Creating Equipment

[Captain Canuck]

Is there a way to create a piece of equipment, say a high-tech blaster or specific grenades, and have them on the equipment list?

[Duggan]

Try the Rules Editor under Tools / Launch Editor. There's a tab for equipment. In my opinion, it's pretty transparent to implement.

[Lord]

Originally Posted by Duggan

Try the Rules Editor under Tools / Launch Editor. There's a tab for equipment. In my opinion, it's pretty transparent to implement.

I used the editor to make some custom changes to equipment, but the editor doesnt calculate the points worth of the changes.

I guess I need to build the equipment as a power, see the cost, and then go to the editor, copy the equipment I wat to change, change it's unique ID change all I want to change and then edit the cost according to the power I build earlier.

It seems a lot of work to make a minor change like adding +1 to the damage of a rifle or a gun.

Why cant there be an option to make an equipment just like a power ? Use it with all the powers options, let us name it as the equipment we want (AK47, UZI, Mod AK 47 ...) and let the HL calculate the EP automatically as it does a power and then calculate the "real" points it cost.

You can also use the option (that is build-in in the editor) to "copy" or use "pre-made" powers and equipment as equipment or powers. (for example: copy an existing power to make it equipment)

can it be done ?

If it is too much, can I ask that the editor will have the option to automatically calculate the power cost according to the rules (and let us choose if to use the automatic calculation or change it as we see fit) ?

Thanks

[Nigel Fogg The Wayfarer]

Originally Posted by Lord

...Why cant there be an option to make an equipment just like a power ? Use it with all the powers options, let us name it as the equipment we want (AK47, UZI, Mod AK 47 ...)
...

Umm, just my two cents worth but I think you're touching upon a "design philosophy" aspect of M&M's game mechanics.

Regular, came-from-a-factory-and-is-used-by-non-superpowered-people, mundane equipment is cheap because it doesn't have all the frills. In the majority of cases, equipment isn't as effective as an alien/mutant's straight-up energy blast power.

To have a "super-duper" special kind of gun, I believe M&M's philosphy is for the player to buy the power(s) possesed by the weapon, along with any associated power extras & power feats, as a Device which you can then name M-16, AK-47, man-portable howitzer, etc.

Nigel Fogg, aka The Wayfarer

[Duggan]

Also worth noting that equipment built in the editor does not support powers outside of Damage although I think you can add them via scripting.

In my opinion, the Equipment setup is a bit clunky, particularly in how Damage is set up as check-boxes, but that's more because the Editor was not built for composites of powers, but rather for the base elements. Not to mention that the cost of most equipment is kind of handwaved anyhow. If you try to calculate it out, it just doesn't work right.

[charlieluce]

It's not that you can't make a piece of equipment with whatever Powers you want (that's what "Device as Equipment" is for); it's that you can't easily add it to the Equipment List, if I understand the OP correctly.

[Duggan]

Ah, yes, exactly. I was speaking of adding equipment in the editor.

[charlieluce]

It's another aspect of the general "cut and paste" issue that has come up many times, but isn't something that Hero Lab is designed to support.

I wonder if it would be easier to do some sort of "export to user content" that could then be incorporated in the editor than to try and do a true cut and paste?

[Nigel Fogg The Wayfarer]

Originally Posted by charlieluce

It's another aspect of the general "cut and paste" issue that has come up many times, but isn't something that Hero Lab is designed to support.

I wonder if it would be easier to do some sort of "export to user content" that could then be incorporated in the editor than to try and do a true cut and paste?

Okay, I'll bite and help take this thread further afield.

I've found that if you're just doing your character background or a journal entry to chronical what happened in the game, writing it up in a Word doc has worked for me in the past.

This also allows you to make it one big Word document composed of different portions (to represent different points of view, secret information known only to a single character or a few charaters but not the entire team, etc.) and these can then be selectively cut outside HL & pasted into HL in the appropriate spot for each character.

Nigel Fogg, aka The Wayfarer