PACKs and other HL Questions

[caadium]

I'm sorry if this has come up, but I was unable to find it if it has.

Is there any plan to implement the PACKs from the Runner's Toolkit? I know that Hero Lab makes making characters, and in my case NPCs, a lot easier. But it would be even nicer if there was a way to use some or all of the PACKs bundles. In my case, the gear aspect would save me a LOT of time when putting characters together.

Just putting the idea out there to see where it stands.

On a different note, I'm fairly new to really using Hero Lab but I've got a question about customization. I know how to input a lot of things into the editor, but is there a way to change system rules?

For example, my group uses a house rule that says recoil refreshes every round, not every initiative pass. Is there a way I can put that in?

Or, another house rule changes the drain value of overcast spells, is there a way to do that without having to list the spell twice (normal and overcast version)

[mcoyote]

Second this -- adding gear in any quantity is very time consuming. Being able to add the various skill sets, etc. to a character I'm building would also be helpful.

[cndblank]

Originally Posted by mcoyote

Second this -- adding gear in any quantity is very time consuming. Being able to add the various skill sets, etc. to a character I'm building would also be helpful.

Third, fourth, and Fifth this!!!!!!


As a GM, the preset equipment in Packs would really speed up the pre game prep work. Just having a list available of likely gear carried that could quickly be added with a few clicks would speed things up. I mean who wants to figure out every thing the opposition hacker will have loaded right before a game.


I'd suggest that other than armor and weapons, that the gear be in the Dropped to Ground category. Then the GM could move over to carried what he felt was appropriate.

It doesn't even have to be the full pack gear. Just having a small library of mix and match gear packs (say the gear from the portfolio of archetype characters from the main rule book like Drone Rigger or Combat Mage would be a big help. Just sub divide it a little (Heavy Weapon Street Samaria pack, Sniper pack, Conjurer pack, Quick B&E pack, Cat burglar pack,... )

It would also speed things up for players trying to get started if they could pick a few packs and know they should have every thing the PC would be expected to have.

[_Pax_]

Originally Posted by cndblank

As a GM, the preset equipment in Packs would really speed up the pre game prep work. Just having a list available of likely gear carried that could quickly be added with a few clicks would speed things up. I mean who wants to figure out every thing the opposition hacker will have loaded right before a game.

This could be achieved if HL allowed you to create a portfolio that was ONLY Equipment, a Commlink, a list of Programs, a list of spells, etc.

And then allowed you t import-and-merge (by addition) those portfolios, with an existing portfolio.

We can do that for vehicles, drones, and so forth; it'd be nice to be able to do that for weapons, equipment, spells, groups of adept powers, etc. Just ... to have a prebuilt list of stuff, that can then be appended to whatever is active at the time.

[Colen]

The Hero Lab engine doesn't currently support some important stuff needed to allow PACKS to be used; it's on our roadmap for the product, but we can't do it just yet.

We've included the many stock heroes (Portfolio menu -> Import Stock Hero) in the data files to help compensate for this. Until we have support for PACKS, you can save time by using those as the basis for the characters that create.

[cndblank]

Originally Posted by Colen

The Hero Lab engine doesn't currently support some important stuff needed to allow PACKS to be used; it's on our roadmap for the product, but we can't do it just yet.

We've included the many stock heroes (Portfolio menu -> Import Stock Hero) in the data files to help compensate for this. Until we have support for PACKS, you can save time by using those as the basis for the characters that create.

Doing that already but hearing that it is on the schedule helps.
Thanks

It doesn't have to be fancy.

The goal is allow a player or GM to create a fully equipped PC or NPC without manually selection each piece of gear.
It would be great if I could click a couple of check boxes and make sure the character had the basics.
No need to mess with availability. Just give us the total weight and nuyen costs.
We just need enough sets to cover the basics. A demo or surveillance gear set/pack would be so nice.

Bonus points for the options to have the gear added as carried or not, eliminate duplicate entries or not, and to be able to update and create our own gear sets.

Any info on how far down the road map this is?