E-Tools: Implementing PrCs

[EricNoah]

During beta I was able to get the Thayan Knight in all the way, and the Red Wizard of Thay in almost all the way (not the spellcasting stuff though). I was able to get them to "activate." I would just go back to the db and make sure the prereqs are what you thought they were.

Darn it, my new computer doesn't have access. I need to rectify that...

 

[galliand]

Thanks for the reply and advice. Went back and reviewed what I had imported and found it still wouldn't work. So I decided to go ahead and start from scratch. I copied the backup of the database I had (kind of ingrained in you when you actually do database administration work for a living ) and started over.

I decided to give one of the "core" classes from the Kingdoms of Kalamar Player's Guide, the Infiltrator, to see how difficult that would be. Went in without a hitch, and is now listed as one of the player classes in the toolset.

I've also entered the skills from the Dragonstar Starfarer's Handbook in the home rules section. I'll try entering the Pilot and Mechanist in there tomorrow, as well as the feats from Dragonstar.

I tell you, one thing it would be nice to have would be the data structure diagram (the diagram of how all the tables are related to each other) to review. But I bet Fluid probably would not give that up.

 

[elrichwizard]

The Guid is definitely what dictates the +1 caster level. Here is my best workaround so far:

I added a field to all of the info class... tables called "PlusCasterLevel" (Type Yes/No).

I renamed all of the "info class ..." tables to "info class ..._BU" and made a query using the original table name that includes all of the fields from the original table (except PlusCasterLevel). This way, when the front end grabs the data it gets it from the query rather than the table. Note: I saw the [info class].[Guid] is used as a lookup in one of the other tables, but I havent gone back to search for it, so somthing is probobly broke (I think is is somewhere in the NPC generator).

I then deleted the Loremaster from all of the tables then added it back in. Now I have the old Loremaster Guid avialable (it is not assigned to any class).

For Guid in each of the queries I have:

Guid: IIf([PlusCasterLevel]=Yes,{guid {B2DD6C2B-0750-43FB-8BF1-D349A570E8DF}},[info Class].[Guid])

I then wrote a little VB program that sets whatever class I pick to PlusCasterLevel = Yes.

End Result: Whatever class I pick gets the magic {B2DD6C2B-0750-43FB-8BF1-D349A570E8DF} Guid and hence the + 1 caster level. Unfortunately, only one class can have this at a time, and to change, you need to run the VB program from outside ETools.

The better applroach is to change the line of coad in the .dll file that says If Guid == {B2DD6C2B-0750-43FB-8BF1-D349A570E8DF} then ... to something like if PlusCasterLevel == Yes then ...

I will keep working on my approach and wait and see if Fluid/Somebody have any luck with the dlls. I am just giving the details because it does work even if it is kind of a pain... and maybe it will spark an idea with someone that is cleaner...

Brent

 

[galliand]

ID numbers in Feat and Skills tables.

Anyone adding new feats and skills in the E-Tools House Rules editor might want to take note that the database does not generate unique ID numbers for those user-defined records. If you want to privide unique identification numbers for those records, you have to add them through access.

Also, if you make a mistake in the description of the record, you can't fix it the editor after you mark it to be accepted. You will have to go into the entry in the database and change it there.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I'm working on stuff to both edit and import/export class information, but it'll be a while before it's ready.

I guess the easiest way would be to have an original database to query against and get all the records that are in one and not another and create new tables out of those tables and append them every time you put something new into it.

 

[Cergorach]

I will keep working on my approach and wait and see if Fluid/Somebody have any luck with the dlls. I am just giving the details because it does work even if it is kind of a pain... and maybe it will spark an idea with someone that is cleaner...

Could you zip (or rar) everything up you've done with the db and mail it to me? I was looking in doing something similar but instead of one thing working i broke everything ;-)

my laptop is currently hacking away at the core.dll file, i hope it's done tomorrow morning, i'll need the laptop then. Do you want what comes out of the decompile?

 

[shadoe]

Here is another idea for the +1 caster level ability. Has anyone tried to alter the table so that the guid does not have to be unique? If we can use one guid for several different classes, that would solve the problem of only having one class able to do this at a time.

Just a thought I had while poking arround the tables today.

 

[elrichwizard]

Cergorach:
I am woking on a module to alter the db programatically. I should be done tonight or tomorow. I will send it to you as soon as I have it ready.

I would love a copy of the decompile. I think it violates the licence to alter the code and use it, but I would guess Fluid would not mind any suggestions we can come up with from studying the code.

shadoe:
I tried that approach. Unfortunately, when you do this you end up needing the prerequisites for all of the PrCs to to add a level and get all of the abilities of all of the PrC when you do take the level.

The Guid is the field that the front end uses to join all of the data from the info class... tables. If you use the same Guid multilple times, you just end up with one gian PrC that combines them all. This is why it is a shame that Fluid used the Guid to activate this feature in the front end. They may have a reason that I don't know about, but if they included another Y/N field for +1 caster level in the info class table and used that instead of the Guid, it would make all of our lives a LOT easier.

Eric Noah:
Any chance on asking Fluid to add a +1CasterLevel (Y/N) field to "info Class"? and using that instead of Guid to activate this feature in the front end/calculation machine?

 

[shadoe]

Was it all of the prerequisites of just the new one + the loremaster's? When you look at the info Class requirements table it doesn't list the loremaster at all. I am guessing that this means it is hardcoded as well.