Achtung! Cthulhu datafile

[Endtransmission]

One of the experiments that I've been playing with is breaking the data file down into lots of mini files and combining them to test. This gives me the chance to build different data files in the future that are targeted at one or two books, rather than everything. It also makes it easier to find the bits I need when errata are released. So far it seems to be working. Recombining them is a simple .bat file in windows, or an Automator process on a Mac.

To avoid losing everything in the future, all of the general character creation bits are being backed up on GitHub: https://github.com/endtransmission/h...20Data%20files

I'm leaving out a lot of the spells and equipment for now to make sure the core elements are working. Thanks to the split files, it's really easy to add these into the correct places later.

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Oh actually, something I've been trying to work out, and obviously missed somewhere, is precluding various skills when you select something else.

For an example, I have a set of National Identities that starting characters can use:

<thing id="edgACNIGB" name="National Identity - British" description="The British stiff upper lip makes them incredibly resilient under even the most dreadful circumstances. Tommys add +2 to Spirit rolls made to resist Fear, Intimidation, or arcane powers. It does not add to Spirit rolls made to recover from being Shaken." compset="Edge" uniqueness="useronce">
<fieldval field="shortname" value="National Identity - British"/>
<usesource source="sepActCth"/>
<tag group="EdgeType" tag="Background"/>
<tag group="MinRank" tag="0" name="Novice" abbrev="Novice"/>
<tag group="User" tag="NeedWild"/>
<eval phase="PreTraits" priority="5000">
<![CDATA[perform #resspent[resEdge,-,1,"National Identity"]]]>
</eval>
</thing>

While it doesn't explicitly say in the book that people should only have one national identity or career path, I'd like to try precluding all the other careers/identities when they select one. The main problem is I don't know what future national identities or careers will be released in the future, so I don't want to have to explicitly state each and every Thing in every other Thing :/

[SeeleyOne]

You can make that edge cost 0 by merely placing a 0 in the cost field of the edge, no need to have the eval script modify it.

I would recommend either using a group or a faction, which has a drop-down menu kind of like a race.

As per the core data, Faction is usually used for different deities, but you can use it if you want.

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Oh, I'd not thought of using Race for national identity... how dim am I?!

And thanks for the Edge cost field, I'd missed that one

Thanks for those!

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A quick restructure of the dataset to use Race, Faction (Organisation) and Group (Career) seems to be working better than all those not-really-an-Edge Edges. Now to try and limit the careers to certain organisations

[SeeleyOne]

Glad that it worked. You can either give each one the free edge for Humans, or just add it through the setting or even a mechanic that looks for the setting.

Limiting is easy with the pickreqs.

You can make the edges worth anything you want. 0.5 is an edge that costs 1 reward point at character creation or a half an advance. It is a good way to handle things like Specializations for skills. Though, in my opinion, Specialization is a misnomer as Proficiency would be better.

[zarlor]

Endtransmission: Using a Group/Faction is exactly what I did for National Identity in the Weird War II data file. Good to see that method works for you in this case as well.

Dartnet: I've not been involved in the SFC or SPC2 stuff at all (other than making that unofficial SPC2 data file that my group was using for our SPC2 game in the interim). It sounded like some folks were in a beta test for it, but I wasn't one of them... although it's entirely possible that if someone was in on the beta that they might have had an NDA for it so we may never know anything from someone who as in beta anyway. In any case other than what CC has posted here about the files being in for testing and evaluation or whatever it was, I have no clue what the status is there. I'm HOPING for some really cool new things in SFC so maybe the wait will be worth it.

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Tonight feels like a good step forward. Turns out I'd missed a page of edges; these are now all in and working nicely. Careers are all entered, I just need to bootstrap any equipment to them when I get around to retyping all of that back into the files... and I closed off a load of outstanding issues I'd noted in testing

One edge has an interesting limitation on it. The person must have at least 4 points spent in any Smarts skills, at least two of which must be in a single Knowledge skill.

I was trying to deconstruct the query to check if someone has a certain Knowledge skill above a certain level and got down to this to check if we have more than 2 points in one knowledge skill:

<prereq message="At least 2 points of Knowledge are required, plus another 2 in any Smart skill">
<validate>
<![CDATA[foreach pick in hero where "thingid.skKnow"
if (eachpick.field[trtFinal].value >= 4) then
@valid=1
endif
nexteach]]>
</validate>
</prereq>

I'm just not sure now to now extend this to check if there are at least two more points in *any* Skill in the Smart category. I couldn't spot any examples in the data files I have, but I'm probably missing something really obvious.

[SeeleyOne]

Yes, you are on the right track. Put the something like above for the knowledge skill, using var total as number at the start. The smarts part and end are like this:

var total as number
var knowcount as number
var smartcount as number
total = 0
knowcount = 0
smartcount = 0

~ Check for Knowledge skills
~put code here, its total goes will add to knowcount

if (knowcount >= 2) then
   total += 1
endif

~ Check for Smarts skills
foreach pick in hero from Skill where "Attribute.attrSma"
  smartcount += 1
nexteach

if(smartcount >= 2) then
   total += 1
endif

~if we have at least two, we're valid
        validif (total >= 2)
        if (@ispick <> 0) then
             altpick.linkvalid = 0
          endif

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Ah ok, thanks. I'll give that a go