I have now updated to the January version of ERA and Im getting an error the program is stating that there is "No defined cost for hand guns" and is stopping dead when I get to hobby ranks in character creation and it will not load any of my already generated characters. I have copied over all the custom xml's into the correct sections of the RMFRP Config.
I have received the files and they were really useful for me in understanding the issue.
You have added a new skill category group, skill categories for the new group, and new skills that are not in the new categories but in other pre-existing categories. You have also added new professions which include the cost for the new categories.
The existing professions in your installation do not have a cost for the new categories, so the system assigns a cost of 0 by default.
If you were to start the server and create a character of any profession, it should work ok, although each character would then have to indicate its cost for the categories.
Now, if you load a character (or create one and then edit it in the Character Sheet module), and add skills to the new categories, the system would know of new skills in the new categories.
And here is the bug/limitation.
When creating a new character, of an existing profession that has no cost assigned to a category, IF there are skills in that category, the system is not equipped to assign a cost to it during the Hobby Ranks step of the Character Creation, and you can't complete the character.
So, some approaches and some food for thought looking at future versions of ERA.
- If you are going to add skills and categories, it is best to create your own professions instead of using those included in the packages. This will improve with the Extended Professions feature that will be an option in the upcoming poll for "New features in 2017". This feature will imply that you can add the missing costs for your new skills and categories to any profession in the packages.
- You can create your characters, regardless of profession, as long as there are no skills in the Skills.XML for new categories, if that is the first thing you do after starting the server. So far it seems that only the Hobby Ranks step has a problem with that, so if you start the server, create all the characters, and then edit them in the Character Sheet module to add skills, you should be fine.
- I have taken note of this situation and will try to improve support for it in the next version. This will mean that a new skill in a new category with no cost will be assigned a cost of 0, instead of breaking the character creation process.
- Be careful with the use of weapon skills in a new category, since by default those skills will not be considered an Offensive Bonus and will therefore not be offered in the Adventure module when attacking, and you won't be able to specify a fumble range. You can change the skill type in the Character Creation module but editing the skill and then clicking on the Gears icon, choose Classification: Offensive Bonus, accept, and next time you edit it the additional options will appear.
It is quite interesting to see how different groups adapt ERA to their needs, so thanks for sharing.
And let us know if you require further assistance.