a college textbook as reference that we didn't even get halfway through in that class.

I need to go for the night, but do any improvements come to mind? Making the dice roll accommodate the number of lines in the file rather than be static would be ideal.

Of course, there would have to be support which would have to come in part or in full from FMs saying what could be in the lists for people to salvage from their faction's wreckage. Most lists are about a decade old now and obsolete. Might also need to have lists for faction AND year ranges like "saoy39"...
 
I simply love the fact that this old program is being taken up again! I'd love to run a salvaging-centric plot in former UOC space (maybe even involving the Reds) and having a list like this to be fair about the rewards gained would be an excellent resource. Could think of many old equipment items to generate for the area. :)
 
But why salvage the Reds, when you can salvage... THE DEAD :OOOOO? (Energized Dunes plot plug, Freespacer 4 life salvager) This would be cool to see the tool come back into use, though. Maybe do more than lifetime supplies of chicken nuggets, though.
 
If it's not too much to ask I would like a pirating list as well. Probably wouldn't need to actually be separate, just like a combination of other lists.
 
A fundamental issue we ran into, though, is that plenty of people were willing to salvage but few were willing to come up with items to put in the lists. No one wanted to maintain them. So instead of just asking someone for a list, perhaps coordinate and try to come up with items for one in your niche and talk to the FM or appropriate GM for larger things like general Piracy or civilian items?

We have plenty of civilian items that have no real love in the wiki that could be in such a list...though I like to think that if such an item pops up in salvage, the appropriate company should get paid for the item as an NPC sale. That could serve as an incentive for civilian companies to get their items on salvage or piracy lists...

I think there was a pirating list, but all the lists need updated or replaced outright at this stage...
 
A fundamental issue we ran into, though, is that plenty of people were willing to salvage but few were willing to come up with items to put in the lists. No one wanted to maintain them. So instead of just asking someone for a list, perhaps coordinate and try to come up with items for one in your niche and talk to the FM or appropriate GM for larger things like general Piracy or civilian items? We have plenty of civilian items that have no real love in the wiki that could be in such a list...

I think there was a pirating list, but all the lists need updated or replaced outright at this stage...
Do we need a list? I can make a list. Lists aren't hard. Lists are p easy.
 
I'm only here for 20 minutes until I drop off to sleep but I'd recommend for dynamic list sizing off the top of my head:

A WHILE statement that iterates through the file one line at a time until it reaches an empty line (I.E. the bottom, since txt files always have a blank line as termination). Do this by having the statement it's checking for the WHILE condition be checking the size of the String drawn from the currently selected line. If it's zero length you're done. If not, it keeps going, iterating through the lines that way one at a time.
 
Sounds like a good plan. I didn't know that about text files. As long as the zero length line isn't considered a possible salvage result and is always there, it's fine. I didn't remember there being a blank line at the bottom of mine though...

I remember trying for dynamic numbers based on lines in the past, but I had an issue that I couldn't figure out at the time. -_-
 
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