Treasure Generator

[mhensley]

Boredom at work combined with easy online access to the SRD has prompted me to program a treasure generator for D&D. Its in Java so it should run on anything- although you will need the jvm installed on your computer. If you don't have it, you can download the jvm from http://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp.

Anyway, just download the Treasure Monkey here-

http://www.bargainstrike.com/mw/files/TreasureMonkey.jar

Just double-click it to start it up. If anyone has any problems with it, please let me know. Also, I should have an online version up on my site in the next day or so.

 

[Hand of Evil]

sweet

 

[Dinkeldog]

Moving to the software forum.

 

[Janx]

um, why don't you just use Jamis Bucks' treasure generator that has been around for 5 years and is linked to on ENWOrld's own gaming tools section?

I have a pet peeve where developers constantly rewrite the same bloody program without looking for easy access to prior art.

Now if you really want to flex those coding muscles, try this:
get the NPC gear generator (a java program)
the NPC generator by Jamis Buck
integrate an NPC gear generator INTO the NPC generator (and make it incorporate feat choices like Weapon Focus into selected gear).
Then host that program (or get Jamis Buck and friends to roll the changes into his)

That would actually prove useful.

 

[Vascant]

I have a pet peeve where developers constantly rewrite the same bloody program without looking for easy access to prior art.

Now if you really want to flex those coding muscles, try this:
get the NPC gear generator (a java program)
the NPC generator by Jamis Buck
integrate an NPC gear generator INTO the NPC generator (and make it incorporate feat choices like Weapon Focus into selected gear).
Then host that program (or get Jamis Buck and friends to roll the changes into his)

That would actually prove useful.

Then he would have recreated NPC Designer


mhensley: I think it is more important you created something you felt there was a need for and shared with people. Very cool

 

[kingpaul]

I have a pet peeve where developers constantly rewrite the same bloody program without looking for easy access to prior art.

Some coders just like to create for their *specific* needs. So it overlaps some stuff out there, so what? They've used their time, not yours. And I agree with Vascant that its cool that he's sharing.

 

[XCorvis]

Nice and clean, and quick. I like it. Thanks!

 

[Janx]

Then he would have recreated NPC Designer


mhensley: I think it is more important you created something you felt there was a need for and shared with people. Very cool

Except that NPC Designer costs $$ (not a lot, looks like a nice program).

My disappointment isn't that mhensley wrote a cool program. it's simply that the "Treasure Generator" has already been done several times over. The niche that is still undercooked is determing treasure intelligently for various things:
how about a free generator for:
what an NPC has (based on his class & feats)
what a magic shop has (based on city size)
what a weapons shop has (based on city size)
what an armor shop has (based on city size)

The code it'll take to make those happen is far more interesting (an internal shopping algorithm) than the code it takes to make yet another treasure generator.

 

[Janx]

Some coders just like to create for their *specific* needs. So it overlaps some stuff out there, so what? They've used their time, not yours. And I agree with Vascant that its cool that he's sharing.

Because they've missed an opportunity to solve a problem that hasn't been touched. I'm a developer myself. I see this behavior in my own company, and I see it in the "i made a tool" community.

There's nothing wrong with mhensely's little project, it's just random luck that I've chosen this time to get on the soapbox about building redundant tools. I'd rather see developers enhance existing tools or create tools to solve new problems.

As another note. I like Jamis Buck's Treasure Generator and NPC generator. I'm not too keen (for some unexplainable reason) on fancier generators with more options and doo-dads to click. In my case, I merely want to see tighter integration of these elements, so that when I generate a town, it generates the individual NPCs, including their gear (Jamis Buck's tools stop short of generating gear, which makes me use a second external program).

When I generate a dungeon, I want it to roll all the monsters for the room AND roll the random wandering monsters (so I've got some on hand). Additionally, I want the stat block for the monsters generated, with treasures already done. Why? Because if generator were done as a module, and tied into each other, then technically, all the information generatable would be generated all at once. That would be efficient, and truly useful.

So I'd like to guide mhensely from any criticism by me, instead, to simply look to a bigger challenge.

 

[Vascant]

Except that NPC Designer costs $$ (not a lot, looks like a nice program).

I tried making it free but couldn't get anyone really interested in helping me debug it, the moment I put a price to it.. interest went thru the roof.

My disappointment isn't that mhensley wrote a cool program. it's simply that the "Treasure Generator" has already been done several times over. The niche that is still undercooked is determing treasure intelligently for various things:
how about a free generator for:
what an NPC has (based on his class & feats)
what a magic shop has (based on city size)
what a weapons shop has (based on city size)
what an armor shop has (based on city size)
The code it'll take to make those happen is far more interesting (an internal shopping algorithm) than the code it takes to make yet another treasure generator.

I have written over a dozen of these types of programs, maybe even more. None of them see the light of day because they are just me having fun as a programmer. So what he is doing is probably the samething I did, learning. Heck, at this present moment I am still hammering out a good algorithm for just a Tavern Generator.

If you really want to help such projects see the light of day, why not list the process for figuring out whats available at a weapon shop at any given moment? Just stating City Size is not enough, what about the skill of the weaponsmith, how long he has been in business, does he have any large or constant contracts with mercenaries/city watch/guards, how many people work there? I myself purchase every book/pdf that comes out in search of better ways to figure out all this.

You have to appreciate the small steps people take or the big steps will never see the light of day. I personally welcome anyone willing to put the time and skill into creating more tools for this game.