Copying a Class

[DaggerdaleDM]

I am working on a Thieves' World Data set for my gamers.
I have copied the d20 folder, renamed it and put a logo.bmp in there along with my data files. I have created a hidden data file to block out things that are not used in this setting.

My problem: I want to copy the barbarian, fighter and rogue into my data set and modify them ever so slightly. That is no problem. But then I want to "hide" the old versions from the list of class options.

When I try to "hide" the cHelpBbn file I of course run into all kinds of problems. Can you point me in the right direction?

Do I need to change the class id and all references, bootstraps, evaluation scripts etc. to get this to work?

[rob]

At 10:12 AM 11/24/2007, you wrote:

My problem: I want to copy the barbarian, fighter and rogue into my data set and modify them ever so slightly. That is no problem. But then I want to "hide" the old versions from the list of class options.

Changing the fundamental behavior of something is actually quite easy. The trick lies in using the "Replaces Id" field within the Editor.

Create your new Fighter class as a copy of the existing Fighter. Then make the appropriate changes so that it works the way you want it to work. I assume you've already done this.

Now set the "Replaces Id" field to the id of the built-in thing you want your new class to replace. With most things, you only need to do this for one thing, but classes are special. Classes have two pieces to them. There are the individual "Class Level" things that get added for each level taken in the class, and there are the "Class Helper" things that get added once for each class, regardless of the number of levels taken. You need to replace BOTH.

After you make the replacement, you can go back to the data files and the built-in class does not exist. Instead, your new class is always utilized in its place.

This mechanism is incredibly powerful with weapons and the like. If your game changes the damage of a longsword from d8 to 2d4, what happens with all of the standard magic longswords? The replacement mechanism within HL actually swaps out the core item such that everything that builds on it is also automatically changed. So you only need to replace the longsword once. When that happens, all longswords throughout the data files are automatically changed. This same benefit applies to special abilities that are re-used, plus anythinig else that gets re-used.

[DaggerdaleDM]

Ok that is an extremely powerful feature! I just copied Rogue to Thief then replaced "replaces thingid" under both the class tab and the class helper tag. It worked. Now I can edit the new class and the old one disappears off the list. The Rogue is gone!

Thank you very much Rob!

Off and coding again!