GURPS Calculator - Enhancements, Character Sharing, and GCA Importing

June 2, 2016 - Fast Followers and Patch Release

This release is a medium-weight build addressing a few bugs and including some enhancements I didn't have time to include in 2.3 (Character Importing).

Enhancements

Download your current or previous characters back into GCS format

If you find yourself away from your copy of GCS but need to update your character, we have you covered. In this release you will be able to click on a special "download character" button on the Full List Character Screen and be redirected to a download screen like the one above. There you will find that every instance of your character you have ever uploaded will be available for you to download, so if you made some crucial or confusing changes to your character that you now wish to revert, you can always just go back and grab an old copy! All character save files download in their original gcs format, so once downloaded you can open it in GCS and edit away (and, of course, re-import into gCalc!)

Over in the Collisions calculator, the Local Gravity field now accepts decimals, allowing you to crash into things at high speeds even more accurately.

I've also created a Wiki to aid in GURPS Calculator use, the link to which will be featured in the menu next release. It, unfortunately, has nothing in it yet, but you can help change all that! I use every spare moment I have coding and planning for gCalc, which sadly does not leave me much time for documentation and promotion. That's where you come in, head on over to http://wiki.gurpscalculator.com and help the community by adding any information you can to aid in the use of gCalc! Anyone who edits will of course have their names added to the contributors list. No need to contact me, just head over to the wiki and get to writing. :)

Bug Fixes

• Critical hits are now based on effective skill and not base skill (D'oh!)
• Rolling against Fright now always fails on 14 and above.
• (Dis)advantage/Skill/Equipment groups now import correctly (with collapsible panels and everything!)
• Player notes for skills exported from GCS now show up correctly.
• -10xHP now indicates total bodily destruction.

On the technical side of things, this release moves gCalc away from MVC bundling of assets and into the world of Cassette bundling, which, in my opinion, is much easier to use and gives much better results. CSS and JS files are now bundled and minified in a very specific way and order, allowing for faster page loads and response times.

2.3.x - Character Sharing

This month we hit our goal of $60 with a reward of Character Sharing. I started work the day the goal was met, and I am around 50% done the initial work on it. When complete, a player will be able to go to the Full List screen and click a "Share" button next to a character. When clicked, the player will be redirected to a sharing manager where they will be able to share their character with another player by inputting their gCalc username. That second player, once they approve the share, will be able to view the character, roll against its stats/skills/attacks, and download it using the Character Download feature available in 2.3.1. The player will not, however, be able to make any alterations to the characters HP/FP, Tracker rows, or any other value that gCalc tracks independently of GCS.

Ideally this will allow players to share their characters with a GM, allowing the GM to make secret rolls, check resources and adeptness when planning adventures, and view values such as DR and Defenses when rolling for combat (if secret).

There is no release date for this functionality yet, but I am optimistic that it can be release mid-late June.

2.3.x - GCA Importing

GCA importing is currently our next goal, sitting at $70. When this goal is met, players will be able to export their players from GCA using one of the save functions already built into the system (most likely export to xml) and then, on the gCalc site, upload their character for use. Once uploaded, the player will have at their disposal the full suite of tools already available to GCS imported character, including Character Sharing. One caveat is that Character Downloading may not be possible without uploading both the xml and the original character save. I will most likely offer uploading the save file as optional functionality for those of you that wish to leverage character versioning and cloud backups that the GCS crowd enjoys.

Thank you!

As always, thanks so much to my patrons and contributors, and of course to everyone who uses my app. I love working on it, and I love talking to all of you and hearing your ideas. If you want to get active in gCalc, please don't hesitate to do so! 

• Donate to the cause! 
• Join the ranks of the people that keep gCalc alive.
• Contact me to become an Alpha tester at admin@gurpscalculator.com.
• Submit a bug or enhancement idea!
• Write a review of gCalc on your blog! Spread the word on Twitter!

Special thanks to Travis Ellis, Bruno, and K Abson for becoming patrons this month! People like you make it all possible!