OK, I finally got around to trying the new version. I noticed a few points:

• When you hit the button "Enter Fate Points", the program does not simply accept the amount of fatepoints entered, but calculates them as if the amount entered was in actuality the d10 roll
• neither the psychic powers selected nor the psy rating are shown on the actual character sheet
• I'm only halfway through Rank 2 and already running out of space for talents. I realize that this is a design flaw in the original FFG character sheet and I don't really have a solution for it since there are so many other things that are also needed on the sheet, but maybe you can come up with an idea to fix this
• The Psy Rating is only added to the damage of the force sword at the moment. It needs to add to Penetration as well. In addition, when I raised the Psy Rating from 3 to 4, nothing changed in the damage section of the force sword. Maybe has to do with the Psy Rating not being displayed on the sheet.

Apart from that, I think the sheet is coming along nicely... just one more question from the guy with only modest excel experience: how can I cut off the top row with the buttons on the actual sheet in order to print only the sheet without printing the buttons? Normally I would just hide the section in excel, but apparently I can't in your sheet.

Really appreciating the amount of work you're sinking into this.

New version: v02_20110524

Fixed:

• Force Weapons Penetration is now modified by Psy Rating
• Fate Points calculation

New:

• Lots of background code to calculate Weapon Stats - this creates a slight delay when updating background data, but shouldn't be too bad, and ensures that weapon stats are always reflecting any changes to a character.
• Optional Weapon Statistics from Living Errata v1.1 - a check box on Equipment tab
• Power Armour History - the effect of PA History is displayed in the Notes section on page 2. For the time being, I've decided this is most effective way of getting this information on the sheet. After going through all the histories, there were too many complications to resolve in short order and so this feature (of modifying Characteristics and such) is something for the future, although I may be able to sort the bonus talents.

To Do:

• I'll look into making more space for Talents
• I've changed the 2 buttons on sheet to not print. Hopefully, this will fix the print issue. If not, then I'll look at writing some code to set the pages for printing. Believe it or not, but I haven't actually printed a sheet!

Thanks to all for the feedback. I absolutely love the books, but have only been able to run the intro adventure (my group are more focused on D&D at the moment), so this is my only way to keep in touch with the game. I've been using it as an exercise to learn the rules as well as create a useful tool and your comments have helped me to understand a few of them that I was misreading.

New version: v02_20110525

Fixed:

• Psy Rating now printing on sheet

New:

• Improved code - this removes the delay incurred in the previous version
• Printed Talents - new area for Talents should allow more to be shown

To Do:

• Improved Talents - Signature Wargear and Astartes Weapon Specialisation
• Improved Wargear - Ability to modify weapons through combining Weapon Upgrades and Ammunition

New version: v03_20110526

Big Update!

Fixed:

• XP costs for Deed now calculate correctly

New:

• Improved Talents - Signature Wargear now allows you specify what item you have. It's not perfect in its validation, but it works. Astartes Weapon Specialisation now allows you select a Type and Class.
• Load and Save characters - you can now load and save characters! Hopefully, there will be no problems (haven't found any yet). This does create an issue with New Skill/Talent Groups. These won't be saved in this version. I will try and get this sorted ASAP, but for now I'm hoping people are relying on this function too much at present.

Fixed:

• Custom Skill/Talent Groups are now saved with Character

New version: v03r2_20110527

New:

• Improved Load/Save feature
• Several new user checks, e.g. check to see if you have rerolled one Characteristic when you use the random Characteristics option.

looks really good but printing is tough. everytime i print i get the column with weapon skill going down the sheet

Updated print settings. Hopefully should fix problem.

ok looks good to the side but bottom of first page it cuts corruption is cut in middle, and there is a forth blank page printed.

thanks for the great work.

Is there a way to show more that 4 weapons? E.g. I've got a Ultramarine Dev who requisitioned a Chainsword for a mission, but the sheet will only show 4 weapons, the Chainsword has replaced the Heavy Bolter.

It's a great program, I envy you your time and skills to create it.

tlavalle: I'll look into some code that will ensure that pages are always set up before printing. I'm from the UK and so the page size is A4. Depending upon location and printer settings, this size may not be suitable.

Surgeon: The 4 slots replicate the 'official' sheet. I'll think about alternative ways to display weapons that allows for more than 4, in the same way I've changed the Talents area to allow for more to be shown.

Could someone let me know what paper/page sizes are typically used. As mentioned above, I've set the sheet to print on A4. I am now writing some code to sort the layout depending upon what paper size is required. My initial thought is to offer A4 or Letter, but are there others that would be required?

New version: v03r3_20110531

New:

• Added a button to change paper size.

Don't know about the rest of you, but my players and I think the 'official' character sheet sucks. There's not enough room for more weapons and it doesn't have room to detail what the talents/traits do for those who don't want to have to look up the book every time they roll a dice, or don't have enough room in their brains to remember.

I'm in Australia so A4 is fine.

Thanks again.

Surgeon said:

Will have a think about Talent descriptions, but didn't want to remove the necessity of the books like the D&D Character Builder did.

Surgeon said:

And it's writer was clearly sponsored by HP.

Too much ink on the official sheet.

If anyone has any suggestions for alternative layouts for a character sheet, then please let me know. If you've seen examples of the web, then point me to them.

I as mentioned earlier, I haven't had a chance to really play the game and so have no experience to draw on as to what would be a good/bad character sheet.

My current thought is to produce a second 'tab' with alternative print examples and then ask for feedback. This wouldn't be an actual sheet/page, but just examples of alternative ways to present character information.

zorconsword.blogspot.com/2011/04/deathwatch-character-sheet.html

This one looks ok, however there is not enough room for Psychic powers and he also has Throne Gelt listed. However it has lots of weapon slots and advancements taken, which is handy.

The other ones I've found all seem to be minor variations on the original in the book, so I guess this is your chance to strike out and make something unique.

On this last version, When you check out a character the last talent listed is repeated on all the free space of the talent box. No idea if this happens when you print as well.

Thx for this great project!

Isidro

looks great printed great thank you

New version: _v04r1_20110601

Version numbers now determines which saved characters are compatible. Each time I need to change the data that is saved with a character, I will change the version number. Release numbers mean a change to the interface or printed sheet, but no change to the actual data that is saved (or not a change that will create a problem).

This means that characters saved with the last version (v3.0 r3) will not work with this one. This is because more Advances and Weapons are saved with the data.

Fixed:

• Extra advance printed - no longer printed
• Weapon Penetration - values printed.
• Change Paper Size - code has been (hopefully) improved.

New:

• Alternative print sheet - this allows for 62 Advances and 6 weapons.

Minor Update: v04r2_20110601

New:

• Removed code from start-up. This should speed up actually accessing the sheet.

Phenomenal work, thanks

Just noticed Forbidden Lore skills aren't written to the sheet when you take new ones, e.g. Dark Angel takes Forbidden Lore (Traitor Legions), not entered on sheet.

Due to a slight mix up, I'm not able to upload a new version of the tool.

What I can say is that I've fixed the Lore skill print issue and there's a completely new font-end that seems to resolve a number of issues that I've been having with printing.

The new version will still work with characters saved in previous releases of v0.4 but you will need to load and update your character (although you don't need to actually change anything) in order to save additional data now used on the alternative print sheet. In other words, load your character, click Create/Update and the just close the form, then save your character.

Keep an eye out tomorrow for new version...