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Duggan
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Old July 15th, 2017, 11:06 AM
{nods} One of the reasons I avoided bonus was that I wanted to be able to constrain initial total ranks in the skill to 9, including amounts added from Sophont Type, Command Package, base value in Dodge etc. My understanding is that bonuses do not count against that maximum.

I wound up setting up the following in traits.str:
Quote:
<!-- Base value that costs no points, and can't be decreased, but counts toward the maximum -->
<field
id="trtBase"
name="Base Value"
type="derived">
</field>
Then, I changed the bound calculation for trtUser:

Quote:
<!-- Bound the user value to the limits established for the trait -->
<bound phase="Traits" priority="1000" name="Bound trtUser">
<before name="Calc trtFinal"/><![CDATA[
@minimum = field[trtBase].value + field[trtMinimum].value
@maximum = field[trtMaximum].value
]]></bound>
Initially, I ran into issues trying to modify that inside the race (for example, Neophants start with a +1 to Athletics ranks, +2 to Endurance, and +1 to Perception), but changing the phase fixed that. Thank you.

And I'll change the type. I wanted to define it so that I could organize the skills on the tab and/or display.
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Duggan
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Old July 15th, 2017, 12:02 PM
So, would a Gizmo be the best route for items that have customizations? For example, the Legal Counsel offers the choice of either +2 to Empathy or +2 to Negotiate, as well as a few other either-ors on its bonus. Ideally, I'd like that to be selected during the Race. ^_^ I suspect this will be answered in the section on Portals.
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Mathias
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Old July 15th, 2017, 12:11 PM
That depends on the details. I'd study existing games to see how they work - is this a thing like a feat in Pathfinder/quality in Shadowrun, that occasionally needs to make a selection between a few options (and the exact selections offered will vary from item to item), or is this like a gun in Shadowrun, with lots of mods available, where you can select all sorts of combinations of them?
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Duggan
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Old July 15th, 2017, 12:33 PM
It's a simple set of either-or questions. For example, the Legal Counsel offers the following:
Quote:
Bonus Skill Ranks: +2 Deceive or History, +2 Empathy or Negotiate, +2 Dodge ranks or any 1 Combat skill, +2 Inspire or any 1 Combat skill (you may take Combat skills in both options that allow them)
Other packages have other setups, but I think that's the most complicated one (particularly since there's multiple Combat skills, although I think that would just be a dropdown list pulled from the tagged skills). From a UI standpoint, it seems like it would make sense for me to do something like build it as a column, with the either-or choices side by side.

I also need to figure out how to designate skill specializations... most skills allow you to spend skill points to gain specializations from a specific list for each skill that allow for rerolls. For example, the Heavy Weapons skill allows for specializations of Beam, Projectile, or Non-Lethal (most of the ranged weapons use that set). ^_^ But hey, I'm not all of the way through the SW example, so this might be explained later.
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Mathias
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Old July 15th, 2017, 02:48 PM
Remember, even if you don't have the license for them, you can download all our systems, and play with them in demo mode.

Your package options are sounding more like some of the feats in Pathfinder, or qualities in shadowrun. Skill specializations are sounding similar to shadowrun's skill specializations.

I don't remember savage worlds having anything along the lines of skill specializations, but once you get into the more advanced sections of edges, that'll cover things like creating a drop-down menu.
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Duggan
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Old July 15th, 2017, 08:52 PM
Huh. You're right. That is basically the same as how the Shadowrun Specializations work (outside of minor differences regarding the number of specializations you can take). I don't suppose you could tell me how it's all set up? Are the specializations in their own little list, or are they stored in their component skills?
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Mathias
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Old July 15th, 2017, 11:47 PM
First, some details - you can take more than one per skill, or can you only select one? Is there a way to change your choice later on - can you spend some experience or whatever this game's advancement method is, to add an extra specialization, or if only one is allowed, change it to a different specialization?

Shadowrun's specialties were set up that way because, with experience, you're allowed to add an unlimited number of specialties to each skill, so drop-downs aren't practical. If there's no way to get more than one, then it's probably simpler to just build a drop-down that picks from a list of specialties.
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Duggan
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Old July 16th, 2017, 05:35 AM
You can have multiple specialities for a skill (although only as many as you have ranks in that skill, unlike Shadowrun as best I can tell). The list is mostly constrained. There are two skills which let you specialize on a particular location, so it could be taken multiple times, with a fill-in box so that, for example, a character could have specialties in Xenobiology (Terran) and Xenobiology (Nofran).

By the by, knowing now that you did all of the other systems in this tool, I take my hat off to you.
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Duggan
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Old July 16th, 2017, 07:48 AM
Bingo. This gives me something to work with.
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Mathias
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Old July 16th, 2017, 09:41 AM
You're going to use a drop-down menu for the skill specialties? You've said earlier that the limit at character creation is 9 ranks in each skill - doesn't that mean you'd need 9 drop-downs showing on each skill to allow the user to pick the 9 specialties they could choose at character creation? Plus even more drop-downs for the specialties gained later on when they improve their skills during play.

I've created the Cortex, Shadowrun (4th and 5th), and Call of Cthulhu (6th and 7th) game systems for Hero Lab, not all of them.
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