Creating a new Source book

[chiefweasel]

How can you create a file and use it as a new source? For instance if i wanted to do the Complete Arcane but have it load as a seperate book source in case someone didnt want to use it. Thanks.

 

[Lawful_g]

At the bottom of the editor for just about everything, there is a button marked "Sources" Click on that and make a custom tag for the book.

 

[chiefweasel]

I did this, but now every item in the file is coming up as a duplicate entry. This seems to happen a lot, when you move information to a new file, or change a file name. Is there any way to prevent this? Thanks.

 

[Mathias]

You shouldn't have changed the file name or moved the things you've created around - all you needed to do was open up the existing file in the editor, create the new source for one thing, and then test that thing - then the new source should appear in the list of sources you can select (if it doesn't appear for the others, close the editor, press ctrl-r for a quick reset, then open the editor again).

 

[Spence]

You shouldn't have changed the file name or moved the things you've created around - all you needed to do was open up the existing file in the editor, create the new source for one thing, and then test that thing - then the new source should appear in the list of sources you can select (if it doesn't appear for the others, close the editor, press ctrl-r for a quick reset, then open the editor again).

I was going to say it wasn't working, because it didn't the last 5 tries. But the last time I loaded HL it notified me there was an update. I dl'ed the HL update and restarted and suddenly the new source appeared on the list the next time I started the editor.

hmmmm...thar be gremlins...

 

[chiefweasel]

I see the new source and it creates it. but when i test it I get a bunch of dup errors.

 

[Lawful_g]

Have you looked in the d20 folder to see if the .user file was copied? That would cause many duplication errors.

If you erase the Source tag by unchecking it on a particular thing, does it then stop appearing on the duplication error list?

 

[chiefweasel]

Sent a screen shot of the error to Lawful_g. he was unable to duplicate the error using the same file.

I have also run into numerous error when i try to change a file name, when others dont have the same problem. so it seems that there is something wrong with my version of the program or with some method that it works on my machine.

Is anyone else having issues with ceating new files for HL?

 

[Lawful_g]

A seperate but related question, how do you set up a source that has children sources underneath it? Say, similar to the Pathfinder with sub-adventure paths, I wanted to make to make one source called Dragonlance, and underneath it the different books for dragonlance (like Wizards of High Sorcery, Holy Order of the Stars, etc...).

I have tried making one source, then making a second that refers to the first as a parent, but I get an error saying the thing referenced as a parent cannot be user selectable.

 

[Mathias]

I'll bring this to Colen's attention for a proper fix, but in the meantime, create your new parent source on one thing (Only one - I have no idea what would happen if it were defined more than once and you didn't edit every copy).

Open the file in an XML editor, and find the source element. Here's an example:

<usesource source="CompAdvent" name="Complete Adventurer"/>

You'll now add

selectable="no"

to that, giving you:

<usesource source="CompAdvent" name="Complete Adventurer" selectable="no"/>

Now close your XML editor, quick reload (ctrl-r) the HL files, then open the HL editor. Now it shouldn't give errors when you assign your new sources as children of this source.

 

[Mathias]

A related note - you can still assign things to the parent source even after you make it non-selectable. In the Pathfinder files, this is used for things that should be common to any game set in the world of Varisia, rather than things used for a specific adventure path. For example, the Varisian versions of each of the base races were defined in the player's handbook for the first adventure path, but rather than giving them a source of "Rise of the Runelords", they're assigned to the parent "Pathfinder Adventure Paths" source, so that if the user selects any or all adventure paths, the varisian versions of the races are there for use. (or at least I hope I set it up that way - I usually have all four adventure paths active on my system so I might have missed a few things like that).

For Dragonlance, that may not be the way you need to handle it, since all the books tend to be describing different facets of the same setting. Also, you have an overview book, which the Pathfinder books don't have.