Seeing CriOS in your analytics?

What is CriOS and why does it keep popping up on my analytics?

Recently in my google analytics for my site and blog, I have been seeing "CriOS" popup from time to time, and, each time, I discount it as either a foreign browser or a bot crawling my site, but no! It turns out CriOS is in fact "Chrome for iOS", meaning Chrome on an iPhone!

This ends up being a very interesting statistic to have, since now I can compare it with my iPhone Safari hits and see how much Chrome is eating in to the Safari pageview share on my site.

As a user, and a developer, it would be important to know that CriOS doesn't work like normal Chrome for Android (since the operating system are completely different.) It is, of course, based on webkit (just like Chrome for Android/Desktop and even Safari), "However, while Apple allows only Safari to access iOS facilities like the iOS Nitro engine, Chrome uses Apple's UIWebView for loading and rendering content." -- developer.chrome.com

If Chrome for iOS takes off and begins to really compete with Safari as the #1 browser for the iPhone, some considerations may need to be taken with how mobile webapps are built.

Interested in knowing more about CriOS, or want to try it yourself? Click here.

GURPS Calculator 2.3 has been released! GCS Importing for all!

GCS Importing has been released!!!!

Click here to get started on exporting your GURPS Character Sheet files into gCalc!

The Story

About a year ago my gaming group started to really get into GCS and all it had to offer. They were of course using the gCalc tracker every game as well, but it lacked an easy and clear way to transcribe a full character in a useful way for play. GCS, on the other hand, has a very complete interface for creating and maintaining characters, but no real way to have an at-the-table utility autocalculate all the crunchy bits of GURPS that we all love.

Looking into exporting from GCS initially, I ran into several problems, namely that I couldn't get gCalc to play nicely with GCS as they both stood at that time. I dropped the idea for about 4 or 5 months, and during that time released several additions to gCalc such as a complete visual redesign, huge improvements to the tracker, and a Demolitions Calculator.

In December I got interested in GCS exporting once again, and this time reached out to Richard Wilkes, the creator of GCS, who, very graciously, answered every one of my dozen questions.

Answers in hand, I decided the best way to deal with exporting from GCS to gCalc would be to alter GCS myself, since Richard has very generously made the app an open-source project. At this time Jeff Lauder came back into the fold, having taken a break from helping with gCalc, and excitedly took over the java development for GCS, leaving me free to make all the character screens and associated functions.

During the next 3 months we coded our butts off, literally almost every day I spent some time working on this code. Of course, I didn't ignore the rest of the app, during that time we also released the Trait Sorter and Treasure Generator.

6 months from conception to delivery. Not bad right? 3 months of talking, thinking, and planning, with the dev work taking about 3 months. Total development and testing time was probably around 500 hours between myself and my fellow developer Jeff Lauder.

A special shout out to our lead alpha tester Travis Ellis who spent several hours testing and retesting, and to our wonderful Patrons and Donors, whom without this would not be possible.

Happy Gaming!

GURPS Calculator - GCS Importing launch on May 12th!

After months of work, version 2.3 of GURPS Calculator will release on May 12th! This release is absolutely loaded with enhancements, all falling solidly under the new GCS Import feature!

After downloading the new GCS update, you will be able to import your full character file from GCS itself directly to gCalc with only a few quick clicks. Once your character is uploaded you will have an amazing at-the-table utility to make all your games run much smoother!

Our next Patreon milestone is Character Sharing, which will be a full system to share your character with other users! Once your character is shared with another user, that user will have full privelages to view your character and roll against your various stats, skills, and attacks (don't worry though, they won't be able to make any permanent changes to your adventurer!) Once this goal is met I will begin work on the sharing system and get it out to you as soon as possible! We only need $10 more in pledges to make this happen!

Stayed tuned, and look out for the release on May 12th!

GURPS Calculator WIP 2.3 and Alpha Testing

Our first 2 passes over the GCS importing and Character screens are complete. Right now I have my friends taking a look and doing a pre-alpha test to find all the initial bugs. It's looking really good.

The next stage is alpha testing. What I'm looking for here is for some people to step forward and import some characters from GCS to gCalc and test the app out in the wild and report back to me with bugs or enhancement ideas.

There are limited slots available for this! If you are interested leave your email in the comments below, or email me directly at admin@codebyclockwork.com.

In other news, gCalc has hit $50! Once gCalc hits $60 we will have hit the next goal, which opens up a whole wide world of character screen possibilities! Once gCalc is at $60 I will create a system to share your characters imported from GCS across the app to other users simply by entering their username! Any characters shared with you will be accessible through a "characters" menu item where you can see that characters current hp, fp, skill levels, and attacks. You will also be able to roll against that character's skills (for sneaky GMs that like to roll their group's perceptions in secret!)

Help us reach our goal here!

In other other news, tomorrow is my birthday, and I turn 31! All I want for my birthday is for you to use gCalc and, if you can, plug gCalc on your blog and twitter! Thanks so much for reading!

See teaser images for the character screens after the jump!

GURPS Calculator - Character Screens and GCS Importing Continues

I have been working hard this past week to get ahead of the Character Screens and GCS Importing and progress continues quickly! This week I spent some real time getting the Tracker to work on an individual character basis, general UI cleanup, and the behind the scenes work for the HP/FP bar at the top of the character's area.

What does this mean for you?

Tracker

Each character you import from GCS will have a "Tracker" tab, and on this tab will be a fully-fledged Tracker like you would see under the global Tracker menu item. This Tracker will be an individual spot for you, as a player, to track anything about your character that you don't wish to (or can't) include in GCS. Examples of this may be:

• Ally HP, FP, or Notes
• Manastone tracker and regeneration
• Odd "rollables" that you roll against often but aren't a skill or attribute.
• ...Anything you can think of!

Character Tracker Sample

UI Changes

The bulk of the UI changes are on the character screens themselves, so you won't even know the difference there, but one important difference is the reorganization of the gCalc menu that comes with this release. Less emphasis will be put on the Tracker and more on the Character screen. In addition, more apps are now found within the Tools submenu, which is now reorganized to be more user friendly. Instead of just piling everything into the submenu in alphabetical order, I have reorder it to be a bit more usable.

Reorganized Menu

Patrons

I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!

Special thanks goes out to all my patrons, especially my newest patron Jerry Crutchfield. Please find the full list of patrons below, and consider making your own donation to the cause at my Patreon.

• Christopher R. Rice
• Patrick J. Perry
• Jerry Crutchfield
• Jeremy Paris
• Emanuel May

Thank you and happy GURPS Day!

GURPS Calculator - Character Screens and GCS Importing (2.3 Work in Progress Update)

gCalc reaches it's $40/month goal and had 3,000 pageviews in February!

Recently, thanks to some very generous Patrons, the gCalc project has hit its next goal of $40/month. What does this mean for you? Character Screens and GCS Importing!!!

Recently I had a discussion with Richard Wilkes, the creator and developer of GCS, and we came to the conclusion that we are two halves of the same experience. His wonderful GCS program can create and manage characters, and gCalc can handle everything for you at the table....and so a partnership was formed.

Richard will be adding a menu item to GCS which will allow you, the user, to export your character directly to gCalc! Once your character is uploaded you will be able to roll against stats, skills, and attacks. You will also have a full fledged Tracker suite for just your characters. This tracker will have all the functionality of the normal Tracker app, but will be tailored to just your character.

And also, of course, you will be able to upload and manage multiple characters, allowing you to have many many characters across many campaigns.

I'm looking to release this in the next month....and after that? Take a look at the next goal, I think you'll be pleased.

GURPS Calculator 2.2 release

Treasure Generator
The new treasure generator has been released! The new version of this popular tool uses a full suite of Dungeon Fantasy 8 data provided by the generous Brian Thomas and boasts some great options for generating the perfect treasure for your campaign!

Using the tool you will be able to choose what sort of treasure you wish to generate, as well as how many of each type and even limit the cost and maximum number of enchantments!

Generate loot like never before, check it out here.

GURPS Calculator 2.2 Work In Progress Update

Treasure Generator
The current generator on the site is pretty awesome: it has lots and lots of handcrafted data by Weby, and it allows you to create a huge list of treasure based on desired wealth or encounter level. However, in spite of how good it is, it's never been based on actual GURPS rules or logic. Soon, that will all change.

Thanks to the dedication of Brian Thomas on the forums, GURPS Calculator will soon have a full set of Dungeon Fantasy 8 content available to it. I am currently building the UI for this data, and will hopefully be pushing it out next GURPS Day (2/11/2016).

This new Treasure Generator will give you the option to randomly roll any number of items from DF8 of random types, as well as specifically choose which types you'd like in your result set. The logic implemented by Brian includes the full suite of functionality in the book, giving you accurate pricing, enchantments, and effects.

GCS Importing and Character Screens
Recently I have been planning out a GCS importing project which will give users the ability to create a character in GCS and import it through a menu item (created by the lead programmer of that project Richard Wilkes) to gCalc. Users will then be able to use gCalc to roll vs skills, attacks, and attributes. Users will also be able to update their current HP and FP. Altering skills, advantages, and so forth will probably not be implemented as GCS does all of this wonderfully and I am not looking to reinvent the wheel. However, in a later release, it may become possible to add equipment and alter funds. Additionally, if a user imports a character they have already imported previously, it will simply update the current character on gCalc.

In an even further release I am planning on building on this GCS importing to allow character sharing, which will then make it possible to GMs and players alike to associate characters and monsters with a campaign. Once this is done, others in the campaign, specifically the GM, will be able to access the character and roll vs skills, attacks, ...etc as well as view current HP/FP, Equipment, DR, and so on.

This will be a lot of work, however, and require many many bug fixes, enhancements, and support tasks as the app matures and grows. Currently the GCS Importing project is slated to begin when we hit the $30/month combined donations mark on our Patreon. Please find the time to make a donation and help make GCS importing available for all!

Misc Updates

gCalc is growing by leaps and bounds right now, boasting several hundred registered users and around 1,000 pageviews a week! Thanks to everyone that has helped make this possible, and don't forget to tell your friends about the project!

A friend of mine, Scott, is gearing up to start work on a Hiking Calculator which will include all RAW in Basic. A further update is planned to include the Romping rules from High-Tech. A date to begin development is currently not planned (he just had his third child! Congrats Scott!)

GURPS Calculator 2.1.1 Released

The Trait Sorter is seeing some improvements on this lovely, lovely GURPS Day in the form of some ideas submitted by some users:

• Wildcard searching added (start search with asterisk(*).
• Reference book and page number added to each trait.
• Ability to add your own custom traits.
• New filter added - The "User" filter will show you only traits that you added.

For new details on this new features, please go to the Traits tool and click the question mark button in the top right.

Enjoy!

http://www.gurpscalculator.com/Traits

GURPS Calculator 2.2.4 Released (Old Android App)

--Edit--

This post is no longer relevant as it pertains to the now defunct android app which was removed from the app store.

I've been researching working on version 2.3 for awhile now and trying to puzzle out the best ways to use the Android Listview components to redo the tracker, when a user brought up in a review that the calculator is woefully lacking in landscape mode. Remembering the promises I made of creating landscape screens almost two years ago when I first release the calculator (and desperately needing a break from the enigma of the listview), I started work on 2.2.4, which quickly went from creating simple landscape screens to a redesign of portrait screens as well.


Most of the screens are very simple, and could suffice with the new label orientation (on top of the text inputs as opposed to next to them, which gave a lot more breathing room to the design), but the combat calculator actually threw me for a bit of a loop. I finally settled on a two column approach with the readout on the right side.

The new combat calculator, landscape orientation.

While working on the screens, it was suggested that hit location penalties should display immediately next to the labels in the dropdown for easy reference. The idea was so simple and elegant that I couldn't avoid doing it. During live alpha testing it helped so much that I couldn't believe it wasn't a feature from the start.

Next up was addressing a random hit location bug introduced in 2.2.3, where a penalty would display for a random hit when it should not (random hit locations never incur penalties). Thankfully it was visual only, the penalty was not actually being applied. It was confusing enough to users that I fixed it for this release.

The last bug I stumbled on during alpha and was so embarrassed that I had to fix it for this release. If a ranged attacked with ROF >1 and attack skill >16 rolled a natural 17, the readout informed the user that the first attacked missed (17 is always a miss) but if the recoil was low enough and the skill high enough the second attack might say it hit. Of course if the first attack missed they are all supposed to miss. This bug did not involve critical hits, that already worked as designed.

I've switched gears back to 2.3 now, trying my best to come up with a solid design and implementation of the listview to further enhance the tracker.

GURPS Calculator 2.2.4