AoS [CombatSimulator] Would you use this App?

[Pistacchio]

Hello everybody, I'm Pistacchio and with a friend of mine we are developing a phone App to simulate a round of combat between two given unit.

Basically the user, through a very nice and simple user interface, would have to select two models, set the units sizes, weapons utilized and some other external factors like bonus/malus, rerolls, pile up etc., and then press a button. After a bunch of seconds he would see on the phone a chart representing the distribution of the results of over 100 (or more) simulations between the two selected units.

The algorithm of the simulation takes into account every aspect a round of combat, including abilities, champions, standard bearers, phases etc...

It really does everything you would do during the game.



So, since we are deciding right now wether to keep developing this app or not, we would like to know if people would actually use something like this.



Thanks for any kind of feedback you can give us!

 

[Cerind]

I'm interested in mathhammer but have no patience to calculate the myriad factors so I'd be happy to have something of this kind

I think there is a quite extensive excel sheet running around the interwebs for 40k, but I didn't yet bother to check for AoS.

 

[Putzfrau]

Yes. I would use it constantly, almost regardless of complication. I would easily pay at least as much as Azyr for this app if it was even moderately well designed.


Seriously, I can't stress enough how much I would love having this kind of access right on my phone without mucking about in excel.

 

[Seraphage]

This actually sounds overly useful and I do believe that way too many people around the world will be interested in using it *the competitive ones mostly ofc !

 

[Nefertem]

Wasn't there already something like that...gone searching...

Edit...found it, just don't know how to link to the original post of @GreenyRepublic


Edit: Link added

http://www.lustria-online.com/threa...ry-age-of-sigmar-battlesim.19812/#post-198090

 

[Koriialstraz]

I'll definitely use it !

 

[Aginor]

I would probably use it if it is well done.
The problem is that (for example) you have to take model placement into account for big units, if you don't do that then that really skews your result.
Example is Saurus Warriors units of 40, buffed with extra attacks for their Jaws, and Serpent Staff for more Jaw damage.
It looks great on paper, but if you mess up the pile-in then only 10-12 of those 40 guys actually fight, and that makes their attacks (especially the 1" jaws) a lot worse.

(Even under perfect conditions only a part of the unit can fight)

 

[Nefertem]

You could take unit size for consecutive battle rounds (program calculating additional rounds of combat removing slain models/losses due to average battleshock results), and add a number "models fighting" for #attacks. You could set it to 40 for a theoretical max output, or, for example to "12"/25% models attacking, thus simulating real combat with models effectively fighting.

 

[Archkyrie11]

I actually started developing something like this myself after I graduated. But the I got a job and my free time flew out the window

 

[Pistacchio]

Thank you everyone for your feedbacks, of course at the moment our first worry is in fact getting shut down from GW.

So before doing anything further, we will contact their legal department and see what they think about it.

I'll let you know if there's any development!

 

[Aginor]

Thank you everyone for your feedbacks, of course at the moment our first worry is in fact getting shut down from GW.

So before doing anything further, we will contact their legal department and see what they think about it.

I'll let you know if there's any development!

That's definitely the sensible thing to do.

 

[geographer]

@Pistacchio I'm a developer and have always feared about getting shut down, too. One idea, that wouldn't require GW's permission, is to construct a 'template' service in which the user inputs all of the statistics for the units. This is good for you and your partner for two parts:

• no legal ramifications are involved on your end because you aren't providing any data, just a template and your algorithms perform the rest
• less updates required for your development team since you don't have to keep up to date with changing model profiles

Yes this is more effort on the user, but since you are targeting 'power players' of the game, I'd imagine they have access to a variety resources and warscrolls.

Lastly, now that I think of it, the warscrolls are all free... a unit/model's attributes are all public domain now, with the exception being points. But it doesn't seem like your application needs that data at all. I'm an old school warhammer player and this age of free information FROM GW still blows my mind. Good luck, it's a cool project!

 

[Nefertem]

I also think you're only offering a platform doing calculations. What kind of values will be entered is irrelevant as it is done by the user. If you're offering stats, I dont know bit think you shoul separate data from the platform. Same with battle scribe. Nevertheless...better safe than sorry

 

[Canas]

as an app I'd probably hate it. Far too many variables to click on to make it pleasant to use on a Phone. And even on larger tablets it'd be a pain. Touchscreens are just kind of awefull if you want to do things fast. Not to mention that it'd be a giant pain to compare different units if you a 5" screen...
As something you could use on a desktop/laptop it'd be a decent idea.

Though I fear that ultimatly it won't be all that usefull. The sheer amount of variables involved in a real scenario means your similation is going to be very much a lab-condition test. Making it a fairly flawed estimate. Admittadly, that isn't going to stop most people from using it

It'd be interesting if it could give an estimate of how likely the situation you are simulating is to happen. E.g. getting all 40 of your 40 man unit in 1" melee range is basicly never going to happen. It'd be interesting if the tool would go like "yeah your 40 saurus will win in this situation, but the amount of luck you need to get into this situation to begin with is astronomical so don't even bother"