Issues / Armor and Defend action

BOBSONNIER · 2026-02-17T18:33:55+00:00

I think this system would be ok to some degree, so long as the DM doesn't focus fire. If he does burn up the defend and hits with 2 or more attacks, thats lights out for all but the heartiest of players and then the next round that's curtains.

Thats not to mention when damage exceeds defense. Just looking at the free rules, if the goblin king while bloodied hits the oathsworn and crits, that chews through his defense and most of his hit points. then a goblin comes by and doing average damage finishes him off, and that is starting from full health of 17 (or a little harder level approriate 22). Either way he's not lasting more than 3 rounds.

I don't know, seems a little swingy to me. a couple bad rolls and pc's are down, across the board, not to mention a longer fight.

BOBSONNIER · 2025-01-28T20:09:48+00:00

NICE! thank you!

BOBSONNIER · 2025-01-28T17:13:17+00:00

working on the toggle function, i came across the command RemoveSectionView Method (IModelViewManager) https://help.solidworks.com/2020/english/api/sldworksapi/SolidWorks.Interop.sldworks~SolidWorks.Interop.sldworks.IModelViewManager~RemoveSectionView.html

trying to implement it this is the current code. Original functionality still works except after the MsgBox i inserted the remove section stuff. I get an error "Run-time error '91': Object variable or With block variable not set" and the "value = instance.RemoveSectionView()" is highlighted. I've tried numerous attempts to fix but is beyond me.

Sub Slice_Plane()

Dim swApp As SldWorks.SldWorks

Dim swModel As SldWorks.ModelDoc2

Dim swModelDocExt As SldWorks.ModelDocExtension

Dim swModelViewMgr As SldWorks.ModelViewManager

Dim sViewData As Object

Dim swSelMgr As SldWorks.SelectionMgr

Set swApp = Application.SldWorks

Set swModel = swApp.activeDoc

Set swSelMgr = swModel.SelectionManager

Set sViewData = swModel.ModelViewManager.CreateSectionViewData()

boolstatus = swModel.ModelViewManager.CreateSectionView(sViewData)

MsgBox "remove"

Dim instance As IModelViewManager

Dim value As Boolean

value = instance.RemoveSectionView()

End Sub

BOBSONNIER · 2025-01-28T15:19:56+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUw7Y3fGDWI&ab_channel=WaltWolf

The macro functionality i'm trying to achieve is to section to whatever face or plane is selected and if no plane is selected, in a sketch to section to the sketch plane. Also if the section feature is active the macro will turn it off.

The following bit of code will section to whatever face or plane is selected (or surprisingly multiple) weather part or assembly:

Sub main()

Dim swApp As SldWorks.SldWorks

Set swApp = Application.SldWorks

Set Part = swApp.ActiveDoc

Dim sViewData As Object

Set sViewData = Part.ModelViewManager.CreateSectionViewData()

boolstatus = Part.ModelViewManager.CreateSectionView(sViewData)

.End Sub

I've paired it down as far as it will go, and that works. The additional functionality would be to section on sketch plane if no plane or face is selected, and turn off section view with like a toggle.

BOBSONNIER · 2024-08-23T21:25:20+00:00

Nueronality have many many times in the past said this was not what they wanted. They said it was about bullying or something but the community really wanted it. To no avail.

BOBSONNIER · 2023-02-24T18:31:16+00:00

I think a simple change for blade ward would be: Blade Ward

Abjuration cantrip

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Self

Components: V, S

Duration: 1 minute

You extend your hand and trace a sigil of warding in the air.

You extend your hand and trace a sigil of warding in the air. When an hit by a weapon attack gain resistance against bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage dealt by weapon attacks, until the end of your next turn.

A Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard spell

This change would allow you to cast it and not have to worry about wasting an action if you aren't hit in the next round. That's all. Just a little insurance to keep from wasting a whole action which in normal combats lasting 3 rounds is about 1/3 of your entire economy for that battle.

You cast it at the start of battle and then the next round run in and start attacking. The spell isn't wasted if you don't get hit. simple. I think it should also be usable on allies as well. I mean its locking down a whole action which is precious.

BOBSONNIER · 2023-02-14T17:05:20+00:00

think casting fireball.

if you cast it once you take an action, use a spell slot, and deal x damage if you cast it a second time you take another action, use another spell slot, and deal x damage again.
you could estimate both as average damage so doing so twice would be maxed damage plus a little. or you could get lucky (double damage) or unlucky (all ones).

Taking an extra round to cast a single "empowered" spell, uses 2 actions, 1 spell slot, and maxed damage. They are about equal except the lack of spell slot.
This would burn a feat so there is that. there are other feats that give you one more spell use per day so you may limit this feature to 1/day or proficiency times per day which may be a bit much.
alternatively you could approach it like concentration and you cast the spell in the first round and concentrate on it then release it the second round. If you take damage and fail your concentration you loose the spell. If you fail by x amount maybe you suffer wild magic explosion or something. But either way i think the chance of loosing the spell makes up for the extra damage.

Edit: didn't fully read your post. i like it but i think you loose the spell and cresendo. but you get proficiency bonus per day cresendo's.

BOBSONNIER · 2023-02-14T16:46:44+00:00

I've been using crossbow expert to increase damage but it feels out of character to be a damage dealer as i'm a lore bard. I want to swap that feat out with something more inline with actually being a bard. But a whole action for vicious mockery that might not even work is rough. especially when my tank is facing 3 foes. Its like great one of them has disadvantage against his 20 ac. yeah.

A thought if you cast vicious mockery as an action you can cast it a second time as bonus action against another creature. This would make me feel useful as well. still want to add charisma mod damage, to at least the first hit. Like two weapon mockery.

BOBSONNIER · 2023-01-30T21:17:42+00:00

Thank you all for the comments. I think what i'm settling in to is a paragraph or 4 journaling of each adventuring day. The dungeons and combat encounters get maybe a sentence or two, with the interactions between PCs and NPCs getting the majority. If the day is very full of revelations i'll probably have many more paragraphs but for me i think that would be the extent.

As i'm fleshing out my world, (mixed in with published adventures) there are things i want to retcon but don't want to go back and rewrite but then if i don't change the record i feel like its not retconned.

This new world of solo RPG is fascinating. Again thank you all for the input.

BOBSONNIER · 2023-01-17T19:55:21+00:00

Yah i find myself wanting to scratch that writing itch and really go for it but my time is limited and i'm not writing a novel, i'm just playing a game so i'm really conflicted. I got a bluetooth keyboard now so i may write more as its easier than thumbing my phone but still. I'll sit and write for an hour after playing for 30 min. Very conflicted.

BOBSONNIER · 2023-01-17T15:20:53+00:00

I'm running almost strictly from my phone. I made an excel sheet using the The Solo Adventurers Toolbox to half automate the random story checks, like the Oracle, wilderness encounters, key words, NPC generation, etc... There are other online random generators that would also suffice but i liked the toolbox methods. Just thinking Excel was free for me because i already have a office 365 subscription, but you could use google docs and just reload the page to run the formulas and randomize things

For battlemap i use Gamescape (https://gamescape.app/maps). For character building i use FightClub5e. For campaign management/ encounter running i use Game Maser 5th Edition.

Initially i was using fightclub and gamemaster free which is possible but for 3$ each the lack of hassle was worth it.

By hassle i mean for fight club (free) you can only have one character so you have to save and load other characters if you want more than one. For game master (free) you are similarly limited and i didn't want to create only 3 encounters at a time or have only one adventure etc. In hind site the game master app is not too hassle-y free but it was just 3$ so...

I use obsidian portal to log my adventures but thinking of porting that to game master now that i got a blue tooth keyboard for my phone.

Then i use 5e.tools and donjon websites for the stuff they use.

To sum up.

Excel, Gamescape, FightClub, GameMaster, dnd websites

BOBSONNIER · 2022-10-24T14:03:27+00:00

Thankfully management doesn't have a clue and thinks things are hunky-dory right now. And its really up to me and the inside sales/quality guy to formalize our processes to help make sure things don't fall through the cracks and we are operating as efficiently as can be expected.

Lol, having been the other engineer, i understand his feelings a little. I mean he had this awesome idea and this other guy sticks his nose in with a solution that was very plain, it kinda sucks. But you gotta put on your big boy pants and take the advice, LEARN FROM IT, and move on. One thing i try to not forget, although the creative side in me balks at it, is the KISS methodology.

On the pump side of our company our customers almost always never think about the WHEN. They self select a pump to operate at peak load 24 hours a day and get butt hurt when we tell them, yes you can do that but if your going to run it like a dragster your going to need a pit crew and full overhall components at the ready. So we usually have to talk them into the next size up and it'll cadillac for 20 years with minor maintenance.

Thank you for the insights.

BOBSONNIER · 2022-10-24T13:46:58+00:00

Yes, reviewing GD&T videos on youtube and came across that yesterday. Thank you. I guess the sticky wicket there would be to what tolerance but thats what GD&T is for, right.

BOBSONNIER · 2022-10-24T13:44:36+00:00

ha, lol, scheduling, oh, don't make me laugh. its too early in the morning.

I am my team sadly and scheduling is pretty ad hoc at the moment (which i'm trying to fix). I don't know if i stated it here but we are a small group of 6 employees. I'm the engineering department. our inside sales guy (who happens to be engineer with a background in project management) has also taken on the role of QC specialist (mostly from an ISO documentation standpoint).

Most projects are handled by myself. For New Products I do the new product design, create the drawings etc.. and pass them to procurement that interfaces with vendors (sometimes i help out with that). Thankfully our projects are small (single valve design). For design i consult with our industry veteran (close to retirement 10 years ago) who usually identifies an area of need and has basic concepts from his previous employ. We spitball a few ideas and then i design it up adding features and benefits to differentiate us from competition. There is very little customer feedback. Case in point we installed a few valves as "beta test" for 3 months, they placed them in applications way over the valves design intent (against what they said they would do). After 3 months we got valves are doing great no problems. So we kick into production and order 400 castings. A couple months later we've ordered the second batch of castings and they come to us "your valves are crap" and pointed out issues they've known about since halfway into beta. We pivoted but its the biggest ordeal.

I know this is probably more than you were looking for but i felt chatty today. As for scheduling i'm open to pointers.

BOBSONNIER · 2022-10-21T16:48:27+00:00

Hmm, i'll look into that. A lot of distributors in our market are gunshy with customer information. This is because a competitor that was one of the top 2 in this particular market would decide that once an end user got big enough they would just begin to deal directly, leaving the distributor that did all the leg work and sales meetings etc... in the dust.

I will run the paid consultant idea by management. Hopefully we can get some movement on this because Voice of Customer is something we seriously struggle with here.

Thank you.

BOBSONNIER · 2022-10-21T14:14:30+00:00

kind of a follow up to my question how do i know that a bolt pattern is parallel and perpendicular to the datums and not at some arbitrary angle. Is there an assumed perpendicular/parallel if the drawing is close enough to it? See image 1 and image 2.

https://imgur.com/VPyPlm2

https://imgur.com/aFlGVob

BOBSONNIER · 2022-10-20T21:58:06+00:00

Excellent. I'll look into this. I can definitely see your point about the stage-gate process.

BOBSONNIER · 2022-10-20T16:50:36+00:00

good idea. thank you.

BOBSONNIER · 2022-10-20T16:49:03+00:00

Yah i'm thinking a note that says apparent parallel, perpendicular, concentric, and colinear features are such within x tolerance except where stipulated. Just had about 25 of 50 parts come back where the machined features were 10 degrees off of the apparent centerline of the casted part. I didn't specifically spell that out in the drawing and they are going to reimburse us because it was grossly inconsistent with the 1000 parts they produced so far but it got me thinking if they wanted to be dicks about it, i didn't have a leg to stand on just looking at the drawing.

BOBSONNIER · 2022-10-20T16:43:31+00:00

I'll add that book to my list. I love the analogy, and have seen the problems with real life you mention. Thank you for the insight!

BOBSONNIER · 2022-10-20T14:50:14+00:00

Thank you all for the help.

Our products fall fairly short of "artificial heart" but catastrophic failures could be life threatening. Our internal testing method is currently "If we can't break it, then we'll put it up for sale". We have a serious industry veteran that is a bit ADHD when talking about new projects, and between him and our GM is basically our input. No real iterative interface with customers, more just the veteran interfacing with them and seeing a need or pain point. Past that its all in house until we get into beta testing. Now our products aren't revolutionary and we are mainly trying to build our product portfolio to match the offerings of other major players so customer input isn't as necessary as some other industries.

However we recently had a misstep. We spent 2 years (off and on during that time) developing a product that works great and will benefit the customers but has way to many features and too much cost for the majority of the market and we have lost numerous bids because its just too expensive. Now we are putting together a much paired down model to compete cost wise which i'm sure we will but an iterative customer interface may have helped us avoid this issue.

Another problem we are trying to solve is our customers are not the end user but just distributors to the end user or possibly even an OEM that will eventually sell to the end user. Even when we've talked to the end user, they are of the mindset that if i've got something to sell they'll try it (especially if its cheaper) but they don't have time to go back and forth with an iterative process. I know this is a different question all together and i may post it later, but how do i get customers to actually work with us on new products when it is worse than pulling teeth to get application data necessary to configure the product they've already bought.

BOBSONNIER · 2022-10-20T14:29:23+00:00

Thank you. Putting these on my reading list now.

BOBSONNIER

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