[X] My Assistant

[anchoress]

Hey Adam, first of all thanks for doing all this work!

Some things I recognized:
- If I build an adept and want to skill up magic with karma, the pop-up tells me it costs 20 KP. In fact, the costs are right (30 KP) and the program tells you, if you don't have 30 to spend. It seems, that only the text in the pop-up is wrong.
- If firearms have a smartgun system, it is declared as external. Reffering to the rulebook it should be internal, right? I saw this on the SCK 100 and the Ares Crusader 2.
- Also, the Ares Crusader 2 has a Gas-Vent 2 System, which isn't the fact right now.
- Is there a possibility for adepts to choose adept powers for Qi-Foci? Buying Foci seem to work, but all I was able to do as of yet was writing a note, so I don't forget my char has some more powers not in the list.

Just my first impressions. I will keep it up!

[BigMrE]

When I try to add a weapon to the steel lynx combat drone by right clicking on the heavy weapons mount and choosing weapon, it gives me the weapons can only be added to weapons mount message.

[Adam Schmidt]

When I try to add a weapon to the steel lynx combat drone by right clicking on the heavy weapons mount and choosing weapon, it gives me the weapons can only be added to weapons mount message.

Sorry about that, it'll be fixed in the next build (5.129) out later today if all goes well.

[Adam Schmidt]

There's a few fixes but I've also updated Qi Foci so you can select a power that goes with it and it will show up correctly among your adept powers. The build notes below give a few more specifics. The big thing is that I've done some testing on this myself but I'm sure that you fine people will find things I've missed... if you do, drop me a line here or via email and I'll get it resolved as quickly as I can. Thanks!

Build 5.129 (beta)
- Qi Foci will now ask what power they're providing when you bind the foci and that power will now show up on your list of powers with the appropriate free levels if any and the name of the Qi Foci will be updated to show the power it is providing. For Improved Reflexes, select the level you want your character to have and the foci rating, it will reduce the power point cost accordingly.
- Fixed a bug preventing weapons from being added to Heavy Weapon Mounts.
- Updated firearms that come stock with a Smartgun System to have the internal version.
- Added the Gas-Vent 2 System that the Ares Crusader II should have.
- Fixed the AP on the Colt M23.
- Manabolt is now correctly a Mana based spell.

[anchoress]

Great work (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Here are a few other things I've found:

- Underbarrel guns (i.e. the flamer, chainsaw, grenade launcher, etc.) are causing an error. Can you tell me what you need, or should I just post the whole protocoll in here?
- The skilljack headware is priced by 20.000NY per level. Shouldn't this be 2.000?
- The adept ways are available for every type of character, even if I click on the button to show me only the qualities, my character should be able to take.
- If I take a quality that changes my life style costs (for example: dependant) -> then choose a lifestyle -> then delete the quality, the price of the style does not change. This is clearly a gimmick. I just wanted to inform you (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
- Is there a point where the astral limit is? According to the rule book it is either equal to the social or mental limit (the higher one). If it's not stated anywhere right now, it could be added on the limits tab. But just a gimmick, too!
- Knowledge skills: Under the skill "politics" are the specializations "political" and "politics". Don't know, if they need to be there (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Please keep up the good work!

[Adam Schmidt]

Great work (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Here are a few other things I've found:

- Underbarrel guns (i.e. the flamer, chainsaw, grenade launcher, etc.) are causing an error. Can you tell me what you need, or should I just post the whole protocoll in here?
- The skilljack headware is priced by 20.000NY per level. Shouldn't this be 2.000?
- The adept ways are available for every type of character, even if I click on the button to show me only the qualities, my character should be able to take.
- If I take a quality that changes my life style costs (for example: dependant) -> then choose a lifestyle -> then delete the quality, the price of the style does not change. This is clearly a gimmick. I just wanted to inform you (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
- Is there a point where the astral limit is? According to the rule book it is either equal to the social or mental limit (the higher one). If it's not stated anywhere right now, it could be added on the limits tab. But just a gimmick, too!
- Knowledge skills: Under the skill "politics" are the specializations "political" and "politics". Don't know, if they need to be there (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Please keep up the good work!

I'll get those resolved as quickly as I can. The Skilljack Headware however is listed in my book as being 20,000 nuyen per level and I can't find any errata that changes this. Do you have a source that shows it as 2,000 per level (I'm guessing a non-US sourcebook).

[anchoress]

Yeah, I'm reffering to the german rule book, and just recognized I made an error myself. Its not 2000 but 1000. In detail:

Skilljack (Level 1-6)
Essence 0,1
No capacity
Availability (level x2)
Cost (level x1.000 NY)

Just to make sure I made no translation error: skilljacks are there to implement action-, knowledge- and linguasofts in someone's brain, right?

Edit: Ok, I just saw a discussion in a german thread about this and why it isn't implemented in the original, english version. It seems, that there are still no official statements about this price change - no clue why ^^

[Adam Schmidt]

Unless there's something huge, it will be a few days before I release another build. I'm intending to spend the weekend working on the translation code so that I can better support users of Chummer5 in languages other than English. Unfortunately there's a fair amount of work there and it'll take me a few days to get all that work done.

Build 5.130 (beta)
- Removed some duplicate specialties from the Politics Knowledge Skill.
- Made the Adept Way Qualities not available for non-adepts.
- Added the Astral Limit to the Limits tab and the character sheets. Keep in mind that limit modifiers to either your mental limit or social limit that can apply in the astral might conditionally apply to your astral limit during play.
- Fixed Enhanced Articulation Bioware so that it applies the correct skill bonuses.
- Fixed several issues surrounding full Cyberlimbs. Attribute averaging has been removed as it was a 4th Edition rule. The limb on the character sheet now shows the limb's total Strength, Agility, and its Physical Limit.
- Movement rate now uses the augmented Agility value.
- Added an option under House Rules to use derived Attributes from Cyberlegs when calculating movement speed.
- Added all that lovely Qi Foci code from build 5.129 to Career Mode as well. Completely missed that one.
- Now correctly charges double for positive qualities added or negative qualities deleted after character creation.
- When selecting YNT Softweave in the Select Armor Mod dialog, it will now show "+50%" in the capacity field.
- Removed the button in Career mode that allowed adding more Mystic Adept Power Points. You're not actually allowed to add points this way after character creation.
- Added Custom Ballistic Mask.
- Added the specialized silencer for the Ares Light Fire 75 and added it to the Ares Light Fire 75.
- Added some very minor fixes for the underbarrel weapons from Run and Gun so at least they won't cause a crash. They still don't behave the way I want them to though so I'll be revisiting this "soon".

[Adam Schmidt]

Yeah, I'm reffering to the german rule book, and just recognized I made an error myself. Its not 2000 but 1000. In detail:

Skilljack (Level 1-6)
Essence 0,1
No capacity
Availability (level x2)
Cost (level x1.000 NY)

Just to make sure I made no translation error: skilljacks are there to implement action-, knowledge- and linguasofts in someone's brain, right?

Edit: Ok, I just saw a discussion in a german thread about this and why it isn't implemented in the original, english version. It seems, that there are still no official statements about this price change - no clue why ^^

Not the first time I've run into this problem with rules that are different in different languages. Let me see what I can do with this over the weekend. (personally, I'd say the German text is probably "right" but I have to allow for US English players to use the rules as written too)

[SpellBinder]

Just remembered a thing I think I had asked Nebular about with the old Chummer, which came back to me with the mention of cyberware. At the very least could there be a way to toggle if a piece of cyberware (and maybe bioware) is implanted or not? The thought stems from the character type that is not squeamish about harvesting implants to sell on the black market. That, or if said implants can be available in the Gear tab instead and then be movable to/from the Cyberware and Bioware tab?

Also, as I'm sure I'm not the only one who has thought of this, could it be added as a House Rule to not double the karma costs of Qualities purchased after character creation? To me it is quite silly that the Qualities double in karmic cost, but nothing else does (like Skills, Attributes, etc.).

For some debugging I noticed that when mousing over the Limits, the pop-up bubble talks about A.I. stats instead.

And thanks again for all the work you are doing on this much loved program.

[Adam Schmidt]

Just remembered a thing I think I had asked Nebular about with the old Chummer, which came back to me with the mention of cyberware. At the very least could there be a way to toggle if a piece of cyberware (and maybe bioware) is implanted or not? The thought stems from the character type that is not squeamish about harvesting implants to sell on the black market. That, or if said implants can be available in the Gear tab instead and then be movable to/from the Cyberware and Bioware tab?

Also, as I'm sure I'm not the only one who has thought of this, could it be added as a House Rule to not double the karma costs of Qualities purchased after character creation? To me it is quite silly that the Qualities double in karmic cost, but nothing else does (like Skills, Attributes, etc.).

For some debugging I noticed that when mousing over the Limits, the pop-up bubble talks about A.I. stats instead.

And thanks again for all the work you are doing on this much loved program.

Moving a piece of Cyber/Bioware around like that, particularly from the Cyberware tab to the Gear tab, is a pretty complex task and enabling/disabling a piece via a checkbox isn't really that much easier. But, there is a way I think you can do what you're wanting to at least some degree. You could remove the Cyber/Bioware, add an Essence Hole (which reminds me, I need to add back in the Essence Hole), and then create a new piece of gear using the Custom Item and name it for the piece you've removed with the same value as that piece.

I'll see about adding a house rule for the quality costs and get that tooltip fixed (no idea how I broke that one). Very glad you're enjoying Chummer!

[anchoress]

Not the first time I've run into this problem with rules that are different in different languages. Let me see what I can do with this over the weekend. (personally, I'd say the German text is probably "right" but I have to allow for US English players to use the rules as written too)

Thanks a lot!

Another thing I've mentioned:
- if I copy my gear list using the PACKS function into a new character sheet, some things are broken afterwards
1) my weapons lost all their equipment, except the pieces i've bought additionally
2) the urban explorer jumpsuit costs 300NY more than normal (950 instead of 650) - seems, that the biomonitor got added to the price, allthough it is normally included

I'm a bit confused, because this seems to vary from item to item. I also had goggles with an implemented image link and some tools i've added afterwards. This item was copied correctly with all pieces and the right price. Maybe it is related to the category (Armor, Weapon, Gear) and not the item?

- copying the lifestyle via PACKS crashed my C5 session. Maybe it was related to the fact, that I had the dependand negative quality. I copied the quality as well in the same step, but maybe that caused the crash nonetheless. In detail: the process of copying was no problem, but klicking on the lifestyle caused the error.

So long!

[Adam Schmidt]

Thanks a lot!

Another thing I've mentioned:
- if I copy my gear list using the PACKS function into a new character sheet, some things are broken afterwards
1) my weapons lost all their equipment, except the pieces i've bought additionally
2) the urban explorer jumpsuit costs 300NY more than normal (950 instead of 650) - seems, that the biomonitor got added to the price, allthough it is normally included

I'm a bit confused, because this seems to vary from item to item. I also had goggles with an implemented image link and some tools i've added afterwards. This item was copied correctly with all pieces and the right price. Maybe it is related to the category (Armor, Weapon, Gear) and not the item?

- copying the lifestyle via PACKS crashed my C5 session. Maybe it was related to the fact, that I had the dependand negative quality. I copied the quality as well in the same step, but maybe that caused the crash nonetheless. In detail: the process of copying was no problem, but klicking on the lifestyle caused the error.

So long!

Yeah, unfortunately PACKS is currently very definitely broken. It however is very much on my radar and my intention is to not just re-enable it for storing your own gear sets but also to provide a place for community created PACKS (currently taking submissions here: http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=17338.0).

As of this moment, I've got three large tasks that I'm intending to do one after the other. The one I'm working on this weekend is updating the translation code and creating a couple tools for both myself and for the translators working with Chummer5. The two I'll be working on after that are PACKS and trying to fix the Mono compatibility I broke so that folks can use Chummer5 on Linux and OSX (I hope).

[SpellBinder]

Moving a piece of Cyber/Bioware around like that, particularly from the Cyberware tab to the Gear tab, is a pretty complex task and enabling/disabling a piece via a checkbox isn't really that much easier. But, there is a way I think you can do what you're wanting to at least some degree. You could remove the Cyber/Bioware, add an Essence Hole (which reminds me, I need to add back in the Essence Hole), and then create a new piece of gear using the Custom Item and name it for the piece you've removed with the same value as that piece.

I'll see about adding a house rule for the quality costs and get that tooltip fixed (no idea how I broke that one). Very glad you're enjoying Chummer!

I guess Chummer's way of moving things to/from the vehicle tab to a specific vehicle is a lot more complicated than I thought. Part of what I thought, too, as the alternative was a checkbox like how vehicle mods in Chummer could be toggled as "Installed," when unchecked the mod is not calculated into vehicle's profile.

[Adam Schmidt]

I guess Chummer's way of moving things to/from the vehicle tab to a specific vehicle is a lot more complicated than I thought. Part of what I thought, too, as the alternative was a checkbox like how vehicle mods in Chummer could be toggled as "Installed," when unchecked the mod is not calculated into vehicle's profile.

In short, there are objects in the code called cyberware and bioware respectively. Each of these hold the values needed to make those things work like Nuyen and Essence cost, a bonus tag (which contains all the things attached to the character that are affected by the 'ware), it's grade, possibly a limb tag, and so on. Everything on the Gear tab on the other hand uses a gear object which while it does have some things in common like name, nuyen cost, availability, source book and page, there are a number of things it doesn't have like grade, Essence cost, limb slot, and so on. So I can't put cyberware in the gear collection because they don't share the same properties.

I could try to make gear objects have all the properties they have AND all of the ones from cyberware/bioware as well but that would be problematic because they operate under different rules (like you can add cyberware features to a cyberlimb at no Essence cost, gear can be added to vehicles and weapons but cyber/bioware generally can't, and so on).

Internally, when Chummer reads a bonus tag and applies the bonuses from that item (like the AGI and STR bonus from Muscle Replacement), it creates what is called an Improvement object that defines this bonus and attaches it to the character. Then when other things need to know your current Strength, it asks the character object to get the base Strength and add up all of the bonuses (and penalties) from Improvements that apply to Strength. For your vehicle example, what it's doing internally is adding and removing those Improvements when you check or uncheck the box. But cyber/bioware is supposed to be fairly permanent and so there's also code that does things like check to see how many cyberlegs you have (for movement speed) and each of those instances would also have to be updated to only count cyber/bioware that is active.

So it's not impossible (frankly it's code so nothing's impossible, it's just varying degrees of difficult and time consumptive), but it is complex and it would take a bit of time to track down all the bits that would be impacted.

[anchoress]

Ok, I found something that might be nothing - or a big thing. I will describe the "problem" and you have to say, if this needs to be reworked.

Karma and Skillpoints in Character Generation.
You said, you've implemented a formula, that lets you spend the least amount of Karma Points, if you're sharing more SP than you recieved from the chosen priority. Lets make a simple example:
Skill Points by priority: 22
Atuomatics 5
Gymnastics 5
Throwing W. 5
Unarmed C. 5
Sneaking 1 (Urban)
First Aid 1 (Gunshot Wounds)

In this case, I would have spend 22 SP and 4 KP. But isn't that wrong? As I understand the rule book, you have to strictly follow the steps of Character Creation. That means, you FIRST would have to spend your SP and THEN your KP. This would lead to another result. In the actual state of chummer, SP and KP are spend simultaneously. That means, you can first spend 2 Karma Points for a Level 1 skill and then buy a specialization for it with 1 Skill Point. But if you follow the steps of the rulebook, you would have to spend all your SP first. So - in this particular example - you wouldn't be able to buy 2 specializations from SP, because you don't have the skills yet. You would have to skip one skill+spec (maybe sneaking + urban) and spend 1x 2 KP (buying a new skill on level 1) and then the specialization for 7 KP afterwards.

I'm not exactly sure what is right. Maybe you know it? I just want to be sure, not to cheat while creating my char with C5 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Edit: The same thing may be a problem with attributes. Raising charisma with Karma Points in CharGen means you receive more connection points, raising logic brings you more knowledge skill points.

[Adam Schmidt]

Anchoress - Ok, that's a good one and yeah it's likely a problem. 4th Edition didn't have steps really in the character creation process, it was more of a checklist. But you're right, 5th Edition does have actual steps and it looks like I got too fancy for my own good.

Just thinking "out loud" here but the solution isn't to just rip out the most efficient path mechanism because the player needs the ability to move back and forth along the steps as they tweak and adjust a new character... heck, most folks save a copy of their character just before converting to career mode just in case they need to go back and redo something, adding in more "you cannot go back" steps will make the whole thing more cumbersome. So it'll probably have to be an adjustment to the "overflow" process with UI to enable specific spending of karma to raise beyond the free points but using the efficient path code to point out where you might be able to save karma.

I've got the code cracked open at the moment working on translation code updates so I'll get started on this item once I've got the translation code resettled (probably Monday, maybe Tuesday). That'll give me some time to think about the best approach.

It'll be a lot of work but thank you for finding this issue and pointing it out.

[anchoress]

Sorry for causing such trouble (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) Hopefully you'll get an idea soon!

[Adam Schmidt]

Sorry for causing such trouble (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif) Hopefully you'll get an idea soon!

You didn't cause any trouble.... you helped me find a flaw in the code. That's the reason I thank you guys when you bring stuff like this to my attention. The bug may be a pain in my ass but you're helping me by making me aware of the problem so I can fix it.

[SpellBinder]

I'm just hoping that soon there's gonna be something like Runner's Companion released, where we get other build methods to make characters. Personally I really hate the Priority system.

[anchoress]

You didn't cause any trouble.... you helped me find a flaw in the code. That's the reason I thank you guys when you bring stuff like this to my attention. The bug may be a pain in my ass but you're helping me by making me aware of the problem so I can fix it.

Thanks for your kind words. Then let me tell you another problem related to that:
In the actual build you are able to break up skill groups in character creation and level one or two of them up with skill points. According to the rules you can only do this after spending all of your points, so you're only able to level the skills with karma points.

[anchoress]

Another thing:

Cyberlimbs
In the current state customizing them adds +1 to their availability if you raise STR or AGI, +2 if you raise both stats. In the german rule book it is stated, that the availability is increasing by +1 per point STR and AGI. So if you have a human and want to give him a STR 6/AGI 6 obvious full cyberarm it would have a availability of (4 + 3 + 3 =) 10. Right now in Chummer it is just (4 + 1 + 1 =) 6, no matter how high the customization level is.

[Adam Schmidt]

Sorry for having been off the radar for a couple days, this update was a tough one and I've been focused on it just about since Friday of last week. I'll be working on another bug fix build and then get back to working on translation code. Linux compatibility via Mono is also on my radar and I'll be working on it shortly. Read the changelog this time folks... there's some big changes in there.

Build 5.131 (beta)
A quick shout out... I had programming help on this build from a friend of mine named Ed. Thank you Ed!

- Completely rebuilt how karma is spent on Attributes, Special Attributes, Skill Groups, Active Skills, and Knowledge Skills to reflect the RAW on the steps in character creation. All existing characters should load up just fine but karma costs may have changed to reflect applying the RAW. Each of these now have separate entry boxes for applying points from your Priority selection and for buying up with Karma. Validation now checks to see if you've overspent on your points. I believe I've been able to correctly handle the steps as written while giving a UI that allows you to treat it as a single step (rather than going through a gateway similar to "Mark as Created"). The only thing I haven't updated as part of this is whether skill specialization is paid for with skill points or karma... at this time it automatically uses skill points to pay for skill specialization but I'll update this in a future enhancement when I will also tackle being able to have multiple specializations per skill. There are two new house rules to allow you to tailor how these rules are applied to some degree. If others are needed, send along a request and I'll take a look.
- Added custom Traditions. If you select the Custom Tradition from the dropdown, it will enable additional fields for you to provide your tradition name, select your drain attributes, and select your spirits for each school. This information is saved with the character and is portable with it.
- Fixed the skill bonus from the Cat Mentor Spirit so that it will apply to Sneaking (the English core book says Infiltration on page 321).
- Spell dice pools should now pull from the correct skill (Spellcasting, Ritual Spellcasting, Alchemy, Artificing) for each spell.
- Corrected the drain value for the Resist Pain Spell.
- Fixed the values on the Build Summary tab for Spells, Complex Forms, and Contacts which under some conditions might show the wrong value.
- Fixed the Armor value on the Condition Monitor tab in Career Mode to show the correct value.
- Added the armor encumbrance rule from page 169 so that it applies to armor accessories such as helmets and shields.
- Removed the duplicate Astral Powder gear entry.
- Fixed the missing availability and price for Fetishes.
- Clicking on a blank area within the Contacts, Skill Groups, Active Skills, or Knowledge Skills regions will allow you to scroll them with the scroll wheel.
- Removed the tooltips that were showing the wrong text on the labels on the Limits tab.
- Added a house rule to allow paying only the standard cost for Qualities in Career Mode instead of double as per RAW.
- Removed the option to buy a vehicle used as this was from 4th Edition and has not been carried over into 5th.

[anchoress]

Nice job!

Until now I only found one strange pattern: If you reduce your essence under 6 (i.e. equip any type of bodytech), you "lose" one Special Attributes point - at least it is stated so in the build summary on the right.

[anchoress]

Hey man, I just recognized that some rituals are seem to be missing. I'll list up all that I can find:

(all from Street Grimoire, p. 129-137)
- Grave Binding
- Kything
- Far Sensing
- Ley Sight
- Light of Darma
- Living Vessel
- Manifest Sha
- Masking Ward
- Obfuscating Ward
- Recharge Reagents
- Smudging
- Summon Great Form Spirit
- Trap Ward