Topic: AutoHarp 1.0

[dagorhir]

It's one of my test characters, a human with Dwarf and Elf heritage. That is something I find so very cool about Harp.
How do I add races to the hybrid dropdown? Do I have to add an entire new race or is there someway to just add the hybrids. My setting has the possibility of Goblin, Orc and Hobgoblin hybrids, but none of these races are available as player character races.

From Harp Fantasy Pg. 27, for reference:

Many players prefer to customize their characters by creating
a character with a mixed racial heritage. To do so, the
player should select one race to be the primary influence for
the character. Players may then use their DPs to purchase one
Greater or two Lesser Blood Talents to become either the hybrid
of two races (such as the Half-Elf), or to have the heritage
of several races!

[DavidKlecker]

Now I'm even more confused. If the rules say you must select two hybrid lesser races then the program is working according to that design. If the rules say you can select one lesser hybrid race or two lesser hybrid races, then I need to fix the program to allow the user to pick only one lesser hybrid race. I figured that selecting one greater race or two lesser races was -10DP and selecting one -5 lesser race was -5DP.

To have a hybrid race show up it must be a race. So you will have to create a Goblin, Orc and Hobgoblin races for them to show up. I don't believe these races are in the Core rules book. I'll check again to see if they were added. I'm only adding the races that are in that chapter.

[dagorhir]

The primary race is the race selected in the race field. After that you can select another race as a great blood talent, for 10DP, to create a hybrid of two races, like an Half-Elf (Human/Elf hybrid), or you can select up to two lesser blood talents, for 5 DP each, to create a mixed heritage of up to three races, like Human/Elf/Dwarf.

My hybrid test character Human/Elf/Dwarf has this for background: his maternal grand-mother was an Elf and his paternal grand-father was a Dwarf. So he inherits some aspects of the other two races while being primarily Human.

The second hybrid character is a mix of Halfling and Dwarf. This character's father was a Dwarf, making the Halfling a Half-Dwarf. He is heavily influenced by his father so he was many physical aspects of a Dwarf, as well as several talents. He is primarily a Halfling, while looking a lot like a Dwarf.

Both case cost 10DP, but create vastly different characters.

Chapter 13 Encounters and Monsters has all the necessary information to add several monsters as character races. I would them out of the basic database to let GMs decide if they want them or not. I'll add those races in, I'll be able to create NPCs of those races through autoHarp.

[DavidKlecker]

Thanks for the clarification. Yeah, I re-read through that rule and have come to the same conclusion. Given there really isn't a push for this release I have gone ahead and made a change so that when you select a lesser hybrid race the talent box does in fact change. However there was the change to a global variable which had incorrectly marked 5 as DP for lesser hybrids.

I have also gone ahead and added the armor by the piece fix which was just variable casting getting confused. I have also added the weight decimal change and the ampersand issue should be taken care of as well.

[dagorhir]

That is simply awesome.

[dagorhir]

autoHarp calculates the BMR from the BMR table in the race database correctly, but only on initial initialization of the character apparently. If the height is modify after that, the BMR doesn't reflect it. The field changed event should be implemented on the height field to force a recalculation of the BMR.

The BMR should also be recalculated after a level up, just in case the Quickness stat was changed using DPs.

Then it would be perfect.

[DavidKlecker]

The automatic updates for when the user updates the height and the quickness (also if they adjust the quickness in the level) seems to work already. It could be due to the change I made with the BMR values in the race database, but I didn't have to make any additional fixes to this. I have added a BMR Other field in the Statistics tab so that a user can add a bonus to the BMR. It automatically updates the BMR and this update is reflected in the printed sheet as well.

Unless anything else comes up, looks like I'll start putting things together here. There is still time for "minor" adjustments if anything comes up as I am now going to work into getting this version working for Ubuntu.

[dagorhir]

All issues that I have come up with have been stated already. So I'm ready for the next version.

I need more information on how to create a training package in the database file, particularly for the category - skill - subskill structure. The training package already included didn't give much a a clue, other than how to add a subskill that doesn't exist in the skills database. At least that is what it looked like to me.

[DavidKlecker]

Unfortunately there are no rules in AutoHARP for Training Packages. I have decided, until I can come up with a solution I like, to just let the user put the training package in manually. So right now, there is no automatic support in AutoHARP for Training Packages. Sorry. Not sure when that will happen. The problem is the complexity of them and that it was a lot easier for me to just manually add the ranks and apply the information. In fact I have removed the .xml tables from this version since they are not being used by the program at all.

[dagorhir]

That's not a important issue for me at this point. Is there a way to edit skill ranks without using DPs and then manually edit the DPs?

For Training Packages, I would refer you to Harp Fantasy Page 60.

The rules are quite simply. The important part is the cost, which is the total cost of the ranks for the character multiplied by 0.75. That's where training packages actually matter since it affects the development cost.

[DavidKlecker]

In the level wizard, no. There is no way to add ranks without using DP's. You have to do that from the Skills tab. What I would do is do the training package first before leveling the character, then put into the Development Point box under the Traits Tab the cost (in negative) of the package. Then level up the character.

[dagorhir]

I will give that a try.

[RandalThor]

I cannot seem to get anything other than: human, urban, fighter for character choices. I do not know how to install the fantasy & sci-fi add-on. This does not seem very user-friendly to me. (No, I am not very adept at these things.)

[DavidKlecker]

Hi RandalThor,

The setup you seem to have is the demo setup so yes, you haven't installed the add-ons properly. Don't fret. This is why I made these video tutorials, so that they can walk you through the process of installation and use. Here is the video tutorial that shows how to install the main application and the add-ons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YZt-g3ePWA

There are other tutorials that help with the use of the application itself. I plan to update this particular tutorial here this week when Martial Law is released. 

AutoHARP is designed to function as close as possible to standard software to make it as user friendly as possible. No software is 100% self-evident. There is always a learning curve. So hopefully after the tutorials things will get easier.

Thanks!

[RandalThor]

Thanks, I will look into those.

[dagorhir]

Found another little issue with the defenses. Qu - AP can never be negative. The logic behind that just Qu x 2 - AP. You should add a if < 0 then = 0.

From Harp Fantasy page 92:

Quickness Bonus x2 – The value of a character’s Quickness bonus doubled. This number can be reduced to zero, but never below, based upon the maneuver penalty of the armor worn.

[DavidKlecker]

I've added the ticket to SourceForge. Unfortunately version 1.0.2 has already been submitted so this will have to wait for the next version.

[dagorhir]

I have installed version 1.0.2. What are the changes to the database that I need to look for to update my custom files?

[DavidKlecker]

Version 1.0.2 is available? I thought I would have gotten something from Nicholas on that. Hmm.. okay.

You should notice right off the bat that the base files under Harp Fantasy and Harp Sci-Fi are gone and replaced with a Config.xml file. If you had any of these old base files with a custom link to a custom xml file (the base files contained a node called <DatabaseLocation> that told the application where to find the information) you have to go into Config.xml and in this file make the same change you would have made in the base file (if that makes sense). For example, say you have a custom Cultures xml file. So you would have had to update the Cultures.xml DatabaseLocation node to point to that custom cultures files. So now you go into Config.xml and locate the File node with the attribute name "Cultures". In the File node should be the DatabaseLocation node and there you will now update that node to point to your new Culture file.

The other change is to the DefensesFromCoreRules.xml. You will notice that there are now new nodes called <ArmorPiece>. If you have a custom defenses file you will want to copy this node into your custom file.

[dagorhir]

The other change is to the DefensesFromCoreRules.xml. You will notice that there are now new nodes called <ArmorPiece>. If you have a custom defenses file you will want to copy this node into your custom file.

Do the locations in <ArmorPiece> have to match the locations in the <ByThePiece> nodes?

My locations have changed from the DefensesFromCoreRules.xml, i.e. I don't have the Pauldrons location as that has been replaced by Right Shoulder and Left Shoulder.