East Texas University Preliminary File

[zarlor]

I have a preliminary release for East Texas university for anyone who would like to use it now. Just PM me to get it.

Of note, I have none of the creatures entered yet (although does anyone really use those anyway? It's a lot of work so if nobody really needs it I may just skip doing that altogether). Everyone is given a free Edge of "Arcane Background: Ritual Magic". I wouldn't mind hiding it (like you can do for some equipment) but I've not really figured out a way to do that. At any rate, though, since every character has the potential to cast Rituals I needed to add that in just so you can have the Arcane tab show up for the characters for when they do have Rituals available to them to cast and if you want them to show up on the character sheets. I have added the ETU ritual versions of various powers to the Arcane Powers list and added the ritual books that were listed as well. Obviously the setting encourages the Dean (as ETU calls the GM) to make up their own rituals and ritual books, so hopefully those will all serve as examples of how to set them up should anyone else want to just make their own in the Editor (although please note that you'd want to make a copy of the .user file or, better yet, make a separate one and just be sure to use the ETU "source" on your items in the new file when doing so since any new releases will overwrite the original and, therefore, delete any changes you make if you install an update.)

Also of note is that the setting suggests using standard SWD equipment. In cases where the setting lists that equipment I precluded it and used the ETU version instead, but you might want to remember to check the boxes for various "Time Periods for Equipment Access" on the Character Configuration screen to make sure all of the standard gear you want shows up for you.

You may get a validation error about not having any powers chosen. That's just going to be there, though, since I don't know of a way to have an AB (which you need if you wanted to be able to show any Rituals you find on your Powers list) with 0 powers on it. I also noticed that adding powers starts to count against the number of powers you were given, so it is set out to 99 starting powers to get around that. You'll also have something like 99 power points, as well, but that's also to just avoid issues with powers. I have to admit working around allowing Rituals that anyone can cast but not in the standard SWD way causes a few little things like that in the file that I don't really have a good workaround for, but they are only minor annoyances at worst, IMHO.

Other than that I don't think there is anything too funky about file/setting but feel free to point it out if there is. Also please let me know if you find any issues or typos or anything. I have a few questions up on the Pinnacle forum and once I get the answers to those and gauge the interest on this forum for creatures I can submit this file to Lone Wolf to include as an official (free, of course) setting.

[zarlor]

Just a quick update that I've added Extracurricular Activities as a Faction to the file. Same location for those that had asked for it already.

[SeeleyOne]

I have to pull out my pdf again, but isn't learning a ritual an edge? I do not know if you did so, but I would make it an edge with a menu.

Menu #1 source is All Things
Menu #1 Tag Expression is component.Power

This makes it so that it can choose a power without a need for the Powers tab. The name of the power is stored in the edge that gave it to you.

[zarlor]

It's not, technically, and Edge. Everyone has access to Ritual magic, so in that sense what I did was to just give everyone an AB for it. The only Edge for Rituals like you mention is the Memorized Ritual Edge which just means you have the Ritual memorized rather than written down somewhere.

[SeeleyOne]

Yes, that is what I meant, the Memorized Ritual edge. As far as I understood when I read the rules that is the only way to actually "know" a ritual. All uses require a skill, which is not linked to an Arcane Background per se. I was just mentioning that method because you technically do not need the power tab open in order to use it.

[zarlor]

Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah, I was just using domDomain, but that way does work better. Thanks! I also noticed that adding powers starts to count against the number of powers you were given, so I bumped it out to 99 starting powers to get around that.

[Tillennium]

Why isn't it official yet? It has been a year since the preliminary files have been published. I am half through Degress of Horror and really could use this for my campaign.

[zarlor]

As I mentioned above, you're welcome to have the unreviewed file. Just PM me and I'll send you a link. There might be a teeny, tiny chance that a character made with this version won't work exactly right when the official version does come out but that's pretty slim, really. Same name, though, so the official version can be used to just overwrite my current file. I do have a couple of things to fix, though, as soon as I get a chance.

[SeeleyOne]

To be fair, while this topic was a year ago (my how time flies), at this point in time it was being worked on.

Writing a data set takes time, which is why very few people are both willing and able to make them. Even the simpler things can be very time consuming. Plopping in the data is one thing, making sure that it is accurate and works only multiplies the time. Some things are not so simple. I mean, they seem simple, but you have to make them work within Hero Lab itself. For the most part it is straight forward and easy, especially if it has been done before. There is a reason that programmers get paid. While anyone COULD do it, they might not do it well, and it might not ever work correctly.

Zarlor is not paid to make data files. Zarlor (hopefully) has a life. That means that data files are worked on when he has some "spare time". He has no obligation to make anything.

Having Hero Lab does not give us some special right to get a free data file. I would love it if that were true, but sadly it is not. And even paying for it is a big reason as to why Lone Wolf does not offer them. If it is paid for, that means that someone was paid to make them, or at least gets money from when they are sold. Most people will want a Companion. so it is an offered product. Hours versus income is the bottom line. Even at $5 a pop for a setting, how many people will buy it? Will it justify the hours that you put into it?

The other day I added things from an article from the Savage Insider about bows and crossbows. I think it took me several hours and most of that was duplicating different equipment items and different gear (ammo). Very tedious and time consuming, but as I say "you only have to do it once".

I get your frustration, I really do, but if you want something perhaps you should volunteer to help out. I do not have the time to dedicate to making data sets, but I do help out with making them work. Speaking of making things work, it is good to test both in Character Creation mode and when taking things with Advances. Some things don't work correctly and I have to fix them in my own user file.

I have wanted the Science Fiction Companion since it was a pdf. That has been a very long process. I have been frustrated, but CapedCrusader has a life beyond making Hero Lab files for us, too. He does get paid, but I doubt that it is enough to make it a top priority in his life. Again, it is time and money. It is hard to be patient.

Sometimes I get frustrated with Hero Lab itself, and wish that it did not feel like LW has forgotten about it -- at least for Savage Worlds. It makes me want to write my own program. But then there is the issue of time, and having to do all of that freaking data again. So instead I try to come up with ways to get Hero Lab to do what I want anyway. I have been quite successful at this. This may sound prideful, but I feel that a few of my mods should become standard.

I have some of the other programs, too. They are good overall, but not very moddable. Savage Worlds settings are so varied that you NEED it to be able to be moddable.

How many Savage Worlds players use Hero Lab? Probably not very many. It is an easy system over all and it is easy enough to do it all by hand. I used to do all of my gaming stuff by hand in the 80's and 90's, and much of that was far more complex than Savage Worlds. I use Hero Lab because it can keep track of what is available and what isn't, and it keeps everyone honest.

[zarlor]

Actually I would point out here that the hold-up in the process isn't in making the data file at all. It took me a few weeks and it was, as far as I was concerned, done. Then the file gets turned over to LoneWolf for review and I POST HERE that the files is in review for anyone that ones to get the file before it's official release. At the time of ETU I had several other files also in for review, but it should be noted that once I get the review back (there are always things to fix) I tend to have the fixes in within a day and, if I've been given the entry I need to update on the LoneWolf Developers site, I can post the initial file right then, that very same day.

The data file part is a bit tedious, but doesn't really take that long. I just think LoneWolf probably doesn't have all that much incentive to get these files reviewed and out the door. Apparently their agreement with Pinnacle either requires or allows them, I'm guessing if they are fan-made, to be put out for free through official channels, but I should not that LoneWolf doesn't even host the data file. I host the files I've done and LoneWolf just provides the mechanism by which HeroLab can check in on their servers and see if I've posted there that I've done an update, which everyone could then download off of the URL I've given to it on Dropbox.

When I started doing data files and they asked if I would be willing to make that very first one available officially I was somewhat motivated into hoping that maybe if I could get all of the rest official Pinnacle created SW settings into HeroLab that just maybe we'd see more folks interested in using HL. And with more folks using HL for Savage Worlds maybe we'd see more of some of the things those of us who had already been using the product would like to see.

Apparently that just hasn't happened. It may not help that some of these settings haven't even gotten into the official update path yet (again, that's not me, guys, the files are DONE and you're welcome to get them from me at anytime and I'll happily fix bugs as you find them!) Some of them I had done and submitted by the time of their official release (because I'd Kickstarted the project and thus got preliminary books I could work from). Still, I can only assume that LoneWolf isn't really making any money from us SW fans and, thus, they have no real incentive to spend the extra time or money to add much extra support here.

As much as I wish it were otherwise that just seems to be the reality here. I'd add that I've also tried the other products out there and when I first made that first data file here NONE of the companies had more than one or two of the settings available. At that time it was a complete toss-up to either go HeroLab or MegaCreator. Maybe if I'd decided to do the files in MegaCreator we'd have seen more support from there, but considering how they only seem to have done maybe one or two other settings since I started here, I kinda doubt it.

Now, if someone made a truly competitive product I'd very likely jump on that bandwagon. Sorry LoneWolf but the relative lack of support (practically ZERO support when compared to the MASSIVE effort done over on the Pathfinder side) and annoying licensing issues (anyone remember why most of us HATE things like DRM or other stupid, and ultimately unworkable, copy protection schemes and how they do little more than annoy your actual, paying, customers?) haven't really engendered a lot of brand loyalty. Heck I ponied up for the Kickstarter on Wild Card Creator, which turned into the all too typical, over-promised, disappointment.

So, I'm still here. Any data files I have listed a available for anyone to use RIGHT NOW! No need to wait for an "official" release in the updater as these are the same darned thing you're going to get in the updated once they do get released except that they'll have been checked over for the inevitable bugs and typos that I'll miss (and the review process is going to miss more than a few as well.) I will say this... I tend to expect the review process to take about as long as it took me to make the file because the reviewer has to effectively do much of the same things I've already done, just without the copy and paste part. For a file to take a YEAR to get that review, however... Suffice to say I feel the same pain as everyone else here on that front.

Just to reiterate, though, for those who may miss it otherwise... you see all of those data files listed in my signature below? If it's not in the HeroLab updater (right now that's only Evernight and ETU) you can always just PM me to get the file. It's that simple.