Renaming attributes?

[Oystein]

So, is there any way to rename an attribute?
I want to use the "honor" stat but rename it something else.

Is that possible?

[Aaron]

I think you can set the livename of the attribute to whatever you like? Give it a shot and tell me how it goes.

[Oystein]

Hmm, just how do I do that?

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by Oystein

Hmm, just how do I do that?

I would recommend reading the Glossary of Terms for the Editor. Then check out FAQ#2 for all the places to learn about the editor including YouTube videos.

[Oystein]

Hmm,

okie, made some head start at least. So it is both aHon and svHon I want to replace (so it also shows the right attributename on the saving throw as well).

But then the question becomes - where should I put it for it to be applied automatically? Mechanics?

And am I correct in that both liveword and listwords have to be changed, something like this:

aHon[listname].text = "Bloodpoints"
aHon[livename].text = "Bloodpoints"

[Aaron]

Yeah, a mechanic would work. However listnames aren't a field attributes possess (that's a class ability thing). I think you'd need to alter the livename field, the aAbbr field, and the aNameCaps field.

Also, your transitions to the aHon attribute need to be altered.

hero.childfound[aHon].field[livename].text = "Bloodpoints"

[Oystein]

Hey,

thanks - got it mostly working now. Only field it doesn't want to change yet is the aAbbr ones, which gives me the error:

Only derived fields can generally be modified via scripts (field 'aAbbr')

When I try both:

hero.childfound[svHON].field[aAbbr].text = "BLO"
hero.childfound[aHON].field[aAbbr].text = "BLO"

[Aaron]

Hmm, looks like that is a "static" field, which means it's somewhat protected from changing. I'll switch the field to being a derived field (static is something of a relic from the early days of HL, which we don't really use anymore). In the meantime, I think you might be able to get around the issue by using trustme.

trustme

hero.childfound[aHON].field[aAbbr].text = "BLO"

Though it now occurs to me, is there a reason you're renaming and repurposing the Honor attribute rather than adding a new attribute of your own?

[Oystein]

Not beyond that I haven't found how to add a new ability?

I found an old thread (from 2008) about adding attributes, but it refernces files and such that is no longer used. (source files, like abilities.dat or someting)

But I haven't found how to do it from the editor at least. I guess I have to create it in the user file directly?

[Aaron]

Yeah, you'd have to work in the raw XML, but attributes are fairly simple by themselves. It's just that they are a foundation from which many other things draw values.

Here's what I suggest. Start a new .user file and save it. Open the file in a text editor (I use editpad, but whatever floats your boat). You should have something that looks more or less like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<document signature="Hero Lab Data"></document>

Elements in XML open with < and end with </ so you can see that the blank file just has a document open and then immediately closes. Every thing you define will be placed between the document element open and close. Here is an example of an existing attribute. I think you can tweak it pretty easily.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<document signature="Hero Lab Data">

  <thing
    id="aSTR"
    name="Strength"
    compset="Attribute"
    isunique="yes"
    description="Strength measures bodily power, athletic training, and the extent to which you can exert raw physical force.">
    <fieldval field="aAbbr" value="STR"/>
    <tag group="explicit" tag="5"/>
    <tag group="AbilSumOrd" tag="5"/>
    <tag group="AttribCat" tag="Physical"/>
    <link linkage="save" thing="svSTR"/>
    </thing>

  </document>

So paste the XML, change what you need, then save it. You shouldn't need to bootstrap the attribute to anything, as there are background mechanisms which add all attributes to all heroes.