My first attempt in the editor (add a new alternate racial trait)

[Indus101]

Hello all,

Been enjoying HL as a player for many months now, and ready to start dabbling in the editor as a DM. I have zero experience in scripting of any kind, but I've been reading posts and tinkering with things in the editor.

The first thing I'd like to try and accomplish is to add a new Alternate Racial Trait. I should note here, I'm using RavenX's Forgotten Realms user files (thank you's to him, Shadow, and everyone else making these great mods).

So first, what I wanted to accomplish.

New Alternate Racial Trait for Elves
Elven Reflexes - +2 Bonus to Iniative

So here's what I tried:

Opened the Forgotten Realms Races.user file.
Went to the Alt. Racial Trt tab.
Made a New(Blank) trait.
Gave it a Name, Unique ID, Uniqueness(Unique), Summary Text, Description Text
Made it Available to the Race I wanted to have it
Selected which Racial Special Ability to Remove
Checked "Upgrade - hide from list?"
Added this Eval Script:

~if we're not active, just get out now
doneif (activated = 0)

perform #traitcurrent[attrIni,+,2,""]

I got that from script from another post concerning adding a bonus to Initiative (which is the Alternate Racial Trait I want to add). I have no idea if it's right or not.

I saved everything, then went into the "Races" tab.
I clicked on the Wild Elf ID
Clicked "Bootstraps" / "Add another Bootstrap" / "Choose"
I sorted the drop-down menu to only show "Alternate Racial Traits", but alas the new trait I added wasn't showing up.

SO, I tried the same stuff described above, but this time instead of a New(Blank) trait and made a New(Copy) from the "Eternal Grudge" Alternate Racial Trait, thinking that there was some element I missed and that maybe this would solve it. I modified all the necessary fields / id's as described above, saved it, and hopped back over the the "Races" tab.

Again, though, I'm not seeing it when I look in the Bootstraps / Alternate Racial Traits selection.

I did try and putting the feat Improved Initiative in as a new Bootstrap, and that gave me the bonus I was looking for, but I'd rather do it the right way and understand what I was doing wrong in the processes I describe above. I feel like there's some mechanic I'm missing that will point the new racial trait ID to the drop-down menu under bootstraps.

Admittedly, I could be doing a whole lot wrong, as I have no previous experience with scripting of any kind, and my attempts to ingest the HL Editor wiki where met with befuddlement. Still, I would like to learn, so if anyone has handy tips that could point me in the right direction I would be very grateful to hear them.

Thanks in advance!

Indus

 

[Indus101]

Update: So I tried this in the eval instead:

hero.child[Initiative].field[Racial].value =+ 2

but I'm getting an "error in right-side expression of assignment message"

Any thoughts?

 

[Aaron]

"=+" is backward. Try "+=" instead.

 

[Indus101]

Wow, it worked!

Thanks!

 

[Aaron]

No problem, happy to help!

 

[ShadowChemosh]

Opened the Forgotten Realms Races.user file.

I want to talk about this step here. You really want to create a "NEW" .user file called something like "My FR stuff.user". If you modify the .user file directly then when the next update comes out it will get erased.

The next install will overwrite the file "Forgotten Realms Races.user" with the new version. But if you have your stuff in your own file this won't happen.

Same for if you wish to Change something in the "Forgotten Realms Races.user" file you should NOT do it directly. Instead in your custom file on the right side you can use "Replace Thing ID" to have your new Thing overwrite the community version. This way future updates don't erase your changes.

 

[Indus101]

Yeah, I made this post before watching your videos Shadow, then realized I should be working in my own user file so I quickly amended that.

Gaining speed now. Just those first few steps opened a bunch of possibilities for me, so thanks again for making the videos. I'm one of those people who can't grab things off a page like I can watching someone demonstrate it.

This is very cool, though I'm a long way off from my goal - a customized Valantra class (Spellsingers) for my Forgotten Realms / Pathfinder game.

Thanks for the advice and help!

Indus

 

[Umarian]

Don't worry Indus, I am the same way. Just be glad that you are not sitting in front of him making the same mistake over and over and over again. People think I joke about his +7 Keen Vorpal Core Rulebook of Smiting.

How he got it made breaking the +10 total rule I have no clue, not to mention getting vorpal and keen on a bludgeoning book, but I have the Core Rulebook stamp on my forehead forever now. LOL

Point is, we all start somewhere.