Skills - Divination

[HeroGM]

Has anyone figured out how to put this inside Designer?

 

[LoneWolf]

Just change the Display of another skill.   I would suggest using the skill Power because it can be added multiple times.  Then edit the skill to make it an INT based skill.

[HeroGM]

Any skill you could suggest?

[rjcurrie]

As LoneWolf suggested, I would use the Power skill and edit the Display to Divination. I would then use Custom Adders to add the Divinination method, using a cost of 0 for the three (one primary, two secondary).The one oddity is that you cannot create a 1/2 point Custom Adder; however,as explicitly stated in the Hero System Skills (aka The Ultimate Skill), buying one extravsecondary divinition method costs 1 (minimum Hero System cost), it's not much of an issue. If you buy one extra secondary, you buy a 1 point adder. If you buy 2 extra secondary methods, buy one adder with a cost of 1 and the other with a cost of 0.  Alternatively, you could combine multiple primaries or secondaries on one line using the total cost for those methods.

 

 

 

 

[unclevlad]

You post in the HD Developer forum, so you've got the code.

 

1.  Open up Main6E.hdt and see how to incorporate adders and lays out a new skill definition.  It's not hard.  (Powers are nastier, with many more fields.)  I generally suggest editing the Main6E in the source code package.  Just keep a copy of the original...and the new one with any changes...so if you update your source code later, it'll be easy to move your Divination skill back in.  (Note that this holds true for all powers.  I put APG II's Create Object, extra-dimensional storage, and my own alternate desolid, plus modified Rapid Attack to become Multiple Attack Options as 4 adders, 5 points each, for Rapid Attack (HTH and Ranged) and Defensive Attack (HTH and Ranged, from APG.)

 

Note tho:  I've chosen to make extensive changes...LOTS of cleanup, of stripping stuff I don't care about, and working on somewhat greater efficiency and size.  This IS NOT recommended for sane people.  If all you're really doing is adding a very limited set of new powers/skills, then it may be easier to make a new template that extends Main6e.hdt;  Superheroic6e.hdt may be a good place.  It's basically empty, just extending Main6e.  

 

2.  You'll need to build a dialog specifically for Divination;  the standard Skill dialog won't be *close*.  Divination requires 3 option fields...the divination mechanism.  1 primary, 2 secondary.  These are fixed drop-down lists.  They're built in, so the Adder-based approach is misleading.

 

Now I'd define 3 fixed adders:  +1 to primary divination roll, +1 to secondary divination 1 roll, +1 to secondary divination roll 2.  Then you'll need expanding adders for new primary/secondary methods;  Life Support's dialog has this feature, for disease/poison immunities.  The drop-down list code is in several dialogs;  one offhand is the Autofire Skills dialog.  This'll be...pretty messy.  Take your time.  Re-use things like the existing layouts as much as you can...at least as a model.  Grid Bag Layouts are miserable, but they're the only thing that comes close to doing a decent job in base Java.  

 

You'll need to define a Divination.java class, extending Skill.  MOSTLY, this won't be very different, but you'll need to figure out the formatting for...I forget the method, I think it's col2Output or somesuch.  It's the most common method to format how the skill will show up on the Skills tab.  Again, look through a few skills carefully, to see what fields mean what.  This class will override the standard method to create the skill dialog...it's a one liner, IIRC.

 

Next, the skill has to be included in Template.java.  There's a very long section of skills that get specified one at a time.  There may be a couple other places where you have to do something similar;  use a good search tool, hopefully in your IDE (I use Eclipse) and search on the names of specific skills, in a case sensitive manner...like "Bureaucratics".  That exact string won't show up *that* often...especially in mixed case...and the context makes it clear that, yeah, this is an area where you need to tell the basic mechanisms that you've got your new skill/power/whatever.

 

Oh...hmm.  You MIGHT need to add the skill into the HTML writer...if you want export to HTML.  I don't recall, and I don't have the code open right now.  

[Simon]

Sorry...wasn't paying attention.  You can likely get what you need with just a template addition.  Use the generic SKILL container and make two "required" adders for the primary and secondary methods of divination.  Non-required adders should be used as normal to represent the additional primary and secondary methods of divination, though that 1/2 point for additional secondary methods may need some tweaking...

 

Something like the following should get you started -- no need to make any code changes or custom dialogs.

<SKILL XMLID="Divination" DISPLAY="Divination" MINCOST="1" FAMILIARITYROLL="8" FAMILIARITYCOST="1"
EXCLUSIVE="NO">
<CHARACTERISTIC_CHOICE>
<ITEM CHARACTERISTIC="INT" BASECOST="3" LVLCOST="2" LVLVAL="1" />
</CHARACTERISTIC_CHOICE>
<ADDER XMLID="PRIMARYMETHOD" DISPLAY="Primary Method" BASECOST="0" MINCOST="0" MAXCOST="0" REQUIRED="Yes">
<OPTION XMLID="METHOD1" DISPLAY="Method 1" BASECOST="0">
</OPTION>
<OPTION XMLID="METHOD2" DISPLAY="Method 2" BASECOST="0">
</OPTION>
<OPTION XMLID="METHOD3" DISPLAY="Method 3" BASECOST="0">
</OPTION>
</ADDER>
<ADDER XMLID="SECONDARYMETHOD" DISPLAY="Secondary Method" BASECOST="0" MINCOST="0" MAXCOST="0" REQUIRED="Yes">
<OPTION XMLID="METHOD1" DISPLAY="Method 1" BASECOST="0">
</OPTION>
<OPTION XMLID="METHOD2" DISPLAY="Method 2" BASECOST="0">
</OPTION>
<OPTION XMLID="METHOD3" DISPLAY="Method 3" BASECOST="0">
</OPTION>
</ADDER>
<ADDER XMLID="SECONDARYMETHOD2" DISPLAY="Secondary Method 2" BASECOST="0" MINCOST="0" MAXCOST="0" REQUIRED="Yes">
<OPTION XMLID="METHOD1" DISPLAY="Method 1" BASECOST="0">
</OPTION>
<OPTION XMLID="METHOD2" DISPLAY="Method 2" BASECOST="0">
</OPTION>
<OPTION XMLID="METHOD3" DISPLAY="Method 3" BASECOST="0">
</OPTION>
</ADDER>
</SKILL>

 

[HeroGM]

Thanks, I was hoping for something like that @Simonand @unclevlad. Was hoping to find a similar skill or power and be able to copy/paste it over or at least take a look at how it was built to see what my options were.

 

Just a note, you can put the skill/power/etc into a .hdt file and call it from HD without "recompiling" everything.

 

File -> New Character -> New Character (Custom/Non-Standard Rules) -> Choose File.

 

I do sincerely thanks for the answers. I'll try playing around with that tonight while I've got the (YAY!!) new laptop up and running. 😁