should try to include book and page number when possible.

Nebular:

I may have missed it, is there currently a way to bind purchased Foci?

Though I'm not Nebular...

If the character has an awakened quality there'll be a box to the right of the gear with the label "Bonded Foci" just above it that lists all of the purchased/owned foci; no awakened quality, no Bonded Foci box. Put a check in the box to bond it, and it'll deduct the BP/Karma accordingly.

Now what's not supported are the unique foci (like the Kurokawa, described in the Digital Grimore) that can bond to anyone for no karma. That might be a bit tricky to implement.

The "Sprawl Ganger" sample character has the Technomancer quality. He should have the Toughness quality instead. (Oops.)

Exotic skills have a math issue; it should not cost 2 bp to type something in the specialization box for exotic skills, because you are not buying a specialization - you're specifying what the skill is. (Exotic skills have no specializations; see page 122 of Anniversary and note that "Specializations" are noted as "N/A" for the two exotic skills on that page.)

I would think you would need to enter the unique item in a custom xml file.
There would still need to be an xml tag that would note it as being a unique foci so anyone could bond it.

Well, I was able to put the Kurokawa in a custom weapons list and the DV works like it's supposed to. However it's only half as effective as I just noticed that there's no DP values for individual weapons listed in the character sheets.

Added: Could be helpful if at least a DP modifier could be included. And also a way to cross check items that normally aren't weapons but can be used as such (like the monofilament chainsaw, normally B&E Gear but can be used as an exotic weapon with -2DP and DV 5P; see SR4a 335 for details).

Interesting. I've no idea how I missed that when I was working on it last night. I'll have to take a look at the character I was messing with when I get home to see if it didn't show up for whatever reason or if I'm just going blind.

Crap. This was working before. This will be fixed in the next update.

Edit: I take that back. It was updated to not show the specialized dice pool amount since you can't specialize in it. The point calculation was never updated.

It doesn't look like you'd need to do anything special for the Kurokawa. Since the Focus doesn't cost anything for binding, I'd just treat it as a standard Weapon.

For items that can also be used as Weapons, I'd treat them like Grenades. They're Gear that has a matching Weapon item that it adds when it is given to the character.

The -2 dice pool is just a modifier you will have to manually handle, similar to the +2 dice pool bonus from Smartlink/Smart Gun.

Fixed and updated.

Exactly.

This week's update comes sooner than I had expected with the focus being on Critters and Metatypes. Sprites are now supported, and, despite saying I would likey never include support for them, there is now support for... wait for it... Free Spirits and A.I.s!

Build 117

• added support for <freespiritpowerpoints /> to Improvement Manager which grants additional Power Points to Free Spirit characters
• added support for Free Spirit characters (see below)
• added support for A.I. character (see below)
• added A.I. Critters from Unwired
• added Sprite Critters (big thanks to ShadowWalker for providing these)
• added support for <gears /> to critters.xml so A.I. Critters can come pre-equipped with their Programs
• Military Grade Armor now uses the proper BOD X 3 limit for Armor Encumbrance (having a single piece of Military Grade Armor equipped raises a character's Encumbrance limit, regardless of any additional Armor they may be wearing)
• Shapeshifters now have access to the Critters tab and have been given their Critter Powers (which also lets them add/remove Vulnerability and Allergy Critter Powers for their Untouched By Silver optional rule)
• Shapeshifters now have Metavariants which let them select a Metatype for their Not Quite Always Human optional rule
• Select Critter Powers window now groups Powers by Category
• unarmed damage now correctly rounds up instead of down
• added an option to allow free Knowledge Skills for characters in Karma Build Mode (disabled by default)
• added an option to allow CHA x 2 free points of Contacts for characters in Karma Build Mode (disabled by default)
• Career Mode correctly uses the Metatype's maximum Essence as the baseline for determining Essence Loss penalties
• Exotic Active Skills no longer eat up points for selecting their Specialization
• added support for <inherited /> Quality Requirement which indicates the Quality can only be gained when it is part of a Metatype
• Skill Ratings in critters.xml now support expressions

Free Spirit Characters

Magic replaces Force since they are the same Attribute for the Free Spirit. When you first create a Free Spirit character, your Attribute BP total will be very high but is technically correct. All of the character's Attribute start at 2 and have a Metatype Maximum of 2 (the Free Spirit's starting Force/Magic). This means that all of your Attribute costs are being calculated at their Metatype Maximum which adds +15BP per Attribute. (This technically breaks all of the other written rules saying only 1 Physical/Mental Attribute can be at it's Metatype Maximum.) When MAG 3 or higher is selected, this number drops back down since they are all no longer at their Metatype Maximum. (And who would play a Force 2 Free Spirit anyways?)

A.I. Characters
Resonance replaces Rating. Their free Programs can be purchased through Gear by selecting the Free! checkbox when purchasing.

Outstanding Items

• Extended Contact Information
• Modular Electronics
• Multiple Capacity Items
• Remove Old Quality Conversion Code
• Look into Karma/Nuyen Expense Rollback

And of course as soon as I post it, my site slows to a dead crawl (at least from my connection - it's hosted remotely). If you try to update, it may time out on you for a while.

A.I.s don't have a resonance attribute,
and there rating is equal to the average of the 4 mental attributes.
The Rating attribute also does not cost any bp or karma to increase.

Eh?! RC make it sound like you pick what your Rating is. Well crud.

page 89 of RC,

Response and Signal are equal to the node the AI is in.
System is equal to the average of Intuition and Logic rounded up.
Firewall is equal to the average of Charisma and Willpower rounded up.

The condition Monitor is equal to 8 plus half System rounded up.

Check page 89 of RC, paragraph 3 - it's the average of the four mental stats, rounded up, and also determines maximum Edge. (It's just as well - there was some kind of bug in the Resonance point cost math anyways.)

On a related note, AIs are currently incapable of increasing any of their mental stats to 6, presumably because they already have four stats at the maximum value of 0.

I don't see any way to select inherent programs; I tried just giving myself an appropriate program at the appropriate rating and clicking the "Free!" box, but it didn't seem to do anything. (I was still billed.) However, they should be tracked separately anyways, since they're a source of karma expenditure. Note that the list of programs which can be inherent is limited to the table on page 89, and that the starting values of said programs cannot be changed at character creation (except by changing the values of the associated stats). It's worth noting that AI inherent programs have Ergonomic and Optimize, but I don't see anything about what rating they should have Optimize at. This may be a thing that needs errata.

AIs should have a permanent three initiative passes.

It would be good if there was a free "modification" for nodes/drones/etc to mechanically record the "node sweet node" bonus ratings.

Technomancers should be unable to take biofeedback filter complex forms, and probably shouldn't be able to take program package complex forms, either. (I'm honestly uncertain that they're allowed to take as complex forms anything other than common use, hacking, program options, and their special simrig, shield, and smartlinks.)

Program packages as currently implemented aren't particularly useful, because they don't contain any information on the software that's in them. This seems like information that should be present on one's character sheet.

Vehicles probably should have a minimum value of 0 for speed and acceleration values.

Plus 2 if they have the Redundancy quality.

They can go to a 6 you just need to increase resonance.
The problem is that you start with a 1 edge and a 1 resonance. Which means you have a stat at max.

Technomancers can have other forms of programs as complex forms. Pg 136 Unwired - Adopting Software.
You could have a Technomancer create Empathy 6 as a complex form.

I thought that Biofeedback and Program Packages had been removed as complex forms.

Mmm... no, if I start a new character, then try to increase Logic to 6 as the first thing I do (which should be legal) I get the "no more than one at max" error message; this doesn't change if I increase my Resonance. (Edge, Resonance, and Magic all don't count against the "one maximum attribute" rule - it only applies to physical and mental Attributes.)

Biofeedback filter is still a selectable complex form (under Hacking), and so are the whole category of software packages.

Good catch on "Adopting Software". This is... actually very useful information to have.

On a related note, I haven't been able to find the MRSI software from War! anywhere in Chummer. Am I just looking in the wrong places?

Well that's strange, the first time I tried this it let me increase to a 6 after I increased resonance.
Not sure what else I had done.

Really? Thought it was the local phone company fornicating my ISP with with a Louisville Slugger up the waste processing plant's pipes. I keep having to refresh web pages at least three times in order to get anywhere at the moment (save my local e-mail).

Found a couple of issues with Martial Arts:
- The Martial Art should be called Sangre y Acero not Sangrey y Acero. (Arsenal p. 158)
- The Maneuver should be called Two Weapon Style, not Two Weapon Strike (Arsenal p. 160).

BTW could you add the other Martial Arts as well? While for example Sangre y Acero, Eztlitzli and Ars Cybernetica offer the same bonuses they are distinct Arts and their bonuses do stack, except for +DV which is capped at +3. Also for flavor it may be interesting to have a character skilled in ROSS instead of Krav Maga.

Linux and Mac users would greatly appreciate Mono-based builds so this program isn't windows-only. If I had the source, I could (attempt to) make the binaries, if need be.

Holy crap, I forgot all about this. Now that Gear supports child items in the data file, I can actually go back and fix all of these up!

I've discussed this with a few people through PMs before. I agree that it would be nice of Chummer worked with Mono, but it's a matter of Mono actually being able to support for core functionality that Chummer relies upon. I would need to strip out a lot of functionality to get it to work with the current build of Mono which is something I'm not willing to do, nor do I have the desire to maintain two separate version of the code. There current public build of Mono is sorely lacking a lot of fundamental .NET functionality that causes it to choke on very simple things that Chummer does (it also believe that some things should be rounded up by the Garbage Collector when they're still in scope). I have tried Chummer with GTK# 2.12.10 and MonoDev 2.6.3 (both of which are beta builds right now) and it actually works with them, so it appears that it is more a matter of just waiting for the newest builds of Mono to be released (and believe me, I've been checking that site every day to see if they've finally released it yet ).

Me again, with another Load/Save issue.

First, the last one I reported (Essence mysteriously being a full point lower than it should have been) I solved! It turned out to be because at one point, I had taken "Addiction: Burnout" as a placeholder.

Second, I have been playing around with an Adept with both "Way of ___" and Geas. The math seems to reapply each time I load the character, resulting in progressively lower and lower costs for the discounted abilities. I didn't notice it at first, but when Improved Reflexes II cost was down to 0.62 I noticed!

I was wondering if I should have done these when I originally entered 'em and figured I didn't need to. Turns out I was wrong. These will be in the next update.

It's nowhere. I'll add these in for the next update, along with adding support for the other Software and Nexi Components being able to go up to Rating 10.

I have a character with Influence group 4, CHA 7, and Kinesics 3 and all of the skills in the group say 13, yet the tooltip says "Skill Rating (4) + CHA (7) + Modifiers (3)".

This will be because you have the Enforce maximum Skill modified Rating option turned on. A Skill's modified Rating (its base Rating + Rating bonuses from Powers, etc.) is limited to 1.5X the current Rating (so Con Rating 4 has a maximum modified Rating of 6). Your 7 CHA is then stacked on top if it which gives you 13.

Kinesics does not create an augmented skill rating. It provides Bonus dice. Those do not have this restriction.

That's a bad thing? Increasingly cheap Powers for all! This will be fixed in the next update.

Actually, looking at the description of Kinesics, it might not be subject to max skill modifiers - 20th says "each level applies a +1 bonus when making or resisting Social skill tests", which sounds like it's not subject to modified rating maximums to me. What did we ever decide about how this works?

EDIT: aaaand I can't find the "delete post" button.

I'm curious as to what actually modifies the Skill Rating itself then to cause the need for the 1.5X thing. Spells add the pool. Powers add to the pool. Even implants (cyberware/bioware) apparently add to the pool. So if everything adds to the pool, what's left to actually create the need for a maximum modified Rating since nothing seems to contribute to it?

Adept power Improved Ability modifies the skill rating itself....



don't recall any others off the top of my head though.

Some qualities do the same, like Catlike and Linguist.

Basically, in the description of the quality, power, or whatever, if it says it modifies the rating of a skill or attribute it's an augmentation and is limited. If it is described as a bonus to a dice pool, it's not an augmentation and not limited.

The MBW adds to the Dodge rating as well.
Enhanced Articulation augments Physical Skills linked to Physical Attributes.

Can't think of any more at the moment.

Ahh, I see. I had always thought it was just inconsistencies in their writings. I'll add in support for marking data as modifing the rating, then fill in the required info for Qualities, 'Ware, and the like.

page 188 SR4A - Skill Ratings, 3rd paragraph:


I have always taken "as noted" to mean that if a quality, ware, power or ability is to affect the skills rating it will be specifically stated that it does so in it's description.

As an example the Reflex Recorder states:

Yup that's it, combined with the note on modifiers


Oh and my bad on Enhanced Articulation. I confused it with the Reflex Recorder. Enhanced articulation gives bonus dice. Sorry.

I think it would be nice if the character sheet showed the skills listed like:
Name - Base - Skill Modifier - Pool Modifier - Total

On the topic of sheets, it would be really cool if there was a cheat sheet.
Something that listed each action and the various skills and their dice pools.
Maybe with a check list of all the actions and let the user decide which ones to list.

You could also go for
AttributeName Name(Specialization) base skill(augmented skill) Modifiers Total

Build 118

• A.I.s now have their missing Rating, System, Firewall, Signal, and Response Attributes
• A.I. Condition Monitor, Matrix Initiative, and Initiative Passes are now calculated correctly
• Commlink Software Suites, Program Packages, Software Suites, and Skillsoft Clusters now have their Programs added as Gear
• added Martial Art variants from Runner's Companion
• adding missing Software from War!
• added support for Software going to Rating 10 from War!
• added support for Rating 10 Nexi Components
• Nexi Components now populate their Availability when added
• Gear marked as Free! now correctly sets the price to 0 when in Create Mode
• removed Biofeedback Filter and Program Packages from list of Complex Forms
• Vehicle Speed and Acceleration can no longer go below 0
• corrected an error where discounted Adept Powers got progressively cheaper after saving and loading
• there is now a distinction between Dice Pool modifiers and Rating modifiers for Skills with only Rating modifiers being subject to the maximum modified Rating rule
• Skill tooltips now provide a distinction between Rating modifiers and Dice Pool modifiers and report "X of Y" of the character's total Rating modifiers being used because of the maximum modified Rating rule

You know, a guy could get spoiled with this fast of turn around. Less than 10 hours from bug report to new rev for download!

The code to convert Qualities from the old format to the current one is coming out in the next update, so if you haven't converted some of your characters yet, do it now! Just open 'em up, click Save, and you're done.

Resonance should be removed from AIs.
Still can't get an attribute of 6 for the mental attributes.
My guess is that it's because the physical attributes are zero as is their max.

Argh! I thought I removed RES from the A.I. Turns out I just removed the link between it and EDG. Well, the next update will be some time on Sunday, so I'll have the Max Attribute thing fixed up for then.

If possible, I would suggest hiding the physical attributes. Having them there adds confusion to the page when the character doesn't have them.

Surge Class II at least seems to be a point sink. I made a legal Cahracter, saved it, but when I looad it, I get the message, that I may not spend more than 35 BP on Qualities.
Martial Arts are also gone, weird.

Where are the Sim Modules? Found them. They are only available as Commlink Plugins.

Why do Trodes and Sim Modules have ratings?