Another Character Generator

By OggDude, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Quick question, Ogg. Some of the groups in which I'm playing have just started using exports to sync among our various character builders. However, we all have some custom items and those aren't necessarily sync'd across the various environments.

What happens when the builder imports something and/or tries to display something for which it doesn't have a matching item in its database for that key? If it throws an error, would it be possible to add some handling for that situation?

Just noting that I cannot add a new motivation type in the data editor. I attempted to manually add innovation to tide my players over until the official release of the dataset, however every time I saved and shut down the data editor, it would reset the motivation types (not the specific ones).

So my character generator was messing up real bad but no one seemed to really respond to the error message. I got it working but it deleted some of the characters and I can't find them anywhere. I don't remember how I had to set them up and this has happened before. How do I get it to stop deleting characters randomly?

So my character generator was messing up real bad but no one seemed to really respond to the error message. I got it working but it deleted some of the characters and I can't find them anywhere. I don't remember how I had to set them up and this has happened before. How do I get it to stop deleting characters randomly.

make exports delete file and the data file thats separate from the editor that is made when you open the program and reinstall

I know it's a silly strange request... but...

there is in the air the possibility of a future "android client" for the same data?

i don't mean a full fledged android porting of the program, but something who can open the savefile of chars/npc/base/etc and print it on screen on easy-to-read form (they are xml, so don't think is a huge problem)

i use the Kindle Fire while playing and most of time windows pc is above extreme range, and only way to consult PC is if i had time to print on pdf and exporting them.

a reader client would be better 'cause i could save PC/npc/vehicles/etc on cloud and then open it from anywhere...

print as a pdf

OggDude,

I seem to have broke your program, at least on my machine. It seems to have started when I was toying around with a high level build and had essentially a whole talent tree selected. To rewind, I unchecked the 5 point talents and the program unselected the higher point trees as it should have. However, that move seems to have corrupted the save file and I can no longer select and load up any character. I've even totally deleted the character generator and reloaded (multiple times). The old, corrupted saved characters are still in there. I have "removed" all characters except the one that caused the original corruption. For some reason I can't get that one to even be recognized. The rest I was able to remove, at the pace of one per load. Here is the error I get:

-----------

Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately.

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

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Every new character I now build is only good for that one use. Upon saving, the character is broken and will never load again.

I'm assuming if I can only find the original corrupted character and delete that save file, and the whole saved character file folder, I can at least start over from scratch. Trouble is, I can't figure out there it is. Searching by character name reveals nothing. Reloading the program just pulls in the corrupted file and breaks it all over again.

Where is the file? What is it's name so I can locate it with the search function and delete it?

Does it seem like that approach would work? Anyone else have this issue?

Respectfully Requested,

Mark

Never mind. Buddy of mine helped me solve it.

I'd been opening the character generator from the character generator application and bypassing the launcher so I was not even aware of the data handling tools on the launcher page. All good now.

Amazing work.

Apologies for something that must have been asked already, but I couldn't find anything in the manual or other posts: Is there a way to add new item qualities. There is a fan supplement which is probably well-known, and I'd like to add the gear and crafts. Right now I only include the new qualities in the item's notes section in the character generator.

So I will ask. Will the next update have the 'export data' feature in it?

Really looking forward to this one.

Just noting that I cannot add a new motivation type in the data editor. I attempted to manually add innovation to tide my players over until the official release of the dataset, however every time I saved and shut down the data editor, it would reset the motivation types (not the specific ones).

Not sure what the issue is. Is your new motivation not showing up in the list in the character generator? Does it not contain the specific motivations you added?

Quick question, Ogg. Some of the groups in which I'm playing have just started using exports to sync among our various character builders. However, we all have some custom items and those aren't necessarily sync'd across the various environments.

What happens when the builder imports something and/or tries to display something for which it doesn't have a matching item in its database for that key? If it throws an error, would it be possible to add some handling for that situation?

When it recalcs a character, it removes anything that it can't find a base item for. So if a character has an item with a Key that isn't in the data collection, it's removed.

What you could do is set up an environment on DropBox or Google Drive or something similar and share it with your other players. Then everyone will have the same data.

Apologies for something that must have been asked already, but I couldn't find anything in the manual or other posts: Is there a way to add new item qualities. There is a fan supplement which is probably well-known, and I'd like to add the gear and crafts. Right now I only include the new qualities in the item's notes section in the character generator.

You can't edit item descriptors since many of them have code behind them, plus I add characteristics, talents, and Force powers to them on startup. It's a can-of-worms sort of thing, plus I'd have to customize the data editor to do it.

You could manually add a new quality, however. Just create a new file in <data folder>\DataCustom called "ItemDescriptors.xml" and add the following:

<ItemDescriptors>

<ItemDescriptor>
<Key>UNIQUEKEY</Key>
<Name>My New Quality</Name>
<Description></Description>
<Custom>AddedItem</Custom>
<Type>Weapon</Type>
<ModDesc>My New Quality {0}</ModDesc>
<QualDesc>My New Quality {0}</QualDesc>
<IsQuality>true</IsQuality>
</ItemDescriptor>
</ItemDescriptors>
If it's a quality without a rank, add "<IsBoolean>true</IsBoolean>" and remove the " {0}" from the two descriptions. "<Type>" can be Weapon, Armor, Gear , or Vehicle . Also, make sure the key is unique.
Edit: Sorry, quality-type item descriptors can only be applied to weapons and armor.
Edited by OggDude

Outstanding program! I have been working diligently, inputting all the descriptions.

Request: Any chance you can add the Credit Symbol as a [__] code?

So I will ask. Will the next update have the 'export data' feature in it?

Really looking forward to this one.

Well... I'm in the middle of contemplating a "Reports" feature for the GM Tools. It'll be generic, and I'll include common reports, such as a complete index, inventory, talents, and the like. I already went through and added page numbers to all items that come with the generator and are part of books or FFG publications. In fact, sources will now be added to the bottom of all descriptions displayed in the apps. However, I'm still trying to figure out how to specify a standard report format that anyone can create, edit, and save. There's a bunch of things to consider.

For instance, combining different item types. The base item type for all data items is the same (it's called, wait for it, "DataItem"). This base class contains name, description, key, and sources, amongst other things. So, for an index, all items in the data collections would use DataItem. However, if you want to create an Inventory report, you'd want to include weapons, gear, and armor. Now, these items have a base class called ModdableItem, which is derived from BaseItem. So, they would need to be treated as ModdableItem's. All this is easy in just straight code, but is a bit challenging when creating a generic report structure to follow.

There's also filtering to consider. I could have really simple filters, such as "Type=Energy Weapons", but that's not going to cut it for a lot of people. So, I'm looking into having a boolean expression evaluator for an object. And that object could, once again, be DataItem, or ModdableItem, or the actual class, such as Weapon, Motivation, Skill, etc. So, you could have something like "Item.Type == "Energy Weapons" && Item.Qualities.Exists(qual=> qual.Key == "AUTOFIRE")" to include only energy weapons with the Autofire quality. It can get complicated, plus if you're mixing types, you'd need to know that this filter would only be applied to weapons, and not ModdableItems or DataItems.

Also, some properties aren't displayed as just text. The ModdableItem.Restricted property, for instance, is a boolean (true or false), but you'd want to display the Restricted icon if true, or nothing if false. ModdableItem.AddedMods and Weapon.Qualities are also displayed using a standard function in the character sheet, and if those properties are included, you'd probably want the same format. Even ModdableItem.Price uses a string formatter to include a comma in the thousands place. Again, creating one-off reports by hand with code, it's not a problem (that's basically what I do in the character sheet), but creating a generic report structure that supports these sorts of things can be complicated.

So... that's what's going on right now. If anyone has suggestions for features or for how to implement this, I'm all ears.

Have you considered a rules engine? Something that abstracts a quality and allows it to be the left side of the comparison, an operator, and a compare value?

Populate the engine with the possible "search properties" with appropriate code translations, if a limited comparator is included (e.g. Autofire restricts to Weapons), have that rule automatically added to the filter set. Establish a list of operators and whether or not they're valid for the various "search properties" and then relate a set of comparison values, including manual entry for the final element of the report.

Then, in the UI, dynamically add filters to the report which allow the user to pick a "search property", comparator and value (allowing multi-select from those that are supposed to be lists?).

I realize that's probably more work than you'd like to do, but it'd handle almost all possible search criteria.

On another note, can you add a check to make sure the applications are actually visible on the screen before they open windows? I'm lugging my laptop around today and, because I'm normally connected to a secondary monitor and have my applications displaying on that, I can't see the print screen, nor can I see the character builder because the secondary monitor on which they're normally displayed doesn't exist at the moment...

Quick question, Ogg. Some of the groups in which I'm playing have just started using exports to sync among our various character builders. However, we all have some custom items and those aren't necessarily sync'd across the various environments.

What happens when the builder imports something and/or tries to display something for which it doesn't have a matching item in its database for that key? If it throws an error, would it be possible to add some handling for that situation?

When it recalcs a character, it removes anything that it can't find a base item for. So if a character has an item with a Key that isn't in the data collection, it's removed.

What you could do is set up an environment on DropBox or Google Drive or something similar and share it with your other players. Then everyone will have the same data.

Sorry if this is a stupid question. Keep on with the fantastic work.

First I wanted to thank you for making such an awesome tool. It saves me so much time when GMing.

I have run into an issue where I cannot attach signature abilities to my characters all of a sudden. I've done it in the past and now those same characters don't have signature abilities anymore. When I try to add them the button is there but the dropdown to select a signature ability is just empty. I have tried it on multiple careers, new characters, pre existing saves that once had them. No matter what career I select, even if I purchase all bottom row abilities, the dropdown menu is just empty. I first noticed this on Gambler trying to take unmatched fortune. That character had the entire specialization purchased and is qualified for the signature ability (again, the button for the signature ability tab is there and can be opened) but the dropdown menu to select which signature ability I want is blank. I have the latest version of the builder and have even tried making my own signature abilities in the editor tool as a test. It's always a blank dropdown. Any help would be appreciated. If you need more info let me know.

Just noting that I cannot add a new motivation type in the data editor. I attempted to manually add innovation to tide my players over until the official release of the dataset, however every time I saved and shut down the data editor, it would reset the motivation types (not the specific ones).

Not sure what the issue is. Is your new motivation not showing up in the list in the character generator? Does it not contain the specific motivations you added?

It's nothing to do with the specific motivation and everything to do with the motivation 'type'.

I enter the data editor and 'add' a new motivation category/type, save it and then close down the data editor. However if I open either the character generator or the data editor, it's as if i never ever added it with only the 'default' motivation types (such as Quest, Relationship, Connection etc.) Not sure why it is doing that, but adding it just seems to do nothing, the data editor seems to always revert back, but only with motivation types, if I add specific motivations, they remain in the data editor, but of course I can never get them to appear in the generator because the motivation type they are associated with always mysteriously is deleted/reverted.

I'm not sure if you've addressed this earlier, but I'm still having the issue that the Inaccurate quality doesn't add the setback to the dice pool on the printed sheet. Accurate does add the boost, still.

Hey Ogg I and all my players love the program, but now I seem to be having some trouble with the latest update. Whenever I attempt to print a character in PDF the program displays an 'App Crash' and the whole program shuts down. I have deleted all my characters thinking there was a corrupted file, and I have deleted the whole program several times and reinstalled it, and it still crashes whenever I try to print.

Can you help me?

Just noting that I cannot add a new motivation type in the data editor. I attempted to manually add innovation to tide my players over until the official release of the dataset, however every time I saved and shut down the data editor, it would reset the motivation types (not the specific ones).

Not sure what the issue is. Is your new motivation not showing up in the list in the character generator? Does it not contain the specific motivations you added?

It's nothing to do with the specific motivation and everything to do with the motivation 'type'.

I enter the data editor and 'add' a new motivation category/type, save it and then close down the data editor. However if I open either the character generator or the data editor, it's as if i never ever added it with only the 'default' motivation types (such as Quest, Relationship, Connection etc.) Not sure why it is doing that, but adding it just seems to do nothing, the data editor seems to always revert back, but only with motivation types, if I add specific motivations, they remain in the data editor, but of course I can never get them to appear in the generator because the motivation type they are associated with always mysteriously is deleted/reverted.

There was an issue where specific motivations weren't showing up when you added a motivation. However, if you modified it after you added it, they'd show up. This'll be fixed for the next release.

Just to report, there seems to be a limit to the number of skills and talents a Nemesis can have and still print properly in an Encounter. With my players sitting at around 750XP, I've had to create a pretty insane Big Bad Guy™ - so insane, in fact, that when I create his stat block, it's over 10,000 pixels long. When I include him in an Encounter, then attempt to print the Encounter, the print preview hangs for quite some time, then shows a 57 page preview with some of the Big Bad Guy's™ stats on the first page... and 56 pages marked "Notes".

Still having this issue. There doesn't seem to be a workaround short of simply not creating such an insane character (2000+ value). Ogg, any chance you've looked at this?

I'm not sure if you've addressed this earlier, but I'm still having the issue that the Inaccurate quality doesn't add the setback to the dice pool on the printed sheet. Accurate does add the boost, still.

Just checked, and sure enough, I wasn't looking for Inaccurate when I created the dice pool. It'll be fixed in the next release.

Hey Ogg I and all my players love the program, but now I seem to be having some trouble with the latest update. Whenever I attempt to print a character in PDF the program displays an 'App Crash' and the whole program shuts down. I have deleted all my characters thinking there was a corrupted file, and I have deleted the whole program several times and reinstalled it, and it still crashes whenever I try to print.

Can you help me?

More than likely, you removed the printer that you were using before and the program is still trying to use its old printer settings. I checked my code and I'm now going to make sure that printer settings are for a valid printer before they're used. I had previously made a fix for this, but I realize now that it won't catch this problem until you actually try to print.

In the meantime, you can try removing the saved settings. Browse to <boot drive>:\Users\<login name>\AppData\Local\SWCharGen. There's going to be some folders with some weird characters at the end. Just remove them all and relaunch the app.

Just to report, there seems to be a limit to the number of skills and talents a Nemesis can have and still print properly in an Encounter. With my players sitting at around 750XP, I've had to create a pretty insane Big Bad Guy™ - so insane, in fact, that when I create his stat block, it's over 10,000 pixels long. When I include him in an Encounter, then attempt to print the Encounter, the print preview hangs for quite some time, then shows a 57 page preview with some of the Big Bad Guy's™ stats on the first page... and 56 pages marked "Notes".

Still having this issue. There doesn't seem to be a workaround short of simply not creating such an insane character (2000+ value). Ogg, any chance you've looked at this?

Export the adversary and email it to me ([email protected]). The encounter sheet will split adversaries at certain points, such as weapons, or talents, etc. So, either the routine doesn't work for adversaries that take up more then 2 pages (possible), or one of split points is too large to fit on a single page.

Also, how are you adding Force abilities? I generally don't add individual Force abilities because they're way too wordy and confusing (what works well with characters doesn't necessarily work well with adversaries). I find that it's cleaner, and takes up less space, to just create Special Abilities for each Force power and include a summary with all the upgrades.