Help- New Weapon and Feats

[Rev Haus 235]

I'm playing in a setting that has firearms. As such, I am looking to add many firearms, as my character uses several different ones. There are two basic distinctions, Small Arms (being pistols) and Long Arms (being anything larger than a pistol).

They are still considered exotic weapon proficiencies to be proficient in them, so I will need to add a feat for Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Small Arms. As i am using pistols, I can and do use one in each hand, thus I will also need to add a Two Pistol Fighting feat.

This is a lot to add, especially in something that is not very user friendly for folks like myself that aren't at all knowledgeable about coding, and I would greatly appreciate any help that I can get.

I've tried my hand at altering the Hand Crossbow into a pistol, it hasn't worked out so well. I didn't get very far, and have no idea how to make it work with the feats I need.

Thanks in advance for any and all your help.

 

[Sendric]

It's not clear to me what the exact problem is. It sounds like you want to have groupings of weapons, and then use feats to apply proficiency to all weapons within that group. That's actually not the way Exotic Weapon Prof usually works. Typically, taking this feat allows the use of one specific weapon. That said, if you want a feat to apply to group of weapons, you'll probably have to use a foreach loop that searches for weapons with a certain tag (in this case, you might consider making a user tag specific to your group of weapons) and applying proficiency for that weapon. For example, down near the bottom, just above "Sources" is a "User Tags" edit button. Click on that, select "New Tag" and enter something like "Pistol". This will add a tag called "User.Pistol" to the weapon which can be seen in the tags section in the upper right of the editor. Assign this tag to each gun that is a pistol. Then your foreach loop can look for any weapon with that tag and assign proficiency for it.

The loop might look something like this:

      foreach pick in hero where "component.BaseWep & User.Pistol"
        perform eachpick.assign[Broadcast.WepProf]
        nexteach

Of course, the downside to this is that the proficiency isn't applied until the weapon is already chosen. This is just off the top of my head, though, so maybe someone else has a better way to handle it.

 

[Rev Haus 235]

Yes, the way the game setting has it set up, Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Smalls Arms (which actually covers proficiency for all fire arms, both pistols and rifles), would allow a character to be proficient in the use of any number of different kinds of pistols and/or rifles. Basically Small Arms are hand held guns, not Cannons or the like.

My problems are:
1) I need help adding "Small Arms" to the choices for feat Exotic Weapon Proficiency,
2) I need help making a feat for Two Pistol Fighting (like Two Weapon Fighting)

So far, adding in the different weapons seems to be going pretty good, though I don't have the feats in place to know if they will all work together.

 

[Kendall-DM]

For the small arms, you are going to have to make a user tag, as Sendric suggested. So, for each small arm that you create in the Weapons editor, you want to add a user tag (the same one). Go down to the bottom of the Weapons editor on one of the weapons you created, and add a tag called SmallArms (don't worry about the name and abbreviation fields, unless you really want to). Now this tag shows up on that weapon. Save and test. Do this for each weapon you created, but you don't have to recreate the tag for each weapon, it should now be in your list of User Tags and you can just select it from the list.

The next step is to create a new weapon called Small Arms that is also an exotic weapon. That will make it selectable as an exotic weapon. Add Sendric's script from above and that should do the trick. This is just off the top of my head, so hopefully I haven't missed anything.

Rinse and repeat for Long Arms.

 

[Sendric]

For the Two Pistol Fighting, you'll have to script the bonuses. Again, this could be done with a foreach and I would suggest using the same user tag you assigned to your small arms weapons, so something like this:

foreach pick in hero where "component.BaseWep & User.SmallArms & Hero.EquipMain"
      eachpick.field[wAttack].value += 2

foreach pick in hero where "component.BaseWep & User.SmallArms & Hero.EquipOff]"
      eachpick.field[wAttack].value += 6

I haven't tested this code, so you may have to tweak it. Or someone could have a more efficient way of doing it.

 

[Rev Haus 235]

I couldn't even begin to know if the code is right or not, or how to tweak it if it needed it. I know exactly nothing about coding.

Frankly that's one of my biggest complaints, and makes me regret buying the product over all. My friends that I game with who also bought the program pretty much feel the same way, and a couple of them are in IT work for a living. The customization part of this is not designed or built for gamers, but for gamers who are also code programmers. It's VERY disappointing, and makes me feel like I wasted my money, since I don't play a straight forward d20 game, and for that matter, who does? It seems to me that the customization part should have been one of the easiest things to work with, considering most every gamers is going to be more creative than to use just the "standard' or supplied materials.

 

[Sendric]

I'm not a programmer at all. Unless you count html, and even then I'm hardly a wizard. The editor is a bit tough to wrap your head around, but for the most part I like it quite a bit. Maybe that's just a personal preference, though.

Also, I just checked and my code definitely doesn't work. I'll take another stab at it, but I may not have something for you until tomorrow as my time here is coming to end for the day. Maybe someone smarter than me can have something sooner.

 

[Aaron]

I couldn't even begin to know if the code is right or not, or how to tweak it if it needed it. I know exactly nothing about coding.

Frankly that's one of my biggest complaints, and makes me regret buying the product over all. My friends that I game with who also bought the program pretty much feel the same way, and a couple of them are in IT work for a living. The customization part of this is not designed or built for gamers, but for gamers who are also code programmers. It's VERY disappointing, and makes me feel like I wasted my money, since I don't play a straight forward d20 game, and for that matter, who does? It seems to me that the customization part should have been one of the easiest things to work with, considering most every gamers is going to be more creative than to use just the "standard' or supplied materials.

I'm sorry to hear that, and while I agree there is some learning curve (D&D is a very complex system, after all), I wouldn't say the customization is only for people who are programmers by trade. Many people, including myself, learned how to use it by looking at examples of what exists in the program and asking on the boards here for help (which I am sure you already see there are many resources available). I've 0 formal training in programming, and yet I've learned well enough to actually be hired on by Lone Wolf. If I can do it, anyone can, so I encourage you to keep at it!

 

[Aaron]

Another way to approach it would be to make the pistols light weapons, then do a foreach through the equipped weapons, and if they are all pistols, apply the Two Weapon Fighting tag to the hero (the same added by the normal two weapon fighting feat).

 

[Rev Haus 235]

Well, I've got a weapon made for Small Arms, and it shows up in the Exotic Weapon Proficiency drop down menu. Go us, thanks for the help on that.
I still can't get a specific weapon to show that I am proficient with it though. I guess I must have screwed up the custom tag part or the script part some where along the line. So I will now be trying to figure that out.

As for the learning curve, its not D&D that's a problem, I've been playing that since Advanced Dungeons and Dragons v2.0 lol. The issues I have are the coding and working within this program's tool set. I agree, this message board has given me a great deal of help, and I even managed to finally get the custom race to work the way I wanted it to to reflect a human variant from this same game setting all because of the help I got on here. I do keep plugging away at it, that doesn't make it any less frustrating, and it doesn't change my feelings that it could be a lot more user friendly. At this point, I spent the money, and I'm fighting through it. "Buy the ticket, take the ride" Hunter S. Thompson. ;-)

Again, I am VERY grateful for ALL of the help that I have gotten.

 

[Rev Haus 235]

AWESOME! I got it to show up as proficient in the weapon I was working with. It appears that the tags are what made the difference. I clicked on the "Counts As" button, and made it count as a Small Arm. Problem solved. The code part seems to be unnecessary, after making an exotic Weapon Small Arm, I could take the feat for it. All other guns will just have to "Count As" Weapon Small Arm and I'll be proficient in them. Or so it appears.

Thanks again for your help guys. Now, on to the Two Pistol Fighting. heh

 

[Kendall-DM]

I am a programmer by trade, and even I struggled in the beginning with this scripting language. However, as a scripting language, it's very basic in its structure, and it has a tone of reusability. That said, there are advanced concepts that I grasp, but others may not, and I am more than happy to help/share my expertise.

You don't have to be a programmer, as has been said before. Even if you don't want to code, you can always ask one of us here on the board, and we can usually create a solution for you. As I said before, I am more than willing to help anyone in need, assuming I can. You just have to make sure the problem you are having is clearly stated so we understand it correctly.

The reason the above code wasn't working for you is probably a timing issue. You will hear that alot, that it is probably a timing issues. Different phases assess, access, assign, and calculate different things on the hero. If you want to have a look at what is happening timing wise, you can go to your main window with your hero loaded, click on Develop->Float Info Windows->Show ...

Show Hero Tags shows the tags appearing on the hero
Show Hero Field shows the fields of calculated values associated with that hero
Show Task... shows the timing of each thing (fields and tags) associated with the hero

NOTE: The hero is an entity of itself, and the things you put on a hero are referred to as "picks" or "things". Here they are called "Selection" but mean the same thing. Each of these has its own tags, fields, and tasks that are performed. It might be best to refer to these in layman's terms, such as abilities, items, attributes, etc. All of these are referred to hereafter as "picks", which is how HL understands them.

Show Selection List shows all the picks on the hero
Show Selection Tags shows all the tags appearing on that pick
Show Selection Fields shows all the fields of calculated values associated with that pick
Show Selection Tasks shows the timing of each field and tag associated with that pick

Don't worry about gizmos, that is an advanced concept that you'll have to ease into if you intend to use it. Essentially, gizmos are custom items/spells/etc. that have a special container to make them work in HL. I find them to be a PITA, and I'd like to think I know what I'm doing. Just stay away from them unless it is absolutely needed.

Hopefully that is of some help in understanding the basic ideas behind the coding process.

 

[Rev Haus 235]

I could be wrong, but the code stuff for the exotic weapon small arm stuff seems to be unnecessary. Once I got the tags right, everything fell into place. I even erased the code out completely and it works fine.

The two weapon stuff doesn't seem to work, at all. Even for the stock Two Weapon Fighting feat, it doesn't show up on the character where I can even get an attack in my off hand. Maybe, or I guess its likely, that I'm missing something there too.

 

[Kendall-DM]

Another way to approach it would be to make the pistols light weapons, then do a foreach through the equipped weapons, and if they are all pistols, apply the Two Weapon Fighting tag to the hero (the same added by the normal two weapon fighting feat).

Actually, it's much easier than that. Make all the small arms weaons into light weapons (under the Class of the Editor) and they will operate correctly under the two weapon fighting feat. You actually don't even need to have a Two Pistol Fighting feat, since this will cover it as well. In other words, just making the pistols into light weapons will cover this.

Now, if you intent is to make pistols 1-handed and doesn't have the ability to apply the two-weapon fighting feat to it, and you want a separate feat to cover the two-pistol fighting feat, then you will have to do some sort of script to make it work. Typically, if you have two 1-handed weapons in akimbo style use, you would be taking a -4 to each pistol. So you'll want to fix that so that it is only -2 to each weapon. Try this (again just off the top of my head).

@Post-Attributes (Users) 20000

var akimbo as number
foreach pick in hero from BaseWep where "User.SmallArms & ((Hero.MainHand & !Hero.OffHand) | (!Hero.MainHand & Hero.OffHand))"
  akimbo += 1
endif
if (akimbo = 2) then
  foreach pick in hero from BaseWep where "Hero.MainHand | Hero.OffHand"
    each.field[wBonus].value += 2
  nexteach
endif

This makes the assumption that all small arms are 1-handed weapons. This also assumes only a creature with two arms making two-pistol attack. What this does is add a bonus of 2 to the attack values of the pistols so they go from -4/-4 to -2/-2. If you have creatures with more than 2 arms using the feat, the code will require some fixing. Off the top of my head, this is what I think will work.

Oh, since you are using the "Counts as" feature on the weapon, you probably don't need the script. However, you still need to keep the SmallArms user tag for the use of this script.

 

[Rev Haus 235]

Even after taking the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, it doesn't show anything on the character about the off-hand attack. I've tried to arm him with two daggers, and it will only let me use one. It gives me both attacks that I am due at my level (11 total, Rogue 10, Fighter 1), but it doesn't give me the off hand attack.

Also, I do need to have a separate feat for Two Pistol Fighting. It both matches the rules for the world we're playing in, and it was ruled by my GM that I needed to take it, and Two Weapon Fighting to be able to fight using a sword in one hand and a gun in the other.

And yes, I made the pistols light weapons to begin with.

 

[Kendall-DM]

Ah, I think I understand. What you want to do is equip one dagger in the 1st box (main hand) and one in the 2nd box (off hand). That is how to make the two-weapon fighting work correctly. That should make you -2 on both attacks, but the same attack bonus on both attacks. Does that solve it?

 

[Rev Haus 235]

Ok, that makes that part work. Good call. Thanks for your help, on both threads. You're a champ, I mean that. Now I get how that works, at least for the daggers. Let me see if that works for the pistols now. ;-)

 

[Rev Haus 235]

ARGH! lol So frustrating.
Every time I take the custom pistol it adds it to my character sheet. Great. But it also removes it from the list of weapons, so that I can't have two unless I stack them together, and then it doesn't allow me to put one in my offhand properly.

 

[Aaron]

You might have the Pistol weapon uniqueness set to "Unique". You should go to the editor and switch it to "No" if that is the case.

 

[Aaron]

Something that is Unique can only ever exist once on a particular hero. If it is set to "No" then you can add it multiple times.