user created L5R

[jonbartels]

a while a go I've read that some oneis working on Legend of the Five Rings. How far along is it is? it complete?

[chiefweasel]

I think there was some discussion about getting the license for L5R from the LW folks. I dont think anyone was making any user related content for it though. It takes a long time to input in all the information and the code to make it all work.

[Mathias]

You can read SAbel's posts on L5R in the authoring kit forum if you go to the bottom of the thread list and select a period longer than 1 month, so you'll see the older posts. I haven't seen anything from him recently, which is probably because he works as a teacher, so he currently doesn't have the free time he did back in the summer.

[SAbel]

Hey There all,
Mathias is very correct I have next to negative Free Time (yes some how I manage to take time away from another me in a parallel existence I am still working on the frame and I have a friend texting the spells into a format that once he is finished I can (hopefully) easily place them into the program and (using a matrix, that I have to make yet) have those finished. I have nearly all the equipment in.
After Gen –Con (thank you to the Lone Wolf Crew that spent a large amount of time helping me understand how to program) HL will allow you to pick a Clan and then you can select a family (with bonuses applying). Schools are a bit more complex and shall have to wait until I have at least a week of time to beat my head against the computer and figure out. I have all the skills in (but only the skills they need work, and a large amount of programming to make the emphasis, master abilities ect to work. So I am into the program but I have not made much progress.

As a note AEG is coming out with a 4th edition next year 2010 (not sure of the date) as of this time I am working 3rd Ed revised rules core book and I am not to happy with a 4th ed to simplify the game down, but it also took me 3 months to start playing 4E (which I now prefer and find that once I looked at it for an RPG and not just looking at it as WHAT have you done to my D&D  an entire different rant but I now am 4E all the way.

I do plan on finishing this and trying to have it done as fast as possible but I work an average of 70 plus hours a week with family and work plus trying to game once a week I have placed other things on the back burner.

Just to Update.

SAbel

[SAbel]

Okay So after a short bit of WORK that pays the bills I have plug at HL today and have the Schools working (PArt Way, they only allow you to pick a school{dependant of your Clan} and give you the bonus to the correct Trait. Still need to work on the player pick trait (it applies to 3 families and 3 schools). Then I will try to work on Skills that are give by class and outfit.
My next big JUMP is making random number pick so I can start the Heritage table. I figure I will need to type all the various heritage options and then break it down into a list (with numbers) BUT I have a question which will help me figure how I want to attack this. The game has PC roll a d10 that send you to a chart were PC rolles a d10 (possibly sending to another chart for a d10 roll) & heres the But ... should I/can I set up number randomness in this order or should I just figure out the stats and assign the results in a strait one "roll" chart? Which is better.

[rob]

Originally Posted by SAbel

My next big JUMP is making random number pick so I can start the Heritage table. I figure I will need to type all the various heritage options and then break it down into a list (with numbers) BUT I have a question which will help me figure how I want to attack this. The game has PC roll a d10 that send you to a chart were PC rolles a d10 (possibly sending to another chart for a d10 roll) & heres the But ... should I/can I set up number randomness in this order or should I just figure out the stats and assign the results in a strait one "roll" chart? Which is better.

I recommend *against* doing any random number generation right now. That's something you can add later if you decide it's important.

Besides, the actual selection made by the user will only be random from the official sometimes. Other times, the selections will be dictated by the GM, or chosen by the player through discussion of the character's background with the GM, or pulled from a different list tailored to the game the GM is running, or something completely different.

If having separate tables provides a good grouping model, you could go that route. Or you could save yourself the extra work and have a single table that groups the selections using tags, sortsets, and the "isshowonly" attribute. Unless the list will be huge, a single table is probably better, at least to start.

[Mathias]

For the other Hero Lab data files, we've tended to avoid making random number generators part of the character creation process. If the game system calls for a random number, the user can use the dice roller or physical dice to generate the number themselves, but we haven't generally used buttons to generate a random number and select a thing from a table/menu based on that number (the only exception I can think of is height and weight in d20/Pathfinder, which requires addition and multiplication after the roll to get the final result. Also, the results of the height and weight don't influence anything else).

Now, organization. Since you have 100+ options for the same thing, you'll need to think about how to display that to the user. Are there many that are actually the same thing? Are they in distinct groups within the program? Is this background text that won't affect anything else on the character, and can therefore be left as text?

Check out the thing_gear.dat file in the Savage Worlds file. The first items listed there are the separators. You'll note that each has

 
isshowonly="yes"

as one of its settings, and each one has one of the GearType tags that are used to sort gear into the various categories.

Perhaps the initial d10 roll would be appropriate to turn into a category. Then you make a separator for #1, #2, etc. Then use the explicit tag group:

<tag group="explicit" tag="1"/>

within each group to sort them from 1-10 for the second die roll. So, the user will see a separator for #1, followed by the 10 results in that table (in order), then the #2 separator, and its results, and so on, which should make it easier to scroll quickly to the correct section of the list and find the selection you've rolled.

As a thought, you might start the name of the option that's a roll of 3, followed by a roll of 4 with [3,4] or something like that.

[Mathias]

In the Tags.1st file, you would have this sort of tag group defined to store the categories:

 
<group
  id="HeritDie1"
  sequence="idvalue">
  <value id="1" name="Something"/>
  <value id="2" name="Second Something"/>
  .
  .
  .
  </group>

Or, if those tables aren't named, they're just numbered, you can save yourself typing with:

 
<group
  id="HeritDie1"
  sequence="idvalue"
  minvalue="1"
  maxvalue="10">
  </group>

And in Control.1st, you would create a sortset to sort the items in the order you want:

 
<sortset
  id="Heritage"
  name="Heritage Die Rolls">
  <sortkey isfield="no" id="HeritDie1"/>
  <sortkey isfield="no" id="explicit"/>
  <sortkey isfield="no" id="_Name_"/>
  </sortkey>

Most of the menus/tables in the skeleton files have examples of how to apply that sortset:

 
showsortset="Heritage"

[SAbel]

Thanks Mathias, I will maybe get some time this weekend to try this out, I need to get all the heritage data in first

Working through how to add starting equipment & skills that the player recieves from picking the school for the character. I will need more time to think of that one. Ah so much to do and so little time. But Winter break is coming soon.

[rob]

Originally Posted by SAbel

Working through how to add starting equipment & skills that the player recieves from picking the school for the character. I will need more time to think of that one.

Start by defining an identity tag group on the schools. Then you can assign the school identity tags to the equipment and skills that are conferred by the school. If a particular skill is provided by multiple schools, the skill receives tags for each school that is applicable.

Once this is done, you'll be able to instantly identify the starting equipment and skills based on the selected school simply by checking for the appropriate tag.