Trackers and Prerequisites

[Monkey God]

Is it possible to have a tracker be part of a prerequisite?

I am creating a home brew that contains mutations.
I have created a Mutation Points tracker and got it to show up in the In-Play tab.
I created a Mutation feat that grants +2 mutation points.
I am creating benificial mutation that reduce the number of mutation points in the tracker and flaws that add mutation points to the tracker.
Each mutation grants or removes a number of points depending on severity.
What I am looking for is a way to have benificial mutation only become active for selection if there are enough points in the tracker. I'm not sure how write a prerequisite script for that.

This is the script I have for adding or subtracting points to the tracker.

hero.childfound[trkMutatio].field[trkMax].value -= 4

I should explain that I am not creating my own scripts...I am wandering the editor to find and steal what I need for what I want to do. so far this is the only issue I haven't been able to figure out on my own yet.

 

[Mathias]

May I recommend the configurable tab? That will allow you to have the individual mutations be selectable abilities on a new tab - each instance of the feat can add +2 slots to the list of mutations available. Because you're using an existing mechanism for tracking how many choices have been used, from among those available, you'll get the built-in mechanisms for reporting whether or not a character has made the right number of choices.

 

[Monkey God]

I would love to be able to do that! Unfortunately my knowledge of the editor is limited to hunt and search, cut and paste from other things to get what I want. I haven't the foggiest how to create another tab specifically for mutation. It was a wonderful suggestion though.

I have been puting my mutation abilities under Flaws as I don't use that category for anything else, and I want all characters and classes to be able to access mutations should the need arise.

 

[Mathias]

Examples of the configurables are the Ghost and Half-Ogre template - take a look at the scripts there to see how they set the number of choices available, then make a copy of their configurables to see how they set up the tables, and you'll find the abilities themselves on the R Cust Special tab.

 

[Monkey God]

Ok, this is all new territory for me so forgive me if I constantly hound you for information.

So, I got the new Mutant tab to show up with a selection for benificial mutations and one for drawbacks. Looking at the ghost template, they get abilites as they increase their CR, but here is what I want my mutation tab to represent.

Mutation selections are point based so far (1,2,and 4 points depending on severity). A character spends points to acquire benificial mutation and they gain points by taking drawbacks. taking the mutation feat gives +2 points characters can use to buy for instance: 2 one point mutations or 1 two point mutation. If they want to purchase a 4 point mutation they are going to have to puchase one or more drawbacks first in order to increase their point total.

in any event, a character can have a total number of mutations (benificial and drawbacks) equal to their constitution modifier.

I'm not sure how to represent this. I see a point cost drop down menue but this just seems to add the number to the ability and does not seem to represent an actual cost.

 

[Monkey God]

Ok, I see how the point cost works, but how do I get the Mutation feat and the Drawbacks to add to the total?

 

[Mathias]

Take a look at the Ghost and/or Half-Ogre templates - look at their scripts.

Like those templates, your ability will bootstrap the configurable you've created, and have a script that sets the number of points available.

The next HL update (tomorrow, barring anything unforseen) will include the option to make the point costs for custom abilities negative (it was in there already, since Pathfinder #43 adds Animated Object flaws), so you'll be able to put the drawbacks in the same list as the regular ones, and just give them negative costs.

 

[Monkey God]

I think I am getting closer. In the Mutation feat I bootstrapped the thing cfg Mutant. In the fIelds button I added field Id <cfgObject1> Value <2>. in the drop down menu has options for Assign, Minimum, and Maximum. I get an error if I use anything other than <Assign>.

the error says: Thing 'fMutation' - Invalid assignment behavior for field 'cfgObject1' referenced in bootstrap

Using the assign pick It tests fine but in the mutations tab for my beneficial mutations I get "no more 2 can be added." When I open the window to pick an ability it says "2:0 of 0" for the number that can be chosen.

I think I've hit another wall. I'll keep looking and poking and I might get it, but if you have info that would preclude a stress building hunt that would be wonderful.

btw: thanks for being a sounding board and for the info.

 

[Monkey God]

Just to let you know, I like how you give pointers without actually telling. It helps me poke around the program and learn a few things.

 

[Mathias]

I'm sorry - I was mis-remembering things. The scripts that set the number of slots are on the configurables, rather than the templates, so you'll want to make copies of the existing configurables and study them.

 

[Monkey God]

Aha!! after looking at the different configuables I came up with this script.

hero.childfound[cfgMutant].field[cfgMax1].value += 2

As an aside, I actually prefer to have the flaws separate from the beneficial mutations. I have the max number of drawbacks set to 100 because I don't care how many of those they have. Its the beneficial mutations that make the difference.

Another question would be how can I make sure that no character chooses more mutations than their Constitution modifier? I figure that would go somehwere in the configuable but I am not sure.

Thanks for all the Help, this is actually a much better way to go about this than they way I had it.

 

[Mathias]

Rather than setting the max to 100, just set that table as optional on the configurable - then the user can select as many or as few as they like.

The number of points spent on Secondary abilities is stored in the cfgSpent2 field - you can add a script to the configurable to add cfgSpent2 to cfgMax1. Phase: Final, priority: 10000.

Eval Rules allow you to enforce rules based on the current status of things.

if the number of mutation points spent can't be greater than your CON mod, here's the Eval Rule for that (Validation/5000) (this is an Eval Rule for the configurable):

validif (field[cfgSpent1].value <= #attrmod[aCON])

If you want count of mutations, instead of number of points spent on mutations (also Validation/5000, in an Eval Rule on the configurable):

var mutcount as number
foreach pick in hero from RaceCustom where "CustTaken.cfgXXXXX & !Helper.Secondary"
  mutcount += 1
  nexteach
 
validif (mutcount <= #attrmod[aCON])

Remember to replace cfgXXXXX with the Id of your configurable in that last script.

 

[Monkey God]

I got an error when I plugged in the total number of mutations taken script.

the error is: Syntax error in 'eval' script for thing 'cfgMutant' (Eval Script '#1') on line 6
-> Script does not support the '@valid' special sybol so use of 'validif' is illegal

 

[Lawful_g]

Nevermind, I am about an hour late.

 

[Mathias]

validif must be used in an Eval Rule, not an Eval Script.

 

[Monkey God]

awesome!! thanks. i saw "rule" but it didn't register. My brain was stuck on "script." I all works great now...thanks for all the help.