Need Help With Skill Name Tag

[drophammer]

I'm working on a template for a Victorian Era style character sheet for 6e, and I cannot seem to get the NAME tag to work for the skills. I have a test character that I am using to preview the template as I work on it, and I have given one of the skills a name, but that name does not show up.

I can use the DISPLAY tag and the TEXT tag without issue. But when I change the tag to be NAME, instead, it just returns a blank.

Help?

Matt

[Simon]

The NAME attribute does not exist in the templates. You have DISPLAY and ALIAS.

[drophammer]

So what does ALIAS refer to in terms of when I am looking at a skill in the Hero Designer UI? I figure that DISPLAY is the section labelled DISPLAY.

Thanks!

Matt

[Simon]

The display value used for the ability once assigned to the character (unless overwritten by the user during creation)

[drophammer]

What is the difference between ALIAS and DISPLAY?

Again, thanks for your help!

Matt

[Simon]

Best described by explaining the difference between an available ability and an assigned ability....

DISPLAY is what is used for the name of an available ability. The display value that is shown in the available list, as well as the default value used during purchase (barring any alias).

ALIAS is what is used for the name of a purchased/assigned ability. It defaults to the DISPLAY value, but can be overwritten by the user (or the template) by simply editing the text field in the ability edit window.

[drophammer]

Okay, so let's see if I have it right.

DISPLAY is the default way that the power is shown in the UI. It is not changeable by changing the UI.
ALIAS is what the user puts into the DISPLAY text field in the UI?

I can't be understanding that correctly.

So what, then, is the TEXT tag for? It seems to show the edited DISPLAY field from the UI.

It would be great to have the NAME tag, if only because it is there in the UI for both SKILLS and POWERS and probably for other types of data.

Thanks!

[drophammer]

Okay, actually NOW I have it.
DISPLAY is the basic name of the power only.
ALIAS is what you put in the DISPLAY text field of the power.
TEXT is ALIAS + ADs, LIMs, and such

Got it.

To refine my suggestion earlier, what I really wish is that I could separate the ALIAS stuff from rest of the TEXT, so as to create something where I could have the ALIAS on one line with the rest of the TEXT below it - or with an option to not even show the TEXT part if I didn't want.

Anyway, I think I have it now.

Thanks for your patience.

[Simon]

Sounds like some confusion between templates, characters files, and export formats.

Templates define the rules by which abilities are constructed. DISPLAY is defined in the template and does not change from there. ALIAS _can_ be defined in the template, allowing for a default value other than DISPLAY for the display text field when the ability is purchased. NAME is never defined in the template as it is exclusive to an individual instance/construct of an ability.

Character files define the abilities that have been purchased for a given character -- what abilities from a template have been selected and how they have been put together. DISPLAY is taken from the template, ALIAS and NAME are defined for each ability.

Export formats instruct HD on rendering a given character in an external format. An export format has access to all values and "containers" that go into defining a given ability, including DISPLAY, ALIAS, and NAME.

TEXT is the full writeup of a given ability (in an export format). It exists as an easy default for exporting abilities. If you don't want to use the default format that TEXT gives you, you will need to define the output on your own, from the NAME through the Modifiers, Adders, and other options on a given ability.