Of vehicles, creatures and bootstraps

[zarlor]

Something I completely missed on a few of the data files I did was how to properly handle adding weapons to vehicles and how to handle certain common abilities on creatures. I've added this to the Common Codes thread so it will be available there, too, but I also wanted to post this in its own thread in case anyone else runs into some of these. The creature stuff also means I've got a lot of work to fix in that HoER file but I should be able to make it a little smaller, at least!

So first to Vehicles...

When adding Vehicles it's important to note that Bootstrapping a weapon will Bootstrap it to the portfolio the Vehicle is added to. Instead weapons need to be put in as a Gizmo instead. However, first we need to set a little something to prevent an error (you can check the Wiki for details of WHY this needs to be done, but for our purposes let's just say that it needs to be done.)

Containerreg: Initialization/2000 set the Tag Expression: TRUE

Gizmo: Set the Entity Unique Id to: "LoadOut" (without the quotes) and then hit Bootstraps:

Here you can add the weapons. There are also some fields you can set to help out with things like ammo and how they should look on the sheet. For each weapon that needs them go to Fields...

Field Id: livename Value: (The text you want to display, I usually put the text from the book, like "10mm laser (x2), turret", for example)

To set this so it has no weight add another field here:

Field Id: gearWeight Value: 0

And finally if you want to list how much Ammo the weapon has add one more field:

Field Id: wpShots Value: 1000 (or however much ammo/shots that weapon has).
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Creatures also have some special fields you can use for them when adding their special abilities. For them you would do a Bootstrap but several "Racial Abilities" have some special fields you can use with them. Specifically the following are of note:

abAquatic
abArmor
abBurrow
abFear
abFlyGener
abSize

For any of these you can set a Field with the a Field: abilValue Value: (whatever it should be). So, for example, if you have a creature than can Burrow at a Pace of 8 then you could Bootstrap abBurrow and for the Field: abilValue you would set Value: 8. These can be negative numbers as well, so abFear might have an abilValue of, say, -2 if you needed. The value should be fairly obvious for each of those things, whether it's for a Pace value or Armor or what have you.

One special one that also falls into this category is abWeapon. For this you have a field to set.

Field Id: livename
Value: (Name of the weapon, such as Claw/Bite, for example.)

AND you have a Tags... to set:

Group Id: WeaponDie TagId: (Half Weapon Die type.)

abWeapon assumes this is a Str+Die type of weapon, so a Str+d4 claw attack would have a TagId: 2.

For creatures that have actual weapons and other equipment you might bootstrap there is a further Tag you may want to set on any of the the equipment you add to them.

GroupId: Equipment Tag Id: StartEquip

I don't really now WHY to add that, but it looks like that is how it's commonly handled.

[jbearwillis]

Yes thanks to your Hell on Earth data files, I was able to get my vehicles to work. I just looked at what you did and then did it on my vehicles and they work fine now. So a big thanks goes out to you zarlor on all that you are doing. I tip my hat to you sir. LOL

[zarlor]

You're quire welcome, and it's a good thing you had the latest version of the HoER file, then, because it was all screwed up on that front up until a seek or so ago! Now I need to go back in and fix up all the creatures in it.. and for Deadlands Noir. AND I have to add the DL Noir Companion to the latter. Plus I want to actually add all the creatures and then set up portfolios for all of the encounters. I must be nuts.