Here’s what’s next for the Battlescribe maintainers and other 10th Edition Warhammer 40k army builders as they move towards open-sourcing.
Just a couple of weeks ago, we talked about how bad of a spot the app is in to make the jump to 10th Edition.
Unfortunately, the Battlescribe data community does everything for free, and the only one who gets paid is the developer, even though they barely keep up with the app. However, there is some good news! The data community and the people at New Recruit are teaming up for an open-source app!
The Next Steps For Battlescribe & 10th Edition 40k Army Builders
This info comes from the Battlescribe Maintainers Discord.
There was a fairly strong response to the last update of people willing to help, along with questions about if data would be provided to work with other tools that aren’t battlescribe.
In that regard there is some great news. While it is still early work yet, two of the developers behind NewRecruit reached out to build an editor that will (eventually) be released as open source, allowing data developers control over the data standard going forward. V1.0 of the standard will simply be the current definitions used by the current XML, but this allows improvements going forward to allow apps to support additional features.
What this means is that it will be the responsibility of the roster builder developers to build applications that read the data correctly, rather than data developers having to work around dead code. This does mean that if Battlescribe doesn’t update, it may eventually no longer work. However there are several maturing alternatives to Battlescribe now that use the community created data. A short list: NewRecruit, BlueScribe, War.Cards and the Forces App will support roster building I’m told. Several other tools are still in development, including Phalanx.
What this means going forward is that the user will be able to choose what client they want to use.
Big thanks to @Flammy and @Giloushaker for putting together the editor, and there will be an announcement when it converts to open source.
@BlueWinds and @rrenna have also been hard at work on their respective roster solutions, and we would like to welcome any other developers who are working on roster solutions.
The Discord Server will be getting renamed at some point to reflect this more independent status.
We’d also like to take this opportunity to encourage the reddit Battlescribe Community to join us over on the BSData Discord – it’s the central hub for all this activity and has always been far more active than this subreddit. There were only a very small number of data team members who were active on reddit anyway, and with the API changes looking very likely to go ahead regardless of the community’s feeling, it seems very likely that this subreddit will be closing down completely in the near future.
On a personal level, it’s been a privilege to help out here, and I hope to see you all over on Discord!
New Recruit Army Builder Versus Battlescribe for Warhammer 40k 10th Edition
This picture is from New Recruit.
This is great news, as obviously, the current developer is not working on Battlescribe (although they are surely taking everyone’s money for what could be essentially a dead product), and with an open-source app, people will be able to work on it and keep things working!
With the data community behind it, we also know they are set up for success, as the hardworking people over there do a lot of great work to keep things up to date and working well. It’s tough to say if Battlescribe will ever be updated, but with New Recruit and the maintainers working on a new app, we might have one sooner than expected.
It’s also cool to see all these other apps will be able to use the data too, as there are plenty of other options for Warhammer 40k army builders headed into 10th Edition right now!
Check out the short list of alternatives to Battlescribe here, and also keep your eyes open for the new open-source app on the way!
Click Here For Alternatives to Battlescribe for 10th Edition Warhammer 40k
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
