Output for HeroClix teams

[Stefanos]

I've been trying to print out teams for HeroClix, and I can almost get the output the way I want. How can I get the individual figure's click levels and the descriptions of the special abilities to be part of the output?

Or, to put it another way -- How can I get my HeroClix team to print out in a format more like Army Builder?

Thanks in advance
Steve Nicewarner

[rob]

At 04:34 PM 2/23/2007, you wrote:

I've been trying to print out teams for HeroClix, and I can almost get the output the way I want. How can I get the individual figure's click levels and the descriptions of the special abilities to be part of the output?

Or, to put it another way -- How can I get my HeroClix team to print out in a format more like Army Builder?

The click levels are a UI-only behavior. This was actually done at Wizkids' request back when we first added support for Mage Knight, and they asked that we continue that for all their games. The intent was that the details of the click levels was useful during construction, but it should be up to a user's memory to remember the exact progression through the levels. As such, the click level information is not able to be printed.

I'm pretty sure the descriptions of special abilities COULD be included in the printouts by adjusting the data files. However, doing so would entail that those descriptions would be output for EVERY model. CV does not have the notion of an "option summary" that AB possesses. So there is no way to include a summary at the end of the printout that includes the descriptions of only the special abilities used in the force. Since the special abilities are summarized on the cards provided by Wizkids, we didn't think that including the ability descriptions was something that most users would want to see in printouts.

Since this is the first time that anyone has asked for either of these capabilities, I'd like to better understand your goals in asking for these features. What are you utilizing the printouts for that would make this functionality useful?

Thanks in advance,
Rob

[Stefanos]

The hardest part of HeroClix for new players is keeping up with who has what powers. The game does the best it can with what it has but the whole "OK, red on attack means Blade/Claws/Fangs, but on defense it means Psychic Shield" is very discouraging for new people. Having the whole thing on one reference sheet would make the game much more approachable for a new person -- especially one who is a comics fan, but not really a gamer.

[And, as an aside, a game design that requires a brand new player to memorize three pages of abiilites has a basic design flaw]