Chooser_table selections?

Here is my situation.

I have a Skill component being displayed on a row of a fixed_table with an action button on the same row. The skill has forwarded a HasSkill.xxxx tag to the hero and also contains a SkillGen.xxxx identity tag. The action button opens a form that contains a chooser_table portal.

How do I build a candidate tag for the chooser_table to selec those SkillAoE components which match the SkillGen.xxxx tag from the skill on the row whose button I clicked? Does that make sense?

I don't think I understand the various options on the chooser_table quite well enough yet....

Thanks!
TC

Why use a chooser_table in a form?

Why not just use a menu_things to make the selection, without forcing the user to open up a form before they can change it?

Well, for one thing I did not know menu_things existed.

From what I see in the wiki, it may be what I'm looking for.

As an end result, I want to delete a Hide.Me tag on the chosen item so that it will display on the skill list as a new entry. (It's already bootstrapped to the hero, only hidden from view. If this works though, I should be able to choose it if it's not bootstrapped and have it added, correct?)

Is there an example available anywhere of this usage?

Why don't you back up to the beginning of this problem - what game rule(s) is all this trying to accomplish?

No problem.

Skills in the game system are a limited set which are all available all the time. They rank from 0 to 6 points. Once a user has taken 3 points in in the skill, then they have the option of adding a specialty to the skill. The specialty costs 1 point, but provides an effective 2 points for those related tasks.

I have 3 components, Base Skill, Skill and SkillAoE each with their own identity tags. In addition, Skill components have a SkillGen.xxxx identity and and associated specialties will use that as well. (based this on the chooser for the Cortex skills tab). However, the only thing skills related that will need choosing is the specialty/domain.

I add everything on a template for a fixed_table for display. When the value incrementer has set the user value of skill points in the skill to at less three, then I make a selection method available to the left of the incrementer. (A portal with an id of skSpec). The layout of one entry winds up like:

Skill name 1 <skSpec> <value incrementer> <info>
Skill name 2 <skSpec> <value incrementer> <info>
Skill name 3 <skSpec> <value incrementer> <info>

If a specialty is chosen, it would display:

Skill name 1 <skSpec> <value incrementer> <info>
Specialty name
Skill name 2 <skSpec> <value incrementer> <info>
Skill name 3. <skSpec> <value incrementer> <info>

At the moment, all SkillAoE components are bootstrapped to the hero along with a Hide.Me tag to keep them from displaying on the Skill portal. I need the chooser (in this case) to display the specialties associated with the individual skill to choose which one of them to remove the Hide tag from with a perform delete[Hide.Me]

How many specialties are allowed per skill?

I'd recommend looking at Shadowrun - it sounds like specialties in your game are more like those specialties than like Cortex's specialties (Cortex's specialties are more like new skills that you can choose once you reach a certain point in the regular game, but Shadowrun's specialties are more of a modification of the original skill).

Even if you haven't purchased Shadowrun, you can download it and run it in demo mode, so that you can see how the specialties work.

A skill can have any number of specialties as long as the costs are paid.

It does seem a bit like Shadowrun in that respect. Are the SR templates and everything available? My difficulty has been working with the sample system in it's entirety.

If it can have any number of specialties, that changes the way this has to be handled. You can't use a menu_things on the item itself, because that only allows one selection per menu, and if you're using a form, a chooser isn't appropriate, because that also allows only one selection. You'd need a full table on the form.

On the character sheet, what does the skills section look like with a specialty or two on a skill? I'd like to know how they organize their material. Can you give me a rough example of that?

Ah, ok

Unfortunately, the official character sheet doesn't even have blank spaces for any specialties. ( http://www.cubicle7.co.uk/our-games/doctor-who-aitas/doctor-who-downloads/ )
Although the official sheet for their other game based on the same system looks like it has room along with a couple more skills: http://www.cubicle7.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Primeval-character-sheet.pdf

The typical player way of writing the final result, as seen on several entries here: http://dwaitas.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=players&action=display&thread=1287, is Skill Name Rank (specialty... Rank+2)

90% of the sheets I've seen have just 1 specialty per skill, but the rules do quote that any number are allowed.

I could do the Skills tab like a normal dynamic table with the add a specialty selection at the bottom, but that seems inelegant....

The Cortex specialties are listed separately from the skills because the normal way of writing skills on a character sheet in Cortex does separate them like that.

In your case, I think something more like Shadowrun's system is appropriate, but with a table, so that you can add an unlimited number of specialties, rather than the drop-down menus that Shadowrun uses to let you pick a specialty.

Mathias, can we access the Shadowrun source code at all? If so that might simply what I have to finish up on Deathwatch since I finished up the biggest tab I had remaining to do.

No, only the Savage Worlds, 4e, and skeleton information is available. It sounded as though TCArknight had figured out many Cortex things by studying the tags and fields, and I figured he might be able to figure out similar things by studying the tags and fields in Shadowrun, which is why I suggested he look at that.

Mathias said:

No, only the Savage Worlds, 4e, and skeleton information is available. It sounded as though TCArknight had figured out many Cortex things by studying the tags and fields, and I figured he might be able to figure out similar things by studying the tags and fields in Shadowrun, which is why I suggested he look at that.

Click to expand...

Ok, I wasn't sure if you decided to make the Shadowrun source code available to users of the authoring kit or not. I've learned a lot from the 4e and savage worlds data so far, but I may need some assistance setting up the wargear, as weapons in Deathwatch have mods and special ammunition like shadowrun does.
I'll get it figured it as I go, I am feeling a bit more confident in my coding abilities since you started assisting me with the data.

Mathias,

Does <menu_things> create a pulldown menu for the user to select something from?
I am asking because I have a few skills that may benefit from this knowledge that I haven't finished yet. Speak Language is one example where the user has to choose the language associated with the skill. I am not sure if I should just do each language as its own skill in the game or have a pulldown on it.

In most games, I find that languages are best handled with a two-part solution.

Any language that's mentioned in the game gets a specific pick - that way, you can easily bootstrap a specific language when some thing or another grants it as a bonus.

Then, you have a "Language (Other)" pick, that offers the domDomain field for the user to type in any language they want.

You could use a menu for the same sort of thing, but I find it's not as convenient when it comes time to bootstrap particular languages, or when you want to offer a selection of languages X, Y, or Z (but no others) as a bonus granted by something.

RavenX said:

Mathias,

Does <menu_things> create a pulldown menu for the user to select something from?
I am asking because I have a few skills that may benefit from this knowledge that I haven't finished yet. Speak Language is one example where the user has to choose the language associated with the skill. I am not sure if I should just do each language as its own skill in the game or have a pulldown on it.

Click to expand...

I used <menu_things> recently in the Qin ruleset I'm building to handle combat technique. A combat technique can have a different skill level prerequisite depending on the weapon skill. For instance, Charge requires level 1 in Bangshu (stick), but level 3 in Chuishu (mace). So, I created a tag group in this form:

CombTechID.SkillIDn

Where n is the minimum level for that combat technique/skill combination. The prerequisite script for the Combat Technique then loops through the hero's current skill picks and applies the tag template above to each matching skill. The <menu_thing> then filters on CombTechID.?

Mathias said:

In most games, I find that languages are best handled with a two-part solution.

Any language that's mentioned in the game gets a specific pick - that way, you can easily bootstrap a specific language when some thing or another grants it as a bonus.

Then, you have a "Language (Other)" pick, that offers the domDomain field for the user to type in any language they want.

You could use a menu for the same sort of thing, but I find it's not as convenient when it comes time to bootstrap particular languages, or when you want to offer a selection of languages X, Y, or Z (but no others) as a bonus granted by something.

Click to expand...

My only issue with doing Speak Language is that Deathwatch (and I believe the entire 40K line) treats it as a Skill. You need a skill test for obscure or ancient dialects usually. And that skill is subject to the usual +10 and +20 advancement purchases that the player can make. I will take your lead on this Mathias and go ahead and start studying how other systems handle their language picks. Luckily there is only about 8 languages in the core rulebook which account for the major races of the universe.

Ok, I'm at a loss.

The SR4 'push button to select specialty' is exactly what I'm going for. In my case, the button won't become visible unless the rank is a 3 or better.

That part I have working.

Skill tab display should be a table_dynamic so that chosen can vary from selected

I see three things that have to happen.
1) button click opens form
2) table on form populated with SkillAoE components with the SkillGen.XXX tag that matches the skill with the button clicked
3) Ok button needs to add selected specialty to character which should sort out well.

If I had the code from the Shadowrun specialty adding, then I may be able to figure out a solution.

Any suggestions?

I've attached the doctor who files that I've been working on so can see what talking about for the skills. They need a lot of work, but this seems to be the biggest hangup.

TC

Here's the error message I get when I try to open those files:

The data files could not be loaded due to the following errors:
Portal 'baSkill' - Dynamic table requires either an 'addtemplate' or an 'additem' script

So, add an additem script to the table.

Here's the wiki page about dynamic tables: http://hlkitwiki.wolflair.com/index.php5/TableDynamic_Element_(Data)

Yep, found that just after uploading.

Here's the correct file. The skill tab has the Add Skill Spec tem at the bottom that's always there, and when a particular skill reaches 3, the button appears on that skill....