SR 5th ed. Adding a Mentor Spirit

[Gonozal]

Hi,

because we play with the german version of the game we have some additional things in our sourcebooks that are not included in the english versions.

For example the mentor spirit 'grosse Mutter' (big mother). I was able to add it with the editor and a test says 'You can use this now in Hero Lab'.

Problem:
I can not find it in the list. For shure I have missed something. does anyone have an idea what it might be?

Kind regards
Gono

[Mathias]

Did you add a source (the second to last option in the editor)? If so, Character...Configure Hero, and make sure you have that source turned on.

If you've closed and re-opened HL since you originally created this item, if you did not save the file to the default directory, then "Test now!" would have worked for that time, but the file would not be found and would not be used the next time you opened Hero Lab.

[Gonozal]

Hi Mathias,

first of all: Respect for the fast responses on the forums!

Did you add a source (the second to last option in the editor)? If so, Character...Configure Hero, and make sure you have that source turned on.

This one did it .. I have added a custom source

Thank you very much!

Gono

[Gonozal]

Hi Mathias,

at the moment I am looking at 'mpHealth2' and have some questions about it because it is not working like would have expected.

Just for completeness here the script for it:

doneif (activated = 0)

      ~find all the modifier collectors that deal with health spells and add +2 dicepool
      foreach pick in hero from Special where "SpCategory.Health"
        perform eachpick.field[DicePool].modify[+,2,root.field[name].text]
        nexteach

First question: I can not find a description for .modify (looked in your scripting thread and also in Language Intrinsics at HLKitWiki). My guess so far is for .modify[A,B,C] : A=mathematic Operation that should take place, B=value for A, C=includes the origin of the script into the calculation description?

Second question: As far as i understand this script runs through all of the hero's picks in 'Special' (where does this come from btw?) looks for "SpCategory.Health" and if it finds it it modifys [DicePool] with +2

For spells like Heal or Cure Disease this works like a charm. For the ritual Circle of healing it does not. Circle of Healing has also the Tag Id "SpCategory.Health". So I would expect to modify its pool also with +2

I am shure I have a missied something...

Kind regards,
Gono

[Mathias]

.modify is actually newer than the wiki, and we haven't gotten a chance to update the wiki to describe it yet. The scripting threads don't mention it because they were originally written for Pathfinder, and Pathfinder hasn't been set up to take advantage of it, the way Shadowrun has.

Using .modify, instead of + or -, or whatever, is why you can move your mouse over a value in the Shadowrun files and see what elements went into that calculation. The text in the third part of .modify, along with the value, is put into a record of how that field's value changed, so that it can be looked up later, like when the user moves their mouse over it.

"Special" are skill specialties. In a lot of cases, like the "Health" specialties for the Spellcasting , counterspelling, and alchemy skills, there are lots of different things, like taking a specialty in the skill, or a mentor spirit, that can all add dice to the same dicepool, so in those cases, a copy of the skill specialty is left on all characters, behind the scenes, so that the collected dicepool for using that skill with that specialty can be stored.

Ritual spellcasting's list of allowed specialties, on pg. 142 of the core rulebook, doesn't include "Health Spells" the way those other skills do - instead, ritual spellcasting's specialties are based on the ritual keywords. So that's why there isn't a "Health" option for Ritual spellcasting.

If you wanted to write something that added +2 to all health spell rituals, you'd have to search the rituals directly, instead of searching through the skill specialties.

[Gonozal]

Hi Mathias,

I am still trying to sort the informations you gave me

Still stuck on the part to identify the 'Special' part. The logic behind it I have understand - at least I thinks so. But I can not find in the Tags a Groupname called special (neither in the spell itself nor in the Spellcasting tags). In the Hero Tags there are some Specialty Groupnames connected to Specialty.spOther. But I am (atm) not able to connect those to the SpCategory.Health. I even do not think those are connected in any way ^^

So when I would have tried to write this script from mpHealth2 all by my self (without looking at your version) how would I have been able to identify the 'Special' part of it?

Perhaps someone alse can give me also some advice to me so that not only Mathias has to look for me

[Mathias]

If you don't mind taking the time to watch a seminar, my 2014 Gen Con seminar was about how to write code in HL that's searching for things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UPWoih8-q8

[Gonozal]

Very helpful thank you very much!

Now it works all like I would expect and hoped! Perhaps there should a sticky thread somewhere with all those helpfull resources! Besides your vids I also found your threads about locations etc. There are also some other very helpful resources here like the footer of ShadowChemosh

There are only some errors left shown in two popups i can not sort out.


Reloading does not help :/

And


Where can I delete those leftovers?


Kind regards
Gono

[Mathias]

#1 means you can no longer use Test Now on that item - you have to use quick-reload, from the Develop menu.

For #2, Develop...Prepare Portfolio for Distribution, and then check "Strip missing sources", and then OK.

And when there's an error message in HL, you can right-click it and copy it, so you don't have to screenshot it.

[Gonozal]

Hi Mathias,

I will try your tipps when I am home agian.