Deathwatch

[Mathias]

For experience, I'm sorry I wasn't thinking - when you said experience table, I thought you meant something like in Pathfinder - 2000 XP to level 1, 5000 XP to level 2, something simple like that.

The experience system in the 40K games is insane, and it will be very complex to program. And right now, while I'm trying to get Ultimate Campaign out the door, I do not have the time available to walk you through a solution that Rob, Colen, and I had come up with a few years ago when I thought I might have enough time to implement Dark Heresy.

Are there other projects you can work on for a few weeks?

Here are the parameters we identified:
Each skill and talent needs to store its cost - skills store 3 costs - +0/+10/+20
That cost can be applied by several different things - and it uses the minimum of all of those costs
You also need to record a separate cost for the thing if it's one of the options granted by a rank you didn't take (because of an alternate rank or something like that), since you can still buy those, but at an extra cost.

So, that means that you need to record many field values on every skill and talent that hasn't been taken yet, but in order to do so, every skill and talent would have to exist on every character.

Shadowing is how we thought of to differentiate the potential picks from the actual picks.

 

[Mathias]

Mathias,

I had another question, regarding summary panels, is it possible to increase the width of a summary panel or they all predefined by the compiler?

Read the wiki page for the definition.def file.

 

[Mathias]

Mathias,

Can the character sheet layout be split up? I was wondering if it was possible to split the sheet for a horizontal row to display the attribute scores and still have the top with logos and character information and the bottom section under the scores for weapons and skills?

This would be controlled in the position script in the sheet element that's at the bottom of the file. You can control the amount of width (all of it) and height given to the layout for the attributes, and then place all the other information below that layout.

 

[RavenX]

For experience, I'm sorry I wasn't thinking - when you said experience table, I thought you meant something like in Pathfinder - 2000 XP to level 1, 5000 XP to level 2, something simple like that.

The experience system in the 40K games is insane, and it will be very complex to program. And right now, while I'm trying to get Ultimate Campaign out the door, I do not have the time available to walk you through a solution that Rob, Colen, and I had come up with a few years ago when I thought I might have enough time to implement Dark Heresy.

Are there other projects you can work on for a few weeks?

Here are the parameters we identified:
Each skill and talent needs to store its cost - skills store 3 costs - +0/+10/+20
That cost can be applied by several different things - and it uses the minimum of all of those costs
You also need to record a separate cost for the thing if it's one of the options granted by a rank you didn't take (because of an alternate rank or something like that), since you can still buy those, but at an extra cost.

So, that means that you need to record many field values on every skill and talent that hasn't been taken yet, but in order to do so, every skill and talent would have to exist on every character.

Shadowing is how we thought of to differentiate the potential picks from the actual picks.

Other projects? Yeah, I've got a few things I still need to fix and tweak. I still need to get the data set up for NPCs as well, so that I can build the stock portfolios for the ones in the book. Plus as you are aware, the character sheet itself. There is a lot left to do.

I agree the xp tables can be quite sanity stressful. At least the psychic powers only need one xp field. I am glad you are walking me through some of these things. It is a challenging build, and I never thought I'd get this far on it. Now that I have this much done, I can see it getting finished.

I also have supplemental books to implement too. Vehicle tab still needs to be built along with the minion tab for the player to requisition servo-skulls and servitors.

 

[RavenX]

A progress shot of the data so far.
I have added a lot of new things since the last time I did a progress shot.

 

[RavenX]

Mathias,

How do I hide something on the Armory tab?
I have to implement the weapons of tyranids and tau and those are not usable by player characters and should only be selectable by the appropriate npcs races.

 

[RavenX]

Mathias,

I have a quick question for you in addition to what I asked earlier, should I create a new tab Tyranid Biomorphs? Biomorphs are race / species specific to the nids. Each species of Tyranid has its own set of Biomorph choices. I'm working on some of the NPC data and just wanted some insight on this from you. I think for the skills on NPCs I just might have an incrementer portal so NPCs can be customized easier.

 

[Mathias]

Mathias,

How do I hide something on the Armory tab?
I have to implement the weapons of tyranids and tau and those are not usable by player characters and should only be selectable by the appropriate npcs races.

I'd say show them all, so that if the characters are deep in enemy territory, and have run out of bolter shells, they can pick up a pulse rifle.

You can use prereqs to make them show up in grey if they're for the wrong race.

If you do want to do this, look at the wiki page for dynamic tables - the option called needtag is what you want. It might be appropriate to handle tyranid weapons that way (but not tau, in my opinion) - they'll never pick up another weapon, and no-one else can use a tyranid weapon.

 

[Mathias]

Mathias,

I have a quick question for you in addition to what I asked earlier, should I create a new tab Tyranid Biomorphs? Biomorphs are race / species specific to the nids. Each species of Tyranid has its own set of Biomorph choices. I'm working on some of the NPC data and just wanted some insight on this from you. I think for the skills on NPCs I just might have an incrementer portal so NPCs can be customized easier.

I need more information about what parameters these biomorphs have before I can figure out the best way to approach them.

 

[RavenX]

I need more information about what parameters these biomorphs have before I can figure out the best way to approach them.

Biomorphs are genetic modifications unique to the Tyranid species.
for example, taken from the Hive Tyrant:

Biomorph: At the GM's discretion, a Hive Tyrant may be given the Toxic (1d10) Trait. This Trait will also apply to the Hive Tyrant's Natural Weapon and Ranged Attacks. They may be given Bone Swords and Lash Whips in addition to their scything talons from the Tyranid Weapons. They may also remove the Lightning Attack talent and take a ranged weapon from the Tyranid Weapons listed.

This is just one example of the Biomorphs. They trade something for a different thing usually. Sometimes they just add something. The Boneswords and Lash Whips are of particular note because they are natural weapons on a hive tyrant. And you are correct, no one can pick up and use Tyranid weapons but Tyranids. I will have to consider what you said about the Tau too, as Space Marines typically use Astartes grade weapons because of their larger size. Space Marines are much bigger than a standard human. I think there is a rule about it in the book that I can implement though.

 

[Mathias]

Biomorphs sound like the alternate racial traits in Pathfinder. That uses the same needtag mechanism that I recommended for the weapons to restrict the list to specific races, instead of to race categories, like you want to do for the weapons.

 

[RavenX]

Yeah it does sound like that. I've set up a race chooser table on the basics tab to handle race selection for NPCs. I may need to figure the needtag thing then. As Tyranids also have their own psychic powers to worry about as well.

 

[RavenX]

I've looked at both Shadowrun and Pathfinder, I think I am going to go ahead and create a background tab to put the race / species portals and to handle tyranid biomorphs.

 

[RavenX]

A thought occurred to me, Tyranid weapons are all natural weapons.
If I remember correctly, every Tyranid creature's armament is attached to their body.

I was correct, after doing enough research, Tyranid weapons are all natural weapons. Their bodies excrete the ammo into them, making them useless to other races. I've added [Equipment.Natural] tags to all of them. Tyranid weapon choices are chosen through Biomorph picks.

 

[RavenX]

Deathwatch Progress

A few progress shots from the last few days of what I've been doing on this data for interested parties...

 

[RavenX]

Mathias,

I had a question for you. Why do the conditions on the condition tab for Pathfinder use the field pIsOn instead of abilActive?

 

[Mathias]

By the time the skeleton files were created, we had learned lessons from d20, so in the Skeleton files, adjustments are handled properly - using the same activation field as everything else, instead of having the pIsOn and abilActive fields both mean the same thing, but in different places.

 

[RavenX]

It wouldn't happen to involve error messages like the ones I've attached a screenshot of would it?

It sounds like you've been working on this software a long time. I've learned alot so far, but I still find new things to learn as I go.

 

[Mathias]

Looks like you've got a foreach that's finding things you didn't intend it to find, and then it can't perform the correct operations on the things it finds.

 

[RavenX]

so thats a rogue foreach loop I need to hunt down and fix? how did you know?