Looking for app ideas
Snarkasm
Madison, WI Icrontian
Hi, all -
My latest diversion is Android app development. I'm refamiliarizing myself with Java and toying around, and now I'm looking for more ideas I can toy around with.
I'm geared more towards utilities and further from games, so if you have any ideas of something you think would be neat and useful (and it's not time-sensitive or anything), I'd like to be given some kind of project to work on.
I'm not looking to steal ideas or anything; if you've got the next killer app idea, you don't have to give it away. Just looking for simple ideas I can try and stretch my legs on.
Thanks, everybody!
My latest diversion is Android app development. I'm refamiliarizing myself with Java and toying around, and now I'm looking for more ideas I can toy around with.
I'm geared more towards utilities and further from games, so if you have any ideas of something you think would be neat and useful (and it's not time-sensitive or anything), I'd like to be given some kind of project to work on.
I'm not looking to steal ideas or anything; if you've got the next killer app idea, you don't have to give it away. Just looking for simple ideas I can try and stretch my legs on.
Thanks, everybody!
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Comments
I don't know what HomeBank format is, Ardi, so I think that's a little out of my range at the moment.
Tip calculator sounds fun once I get the name generator out of the way.
I didn't know what it was either, so I cracked my HomeBank file open today. It looks like standard XML. There's an open feature request on the HomeBank site for developing an Android app, but it doesn't seem to have anyone working on it.
You should expand on the random number generator concept and make a D&D (or really a generic board game) dice roll app. Select number and type of dice, shake phone, receive roll.
This. There are about a bazillion really crappy dice rollers out there. It would be cool to see one with some nice features. If you do this, get input from the DnD crowd for what features it should have.
It would also be nice to have a good DnD character sheet app.
This, but I need to have friends or an online mode where I can roll against other people and gain xp.
A fantastic dice roller would have these features IMO:
I've seen a couple of these features in other dice rollers, but never more than one of them, and rarely well-implemented.
I'm sure some of the other guys could come up with yet more cool features (and I'll likely think of more).
Ability to configure a value for D20 rolls that will automatically get re-rolled as a critical threat.
What are DCs, CB? What would conditional rolling sequences mean? What is the "outcome" of a roll of a particular set of dice?
A DC is a difficulty check, or a value you have to beat with the outcome of your roll. You beat a DC by rolling a d20 and adding your character's skill value to that roll.
Example: I have a high skill of 17 in lockpicking, and I find a lock that I want to pick. The DM of the game knows the DC is 30, but he'll never tell me that. I roll a d20, which is the basis of every skill or combat-based action in the system. I get a 15. I add my skill of 17 to that number and pass the DC, popping the lock open.
This is how the system adds a little bit of luck into the mix, even if a character is particularly skilled with something. Even on rolls the character can't fail at, rolling a 1 will still auto-fail the action, as nobody is perfect.
Will you need to have different dice available in one roll - i.e. a 2d20 and 4d12 or something?
I don't have a need of multiple combinations of dice (i.e. 1d10 and 2d6) at the same time, but I only play a couple games (Warhammer and D&D)... it may be useful for some other games though...
Yeah, we would want to see each die result, and occasionally, there will be mixed dice. What I mean by conditional sequences is rolls that only get rolled on success or failure of other rolls, like the critical hit rolls Thrax mentioned above.
For example, in the game I'm currently playing with Colgere as the DM, my Character is a two-weapon fighting ranger/fighter at 18th level, so his attacks are about as complex as the game gets. His current full attack can be notated this way:
Melee 30/30/25/25/20/20/15 (1d8+1d6+4) (17-20 / x2)+d10
This is essentially a standard notation for an attack (leaving out some tactical stuff that the app would ignore). You could make the app read it like programming.
What it breaks down to is that his weapon is melee range (likely not important to the dice-rolling app, as that's a tactical consideration) and has 7 attacks at various bonuses between 15 and 30. For each roll that beats the DC (technically AC in this case), it deals damage equal to the role of an 8-sided die and a 6-sided die plus 4 (and I need to know the result of each die, in case the enemy has complex resistances). The critical threat range is 17-20, which means that if one of my 7 d20s comes up with a 'natural' (pre bonus) roll of 17 or higher, I have a chance to score a critical hit. I would need to roll the same die again, with the same bonus, and if that one also hits, then that hit was critical, and it deals damage twice and gets a d10 added to it. Some monsters can't be critical hit, and some can be, but the double damage doesn't occur (I'd still get the extra d10 in most cases), so those would need to be turned on and off with a radio button.
With all this rolling and adding numbers in my head, my character's turn in combat can take upwards of five minutes, which is forever to watch someone roll dice. It would be amazing if that could be automated. Here's how I imagine it:
I tap on the weapon I want to use and the app asks if I want a full or single attack (if the character does anything else on his turn, he only gets one swing). Then it rolls all of the attacks, re-rolling the critical threats automatically, and points them all out to me separately.
Then, as I read off the totals to the DM, I can tell the app how many succeeded so that it can roll the damage. There could even be an option to tell the app what the AC is, if available, to automate that part.
That kind of attack is probably the most complex and lengthy roll sequence, but there are similar sequences for throwing fireballs or backstabbing bitches.
Now that I've written all that out, I can perhaps see why no one has made an app for this yet, but it's really all just math and radio buttons and 'if/then's.
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On top of all this, you could include a way to keep track of buffs and hit points and stuff, and allow those to also effect the rolls.