Help- New Weapon and Feats

[Rev Haus 235]

AWESOME! I got it to show up as proficient in the weapon I was working with. It appears that the tags are what made the difference. I clicked on the "Counts As" button, and made it count as a Small Arm. Problem solved. The code part seems to be unnecessary, after making an exotic Weapon Small Arm, I could take the feat for it. All other guns will just have to "Count As" Weapon Small Arm and I'll be proficient in them. Or so it appears.

Thanks again for your help guys. Now, on to the Two Pistol Fighting. heh

[Kendall-DM]

I am a programmer by trade, and even I struggled in the beginning with this scripting language. However, as a scripting language, it's very basic in its structure, and it has a tone of reusability. That said, there are advanced concepts that I grasp, but others may not, and I am more than happy to help/share my expertise.

You don't have to be a programmer, as has been said before. Even if you don't want to code, you can always ask one of us here on the board, and we can usually create a solution for you. As I said before, I am more than willing to help anyone in need, assuming I can. You just have to make sure the problem you are having is clearly stated so we understand it correctly.

The reason the above code wasn't working for you is probably a timing issue. You will hear that alot, that it is probably a timing issues. Different phases assess, access, assign, and calculate different things on the hero. If you want to have a look at what is happening timing wise, you can go to your main window with your hero loaded, click on Develop->Float Info Windows->Show ...

Show Hero Tags shows the tags appearing on the hero
Show Hero Field shows the fields of calculated values associated with that hero
Show Task... shows the timing of each thing (fields and tags) associated with the hero

NOTE: The hero is an entity of itself, and the things you put on a hero are referred to as "picks" or "things". Here they are called "Selection" but mean the same thing. Each of these has its own tags, fields, and tasks that are performed. It might be best to refer to these in layman's terms, such as abilities, items, attributes, etc. All of these are referred to hereafter as "picks", which is how HL understands them.

Show Selection List shows all the picks on the hero
Show Selection Tags shows all the tags appearing on that pick
Show Selection Fields shows all the fields of calculated values associated with that pick
Show Selection Tasks shows the timing of each field and tag associated with that pick

Don't worry about gizmos, that is an advanced concept that you'll have to ease into if you intend to use it. Essentially, gizmos are custom items/spells/etc. that have a special container to make them work in HL. I find them to be a PITA, and I'd like to think I know what I'm doing. Just stay away from them unless it is absolutely needed.

Hopefully that is of some help in understanding the basic ideas behind the coding process.

[Rev Haus 235]

I could be wrong, but the code stuff for the exotic weapon small arm stuff seems to be unnecessary. Once I got the tags right, everything fell into place. I even erased the code out completely and it works fine.

The two weapon stuff doesn't seem to work, at all. Even for the stock Two Weapon Fighting feat, it doesn't show up on the character where I can even get an attack in my off hand. Maybe, or I guess its likely, that I'm missing something there too.

[Kendall-DM]

Originally Posted by Aaron

Another way to approach it would be to make the pistols light weapons, then do a foreach through the equipped weapons, and if they are all pistols, apply the Two Weapon Fighting tag to the hero (the same added by the normal two weapon fighting feat).

Actually, it's much easier than that. Make all the small arms weaons into light weapons (under the Class of the Editor) and they will operate correctly under the two weapon fighting feat. You actually don't even need to have a Two Pistol Fighting feat, since this will cover it as well. In other words, just making the pistols into light weapons will cover this.

Now, if you intent is to make pistols 1-handed and doesn't have the ability to apply the two-weapon fighting feat to it, and you want a separate feat to cover the two-pistol fighting feat, then you will have to do some sort of script to make it work. Typically, if you have two 1-handed weapons in akimbo style use, you would be taking a -4 to each pistol. So you'll want to fix that so that it is only -2 to each weapon. Try this (again just off the top of my head).

@Post-Attributes (Users) 20000

var akimbo as number
foreach pick in hero from BaseWep where "User.SmallArms & ((Hero.MainHand & !Hero.OffHand) | (!Hero.MainHand & Hero.OffHand))"
  akimbo += 1
endif
if (akimbo = 2) then
  foreach pick in hero from BaseWep where "Hero.MainHand | Hero.OffHand"
    each.field[wBonus].value += 2
  nexteach
endif

This makes the assumption that all small arms are 1-handed weapons. This also assumes only a creature with two arms making two-pistol attack. What this does is add a bonus of 2 to the attack values of the pistols so they go from -4/-4 to -2/-2. If you have creatures with more than 2 arms using the feat, the code will require some fixing. Off the top of my head, this is what I think will work.

Oh, since you are using the "Counts as" feature on the weapon, you probably don't need the script. However, you still need to keep the SmallArms user tag for the use of this script.

[Rev Haus 235]

Even after taking the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, it doesn't show anything on the character about the off-hand attack. I've tried to arm him with two daggers, and it will only let me use one. It gives me both attacks that I am due at my level (11 total, Rogue 10, Fighter 1), but it doesn't give me the off hand attack.

Also, I do need to have a separate feat for Two Pistol Fighting. It both matches the rules for the world we're playing in, and it was ruled by my GM that I needed to take it, and Two Weapon Fighting to be able to fight using a sword in one hand and a gun in the other.

And yes, I made the pistols light weapons to begin with.

[Kendall-DM]

Ah, I think I understand. What you want to do is equip one dagger in the 1st box (main hand) and one in the 2nd box (off hand). That is how to make the two-weapon fighting work correctly. That should make you -2 on both attacks, but the same attack bonus on both attacks. Does that solve it?

[Rev Haus 235]

Ok, that makes that part work. Good call. Thanks for your help, on both threads. :-) You're a champ, I mean that. Now I get how that works, at least for the daggers. Let me see if that works for the pistols now. ;-)

[Rev Haus 235]

ARGH! lol So frustrating.
Every time I take the custom pistol it adds it to my character sheet. Great. But it also removes it from the list of weapons, so that I can't have two unless I stack them together, and then it doesn't allow me to put one in my offhand properly.

[Aaron]

You might have the Pistol weapon uniqueness set to "Unique". You should go to the editor and switch it to "No" if that is the case.

[Aaron]

Something that is Unique can only ever exist once on a particular hero. If it is set to "No" then you can add it multiple times.