A Request to help with Monster Creation

[rdevelyn]

Hi there,

I wonder whether you might consider adding the following various bits and pieces to Hero Lab Pathfinder, maybe as part of the Bestiary add on, to allow us to create monsters without using the editor (in other words, much more easily!):

Classes, under Creature Types: Aberration to Vermin. Humanoid and Outsider would need three variants each (e.g. Humanoid(good Fortitude), etc).

Feats: Generic Ability(Str) to Generic Ability(Cha), where the characteristic determines the DC of the related saving throw. These feats would have to be free ones, unless you add the ability to add Special Abilities (though that I imagine would be more work for you). Being able to name the ability would be nice, as would being able to specify at-will to x/day.

Attacks: Bite through to Talons, maybe called Natural Attack (Bite), etc, to group them all together.

Adjustment: Class Skill (name).

What do you think?

Richard

[Nikmal]

I think that what you are asking is much harder to implement then the editor would ever be. Having a language though in the editor that is easier to understand and not so much in laymans terms might be a little easier to do then what you are asking.

[chiefweasel]

Actually i think you can do that now. you can create content outside the editor and have it applied to HL. the problem is that you would need to work with native xml and know all the positional parameteres needed to ensure evereything got to the correct fields.

Although, I'm not sure that is easier then using the editor.

[rdevelyn]

I was actually asking the Hero Lab authors whether they would consider putting this in.

Richard

[Mathias]

The problem with this sort of custom race is that once you're finished, you can't save it as a file that others can use. The only way to share it would be by saving the character, then transferring that saved character sheet.

Races created this way also couldn't be used as pre-reqs. You couldn't create a feat specifically for this race, for example.

Also, by the time this setup could duplicate all the options that the editor can, it would be just as daunting as the editor.

[Mathias]

When everyone says that the editor is hard to use, or that the language is hard to understand, no-one ever provides a specific example of something they are having a problem with - something that I can fix or improve.

Where exactly are you getting stumped in the process of creating a new race? What can we make more clear?

[Dragnmoon]

Originally Posted by Mathias

When everyone says that the editor is hard to use, or that the language is hard to understand, no-one ever provides a specific example of something they are having a problem with - something that I can fix or improve.

Where exactly are you getting stumped in the process of creating a new race? What can we make more clear?

Everything.... I know not useful... but I truly find your editor the worse User friendly I have ever seen.

I can only point to ones that are good to sample as examples..

Look at RPGXplorer. now that was user friendly.

You need to take out all Code reference terms, and make the editor UI friendly to a gamer using gaming terms.

For example of terms I am looking at the feat tab..

What the hell is a bootstrap? Gizmo? Minion? Custom expression? Do I need al that stuff? All I want to do is Make A feat that gives me a +4 bonus to X!...

It needs to be naturally intuitive that any gamer can just open it and know exactly what he/she needs to do.

Right now your editor is more geared to coders not gamers.. and not all gamers are coders. I could take the time to learn how to do it, but I don't have that time.

RPGXplorer was very Gamer friendly you knew exactly what you needed to do to make things!

Though this would require basically scrapping the whole thing and starting new, which I am sure you would not want to do.

[Dragnmoon]

Originally Posted by Mathias

When everyone says that the editor is hard to use, or that the language is hard to understand, no-one ever provides a specific example of something they are having a problem with - something that I can fix or improve.

Where exactly are you getting stumped in the process of creating a new race? What can we make more clear?

One other thing if it requires code to be able to do it, then it is wrong!

I should be able to do everything within the game rules by the editor.

[Nikmal]

Instead of changing all of the buttons/fields IN the editor maybe describe better what they do or capable of doing? Right now the description of what they do is fairly spotty and as mentioned not very intuitive. Most gamers just want to be able to go in and maybe customize what they need or want in the Editor and do not know what half of the fields and buttons in there do.

Also creating a video on how to use the editor and in terms that any body can basically understand while going through and showing exactly what you are talking doing IN the video would be a good thing. I know the tutorials in text are useful but they are kind of confusing and seemingly geared towards coders and people that actually understand some or alot of computer syntax.

One or both of the above would vastly improve the editor and how to use it. The changing of labels on buttons and or making the "help" portion of the button and what it does more intuitive and explaining in a little more detail would be faster and easier to do then the video... but the video would be heads over heels better and go a LONG way in to showing your community that you have their best interest in your software in mind.

(If there is video's out there I have done searches for them but I missed them.. so I apologize if there is one or two out there... but having one for each tab would be an amazing thing!! , especially in a plain language with out computer jargon involved would be excellent )

[bodrin]

I know what everyone is trying to explain is difficult with the scripting language and it is a scripting language.

It was nice when the Macros were introduced which took a lot of coding away from the editor and hid it behind a simple command.

But it would be nice to have a few more options that do what it says,
For example buttons that say Competence bonus, Profane Bonus, Enhancement Bonus these can be used to, "Bootstrap" for want of a better phrase, bonuses onto Feats, Skills, Abilities.

E.G, Feat "XXXX" provides a +5 skill points when taken.

Code example

PHP Code:

      ~ If we're disabled, do nothing
      if (tagis[Helper.FtDisable] <> 0) then
        done
        endif

      if (field[fChosen].ischosen = 0) then
        done
        endif

      ~ Get the index of this class into the totals 'skill points' array
      var index as number
      index = field[fChosen].chosen.field[cClsIndex].value

      ~ Increase the total skill points for this class by 5
      herofield[tSkTotals].arrayvalue[index] += 5 


It would be easier for none programmers to enter the feat name click a button that says something similar too "Applied effect" with a selection list that you can tick then add a numeric value

The Ability bonus button leads onto the six abilites Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
The Skill bonus button leads onto applicable skills or a general Skill Rank
Other Bonus buttons lead onto other numeric fields.

So to add the 5 skill points from the above code would be a case of clicking the Skill Bonus Button and entering 5 into the empty field.

A very similar mechanism to the "Bonus Feat for" option in the editor where once clicked you get the Select Tags window with

New Tag
Fighter
And other classes

Mathias as you know I am not a programmer and I just cobble together stuff from examples of existing code and by asking questions from Cheeseweasel, Lawful_g, Colen and the rest of the community, it was and still is daunting entering custom data.

However perseverance does pay off and you can soon have a basic feat or ability working satisfactory.

I agree with Dragonmoon about RPGxplorer it was easier and quicker to add custom feats and apply a modifier.

Its just that the loading times were horrendous before a certain build, which is why I bought Hero Lab first and started Code Crunching.
A simpler mechanism to add custom code would be superb even if was only a Macro command.