Skill/Attribute links

[EightBitz]

In the skeleton system, the sample skill has this bit of code at the end.

  <!-- Sample Skill -->
    <!-- Specify the attribute to which this skill is linked -->
    <link linkage="attribute" thing="attrStr"/>
    </thing>

The system I'm working on has skills whose base values are averages of different attributes. For instance, close combat would be based on the average of Agility, Observation and Strength.

Is there a way to do this with the link tag, or am I going to have to redefine how skills work so I can exclude the link tag and do what I want with completely custom code?

 

[Mathias]

If you define a second and maybe third linkage (some or all of those linkages may be set as optional, depending on whether skills always use 3 attributes or if they sometimes use 1 or 2), would that work? Seems like you could have the skills look up the values on all their linkages, and then average the values.

 

[EightBitz]

If you define a second and maybe third linkage (some or all of those linkages may be set as optional, depending on whether skills always use 3 attributes or if they sometimes use 1 or 2), would that work? Seems like you could have the skills look up the values on all their linkages, and then average the values.

I ... don't know. Would I just add additional link tags to the thing?

I'm by no means an expert on this. I glean what I can from the wiki and the samples.

So, would I just do this?

    <!-- Specify the attribute to which this skill is linked -->
    <link linkage="attribute" thing="attrStr"/>
    <link linkage="attribute" thing="attrObs"/>
    <link linkage="attribute" thing="attrAgi"/>
    </thing>

Then have an eval script to average those? This is where I kind of get lost. All I could find in the wiki was that "This links the attribute to the skill ..." That's paraphrased, but you get the idea.

 

[Mathias]

Look in traits.str, in the Skill component, to see how the linkages are defined.

 

[EightBitz]

Look in traits.str, in the Skill component, to see how the linkages are defined.

So, then would I have something like this:

@value = field[trtFinal].value + ((linkage[attribute].field[trtFinal].value + linkage[attribute2].field[trtFinal].value + linkage[attribute3].field[trtFinal].value)/3)

followed by this:

<linkage linkage="attribute" optional="no"/>
<linkage linkage="attribute2" optional="no"/>
<linkage linkage="attribute3" optional="no"/>

???

 

[Mathias]

Looks like something you can test, rather than asking me for verification before testing it.

 

[EightBitz]

Looks like something you can test, rather than asking me for verification before testing it.

Yeah, it got me nowhere. I know it's not elegant, but I'm scrapping the linkage concept, and just using an eval script in the skill thing.

 

[Mathias]

Without details, I can't help you figure out why that didn't work.

 

[EightBitz]

Without details, I can't help you figure out why that didn't work.

Mathias, please don't take this personally. You're always very helpful, and I appreciate that.

In general, though, I get frustrated by the fact that the documentation for the authoring kit isn't always comprehensive, and I have a lot of questions that I can't find or deduce answers for. Tons of questions. But I don't want to treat this forum as my personal support channel. So I refrain. And for that, there's so much I'd like to do that I can't do.

So, I kind of get frustrated when I try to get a clear answer to a question, and the reply is "that sound like something you can test instead of asking."

That's just discouraging for me. And at that point, I'd rather just stop asking, because it makes me feel like I'm imposing. And that's not my intent.

So, thank you for your help so far (and I mean that honestly), and I'll work the rest out on my own.

 

[EightBitz]

Took me a few days, but I got this working.