Is there a way to modify the output of the character sheet? I'd like to include the line of text that explains what my character's feats do, but instead, I just have the name of the feat. Can this be customised, perhaps, by simply hacking into a pre-existing XML file?
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- The Lone Wolf Development Team
Modifying output..
- Thread starter Tashtego
- Start date
Moved to the d20 forum. 
Currently there's no way to modify output like you suggest. How much information do you want? I could add an option to display the feat summary under the feat name, but that would make the feat list pretty long (since there'd be an extra 1-2 lines of text under each feat). Is that the sort of thing you're looking for?
We also have plans to let you output a special "cheat sheet" showing just a summary of all your feats, special abilities, etc.
Currently there's no way to modify output like you suggest. How much information do you want? I could add an option to display the feat summary under the feat name, but that would make the feat list pretty long (since there'd be an extra 1-2 lines of text under each feat). Is that the sort of thing you're looking for?
We also have plans to let you output a special "cheat sheet" showing just a summary of all your feats, special abilities, etc.
Tashtego wrote:
>
>
> I was thinking of just the one line of text that is the feat summary on
> the current sheet.
I'll play with this and see if I can get something that looks reasonable.
> However, the cheat sheet sounds like a good idea.
> Maybe you could do a 'design your own sheet' option down the track, and
> select which options go on the printed output?
A "design your own" output sheet is absolutely something we've
considered - we just need to come up with a way to make them look good,
while being easy for users to create. It's definitely on our to-do list!
--
Colen McAlister, colen@wolflair.com
Chief Engineer, Lone Wolf Development
>
>
> I was thinking of just the one line of text that is the feat summary on
> the current sheet.
I'll play with this and see if I can get something that looks reasonable.
> However, the cheat sheet sounds like a good idea.
> Maybe you could do a 'design your own sheet' option down the track, and
> select which options go on the printed output?
A "design your own" output sheet is absolutely something we've
considered - we just need to come up with a way to make them look good,
while being easy for users to create. It's definitely on our to-do list!
--
Colen McAlister, colen@wolflair.com
Chief Engineer, Lone Wolf Development
At 01:30 PM 11/20/2007, you wrote:
We realize everybody wants to be able to customize character sheets exactly the way they want them. Heck, I've designed a few myself over the years. The problem is that different users want control over different facets, so we ultimately need something that allows complete control. The problem is that a design tool typically needs to get progressively more complex to use as it provides more control. The net result is what we currently have for in-house use - a complex mechanism with a steep learning curve. That's not very useful to the majority of users, which is why we haven't released it to anyone yet. So we have to figure out what users find to be most important, then create a tool that is simpler to use and provides control over just the things that users find most important.
With that in mind, what ARE the things you want control over? Please keep in mind that the more control you want, the more complex the tool has to be in order to provide that. So please distinguish between "important" items and "would be nice" items.
Just to add my two bits on this....
We realize everybody wants to be able to customize character sheets exactly the way they want them. Heck, I've designed a few myself over the years.
The problem is that different users want control over different facets, so we ultimately need something that allows complete control. The problem is that a design tool typically needs to get progressively more complex to use as it provides more control. The net result is what we currently have for in-house use - a complex mechanism with a steep learning curve. That's not very useful to the majority of users, which is why we haven't released it to anyone yet. So we have to figure out what users find to be most important, then create a tool that is simpler to use and provides control over just the things that users find most important.With that in mind, what ARE the things you want control over? Please keep in mind that the more control you want, the more complex the tool has to be in order to provide that. So please distinguish between "important" items and "would be nice" items.
rob said:At 01:30 PM 11/20/2007, you wrote:
With that in mind, what ARE the things you want control over? Please keep in mind that the more control you want, the more complex the tool has to be in order to provide that. So please distinguish between "important" items and "would be nice" items.
The company I work for (as a technical writer, not a software developer) makes image analysis software, where the automatic generation of reports is an important feature. It is handled via a Report Generator which allows you to design your own templates for output.
You start out with a clean sheet and put objects on it: containers for data, text, grafic elements, whatever. These objects can be position, resized, aligned and so on.
Now you can easily bind different things to the containers; you just drag&drop the thing you want from a list onto the container. After completing the template you load your data, trigger the report generator and the data of this specific data set is handed over to the generator and fed into the containers.
For a character sheet you either have data of a fixed size (attributes, saving throw bonuses,...) or lists of data (equipment, spells, available weapons,...) so you'd probably need two different mechanisms to fill the containers.
This way of working is rather intuitive - for me, at least 8) - and gives you near complete freedom for your design-your-own sheet.
To make it perfect, allow for filtering and sorting of the data within a container. We could have a list of combat-relevant feats under the combat block: make a container for the list of feats and filter it for combat relevant ones. This would of course necessitate an extension of the data, but hey! dreaming should be possible!
If you have questions about this stuff, feel free to contact me.
---
Huldvoll
Baron von Bomberg
At 12:09 AM 11/23/2007, you wrote:
What we currently have is a purely script-based way of doing all that you describe above. The problem is that it has a steep learning curve, as opposed to the drag-and-drop UI that you suggest. What we need is something inbetween as a viable initial solution. Then we can work towards the ideal tool like you suggest on an iterative evolutionary basis.
Since we can't create the holy grail solution on the first go-round, the initial tool will be missing things you would ideally want. So the question becomes: What are the things that are MOST important? What things should we focus on FIRST?
What you're asking for represents many months of development time. Since there are only two of us here doing development, and one of us isn't even a full-time developer (I've got lots of business stuff to deal with, too), that's not something we'll be able to create any time soon. It's something we WANT to add and that we've already discussed, but there are too many things screaming for our time and attention that need to be done first. For example, tools to let folks create their own data files from scratch is something that lots of folks are asking for, so that's a critical piece. Plus the Campaign R&D stuff. Plus the data files for numerous game systems that people want. The list goes on and we have to juggle it all in pieces.You start out with a clean sheet and put objects on it: containers for data, text, grafic elements, whatever. These objects can be position, resized, aligned and so on.
Now you can easily bind different things to the containers; you just drag&drop the thing you want from a list onto the container. After completing the template you load your data, trigger the report generator and the data of this specific data set is handed over to the generator and fed into the containers.
For a character sheet you either have data of a fixed size (attributes, saving throw bonuses,...) or lists of data (equipment, spells, available weapons,...) so you'd probably need two different mechanisms to fill the containers.
This way of working is rather intuitive - for me, at least- and gives you near complete freedom for your design-your-own sheet.
To make it perfect, allow for filtering and sorting of the data within a container. We could have a list of combat-relevant feats under the combat block: make a container for the list of feats and filter it for combat relevant ones. This would of course necessitate an extension of the data, but hey! dreaming should be possible!
What we currently have is a purely script-based way of doing all that you describe above. The problem is that it has a steep learning curve, as opposed to the drag-and-drop UI that you suggest. What we need is something inbetween as a viable initial solution. Then we can work towards the ideal tool like you suggest on an iterative evolutionary basis.
Since we can't create the holy grail solution on the first go-round, the initial tool will be missing things you would ideally want. So the question becomes: What are the things that are MOST important? What things should we focus on FIRST?
mamaloufing
New member
The Cheat Sheet sounds great
This would solve a lot of problems and give us more flexibility without getting into big modifications of the character sheet. Can we do this soon? Please...
Tashtego said:
This would solve a lot of problems and give us more flexibility without getting into big modifications of the character sheet. Can we do this soon? Please...
At 12:53 PM 4/3/2008, you wrote:
Thanks!!
Can either of you give me a concrete example of what you've got in mind? That would make it much easier for me to assess what needs to be adjusted and how much effort is involved to accomplish it.Tashtego wrote:
I was thinking of just the one line of text that is the feat summary on the current sheet. However, the cheat sheet sounds like a good idea. Maybe you could do a 'design your own sheet' option down the track, and select which options go on the printed output?
This would solve a lot of problems and give us more flexibility without getting into big modifications of the character sheet. Can we do this soon? Please...
Thanks!!
What would be handy would be the one line description of a feat to either be printed on the main character sheet, or as a new, separate printable report called 'Feats' which would list all of the character's feats and non-magical powers, as well a description of those feats.
Tashtego wrote:
>
>
> What would be handy would be the one line description of a feat to
> either be printed on the main character sheet, or as a new, separate
> printable report called 'Feats' which would list all of the character's
> feats and non-magical powers, as well a description of those feats.
An optional short description on the main character sheet will be
included in the next release of Hero Lab.
--
Colen McAlister, colen@wolflair.com
Chief Engineer, Lone Wolf Development
>
>
> What would be handy would be the one line description of a feat to
> either be printed on the main character sheet, or as a new, separate
> printable report called 'Feats' which would list all of the character's
> feats and non-magical powers, as well a description of those feats.
An optional short description on the main character sheet will be
included in the next release of Hero Lab.
--
Colen McAlister, colen@wolflair.com
Chief Engineer, Lone Wolf Development
SushiDave wrote:
>
>
> Hmmm... I have a question here I think? I am wondering how I can get the
> "Background Details" to print out to the finished character sheet. Is
> such a thing possible & how do I enable that?
Hmm, it looks like there's currently no way to do this. I'll add an
option to print the background details in the next version.
Sorry for the inconvenience!
>
>
> Hmmm... I have a question here I think? I am wondering how I can get the
> "Background Details" to print out to the finished character sheet. Is
> such a thing possible & how do I enable that?
Hmm, it looks like there's currently no way to do this. I'll add an
option to print the background details in the next version.
Sorry for the inconvenience!
Since a fully User modified output sheet is a long way off. here's some of the suggestions I have for the current sheet that I think would make it more useful:
Shrink the size of the character portrait, move it off the 1st page, or give the option to do so. That way more than 24 skills can appear on the 1st sheet. The official D&D 3.5 sheet has slots for 47 skills on the 1st page. I think 35 skills on the 1st page will be useful for 95% of the characters I have in this software.
Make the currently equipped weapons and armor the first outputted to the sheet. If I have multiple weapons and armor on the character I'd like to see the currently equipped stuff first.
Do not output the weapons and armor not carried by the character (i.e. in some containers or on a mount), or at least give the option not to do so.
Caster levels of scrolls and potions really needs to make it to the sheet. There's a big difference between a 5th level fireball scroll and a 10th level fireball scroll and I can't tell which is which on my output sheet.
magical weapons and armor should be grouped by type in the gear list, not by magical plus. I'd like to see my longsword +1 with my regular longsword. Not by magical plus in numerical order.
For that matter I'd like to see gear outputed to the sheet in groups (i.e. weapons, armor, rings, wonderous items, misc, potions & scrolls). Alphabetical is not useful if you have a lot of stuff. It's easy to find stuff for a low level character. Not so easy for a 18th level one.
Can we get multiple sheets that could mimic different sheet styles out there? I know copying the standard D&D 3.5 sheet style is probably a copyright violation but what about the pathfinder sheet that came out a few weeks ago? You have the data so the output sheet probably wouldn't ruffle legal feathers.
I know this might seem like a lot. But output has become the big sticking point for me with this software. I bought it, I like it. And when I'm at a gaming table where I can use my laptop I don't output it at all. But other gaming tables aren't as big, so a print out is needed.
I find myself using this software for characters when I don't need to output and eTools when I do, just because the output sheet is a simple XSL file I can modify to suit my whims. I hate to compare this software to an out-of-date and no longer supported piece of code but it's the simple truth.
Shrink the size of the character portrait, move it off the 1st page, or give the option to do so. That way more than 24 skills can appear on the 1st sheet. The official D&D 3.5 sheet has slots for 47 skills on the 1st page. I think 35 skills on the 1st page will be useful for 95% of the characters I have in this software.
Make the currently equipped weapons and armor the first outputted to the sheet. If I have multiple weapons and armor on the character I'd like to see the currently equipped stuff first.
Do not output the weapons and armor not carried by the character (i.e. in some containers or on a mount), or at least give the option not to do so.
Caster levels of scrolls and potions really needs to make it to the sheet. There's a big difference between a 5th level fireball scroll and a 10th level fireball scroll and I can't tell which is which on my output sheet.
magical weapons and armor should be grouped by type in the gear list, not by magical plus. I'd like to see my longsword +1 with my regular longsword. Not by magical plus in numerical order.
For that matter I'd like to see gear outputed to the sheet in groups (i.e. weapons, armor, rings, wonderous items, misc, potions & scrolls). Alphabetical is not useful if you have a lot of stuff. It's easy to find stuff for a low level character. Not so easy for a 18th level one.
Can we get multiple sheets that could mimic different sheet styles out there? I know copying the standard D&D 3.5 sheet style is probably a copyright violation but what about the pathfinder sheet that came out a few weeks ago? You have the data so the output sheet probably wouldn't ruffle legal feathers.
I know this might seem like a lot. But output has become the big sticking point for me with this software. I bought it, I like it. And when I'm at a gaming table where I can use my laptop I don't output it at all. But other gaming tables aren't as big, so a print out is needed.
I find myself using this software for characters when I don't need to output and eTools when I do, just because the output sheet is a simple XSL file I can modify to suit my whims. I hate to compare this software to an out-of-date and no longer supported piece of code but it's the simple truth.
Can you do a module drag and drop? Each "set" of printable things could be represented by a module name with module options to show or not show. I mean it'd be kinda list like unless you had areas that you could drag to show where to print to expand (similar to FMP summary sheets) but... it's an idea.
krathen wrote:
>
>
> Can you do a module drag and drop? Each "set" of printable things could
> be represented by a module name with module options to show or not show.
> I mean it'd be kinda list like unless you had areas that you could drag
> to show where to print to expand (similar to FMP summary sheets) but...
> it's an idea.
We've thought about this before, but it would be a large amount of work
(several months worth)
. It is a good idea though, maybe we'll tackle
it someday!
--
Colen McAlister, colen@wolflair.com
Chief Engineer, Lone Wolf Development
>
>
> Can you do a module drag and drop? Each "set" of printable things could
> be represented by a module name with module options to show or not show.
> I mean it'd be kinda list like unless you had areas that you could drag
> to show where to print to expand (similar to FMP summary sheets) but...
> it's an idea.
We've thought about this before, but it would be a large amount of work
(several months worth)
. It is a good idea though, maybe we'll tackle it someday!
--
Colen McAlister, colen@wolflair.com
Chief Engineer, Lone Wolf Development