Joining the Alpha Test

Commlink is still in early stages of development and not really ready to be used as a character generation software. You can download it already, but there are some things you need to be aware of (see also Release Notes.

Before you start​

What to expect​

• Meta Index: You should be able to browse data from the Corebook (CRB), Firing Squad, Street Wyrd and some parts the Sixth World Compendium (6WC). For copyright reasons we don't include text descriptions from the books. In the future Commlink will eventually get some kind of license management that restricts those text to license buyers - or be removed completely shouldn't it be possible to made a license arrangement.

• Character Generation: Character Generation is working, but not very well tested yet. Content from the CRB, "Firing Squad" and "Street Wyrd" is 99% complete, other books are partly supported (see here). Exporting Characters to PDF is possible, but hasn't really been tested yet.

• Screen sizes: A major goal of the new application is to support a wider range of screen sizes and platforms. It should be usable on small mobile screens (or small desktop windows), as well as large desktops and it should adapt the layout. Adapting to size changes on every screen in realtime is not a primary goal - it may work, but there may also be places where it doesn't. On Windows it seems more buggy than on Linux.

• Roadmap: The current version is not yet as feature rich as Genesis, but I am working on it. Consult our roadmap to get an idea what steps to expect.

System Requirements​

Currently Commlink 6 supports:

• Windows 8 or higher (64 Bit)
• Linux
• Android (No idea which versions - successfully tested on 12 and 13)
• OS X

Support for iOS is planned, but currently not possible due technical difficulties

Appplication Types​

There are two technical very different approaches how the software is created.

• Binary
  The application is converted into a very fast native application for your operating system. This is also the requirement to run on mobile devices.
  The drawback of this version is that it will never be able to update itself - it needs some kind of app store to roll out new versions automatically or requires manual updates.

• Interpreted
  This is the classic way to package Java programs - and more reliable too. The application is installed alongside with a Java Runtime Environment (JRE). This choice offers most functionality. Though not available yet, it might be possible to auto-update parts of the application (like Genesis already did).
  Drawback: Startup and response time is slightly longer and this type is not available on mobile devices.

Download​

Release Notes & Feedback​

Please consult the release notes

Known Bugs/Limitations​

• Android:
  • Exporting to PDF does not really work. The PDF is created, but placing it somewhere it can be accessed due to Android restrictions.
• The Matrix tab is unfinished yet
• Rendering a rulebook PDF page is rather slow on some PDFs

Feedback​

You can use the issue tracker to inform us about problems you encounter.
You can use our feature request tool to add or vote for features.
You can join our Discord (see below) and start discussion