Questions and more questions

[Spence]

A couple more questions. I am currently building up the information in Thrilling Tales for use in Hero Lab. Everything is going great and I plan on building up files for Hell Frost, Pulp Tool Kits and so on but I have run into an issue.

First, when I was tinkering with the M&M part of Hero Lab, I could see my files in the ‘change settings’ window of the ‘configure hero’ popup. I can’t figure out what I need to do to add the ability to select which files I wish to use. I was thinking about making each file a ‘time period’, but can’t seem to figure out where in a file you set that. In the editor there doesn’t seem to be a general file properties/settings that governs the entire user built file properties. Or at least I haven’t found it. I'd like to be able to select which user file to use at any given time.

Second question. In Hero Lab itself (for Savage Worlds) you can ‘import a stock Hero’. Where do these come from and can I add/create a file that adds more of them? I tried adding a test creature via the creature tab in the editor, but it didn’t show up as a selection.


Thanks in advance for any tidbits of info that you may toss toward me

[rob]

If I'm understanding correctly, the mechanism you want to use is called "sources". When you create a new thing in the Editor, you can assign it zero or more sources. If you assign it a source, the thing will never appear unless the associated source is enabled. And you enable the various sources on the Configure Hero form.

I'll add a new source in the next update to the SW files entitle "Savage Settings". That way, users can add their own sources for the various settings beneath it. Until then, you can assign your things sources that simply appear at the top level if you want.

Stock heroes are stored in standard HL portfolios. So it's just a portfolio with a bunch of characters in it. The difference is that the filename ends with ".stock" instead of ".por". In addition, the file must be placed in the data file folder for the game system. If you take a look in the data file folder for Savage Worlds, you'll see four files with the ".stock" extension. These are the four stock hero portfolios from which you can select within HL.

If you want to add your own stock heroes, just create your own portfolio, set the name appropriately, and copy it into the data file folder. Voila! :-)

[Spence]

@Source Well it sort of worked. I added a New Source to a couple items. It let me add a new one, but it wasn't there for the second. I had to manually add the 'new source' each time. My new source did appear in the configure hero but when I attempted to select it it told me I didn't have the license for the source I was selecting.

@stock. I haven't had a chance to get to this yet. Dratted job and all that

[Mathias]

You'll need to press "Test Now!" at the top left after adding the first thing with a source - that ought to add the source to Hero Lab. If that doesn't work, after adding the first thing with a new source, close the editor window, and on the main Hero Lab window, press ctrl-r to quick-reload the data files, then open up the editor again.

[Spence]

Originally Posted by Mathias

You'll need to press "Test Now!" at the top left after adding the first thing with a source - that ought to add the source to Hero Lab. If that doesn't work, after adding the first thing with a new source, close the editor window, and on the main Hero Lab window, press ctrl-r to quick-reload the data files, then open up the editor again.

Well I tried all that and it didn't work. Not only wasn't my new source there, but it wasn't available as a pick when adding new items in the editor.

I opened and closed HL completely a few times with no joy.

So I shut down my computer and went to bed.

Today, Saturday, I decided to have another crack at it and lo and behold the new source was there and visible for all functions. As an experiment I created and saved new user files for all the supplements I plan to convert/add and saved one new item plus source for each. None of the new sources appeared anywhere. So I rebooted and they all appeared. It seems that my machine needed me to reboot for all the changes to be available.

I am pretty sure this is a function of the way I have bas...errr..jury rigged my computer over the years. All in all things are looking great now.

[Mathias]

I don't know what's going on with your system, then. Once I've done a ctrl-r, I see the new source in the configuration options for the character, and as an option in the editor.

[Spence]

Yep, one of these days I will have to clean the slate and reload everything. But it is such a pain

Anyway, now that I know this I shouldn't have any more issues though I can't promise there won't be a stupid question or six

Things are coming alone just fine.

[Mathias]

ctrl-r within Hero Lab takes 30 seconds or less. It's not a computer-wide thing.

[Spence]

Apology's for not answering sooner.

I was trying to get work caustic up so I could go visit my parents across the holiday and one thing lead to another and suddenly it is 2010.

For my machine ctrl-r doesn't seem to function for me as intended, but if I create on file with the new source and then reboot the problem is solved from that point on. At this point I am 100% convinced it is something in my computers set-up causing the issue. But since I have a working solution I am not going to waste any time on it. It is the price I pay for owning a Frankin'puter

[rob]

It's possible that something on your computer is intercepting the <ctrl-R> keystroke so that it's not getting through to Hero Lab. You can invoke the behavior of <ctrl-R> by going to the "Develop" menu and selecting the "Quick Reload Data Files" option.

It's also possible that something on your system is masking the file information that Hero Lab relies upon to detect when something has changed that requires the files be re-compiled. You can force the files to be re-compiled by going to the "Develop" menu and selecting the "Compile Data Files" option.

Give those a try and see if they solve the problem, as they are much easier than needing to reboot each time. :-)