Custom Data for Chummer Character Gnerator Options

[Wizard_Thoarin]

I'm starting this topic so people can share any custom data (armor, weapons, cyber, spells, powers, vehicles, etc.) here. I think this thread would also work for requests for custom data for those that can't wrap their minds around XML.

We will need to set up some ground rules for how things are entered here.

I'm thinking authors of original content should have their own book entry in a custom_book.xml file so that people can turn on and off an author's content if they think its over the top or breaks their campaign. Any original content from that author should use their book tags in their XML files. I'm going to be Claiming Wizard Thoarin's Stuff with a code of WTS for my book once I start putting custom stuff up on my website so that I can link it here.

Official Errata should be left to Nebular in my opinion. However Unofficial Errata that can be shown to have merit should probably have an "Unofficial Errata" book name and "UE" code. I hope to have the format for these two book entries on my web page with a link here soon. I think anything that makes it into an unofficial errata should point to a forum thread either here on Dumpshock or else over on the Shadowrun Forums maintained by Catalyst (maybe even in their Errata Thread).

But for now, I'm going to put the link for the SR4A version of the Improved Reflexes adept power with the power costs in that book and not the costs from the Runners Toolkit table. Below is the link.

Edit: Removed this URL so you can use the two below

I will be updating the above file as soon as I can so that it will be part of the Unofficial Errata and can be turned on and off.

[Wizard_Thoarin]

I've updated my data structure per the rules above.

You'll need to grab the custom_book.xml and new custom_powers.xml files from my site so you can turn them on and off through the Unofficial Errata in the Tools -> Options Menu.

The new file links are below. You'll need to right click and select save so that it doesn't show up as a bunch of text in your browser.

http://home.comcast.net/~bnielsen93230/Cus...stom_powers.xml

http://home.comcast.net/~bnielsen93230/Cus...ustom_books.xml

The Custom Books will give you two new entries under the Options Menu "Unofficial Errata" and "Wizard Thoarin's Stuff". Right now there isn't anything in Wizard Thoarin's Stuff since I haven't started creating my own stuff yet. Still too busy relearning the rules for my new campaign. But I'm reserving it for my future creations.

I hope this helps everybody.

[SpellBinder]

Certainly not a bad idea. Here's one I started for vehicles in a way to start making alterations to the Similar Models like what's mentioned in Arsenal (see pages 106-107); not exactly custom content by me, but essentially custom content to expand upon what's already in Arsenal. It's got four mods in it so you can add to or subtract from the base speed and/or acceleration without spending slots or (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) . Also found that you cannot include these as "Standard Equipment" with a vehicle or drone as Chummer will not perform the math unless it's added like an "after market" mod to the vehicle/drone. I might also try adding more mods to affect the other attributes of a vehicle or drone to expand upon what one can do to change Similar Models from their base vehicles.

Chummer Custom Content

Note: There's also a variant of the Thundercloud Contrail also in this, the Yamaha Katana-11, but you'll notice it's -1 to Handling and Armor compared to the Contrail. The intent of this is that you've got a -1 to two attributes so you can add +20% to both Speed & Acceleration to it.

I've toyed around with a few other ideas for custom weapons or such. Might submit them later.

Edited: Updated for build 97, so all you have to do is unpack my custom files into your data folder. My books file adds only Modified Arsenal Vehicles so you can make variants of the vehicles, and Unofficial Errata that adds a metamagic feat and a mess of additional vehicles (from DamienKnight's Excel sheet, like I mention below).

[Wizard_Thoarin]

I'm wondering if the mods you've done should be grouped into a new book like "Modified Arsenal Vehicles" with a code of "MAV" or maybe "Modified Vehicles per Arsenal" with a code of "MVA" so that people can turn them on or off.

I haven't read those rules in Arsenal yet so if they could be applied to vehicles from other source books easily then maybe the second suggestion would be more appropriate for a book listing under the options menu. And then you can change the <source> tag </source> so that those vehicles can be turned on and off by the player in the options menu.

I'm thinking of maintaining a list of books so people can download the custom_books.xml file once and update it periodically from my site. But the other stuff people will have to cut and paste on their own into the various XML files. At least the books part I can see as being more manageable (hopefully).

[SpellBinder]

Can certainly do that. The Katana-11 is now a carbon copy of the Contrail, and added mods for Body and Handling. The only thing that did not work in testing was Armor, which the core is coded to change the value, not modify it like the others.

Got the file modified (the link above is updated), and the source tag is now changed to MAV for "Modified Arsenal Vehicles" for both the Katana-11 and the mods (all starting with "Custom" so they're easy to find), so they won't show up without a custom_books.xml file to go with it (which, by the way, I did create one to test and it works as expected).

Added: Had a thought, if a new mod procedure like <armormod> can be added to modify an armor value as opposed to replacing it.

[Wizard_Thoarin]

Ok, I've added "Modified Arsenal Vehicles" with the "MAV" code to my books list so if you grab that again from the link above and then your file SpellBinder, people can have both goodies and turn them on or off as they see fit.

[ggodo]

I'd like to thank both of you for your work.

[SpellBinder]

Hey, no prob. Honestly I find this stuff to be a cakewalk compared to what I've done before (like writing a full functional Warmachine Roster program in Excel) and what I'm currently learning to try to do now (duplicate it in C#).

[Wizard_Thoarin]

I made a change to my custom_power files. I changed "Old" to "UE" the UE stands for Unofficial Errata and I plan on tagging anything I think as unofficial errata with "UE " in front of the name so its easy to tell what is unofficial errata. If your interested in the change just re-grab it from the link above. If the "Old" in the name works for you then that go with whatever works.

[SpellBinder]

Had a thought and made a small addition to my custom_vehicle.xml file. It contains a workaround for some of the vehicles that have an extra 4 mod slots where Chummer doesn't calculate this (like the Contrail, iBall, and Shin-Hyung); add "Bonus Slots, 4" and the number of slots is adjusted. It's linked with the Modified Arsenal Vehicles book.

[Nebular]

This is actually a bug. The Contrail, iBall, and Shin-Hyung all have <mods><addslots>4</addslots></mod> which should add 4 extra slots to them. Problem is the code isn't actually doing anything about it. I'll have this fixed up in the next update.

[SpellBinder]

Yeah, I noticed that in the XML sheet. I put that in as a temporary deal, and will pull it (like I did for a Commlink fix I had earlier) once the next update goes through.

[Wizard_Thoarin]

I added your Custom Metamagic and Custom Complex Forms books to my custom_books.xml file if people want a custom_books list with all the books in it. Just go back up to the second post and grab the books file again.

[SpellBinder]

The CCF one may soon be unneeded, depending on when the next update is done as Nebular will be adding them.

[SpellBinder]

Not intending to make a double post, but as a way to alert to a large change to the custom content in my ZIP file linked above. I've added a mess of vehicles under Wizard_Thoarin's UE book tag that DamienKnight had added to his Excel spreadsheet, and IIRC these were from a Germain printed book or something that never made it to the states.

[Nebular]

I'm thinking of maintaining a list of books so people can download the custom_books.xml file once and update it periodically from my site. But the other stuff people will have to cut and paste on their own into the various XML files. At least the books part I can see as being more manageable (hopefully).

This got me thinking about making everyone's life easier, so I put in a nice little change for you guys to avoid this whole copy/paste/merge multiple files nonsense (because it's not fun and not everyone wants to/knows how to do it).

The next update will support multiple Custom Data Files, meaning you can have custom_Vehicles.xml, custom_Wizard_Thoarin_vehicles.xml, custom_Nebular_vehicles, and custom_SomeOtherGuy_vehicles.xml, and the app will combine them all when it looks as Vehicles for example. Since its through Chummer's XmlManager, all of the Data Files will support this, so no more having to merge anything. The only requirement is that the file name starts with "custom" and ends with "_[datafile].xml". (so custom_vehicles.xml will still work, you're just allowed to put other stuff between "custom" and "_vehicles.xml" now)

[Wizard_Thoarin]

should that be Custom_xyz_[default name].xml? Just want to make sure customscrewsthisup_vehicle.xml would work even though I'd prefer custom_this looks better_vehicles.xml

But I don't want to have to use double underscores for just custom_vehicles.xml either such as custom__vehicles.xml

[Nebular]

You don't have to use double undescores. The existing files like custom_vehicles.xml are still valid. customscrewthisup_vehicles.xml and custom_this looks better_vehicles.xml are both perfectly valid file names. The only place where an underscore is absolutely required is the one right before "vehicles.xml".

[SpellBinder]

For those who might be interested, my custom content batch now includes all of the "Similar Models" vehicles and drones listed in Arsenal, Runner's Companion, and WAR!. As soon as I can get a copy of Spy Games and Unfriendly Skies I'll add them too. Just replace my old custom content files with the new ones.

Each has a separate book that should appear directly beneath the official book the original drone/vehicle appears in, that way you can hide the optional vehicles in War! if you don't happen to have War! in the first place. However you must have the Arsenal Optional Vehicles book enabled to enable the batch of mods you can use to make GM approved slight changes in the vehicle stats as mentioned in Arsenal on page 107 (note that Armor can be changed with this as well, but you must specifically set the rating; due to how Chummer appears to work, there's no way to make a mod that simply adds or subtracts a single point).

[ShadowWalker]

For those who might be interested, my custom content batch now includes all of the "Similar Models" vehicles and drones listed in Arsenal, Runner's Companion, and WAR!. As soon as I can get a copy of Spy Games and Unfriendly Skies I'll add them too. Just replace my old custom content files with the new ones.

Each has a separate book that should appear directly beneath the official book the original drone/vehicle appears in, that way you can hide the optional vehicles in War! if you don't happen to have War! in the first place. However you must have the Arsenal Optional Vehicles book enabled to enable the batch of mods you can use to make GM approved slight changes in the vehicle stats as mentioned in Arsenal on page 107 (note that Armor can be changed with this as well, but you must specifically set the rating; due to how Chummer appears to work, there's no way to make a mod that simply adds or subtracts a single point).

Did you remember change the file names to include your name?

[SpellBinder]

Most certainly did. I changed them some time back, when Nebular said we didn't have to stick to "custom_[whatever].xml". They're all "custom_SpellBinder_[whatever].xml" now, and the vehicles also reference my name (and the original source book & page) as the <page> entry for each.

[ShadowWalker]

Most certainly did. I changed them some time back, when Nebular said we didn't have to stick to "custom_[whatever].xml". They're all "custom_SpellBinder_[whatever].xml" now, and the vehicles also reference my name (and the original source book & page) as the <page> entry for each.

cool beans.