Upgraded Character Generator, Updated Generator Based on work from Autarkis and Blakkie Options

[WearzManySkins]

is it just me, or are martial arts and milspec missing? besides that this is just awesome, thanks for making it

Many things are missing not just those.....

WMS

[raverbane]

I hope it just isnt because I am half asleep from staying up all night. But, I cant seem to find the Magic tab..

Am I missing something?

[sinthalix]

I can't find a magic tab either...

[Gamble]

Yup. It's not because my eyes are slanted. I can't find the magic tab either.

[Waya]

The magic tab only shows up if you select magician in the special box on the main sheet.

[Gamble]

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle...you're right...

Actually...it still didn't show up.

[raverbane]

Ok, I figured it out. The tab for magic is run on a script.

I have the most recent version of Excel. I had to enable scripting to get the Magic tab to come up.

My roomie has Excel 2002. He can't see it, regardless of what he sets or how low he makes the security,

So, if you wanna use the Magic tab, better fork out 150 for the most recent version of Office... hehe.

or visit your local Warez site... lol

[Gamble]

Stupid question: how did you enable the script?

[raverbane]

Stupid question: how did you enable the script?

On my far-too-expensive new version of Excel. A bar appears right above the sheet, but below the toolbars.

Has a little red shield symbol and next to it " SECURITY WARNING Some active content has been disabled " And then next to that is a button that says 'options'

Click the button and click 'enable this content'

[Gamble]

Wonder if there is a solution for us poor bastids with an older version of Excel...

[cryptoknight]

I'm using Excel 2000.

On tools, macros, security... set to medium to prompt you for macros...

[Gamble]

Aha. That did it. Awesome. Thanks.

[Xerxos]

I had some problems:
1) when you select software for your vehicle, the availability becomes "#NV"
2) when I choose Armor I get a Script error (around "Set Gear_List_Range = ThisWorkbook.Names("Gear_List").RefersToRange")
3) when I choose Karma creation and "race is free", the race isn't free.

[DamienKnight]

Unless Unwired changed things, the Firewall attribute for vehicles should not be dependent on its Pilot program or your commlink. The firewall attribute from pilot rating only applies for Agents and IC, which a vehicle pilot is not. Instead, it should default to the vehicle's device rating or allow one to buy a firewall increase for each vehicle.

Its correct that vehicles operate their own firewall software.

It was my experience that any player that was purchasing software always got at least a 1 skill in software. This enables them to copy the software as many times as they like (p.228, SR4).

The test is an Extended Software (Piracy) + Logic test, interval 1 hour with 10 to 20 threshold. Even someone without the software skill could conceivably copy their firewall after a couple of days trying. Because software piracy is the standard, I setup the sheet to assume that all programs need only be purchased once. This is not only reflected in the firewall, but in all drones because you can purchase 10 copies of the same drone and just one copy of the software to make them all work (hence the mulitplier near vehicles, which muliplies base cost, excluding software costs).

If you want to go outside the norm and pay for multiple copies of software, simply make a note on the Gear section and apply the appropriate costs.

[DamienKnight]

Scripts seem to be a problem for all those not using the newest excel. This should not be a big deal though.

Whenever you select your magic type (ie. Technomancer, adept, none, etc) it shows and hides sheets using a VB macro. You can manually show or hide sheets without using the script. In Excel it is under 'Format->Sheet->Unhide'.

Scripts do the following:

- Show hide sheets based on magic selection
- When new skills are chosen that are not in the list, user is prompted to add, if
they choose 'Yes' then it unhides the data sheet and moves to the area where the skills are listed. This also
works for all weapons, armor, spells, powers and wares.
- I setup some dice rolling macros. They are pretty basic, but offer Verbose and basic mode, and a Karma Mode
roll which rerolls 6's for extra successes. They have shortcuts defined, which can be seen at the bottom of the
Main_Sheet or by selecting 'Tools->Macro->Macros->' highlight macro then choose 'Options'.

[DamienKnight]

There are alot of things missing (Metavarient infected, Martial Arts, Milspec(not sure what that is, but its not in there). This is a beta version and contains basic stuff that covers most players.

Because of the way that I setup custom races, I would have to create alot of data in order to add metavarient infected (basically because infected are setup as their own race, so I would have to have a new race for each metavarient infected combination).

I also dont have options for Drakes or Free Spirits. I will eventually add these in, but I am addressing obscure needs last.

Thanks to LordTorgo I have a more complete knowledge skill list (based on skills from contacts in all 4th edition books) and a few other fixes/changes. A new version will be available shortly.

[DamienKnight]

When using Karma to improve stats... it acts very odd when improving magic.

i.e. Soft cap magic to 5... add karma to the karma log... spend karma to increase magic to 6.

When you do that... suddenly it spends build points AND Karma.

Good catch. It seems that the code that added the extra 15 BP for rating 6 attributes was not coded to handle the karma raises. I will fix this in my next version

And how do I split a skill group after character creation without screwing up the original build points?

There is no easy way to do this in excel. I am going to have to write a macro to handle this perhaps. It is achievable manually using cell X13 and x14 on the Main_Sheet. Basically if you have a skill group and split it into its individual items you can add the difference of BP or Karma cost to those cells so they are subtracted from your total cost. For example, lets say you have Melee Combat Skill Group at 4, which costs 40 BP. You decide to break it apart, so you add 'Unarmed 4', 'Blades 4', and 'Clubs 4' to your list of skills, and remove the Melee Combat Skill group. Now this costs 4BP x 4 skill rating x 3 skills = 48 BP. You have now lost 8 BP. To get it back, just record '8' into cell X13.

I would like to do two things with this. Create a chart of what skills are in each skill group, and then have a macro that runs through your skills and finds any complete set of skills at their minimum level and subtract the difference in BP cost, up to rating 4. For example, if you never had any skill group, but you had Unarmed of 4, Blades of 3 and Clubs of 5, it would see that you had all three skills that are in the Melee Group, find the minimum, which is 3, then adjust your group savings by 6 BP.

To achieve this without any Macro, perhaps I could setup skill groups as a negative BP value, representing how much you save with the group, then you must select each skill from the group also. That sounds even hokier though... I think I will stick with this system and add a Macro to assist with it. I am open to suggestions though...

[mattvo28]

I just wanted to drop in and say how great this is, I haven't had a chance to really fiddle with it but from a cursory glance it looks powerful and well put together. I am looking forward to the finished release.

Thank you.

[DamienKnight]

Update:

-Added Complete list of knowledge skills from Contacts in all SR4 books (thanks LordTorgo)

-Fixed BP cost on Karma raise stats to max.

-Added Martial Arts Styles, Advantages, and Manuevers. Add the quality and the martial arts section will appear on the Main Sheet below credits.

-Revised Infection to be separate from Race. Now any race can select any infection (though mismatches are highlighted, ie. Humans shouldn't be Banshees)

You can download the revised version HERE.

Next areas to tackle:

Add programs from Unwired.

Create option for creating an AI character.

Further down the road:

Add options for Drakes and Free Spirit characters.

Completely revise Skills to better facilitate Skill Groups ??

[cryptoknight]

What if splitting a skill opened another workpage with all the skills/groups listed...

So for instance if I take a group at 4... then split it later... the other page shows up after I mark the skill as split and gives me each skill at 4... and then I can spend karma to increase? Since Knowledge skills don't have that... they could remain as is...

[Cabral]

Further down the road:

Add options for Drakes and Free Spirit characters.

Drakes and Infected can be handled as qualities with compatibility checking rather than races as they stack with other race choices.

How about making the sheets less macro dependent for us Open Office users? You could replace the checkboxes with dropdown lists, for example. Right now in Open Office, because of the macros, we can't use the Karma Based Character system (requires macros to update the setting).

[Brazila]

I just wanted to say how awesome this sheet is, and how much I appreciate your gift to the community. I know how much work this must have been and its easy to pick stuff apart, but man this is a quality tool. AFter having used this I went to work on a character with my group using paper and pencil, and was in shock of the difference. Anyway this is a great tool, and one of the best community offerings I have ever seen for a table top game. ROCK ON!!!

[Cabral]

just a quick parallel update note. I've been tinkering with the doc in Open Office and I appear to have the Karma system working using drop downs. I took a look at OpenOffice.org Basic and ... O.O ... I'm not touching that terse pile of anti-copyright dancing for a bit. As I fiddle, I'll see what I can do for getting a sheet working for us Freeware advocates.

Viva la Revolucion!

[Game2BHappy]

Nice work - this looks really well thought out. Thanks!!

Here are a few things I found when tinkering with it:

[ Spoiler ]

The "Positive qualities" drop down includes negative qualities in the options

There is no Arcana or Enchanting skill (from Street Magic)

"Astral" skill should likely be "Astral Combat"

Only the first line of Negative Qualities drop down starts with the negative qualities list. The rest start with the positive qualities instead.

There is no ability to specialize knowledge skills

There is no "Used" or "Used/Alpha" grade available for cyberware

[Dumori]

There are a few problems form me not all the wear is in the sheet there needed to be more space on the cyber/bio page gene-mods need to be added as well. In karma gen you still get free knowledge skill points. Your race costs karma no-matter what. There is no ability to initiate. I think I might be better to make two sheets one for karma gen the other for BP.