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Hello, yet another annoying noob

V

Venger

Well-known member
Hello gurus
I just bought HLC week before last, its great. been playing with DnD 5e and I want to go deeper now, I want to explore.
Yes,
fate is cruel. Its inevitable
yet another ambitious noob looking for the easy way around the underdark

But I'm not your typical noob, well, yeah, I am, but that's beside the point...

I am a researching noob, that will actually try stuff before giving up and asking for directions. I am worthy
So I guess that makes me a tenacious noobius maximus, ubernoob

Anyway, where the hell is the link for this mysterious authoring kit Ive heard tell about? The great sage Google will not reveal it, it is that secret but makes me even more determined

I've heard its not for the timid, and that's ok. I'm not scared away easily.
I've managed to hack some code to useful effect in RPTools Maptool, and VisualBasic and tho I'm no code guru, I'm not scared to hack a line if I understand what it does, and sometimes even when I don't.

I haven't found the AK link, and it does not bode well, for if I cant even find the door, what the helll, am I gonna do once in the dungeon!

anyway, one noob step at a time. I d/l the unauthorized HL Ak manual by Noctifier and pouring over it, I like unauthorized stuff.

How do I find/access/unlock the AK so I can buy it and enter the HL underground and be humbled like a good noob should, and rise to my own level of incompetence with this awesome software!

Thanks!
 
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Use the link within HLC to "purchase data package". One of the data packages will be the authoring kit; it comes with Savage Worlds data files as an example.

There is also a web-based tutorial which you should definitely follow to learn the basics of setting up a new game system.
 
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Farling said:
Use the link within HLC to "purchase data package". One of the data packages will be the authoring kit; it comes with Savage Worlds data files as an example.

There is also a web-based tutorial which you should definitely follow to learn the basics of setting up a new game system.
Click to expand...

OMGoodness... I see, I hadn't tried that yet. that lead me to to a new place.
All the Kobold Press stuff, *drool* all 5e the packages, I had no idea.

So.... Savage Worlds, Authoring Kit, D&D4E, & others is the Authoring kit I'm looking for I presume, just double checking.
After purchase, will the web-based tut mentioned be made available?
 
The authoring kit wiki is already available to all users, even without purchasing the authoring kit - within HL, open some other game system, and go to the Help menu, then choose "More Documentation" and then "Authoring Kit Manual". That includes a walkthrough that follows the steps we did when using the authoring kit to create Savage Worlds.
 
Senior Member
Lone Wolf Staff

Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 12,679

Unread Today, 09:38 AM

The authoring kit wiki is already available to all users, even without purchasing the authoring kit - within HL, open some other game system, and go to the Help menu, then choose "More Documentation" and then "Authoring Kit Manual". That includes a walkthrough that follows the steps we did when using the authoring kit to create Savage Worlds.
Click to expand...

Ahhh ok, then I've likely been through some of that.

Thank you sers for the quick responses.
So begins my exciting journey to the HL underworld.
 
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It's... a trip, to be sure. Just like any other system, buying it will let you save and print portfolios (and exceed a few limits in the number of elements you can add to a character), so you can basically do the entire tutorial, trying it out, before buying anything.

And if you encounter troubles, post here. We're friendly, and always glad to see another suffer^Kenjoy their experience with the program. :-D
 
Duggan said:
It's... a trip, to be sure. Just like any other system, buying it will let you save and print portfolios (and exceed a few limits in the number of elements you can add to a character), so you can basically do the entire tutorial, trying it out, before buying anything.

And if you encounter troubles, post here. We're friendly, and always glad to see another suffer^Kenjoy their experience with the program. :-D
Click to expand...

Yay! Thank you, misery loves company! :)
I bought in, and thus far the underdark is not so bad, but it is tricky, there are footfalls along the way..

i.e. I'm doing the tuts and mistrust myself when the Tut mentions something that hasn't been presented before, like the mention of bootstraps in Tut #2
I'm on Tut #6 and still haven't seen bootstrap's, bootstraps
So I retrace my steps, looking for secrets I might have missed, and there are many winding passages and earthly distractions.
I don't know what Picks are either but I know they are a thing, well maybe not a "thing", you get my point, and I'll get there by & by

Regarding the tuts, I've gathered all work is focused on dev and I'm good with that. Carry on.
Having a place here to ask for help is great
I continue on yet undaunted

I do have a noob question, possibly jumping the gun but I want to know
How deep does the AK go? Can I eventually get to the point of creating/editing my own tabs and fields, or are the ones presented sort of hardcoded and that's what I have to work with? (which is amazing)
Is there yet a deeper darker place learned sages go that allow them to alter the fabric of reality? (aside from HL program language level code which is for Wizards, I'm not worthy)
What if I wanted a PC who could possess multiple items that each had their own AC,HP, and what if manually tracking them was fine by me?
Could the learned sage do this?

(pardon the metaphors its just fun, humor an old man)
Thanks!
 
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Venger said:
i.e. I'm doing the tuts and mistrust myself when the Tut mentions something that hasn't been presented before, like the mention of bootstraps in Tut #2
I'm on Tut #6 and still haven't seen bootstrap's, bootstraps
So I retrace my steps, looking for secrets I might have missed, and there are many winding passages and earthly distractions.
I don't know what Picks are either but I know they are a thing, well maybe not a "thing", you get my point, and I'll get there by & by
Click to expand...
It doesn't hurt to quickly read through the Basic Concepts and Terminology page. Yes, it would be good if things got described in the tutorial, but we have to work with what we have. In general, the search engine on the wiki is pretty good about recognizing these topics when you type them in. Some of the functions and macros are a bit trickier since they're not always indexed, but fortunately, the IDs tend to be more unique for the functions, and the macros are generally findable via a Files search on a given project.

Venger said:
I do have a noob question, possibly jumping the gun but I want to know
How deep does the AK go? Can I eventually get to the point of creating/editing my own tabs and fields, or are the ones presented sort of hardcoded and that's what I have to work with? (which is amazing)
Is there yet a deeper darker place learned sages go that allow them to alter the fabric of reality? (aside from HL program language level code which is for Wizards, I'm not worthy)
Click to expand...
Creating your own tabs and fields is no problem, and is covered in the tutorial. I believe you can do 95-98% of the system just using the Authoring Kit and available documentation. There are a few undocumented features, and I think there's occasional features for the published dataset that involves them going into the actual code for the engine to add a feature. It's more than enough for us mortals.

Venger said:
What if I wanted a PC who could possess multiple items that each had their own AC,HP, and what if manually tracking them was fine by me?
Could the learned sage do this?
Click to expand...
Yes. You could either track those as their own fields as objects, or go the extra step and defined them as minions of a special type.
 
Venger, I wanted to make sure you've actually gotten the correct product. What game system are you creating in Hero Lab? The Authoring Kit is for creating entirely new game systems from scratch, and is not needed to edit existing game systems. The way you're talking about what you want to add, it sounds like you want to edit PF1 or 5e, not create a new game system. If so, the authoring kit changes nothing about what you can do on an existing system, so you should probably contact support - we offer full refunds within 60 days.

Venger said:
Yay! Thank you, misery loves company! :)
I bought in, and thus far the underdark is not so bad, but it is tricky, there are footfalls along the way..

i.e. I'm doing the tuts and mistrust myself when the Tut mentions something that hasn't been presented before, like the mention of bootstraps in Tut #2
I'm on Tut #6 and still haven't seen bootstrap's, bootstraps
So I retrace my steps, looking for secrets I might have missed, and there are many winding passages and earthly distractions.
I don't know what Picks are either but I know they are a thing, well maybe not a "thing", you get my point, and I'll get there by & by

Regarding the tuts, I've gathered all work is focused on dev and I'm good with that. Carry on.
Having a place here to ask for help is great
I continue on yet undaunted

I do have a noob question, possibly jumping the gun but I want to know
How deep does the AK go? Can I eventually get to the point of creating/editing my own tabs and fields, or are the ones presented sort of hardcoded and that's what I have to work with? (which is amazing)
Is there yet a deeper darker place learned sages go that allow them to alter the fabric of reality? (aside from HL program language level code which is for Wizards, I'm not worthy)
What if I wanted a PC who could possess multiple items that each had their own AC,HP, and what if manually tracking them was fine by me?
Could the learned sage do this?

(pardon the metaphors its just fun, humor an old man)
Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
Venger said:
Thank you! :)
Understood, I feel I will rise to my level of incompetence and mostly stay there :)
Click to expand...

A bit of advice from personal experience, stick with implementing the tutorial the first time. I tried to also start setting up my game system and the amount of confusion it cost me was almost palpable. Also, the tutorial is not always correct. We've had a few threads from people running through it pointing out cases where it gives a less than efficient implementation, uses old methods, refers to items implemented later in the tutorial, or just flat out has bad code.

Honestly, it's not that bad... it's usually pretty easy to suss out why something isn't working, and you'll learn efficiencies later, but I find that setting expectations lower helps so that you come into it with an attitude of "Oh, well they told me there'd be bugs, and the procedure they're calling is implemented further down the page, so that's not that bad" instead of "OMG! This code doesn't work! What did I pay for?!" We're always glad to help around here.
 
Venger, I wanted to make sure you've actually gotten the correct product. What game system are you creating in Hero Lab? The Authoring Kit is for creating entirely new game systems from scratch, and is not needed to edit existing game systems. The way you're talking about what you want to add, it sounds like you want to edit PF1 or 5e, not create a new game system. If so, the authoring kit changes nothing about what you can do on an existing system, so you should probably contact support - we offer full refunds within 60 days.
Click to expand...
Mathias, thats the most incredible thing I've heard. Now, Thats customer support
So, I want to work with 5e characters mostly.
But, I want the ability to try new things. There's a freebie game system we've been tossing around, DeadSimpleRPG, I might attempt to tackle after the Tuts, and we've actually been doing work on a spreadsheet for a simple space combat game with a set of 2d tactical space/flying rules. Perhaps I'll fiddle with it in HL. Would sure make playtesting easier

I don't know how far I'll get along, but I will keep the AK, and if I fail to do more than cobble some crap, then consider my purchase a contribution to two tools to enhance our gaming, HL and for a long time RW

And if I'm more successful than that, then all the better, I will have some more useful tools in my bag of tricks.I think I will make good use from what I can learn

Thank you
 
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A bit of advice from personal experience, stick with implementing the tutorial the first time. I tried to also start setting up my game system and the amount of confusion it cost me was almost palpable. Also, the tutorial is not always correct. We've had a few threads from people running through it pointing out cases where it gives a less than efficient implementation, uses old methods, refers to items implemented later in the tutorial, or just flat out has bad code.

Honestly, it's not that bad... it's usually pretty easy to suss out why something isn't working, and you'll learn efficiencies later, but I find that setting expectations lower helps so that you come into it with an attitude of "Oh, well they told me there'd be bugs, and the procedure they're calling is implemented further down the page, so that's not that bad" instead of "OMG! This code doesn't work! What did I pay for?!" We're always glad to help around here.
Click to expand...

Yes sir I concur, the tutorial.You know whats kind of funny? I named my tut file, TutUncommon, hah! play on words and scary dusty HL mummies

I've had to workout a couple issues, something like a circular infinite loop for one tut, already "into the infinite" here lol, but I worked it out, and learned more in the process.
And yeah, throwing expectations out before even starting is best.

I don't want to impose my own limitations upon this software!
Thanks!
 
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