Pathfinder Community Data Sets....

[Doskious]

Serpent's Skull - Book 3 - missing race resource for Olujimi

When I try to load the included portfolio "D1 - Charau-Ka Fortress.por", it throws an error:

One or more required sources are not accessible for hero 'Olujimi'. Subsequent errors may be the result of this problem.
Pick 'rAngazhan' has been orphaned due to missing thing in batch '437'
Chained pick 'fMartial' has been orphaned due to missing bootstrap in batch '437'
Chained pick 'skKnowRel' has been orphaned due to missing bootstrap in batch '437'

I have all the data packages indicated as necessary for the Community Bestiary. I do not have the data package for Pathfinder RPG Campaign Setting #4 (which includes Heart of the Jungle, the publication in which the indicated race is detailed), and if this is the source of the issue (as was the source of my earlier dilemma regarding the Diabolist class), all I can say is that while I appreciate the effort and work that has been put into the development of these resources, it would be nice to include a warning that the various portfolios included with the Community Bestiary might include picks originating from data packages not indicated as necessary (such as the Diabolist class and, if I'm correct in my surmise, the Angazhani race).

Any help in resolving this missing pick would be much appreciated, as my game is going to be in the area for this encounter soon.

EDIT: Confirmed, I purchased the data package (Pathfinder RPG Campaign Setting #4) and was able to load the indicated portfolio without incident.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by Doskious

it would be nice to include a warning that the various portfolios included with the Community Bestiary might include picks originating from data packages not indicated as necessary (such as the Diabolist class and, if I'm correct in my surmise, the Angazhani race).

I agree it would be nice and I do confirm that I only am currently giving a warning about the Packages that are needed to prevent CB from causing HL to go into Safe Mode.

I am sorry but trying to check every single .por file to see what packages are needed is not something I can reasonably do right now. The only way I know to do this would be to manually disable a package and then attempt to load every single .por file to see if one gives an error. Then disable another package and do it again for every single .por file.

So for now the only warning I am giving is the required data packages that are needed to get the actual CB to load initially in HL.

I will add a warning note that opening up a .por file can/could cause additional errors if you don't have an official Package that the .por file needs.

Thanks

[Mathias]

Originally Posted by ShadowChemosh

II am sorry but trying to check every single .por file to see what packages are needed is not something I can reasonably do right now. The only way I know to do this would be to manually disable a package and then attempt to load every single .por file to see if one gives an error. Then disable another package and do it again for every single .por file.

So for now the only warning I am giving is the required data packages that are needed to get the actual CB to load initially in HL.

Develop menu... prepare portfolio for distribution.

Here's what this does:
1) Reset all sources to the current defaults
2) Turn off all paid sources that are not needed for that character.

Then, you can look at the sources list to see what ended up being needed.

I'm afraid that doesn't help track what user-created sources are needed - it'll leave all of those with their default settings, and it won't help you track which .user files depend on other files.

It may also not be able to track things if you borrow the racial ability from another race - often, racial abilities don't have a source assigned, but they're still only available in a package.

Still, hopefully this'll help with some things.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by Mathias

It may also not be able to track things if you borrow the racial ability from another race - often, racial abilities don't have a source assigned, but they're still only available in a package.

Thanks. When I had tried it out before it was not really working well for the Racial Specials for what I assumed to be exactly what you said above.

The editors that create the races have most of the official packages so they bootstrap from all over.

In the case above its the whole race that is missing and requires another official package. So in the exact case above it probably would work using the Prepare for Distribution. So I will keep it in mind for the future.

Unfortunately I simply don't have the time to do the above for each .por file. The number of .por files in the CB is getting pretty big now. Plus I am not even sure how even if the info got compiled would I be able to get it out to everyone. Would a complete list of every .por file and its requirements be needed or just the ones that are different from the Packages required to load. Also trying to maintain that list for each and every release would be crazy. Not including again do I put it into the thread post which is already too big for a single post. Or put it into a ReadMe file that is included in the CB? Who is going to read something that is easily going to be pages long and you have to dig it out of the Data folder?

I just don't see a good way of doing this that is not going to consume hours and hours of time for very little pay off.

[Mathias]

Once you've prepared the portfolio (so it's down to the minimum sources required), you could look in the XML of the portfolio for:

 
<source source="([A-Za-z0-9_]*)" name="([A-Za-z0-9 '_]*)" count="1"/>

Would it be quick to write something that can find all the sources that are turned on for a selected portfolio and consolidate it into a single list?

It'd be a quick way to get the readme file you were talking about, I think.

[ShadowChemosh]

Originally Posted by Mathias

Would it be quick to write something that can find all the sources that are turned on for a selected portfolio and consolidate it into a single list?

It'd be a quick way to get the readme file you were talking about, I think.

Hmmmm very interesting. Very interesting indeed....

[frumple]

Since I authored those por files, I will look them over and see what is wrong.

[frumple]

@Shadow - BTW Kingmaker is done as well as Jade Regent.

[frumple]

Well %^#% I just tried to open a bunch of the Serpent's Skull por files and a bunch of stuff has gotten orphaned... I am going to go back to the beginning of the set and try to fix all that is broke. Should take me about 1-2 weeks. :/

[AEIOU]

Thank you for relooking at Serpent's Skull, Frumple. It can't be said enough that the ongoing work in this thread is very much appreciated. Thank you Shadow, et al.