Authoring Kit Questions (Word of Darkness related)

Jaynay27 · January 24th, 2012, 12:36 PM

Hi There,

I have a couple of questions regarding the authoring kit.

1) Seeing as the World of Darkness dataset appears to be not receiving anymore updates, would it be possible to re-create the entire system in the authoring kit to allow addiitonal content to be input (such as Hunter, Werewolf, etc)?
I understand this is a lot of work and the 'long way around', but there doesnt seem to be any way (that I can see) to add content like this to the current World of Darkness Licenced dataset.

2) If the above is possible, would I have to know a LOT about programming to do this? (I have VERY little programming experience, but am keen to learn)

Thankyou
Jaynay27.

royalfa · January 25th, 2012, 04:52 AM

Hi there.
I don't know if the data set will be updated or who is doing that

You don't need the authoring kit unless you need to change "the mechanics" or the "display" of the game. If you only need "data" then go to the menu Tools and select launch editor; once the new window is open in the menu file select new data file.

In Hero Lab,
Tools --> Launch Editor
In Editor
File --> New File

Now you have the editor where you can add the new published data or custom one.

Remember Save the file (the editor will ask when you exit) and the next time you enter instead of "new file" load the saved one.

Then when you launch Hero Lab or create a new portfolio in the "configure your character" window you must check the box "Name of the saved file" below "User content"

Window
Configure your character
Check box
User Content: NAMED FILE

You can see all the files you create here and check or unchecked depends of what you want / need.

As a final note:
The editor help you in many ways almost all the time is all you need but in some cases you need a special behavior of a component: Maybe need some scripting, maybe only "tags" only those who now about the setting or make his own "world of darkness" stuff can help you.

Cya and good gaming

chiefweasel · January 25th, 2012, 08:14 AM

The authroing kit is more for people who want to create a totally new game system for HL. For changes to one of the existing datasets, such as WoD, then you would want to use the editor.

Jaynay27 · 01:31 AM

Thank-you for the quick answers!

I wasn't sure about using the editor to add the other content. I did have a little look, but couldn't really see where I would go to add the other options, but I will have another look.

***Edit***
Just looked again and there seems to be no option to add new templates/splats via the editor in the World of Darkness setting (you can add/modify pretty much everything else though!).
I looked at all the available tabs, but there is definitely no option (I also have Pathfinder and could readily locate the option to add a class in the editor, under the Pathfinder licence, so I am not just missing it - I checked every tab twice)

So - I guess my question remains - in the Authoring Kit could I copy the World of Darkness setting and add new templates this way (since the editor doesn't seem to allow this)?

And if so - do I need extensive programming knowledge to do so?

***end edit***

Jaynay27

ShadowChemosh · January 26th, 2012, 08:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaynay27

So - I guess my question remains - in the Authoring Kit could I copy the World of Darkness setting and add new templates this way (since the editor doesn't seem to allow this)?

My assumption here is that using the Authoring Kit will NOT help you. Authoring kit is for creating WHOLE new games and will not let you have any further access to data sets like WoD, Pathfinder, d20. This is because the structural files/packages are encrypted and not left in plain text files.

In example savage Tide is wide open and you can edit anything from that data set. Where without the Editor you can't for Pathfinder or d20.

So if the editor for WoD does not have templates I think your stuck asking LW to add it to the editor.

Jaynay27 · January 26th, 2012, 12:21 PM

Cheers for the info Shadow. I might send an email to the Devs requesting the addition of templates to the editor.

I *am* happy with the WOD Herolab licence I bought (works well for the settings that are included!), and if the devs are not updating it that is also ok, but I would like the option to set these things up myself if that is the case.

I did post this in the WOD section also, but there is not much activity there

I guess I am getting a little off topic here too as this has become more of an editor discussion than the authoring Kit

Anyways - thankyou all for your help

Jaynay27