Kings of War for Battlescribe (free army building software)

[scarletsquig]

Battlescribe is a free army building program (available for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android) that uses open-source data files and allows users to easily create and edit them without the need for any programming knowledge.

I've created files for all the current official Kings of War armies, tested them for bugs over on the mantic fanatics forum and they are now 100% perfect.

Here's a quick screenshot to show how awesome it is:



How to get started:

- Download the latest version of Battlescribe from: http://battlescribe.net/
- Open "Roster Editor" once you've installed it.
- Click on the "Data Repositories" button in Roster Editor, copy + paste the link below, click add, and then select it and click update.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27484619/index.xml

If successful, Battlescribe will download all the files from the repository, along with applying updates to existing files if a newer version exists on the server.

The latest version of Battlescribe also checks for new updates to files whenever it loads, so once you've set it up, that's it! No more work needed, whenever I make an update or add a new army list, Battlescribe will automatically download it for you.

Enjoy!

I will be personally updating and maintaining all of the files, and new army lists and updates to existing ones will go live probably at some point within 48 hours of mantic publishing them. I'll post in this thread whenever a new update is live.

I won't be doing the fan lists, as there are too many to keep track of, too many different versions, too many updates to them, etc. I will be adding Warpath and it's lists as soon as they go live.

Also, if anything doesn't work, try updating your version of battlescribe first, then if that still doesn't fix the problem, post in this thread.

If you find any errors with the files, post in this thread and I'll fix them.

Current status: KoW 2.0 Lists completed. Warpath 1.0 Lists completed.

Next update (likely to be December 2011) will be to complete the optional rules descriptions and rework the twilight kin character layout, along with fixing any errors that get pointed out.

Disclaimer: Mantic's army lists and rules are already free to download and distribute. This project simply converts them into a format that can be read by the battlescribe software.

[Sylass]

Very nice, thanks for all the work/effort you put into this.

[lord marcus]

Quick question, how much hard disk space does this entire program take?

[scarletsquig]

Almost none.

Same as (or less than) the .zip file which is 631 kb.

[lord marcus]

Done and done.

/hug for SS

[Llew]

This really is a nice help to have.

I would like to see the Elven Scout Troop Nerve checked though. I'm pretty sure it's not 6, although my Elf-playing friends like to argue that clearly it must be accurate.

[lord marcus]

llew is correct, the nerve of the scout troop is 3

[scarletsquig]

Fixed. Hit update to apply the changes.

[lord marcus]

do we have to use the update link to update with the fix (no brainer just double checking)

[Morat]

Works great on my phone, thanks for puting the effort in SS.

I do note that when I view my roster all the special rules are included, but my Sabre Toothed Pussycat is not. Have you neglected my pussy?

[scarletsquig]

Glad to see it works okay on phones.

As for the sabertooth pussy, it doesn't have a special rule as such in it's army list entry, so I skipped it when making the files. It's rules can be found in the main Kings of War rules.

I'll add it in (along with the rest of the pets) the next time I do a major update. I'm also planning on "good/evil" alliance lists along with reformatting the special rules to make them tidier.

[Dav0r]

Scarletsquig for president.
That's all I have to say

[mattl]

Sadly, this isn't open source/free software, the license is quite strictly anti-freedom.

You may not rent, lease, loan, sell, request donations or make profit of any kind using the Software or any part thereof without prior permission of the Author.

You may not modify, adapt, translate, or create derivative works based upon the Software or any part thereof without prior permission of the Author.

You may not decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble or otherwise reduce the Software to a humanly perceivable form.

[Llew]

"If you want to sell it, ask me first. If I say 'no', you can't sell it or hand it out." Nothing unreasonable at this point. And he did let SS distribute it.

"Don't screw with what I've made, ask me first, and if I say 'no', don't do it." Again...nothing unreasonable.

"Don't try to duplicate what I've spent my time doing -- don't rip me off." Which, of course, doesn't prevent someone from coding something similar all on their own.

I don't get what the problem is.

[scarletsquig]

You may not modify, adapt, translate, or create derivative works based upon the Software or any part thereof without prior permission of the Author.

I asked for permission to distribute my own Battlescribe build (with the files and update link for KoW built in) and got it.

I'll remove the specific "open source" words, but really, there's nothing evil or horrible about this (or worth ranting about, can we NOT turn this thread into one of those tiresome open source debates please, I just do not have the time for them and I'd like this to be the last post on the matter. PM me if you really must comment).

The software is free and the developer is quite a nice guy who just wants to make a free alternative to Army Builder that works on as many different platforms as possible. He has been very helpful with my questions while making these files and even fixed a couple of very minor bugs I found within the space of a few hours of me mentioning them.

The files that battlescribe uses are created in the .xml format, a standard open format, which can be read by any other army building program that wants to do so, so potentially someone could make their own program that uses the datafiles from Battlescribe. In contrast, Army Builder uses it's own proprietary format for that Army Builder can read.

I make the occasional flash game as a hobby and a small source of income. These are free to play, but I make a little money from the ads in them. Of course, my source code in them is heavily encrypted, because I do not want people to decompile it, rip out the ads, put their own ads in and make money from my hard work. There are about a hundred different Chinese websites that do this as standard to any game that is not closed-source.

Same applies to Battlescribe... the guy has a donation link in there for people to donate to. If the software was open-source, there is nothing stopping some unscrupulous git from replacing that link with their own, redistributing it and stealing his donations. As soon as money enters the equation (even in the case of a simple voluntary donation thing like this) you can guarantee someone will try to screw you over.

As an aside I've already made a donation to Battlescribe because quality free stuff like this program is worth supporting..

[mattl]

Yeah, it doesn't need to be one of those debates at all, I just have a personal policy that doesn't include running anything that's not under a well known free software/open source license.

Sounds like I should step up and try and make something though

[Osbad]

I tried it, but got this java script error when I tried using it:

java.lang.Exception: Error parsing game system data java.io.FileInputStream@31fb31
at data.GameSystemData.getGameSystemFlat(Unknown Source)
at data.GameSystemData.getGameSystemFlat(Unknown Source)
at data.GameSystemData.getGameSystemsFlat(Unknown Source)
at controller.GameSystemManager.loadGameSystems(Unkno wn Source)
at gui.rostereditor.NewRosterDialog.a(Unknown Source)
at gui.rostereditor.NewRosterDialog.<init>(Unknown Source)
at gui.rostereditor.RosterEditorFrame.g(Unknown Source)
at gui.rostereditor.RosterEditorFrame.e(Unknown Source)
at gui.rostereditor.RosterEditorFrame$10.actionPerfor med(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(Unk nown Source)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed (Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed (Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicButtonListener.mouseRe leased(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent( Unknown Source)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(U nknown Source)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Unkno wn Source)
at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue.access$000(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectio nPrivilege(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectio nPrivilege(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue$2.run(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue$2.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectio nPrivilege(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilter s(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(U nknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarch y(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(Unknown Source)

-------------------- Caused By --------------------

org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: Premature end of file.
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.util.ErrorHandl erWrapper.createSAXParseException(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.util.ErrorHandl erWrapper.fatalError(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLErrorRe porter.reportError(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLScanner .reportFatalError(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumen tScannerImpl$PrologDriver.next(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumen tScannerImpl.next(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumen tFragmentScannerImpl.scanDocument(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Co nfiguration.parse(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Co nfiguration.parse(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XMLPars er.parse(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.Abstrac tSAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.SAXParserI mpl$JAXPSAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser.parse(Unknown Source)
at data.GameSystemData.getGameSystemFlat(Unknown Source)
at data.GameSystemData.getGameSystemFlat(Unknown Source)
at data.GameSystemData.getGameSystemsFlat(Unknown Source)
at controller.GameSystemManager.loadGameSystems(Unkno wn Source)
at gui.rostereditor.NewRosterDialog.a(Unknown Source)
at gui.rostereditor.NewRosterDialog.<init>(Unknown Source)
at gui.rostereditor.RosterEditorFrame.g(Unknown Source)
at gui.rostereditor.RosterEditorFrame.e(Unknown Source)
at gui.rostereditor.RosterEditorFrame$10.actionPerfor med(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(Unk nown Source)
at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed (Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed (Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicButtonListener.mouseRe leased(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent( Unknown Source)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(U nknown Source)
at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Unkno wn Source)
at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue.access$000(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectio nPrivilege(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectio nPrivilege(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue$2.run(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue$2.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.AccessControlContext$1.doIntersectio nPrivilege(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilter s(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(U nknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarch y(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(Unknown Source)

I've no idea what any of that means! I thought I had the latest version of Java running though.

[mattjgilbert]

Broken xml file that couldn't be parsed I think.

[scarletsquig]

I have no idea what any of that means either.

More specifically, when exactly does the bug occur?

When opening the Roster Editor, making a new army list, attempting to update the repository etc.?

Also, are you using the downloaded .zip or just the data repository link? And on what platform? I need to know all this before I can help.

In general, in the case of the program just plain not working (i.e. an issue with the program and not my datafiles, which depends on when the crash occurs):

Try grabbing the latest version of the software from the Battlescribe.net website and then adding the KoW files to it using the data repository link. If you're not even able to open roster editor then it's an issue with the battlescribe software, if it crashes on update then it's an issue with my datafiles.

I'm pretty certain my datafiles are fine and not broken though, on my PC I can download a fresh copy of the .zip, open it up, make rosters and hit update on the repository link successfully.

Using the latest version of Java might even be your problem, I've heard numerous tales of it breaking basically everything that uses it.

Alternatively, if you're using a newer version of battlescribe than the one included in the .zip then that newer version might have changed something that results in my datafiles not working... in which case I'll have to go back and sort that out.

[Sylass]

The program seems to run fine here using the latest release of the Java Runtime Environment (version 6 update 26 was released today).