Finding Info You Need When Editing Files

[rob]

I've been working on a few Feats but I'm not sure what the object names are that I need to manipulate to get them to work correctly. I'm hoping the editor docs will have a few lists that will help in this regard.

The above question was posted in a separate and unrelated thread. I figured I would answer it in its own thread where more people might see it....

Which object names are you looking to obtain? You ought to be able to get all the pieces you need at this point either via the editor or via the debugging aids built into HL. Here are some examples....

If you are looking for the id of a feat that you want to declare a dependency upon, you can use the editor. Go to the "Feat" tab, then click on the "New (Copy)" button. This brings up a list of all the existing feats, showing them with both the name and unique id. Locate the feat you need by name and then write down (or memorize) its unique id. You can then establish an appropriate dependency upon that feat by using its id.

If you are looking for the ids of all six attributes, you'll find them via the debugging aids. First, make sure that you've enabled debugging support via the steps outlined in the documentation on editing. Then go to the View menu and select the Floating Info Windows option. This brings up a sub-menu where you can select the Show Selection Fields option. You're presented with a list of all picks that are currently added to the hero. This includes the list of all attributes. Each entry is shown by name with the unique id in parentheses. So you can scan the list for the pick you are interested in and then get the unique id for use in whatever script you are modifying.

If you are looking for the id of a particular field, then you'll do exactly the steps outlined above. The only difference is that you'll need to actually select a pick for which to view all fields. For example, if you view the Charisma pick, you'll see a boatload of fields that track all the different flavors of adjustments for an attribute. The reason for all of them is that there are lots of different sources in d20 and those from similarly classified sources don't stack, so they must each be tracked separately and then merged. The two fields of greatest use are the "aBonus" and "aModBonus" fields. The former includes all "base" effects that are applied prior to some types of adjustments. The latter includes all other effects as well. In general, you'll want to reference the "aModBonus" field, but you might want the "aBonus" value in some situations.

So how can you discern all this? First, start by showing all the fields for an attribute, and move the window off to the side so you can watch its contents while you play with things within HL. Then start adjusting the attribute and watch the effects. Now go add different magic items that apply bonuses, watching the results. Now go to the In-Play tab and add both a Permanent and Temporary attribute adjustment. Assign both to the attribute you're watching, then play with the adjustments. Watch the effects on the field values.

At this point, you probably know enough to become pretty dangerous with the editor. :-) The plan is to put together a master list of a lot of this stuff, but writing up documentation is VERY time-consuming, and it's time not spent actually adding the functionality everyone wants. So we're juggling both and most of the documentation like the master list you seek will be written AFTER everything stabilizes in the code. In the meantime, the techniques outlined above ought to get you 90% of the answers you want in relatively short order. For the other 10%, the included source files for the d20 open content should prove quite illuminating (look in the "source" directory beneath where the d20 files are installed). Unfortunatley, those source files will also likely be confusing without all the missing documentation, so just ask and we'll either give you the answers you need or outline the techniques necessary to get the info yourself. :-)

Hope this helps,
Rob

[subfunk]

Yes, it helped quite a bit. Oh, and RTM helps too...

The debugger really helps to locate specific tags or in some cases picks when you need them. The .dat files are great sources for code fragments that can be cobbled together to make things work.

Thanks for the info!

Subfunk