30K Campaign Tracker website

[Dono1979]

Hi all,

So what would people like to see in ways of functionality for a 30K Campaign tracking website both in terms of the players armies and also the battles that they take part in?

At this point I am looking at coding the following features:

 
Army (Army specific, not player specific, so one player could track multiple armies):
 
Name (entered by the TO or Player once to create a profile)
The name of the force, i.e. Kildrech Crusade, 1st Company Imperial Fists
 
Legion (entered at profile creation)
Pretty self explanatory, however the title would be more generic to cater for Mechanicus forces
 
Loyalty (thinking of automating this based on the games and the sides the army takes part in)
The side on which the army has taken, if all games are on the Loyalists than it will be Loyalist, vice versa for Traitor, however thinking of having a number of level in between, like Questionable, Under Suspecion etc.
 
Emblem (uploaded and entered once as profile creation, can be modified)
An image which can be used as an avatar for the army, or just a generic image based on the armies Legion.
 
Battle Record (automatically updated and linked to battle reports submitted by the TO or player)
This will display the major events which the player used their army at and the associated Battle Honours attached to it, it will also provide a link to the Battle Report itself elsewhere on the website. For players who have formed a local league or mini campaign, a seperate section can also be created to help track those games seperately.
 
Forces Engaged (this would be automatic, but would require some pretty comprehensive battle report information from the TO's, it may be a little too intensive for the regular report)
Lists the opponents the army has played against, along with the battle results, although this would require a lot of data entry and records keeping on the part of the TO's and who ever is submitting the battle report to the website, it may not be a 100% updated component.
 
Background (this is a section which can be updated by the player themselves and updated as much as they like)
This can be as short as a single sentance or as long as multiple pages, linking onto other sections
 
Pict Gallery (another section to be updated by the player themselves)
A place to store pictures of their army in action, displays, completed models etc
 
 
 
Battle (Event specific, detailing the overall battle or campaign not each segment):
 
Name (entered by the TO )
The name of the battle, encounter or campaign: Battle for Orpham Deep, the Vengeance Campaign, Tinkal Encounter etc
 
Date (real date entered by TO, converted to 30K date format automatically)
Pretty self explanatory
 
Location (Entered by the TO)
Includes the Sub-Sector, System and Planet of the battle [the website will have a completely populated Sector]). The specific Sub-Sector and System will be determined by the real world location of the event, to try and group geographically close events together in close proximity of space, so visiting players from neighybouring states will be shown as traveling across shorter distances in space to get the battle etc.
 
Forces Involved (entered by the TO, existing player profiles will be linked automatically, non existing ones will have a placeholder created)
A list of the players armies involved in the event.
 
Results (entered by the TO)
The outcome of the battle, at this point in time anticipated to be a simple Traitor/Loyalist victory rather than a complete breakdown of the battle as past experience has shown that people will simply not enter the data in.
 
Battle Honour (entered by the TO)
A section which is going to be linked to an ongoing aspect of the campaign (at least run in our area) which will give each army involved in the encounter a little bonus ability like the Legacies of Glory in IA2 second edition but on a smaller scale, like a single non character infantry model gains a master crafted bolter because the battle was on a Forge World renowned for Botlers. So from that point forward every time that army is used in a battle participating in the events they can use this little boon. (again this is a localised idea at this point, but people can ask about the series setup we are planning and can join in as well).
 
Background (entered by the TO)
This can be as short as a single sentance or as long as multiple pages, linking onto other sections detailing the battle
 
Pict Gallery (entered by the TO)
A place to store pictures event
 
 
 
 
The entire website will be setup in a similar fashion the AUS40K.com website, with an entry page showing a summary of the entire website with the sector map, snapshots at players armies, recent battles, upcoming events etc. People can then navigate either through to the Army galary or the Sector map, with the army galary focusing the sides Legions, then the armies and the Sector map showing the battles at their locations in their specific Sub-Sector/System/Planet (which is determined by the real world locations).
 
It will be a Wiki setup, so easy to modify and update, with a very large emphasis on player content and a place to expand ones background etc.
 
So as asked at the top, what other features would people like to see in such a website?
 
 

[Komrk]

Damn dude, this sounds awesome. A feature I would like to see... What about a battle map just showing which planets/systems/sub-sectors are under which side's control updated maybe every other week or something?

[Dono1979]

The planet/system/sub-sector maps are already included, these are often used as a form of navigation as they link directly with real world locations. For example all of the Canberra (Australia) games get record in the Phonicas Sub-Sector, primarily the Kildrech System at the moment (http://aus40k.com/wiki/index.php?title=Phonicas_Sub-Sector) but as you can see there are dozen possible systems within that area and then each system can have 1-10 planets which can host extended campaigns or single battles.

 

The plan for the 30K version is to have 'stamps' which represent ownership; so if a battle to determine ownership of a planet or system is underway then the overlaying stamp will be a conflicted one, probably something showing both the eye and the eagle, once ownership has been determined the stamp will become one or the other to represent the area has been secured by Traitors or Loyalists.

[Komrk]

Sweet

[Dono1979]

Status update time; a huge amount of time has been pumped into the website, mainly focusing on the Army Pages with recent branching out into the battle report pages and the functionality linking the two together to automatically draw results across. Massive thanks to sirrob01 who has been figuring out the DPL scripting required and then I hack at it like a monkey with a machete. We are hoping that the Army pages and the bottom two teirs of game reporting (Skirmish and Battle) will be ready for Alpha testing at the end of the month (well maybe end of this coming weekend).

 

Every time a player wants to create a new army (they can have as many armie as they like!!), they navigate to their desired faction (Legio XI, Legio III, Ad Mech etc) page, this will give a summary of the faction, along with a listing of all existing armies active and the ability to create a new army. As new factions get released they will be added to the website, for example, the Imperial Army will most likely be added once Book IV is realeased. Once the player presses the Create button, a new army page will be created and an Army ID will be assigned in the following format: L-XVI-0421. The Army ID is what will be used to lodge reports and link them in the website, at events running within the system you would supply the TO with your Army ID and that is what they use to record the results. We felt that a templated ID format would be easier to remember (for players and TO's) then a highly variable army name like: 14th Company, 2nd Assault Wing, Red Hats; where a single spelling mistake or character mistake would fail in the matching.

 

The new page will contain all of the coding and will come prepopulated in the standard format, with areas that the player can modify and populate other information like a Cognomen (alternative name), History, Fluff, Photos etc. The automated tracking elements on each persons page will include (not that these are only linked to the ARMY, not the player!!);

 

 - Campaign Ribbons/Honours: The name and special effects of the bonuses awarded to armies who attend Campaign events

 - Campaigns: The name and summary of Campaigns which this army has participated in

 - Battles: The name and summary of Battles which this army has participated in

 - Skirmishes: A brief summary of the recent individual games which the army has played

 - Summary of Enemy Forces: a summary of all of the armies which you have faced with the results; win, loss, draw.

 

People familiar with Wiki's will be free to expand their army pages, add links to other pages, create stories, photo galleries etc, for those will less knowledge, there will be guides helping you with each step.

 

_{http://aus30k.com/30kwiki/images/4/49/Army_Example_1.jpg}

 

 

While most of the work has gone into the army page to date, this weekend saw a lot of work go into the reports as well and how they will interact with things. There will be three levels of reports;
 - Campaign: an organised event which is taking part in the AUS30K system, normally 6+ players with a narrative theme and Loyalist vs Traitor games. In addition these games provide the armies involved with a small bonus for all future Campaign games; like a single non IC model gaining a Master Crafted Bolter. Always linked to a Planet within the hosting groups Sub-Sector, along with fluff reports and photos if desired. Determines the ownership of the planet being used.

 - Battle: anything from a casual game all the way up to an improtu event, similar to a Campaign, but does not have a Campaign Ribbon/Honour attached, always includes fluff and is attached to a planet, even if it just between two people. Less impact on the planet being fought on.

 - Skirmish: Not really a battle report, more of a game report, simply listing the two players and the winner. No room for fluff or pics, it is solely used to fuel the Summary of Enemies stats. This data would be left up to the players to enter if they want to keep their army data up to date, not compulsary. Skirmish information can be submitted with a Battle Report, a Campaign Report or by themselves for just casual games.

 

_{http://aus30k.com/30kwiki/images/1/10/Battle_Example_1.jpg}

 

 

As mentioned in the battle reports, most of the fluff battles will be linked to a planet. Each planet will be located within a System and each system located in a Sub-Sector.
Each large region, like a state will have their very own Sub-Sector which will have a dozen or so possible Systems (or more) for the player groups and clubs within that State to use as their own. Each System can then be populated with planets, moons, asteroids etc which can be used as that group sees fit. These locations can be used to run campaigns, host major events etc, once a System has been played out a new System can be opened up to continue the narrative of the area. Each planet will have its own profile page which will list all of the battles which have taken place on its surface and who its current controlling side is or whether it is still contested.

 

The main front page of the whole website will have a bit of a summary of all of these aspects, a Sector map showing all of the Sub-Sectors that are currently being played in, a summary of the total battles recorded, a ticker feed with recent reports, an Army spotlight, rotating through the recently modified/created armies along with an extract of their profiles and fluff.

 

_{http://aus30k.com/30kwiki/images/8/81/Opening_Example_1.jpg}

[Dono1979]

A quick update on the main page face lift, just a little bit more coding in the background and a couple of tutorial to write and that section will be complete. Currently concentrating on the finalising the Army creation section and the last few bits of the reports, sirrob01 and I running through some sanity checks and pressure tests in the next 24 hours to try and hammer out the final format.

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/5uhZvJG.jpg

[Dono1979]

Okay, the website is rapidly approaching a stage where we would like a few groups of players who are interested in testing it. At this stage the testing is focused on the Army page, battle reports and skirmishes.
You will get to keep all of the data recorded, we won't be doing a reset. However please be aware that some functionality may change before going live.
So if you are an active 30k player keen to create a Web page about one or more of your armies and want to start tracking and recording your games please flick me a message.

 

[Dono1979]

Testing has now commenced with about a dozen Beta players registed on the site with armies and starting to lodge reports.

The army creation functionality has been completed as has the Summary of opponents. This will automatically update as players lodge Skirmish Report.

The functionality linking Battle Reports (fluff) and associated Influence against a planet is now being worked upon so that each game will increase the factions influence over a planet towards the eventual control/ownership of said planet.

A lot of guides and explanations pages have also been setup and being polished.

Global Heresy format created and also being trialed, which is effectively a World wide campaign running every three months where all players no matter where they are can lodge battle and skirmish reports against the same group of planets to determine the Systems outcome. This will be an ongoing feature with the target planets changing every 3 months (could change time frames if required), along with associated fluff, similar the GW global campaigns.

Lastly just finalising the the main page payout and what will be displayed etc. Behind the scenes coding will continue over the next three months or so to clean up large chunks of coding and make things a lot more streamlined and easier for people to edit and use without fear of corrupting things.

If there are more people wanting to jump on board the Beta testing please get in touch with me, you are more than welcome, just be aware the site is still under modifications and so is changing occasioanlly.

[Komrk]

I would definitely join if I had a group they could consistently get together but right now that's not really the case

[Dono1979]

No worries mate, if you end up wanting to jump on board just let me know. We will be opening up to regular use in the very near future at any rate