The Forge Archives

Quote from: RattleheadOk, so basically you want the chargen to allow users to save characters in a *.rid format (or similar) so that they can later open the combat simulator and import it into the combat simulator's character database. Right?

That's exactly right. That way (if nothing else) after you have made up your character, you can run him through a few combats and see how he does :-)

What language are you coding in?

Brian.

I'm using C++ Builder 3. If you're not familiar with C++ Builder, think of it like this: It's the bastard child of an unholy union between C++ and Object Pascal. I'm not 100% sure how it works myself, but I likes it!

Brandon

Quote from: RattleheadI'm using C++ Builder 3. If you're not familiar with C++ Builder, think of it like this: It's the bastard child of an unholy union between C++ and Object Pascal. I'm not 100% sure how it works myself, but I likes it!

Brandon

Fair enough. I'm coding in Delphi 5, which is essentially Visual Pascal. Quite powerful, and fairly easy to work with.

Brian.

Ok. I have a question for everyone. When creating a new character using Insight points from a previous character, do the new Priorities available to you automatically replace the old priorities? I think we've already discussed this, but I want to get everyone's opinion on this.

The way I see it, suppose you have 48 Insight points when you create a new character. This means that you have Priorities ABBCDE, instead of ABCDEF.

Now, is it acceptable to just use the plain old ABCDEF or do you have to drop the F and add a B in this case? I think you have to use the Second B and drop the F.

Like I said, I know that we've discussed this before, but I can't remember what ever came of it.... or what thread it's in. I'm currently working on the Priorities part of my Chargen of Steel character generator, but I want to get this straight from the start. Although, I haven't decided if I'm going to include Insight points in the initial release. That's gonna depend on how much of a pain it is to implement... hopefully not much.

Another thing I'm wondering about. Do Fey and Siehe use the standard nationalities? It doesn't seem that they would, but on the Height and Weight tables it mentions modifiers for Nationality for them as well as for humans. If not the standard human nationalities, what do they use? Maybe I'm missing something here?

Also, Brian, do you have the Combat Sim character file format nailed down yet? If so, gimme the skinny on it and I'll try to get it worked into the 1.0 release. Shouldn't be a problem, if you're still using plain ASCII text files.

Later all, and thanks for your input!

Brandon

Ok. I have a question for everyone. When creating a new character using Insight points from a previous character, do the new Priorities available to you automatically replace the old priorities? I think we've already discussed this, but I want to get everyone's opinion on this.

The way I see it, suppose you have 48 Insight points when you create a new character. This means that you have Priorities ABBCDE, instead of ABCDEF.

Now, is it acceptable to just use the plain old ABCDEF or do you have to drop the F and add a B in this case? I think you have to use the Second B and drop the F.

Like I said, I know that we've discussed this before, but I can't remember what ever came of it.... or what thread it's in. I'm currently working on the Priorities part of my Chargen of Steel character generator, but I want to get this straight from the start. Although, I haven't decided if I'm going to include Insight points in the initial release. That's gonna depend on how much of a pain it is to implement... hopefully not much.

Another thing I'm wondering about. Do Fey and Siehe use the standard nationalities? It doesn't seem that they would, but on the Height and Weight tables it mentions modifiers for Nationality for them as well as for humans. If not the standard human nationalities, what do they use? Maybe I'm missing something here?

Also, Brian, do you have the Combat Sim character file format nailed down yet? If so, gimme the skinny on it and I'll try to get it worked into the 1.0 release. Shouldn't be a problem, if you're still using plain ASCII text files.

Later all, and thanks for your input!

Brandon

Ok. I have a question for everyone. When creating a new character using Insight points from a previous character, do the new Priorities available to you automatically replace the old priorities? I think we've already discussed this, but I want to get everyone's opinion on this.

The way I see it, suppose you have 48 Insight points when you create a new character. This means that you have Priorities ABBCDE, instead of ABCDEF.

Now, is it acceptable to just use the plain old ABCDEF or do you have to drop the F and add a B in this case? I think you have to use the Second B and drop the F.

Like I said, I know that we've discussed this before, but I can't remember what ever came of it.... or what thread it's in. I'm currently working on the Priorities part of my Chargen of Steel character generator, but I want to get this straight from the start. Although, I haven't decided if I'm going to include Insight points in the initial release. That's gonna depend on how much of a pain it is to implement... hopefully not much.

Another thing I'm wondering about. Do Fey and Siehe use the standard nationalities? It doesn't seem that they would, but on the Height and Weight tables it mentions modifiers for Nationality for them as well as for humans. If not the standard human nationalities, what do they use? Maybe I'm missing something here?

Also, Brian, do you have the Combat Sim character file format nailed down yet? If so, gimme the skinny on it and I'll try to get it worked into the 1.0 release. Shouldn't be a problem, if you're still using plain ASCII text files.

Later all, and thanks for your input!

Brandon

Ok. I have a question for everyone. When creating a new character using Insight points from a previous character, do the new Priorities available to you automatically replace the old priorities? I think we've already discussed this, but I want to get everyone's opinion on this.

The way I see it, suppose you have 48 Insight points when you create a new character. This means that you have Priorities ABBCDE, instead of ABCDEF.

Now, is it acceptable to just use the plain old ABCDEF or do you have to drop the F and add a B in this case? I think you have to use the Second B and drop the F.

Like I said, I know that we've discussed this before, but I can't remember what ever came of it.... or what thread it's in. I'm currently working on the Priorities part of my Chargen of Steel character generator, but I want to get this straight from the start. Although, I haven't decided if I'm going to include Insight points in the initial release. That's gonna depend on how much of a pain it is to implement... hopefully not much.

Another thing I'm wondering about. Do Fey and Siehe use the standard nationalities? It doesn't seem that they would, but on the Height and Weight tables it mentions modifiers for Nationality for them as well as for humans. If not the standard human nationalities, what do they use? Maybe I'm missing something here?

Also, Brian, do you have the Combat Sim character file format nailed down yet? If so, gimme the skinny on it and I'll try to get it worked into the 1.0 release. Shouldn't be a problem, if you're still using plain ASCII text files.

Later all, and thanks for your input!

Brandon

Ok. I have a question for everyone. When creating a new character using Insight points from a previous character, do the new Priorities available to you automatically replace the old priorities? I think we've already discussed this, but I want to get everyone's opinion on this.

The way I see it, suppose you have 48 Insight points when you create a new character. This means that you have Priorities ABBCDE, instead of ABCDEF.

Now, is it acceptable to just use the plain old ABCDEF or do you have to drop the F and add a B in this case? I think you have to use the Second B and drop the F.

Like I said, I know that we've discussed this before, but I can't remember what ever came of it.... or what thread it's in. I'm currently working on the Priorities part of my Chargen of Steel character generator, but I want to get this straight from the start. Although, I haven't decided if I'm going to include Insight points in the initial release. That's gonna depend on how much of a pain it is to implement... hopefully not much.

Another thing I'm wondering about. Do Fey and Siehe use the standard nationalities? It doesn't seem that they would, but on the Height and Weight tables it mentions modifiers for Nationality for them as well as for humans. If not the standard human nationalities, what do they use? Maybe I'm missing something here?

Also, Brian, do you have the Combat Sim character file format nailed down yet? If so, gimme the skinny on it and I'll try to get it worked into the 1.0 release. Shouldn't be a problem, if you're still using plain ASCII text files.

Later all, and thanks for your input!

Brandon

Eh.... sorry about the multiple posts there.... I had some problems with my connection... oops...

Brandon

My own opinion is that 48 insight points give you ABBCDEF instead of ABCDEF. It gives you one extra priority to toy with and no priority is taken away.
BTW, I always allows my players to take ABCEEF or something like that, should they wato(i.e. want to make their character weaker due to story or
background), so insight points only raise the ceiling so to speak, but your still allowed to move around freely beneath it.

I really appreciate  that you are doing this, 'cause the one thing that I
REALLY like about D&D is all the software and stuff available.

Agreed.. it should give you ABBCDEF and let you choose your 6 from there. There is no situation I can see where you get a benefit by not taking the 6 best ones, but it should be there if a player wants to.

As for the format, that's easy enough, although it uses a single .ini file for characters instead of many individual files.

Simply edit the fighters.ini file in c:\program files\ros and append a section formatted thus:

[Character Name]
st=x
to=x
en=x
he=x
wil=x
per=x
ref=x
prof=x
weapon=x
shield=x
head=x
chest=x
arms=x
legs=x

Where character name can be anything but try and keep below 18 characters (and of course it's unique within the file); st, to, en, he, wil and per are the relevant attributes, ref is reflexes, prof is the characters primary proficiency (the one for the weapon they will use in the combat sim).

Weapon must be numerical, from 0 to 21. The numbers mean:

0 - arming sword
1 - bastard sword 1 handed
2 - bastard sword 2 handed
3 - club 1 handed
4 - club 2 handed
5 - doppelhander
6 - dual rapiers
7 - flail
8 - footmans pick
9 - longspear
10 - longsword 1 handed
11 - longsword 2 handed
12 - mace 1 handed
13 - mace 2 handed
14 - maul
15 - pike
16 - poleaxe
17 - poniard dagger
18 - quarterstaff
19 - rapier
20 - short sword
21 - warflail

shield must be numerical from 0 to 5. The numbers mean:

0 - None
1 - bucker
2 - small shield
3 - large shield
4 - poniard dagger
5 - arming glove

Note that shield must equal 0 if weapon is 2,4,5,6,9,11,13,14,15,16,18 or 21 because those are all 2 handed weapons. However, if you put in a value above 0 it doesn't really matter, since the combat sim will detect that and change it to 0 anyway. Any other weapon (the 1 handed ones) can have a shield or offhand dagger/arming glove.

Yes, it only tracks one proficiency, so if you want to put in a character who is really good with 2 different weapons, you'll have to load him with the most common one and make the necessary changes at run time, or load him in there twice (with unique names, say [name: pike] and [name: rapiers] or something like that.

head is numerical from 0-2, meaning:

0 - nothing
1 - pot helm
2 - full helm

chest, arms and legs all are numerical from 0-3, meaning:

0 - nothing
1 - leather
2 - chain
3 - plate

So, a typical entry will look like this (this is from the game). As you can see, the Gol Captain has damn high stats, a ref of 6 and a proficiency of 10 with his weapon, which is 15 (a Pike) and no shield (because a pike is 2 handed), and he has chain on his chest and leather on his arms.

[Gol Captain]
st=7
to=7
he=6
wil=6
per=6
ref=6
prof=10
weapon=15
shield=0
head=0
chest=2
arms=1
legs=0

Brian.

Thanks for the info on the file format Brian! I think I'll be able to work with that fairly easily. Do you plan on allowing a user to import characters from a separate file in the future? Suppose a user had a character in a separate file, maybe even an old DOS combat simulator *.rid file. Will you allow them to open that file from within the new combat sim and import it into the fighters.ini file?

The reason I ask is that it might be possible to import fighters directly into the combat sim from my own file format - if I develop one. I haven't really thought a lot about how many and what kinds of output I'm going to have. I still want to have the ability to save a character created with the Chargen of Steel directly to the fighters.ini file, but this would be a nice feature as well.

Just a suggestion for the next release.... :-)

Brandon

PS: Thanks guys for your responses. It's looking more like Insight points will be implemented in a later release - but I don't know for sure yet... more thought is needed...

That reminds me... Brian, one nit-pick on the Sim. You're missing chain coif among the head-pieces.

And I've still not received the file, yet. Problem on your end?


That's all for now.. Hard to concentrate when you have a kitten licking your ribs. ::Glares at the beastie:: Knock it off, will ya?

Quote from: WolfenThat reminds me... Brian, one nit-pick on the Sim. You're missing chain coif among the head-pieces.

And I've still not received the file, yet. Problem on your end?


That's all for now.. Hard to concentrate when you have a kitten licking your ribs. ::Glares at the beastie:: Knock it off, will ya?

Sorry.. been away for a couple of days. Presumably you have it by now?

Brian.

Nope, not yet. Try resending it?