Dice - Perfect When You're On a Roll!

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=145225&productType=2' target='_blank'>http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/...5&productType=2</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Dice is the most flexible dice on the market because it can be a standard six sided dice or a more uncommon 4, 8, 10, 12, 20 or 100 sided dice.</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20041204-Dice.gif" /><br /><br />I have a confession to make. I hate dice! If you roll them too hard, it falls off the table or manages to find its way under the couch. Then there's always the case when it falls on the carpet, and you don't know if you rolled a 5 or a 6, because it's sitting on an angle. In fact, now's a perfect time to use the "<b>Roll</b> Eyes" emoticon! :roll:<br /><br />Anyway, Dice takes the hassle out of rolling. It supports a vast array of different dice, and includes a countdown timer in case you ever need it! <a href="http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=145225&productType=2">Handango</a> is selling the application for $4.99, and it requires the <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=359ea6da-fc5d-41cc-ac04-7bb50a134556&DisplayLang=en">.NET Compact Framework</a> to function properly. [Affiliate]

[Wiggster]

Hmm, here I am quietly developing my own dice rolling program in .NEt, and someone goes and releases a pretty one :? Oh, well. Mine's more intended for RPG, although it's still in the early testing phases right now.

Has anyone tried this program? How does it rate? And what would be YOUR ideal dice rolling program? I'm sure there's enough of a population here of people who use dice :D

[mr_Ray]

Looking at the demo above, there seems to be a bug in this version of the program.
No matter how many times you roll it, it always comes up with a 3.


:devilboy:

Actually, it seems to me that for this to be worth anything more than 0.00, it'd have to offer functionality such as rolling more than one die at a time, each individually configured, eg roll 2 x 6 sided dice and a 12 sided one.
At the moment, the source for this can't be much more than

GetDiceRoll
{
result = random()*numsides
print result
}

Would make a handy bit of freeware, but really - $4.99 for something that gives you a number between 1 and X? Hmmm... I think a dice rolling app has potential to be useful for many people, but this seems to fall a bit short (sorry guys!).

[DinarSoft]

the source for this can't be much more than

GetDiceRoll
{
result = random()*numsides
print result
}




Correction.
The source should be

GetDiceRoll
{
result = 1+ random()*numsides
print result
}

cause random() returns a number between 0 and 1.

so if you don't want 0 to be a possibility you'll have to add 1 :)

[sualeh]

Here's one that can flip a coin - Heads or Tails (http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?productType=2&amp;siteId=1&amp;productId=25495). More reasonably priced than the dice, at $1.99. Also has themes such as guessing whether it will rain or shine, and loves me, loves me not. With sound effects.

[yslee]

Has anyone tried this program? How does it rate? And what would be YOUR ideal dice rolling program? I'm sure there's enough of a population here of people who use dice :D

There were quite a few I used back then, but here's what I'd like to see:

- Roll multiple dice with modifiers
- Sum of best/worst of dice (think AD&amp;D attribute rolls, 4D6, highest 3)
- Ability to program results based on the roll (think Battletech hit location tables)
- Able to count the dice that meets a target or criteria, and not the result on the dice itself (White Wolf's d10 system)
- A good UI is a must (too many taps before getting what I want defeats the purpose)

Nowadays though, I use a notebook with an Excel spreadsheet for my complex die rolls.

Most RPGers also prefer having their own dice for crucial rolls. Dice are never fully random, I've found, and some dice have this annoying ability to roll against you (3 natural 20s in a single turn in an AD&amp;D session from the DM made a simple battle a really annoying one).

[mr_Ray]

the source for this can't be much more than

GetDiceRoll
{
result = random()*numsides
print result
}




Correction.
The source should be

GetDiceRoll
{
result = 1+ random()*numsides
print result
}

cause random() returns a number between 0 and 1.

so if you don't want 0 to be a possibility you'll have to add 1 :)
Your dice don't have a zero? What kind of freak are you? :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

[Wiggster]

- Ability to program results based on the roll (think Battletech hit location tables)

I'm not framiliar with what exactly that means...


Most RPGers also prefer having their own dice for crucial rolls. Dice are never fully random, I've found, and some dice have this annoying ability to roll against you (3 natural 20s in a single turn in an AD&amp;D session from the DM made a simple battle a really annoying one).
That's putting it lightly. Most guys I know freak out if someone else touches their dice, saying it's been "contaminated". But hey, my dice hate me, so I can use my PDA :)

[DinarSoft]

Your dice don't have a zero? What kind of freak are you? :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

:rotfl:

[freitasm]

Actually, it seems to me that for this to be worth anything more than 0.00, it'd have to offer functionality such as rolling more than one die at a time, each individually configured, eg roll 2 x 6 sided dice and a 12 sided one.


Actually it has many functions. For example there's a timer, so if the game requires a roll in "y" amount of time or move then this program will help you on this too.

[darrylb]

At the moment, the source for this can't be much more than

GetDiceRoll
{
result = random()*numsides
print result
}


Of course you are right. I wrote the program because I needed one in a hurry - couldnt find one and just wrote it. Then I prettied it up, added other features, etc and put it up for sale.

Bear in mind that with any product pricing is not necessarily based on the number of lines of code - but on usefulness to the end user and where the product fits in the market.

Would make a handy bit of freeware, but really - $4.99 for something that gives you a number between 1 and X? Hmmm... I think a dice rolling app has potential to be useful for many people, but this seems to fall a bit short (sorry guys!).

I didn't expect to get any publicity - so to celebrate ;) I've just lowered the price to $1.00 for a while (not sure how long the change will take to show up on handango - but it's quicker than generating a discount code...).

Thanks for the valuable feedback guys - my RPG days are behind me a bit, but if you send an wish list in an email to support&lt;at>bsystems.co.nz with your wish list (including some examples of how you use the dice), I'll look at upgrading it to suit your needs!

Currently this version includes support for square and landscape screens, various sided dice, and a countdown timer which is good for limited how long a move must be made in. In the short term I'll add support for multiple dice as well.

[David Prahl]

This is the kind of coding people to do learn a language, I really don't feel it should be sold as software. Granted it has features that go beyond a random integer, but anyone with a few hours on their hands could make a comparable application and give it away for free.

[timbur]

Hey - lighten up

I'll pay a dollar for a few hours of darrylb's time...
&amp; if it generates the winning lottery numbers I may even give him a share :wink:

In the meantime I look forward to a lifetime of free upgrades :devilboy:

[Ward]

Whats stopping people from coding their own random number generator in Excel or indeed, javascript?

$4.99?

I'm sorry but thats not my idea of value for money.

[freitasm]

Whats stopping people from coding their own random number generator in Excel or indeed, javascript?

Hmmm, you're gaming and you have your Pocket PC handy, but not your laptop or desktop with MS Excel? So what you?

The program can be operated with one hand only - no small little fiddly buttons to worry about. Think about usability!

Also, AFAIK not every RPG or board gamer in the world can program :roll: .

[freitasm]

...but anyone with a few hours on their hands could make a comparable application and give it away for free.

Ok, so anyone with a Pocket PC can program? C'mon :lol:

[GoldKey]

We discussed some free software that was much better suited for RPG dice rolling in this thread

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=33745&amp;highlight=dice

In the end, I found rolling real dice more satisfying.

[sualeh]

We discussed some free software that was much better suited for RPG dice rolling in this thread

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=33745&amp;highlight=dice

In the end, I found rolling real dice more satisfying.

I roll my Pocket PC.

[Darius Wey]

Your dice don't have a zero? What kind of freak are you? :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

It would be nice to roll a "0" when I'm sitting on "GO! Collect $200!" on the Monopoly board. :mrgreen:

[darrylb]

I've uploaded a new version now - those who purchased can download it for free.

The new version adds the ability for up to ten dice to be rolled.

Thanks for your support!

[mr_Ray]

Your dice don't have a zero? What kind of freak are you? :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

It would be nice to roll a "0" when I'm sitting on "GO! Collect $200!" on the Monopoly board. :mrgreen:
And since it'd have to be a double zero, you'd get to do it again, too! :)

darrylb - that seems a much fairer price. Nice to see you responding to feedback, and hopefully you'll have a pretty useful app at the end of it. :D

[yslee]

- Ability to program results based on the roll (think Battletech hit location tables)

I'm not framiliar with what exactly that means...


Well, basically, I don't want to always lookup a table everytime I roll something. Granted, for some games (like BT) I probably have memorised the more important ones, but it'd be nice if I can program the die rolling program to do the table lookup for me.


That's putting it lightly. Most guys I know freak out if someone else touches their dice, saying it's been "contaminated". But hey, my dice hate me, so I can use my PDA :)

Shop for new dice! =P A friend of mine never buys dice he can't test. Normally he will spend a moment rolling them around to see if he likes them.


In the end, I found rolling real dice more satisfying.


Yes, but there are times when you don't want to roll and roll and roll.. for instance, the Battletech LB-X cannons, especially the LB-X 20s, require to roll per hit location for every point of damage it deals. If it does full damage, imagine rolling 2d6 20 times.. and that's in 1 turn! LB-X 20s are termed game-enders, not because of their damage, but because of their ability to create absolutely mind-numbing die rolling sessions..

[GoldKey]

In the end, I found rolling real dice more satisfying.


Yes, but there are times when you don't want to roll and roll and roll.. for instance, the Battletech LB-X cannons, especially the LB-X 20s, require to roll per hit location for every point of damage it deals. If it does full damage, imagine rolling 2d6 20 times.. and that's in 1 turn! LB-X 20s are termed game-enders, not because of their damage, but because of their ability to create absolutely mind-numbing die rolling sessions..

Everyone has their preferences. I play exalted and it is no uncommon to roll 40+ dice in a turn.

[ctitanic]

Whats stopping people from coding their own random number generator in Excel or indeed, javascript?

Hmmm, you're gaming and you have your Pocket PC handy, but not your laptop or desktop with MS Excel? So what you?

The program can be operated with one hand only - no small little fiddly buttons to worry about. Think about usability!

Also, AFAIK not every RPG or board gamer in the world can program :roll: .

Sorry Mauricio but I have to agree with all that have been said, I can code a program like that in 5 minutes, 1 minute for coding and 4 minutes to find the image. ;) A good price for something like that should be 0 cents. I have freeware called Lottoquick pick (http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=7003&amp;associateid=162) that generate from 1 to 6 ramdom numbers basically, it can do what this one is doing, and I'm giving it for free ;)

http://trials.pocketgear.com/Product_images/1/1260/display_1.jpg

By charging for something like that the author does not do any favor to hisself.

[yslee]

Everyone has their preferences. I play exalted and it is no uncommon to roll 40+ dice in a turn.

Exalted uses White Wolf's d10 system, IIRC. That's easier to handle, since you count the number of sucess rolls and critical rolls. Compare this to the absolute tediousness of rolling 2d6, checking what hit, then cancelling 1 point of damage at that location (or remembering what was hit before adding it all up at the end of it), 20 times! Battletech's greatest strength (and weakness) is the amount of variables that it takes into account in the game, however it makes for a very number and die rolling intensive game.

I do agree that no dice-rolling program messes with my to-hit rolls! ;)

[Christian]

Hmmm, you're gaming and you have your Pocket PC handy, but not your laptop or desktop with MS Excel? So what you?

Actually, I use Pocket Excel on my Pocket PC to generate my dice rolls...

[darrylb]

I have freeware called Lottoquick pick (http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=7003&amp;associateid=162) that generate from 1 to 6 ramdom numbers basically, it can do what this one is doing, and I'm giving it for free ;)

By charging for something like that the author does not do any favor to hisself.

Dice is not a community contribution, but a commercial product.

You've made a great contribution to the Pocket PC Community CTitanic. Thanks and keep up the good work!

[ctitanic]

I have freeware called Lottoquick pick (http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=7003&amp;associateid=162) that generate from 1 to 6 ramdom numbers basically, it can do what this one is doing, and I'm giving it for free ;)

By charging for something like that the author does not do any favor to hisself.

Dice is not a community contribution, but a commercial product.

You've made a great contribution to the Pocket PC Community CTitanic. Thanks and keep up the good work!

thanks darrylb, but my point Showing my freeware is that it does 6 times what that program does and I did not feel that to charge for it was a right thing to do.
Dice is a very simple program, the Code for it can be found in any book for beginings. To me it's a shame to charge for something that simple.

That's one of I problems that I see in Handango or pocketgear, there is not quality control of any Kind you can sell what ever sh... you want. :(

[Janak Parekh]

Dice is a very simple program, the Code for it can be found in any book for beginings. To me it's a shame to charge for something that simple.
I program for a living, and I can say that while random number generation is documented in a book, a book is not going to assemble the code for you into an easy-to-use package that works on the Pocket PC.

And who says you're being forced to use it? It looked like a neat little program, and for $1, it's not like Darryl is gouging anyone. If you don't want it, don't buy it. It's that simple. It's fine to say "I don't think it's worth it", but please keep insults, implied or otherwise, out of it - otherwise we'll have to lock this thread. Thanks.

--janak

[Darius Wey]

I program for a living, and I can say that while random number generation is documented in a book, a book is not going to assemble the code for you into an easy-to-use package that works on the Pocket PC.

And who says you're being forced to use it? It looked like a neat little program, and for $1, it's not like Darryl is gouging anyone. If you don't want it, don't buy it. It's that simple. It's fine to say "I don't think it's worth it", but please keep insults, implied or otherwise, out of it - otherwise we'll have to lock this thread. Thanks.

And aside from that, bear in mind that not everyone out there can afford to give free software to the community. Some people still need to make a living from their work, no matter how small the cost. I'm not saying that this is darrylb's intention for this product, but the concept is still the same nonetheless.

What a developer charges (or does not charge) for his/her work is up to him/herself, and as Janak has stipulated, while you can share your two cents, please keep it friendly. :) I think it is fair to say that "Dice" deserves some recognition, even though random number generation is a simple bit of code by today's standards.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

As long as Darryl isn't deceiving anyone on what the program does, he has every right to sell a program no matter how basic in functionality it may seem. And if even one person buys it (which I'm sure has already happened), then Darryl has already proven that there is a market for this program.

[marovada]

It seems to me that some people here are angry because they didn't think of releasing something like this as a commercial product.

Simplicity in code does not mean zero customers - so if you think you should have offered this first, bad luck!

Maybe there's a lesson in here somewhere that goes like this: you don't need a team of thousands, trillions of lines of code and 3D graphics that make the real world seem 2D boring to make money.... only an idea that no one else has thought of selling yet.

Think of the simplicity of the wheel people!!

[ctitanic]

Dice is a very simple program, the Code for it can be found in any book for beginings. To me it's a shame to charge for something that simple.
I program for a living, and I can say that while random number generation is documented in a book, a book is not going to assemble the code for you into an easy-to-use package that works on the Pocket PC.

And who says you're being forced to use it? It looked like a neat little program, and for $1, it's not like Darryl is gouging anyone. If you don't want it, don't buy it. It's that simple. It's fine to say "I don't think it's worth it", but please keep insults, implied or otherwise, out of it - otherwise we'll have to lock this thread. Thanks.

--janak

I apolagize if I insulted anybody, it was not my intention, but, first of all, the initial price was 4.99 not 1 dollar, the price of one dollar came out after I said what I said here ;)

I still think that author should think twice before to put a price for a program. Secondly I see that Darryl took the message from my posts and put the right price for the program. That's all I wanted with my interventions.

And yes, marovada, I love simplicity but I love to see the right price for each product too. One dollar seem to me fair price. $4.99 is just insulting the inteligence of users. That's what "insulting" means for me.

[ctitanic]

BTW, version 1.1 is much better than what i saw initially for $4.99 ;) Now you can select how many dices you want ;) versus only one dice.

[Bajan Cherry]

Speaking of free software, here is something I quickly wrote for my son. Realized that there surely would be geek parents whose children must be asserting their rights on all the toys of their parents, I uploaded this application on handango:

http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?productType=2&amp;optionId=1_2_2&amp;jid=E4DFCC31288XF8X82A58D72427X7BA59&amp;platformId=2&amp;siteId=1&amp;productId=145550&amp;sectionId=0&amp;catalog=30&amp;txtSearch=pockettest

I did it in CF.net. First time wrote anything in C# so there are still quite a few quirks. Check it out and let me know what you make of it.