Hit Point tracking

[mosat]

I've looked for this request but I didn't find it anywhere, however I'd be supprised if it has never come up before.

I'd like to be able to track Hit Point damage. Actually I'd like to be able to track anything I would nomally scribble down on some paper during combat, InitTool now covers Init order and spell timers but not damage incurred during combat.

Some games have more than one property which can take damage, D&D has an alternate system (also used in Star Wars) called Wounds and Vitality, both of which need to be tracked.

Other things to consider: Ability Damage, Conditions such as Stunned, Prone, Sickened, etc..

In addition to tracking such things in combat I'd use it to keep track of it between combats, since it is vitally important to know how much the PC's have healed since the last combat and my group has a hard time keeping up with it

[jay]

I've looked for this request but I didn't find it anywhere, however I'd be supprised if it has never come up before.

I'd like to be able to track Hit Point damage. Actually I'd like to be able to track anything I would nomally scribble down on some paper during combat, InitTool now covers Init order and spell timers but not damage incurred during combat.

I've been asked to add an HP property in the default settings. Are there any more properties that need to be added to the defaults?

Some games have more than one property which can take damage, D&D has an alternate system (also used in Star Wars) called Wounds and Vitality, both of which need to be tracked.

Other things to consider: Ability Damage, Conditions such as Stunned, Prone, Sickened, etc..

That is what the custom properties are used for. The default set of propeties doesn't contain a wounds or vitality but they are very easy to add. Select Tools --> Game Settings from the menu and then select the Custom Properties tab. Click 'Add' and type in the name for each of the properties you want to add. If you add them at the top of the list, they will show up at the top of the index card. You can set a display name for them if you want, but that isn't required. You may also want to change the game name on the Miscellaneous tab so that it easier to tell your new game settings from the default Init Tool D&D settings. Then press the OK button and the Yes button when asked if you want to save your changes. Enter a file name and hit the Save button. You now have modified game settings that contain a vitality and wounds property for all of your combatants. You can track any number of different properties this way. Add as many as you need and remove the ones you don't. It is your game so set it up the way you want it.

In addition to tracking such things in combat I'd use it to keep track of it between combats, since it is vitally important to know how much the PC's have healed since the last combat and my group has a hard time keeping up with it

Right now I am suggesting that you save the encounter to remember values between combatants. This will save all of the state that you have on the combatants, including things like the remaining time on all of the buffs if you entered a timer for them. If you don't want the NPC's saved with the players and you assigned all of your players to a category with the player flag checked (PC in the default settings) then you can get rid of all NPCs by selecting Actions --> Reset Encounter and checking only the Remove NPC's check box. The reason I want to use the encounter is that there have been enhancement requests to allow for full time tracking. When these are added an encounter will become the representation of 'now' in the campaign for the combatants within it so it's a good idea to start saving things that way now.

[mosat]

I've been asked to add an HP property in the default settings. Are there any more properties that need to be added to the defaults?

Off the top of my head: Hit Dice, Classes, Languages and Creature Subtypes (or is that what descriptor is for?)

That is what the custom properties are used for. The default set of propeties doesn't contain a wounds or vitality but they are very easy to add.

Ah, yes I see. I can simply type the temp score for any property in parentheses beside the permmanant score, very easy.

Right now I am suggesting that you save the encounter to remember values between combatants. This will save all of the state that you have on the combatants, including things like the remaining time on all of the buffs if you entered a timer for them.

That was my plan. I figure I'll have a file which will always be the party's current state.

I just checked out build 17 and I see you can create custom wait states, this somewhat coveres my request for conditional states like stunned and sickened, I can create those in my own game settings if I want to. The only problem in this is that you only allow one wait state and a character might suffer from multiple conditions.

However what I'm looking for here is something which will do some math for me and help speed things up. I can track damage by typing it into the HP property but I still have to do the math that way. I envision a Damage button that when clicked opens a window and lets you enter a number, that is then applied to the selected character, very fast if it also has a keyboard shortcut.

Depending on how much of the mechanics you want to handle there are additional things you could do, for example in D&D once you reach -1 HP you are bleeding and take -1 each round until you reach -10 (Dead) or are stabilized.

[Steel Rat]

Mosat, most of the things you've listed are too system-specific. Classes would have no use in a classless system, nor would Hit Dice in systems that don't use such things. I wouldn't even add HP as a default, Jay, the custom Properties is good enough.

Of course having some game system simple templates would be nice. Like a d20 D&D template, d20 Star Wars (uses Vit and HP), d20 Modern, GURPS, Hero, etc. that way creating a new group would be as easy as plopping in a template and all the special properties would be there. I'm sure the community would have a batch of templates for you in an afternoon, as long as they were saved as separate files.

[mosat]

Mosat, most of the things you've listed are too system-specific. Classes would have no use in a classless system, nor would Hit Dice in systems that don't use such things.

It's meant to be system specific, Jay has added the ability to make separate game settings in recent builds and I was refering to his default D&D setting.

He has also requested on another thread that he would like folks to create game setting files for other game, I imagine this is so he can include a range of default game setting files in the release.

[jay]

Off the top of my head: Hit Dice, Classes, Languages and Creature Subtypes (or is that what descriptor is for?)

I'll add the first three. Currently there is a type which contains values like 'Construct' and descriptor which contains values like 'Extraplanar, Lawful'. Is this what you thought would be in the 'Creature Subtypes' property.

Ah, yes I see. I can simply type the temp score for any property in parentheses beside the permmanant score, very easy.

I hadn't thought of that, but that is certainly one way to do it However I suggest adding your own custom property if you are using something that isn't standard. This way when there is math functionality in IT you will be able to do it fairly easily.

I just checked out build 17 and I see you can create custom wait states, this somewhat coveres my request for conditional states like stunned and sickened, I can create those in my own game settings if I want to. The only problem in this is that you only allow one wait state and a character might suffer from multiple conditions.

Wait states aren't really made for general state information. It was designed just for states that affect the initiative. Eventually I'll add custom property types that are lists and maps, and you can store the states in there.

However what I'm looking for here is something which will do some math for me and help speed things up. I can track damage by typing it into the HP property but I still have to do the math that way. I envision a Damage button that when clicked opens a window and lets you enter a number, that is then applied to the selected character, very fast if it also has a keyboard shortcut.

Funny you should mention that. Giliath just integrated the Dice Tool parser into Map Tool and it is set up to do the simple math that you are talking about. I figure that I'll add it into Init Tool shortly after it moves on to version 1.1. So hurry up and test it out so I can get to the fun stuff again

Depending on how much of the mechanics you want to handle there are additional things you could do, for example in D&D once you reach -1 HP you are bleeding and take -1 each round until you reach -10 (Dead) or are stabilized.

Since this is all game specific support it will required scripting support. This is either a late 1.1 feature or a 1.2 feature.

[jay]

Mosat, most of the things you've listed are too system-specific. Classes would have no use in a classless system, nor would Hit Dice in systems that don't use such things. I wouldn't even add HP as a default, Jay, the custom Properties is good enough.

I was asking for specific updates to the default D&D game settings (you call 'em templates below) provided in IT as of build 16.

Of course having some game system simple templates would be nice. Like a d20 D&D template, d20 Star Wars (uses Vit and HP), d20 Modern, GURPS, Hero, etc. that way creating a new group would be as easy as plopping in a template and all the special properties would be there. I'm sure the community would have a batch of templates for you in an afternoon, as long as they were saved as separate files.

IT started being able to do this in build 12. I don't call them game system templates (which would have been a good name for them ) I call them game settings. Right now I ship a D&D default settings and the very simple default settings I created with the original build of IT. But if you click on Tools --> Game Settings you can define all kinds of game specific settings (custom properties, combatant categories, timer types, wait states etc) and then save them in a file for use later. If you would like to create one for your favorite game I can add it to IT as one of the default game settings files. If your favorite game happens to be D&D check out the 'Init Tool Default D&D' game settings and tell me how to make it better.

[mosat]

Currently there is a type which contains values like 'Construct' and descriptor which contains values like 'Extraplanar, Lawful'. Is this what you thought would be in the 'Creature Subtypes' property.

Exactly.

I suggest adding your own custom property if you are using something that isn't standard. This way when there is math functionality in IT you will be able to do it fairly easily.

Sounds reasonable.

Wait states aren't really made for general state information. It was designed just for states that affect the initiative. Eventually I'll add custom property types that are lists and maps, and you can store the states in there.

OK, good to know it's in the works.

As for the math and the scripting support it sounds like you have a good roadmap for InitTools, I'll keep using it and look forward to future versions

[mosat]

IT started being able to do this in build 12. I don't call them game system templates (which would have been a good name for them ) I call them game settings.

In PCGen we call them gameModes.

[Steel Rat]

Heh, that's what I get for only reading part of the thread. My apologies, Mosat.

I'll have to take another look. I think build 11 is where I stopped, waiting for something that wasn't going to require me re-entering everything again.

So you got the XSL thing straightened out for previous versions?

[Big_Mac]

Jay,

I figured I post it in here since it relates.

When we create custom properties, is there a way that they could be data typed(Char,Number,...) This would allow for some on the planned future items, like scripting to no have to convert types.

It would also mean that macro could refer to the custom properties. These could also be integrated into rolls and other items.

Example: Run the damage script it then ask for how much damage was done or calculated from a roll it then decrements the Current HP which would allow the halo of a creature to be updated because of the change in current HP.

[mosat]

I've been asked to add an HP property in the default settings. Are there any more properties that need to be added to the defaults?

Off the top of my head: Hit Dice, Classes, Languages and Creature Subtypes (or is that what descriptor is for?)

I'll add the first three. Currently there is a type which contains values like 'Construct' and descriptor which contains values like 'Extraplanar, Lawful'.

Let me also suggest a separate property for Current Hitpoints.

Could you confirm the names you will use for these properties so I can incorporate them into my PCGen export?

[Steel Rat]

I modified the default d20 already, by adding HP (surprised it wasn't there, lol), XP, Level, and I split out Full attack and attack to Full Melee, Full Ranged, Melee, and Ranged.

[jay]

I'll have to take another look. I think build 11 is where I stopped, waiting for something that wasn't going to require me re-entering everything again.

So you got the XSL thing straightened out for previous versions?

Yes, everything is in XML. When needed I'll provide the XSL to do the transforms with a build.

[jay]

When we create custom properties, is there a way that they could be data typed(Char,Number,...) This would allow for some on the planned future items, like scripting to no have to convert types.

It would also mean that macro could refer to the custom properties. These could also be integrated into rolls and other items.

That is the plan.