Consolidated Changes/Enhancements/Requests thread

[zarlor]

Just to help out CC with what we have on his list so far I've gone back through the What changes/enhancements would you like to see? thread to list in one place for us all of the requested features so far that have not already either been added into Hero Lab for us (quite a few already have been, which is awesome!) or been listed as something that cannot be implemented. The order of these is simply the order in which they were posted into the forum to begin with although I have added a bit more detail to some ideas where appropriate. 'll try to keep this updated as things change so CC will always have one place to find the latest information without having to go back through the thread above and figure out if an old request was already completed or not.

CC, if this won't be helpful to you just let me know and I'll let it fall into thread oblivion.

On to the list:

Languages available from a drop-down list. Presumably this would mean setting up a tab where those Languages could be defined in the Editor. I think we would also need the option to either allow ONLY those languages or to also allow for the selection of an empty slot for the player to just type in the appropriate language as we do now. Arguably this could also apply to Knowledge skills in general, since in most settings additional languages are simply Knowledge skills.

A more user-friendly method for creating custom character sheets.

A method for more easily sending Hero Lab data into a form-fillable PDF character sheet.

Calculate the Combat Rating of characters, NPCs, monsters and/or parties. At the very least having a field for Combat Rating could still be helpful, even if it is only manually entered but with the pop-up description of how it can be calculated. Integrating this value into the Encounter Builder would also be very helpful.

Support for noting when a Wild Die is not a d6. (Again listed as something for a single setting at the time of the initial request, but there have been other settings and/or Edges added since that time which also support non-d6 Wild Die implementations. This may still be something LoneWolf might not consider worth expending resources on, but I figured I may as well still list it here as something that has been requested.)

(COMPLETED: Available in the Sci-Fi Companion Add-On!) Support for CyberWare equipment (this was asked about in the vein of the Interface Zero setting's method, not based on the new Sci-Fi Companion.) CapedCrusder noted that the level of coding required made this unsustainable for a single setting, however since the Sci-Fi Companion actually references interface Zero for those looking to add that level of Cyberware support into their game it might be considered a tacit form of support for that method. It may still not be worth covering, but I figured I'd also list it here anyway as something that was requested.

A method for selecting portions of a source, such as allowing just the Edges, Hindrances, Skills, Arcane Backgrounds, Arcane Powers and/or various Equipment, Weapons, etc. from a given source to be added from the source selections checkbox without having to select the entirety of a source.

The ability to change the sorting of things on various screens, such as being able to group Edges by Type or Rank on the Advancement selection screen. They are already sorted by Type at Character Creation, but conversely it may be nice for some to sort alphabetically on the Character Creation screens and so on.

The ability to search on pre-requisites. The current search function searches the name and description text, but not the pre-requisite text on things like Edges.

Fixed-race minions, which Mathias says "What that will allow is that you can add a bootstrap of the race to the <minion> entry - currently, you can add that bootstrap, but it will generate lots of errors, and it'll still offer you a choice of races along the top (which allows you to get to the unexpected state of having two races on the same character, which could have all sorts of unforeseen consequences)"

An "Ally Helper" tab (compset="Ally") be added to the editor, so that we have a place to create new items like mscFamiliar.

* That the abBurrow (Burrowing) Racial Ability have it's Eval Script moved from occurring at Pre-Traits/5000 to occurring at Final/1000 to accommodate those places where the abilValue (aka Pace) for the Burrowing ability might need to be computed from a trtFinal value. (I noticed this has been changed from Pre-Traits/5000 to Traits/5000. Anyone care to check if that is enough to fix the original issue?)

Some of minor issues and/or feature requests on some Edges and Hindrances:

Edges

Adaptable (FC) - set to Unique but it should be allowed to be taken once per Rank. Also it should have code to add a Free Edge (limited to Racial Edges and only the non-Improved versions.)

Beast Master - (more a feature request here) would be nice if we could add an NPC creature Ally to the character for them to select. Doing so is just, IMHO, a nice way of showing folks how they can use some of the stuff on those other Tabs they may not always visit or realize can be used that way. It might also be nice to put a little note in the description explaining the need to select the creature type for the companion, too.

Fast Load (FC) - Not sure if this is doable, but it might be nice if it could cycle through the character's weapons and drop their Reload value by 1 (min 0).

Followers - Much the same as Beast Master, but this would add 5 NPCS (usually defaulting to "Solider" archetype stats. Not sure how adding 5 Allys (non-Wild Cards) would really work, though. Part of me would like to see an extra field for an NPC Ally like that where you can list a number of them, then decrement or increment the number if need be. That would also make it easier on GMs using the Tactical Console by keeping groups... well, grouped. Something that would also be helpful when setting up Encounters in Hero Lab so you can more easily create groups with their own card for the whole group and such (although how to keep track of how many in the group are Shaken I don't know.)

(Partially complete: This is possible through weapon configuration in the Sci-Fi Companion add-on only) Weapon Naming - Right-clicking on a Weapon name on the Armory tab shows a greyed-out "Edit name of" entry. It would be nice to allow the renaming of any added weapon for various reasons, like we can with Arcane Powers.

Improvisational Fighter - If possible it would be nice if this Edge would search the sheet for any "wpImprov?" entries and apply a +1 to attack and Parry bonus to them to negate the -1 penalty they normally apply.

Increased Range (FC) - Might be nice if this one could modify the Range entries on each Ranged Weapon on the profile to increase them.

Martial Arts Master - Only supposed to be taken up to 5 times, but I'm not positive how you'd trap for that anyway (and being a Legendary edge how many people would ever really run into that problem anyway?)

Necromancer (FC) - The Zombie power should be modified to allow anyone with this Edge to take it at Novice. Or create an FC version of Zombie that is Necromancer only (since the Necro version also has a reduced point cost and some other little modifiers, mostly just changes to the text.)

Occultist - I'm not exactly sure how the "Forbidden Lore" source is actually implemented in Hero Lab. By the rules it is generally an item, but I don't see anything like that under equipment. In any case, though, the effect should be to at least require a Domain entry to the Edge to better mark down what it is for on the sheet.

Rich - Second paragraph, there's an extra space in the phrase "GM can fi gure out". BTW, a LOT of text all over the place doesn't follow this pattern of putting an extra line between paragraphs. That line makes these things a LOT easier to read so it might be nice if a lot of the other items could be given a quick run through to add that spacing for readability.

Sidekick - Like Followers it would be nice if this could add a Wild-Card NPC to the portfolio to give the player a starting point for how to implement this in Hero Lab.

Sunder (FC) and Improved Sunder - This one might not really be possible, adding AP 1 (2 with Improved) to all weapons would be nice. You could presumably add a User Activated check for tis to increase to to +2/+4 respectively, but that's only if you get a raise and I'd say leave that one to the player to track on their own.

Hindrances

Bad Eyes (Major) - the negatives given are for shooting and notice, but the text says "attack" rolls, which means Throwing should also be in the mix (and presumably fighting if you had a Reach 5 whip or something.) Since there is a 5" range limitation, though, maybe there should be an Activation for this one and at least add Throwing into the penalized traits.

One Arm - This is more of a Judgement call, but I would say the penalty should also apply to Lockpicking and probably Repair as well. Selectively it could apply to Fighting or Shooting when it's a two-handed weapon involved.

Some checkboxes on the In Play tab for some maneuvers. I'm thinking especially about Wild Attack adding not only that +2 bonus to fighting and damage but also reminding you of the -2 Parry. Some of those might be really helpful for when trying to use Hero Lab at the table.

(Fixed) The ability to sort, alphabetize or otherwise group all of the updates on the "Latest Updates" screen. As it is things like the "Savage Settings" files don't seem to group up nicely together where they might be easier to find. (Not sure if this was always possible, but clicking on the title of the column you want to sort by will do this, so this was either fixed or always there and I just didn't realize it.)

 

[zarlor]

On the "In Play" tab of a Portfolio under "Activated Abilities" it would be really nice if we could get either a mouse-over pop-up, something showing up on the (?) button or even a new button that could tell us where the ability comes from. For example I can see "Stealth Skill Modifier" which happens to be from, say, magical armor but in no place does it show that's actually where that bonus comes from on the screen so I can know for certain when to activate or deactivate it without otherwise remembering where it's from or looking at all of my items on their respective tabs to find out.

A way to get a Power Point Tracker for Magic Items, Gadgeteer items, racial abilities, certain Edges, etc... that might otherwise give a character a separate Arcane Power with it's own PPs (and possibly even it's own skill that it's activated from.)

Derived traits for things like Common Knowledge, Soak and whatever you might call a Recover from Shaken roll modifiers. There are quite a few Edges and Hindrances that affect those 3 in particular in some way and it would be nice to see those on the sheet/portfolio at a glance.

Clint verified in this thread that any skill is only allowed to be raised once per advancement. Not sure if it's worth trying to trap for that in Hero Lab, but it might be a nice addition.

If you are doing a character with advancements from scratch and you find you needed to delete something you took at one of your advancements to change it all of the later advancements move down, if you will (as if they were taken a level earlier). That's normally not a problem except for in the way Hero Lab traps for if you've only taken one Attribute increase per Rank. In that case what had been a legal increase might get flagged as an illegal one because of how all the advancements moved down one position. So maybe if we had a way to replace an advancement rather than just delete it we could have a way to alleviate that warning.

Drawbacks (which are Bootstrapped to ABs, normally) don't show up on the Abilities column, or otherwise anyplace on the In-Play tab so it might be nice to show them there.

A way to put in extra place holders for separators, to be able to have them when we need them to use in our own data file instead of having to change the name of ones already in use (Example: if a new setting has bio-weapons. We could use the place holder separators to add new ones with out having to use ones that already are there and being used.)

More Savage Worlds character sheets. Perhaps have multiple output types (stylized hero block that takes a half page, One page hero summary sheet like you have now, and Two page detailed character sheet). (I would note that a detailed sheet is available from zarlor if anyone wants to use it.)

The ability to add a custom power in Hero Lab (not the Editor) in the same way we can add things like Custom Edges, Hindrances, etc., now.

The ability to add custom Weapons, Armor and Shields would be helpful as well. (I hate to say it, but we get these in game a little too often and folks need to be able to put the stats into their sheet on the fly during the game without having to add it into the Editor.)

The ability to utilize custom currencies (changing from the use of dollars to pounds, for example) and the ability to use fractional currencies. So instead of selling or buying something for $1 I can do so for, say, $0.05. We can't really do fractional amounts in the Journal like that right now.

Another Edge-type setup that is available for free in the same way Hindrances are... maybe call it In-Game Effects or something like that. I've been using Hindrances or Edges set to no-cost for various non-Hindrance/Edge type things like the various Deadlands "Veteran of the..." effects, the HoE Mutations, the Weird Wars Rome Legacy effects, and so on. It's not always clear to the players that such things are available as a "Hindrance" or "Edge" so adding another item there could be pretty helpful. Just keep in mind that they could be positive or negative effects so you need the capabilities of both Edges and Hindrances to be available there. Hindrances are already set-up in the "Advances" mechanic to be added for free so adding something like this using that same mechanic can be helpful, but there are times when it will also need to be available at character creation. It's just that these effects are really not properly referred to as either Edges or Hindrances.

Dartnet described the above a "A Special Table: This table should be in the edges tab and cover the ever increasing number of character options that are not Edges, Hindrances, or Rewards. Examples include, Mutations (Hell on Earth), Card Draws (Veteran o' the Weird West), and Random Table Rolls (Mad Scientist Deadlands Reloaded). This should be a resource. Scripts can be set up to enforce the amount of which type needs to be selected. Just like you can do with Edges. In the editor Specials should be set up in the Editor exactly like Edges minus the Arcane Backgrounds Tag."

From Mathias:

adding a list expression to the Hindrances table, that tests for a Hide tag. For example:

<list><![CDATA[
  !Hide.Hindrance
  ]]></list>

That way, in DL: Noir, every character can have the Poverty hindrance bootstrapped, and those characters who take something else that cancels that automatic hindrance will no longer see it (since the other pick assigned the tag to Poverty that hides it). Here's the thread this is from: http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=45651

Oh, a reminder - when adding list expressions that hide things, it's best to add this setting to the table:

alwaysupdate="yes"

Otherwise, even after the tag had been assigned, the pick wouldn't be hidden until the user switched tabs and switched back, or added/deleted something else from that table (Hero Lab tries to save computational cycles by minimizing how often it tests list expressions on tables, but in this case, that's not the behavior you want).

This'll need to be applied to all the things that display hindrances - the Edges tab, the summary panels, the dashboard, the tactical console, the printout, and the statblock (and anywhere else that they're displayed that I forgot about).

Oh, and you may want to make this more generic - Hide.Edge, perhaps, and then have the same list expression on the edges, hindrances, and rewards tables, so that the same behavior is available in all those cases. (Hide.Ability already exists, and means something slightly different - otherwise, I'd have recommended that as the tag to use). If there's a term in Savage Worlds that covers Edges, Hindrances, Rewards, and things that are similar to them, use that term instead.

Stacked weapons marked on the character sheet. Right now, you can see 3x rope in gear, but not 3x daggers in weapons (you just see one dagger).

A Tag and a checkbox in the editor for showing Animal-level intelligence. That would also need to add an "(A)" after the Smarts value on the character sheet, on the Basics column in HL, etc., as well.

Savage Worlds portfolios in hero lab for the iPad.

Mathias suggested adding

alwaysupdate="yes"

to the Trait Portal table in tab_basics.dat.

The addition of two Traits, Command Radius and Size. They don't come up often, so maybe allow them to be hidden when they are at 0, but when they do come up it's darned helpful to be able to see them. For Command Radius and alternate method might be to include it in the Command Edge (see http://forums.wolflair.com/showpost.php?p=190424&postcount=11 for one method of doing that.) SeelyOne also put together some code for Size at http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=23078 if it helps any.

A way to set the XP table. Adding an additional Rank might be hard (Demigod is for Suzerain), but some gaming groups like to require more advances between each new Rank. A more recent officially published setting that also recommends this is Shaintar.

The ability to bootstrap equipment that doesn't "stick" to the character, in other words so it can be dropped or sold later. Mathias has stated in another thread that the ability to do this is in the works as it applies to Hero Lab overall, across all settings (so it's not just a Savage Worlds specific issue.)

Request for Permanent Injuries show up on the "In Play" tab (presumably under the Abilities column with the rest of the Edges and Hindrances).

In the SPC, a generic +/- modifier to power costs, at least up to +/-4.

Having the ability to "Activate" items in the same way we can do so for Edges and Hindrances would be very helpful for displaying selected bonuses/negatives that Equipment (or even things like Weapons or Armor) might selectively provide.

Race Builder: Since we already have in the Editor the "Racial Properties" tab which has a field for "Racial Edge Point Cost" it would be nice to have a new entry on the Racial drop down from within Hero Lab that would allow you to select the Properties and calculate the balance out providing an error notification when they are not balanced out to +2 total. This allows for a lot more flexibility for players that may be creating a unique race just for their player rather than having to do it all in the Editor.

Also in the SPC there is a request to allow a Power Modifier to affect all powers in the same way that something like "Switchable" is a Power Mod that can be used with any power. All of which would go well hand-in-hand with the ability to create Power Mods or Powers on the fly in Hero Lab instead of in the Editor if possible.

For SPC again, I'd like to request that the Force Control Power give the player some way to select Fighting, Shooting or Throwing for their power to be based on.

Additionally it would be really nice if the power showed up on the Armory column in Hero Lab along with the other Attacks (this actually applies to Attack, Ranged, Attack, Melee and any other powers that provide an attack, for that matter. It's nice that these show up on a printed sheet but would be helpful for those of us that use HL at the table if it showed up there as well.

 

[zarlor]

SeelyOne requested "In Pathfinder the class abilities have a "value" that can be added to by other things. It would be very helpful if edges and hindrances also had this feature.

A "Basic Value" already existing in Derived Traits. We have to use an eval script to make it work. It is where we do

field[trtBonus].value += 0

in Traits 4000, after Calc trtFinal and before Derived trtFinal. In my opinion, since it is integral to the point of having a Derived Trait, it should be default coding. Modification to that is worthy of an eval script, but the 0 should be default. Also, the Derived Trait should have a print/no print option. There are many cases where having it exist, but not necessarily printed out on the character sheet, would be really great.

Edges and Hindrances should also have a basic value, also of 0. Again, it can be modified by eval scripts, but more importantly it would be great if it can be easily be modified by other scripts (as edges and hindrances can already modify attributes, skills, and derived traits). Maybe the choice of whether or not it is displayed is another tag option, similar to print/no print."

On the In Play tab under Temporary Adjustments a new entry just for Custom Entries. That way we can select a modifier and just put a note what it's for without having to select something that it modifies and we can see those modifiers all on the same page rather than having to switch to the Personal tab to see the notes there.

A Temporary modifier there (maybe we'll get this in the SFC anyway) that allows us to add and modify a skill we don't have on the character.

Ability to scroll the columns, like the Abilities column in particular, would be really helpful. We've taken to including things like Maneuvers there as a reminder of all the things players can have their characters do, even worse in that we've got things like cyber gear there, and in a couple of games we have characters over legendary now so that columns is long past the size of the screen so being able to see it all would be really helpful.

Arlyansor requested an in-program way to delete no-longer-wanted downloaded .user files.

Dartnet added

Add the Standard Gear Tag to all the equipment from the Companions. That way when you add use the Horror Companion in your Pirates of the Spanish Main Game not getting atomic ghost packs and digital cameras.

Add the Setting Rule: Blood & Guts which precludes the No Mercy Edge.

Add the Miscellaneous Options: No Arcane Backgrounds precludes the following edges: edgAdept edgArcMag edgArcMir edgArcPsi edgArcSci edgArcSup edgChamp edgGadget edgHolyWar edgMental edgMrFixIt edgWizard

No Arcane Powers which precludes the following: edgAdept edgArcMag edgArcMir edgArcPsi edgArcSci edgArcSup edgChamp edgGadget edgHolyWar edgMental edgMrFixIt edgNewPwr edgPwrPts edgPwrSurg edgRapRch edgRapRch2 edgSoulDrn edgWizard skFaith skPsionics skSpellcst skWeirdSci

The first one is for settings that use different Arcane Background but may still use the same Arcane Skills. There 2nd is for setting that do not user Arcane Backgrounds at all.

All 3 should be added to the Setting Adjustment tab in the Editor.

There should be some access to the initiative tracker in the tactical console in an indirect way (a set of tags with specific effects perhaps) since from looking at the appropriate edges, currently my guess would be that the Console code is just looking at specific Edges to do specific things, so there's no way to put in something new that manipulates initiative without getting into the console code itself.

In addition to the above support for the following settings has been requested, which would require Lone Wolf working out with the publishers if these could be made available through the official update mechanism. I decided to list these separately because some of those publishers may never decide to give that permission but I list them here should Lone Wolf decide to have another go at getting the agreements in place. (There are a few of us willing to do the data file work on some of these if those agreements were in place, and in some cases they are already made as unofficial data files if you ask around.) Order of these is, again, based on when they were asked for.

Realms of Cthulhu (and it's additional settings)
Sundered Skies (and it's Companion)
Necropolis 2350

While not specifically mentioned in this thread there are fan-made data files for the following so I will add them as being requested for official support as well:

Agents of Obilvion
Hellfrost
Kaiser's Gate
Kerberos Club
Mars
Runepunk
Thrilling Tales
Darwins World
The Day After Ragnarok
Ravaged Earth: 2nd Edition
Gaslight
Low Life
Savage Mass Effect
Interface Zero 2.0

 

[zarlor]

Updated a couple of things on these, mainly the sorting on Updates screen (you can just click on a column header to sort that column so that's already there) and modified the Command Radius request to also point to SeelyOne's method for handling that as a potential alternative... at least for that part (we'd still need one for Size.) As well as the Generic Modifier request for SPC. Added request for Activation on items. Added Race Builder request.

 

[zarlor]

Updated with a couple of more of the newest requests.

 

[Endtransmission]

Great list with some really useful options, especially having the ability to add new edge type for adding freebies. I've got so many things being added as free hindrances in the A!C setting that aren't really hindrances as there's nowhere else to add them.

There is also the more global (HL level) question of conditionally excluding .user files or look for missing tags (http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=53349)

 

[SeeleyOne]

You can make an edge have a cost of 0. You just put 0 in the edge cost field. It is in the editor and called "Advancement Slots". You can put fractional values as well, but they have to be in decimal form like 0.5 or 1.5 or whatever.

 

[Endtransmission]

I know. Still doesn't fit as they are effectively Arcane powers without an AB*

*which I can't use as ABs can be used as well. Eventually.

 

[SeeleyOne]

I understand why multiple Arcane Backgrounds are not possible. For the most part it can get confusing (which power goes with which background) or expensive (you have to develop more arcane skills) or annoying to track (multiple pools of power points).

But I do wish that you can use both Super Powers and a normal Arcane Background.

 

[zarlor]

All of the ones I posted above should already be in the stickied "What changes and enhancements would you like to see?" thread, I just consolidated all of it into a couple of posts so they were all in one place and I mark items as "Fixed" that were already taken care of.

I can add the other suggestions here as well, but at this point I'm not even sure if this consolidated thread is being used at all. I thought it might be helpful for Lone Wolf since the request thread is a bit jumbled up and doesn't show you what's already been fixed and such so my suggestion would be that if you do post a suggestion here that you probably want to also post it in the main thread since that's, presumably, the "official" place to make those requests.

If you do see anything I missed, though, do let me know as I'm happy to add it in here. I'd also note that since it is a consolidated list it means that while there may be some great ideas we'd all love to see here there's also plenty that are probably too difficult (maybe even impossible) to implement along with those which maybe only one person would like to see, or which even most people might think was not worth doing. It doesn't really prioritize anything, just brings it all together as a cohesive whole.

 

[CapedCrusader]

Thank you for this....

 

[zarlor]

Updated to show the Cyberware request as completed and available through the Sci-Fi Companion add-on.