Charater History by Level?

[Larathiel]

So I'm really enjoying building characters with HLO and testing out how they'll be able to progress. However, I can't seem to find any way to view a level-by-level list of what selections I made, nor a way to view what my character sheet would have looked like at a given level.

For example, I like being able to preview a character's potential advancement thru all 20 levels to see what's possible. However, if it's still a character I'm advancing thru normal play, or I want to run a flashback scenario, it would be good to set an option that instructs HLO to show me what my character sheet looked like at a lower level rather than only being able to see the level 20 version.

Is there any way to do this natively, or is it incumbent upon the user to clone their character before each level-up if they want historical advancement data of this sort?

 

[templeton]

you can't do that on the HL classic app either. At least in the HL classic app you can 'save as character.levelnumber in order to keep track or rollback.

What I have been doing in my group is saving PDF's of each level so we have reference to each level.

 

[Tarmor]

I'd go with templeton - save copies at each level, or make Journal entries saying what you chose at each level.

 

[Lj Stephens]

Hi Larathiel! So glad you're enjoying HLO. Templeton, and Dami are correct. Right now, you would need to save your character at each level in order to see those changes separately. We'll keep that idea in mind for the future though. Thanks for the question.

 

[Larathiel]

Appreciate the answers and export/journal suggestions, everyone. And yes, this is a feature I'd love to see down the road.

 

[WatersLethe]

I also would really like more level clarity in decision making. What level you are when you make a selection matters more in this edition because far more feats are level restricted. The design of the system also encourages GMs to award bonus feats, and depending on what level they're given they will make a big difference.

Retraining would also be easier if you know for sure you can remove X without breaking a chain that relies on it being taken at a certain level.

 

[charlieluce]

I have to think that changing every character from an XML snapshot of its current state to a transactional database with journaling would add a tremendous amount of overhead to the program.

 

[Farling]

I have to think that changing every character from an XML snapshot of its current state to a transactional database with journaling would add a tremendous amount of overhead to the program.

DB journaling isn't required

But this feature was never implemented in HL classic, since it isn't too complicated to save a character to a portfolio with a different file name.

A similar approach might work in HLO if it has a trivial-to-access copy function for characters.

 

[Larathiel]

Well, we can create folders in HLO, so I guess we could use that to manage the glut of extra character sheets that would come with saving a copy at each level. Not my preferred way of doing such a thing (since it requires breaking my train of thought repeatedly), but it's better than nothing...

 

[Duggan]

Not knowing the exact details of HLO implementation, HLC implementation generally tracked level advancement's separately, so you could see something like:

• Level 2: Added Pornomancer level. Gained 6 HP. Chose the "Netflix and Chill" feat.
• Level 3: Added Pornomancer level. Gained 7 HP. Gained "Bushy Chest Hair" class feature
  etc...

 

[Itzi]

Not knowing the exact details of HLO implementation, HLC implementation generally tracked level advancement's separately, so you could see something like:

• Level 2: Added Pornomancer level. Gained 6 HP. Chose the "Netflix and Chill" feat.
• Level 3: Added Pornomancer level. Gained 7 HP. Gained "Bushy Chest Hair" class feature
  etc...

What kind of games are you playing?

 

[Duggan]

What kind of games are you playing?

^_^ It's a Shadowrun thing, although other systems have similar constructs.

 

[mototom]

Where can you see that detail? Obviously the classes tab shows the class you chose and the hit points, but I've never seen anything that details which feat I took at which level. Maybe it's only visible in some systems? It isn't obvious where that info is for Pathfinder.

 

[Farling]

Not knowing the exact details of HLO implementation, HLC implementation generally tracked level advancement's separately, so you could see something like:

• Level 2: Added Pornomancer level. Gained 6 HP. Chose the "Netflix and Chill" feat.
• Level 3: Added Pornomancer level. Gained 7 HP. Gained "Bushy Chest Hair" class feature
  etc...

I've never seen this in HLC.
HLC only keeps the current state of your character, it doesn't know at what level each feat was taken.

 

[Duggan]

I don't think it's available in the interface, and it could be I'm wrong about how is handled, but most games implemented in Hero Lab use Advancement elements that track your choices so that you can track what happened when, and possibly roll them back and forth. It's not going to capture non-level stuff, though, and some systems just increment the number of feats you can take rather than attaching them to a particular level or stage.

 

[Farling]

I don't think it's available in the interface, and it could be I'm wrong about how is handled, but most games implemented in Hero Lab use Advancement elements that track your choices so that you can track what happened when, and possibly roll them back and forth. It's not going to capture non-level stuff, though, and some systems just increment the number of feats you can take rather than attaching them to a particular level or stage.

In the past, the information regarding Pathfinder is that it doesn't remember what level you purchased things. So this "Advancement Elements" are probably only used in a few game systems.

 

[Lj Stephens]

Hello folks. You are all correct. Currently, the only information you see "per level" in both HLC and HLO is the class you took at each level, and whether you chose HP or SP at those levels. Thanks!