At 08:21 AM 4/18/2008, you wrote:
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Is there a faster/easier way to do this? Can you not just open up something in notepad or access or something to make my life easier?
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If you're adding lots of similar stuff like this, you might consider editing the data files directly. While I'm NOT recommending you do this, I think it would be a good bit faster. The reason I'm not advocating doing this is that we haven't yet release GOOD documentation on how to edit the data files directly. Once the Authoriing Kit is available (i.e. all the docs), I'll be encouraging you to edit the data files manually in a situation like this.
So, with that caveat established, I'll outline the basics. Each data file that you create through the Editor is a TEXT file. The file format used is XML, which is a lot like HTML in general structure. If you are creating an assortment of new disciplines, each eith its own set of discipline levels, then the process can be expedited by doing a mass copy within the text file. You can copy a bunch of things in one shot, then go through and modify the unique ids. Once you've done that, you can tweak a few tags as necessary and replace the descriptions appropriately. That's how I do it when I'm working on the core VtR/WoD data files. The Editor is invaluable for creating things with a lot of safety and simplicity. However, once you get the hang of it, editing the XML files directly is much faster.
If you modify the XML files directly, the only way to load them is to reload the entire game system. You can't splice stuff in like the Editor does. So that's the key downside of the manual approach. We've got something we call "quick-reload" that will be part of the Authoring Kit to greatly speed up the manual method. We use it extensively in-house, but it's not yet available wihtin the product.
I recommend creating one discipline and its corresponding levels, storing the material in its own data file. You can then open this file in Notepad or another text editor, at which point you can try out the copy and modify approach. Hopefully, it will prove useful for you. If it works well, you can extrapolate the technique to the bloodlines and other material that you're adding.