Should it be a Template or a Prefab?

[Sabene]

I am doing a space game that will have skill groups for players to buy as part of building their profession on a spaceship.  They are all sort of custom skills like Zero G Operation, Astrogation, etc.  I would like to have them preloaded into Hero Designer for my players to just buy them.  I am not sure how to do such a thing and if it would be more appropriate to put them into a Template or a Prefab?  Any assistance is appreciated.  :)

[Simon]

It depends on how you want the Skills to work and how you want the players to purchase them.

If Custom Skill gives you what you need for the Skills you have in mind, then a prefab is likely the best/easiest way to go.  Similarly, if existing Skills are close and can just be renamed, you can use a prefab for this as well (though the players may get some odd repeat purchase warnings for some).

If you're after more robust rules logic for your Skills or want to create a more elegant/seamless renaming of existing Skills, then a custom template is going to be the best option.

 

In terms of purchasing, if you're after a package deal like structure (e.g. "all navigators will have the following Characteristics and Skills"), then you'll want to look at creating templates for each of them (defining the starting character traits for each one).  If you're after more of a "choose 3 of the following Skills" type of purchase, then appropriately named lists within a prefab is your best option.

[Sabene]

Hello Simon,

 

Thank you much for your reply!  So I am thinking that I would like to build these new skills inside a template.  I have never added skills into a template before...how do I get them into the skills list for the players to be able to select them?  I have look all through the software and have not found where I can add skills into the list...  Now, perhaps I am not understanding how templates work...

EDIT:  Reading in the documentation, it looks like I will  need to modify an XML file...can you help with where I can get a baseline XML to start from?

Thanks again for your help here!  

Sabene

Edited May 19, 2020 by Sabene
Additions

[Simon]

You'll want to read through the documentation...specifically the section on custom templates.  It's going to require work outside of the application to edit a template file (they're XML...ish).  That may lean you towards the direction of a prefab if you're not comfortable with reading XML....

[Sabene]

Yes, I am looking through the XML right now...I will play a bit with it, but I may have to resort to a Prefab.  Thanks again Simon! 

[Sabene]

Hello Simon,

 

So I bought a new version of the software as my existing version was saying that the Heroic6E.hdt file was from version 2 of the software and that I needed a version 3...

However, the new version of the software does not seem to have the HD6 folder included in the download?  I could not find any of the template files to modify.  I guess I am looking for the HDv3.jar file that will contain the templates?

Is that available from Hero Games in some form I can still get at and use?

Edited May 20, 2020 by Sabene

[Simon]

You can find the built in templates in HD6.jar -- that's the file that contains pretty much everything needed to run the program (from the Java class files to the templates...and the documentation).  

 

Make sure that you unpack them somewhere other than the directory that contains HD6.jar -- if they're in the same directory that you run HD from, you're likely to run into some odd behavior in terms of which template file actually gets loaded (the one in the .jar file or the one saved to your file system).

[Sabene]

Oh...well I am having a duh moment here!  I am not sure why I did not look there first.  Thanks. 

[Sabene]

Hello Simon,

 

So what I have settled on is doing both a custom Template and Prefabs for my skills.  I have created all the new skills in a modified XML template file which I load, then I have built a Prefab of the skills list in each Profession...

But...

Do you, or anyone else have any ideas on how to make the Separators or the List Text actually appear when I load the Prefab?  It just says "separator"...I have tried notes, etc.  But nothing seems to actually display the name I gave the Separator.

 

Thanks in advance! 

 

Sabene

[Simon]

I'm not entirely clear on what you're after...a Separator is just that -- it adds a blank line.  Generally, you wouldn't want to use them in a Prefab...nothing bad will happen if you do, but they'll just show as "(separator)" in the Prefab itself.

 

Lists will show as folders in a Prefab...and will display whatever text you give them (e.g. "Select 3 of the Following"). You can add the entirety of a List from a Prefab into your character by clicking on the "Select" button (double-clicking on a list in a Prefab will just open/close it).