Adding New Stat Possible?

[dentaa]

I have a 7th prime stat in my campaign. Grace. It ties directly in with core story lines and is not omit-able.

Is it possible to add this in as a core stat like Str, Int, Wis, Dex, Con, Chr?
Gra?

This stat affects three areas.
1. Saving throws.
2. Number of spells castable by arcane types.
3. Ability to use certain magic items (not important to key into software as I can just note the GRA level required to use them.)

Is this possible to add it in as a core stat or will i have to just append everything or keep it in separate system or software and track it there.
Thanks.

 

[AndrewD2]

I'd say yes.

You've have to manually add all the eval scripts in the XML though for that.

NOTICE
The file is provided as is. I hold no responsibility if it flubs up things that LWD does. I see you are rather new at least by post count so this very well may a very difficult task for you.

 

[dentaa]

I appreciate it.. I am actually a Database programmer by part time trade. I just could not find any reference point for the stats option. Much appreciated!!

 

[Angela2013]

AndrewD2, I like how you added grace. When I opened up the file in Editor it should nothing on the tabs so I am unsure how to proceed. In my game we add Comeliness (COM) and than Ego (EGO). They don't add to anything or make any adjustments. Just there for show and the abilities modifier. Is there a way for you to modify the grace file for me and post it? I have been wanting to have those two abilities where they are supposed to be not in the Background. Please and thank you.

 

[AndrewD2]

I have a custom editor tab. I'll post it, but note it's as is. If it messes stuff up for you, remove it. Put it in the same place as user files.

Unzip the file into the directory.

 

[frumple]

With things like this you really want to work with the raw XML files. There are subtleties behind things like this that will not show up on an editor tab. Just get your favorite text editor (I use Sublime) and see for yourself.

 

[AndrewD2]

Attributes only have 3 tags that have to be set. Using the editor for the eval scripts shouldn't be any issue.

 

[Angela2013]

Thanks for the test editor. Will check it out when I have time. Got bored last night so I opened grace up with notepad, changed a few things and got the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<document signature="Hero Lab Data">
<thing id="aEGO" name="Ego" description="This is Ego" compset="Attribute" uniqueness="unique">
<fieldval field="aAbbr" value="EGO"/>
<tag group="AttribCat" tag="Mental" name="Mental" abbrev="Ment"/>
<tag group="explicit" tag="40" name="30" abbrev="30"/>
<tag group="AbilSumOrd" tag="40" name="30" abbrev="30"/>
</thing>
</document>

Then I made one for Comeliness:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<document signature="Hero Lab Data">
<thing id="aCOM" name="Comeliness" description="This is Comeliness" compset="Attribute" uniqueness="unique">
<fieldval field="aAbbr" value="COM"/>
<tag group="AttribCat" tag="Physical" name="Physical" abbrev="Phys"/>
<tag group="explicit" tag="40" name="30" abbrev="30"/>
<tag group="AbilSumOrd" tag="40" name="30" abbrev="30"/>
</thing>
</document>

The question I have though is this. Ego is of course "Ment" as grace was. But with Comeliness being a physical score is "Phys" right?

 

[Angela2013]

Now as a quick question. When I put in Comeliness and Ego the Basics panel looks jumbled (see attachment). Is there a way to reorder them to the following:

STR DEX CON
INT WIS CHA
COM EGO

 

[AndrewD2]

Things like that will be a side effect of adding things that were never meant to be added. There is nothing users can do with that as it's core formatting code.

 

[Mathias]

Why are your explicit and AbilSumOrd tags not consistent - the tag, name and abbrev should all be identical.

(or, for simpler writing, leave out the name and abbrev - they'll default to the same as the Id):

<tag group="explicit" value="30"/>

The explicit tags are the order when the attributes are listed in a row or column, and for some attribute drop-downs (there are other attribute drop-downs where the drop-down isn't always attributes, so we can't set a specific sort order that works all the time, so it's just alphabetical sorting):

Str: 5
Dex: 10
Con: 15
Int: 20
Wis: 25
Cha: 30

And the AbilSumOrd tags are the order when they're in the 2x3 grid on the ability summary tab:

Str: 5
Dex: 15
Con: 25
Int: 10
Wis: 20
Cha: 30

That makes them fill str and int into the first column, dex and then wis into the second column, and so on.

 

[ShadowChemosh]

I tried this many years ago and while it compiled the ability scores would not display. Nice that things changed. I think to make this easier on everyone I will create the editor tab and add it to the community Pack. That way people could add one using the editor leaving out the issues of working with RAW XML.

I don't think I want to actually have one of these abilities in the community Pack as its very few that would want it. And each group will have there own "unique" one they wish to add. I will also have the help for the editor tab mention that doing this is not supported by LW and issues "could" happen.

 

[Mathias]

There will be places an ability score is hard-coded, and a new score can't be integrated into the files by a user. For example, the MelAttOpt tags will be auto-generated for these new attributes, so it will look like you can assign a tag to a weapon saying that it should use grace instead of strength for melee attacks, but it won't actually work - testing for the presence of MelAttOpt tags,and applying some other ability's bonus instead of strength, is an if...elseif, because the value it's actually adding is hero.child[Attack].field[tAttStr].value, hero.child[Attack].field[tAttDex].value, etc., and users can't define new fields, or get into the coding to change the if...elseif sequence.

So that's why we don't include an ability score tab in the editor - because it looks promising at the beginning, allowing you to add the ability scores, and then they'll look like they're working in a lot of cases, but then you're stuck on a lot of the things you want to do with those ability scores.

We'd rather just tell users that adding new ability scores is not officially supported, rather than get bug reports about how adding a new ability score in the editor is broken, because the MelAttOpt tags, or something else, doesn't work.

 

[AndrewD2]

Good to know about the AbilSumOrd tag. I hadn't analyzed quite enough to see that I guess.

We'd rather just tell users that adding new ability scores is not officially supported, rather than get bug reports about how adding a new ability score in the editor is broken, because the MelAttOpt tags, or something else, doesn't work.

This is exactly why I specified that in my first post.

 

[dentaa]

AndrewD2 first thanks for the Editor. I have made much progress since you replied to this post originally. I have a follow up question.
I have been trying to figure out how to put a note box (general DM notes) on the front Abilities Tab. I am looking for a generic text box that I can enter notes like favorite attack methods, key magic items to remember, etc. A quick reference or executive summary. Any ideas? Thanks

[EDIT] Ok if anyone wants to chime in on this with hints.. Will be appreciated but just found some leads in authoring kit that I had been missing...

 

[Aaron]

You could put those notes on the NPC tab, or the Personal tab. You won't be able to manipulate the UI in the program to add a new box anywhere, not even with the authoring kit, unfortunately.

 

[TobyFox2002]

I tried adding a source to this to turn this on and off, and it does not like that. Is there any way to link this to a source. It doesnt seem to like the "usesource" as part of the Attribute compset (i think thats the right word for it).

<usesource source="useAPP" parent="HouseRules" name="Use Appearance Score"/>

 

[Mathias]

That line of XML in isolation looks fine, but you haven't shown us the context, or told us what error you've gotten. Remember that pop-up messages in Hero Lab, like error messages, can be right-clicked, and then copied and pasted.

And no, compset is not the right word for it - you're building a new "thing" for this new attribute. That thing is based on the attribute compset.

 

[TobyFox2002]

Here is the full code of the .user file (I did user because thats what the example file was set as, and when i tried to change it to .1st hero labs didnt like it.) Although, I've since figured out why, the signature was set to Data instead of Structure. But not knowing a great deal about how this part of Hero Labs worked, I really didnt want to mess with it.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<document signature="Hero Lab Data">
  <thing id="aAPP" name="Appearence" description="This is appearence" compset="Attribute" uniqueness="unique">
    <fieldval field="aAbbr" value="APP"/>
    <tag group="AttribCat" tag="Physical" name="Physical" abbrev="Phys"/>
    <tag group="explicit" tag="40" name="30" abbrev="30"/>
    <tag group="AbilSumOrd" tag="40" name="30" abbrev="30"/>
[COLOR="Red"]<!--	<usesource source="useAPP" parent="HouseRules" name="Use Appearance Score"/>-->[/COLOR]
    </thing>
  </document>

Obviously the usesource wont work commented out, but I didnt want to fully delete it.

 

[Mathias]

Wrong order of elements - <usesource> must be after all the <fieldval> elements, but before the <tag> elements.