Okay I think I "might" have discovered the issue. The Pathfinder Beta didn't have the options for the cape. Only "Add type & Spell charges". I'm guessing what is happening that the gamemode is loading both the Pathfinder and the beta at the same time.
When we made the PFRPG set the existing gamemode had to be change so that both sets couldn't be loaded together. If you just put the pathfinder core set in the data folder without changing the gamemode it's going to cause some issues. But the 5.15+ series there's a dataset install option under Tools > Install Data. Re-Download the Pathfinder install zip. Use the Install feature and it will change the old gamemode, and copy the new gamemode and data files into the data structure.
Alternately I think we put it in the install for 5.16.2, let me double check. Yes it is in 5.16.2 If you download that you should be good.
Okay I think I "might" have discovered the issue. The Pathfinder Beta didn't have the options for the cape. Only "Add type & Spell charges". I'm guessing what is happening that the gamemode is loading both the Pathfinder and the beta at the same time.
When we made the PFRPG set the existing gamemode had to be change so that both sets couldn't be loaded together. If you just put the pathfinder core set in the data folder without changing the gamemode it's going to cause some issues. But the 5.15+ series there's a dataset install option under Tools > Install Data. Re-Download the Pathfinder install zip. Use the Install feature and it will change the old gamemode, and copy the new gamemode and data files into the data structure.
Alternately I think we put it in the install for 5.16.2, let me double check. Yes it is in 5.16.2 If you download that you should be good.
I installed the PFRPG separately from the Beta, so I don't -think- that's the problem, but I'll try your suggestion and see what happens.
I will report when I have more data, Capn'!
Edit:
Yeah, that seems to have worked.
Now give us more options for headgear. :P
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Not to hijack the thread, but has anyone tried eTools from CodeMonkeyPublishing?
I've used it quite a bit for 3.0/3.5, so with a little tweaking it may working for PF. I'll have to look and see if they are still selling it, since they have been working on RPG Forge. I'll look into it later and see where it stands....current prices, available os's and the like. I've enjoyed using it over the years, for making characters, npcs, monsters, and quite a bit more.
I've got the demo of RPGXplorer, will try that one soon and come to an opinion. I'll look into the others lister here and see what I think of them.
Looking forward to hearing more takes on these programs.
HeroLab is already updated with the some of the latest Council of Thieves data.. Just had a player send me an updated sheet with the Hellknight prestige class.
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Not to hijack the thread, but has anyone tried eTools from CodeMonkeyPublishing?
I've used it quite a bit for 3.0/3.5, so with a little tweaking it may working for PF. I'll have to look and see if they are still selling it, since they have been working on RPG Forge. I'll look into it later and see where it stands....current prices, available os's and the like. I've enjoyed using it over the years, for making characters, npcs, monsters, and quite a bit more.
From what I recall CMP got all of their licenses pulled by WotC when 4ed came about. I don't know what happened to the SRD stuff.
Not to hijack the thread, but has anyone tried eTools from CodeMonkeyPublishing?
I've used it quite a bit for 3.0/3.5, so with a little tweaking it may working for PF. I'll have to look and see if they are still selling it, since they have been working on RPG Forge. I'll look into it later and see where it stands....current prices, available os's and the like. I've enjoyed using it over the years, for making characters, npcs, monsters, and quite a bit more.
As far as I know/recall, eTools has been dead for some time, and much of the datasets and work that went into it got transferred over to PCGen. PCGen is an GNU-licensed open source program so it doesn't "belong" to the CodeMonkeys, but I believe many of the individual "monkeys" still work on it.
CMP's Website doesn't seem to have anything about eTools or PCGen on it.
PCGen isn't as shiny as eTools was, but does most of what it did, and possibly then some.
As far as I know/recall, eTools has been dead for some time
Yups. eTools has been dead since November of 2006. WotC granted CMP a pretty long window (until November of 2008) in which they could release fixes for the many problems that plagued the software, but CMP is just completely unreliable, and never did anything for it. Supposedly, the excuse was that they were focusing their efforts on "RPG Foundry", some bit of vaporware that hasn't seen the light of day for 3 years - rather than actually fix problems for people that already paid for software.
They've pretty much burned up any goodwill they had by their bungling of the the eTools situation.
Even if they ever do release whatever empty promise they've made, I'd strongly urge you to stay away from it, because you'll end up sinking money into poor support and poor software.
PCGen is an GNU-licensed open source program so it doesn't "belong" to the CodeMonkeys, but I believe many of the individual "monkeys" still work on it.
I'm not sure what the distribution of resources is like. I don't believe that "Mynex" has anything at all to do with the development of PCGen, so that's probably a safe bet.
It's sad, too. eTools really was a pretty decent product, and could have been better had CMP made good on their promised release of bugfixes and what not over the two years they were given. Instead, their inability to maintain a simple piece of forum software (and even a backup of posts to their eTools support forum), and not one, but four or five seperate "crashes" has eradicated most of the useful posts that assisted in tweaking eTools to a reasonably reliable and usable tool.
Steer clear. The options discussed here (PCGen, RPGXplorer, HeroLab) all appear to be supported by capable folks. The only way I'd ever put more money towards CMP (and I've put a few hundred at them for datasets and the eTools software) is if the current owner sold to someone else with a good track record.
Yups. eTools has been dead since November of 2006. WotC granted CMP a pretty long window (until November of 2008) in which they could release fixes for the many problems that plagued the software, but CMP is just completely unreliable, and never did anything for it. Supposedly, the excuse was that they were focusing their efforts on "RPG Foundry", some bit of vaporware that hasn't seen the light of day for 3 years - rather than actually fix problems for people that already paid for software.
Well, the above is what I would call a half-truth, and not the whole truth. For the readers edification, CMP did *NOT* write eTools, but they agreed to fix a specific number of bugs for WoTC after it was released by WoTC (I forgot the name of the company that wrote it for WoTC, but it was not CMP).
They did their job, and were allowed to create additional datasets. In November 2006, WoTC pulled the license and they were allowed till November 2008 to do any additional work, but WoTC did not approve much of anything during that time for release.
I'm not sure what the distribution of resources is like. I don't believe that "Mynex" has anything at all to do with the development of PCGen, so that's probably a safe bet.
That is not even a half-truth, it is out right *WRONG*. After Merton Monk (Bryan McRobers) put PCGen into Sourceforge as an open source project, Mynex (Rob <something or other>) was one of the driving forces and architect of PCGen in the early days. When he, Bryan and Jason split off and started CMP, he dropped out of PCGen involvement.
-- david
Papa.DRB
ps. I completely understand being upset about RPGFoundary being vaporware, but I had made the decision to stick with PCGen long before it became the fiasco that it is.
Since there are some PCGen people around here I thought I'd ask.
Are there any plans, or is there a way to do it myself, to make a Pathfinder "legal" (i.e. one that adheres to the official Pathfinder stat block) BBCode character sheet?
Something like that would be immensely helpful for all the people who play in PbPs all over.
Well, the above is what I would call a half-truth, and not the whole truth. For the readers edification, CMP did *NOT* write eTools, but they agreed to fix a specific number of bugs for WoTC after it was released by WoTC (I forgot the name of the company that wrote it for WoTC, but it was not CMP).
It was written originally by Fluid.
They did their job, and were allowed to create additional datasets. In November 2006, WoTC pulled the license and they were allowed till November 2008 to do any additional work, but WoTC did not approve much of anything during that time for release.
Mynex came right out on the CMP boards in 2007 and 2008 and said that bugfixes for eTools and the datasets were not a priority because it took resources away from developing RPGFoundry. NOTHING was ever said by Mynex about bugfix releases actually having been done and their release - which he claimed they were allowed to do for that two year period - being prevented by WotC.
By "never did anything for it", I'm referring to that 2-year bugfix window they were granted. eTools was crap prior to CMP getting ahold of it, and what they turned it into was, in my mind, pretty damned amazing. I wouldn't have spent the money I spent had it not been good (or at least, usable, and had the potential for good - and at the time, it was better than anything else). It's the follow-up (or complete lack thereof once they had my money) that soured me.
That is not even a half-truth, it is out right *WRONG*. After Merton Monk (Bryan McRobers) put PCGen into Sourceforge as an open source project, Mynex (Rob <something or other>) was one of the driving forces and architect of PCGen in the early days. When he, Bryan and Jason split off and started CMP, he dropped out of PCGen involvement.
So, he HAD something to do with the development, but he no longer HAS anything to do with the development.
I apologize if I insinuated that he wasn't ever involved with PCGen - I didn't know that he was, but that wasn't what I was trying to say - I was attempting to convey that I didn't believe he had anything to do with the current development of PCGen, and that this is a good thing.
Since there are some PCGen people around here I thought I'd ask.
Are there any plans, or is there a way to do it myself, to make a Pathfinder "legal" (i.e. one that adheres to the official Pathfinder stat block) BBCode character sheet?
Something like that would be immensely helpful for all the people who play in PbPs all over.
Can you point to the definition of this sheet, then I think we'll see what we can do about this.
Regards,
Zaister
(PCGen developer).
That is not even a half-truth, it is out right *WRONG*. After Merton Monk (Bryan McRobers) put PCGen into Sourceforge as an open source project, Mynex (Rob <something or other>) was one of the driving forces and architect of PCGen in the early days. When he, Bryan and Jason split off and started CMP, he dropped out of PCGen involvement.So, he HAD something to do with the development, but he no longer HAS anything to do with the development.
I apologize if I insinuated that he wasn't ever involved with PCGen...
It has been quite a long time, however, since Mynex has stopped being involved with PCGen, and PCGen has changed a lot since then.
Since there are some PCGen people around here I thought I'd ask.
Are there any plans, or is there a way to do it myself, to make a Pathfinder "legal" (i.e. one that adheres to the official Pathfinder stat block) BBCode character sheet?
Something like that would be immensely helpful for all the people who play in PbPs all over.Can you point to the definition of this sheet, then I think we'll see what we can do about this.
Regards,
Zaister
(PCGen developer).
I believe this is the "official" stat block setup:
RPG Superstar stat block
I believe this is the "official" stat block setup:
RPG Superstar stat block
Thanks for the pointer, I'll check it out over the weekend if this can be made into a viable output sheet.
I think it should be possible but only to an extent that would need some manual adjustment to be acceptable in an unforgiving environment like RPG Superstar submissions. :)
I believe this is the "official" stat block setup:
RPG Superstar stat blockThanks for the pointer, I'll check it out over the weekend if this can be made into a viable output sheet.
I think it should be possible but only to an extent that would need some manual adjustment to be acceptable in an unforgiving environment like RPG Superstar submissions. :)
Oh definitely. My primary use would be PbPs in general, though, not RPG Superstar-like strictness. :-)
I think that can be arranged by reworking statblock5.html to use BBCode instead of HTML mark-up. I'll check this out over the weekend.
It was written originally by Fluid.
Yea, that was them. Dang Senior moment!
Mynex came right out on the CMP boards in 2007 and 2008 and said that bugfixes for eTools and the datasets were not a priority because it took resources away from developing RPGFoundry. [snip some stuff - drb] It's the follow-up (or complete lack thereof once they had my money) that soured me.
I understand your frustration and with RPGFoundry now vaporware, I would be annoyed also, however consider:
1) WoTC pulled the license. Would you as a business person spend more time fixing things you were never contracted to fix when it is going away? Especially since the original code made it darn near impossible to fix.
2) There were datasets in the pipe at that point that never got approved by WoTC and released. I don't remember which ones, since I never bought eTools, but I do remember that there were (I think it was some of the FR books).
I apologize if I insinuated that he wasn't ever involved with PCGen...
No problem here. While he was (still is?) a difficult at times person to work with, he did quite a lot of good work in the early days of PCGen and I just wanted to set the record straight.
-- david
Papa.DRB
ps. As a PCGen person and not an eTools, nor RPGFoundry person, I have a different perspective on things. I completely understand your point of view and frustration, but I do understand CMPs side. Looking back, if they had done the extra fixes and pushed WoTC to let them release the fixes and datasets, instead of working on RPGFoundry, they would not have been as slammed as they are now.
It was written originally by Fluid.Yea, that was them. Dang Senior moment!
Mynex came right out on the CMP boards in 2007 and 2008 and said that bugfixes for eTools and the datasets were not a priority because it took resources away from developing RPGFoundry. [snip some stuff - drb] It's the follow-up (or complete lack thereof once they had my money) that soured me.I understand your frustration and with RPGFoundry now vaporware, I would be annoyed also, however consider:
1) WoTC pulled the license. Would you as a business person spend more time fixing things you were never contracted to fix when it is going away? Especially since the original code made it darn near impossible to fix.
2) There were datasets in the pipe at that point that never got approved by WoTC and released. I don't remember which ones, since I never bought eTools, but I do remember that there were (I think it was some of the FR books).I apologize if I insinuated that he wasn't ever involved with PCGen...No problem here. While he was (still is?) a difficult at times person to work with, he did quite a lot of good work in the early days of PCGen and I just wanted to set the record straight.
-- david
Papa.DRBps. As a PCGen person and not an eTools, nor RPGFoundry person, I have a different perspective on things. I completely understand your point of view and frustration, but I do understand CMPs side. Looking back, if they had done the extra fixes and pushed WoTC to let them release the fixes and datasets, instead of working on RPGFoundry, they would not have been as slammed as they are now.
I don't recall finding that many bugs with etools. Etools is still installed on my old computer and I could use it today. I probably had a couple hundred dollars invested into etools. WotC pulled the rug out from under all of us and I put 100% of the blame on them. I used my eTools for Living Greyhawk. After they yanked the license you could no longer get the new books and datasets. So over time as more and more books came out etools became less and less useful. That is my perspective.
I was skeptical about ever buying one of these programs again after being burned so bad by WotC but with my chicken scratch writing I consider a program like e-tools a must have. I checked around looking at reviews and word of mouth and I found Herolab. I have been pleasantly surprised. The program was a lot less expensive and it is better then Etools. The developers are really responsive and cordial on their forum. They listen, respond, update their customer base.
1) WoTC pulled the license. Would you as a business person spend more time fixing things you were never contracted to fix when it is going away? Especially since the original code made it darn near impossible to fix.
That's not really a valid defense. CMP may not have been originally contracted to do anything other than a specific list of fixes, but past that point, they negotiated the license to produce datasets and spent the better part of a few years selling the software and selling a variety of datasets.
CMP sold me that product, not WotC.
2) There were datasets in the pipe at that point that never got approved by WoTC and released. I don't remember which ones, since I never bought eTools, but I do remember that there were (I think it was some of the FR books).
I'm sure there were - I know that my collection isn't complete.
That's not really my gripe. My gripe is that there were some quality issues and data entry inconsistencies and a pretty large buglist at one time (list long since lost in the various forum "crashes", and I can't seem to find my copy of that list), a list of fixes which Mynex assured would be addressed at some time during that 2-year window.
If Ford sells me a new Mustang, I expect Ford to honor the warranty, and I further expect them to resolve any inherent flaws via the recall system.
When I paid CMP money, and they said they were going to fix issues in the software and data I paid for, I expected them to honor that commitment, not shrug it aside because they weren't receiving any residual income.
ps. As a PCGen person and not an eTools, nor RPGFoundry person, I have a different perspective on things. I completely understand your point of view and frustration, but I do understand CMPs side. Looking back, if they had done the extra fixes and pushed WoTC to let them release the fixes and datasets, instead of working on RPGFoundry, they would not have been as slammed as they are now.
Are you saying that WotC actually prohibited them from releasing code fixes? I can understand WotC saying "no, you can't release the dataset for X book", but a prohibition on releasing revisions and patches? I don't get this - and again, this was never mentioned by anyone from CMP - they explicitly told people that the reason those revisions and patches weren't forthcoming was due to their workload on RPG Foundry and how it wasn't economically feasible for them to work on eTools past November of 2006 (which I read as "We already got your money, and we have no interest in supporting the software you already paid for, even though we have a license to do so for another two years.")
I don't recall finding that many bugs with etools.
There's a variety of little issues here and there. One big one that I ended up having to modify my database to resolve had to do with the way eTools processed spells with identical names - for example, if the spell had been published in multiple books, when you go to print out your character sheet, the spell list printed out the spell three times, but only used the text for the first listing of the spell. Instead of processing via the guid of the entry, it utilized the name, and when it found 3 copies of the same name, it assumed they were all the same.
I had to run a task against my DB to grab a unique identifier (in my case, the abbreviated code for the book) and modify all the dupe spell names with that in order to get it to parse and process correctly.
Fortunately, I was able to find someone who knows there way around database queries and such, otherwise, this would still be broken.
Another big issue was the release of datasets with incomplete or missing help files - again, something that was always "being worked on", but never saw the light of day.
Etools is still installed on my old computer and I could use it today. I probably had a couple hundred dollars invested into etools. WotC pulled the rug out from under all of us and I put 100% of the blame on them.
I still occasionally use it today, but it gets less and less use, due to it ultimately being easier to just write up a character sheet by hand, or use a PDF character sheet downloaded from someplace like Mad Irishman. There's a lot of data errors, and a lot of inconsistencies that were pretty easy to fix and release (and a lot of fans actually corrected a lot of the issues and submitted those corrections, but they were ignored - because it wasn't profitable.
Meh. I'm not happy with WotC pulling the license, either, but WotC isn't the company that made promises regarding eTools and failed to live up to them.
An important note on Hero Lab....
Back in late November, a few folks lodged a concern about how we handle our product licensing here in this thread. After some discussion, it seemed they agreed the precautions we take are necessary. However, they still felt we needed to do a better job handling users whose licenses need to be re-assigned to new/updated computers shortly after they were previously re-assigned.
We listened. We're instituting a new system for handling this situation which will hopefully help avoid problems in the future. There is now a form to fill out with all the necessary information so that critical details like the affected license number aren't omitted (this was the root of the problem for the original poster who cited the issue here). In addition, this licensing issue is now handled via a separate queue that is given priority.
Please note that this new mechanism has *not* yet gone live for Hero Lab. It went live in the Army Builder update we released at the end of December (our product for tabletop miniatures). The new mechanism will be integrated into the next update for Hero Lab, which should be out later this month - around the time the new Bestiary and preview classes content is made available.
I think that can be arranged by reworking statblock5.html to use BBCode instead of HTML mark-up. I'll check this out over the weekend.
Any progress?
I think that can be arranged by reworking statblock5.html to use BBCode instead of HTML mark-up. I'll check this out over the weekend.Any progress?
I just found this on ENWorld, not sure who ghostcat is but they designed two.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/talking-talk/271416-dnd-3-5-character-generato r-sheet.html#post5075704
I think that can be arranged by reworking statblock5.html to use BBCode instead of HTML mark-up. I'll check this out over the weekend.Any progress?I just found this on ENWorld, not sure who ghostcat is but they designed two.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/talking-talk/271416-dnd-3-5-character-generato r-sheet.html#post5075704
Thanks, had a look at them. Unfortunately they seem somehow incomplete or at least lacking a lot of info you get from some of the other sheets. Also, I'd really like something similar to statblock5.html.
It looks like I might have to look into it myself... if I can collect my thoughts long enough to get it done.
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PC Gen just released their latest dataset for v5.16.2. Its based on the core rule book and bestiary. I have found it a breeze to work with so far. The only thing I have to figure out is how to load the traits web enhancement so that I can add character traits. Its so nice to select an element, see a good description along with the page number in the core rule book. It makes looking up material as I build my character much easier.
I actually found it easier to build a pathfinder character than a 3.5 character. I'm hooked.
*Edit* Ok - figured how to load the web enhancement source. Now I can add character traits too. So far, I have not run into anything in Pathfinder that I can't add through PCGen. I even figured how to switch to the point buy method, and change to the appropriate XP table.
Tordek -- that's good news.
I hope 1.16.2 also fixed some issues from .1... .1 counted your sorcerer bonus spells against your max spells known. There were also some other things not being calculated in properly--I did an elven curve blade finesse build and it didn't calculate in the finesse bonus. Frustrating 'cause I prefer to work with PC gen.
I think that can be arranged by reworking statblock5.html to use BBCode instead of HTML mark-up. I'll check this out over the weekend.Any progress?
Unfortunately not yet, but I still have that on my agenda.
I hope 1.16.2 also fixed some issues from .1... .1 counted your sorcerer bonus spells against your max spells known. There were also some other things not being calculated in properly--I did an elven curve blade finesse build and it didn't calculate in the finesse bonus. Frustrating 'cause I prefer to work with PC gen.
The sorcerer bonus spells do count against the max spells known, yes, but those should have been increased accordingly. Please test if the finesse problem still exists. By the way, it helps a lot - and get things fixed faster - to report bugs/problems like this to our Yahoo! group mailing list at pcgen@yahoogroups.com; use [PATHFINDER] in the subject so I can catch them fast. Thanks!
Regards,
Stefan
PCGen Developer, Pathfinder project lead
Will do, Zaister. Thanks!
Ok - figured how to load the web enhancement source. Now I can add character traits too. So far, I have not run into anything in Pathfinder that I can't add through PCGen. I even figured how to switch to the point buy method, and change to the appropriate XP table.
Hey Tordek, how do you load the web enhancement for character traits?
Contributor
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I recently bought Hero Lab. Love the program. As a designer and contributor, I would love for monster creation -- using everything that's in the bestiary and including adding PC classes and PrCs -- to be as easy as making a character. I only want to go to something like the Editor when I'm inventing an entirely new magic item, ability, spell, race, class or PrC.
That ability, combined with what's already in Hero Lab, is my holy grail. I would utterly pay extra for a Bestiary data set and monster design screens.
We spent a few hours hashing through this today, and we came up with a plan, so I figured I would share it....
We're going to be adding all of the monsters from the Bestiary in a separate add-on package that can be purchased for Pathfinder. The cost will likely be in $10-15 range, in an effort to offset the cost of spending all the hours to input everything. Given that we already have existing resource commitments for the next few weeks, the plan is to get this completed by mid-January.
We'll also be developing more extensive tutorials that are specifically targeted to users wanting to add their own monsters to the Pathfinder files. These tutorials will delve into the specific types of things that come up when creating complex monsters. We'll provide detailed examples that should enable users to add 95% of the monsters they can think up, plus all the Bestiary monsters will be available as examples for reference.
In regards to streamlining the Editor to improve monster creation, we have a few ideas, but they will require significant work within Hero Lab itself. We're not sure how much work is involved, plus we have to weigh it against all the other stuff we have planned for Hero Lab to decide what makes it into the next major update. So no commitments on this particular aspect, but we're definitely looking to see what we can accomplish.
Any word on this? *puts hand on wallet pocket and leans forward*
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Any word on this? *puts hand on wallet pocket and leans forward*
We spent a few hours hashing through this today, and we came up with a plan, so I figured I would share it....We're going to be adding all of the monsters from the Bestiary in a separate add-on package that can be purchased for Pathfinder. The cost will likely be in $10-15 range, in an effort to offset the cost of spending all the hours to input everything. Given that we already have existing resource commitments for the next few weeks, the plan is to get this completed by mid-January.
We'll also be developing more extensive tutorials that are specifically targeted to users wanting to add their own monsters to the Pathfinder files. These tutorials will delve into the specific types of things that come up when creating complex monsters. We'll provide detailed examples that should enable users to add 95% of the monsters they can think up, plus all the Bestiary monsters will be available as examples for reference.
In regards to streamlining the Editor to improve monster creation, we have a few ideas, but they will require significant work within Hero Lab itself. We're not sure how much work is involved, plus we have to weigh it against all the other stuff we have planned for Hero Lab to decide what makes it into the next major update. So no commitments on this particular aspect, but we're definitely looking to see what we can accomplish.
They have not announced when yet but they did state here that all pathfinder stuff has been delayed do to another project, I am assuming that other project is the Call of Cthulhu support they just announced.
Ok - figured how to load the web enhancement source. Now I can add character traits too. So far, I have not run into anything in Pathfinder that I can't add through PCGen. I even figured how to switch to the point buy method, and change to the appropriate XP table.Hey Tordek, how do you load the web enhancement for character traits?
Eric, if you change the following line in the gamemode of the pathfinder_character_traits.pcc in the following location you will at least be able to see it. Not sure if it will work correctly if if there is anything else that needs altered.
@/pcgen5162/data/d20ogl/paizo/pathfinder/web_enhancements/pathfinder_charac ter_traits_web_enhancement
GAMEMODE:35e
to
GAMEMODE:35e|Pathfinder
Any word on this? *puts hand on wallet pocket and leans forward*We're going to be adding all of the monsters from the Bestiary in a separate add-on package that can be purchased for Pathfinder. The cost will likely be in $10-15 range, in an effort to offset the cost of spending all the hours to input everything. Given that we already have existing resource commitments for the next few weeks, the plan is to get this completed by mid-January.
We'll also be developing more extensive tutorials that are specifically targeted to users wanting to add their own monsters to the Pathfinder files. These tutorials will delve into the specific types of things that come up when creating complex monsters. We'll provide detailed examples that should enable users to add 95% of the monsters they can think up, plus all the Bestiary monsters will be available as examples for reference.
In regards to streamlining the Editor to improve monster creation, we have a few ideas, but they will require significant work within Hero Lab itself. We're not sure how much work is involved, plus we have to weigh it against all the other stuff we have planned for Hero Lab to decide what makes it into the next major update. So no commitments on this particular aspect, but we're definitely looking to see what we can accomplish.
We've been waiting for some clarifications from Paizo regarding how we were planning to proceed with the Pathfinder add-ons. We finally obtained that info and can now wrap up the pending add-ons pretty quickly. So here's where we stand....
1. Hero Lab V3.6 will ideally be released next Friday. March 5th. It's possible it will slip to the following week if we run into surprises. The V3.6 release will include some new mechanisms to simplify custom class creation. It will also have a number of new features that lots of users should enjoy.
2. The playtest classes are mostly implemented at this point and will be made available in the next week or two. We'll be following Paizo's lead with how we handle them. The playtest versions will be included with the core Pathfinder data files for the interim. When the Advanced Player's Guide is released, the finalized classes will be integrated into a separate add-on that includes all the APG material. There will be a nominal cost for this add-on - adding all this material is a LOT of work.
3. A detailed tutorial has been written for one of the playtest classes (I think it's the Alchemist). It will be released along with the playtest classes. This should make it much easier for users to add their own custom classes they devise or that they pull from 3rd party material.
4. We're striving to have the Bestiary add-on released by Friday, March 19th. We're on the road at a tradeshow the following week, so we want to get this out before the show.
Hope this gives you the answers you were looking for....
[Note: The above info was recently posted on our support forums.]
Ok - figured how to load the web enhancement source. Now I can add character traits too. So far, I have not run into anything in Pathfinder that I can't add through PCGen. I even figured how to switch to the point buy method, and change to the appropriate XP table.Hey Tordek, how do you load the web enhancement for character traits?Eric, if you change the following line in the gamemode of the pathfinder_character_traits.pcc in the following location you will at least be able to see it. Not sure if it will work correctly if if there is anything else that needs altered.
@/pcgen5162/data/d20ogl/paizo/pathfinder/web_enhancements/pathfinder_charac ter_traits_web_enhancement
GAMEMODE:35e
to
GAMEMODE:35e|Pathfinder
Thanks, I got it now.
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They have not announced when yet but they did state here that all pathfinder stuff has been delayed do to another project, I am assuming that other project is the Call of Cthulhu support they just announced.
Nope, much cooler than that: http://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=9398
It's definitely not a White Wolf only product either. Based on their past product history, I'm betting they're doing the same licensing scheme as Hero Lab. Looking forward to hearing an official announcement.
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Stefan
PCGen Developer, Pathfinder project lead
Hi there Stefan -
Any word on when if/when Pathfinder Society feats and traits will be integrated into PCGen?
What about stuff from the country books like Cheliax and Andora, etc? or Seekers of Secrets? Do you all have the ability to include that kind of material? (assuming you had the time :)
Thanks
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Any word on this? *puts hand on wallet pocket and leans forward*We're going to be adding all of the monsters from the Bestiary in a separate add-on package that can be purchased for Pathfinder. The cost will likely be in $10-15 range, in an effort to offset the cost of spending all the hours to input everything. Given that we already have existing resource commitments for the next few weeks, the plan is to get this completed by mid-January.
We'll also be developing more extensive tutorials that are specifically targeted to users wanting to add their own monsters to the Pathfinder files. These tutorials will delve into the specific types of things that come up when creating complex monsters. We'll provide detailed examples that should enable users to add 95% of the monsters they can think up, plus all the Bestiary monsters will be available as examples for reference.
In regards to streamlining the Editor to improve monster creation, we have a few ideas, but they will require significant work within Hero Lab itself. We're not sure how much work is involved, plus we have to weigh it against all the other stuff we have planned for Hero Lab to decide what makes it into the next major update. So no commitments on this particular aspect, but we're definitely looking to see what we can accomplish.
We've been waiting for some clarifications from Paizo regarding how we were planning to proceed with the Pathfinder add-ons. We finally obtained that info and can now wrap up the pending add-ons pretty quickly. So here's where we stand....
1. Hero Lab V3.6 will ideally be released next Friday. March 5th. It's possible it will slip to the following week if we run into surprises. The V3.6 release will include some new mechanisms to simplify custom class creation. It will also have a number of new features that lots of users should enjoy.
2. The playtest classes are mostly implemented at this point and will be made available in the next week or two....
Thanks! That was timely, thorough and informative. Hard to ask for more. *teases money out of wallet*
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Stefan
PCGen Developer, Pathfinder project leadHi there Stefan -
Any word on when if/when Pathfinder Society feats and traits will be integrated into PCGen?
What about stuff from the country books like Cheliax and Andora, etc? or Seekers of Secrets? Do you all have the ability to include that kind of material? (assuming you had the time :)
I don't think any of that that stuff OGL material. Anybody know?
Interesting, I didn't know this thread existed and spent today looking at Hero Labs, PCGen, and RPGXplorer.
Hero Labs is definitely the best. It supported everything I wanted and the interface made sense. Performance is good. Character sheet looks good. But, it's pay ($30, plus $20 per other system).
PCGen was kinda functional. It didn't support things like the human ethnicities and the interface drives me crazy; it takes a lot of clicks to do something (like allocate your favored class skill point) that takes a lot less effort in Hero Lab. But, it's free. Performance is only mildly pokey.
RPGXplorer doesn't support Pathfinder final yet, and after I spent a half hour trying to figure out how to mess with rulesets to get it working I said "screw it." And it's pay. The rules viewer is nice. The performance on my system is awful, though. And the interface looks clean at first glance, and the wizard is good, but going back and viewing/editing a character in post is difficult.
The PCGen is currently working on bringing more Pathfinder stuff to PCGen. A dataset for the Campaign Setting is coming soon (for both 35e and Pathfinder gamemodes) which will also include human ethnicities. Other Volumes like Cheliax, or Seekers of Secrets and so on will also be worked on.
I will look into the PFS crunch, thanks for the tip.
Regards,
Stefan
PCGen Developer, Pathfinder project lead
Stefan,
I have the Guide to Pathfinder Society. The "real" difficult part is two fold:
1. The six new APG classes are allowed for play so need to be coded up.
2. Select material from lots of Pathfinder books are usable for play.
Add that some feats are disallowed, a cleric domain is changed, the wizard is changed, prestige awards and it is a lot of work.
-- david
Papa.DRB
The PCGen is currently working on bringing more Pathfinder stuff to PCGen. A dataset for the Campaign Setting is coming soon (for both 35e and Pathfinder gamemodes) which will also include human ethnicities. Other Volumes like Cheliax, or Seekers of Secrets and so on will also be worked on.
I will look into the PFS crunch, thanks for the tip.
Regards,
Stefan
PCGen Developer, Pathfinder project lead
The PCGen is currently working on bringing more Pathfinder stuff to PCGen. A dataset for the Campaign Setting is coming soon (for both 35e and Pathfinder gamemodes) which will also include human ethnicities. Other Volumes like Cheliax, or Seekers of Secrets and so on will also be worked on.
I will look into the PFS crunch, thanks for the tip.
Regards,
Stefan
PCGen Developer, Pathfinder project lead
The PCGen is currently working on bringing more Pathfinder stuff to PCGen. A dataset for the Campaign Setting is coming soon (for both 35e and Pathfinder gamemodes) which will also include human ethnicities. Other Volumes like Cheliax, or Seekers of Secrets and so on will also be worked on.
I will look into the PFS crunch, thanks for the tip.
Regards,
Stefan
PCGen Developer, Pathfinder project lead
Languages especially!
Oh, hey, my top-level PCGen constructive comments after making a couple Pathfinder characters in it yesterday:
1. I like the ability to make a random NPC but the Craft and Profession subskills need to be weighted less - whenever I make a random character, they end up having one rank in 10 different Craft skills. Suggestion: randomize between the top level skills counting Craft and Profession as one each, then sub-randomize within that. It's be nice if they tended to put additional points in skills they've already bought, too. Maybe do a "first level" skill allocation and then "50% - put in random existing skill; 50% - put in random skill."
The random feats are also always bad for the same reason - my rogues and warriors end up with a lot of Spell Focus.
2. The favored class skill point/hit point thing is a little annoying in that if you pick skill point, you have to allocate the point within that screen instead of with the other skill points - makes it hard to tweak your skills because some points are "hidden". The other programs use that just to add an extra SP to the main skill screen.
3. Why is even the SRD text not included in the feat etc. descriptions? It's a colossal pain to have to go back and forth to the book or SRD to check the details of all that.
4. Stat rolling - it's bad because it doesn't let you assign rolls to stats, it rolls them "down the line." Especially bad for NPCs because I keep getting rogues with 7 DEX. For PCs I'd like a drag and drop "assign the rolls" function and for NPCs perhaps each could have "preferred stats" such that they tend to be semi appropriate.
3) There's an option in the preferences to turn that on and off. We took a poll of the users on the main list and more of them would rather have that turned off as a default. Probably because most of them had already memorized the rules. :)
4) Yea the rolling isn't as good as it could be, but you can simply click on the cells that the base values are in and type the ones you want in and switch them that way.
They all do the same things. Oh sure, one might have more bells, another might have more whistles, but at the end of the day, they're all relatively similar.
Except in cost.
Go with what costs you the least ;)
Hero Lab V3.6 has now been released and this new version includes a LOT of creamy goodness for Pathfinder. This is in addition to licensed support for Call of Cthulhu and enhancements for all the other game systems that Hero Lab supports.
Some of the key things added for Pathfinder include:
- Five of the six playtest classes have been added. The sixth is still being tweaked a little, but it will be out this week. These classes will be part of the core Pathfinder data package until the release of the Advanced Player's Guide later this year.
- Detailed tutorials have been added that outline, step by step, the creation of the Alchemist class. This should make it much easier to add your own custom classes or those from third party supplements.
- The integrated Editor now allows easier editing of complex records, such as Classes in Pathfinder.
- Significant performance improvements in the Pathfinder data files greatly speed up evaluation for much more responsive operation.
- A standard NPC tab is now available for NPCs, allowing various game notes about the NPC to be recorded, such as motivations, tactics, etc. This info is included in statblock output.
- Added content from Pathfinder 28, 29 and 30.
- The Journal tab now uses "edit date" controls, making it easier to edit the dates of your adventures. Journal output now also formats dates correctly.
- The Configure Hero form now allows easier access to the settings for the hero.
- The Hero's background details are now printed as the last thing on the character sheet. This can be disabled by enabling the "Hide Background Details" output setting on the configure hero form.
- The Tactical Console "Manipulate" form now increases in size intelligently with the main Hero Lab window.
- The limits on individual classes have not been raised, but characters can go beyond 20 total levels and creatures can have more than 20 Hit Dice. So, you can have a Fighter 20/Cleric 1, but not a Fighter 21. This follows the simple method described in the Beyond 20th Level section on pgs 407-408 of the main book. Note that because over 1 billion XP are required to get to level 29, each level beyond 28 costs 1 XP more than the previous level.
- Added Maneuver Type Display picks to all characters. These can store any modifiers to specific combat maneuvers, and if their modifiers are not zero, they will be displayed on the Basics summary, under the CMB and CMD (and on the statblock and character sheet).
- Various creatures who gained bonuses vs. trip because they had many legs or a snake-like body grant the appropriate bonus to the new trip display pick.
- The various combat maneuver bonus feats (Improved Disarm, Greater Grapple, etc.) grant the appropriate bonus to the new combat maneuver display picks.
- Added "wikitext" statblock output from the "File" -> "Output Active Hero Summary" menu item. This allows you to keep an updated record of your hero on a campaign wiki.
- Demo mode limitations on character complexity have been eliminated. It's now possible to create a character of any complexity within demo mode to fully assess the product's capabilities.
- Lots of reported bugs have been fixed.
This new version can be downloaded from our website or via the integrated Updates mechanism within the product.
For anyone who hasn't had the chance to experiment with Hero Lab for themselves, you can take the product for an extensive test drive for free. And if you're concerned about the potential hassle of installing and configuring Hero Lab, just download it, install, and launch. There are no separate run-time downloads required that need to be properly configured.
Since I know someone will ask, the Bestiary is being worked on and needs a bit more work. Unfortunately, we will be spending the entirety of next week at a major tradeshow, and then we have to get caught up after being gone a week. So the Bestiary add-on will likely be released in early to mid-April, depending on whether we run into any substantive technical snags.
I can not find the playtest classes. How do I access them please?
-- david
Papa.DRB