First try and a few comments (and a bug)

[torstan]

I've just downloaded chartool and had a bit of a play with the d20 sheet. Looks good so far. A couple of bugs came up.

1. I get the same as SR with the divider being so far up the screen I couldn't see the sheet.
2. Initiative isn't taking account of bonuses from Dex. It lists the bonus but doesn't add it.
3. There is no base initiative bonus in d20. The bonus is Dex + other (feats etc)
4. Equally a base grapple value seems a bit odd - surely the base grapple bonus is Base Attack?
5. Will AC always be entirely user entered using the temp fields? I notice that size is taken into account but Dex is not.
6. Many skills can't be used untraine - open locks for example. These should have a check bonus of zero unless the rank field is greater than zero.

I also notice that there are a load of Misc modifier boxes that are zero but can't be modified. How are these going to be used?

This is a great first pass at CT. Well done Jay and thanks for all the hard work.

[torstan]

Oh, and the change image dialogue comes up really tall and thin on my machine (WinXP) and doesn't resize nicely at all.

Okay, now I'm confused. After putting a value in AC Temp, the init value updated to give me an init modifier of 4, even though the Dex modifier is 3 and there are no other modifiers. Something very strange is going on in the init calculation.

[torstan]

A few more:

Hide needs to be affected by Armour Check Penalty
Sleight of hand needs to have ACP

Any chance of getting a portrait import feature as well?
Also, I see that only a few of the properties of the d20 sheet are common to the maptool Core property list. Any chance of getting a d20 property list for maptool so that we can drop a token and get all the current properties imported?

[jay]

I've just downloaded chartool and had a bit of a play with the d20 sheet. Looks good so far. A couple of bugs came up.

1. I get the same as SR with the divider being so far up the screen I couldn't see the sheet.

I've added a fix for this, although I can't test it since it isn't broken here.

2. Initiative isn't taking account of bonuses from Dex. It lists the bonus but doesn't add it.
3. There is no base initiative bonus in d20. The bonus is Dex + other (feats etc)
4. Equally a base grapple value seems a bit odd - surely the base grapple bonus is Base Attack?
5. Will AC always be entirely user entered using the temp fields? I notice that size is taken into account but Dex is not.
6. Many skills can't be used untraine - open locks for example. These should have a check bonus of zero unless the rank field is greater than zero.

These are either bugs in the game configuration file or enhancements to it. Depending on how well I understand a game and how much time I have dedicated to work on it some functionality is done automatically and some is not. I haven't worked on the D20 file in a long time and there is a lot of new functionality that could be added to it. I'll see if I can fix the DEX bug before the next release.

What we really need is someone who could 'own' each game file and modify it as needed. That way there is someone who actually plays the game writing these files, They would know better than I how to best use the abilities of the tool for their game.

I also notice that there are a load of Misc modifier boxes that are zero but can't be modified. How are these going to be used?

These are where the automatic modifier calculations are displayed. So if you had a feat bonus to something you would see the bonus in that box next to the appropriate stat. In the future I would like to have them show tool-tips that detail each element added to the modifier (i,e ability modifier, feat, equipment, etc) as well as show how they stacked (or didn't). One of the neat things about character tool is that if you don't like to see the Misc. boxes you can edit the form and remove them. Something like that is actually pretty easy to do.

[jay]

A few more:

Hide needs to be affected by Armour Check Penalty
Sleight of hand needs to have ACP

I'll try to get to these before the next build.

Any chance of getting a portrait import feature as well?

The big silver area (well in windows it's silver) in the upper right hand corner of the default form is for portraits. You can drag and drom them from your file system or click the area for a dialog that will let you choose a file. The way it is set up now uses that image for the actual token image shown in MT not the portrait.

Also, I see that only a few of the properties of the d20 sheet are common to the maptool Core property list. Any chance of getting a d20 property list for maptool so that we can drop a token and get all the current properties imported?

That can be done. The configuration files actually have mappings between their properties and MT properties. You can't always edit them in MT, but they are very easy to show.

[torstan]

Wow, you are up early/still up very late for someone in Texas. Thanks for the responses.

As for the portrait window, I know that I can import an image into the token by dropping it onto the large blue area, but a maptool token has two images - one for the portrait and one for the token image. It would be good to be able to set both of them here.

Any thoughts on the Image picker dialogue being displayed squiffy?

Finally, I'm not sure I understand what you mean about how properties are propagated between Chartool and maptool. My guess is that all chartool properties are stored in the .rptok file. Those properties that have the same names as the properties in maptool will show up in the token edit dialogue in maptool.

I guess it might be good to have an Export System Properties option that generates a property list that can just be pasted into the Edit Campaign Properties window in maptool.

That should allow for a completely system agnostic way to keep CharTool and Maptool talking to each other at the moment. If it could be automated even more than this it would be great, but a basic option right now would do the trick.

[jay]

As for the portrait window, I know that I can import an image into the token by dropping it onto the large blue area, but a maptool token has two images - one for the portrait and one for the token image. It would be good to be able to set both of them here.

I can fix it so that would be available to the character sheet designers.

Any thoughts on the Image picker dialogue being displayed squiffy?

Ummmm Squiffy? Is that bad?

Finally, I'm not sure I understand what you mean about how properties are propagated between Chartool and maptool. My guess is that all chartool properties are stored in the .rptok file. Those properties that have the same names as the properties in maptool will show up in the token edit dialogue in maptool.

MT & CT have completely different property systems. In the CT code I can read & write the MT properties, but I need a mapping between the MT property name and the CT property name. So in the CT configuration file I added an attribute that does the mapping between MT & CT. It actually works better than trying to match up the names because the two property systems are so different. CT can always set MT values since they are just simple strings, but many of the CT properties are calculated using scripts so they can't be modified using the MT values.

I think that it might be best that whomever is in charge of the game files does this mapping and maintains it. Someday I would like to combine the MT & CT settings files into one, but that isn't likely to happen for awhile.

I guess it might be good to have an Export System Properties option that generates a property list that can just be pasted into the Edit Campaign Properties window in maptool.

That should allow for a completely system agnostic way to keep CharTool and Maptool talking to each other at the moment. If it could be automated even more than this it would be great, but a basic option right now would do the trick.

This could work as well. I already have a 'display in MT' attribute defined in the configuration files so spitting something out that is relevant shouldn't be too difficult.

[torstan]

Spitting out a maptool property list would probably be best at this point then. Ideally it should be able to output a property list for a user designed character sheet. That would make it pretty simple for people to modify a base d20 sheet for their own system, spit out the relevant properties and then paste it into maptool, knowing that the Chartool generated tokens would work fine.

As for squiffy, that usually just means a bit ... different. When I first opened the Change Image dialogue it was about an inch wide on my screen. I had to widen it to about 5 inches wide before I could see everything in the window. Funny though, now I've resized it once it seems to be that size when I reopen it.

Finally, having a portrait input and a token image input would be great. Thanks for considering it.

[UntoldGlory]

Okay, I'm not home to be able to play with CT yet, but let me see if I have an accurate picture of what it can do.

Steps
1) Create a "game file" for instance, one for 4e, one for Hero, one for FUDGE. Without this, CT will basically be useless for your system. Is this game file similar to a fillable PDF file, with calculations (like DexBonus = floor(dex-10)/2) and a list of properties and thier values? Game files can then be used to create any number of characters.

2) Fill in character sheet. Anything that the game file is set up to derive, gets derived (AC, Bonuses to Hit, etc).

3) Add token image. (This the same image that we created with token tool, border included?)

4) Export: This takes your character sheet and turns it into a .rptok complete with properties, values, and token image? Is there a place in CT to do macros as well?

[jay]

1. I get the same as SR with the divider being so far up the screen I couldn't see the sheet.
2. Initiative isn't taking account of bonuses from Dex. It lists the bonus but doesn't add it.
3. There is no base initiative bonus in d20. The bonus is Dex + other (feats etc)
4. Equally a base grapple value seems a bit odd - surely the base grapple bonus is Base Attack?
5. Will AC always be entirely user entered using the temp fields? I notice that size is taken into account but Dex is not.
6. Many skills can't be used untraine - open locks for example. These should have a check bonus of zero unless the rank field is greater than zero.

All of these will be fixed in the next build except #5. That takes a lot of data entry for the armor and then support for the modifiers.

Hide needs to be affected by Armour Check Penalty
Sleight of hand needs to have ACP

Fixed in the next build.

Any chance of getting a portrait import feature as well?
Also, I see that only a few of the properties of the d20 sheet are common to the maptool Core property list. Any chance of getting a d20 property list for maptool so that we can drop a token and get all the current properties imported?

This will be fixed in the next build, but there won't be any character sheets modified or created to take advantage of it.

[torstan]

Good stuff! Looking forward to it.

[jay]

Okay, I'm not home to be able to play with CT yet, but let me see if I have an accurate picture of what it can do.

Steps
1) Create a "game file" for instance, one for 4e, one for Hero, one for FUDGE. Without this, CT will basically be useless for your system. Is this game file similar to a fillable PDF file, with calculations (like DexBonus = floor(dex-10)/2) and a list of properties and thier values? Game files can then be used to create any number of characters.

This is correct. The game files contains forms which work just like filling in a PDF. Scripting is available either as a simple calculation or complete full blown script that can do things like show a dialog, calculate states, and apply modifiers.

2) Fill in character sheet. Anything that the game file is set up to derive, gets derived (AC, Bonuses to Hit, etc).

Correct.

3) Add token image. (This the same image that we created with token tool, border included?)

The current character sheets just show the image that is displayed as the token (usually this is the one with a border). In the future there may be character sheets that allow you to add both a token and a portrait image.

4) Export: This takes your character sheet and turns it into a .rptok complete with properties, values, and token image? Is there a place in CT to do macros as well?

Correct. There isn't a way to edit MT macros from inside of CT. With the full scripting support you can create any type of functionality you need, but there currently isn't a way for the players to add things unique to their characters. I want to add something like this, but I'd like everybody to take a look at CT and then we can discuss how it should be implemented.

[jay]

Any thoughts on the Image picker dialogue being displayed squiffy?

Ummmm Squiffy? Is that bad?

I fixed squiffy! After the first time you display a window it should remember it's size and location an open up at the same place.

[torstan]

Woot!

/torstan spreads idiosyncratic British vocabulary to the world!

[Steel Rat]

When I left-click on the portrait area, nothing happens. No dialog, it just changes color slightly.

You mentioned about misc modifiers that are to be modified by feats and such. i'm guessing this is future stuff, since there's nowhere but the notes field to enter feats on the d20 3.5 sheet.