I whipped this up last week for a few things including helping my group convert their characters for the SR4A changes. We don't qualities from the expansions so the ones in the list are only SR4A. I'm working on them right now so they may be added shortly.

http://www.shadowrun.us/sr4/calc.php

Currently too the generation limits are in place (to an extent anyway) so it might not help if you have more advanced characters. Give it a try as it might fit what you need.

I'm open to corrections and suggested changes. It's not meant to be a character generation script so no equipment purchases or cyber mods to stats are accounted for. Just Build Points and Karma.

It's a smaller php script (about 68k) that creates the javascript/html page (about 230k after page creation). All the duplicate stuff is created via the php portion so if extra lines are needed, just let me know and I can just increment the main variable(s).

I ran through the example characters in SR4A and came up with:



Carl

Very nice!

One point - For Karma Gen, it charges you Karma = to BP costs for Metatype. Karmagen allows Metatypes for free.

Thanks. I updated the Qualities to include all the ones from Runner's Companion and the few that were missed (AI and the Martial Arts one).



Build Point Conversion is BP x 2, at least for the PDF I have. Page 42 under Build Point Conversions.

Generation is zero per Step 1 "there is no associated cost for metatype or race in Karma-based character generation"

So selecting the "Conversion" radio button should double the BP cost and selecting "Generation" should set Karma cost to zero.

Unless I'm missing something here

Carl

The first time I made a character (a dwarf), I selected "generation" and it listed 25 under the BP column and 25 under the Karma column. It's changed, now!

You must have caught it when I just posted the message above I realized there was that error and I immediately fixed it along with a few other minor bits. Then all the Qualities updated.

Carl

Not bad. It does not allow you to possess a skill at Rating 7 - even with Aptitude.

It would also be appreciated if you allow a toggle for a few 'standard' sets of house rules, particularly my Karma Generation rules (calculate attribute costs before racial modifiers, allow [Intuition+Logic] x 10 free Karma worth of Knowledge skills, allow Charisma x 3 free Karma worth of Contacts, & Contacts cost Connection x Loyalty Karma).


If you do so, I also suggest Frank Trollman's alternate Build Point rules.


I do like that character-generation limits are not enforced - I advise keeping it this way (mark in red when limits are exceeded, but allow it).

Hmm, I like the idea about marking things in red that exceed limits and I forgot about Aptitude. I'll make more adjustments as I'm going along. I'm also working on changing the first run of one large function into individual functions to speed up the processing, but it's not a horrible hit at the moment.

I'll keep your suggestion about house rules in mind. It won't be that hard to add it in as an option I'm sure.

Thanks for the feedback.

Carl

Is there any chance you are willing to give me the code for this, so I could make a few house changes for my groups use? Mostly changing the costs of Qualities and races, & adding and removing a few qualities & skills

The php script just replicates the javascript and html code. So ultimately the page _is_ the code I can make the php script available if you want it too.

Carl

Not needed - I should be able to work off the javascript code. Thanks.



Edit: The code seems excessively bloated, with identical arrays repeating a dozen times. Is this due to the PhP <-> JavaScript conversion?

I am not familiar with PhP, but have worked with PERL, & I would have written an array once, then referenced to it wherever needed, instead of repeating it numerous times...

No you're right. It is pretty bloated. I was in a hurry for a different reason (game this past Sunday). If this were a stand-alone program like C, I would certainly have used arrays but I'm a lot more familiar with C. Same with any other stand-alone tool (like perl). I've been using PHP for a few years and I think I have the hang of it for the simple things that I do (sysadmin type stuff and mysql). I'm just starting to learn Javascript and there are some gotcha's involved that I wouldn't encounter in C (such as it being pretty time consuming to debug; no Warning: or Error: during compile ).

In this case I wanted to use arrays but didn't know how to set up array variables in HTML so I could use them in a function. Setting bodmod[0] and passing 0 to showchar(0) wasn't working and as I said, I was in a crunch for this.

I've been searching on how to do arrays in Javascript but without much luck. Today I did a search and included HTML and found what looks like the answer. I'll be mucking with that tonight to get that going but it may take a few days to get the code converted to what it should look like.

I also want each of the sections to call its own function rather than go through showChar() each time for efficiency. I get to deal with global variables in doing that. I have started that part and have the first separate function working.

That's how I learn something new. I started back in 1980 learning Basic by writing a Car Wars vehicle generation program and D&D character program on a Radio Shack Color Computer. From there I've gone through a few versions of Basic, a couple of vendors implementation of C, a couple of Dos windowing packages (Mike Smedley's CXL was the best for what I did ), converting my existing programs and creating new ones. This is just another language and program in a long line of such things. Doing it helps me learn Javascript in this case and character generation rules.

Sorry for all the info. I'll be off to make the program more efficient. It does work though, even if it is a _bit_ bloated

Carl

After having played around with it for a bit, I have some minor points:

Switching from skill groups to individual skills (and vice versa) requires you to take the value down to 0 and then back up rather than recalculate.

Could use more slots for Contacts and Skills. Perhaps have these sections expandable?

Does not allow you to advance past racial max on attributes or skills despite choosing relevant qualities.

Qualities are a bit of a mess to scroll through. You have them grouped by positive/negative, which is nice, but it's still a long list. Separate by book, perhaps?

You have a pretty neat application here! I would love if it became an online chargen - I hate downloading things from strange web pages

Thanks for the feedback. I can expand the slots of course. I'm doing some optimizing right now but I'm planning on working more with the chargen to get it better

Carl

Still working on how I want to do this.



Since I'm using a php array to build the javascript bits, I just upped the number for the sections so there are more



Took out the limits. The min/max changes to red when you've exceeded the racial max.



They're already identified by book so I just needed to add in the code to break them up. I've started but it's not quite there yet.



We're in the middle of moving so I'm working on it when I get a few minutes here and there.

Thanks again for the ideas.

Carl

I tested out your program again. Notes:

When I took an attribute past the racial max, the min/max in parenthesis flashed red briefly and went to black.

The check boxes for qualities don't work. I checked them all, and got only SR4 qualities. I unchecked SR4, with the rest checked, and it remained only SR4 qualities.

Hmm, I'll have to check. It should have stayed red. The checkboxes were just added to show how I'm going to implement the selection. I have to study up on how to add options in Javascript. I have the section, it's just getting it all together and pushed out to the server.

We're right in the middle of moving though so it'll be a few days before I can get back to it.

Carl

Ok, since I plan to buy the "all three" on the next paycheck and don't have the PDF to go from yet on SR4A, what actually changed in terms of character generation?