Overwriting a Description.

I've got down the #appenddesc script for adding text to a thing. I've searched for a while now and in doing so, I've read a decent number of posts but I cannot find any sign of a script that would allow for the overwriting of a things text, altogether. If there is, I have had zero luck finding it.

What are you trying to accomplish? I've found very few cases where the text of an ability changes, but nothing else about the ability changes. Normally, if the text is entirely changed, all the scripts and special settings will change too. At that point, it's usually easier to just hide the old version and have an entirely new thing appear.

I can see people wanting to change race descriptions and so on, or names.

I'm making a variation of the Fuse Style ability taken from the Master of Many Styles monk archetype. Given the script of how this ability is calculated, I should be able to use it as is, with the exception of altering following ability description (This is taken directly from the Fuse Style Class Special):

At 1st level, a master of many styles can fuse two of the styles he knows into a more perfect style. The master of many styles can have two style feat stances active at once. Starting a stance provided by a style feat is still a swift action, but when the master of many styles switches to another style feat, he can choose one style whose stance is already active to persist. He may only have two style feat stances active at a time.

At 8th level, the master of many styles can fuse three styles at once. He can have the stances of three style feats active at the same time. Furthermore, he can enter up to three stances as a swift action.

At 15th level, the master of many styles can fuse four styles at once. He can have the stances of four style feats active at the same time. Furthermore, he can enter up to four stances as a free action by spending 1 point from his {i}ki{/i} pool. This ability replaces flurry of blows.

At 20th level, a master of many styles can have the stances of five style feats active at once, and can change those stances as a free action. This ability replaces perfect self.

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The variation I'm working on, I would like to have it read as follows:

At 3rd level, an Unbound begins to grasp the natural world in a way that few can and begins to adapt her fighting styles in dynamic ways. The Unbound may now merge two of the styles she knows into a single more superlative style. The Unbound can have two style feat stances active at once. Starting a stance provided by a style feat is still a swift action, but when the Unbound switches to another style feat, she may choose one style whose stance is already active to persist. She may only have two style feat stances active at a time.

At 12th level, an Unbound gains an additional understanding of the natural world and may now merge three styles at once. She may have the stances of three style feats active at the same time. Furthermore, she can enter up to three stances as a free action by spending 1 point from her ki pool.
This ability replaces Maneuver Training and Abundant Step class features.

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Aaron said:

I can see people wanting to change race descriptions and so on, or names.

Code:

~Rename the Dwarf race to "Dorf"
perform state.thing[rDwarf].amendthing[name,"Dorf"]

~Overwrite the Dwarf race's description
perform state.thing[rDwarf].amendthing[description,"Dorfz iz da besht!"]

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Too funny Aaron.
Thank you that should do the trick. I'll certainly give it a shot.

Both of those worked fantastically, thank you very much for that code.

Now I'm wondering what other things amendthing can adjust. I'd like to be able to adjust the "Summary Text" but I've yet to find what might effect that, if anything.

***EDIT***
On a whim, I checked the authoring wiki and it seems amendthing only targets "name" and "description." That is unfortunate but certainly understandable... Should I offer this as a possible requested feature, assuming it hasn't already been submitted...

You don't need amendthing to overwrite summary text for class special abilities, just change the abSumm text field at a late priority (I'd do it at Render 20000)

Aaron said:

You don't need amendthing to overwrite summary text for class special abilities, just change the abSumm text field at a late priority (I'd do it at Render 20000)

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Just a note that you will only see the change on the "Special" tab or on the printed statblock. If you change a class special Thing abSumm text you won't see it on the "Class" tab.

ShadowChemosh said:

Just a note that you will only see the change on the "Special" tab or on the printed statblock. If you change a class special Thing abSumm text you won't see it on the "Class" tab.

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I was just seeing this, came across it by accident and was trying to figure it out. Good timing and thank you for saving me from too much difficulty trying to figure it out. A shot in the dark but is there a way to overcome that without copying the ability, or is this expected behavior?

As an aside, I was quite surprised that the amendthing had to run at First; 500, while the abSumm thing had run at Render; 20000.

I didn't think amendthing has a timing restriction, but the reason I recommend changing abSumm that late is because many abilities set their livename, sbName, and abSumm fields at Render 10000. That's also the "standard" timing I recommend situationals to run at. Of course, I am not the only guy doing the data entry, and especially some of the older stuff may set those things earlier.

ShadowChemosh gave me some pointers on timing in one of my recent posts. They have proven helpful, though I'm still fairly confused by them. Per those general guidelines he provided, I had tried running the amendthing at very late timings, such as Final and Render; 10000 - 99999999 (8 9's). None of these had any effect on the output I was seeing in the Specials tab of the hero. It wasn't until I dropped it to First; 600, that it decided to work. I arbitrarily moved it to First; 500 as I already have something running there and I could simply combine it into the one eval script.

I really appreciate all the help everyone has provided in assisting my learning of how the editor works.

No worries Aaron, I certainly didn't think you were the only person working on coding or that you even had control of how things are done, I'm just trying very hard to understand and seeing conflicting concepts means I have to ask more questions or request more in depth explanations for the how's and why's of something. I try to search before I ask a question as sometimes I can find an answer that is close enough for me to puzzle out a solution, other things aren't quite so clear and I ask in order to clarify and understand.

No problem. It's always a pleasure to teach folks excited to learn. And I have a special duty to help new users because I learned just as you are, by tinkering and asking questions.