Civilian ship configuration assistant

tsuki · Post by **tsuki** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 5:55 pm

Hello,

I made a small utility and I thought that I could share with the evochron community. This excel sheet helps you decide which frame is the most appropriate for the task you specify. It uses a very simple algorithm to score every ship's performance using the importance you provide, calculates the total capacity and assembly using configuration you give and gives you the ship that can fit all of that and have the highest score.
For your convenience I made all editable cells highlighted.

Download link:

http://www.mediafire.com/?i9b8tscfeigrjmp

Usage:
First, specify the importance of attributes:
1. Spare assembly*
2. Spare capacity*
3. Agility: How do you value the ship's agility?
4. Armor: How crucial to the task is the armor rating?
5. Base speed: How important is the ship's speed?

*-these attributes specify how do you value the leftover of the capacity and assembly after fitting all of the equipment and capacity points you specify.
Note: If you don't want spare capacity/assembly enter 0.

Then, provide the ship parameters. Reference tables can be found on different tabs:
1. Desired thrust: Power of your engine. Fuel usage will auto fill, as well as engine name and assembly.
2. Shield output: shield's strength. Shield class will auto-fill.
3. Fuel capacity: Size of your fuel tank. Fuel cell class will auto-fill.
4. Cargo slots: Size of your cargo bay. Cargo bay class will auto-fill.
5. Crew members: Size of your desired crew.
6. CM packs: Number of countermeasure packs.
7. Missiles: Desired number of missiles.
8 Wing class: Class of your wings. Wing name will auto-fill.

Last part is specifying the equipment you want by placing number "1" next to the desired item. Total equipment will auto-fill.

The result will be shown under the "overview" section. It will include the frame's name and attributes and will be chosen according to given input. If you want to review the score given to each ship you can do so in the "ships" tab.

WARNING:The assistant can sometimes go bonkers with the ship's capcity and select one that has 1 point less than required. Make sure it didn't make the mistake by confirming that the "total capacity" is equal or smaller than "Capacity" of the result. It happens due to the excel's limitation I cannot easily overcome.

I made this sheet using localized excel version and I hope it works on English versions as well. If it doesn't, please let me know.

I hope you find this utility useful.

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 6:43 pm

Thanks for sharing tsuki. I'm sure some will find this usefull!....

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:23 pm

looks like a link Viper might want to add to his "Table of Contents."

Mojo · Post by **Mojo** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 10:41 am

Thanks, tsuki. I was looking for a utility to do just this, and it's great to see it realized. Muy fantastico!

tsuki · Post by **tsuki** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 11:16 am

You're welcome. I can see it's safe to assume that it works on English version of excel.

My next upload will be an autopilot assistant for exploration tasks. Just need to add one small feature and it will be finished

.

Malix · Post by **Malix** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 12:13 pm

hmmm, mind if I mangle that into a single html/js -page with form-elements? (Ie, easier selection of frames & components etc)

I kinda shun the excel requirement

tsuki · Post by **tsuki** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 12:27 pm

Sure thing, feel free to change it however you like.
Just make sure to add proper credits somewhere.

Malix · Post by **Malix** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 12:40 pm

of course original work is credited where credit is due

I'll look into the "web 2.0"/"trendything"/"dynamic website"/js-maddness later today, will post a link to a alpha-build probably when I get something done.

BÃ¦nlynn · Post by **BÃ¦nlynn** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 1:16 pm

Awesome file, quite handy already. One suggestion for future versions: please add base build cost to the sheet.

tsuki · Post by **tsuki** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 1:39 pm

I think that build cost is system dependent. If anyone provides the data, I will gladly update it.

Post by **DaveK** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 9:42 pm

Great fun tsuki - thanks for creating it and thanks for sharing - I'll add a link in the hints, tips & info guide, if you don't mind - acknowledged of course!

tsuki · Post by **tsuki** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 10:14 am

Sure Dave, distribute it however you like.
It might be worth to wait for Malix' HTML version though.

Malix · Post by **Malix** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 10:59 am

It'll take a while longer, translating the ship-optimization thingy into working model will take a while, I'll be sure to post here when I get a beta out

current progress:
DONE(-ish)
* initial support for military ships
* civilian frame/engine/shield/fuel/wing data added

*KIND OF DONE:
* frame/engine/shield/fuel/wing -classes (initial versions, stubbs, no functionality yet)

TODO
* ship builder & optimizer
* user interface

I'm kinda debating how I should store the data still, hardcoding into classes or load from external files... dunno. Latter would probably offer a bit more flexibility and room for expansion & unclutter code.

I also took a peek of the optimizer tsuki built into the excel file, at a glance it looks like it could be almost directly translated into js, but I'll investigate this further tonight.

Wondering also if Vice would mind if I'd borrow graphics from evochron manual/faq

edit: obligatory edit. ofc.

[Edited on 2-1-2012 by Malix]