Purchase Questions

[Bidmaron]

I am getting ready to buy the Pathfinder version of HL, but I just wanted to make sure that the data files are unencrypted xml, right? I like to tinker with things, and I wanted to make sure of that since the site says that there is some kind of pirating protection that you can't use data sets you don't own (and I'm okay with that).

[areteas]

The majority of them are in compiled (rather than encrypted) form so they're somewhat black-box.

[Bidmaron]

Can you uncompile and recompile them?

[ShadowChemosh]

You can't change the core skeleton files of a game system. The editor does let you make a copy of anything and then you can change it or use the information to make your own stuff. Say you want your own custom house rules for say Half-Orc. You make a copy of Half-Orc and then tell it to replace the core Thing (ie Half-Orc). So from then on the Half-Orc available is your custom version.

So not only can you create new stuff, but you can change existing stuff. The idea is that you don't directly change the CORE/Skeleton system, but instead just tell HL to use your new thing instead. In this way if you simply removed all your .user file (ie custom changes) you would be right back to the CORE system. Really nice when starting out as you can't damage the core game system.

Now Data Add on packages can not be easily copied, but you can still view them and use the info to re-create the whole thing again if you wish.

Over all it works really well and I have lots of changes and new things for my own games house rules file. Then I can just package up those .user files and when loaded on to my players HL they get to use all the stuff I created or changed.

Hope that helps.

[Bidmaron]

Shadow, that is very helpful. I am coming from the now decrepit RPGXplorer, where I made data sets, and I've been reading this board and seeing others doing it. One of the things I'd like to be able to do is import my stuff into a custom FantasyGrounds 2 campaign and use the data there as well. So it sounds like I can export the base material as unmodified user files and then use that material in FG2. I'm sure it is slow and burdensome to copy the base material into a user file one-at-a-time, or is there a way to do this en-masse?

[areteas]

You can run two instances of HL side by side and copy-paste items from one to another, but this would be very labor intensive. I'm not aware of a quicker way to move things between post-compiled data files. Be aware also that HL's editor only allows you to make changes to/call up limited sections of the data files. There are things that just can't be worked with in the editor, and if they aren't bits you can find in uncompiled XML you're kind of stuck.
There is a d20pro export function for character portfolios... I'm not familiar with FG2; does it have any capability for importing d20pro files?

[Bidmaron]

It cannot directly import d20pro files or any other file for that matter. What you can do with FG2 is place the xml contents into a module, extension, or ruleset and then write the lua code to implement the underlying logic the data requires. Folks in the software business highly deserve the money they make from their programs, but, as a user, it is frustrating to buy the same material over and over (the hardcopy, the PDF, the dataset for Hero Lab [not to mention the ones I bought for the now-defunct RPGXplorer]) and not be able to use the material you fairly purchased on your own endeavor. That said, I sure appreciate why the developers want to protect their intellectual property and effort, but it is unfortunate that such protections stifle fair use under the law. Don't really have a solution, just griping. In this case, it would seem that there should be a mechanism to uncompile the material for a user's fair use, but I understand the problem, as there would not be a practical way for HL to ensure a user has a license for his material, as he can just steal someone else's files, mass-export as a 'user' file and then use the material without a license. Oh, well....