Enhancement requests to custom output

[jfrazierjr]

CC, could you investigate what it would take to handle two different enhancements?

Note: 5E in the below comparisons refers to D&D 5E game system within Hero Lab.


First, can we get all the loaded skills output to the custom XML? Comparing the skills from SW vs skills from 5e, it appears that the 5E has a default. Would it be possible to set up some type of default value so that those loaded skills will actually show up in the custom output files VS only those which have a d4 or higher? I know there are custom skills and stuff to be handled, but I am hoping there is SOME way to deal with this. I seem to get the impression that the Skills tab would need to set all skills from the custom popup with a value of some sort(0 or -1) so they are available for the export file. I know it would likely be a decent amount of work, but it would be extremely useful in building out an html compatible form for using on android tablets.


Second, can we get container information output? I have a character from 5e with the below in the custom output file:

<gear>
				<item name="Backpack (16 @ 38 lbs)" quantity="1">
					<weight text="5 lbs" value="5"/>
					<cost text="2 gp" value="2"/>
					<geartype text="Adventuring Gear"/>
					<description/>
				</item>
				<item name="Bedroll" quantity="1">
					<weight text="7 lbs" value="7"/>
					<cost text="1 gp" value="1"/>
					<heldin name="Backpack (16 @ 38 lbs)"/>
					<geartype text="Adventuring Gear"/>
					<description/>
				</item>

Compare that with the Savage Worlds output:

				<item name="Backpack" quantity="1">
					<weight text="2" value="2"/>
					<cost text="$25" value="25"/>
					<description/>
				</item>
				<item name="Bedroll" quantity="1">
					<weight text="4" value="4"/>
					<cost text="$25" value="25"/>
					<description>Sleeping bag (winterized)</description>
				</item>

Note that in both cases the character in each system has the Bedroll stored in the Backpack. It seems that the key is the heldin tag is there in 5E but not in Savage Worlds. It's a bit odd that the name of the object in 5E changes based upon the weight in side, but I don't know if that would cause an issue or not.

Thanks for considering these two items. I know the former seems( to me anyway) as if it might be a heck of a whole lot of work to get done, but the latter I would hope is not that tricky to deal with.

[CapedCrusader]

First off, what's 5E?

[jfrazierjr]

Originally Posted by CapedCrusader

First off, what's 5E?

Sorry.. I when looking at how Hero Labs functionality, I sometimes check other game systems. In this case, I am referring to D&D 5th Edition game system. While I don't know for certain, I suspect that these "features" are likely in other game systems.

[CapedCrusader]

I don't have access to the background code for anything other than for Savage Worlds.

[CapedCrusader]

Oh, so you also want to see the Skills the character *doesn't* have?
The Savage Worlds module doesn't do that anywhere. I can't see having the XML output being different than everything else. And I think I would be against having all the Skills display everywhere. So, I'm thinking not.

Now, on the container bit, I might be able to do something about that. Let me take a look.

[jfrazierjr]

Originally Posted by CapedCrusader

Oh, so you also want to see the Skills the character *doesn't* have?
The Savage Worlds module doesn't do that anywhere. I can't see having the XML output being different than everything else. And I think I would be against having all the Skills display everywhere. So, I'm thinking not.

Ok.. so I want to walk through this. As I said, it likely would be significant work but I would at least like to get a general idea of where might need to be modified so both could be done.

Ok, so on the Skills tab within Herolab itself, if you do NOT want them to display, you would need to check the saved value and only display on the portal if the skill exists and has a value >= x. I think the base d4 value is stored internally as 1, is that correct? d6 is 2, d8 is 3, is that correct?) If this is the case, the natural comparison for the default value = 0 which would be set for, say 20 skills(or whatever is loaded for the setting file) for everything without a value. I know that's a fairly simplistic view, but is that foundationally the correct thought process?

The next part would be the output sheet where the same conditional check could be done for display/not.

Personally, I would wonder how many players would like to see all skills on both the Skills tab as well as on the output sheet(PDF). I would really like to hear from other forum users on this. It very well could just be something I am the only person who wants or it could be something loads of people would like to see this feature.

Originally Posted by CapedCrusader

Now, on the container bit, I might be able to do something about that. Let me take a look.

Thanks. As a long term thing, I would really like to try to figure out how to implement something like a bag of holding. In essence, find each container item, find each item which that container holds, add up the item weights, and apply some formula so that those items within the container weigh less or nothing(ie, subtract from the users current weight. ) That's one of the long term goals, but a short term goal is more to do with being able to group items in a custom html output sheet from the saved XML file, but the data has to be IN that XML file for the sheet first.

[jfrazierjr]

On a side note, do you happen to know how the custom XML files are generated? When I tried to load a D&D 4E por file and saved to XML, it contained pretty much NOTHING about the character. I assume that means that the por file is run through some type of game system specific filter such as an xslt, but I did not find such within the 4E folder that I could find.

EDIT: I THINK I just found it here: C:\ProgramData\Hero Lab\customoutput Is that right? Or is that just the statblock text stuff?

[CapedCrusader]

If I understand this right, that's the "unformatted, unstyled XML copy of the current portfolio" used by the "Generate XML file" option on the "Save Custom Output" from the File menu.
There are others on the forums that have done more work with the XML output than I have.

[zarlor]

I played with the XML stuff a little, and there is a recent thread about it here if you wanted to search for it, but it probably won't provide much enlightenment since my XSLT skills SUCK!

As for displaying unused skills, personally I wouldn't want that at all. IMHO it's excess clutter that isn't really needed since the overall skill list isn't that big anyway and it's just too easy to reference even from within Hero Lab (just hit the button to add a skill if you in creation mode or add and Advance and select New Skill to see the list and just cancel taking the Advance when out of creation mode.) In that sense, especially if it would entail a lot of extra time coding that could be spent on getting us some of our other enhancement requests, I just don't see it being worth that effort. I don't personally see it as a feature I would ever really use in any case.

Listing things packed in other stuff and combined weights and such (and bag of holding type functions) would be nice, though.

[Paragon]

I don't see much point in displaying it in SW, though there are some game systems where that isn't necessarily true, as you'd want to know the value and may not remember what it'd be right off the top of your head (and it varies depending on attributes). Sine they're all D4-2 (effectively) in SW its kind of pointless here.