Modifying / Appending Data Package

[Adam.Ormond]

So I'm checking out the demo, and there are two aspects of the application which is tempering my desire to purchase the application.

The first is related to the data files themselves, specifically the lack of detailed descriptions for spells. My wife and I almost exclusively play spell casters, and having to constantly open a book to get the exact wording of a spell is time consuming and cumbersome. Is the spell data incomplete because I'm using a demo version of the product? If not, is it possible for me to add in the missing data? I tried looking at the files in the HeroLab/data/pathfinder folder, and it looks like it's encoded.

Secondly, and this is a more minor issue, is the inability to customize the printed output. I see there are various "dossiers" that I can choose from, but the output of a specific dossier seems static. It'd be awesome if we could create our own dossiers - is this possible? If not, I humbly submit it as a feature enhancement request, done through xslt, perhaps.

[Mathias]

Both of these are planned improvements to Hero Lab. The full description text is tentatively planned for the next couple of weeks, and the user-created dossiers will hopefully make it into all the game systems in HL in HL 3.7, which is tentatively scheduled for the end of the year.

The reason the spell descriptions are missing is simply the time required to copy, paste, and check the text for all those spells.

You can access the HL editor from the Tools menu - it's the first option. Create a new file to edit, and find the Spells tab, and press the "New (Copy)" button at the bottom left. Choose one of the spells there, write down the unique Id that's in parentheses next to the name (like spDetMagi0 for detect magic) on a piece of scrap paper, and select that spell. Now, find the "Replaces Thing Id" box in the center of the right hand side, and enter spDetMagi0 there. In the "Unique Id" field at the top, enter a new Id, like "spDetMagA0". Now, you can edit the text or anything else about that spell to your heart's content, and then press the "Test Now!" button on the top left of the screen to incorporate it into HL, replacing the existing version of Detect Magic. The editor is available in demo mode, if you want to try it out.

[Lawful_g]

If you are interested, I have done files for all spells in the 3.5 PHB that have the full text copied (with additional information inserted in bold, due to HL not having fields for area, etc). Mathias, if it will help you out I can send them to you. Same for you Adam, although if you play Pathfinder they don't shift over.

[Mathias]

Thanks for the offer, but there are enough subtle changes in the spell descriptions between d20 and Pathfinder that I'd have to compare each one to the new version to make sure nothing had changed, so I'll get the text from the prd at paizo's website or pfsrd.org.

For the d20 files, I can probably just copy your information right in in a few hours, so that everyone has it, so it would be useful there.

[Adam.Ormond]

So by doing what you suggest, Mathias, am I creating a user data set that overrides what is in the distributed pathfinder package, or am I actually modifying the pathfinder data? Or will this spell (Detect Magic) now be duplicated? -- I just tried out what you suggested, and I think I understand what I'm doing -- looks like I'm overriding the existing definition by setting the "Replaces Thing Id" value to the existing Id.

And yeah, the text for a lot of spells has changed just a little bit from d20 to pathfinder. It's somewhat annoying, really - pathfinder changed just enough that you have to relearn everything you thought you knew.

[ShadowChemosh]

So by doing what you suggest, Mathias, am I creating a user data set that overrides what is in the distributed pathfinder package, or am I actually modifying the pathfinder data? Or will this spell (Detect Magic) now be duplicated?
You can actually have it either way. To have it override the original Detect Magic spell you need to enter the original spells ThingID into the "Replaces Thing ID" field on the right side of the editor.

So why you can't ever modify the HL things directly you can easily make a copy and have your custom version get used in place of the HL version. Personally have found this very powerful as I have small custom house rules for my game. So I can just copy a feat make the small change and have it be the version that gets used instead of the core HL one. Plus any script that use to reference the old thing will now reference your new thing without having to change them. :)

[Lawful_g]

Alright. I'll send you the info then Mathias.

[Adam.Ormond]

What is the output file format for a saved character? I see there's an Output Extensions option, but the manual suggests that not many systems have alternate file formats available. Is there a way to create my own extension? Or is this a future feature enhancement?

[Mathias]

A saved character is a .por or .stock file. Those are written in XML, so you can open them with any XML or text editor.

The "output active hero summary" option in the file menu lets you create a statblock for the character, and that can be set up for plain text, HTML, BBCode, or Wikitext.

The format of the Output Extensions depends on what the program that will be importing that output requires. It's generated through a script in Hero Lab.

What sort of output extension are you looking for?

[Adam.Ormond]

A saved character is a .por or .stock file. Those are written in XML, so you can open them with any XML or text editor.

The "output active hero summary" option in the file menu lets you create a statblock for the character, and that can be set up for plain text, HTML, BBCode, or Wikitext.

The format of the Output Extensions depends on what the program that will be importing that output requires. It's generated through a script in Hero Lab.

What sort of output extension are you looking for?
XML is exactly what I was hoping for. I could just create my own XSLT to format my character sheet however I desire. That's fantastic!

I don't suppose Hero Lab is hosting fan/customer-generated XSLT files, 'eh? Seems like a great way to draw value from the expertise within the community!

[chiefweasel]

I am hosting all user created content on the www.cheeseweasel.net site. I would be happy to include anything you have created there as well.

[Mathias]

As I mentioned, our hope is to allow user-created dossiers within Hero Lab later this year. I'm afraid the portfolio output does not include calculated values, so if you want to create an output format from that, you're going to have to perform all the calculations that go into creating the display you see in the existing character sheet or the Hero Lab program.