bluesguy

10 hours ago, Steve said:

The Gestalt campaign sourcebook had a more detailed chart that included OCV and DCV as separate categories. As CV ranges rose, damage and defenses lessened.

What is this Gestalt campaign sourcebook you speak of?

I created a version of Batrock the Leaper (Marvel). He and his mercenaries were trying to steal hundreds of pounds of gold doubloons from a museum.  His speed, DCV, and movement were much faster than players.  He was just about out the door when I decided he would give the female heroes a kiss before leaving the museum.  In the end of the female heroes picked up something big and heavy and threw it at him, nailing the megahex he was in.  He was a bit smashed after that.

On 1/25/2024 at 11:01 PM, dmjalund said:

would replacing < with &lt; work?

It might work.  The easiest option is to remove the "<" from the name.

10 hours ago, starblaze said:

So now I'm getting this.

 

A fatal error has occured. Please review the Hero Combat Manager FAQ. If the FAQ does not provide you with an answer, submit an bug report to Hero Combat Manager Website. Include the Combat Record File that was being used during this combat session. Also include the error log file, hcmlogging.txt, which is found in the folder where Hero Combat Manager was installed.


(( XMLSAX) org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 710; columnNumber: 37; The content of elements must consist of well-formed character data or markup.)

Could you attach the hcmlogging.txt file and the XML file?

Did you make the change to "Hamilton Cross" HDC, save, and regenerate the XML combat file?

One of the best ways to figure out problems like this is to create a combat record XML file for each character and load each one of those files individually into Hero Combat Manager.

I found the issue.  Hamilton Cross has a weapon with the title "S&W <1917".  The < is causing the problem.

Hi,

Thank you for purchasing HCM.  To resolve this I would need to see the original HDC files and the generated HCM file.  Please post them to the forum and I will see what I can figure out.

Thank you again.

As the creator of HCM, I appreciate that you purchased the product.  I have to agree with you on the 'click problems'.  I should ask one of my UI/UX friends/experts on how to change it.

I will say to you, good luck with your approach.

BTW: It doesn't appear to work with Firefox.

On 8/29/2023 at 7:54 PM, Simon said:

Again, an awkward effect of the way they wanted Matching Complications to function.

You can always leave the Matching Complications set to the original level - they don't factor into any calculations.  Reducing the Points, setting the Experience Earned, and eliminating the Complication(s) that have been bought off through Experience will show what you need.

I think that is the approach I have used with players who wanted to buy down complications.  Then we just put a note in one of the note fields that we did that.

I am using gnolls in my campaign.  I am trying to model them like a large pack of dogs.  They have a hierarchy, tend to be nomadic sheepherders and live in the badlands.

How is this different than Combat Luck?

12 hours ago, Brainwave, BW said:

I'd say it got all that from the rulebooks for 6th edition.

If I asked ChatGPT it would say, "Anomalous output is due to the lack of a Champions character creation model."

 

 

 

About a month ago I asked ChatGPT to do the same thing and it couldn't because it didn't have any information about the Champions game system.  It could generate 5e DnD characters all day long.  Someone 'provided' ChatGPT with the information necessary to generate a Champions character.

I just gave this a try with the following prompt:

• Can you create a Champions 6th edition character who is a brick?

The result was:

Quote

Certainly! Here's an example of a Champions 6th edition character who is a brick:

Name: Crusher

Background: Crusher grew up in a rough part of the city and learned to defend himself at a young age. As he got older, he realized he had a gift for physical strength and began training to become a superhero. He now uses his strength and durability to protect his city from danger.

Attributes:

Strength: 70
Dexterity: 10
Constitution: 50
Intelligence: 8
Ego: 10
Presence: 10

Skills:

Athletics: 16
Intimidation: 14

Powers:

Super Strength: 70 points (including +5 to damage class, +15 to lifting strength)
Density Increase: 10 points (total weight is 1 ton)

Advantages:

Diehard

Disadvantages:

Dependence (craves adrenaline rushes)
Quirk (enjoys showing off his strength)

Equipment:

None

Crusher is a classic brick character, with superhuman strength, durability, and density. He can lift massive weights, take a lot of punishment, and dish out devastating blows to his enemies. His dependence on adrenaline can make him reckless in battle, but his determination to protect his city makes him a formidable ally.

Someone has entered in enough information about the Champions character creation model for it to generate the above character.  It is missing OCV, DCV, OMCV, DMCV, PD/ED, Stun, End, Body, movement and a few other things.

The quality of the character generated is kind of plain. 

Can you provide the prompts you used to generate these characters.

7 hours ago, Simon said:

Look carefully at the tags that aren't working: you have three “-” characters at the end of /IF_CAMPAIGN_USE and in the opening and closing tags of IF_APPEARANCE

It is always the little things that get you 🙂

I would suggest reading the Black Company series.  Within the company members treat each other with varying levels of respect.  They are often employed by evil people to do evil things.

Also read about Smedley Butler (and the Business Plot) who received two Medal of Honor awards.  He described his service in the military as a well dressed enforcer for a mob of bankers and industrialists.  In Haiti he is hated for what he did there.  Was he evil?  No I don't think so.  Did he do evil things?  Most definitely.  Did he do things after leaving the military to help redeem himself?  I would say yes.

Have you contacted Hero Forge about offering more Super Hero options?  They have been pretty responsive to requests.

In my campaign world, Nyonia, I call them Wangai.  In my game I have modified their stats so they are more nimble but can't run as fast and they are not as strong as humans.  I also gave them an ability like that of a chameleon, where if they stand still for a moment (phase) and their opponent takes their eyes off of the Wangai, the Wangai basically disappears.  If they move they lose their camouflage.  The adventurous types tend to fall into a few categories: thieves, spies, scouts, and a specific kind of priest (Peoni).  They are good with slings, hatchets (melee or thrown), and small hand to hand weapons.  There have been Wangai PCs in my campaigns.

Plus if you have a Wangai in your party you are almost surely going to gain weight, if they do the cooking, and they can always sniff out a great party.

Oh and in my campaign world NO ELVES!  I hate elves - haughty, arrogant, cold-hearted creatures.  Blech!

Another cool way to use emerging AI is to help with adventure plots.  You can use Chat-GPT to do this.  You need to create an account to use it.  For years I have been using Inspiration Pad Pro (free tool) to create adventure outlines like this.

I used it a few times but you can only use a small number of times on a 'free account'.  Here are some other AI options:

• https://stablediffusionweb.com
• https://openai.com/dall-e-2/
• https://deepai.org/machine-learning-model/text2img

44 minutes ago, Simon said:

Chiming in here just for some clarification:  the screenshot you posted earlier doesn't show HD "melting" into HCM - all windows/dialogs shown are for HCM and look like an issue with the window manager (either at the system level or Java in communication with the system...but either way, largely outside of the application code/control).  Other than the distorted dialogs, what else are you seeing?  Dinging when clicking outside of the dialog?  What happens when you move the top dialog slightly (forcing the window manager to redraw)?

 

Do you have any examples of HD and HCM displaying the issues you're referring to?  Such a thing _shouldn't_ be possible unless you are launching the apps in a non-standard manner -- Java runs in a "JVM" or Java Virtual Machine, meaning that each instance is pretty well isolated from others.

Thank you Simon.  I really don't have any ideas.

I did a quick check on a laptop I have access to at the moment and I couldn't reproduce what you are seeing.  I will try a more extensive test when I have time one evening this week.

Can you provide the following information for the system that doesn't work and for the system that does work:

• OS & Version
• Version of Java you are running
• What other programs are running at the same time
• CPU
• RAM on the system that is giving you problems
• Can you post the Combat Record file here (.xml) so I can try and load it on my system?

I can't help with the Hero Designer problem.  That is a different developer.

My desktop system when running a VTT game:

• Windows 10 PRO 21H2
• Java 1.8.0_351
• Tabletop Simulator VTT, Hero Designer, HCM, Browsers, and Zoom
• Intel i7-4770
• RAM 32 GB

My laptop:

• Windows 10
• Java 1.8
• Hero Designer, HCM, and browsers
• I don't know off the top of my head
• RAM 16 GB (might be 32 GB)

Thank you for purchasing HCM.

I try to run my Champions campaigns in an a real life location that the players are familiar.  In my two most recent campaigns there have been the following locations:

Minnesota campaign:

• Mall of America
• Building site for the new Viking's stadium
• At the annual Governor's fishing opener
• Musuems
• State Fair (giant mutated ants)

New Mexico campaign:

• Very large wind farm on the east side of the state
• Mall parking lot
• University of NM campus (and an iconic eatery near the campus)
• Santa Fe Cross of the Martyrs park
• At a ruin in the Chaco Canyon national park
• Underground VIPER facility
• One of the myriad of Sandia National Laboratory buildings
• In Mexico to evacuate civilians from an erupting volcano near Mexico City
• On a moon base.  None of them have life support or gadget or piloting skills.

In my Fantasy game if the players spend experience points on something then it is something that can't be taken away (at least for the long term).  The players have found all kinds of treasure (coins, gems, jewelry, equipment, merchandise,  etc.) and have used that to buy all kinds of things.  They have saved and pooled their wealth to have a ship built (something like a Viking longboat) and hired a crew.  They had a magic bell that summons air elementals to fill the sails with wind to improve the speed of the ship.  All of that wiped out their combined wealth.

I had another group that used their wealth to open an inn and some other businesses.  Magic items were even more rare in this campaign.

Hero Combat Manager provides a list of maneuvers, including any martial arts maneuvers if they are part of the character sheet.  You can select the attack (#1).  You can see a list of maneuvers (#2).  You can't select any of the maneuvers.  One of the things I have always want to do was allow a user to select a Martial art and an appropriate attack is selected and adjusted by the martial art.