VTES DB - Announcement

Hi fellow Methuselah,

I want to announce new web card search tool I have done for me and yours:
vtes-db.smeea.casa/crypt
vtes-db.smeea.casa/library

What it is:
- Another option to search cards.
- Clean and simple interface, created by practicing Methuselah for the Kindred.
- Desktop (that is how I mostly use it) and mobile friendly (optimised for hi-resolution mobile).
- Free (as in 'liberty', MIT licensed). You literally can modify/run it within minutes at home server, sources are available with permissive license.

What it is NOT:
- Full deck building suite. One day maybe, but so far it is just a card search tool. But nevertheless, it is aimed to be the tool at a search.
- Production grade software. It is still under development, meaning it works, but there are bugs around. Please report it and I'll do my best to fix it.

Support:
- It runs on my home server which is limited with bandwidth/power. Most likely it will work fine, but if you crave for minimal latency you may want self-hosting options for you local computer (described in Github ). There are no hidden downsides (i.e. spyware / bitcoin miners / other malware).
- I can help you via , but please try to first contact in this thread / Github to minimize doubles.

For lazy antideluvians screenshots (resized to barely visible by forum engine, unfortunately) in the attachments.

Have a good deck-building holidays!

After 2 minutes of testing it looks like a very nice substitute for Secret Library. Finally!

Cryptvise it might also be nice to be able to choose how the results are organized:
-by capacity
or
-by group
or
-alphabetically

I noticed that you've apparently used the latest card text for the text version (I checked just Parity Shift). Nice!

However, at least Parity Shift still had the VTES version as the picture. Which might be problematic as some people might not check both.


BTW When I went through and reorganized my cards during winter I noticed that in the later sets White Wolf had started to use larger font when it was possible. IIRC, the change started with Legacies of Blood. So everything that was reprinted since had noticeably larger font (compared to previous editions of those cards) which was way clearer and easier to read.

Similarly Final Nights experimented all card having miniscule font which tends to be pain in the rear end to read!

Lönkka wrote:

Cryptvise it might also be nice to be able to choose how the results are organized:
-by capacity
or
-by group
or
-alphabetically

Now default sorting for Crypt is done the the following order:
Capacity -> Group -> Clan -> Name

And for Library:
Discipline -> Clan -> Type -> Name

I really like to implement other sorting options (and it will be done), but I still have some doubts how to handle it best way (e.g. straight group sorting sounds simple and good, but since it will miss neighbor groups result output is not too useful).

Lönkka wrote:

I noticed that you've apparently used the latest card text for the text version (I checked just Parity Shift). Nice!

Card text public available from VEKN: www.vekn.net/card-lists in CSV (which is trivial for conversion to JSON, used in the service), so I assume there will be no problem keeping all card text updated in the future. This text is used for search.

Lönkka wrote:

However, at least Parity Shift still had the VTES version as the picture. Which might be problematic as some people might not check both.

This part is more tricky. At my disposal I only have outdated pictures and I have no idea where to get it updated. I manually added several missing new crypt cards from Black Chantry site announces, but it is pretty time consuming to keep all base updated this way (especially without reliable source of images).
We must either wait for the workaround from BCP... or kindred fellows can contribute and share updated cards with me to be inlcuded

a quick source for OFFICIAL text is always welcome