REMLAB Web Mech Designer / News: Recent posts

I included support for Aerotech fighters and ground vehicles into Remlab. They haven't been aggressively tested yet, but everything seem to work more or less. I'm not sure where I'm going to go next with REMLAB. Rules for some of the other Battletech unit types, such as Dropships, get a little complicated and I don't think REMLAB will be able to handle that short of another rewrite. So I will probably take another break from this program for a while once I'm satisfied with it. Personally, I've completed all the goals I set out to accomplish with this application, so my motivation to continue is somewhat diminished. But we'll see...

I think I have the Mech construction rules pretty well solidified. I just started working on vehicle construction. Most of the foundation for it is done, it's just all the specific rules that need implementing and testing.

I haven't updated the demo of Remlab on the 'Web Site' portion on Sourceforge yet. I can't seem to figure out how to access it since they changed things from the last time.

The new beta release is mainly a code and UI clean-up and revamp. The only new features so far, is support for printing a Technical Readout and XML export, with a few other bits and pieces as well. The old calculation bugs are still there (especially with BV), along with many others that I may have missed. Now that I have the layout and code structure more-or-less where I want it, I intend on including vehicles in the next release, unless something else comes up.

I recently resumed work on REMLAB after stepping away from it for several months. So far, I've begun a major code overhaul and clean up, hopefully for the better. In doing so I've made it somewhat easier to expand on for future releases, including new features.

I hope to start posting development versions online soon.

This will be the last release of REMLAB for a while. Everything I intended to put into this application is now in and working.

The next step for REMLAB (3.0) will be to include the construction rules for other Battletech unit types (vehicles, AeroSpace, etc.) and the rules from the new Battletech: Total Warfare material. I would also like to redo the interface (CSS) at some point as well.

The latest development release (2.4.8) should be the last for a while, so I can try and work out all the remaining bugs that still exist. Feature wise, I believe I have everything in that I intended to include. But, someday down the road PDF support and other Battletech unit types (vehicles, ProtoMechs, etc.) would be welcome additions to REMLAB, but I honestly don't know when that will happen.

I released two versions of REMLAB today. The first is just a refresh with some fixes of the original 2.0 branch. The second is the BETA version of the next release, which includes the advanced rulesets and weaopons, and will ultimately include Clan material as well. This version is still pretty buggy, but it's mostly complete, everything you see *should* work. I will try and get the Clan material in on the next release.

I should have the next major update to REMLAB (the one with the Level 2 material) done by fall, and I should have a beta version of that done in the next few weeks.

REMLAB is a web-based Battletech Mech designer built on AJAX, JavaScript, and PHP. Installation on a web server is as simple as uploading the 'remlab' folder/directory onto the desired web server. The web server must support PHP 4 or 5.

I honestly don't know when I will get around to updating REMLAB again. I'm actually new at this, and I don't want to commit to something like REMLAB right now... beyond what I've already done. I would like to add in the various advanced rules and what-nots that I left out. But, truthfully, I made this program mainly as a demostration piece for my portfolio (it hasn't helped me yet) and for all intensive purposes it's as complete as it needs to be to that end. In any event, I will try and get back to this application from time to time. The source code for REMLAB is freely available for all to see and play with. You can even witness my "uber cool coding skillz," like none before!