Code Generation... geeks only

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CleanCutRogue

September 14, 2007 - 10:53am

This topic will be riddled with terms and details specific to Drupal, php, and SQL. It involves the development of a robust character generator.

My initial thoughts:

A content type called "chargen_ruleset" which is little more than a title and a description to serve as our ruleset types ("Core", "StarFrontiersman Helmets", "Farscape Races" whatever).
A content type called "chargen_race" which will have a bunch of fields defining how a race applies to a character sheet's stats. Will have a node select textbox to select which RuleSet it's a part of. Maybe can have an image too... to help make the selection of race graphical? My initial thoughts on fields: name, gender options, handedness options, str_adj, sta_adj, all the other stats,
A content type called "chargen_psa" which is going to just be a name and maybe a general description, along with a node select textbox to select which RuleSet it's a part of.
A content type called "chargen_skill" which is going to have a skill name, it's base chance of success, an optional node select parent to specify that it's a subskill of another skill or a subskill of a chargen_psa, and a general description, along with a node select textbox to select which RuleSet it's a part of. This would be used to define each subskill and skill and it's hierarchial construction in relation to PSAs.
A content type for each classification of gear. All will have to have price, mass, name, description, a selector for a psa or skill that will result in automatically starting with it (for example, maybe a ruleset will state that its military skeinsuit will be freely available to a starting military psa character), a multi-node select for selecting any other gear type called "comes_with" so kits and packages can be made, and a selector for RuleSet, as well as custom things (I can only think of the following at this moment)...
1. chargen_gear_weapon: this would have to have all the range, skill name, ranged/melee selection, ammo types allowed (multi-select node selection, see chargen_gear_ammo), damage type (albedo, inertia, gauss, etc.) for defense purposes, damage amount, a checkbox for if it's a "heavy" weapon (because of the special -10% rule in the core book?), rate of fire, ammo/energy usage per use, an optional image and a decent description. um... I'm sure there's more.
2. chargen_gear_ammo: basically, a price, a weight, description and possible image, and maybe how many items can be connected to it (usually 1, but energy backpacks and stuff have to be created/coded as well).
3. chargen_gear_defense: a price, type ("inertia" etc.), description, optional image, multi-select for selecting which ammo/energy type (see chargen_gear_ammo) it requires, energy/ammo usage per use, probably something else i'm not thinking of.
4. chargen_gear_misc: any other type of equipment would fall under this? Basically, any description for this type of equipment would fall under it's description. Just needs the normal default gear fields listed above.

This is all for the background of it all - the actual execution of it (the creation of a character) would have to result in yet another content type called "chargen_character" which would have all the normal stats, a node selection for race, a selection for psa, multiselect skills, multiselect equipment, a physical description area, a background area... an image upload... um.. I'm sure there's more lol

Potential troubles: How would we make some rulesets able to have drastically different changes to core rules? One set of rules might have no PSA selection, or might divorce PSA from skill selections. Another rules set might have a new ability score pair, or might eliminate one or rename them. What about a rule set that adds something totally different, such as special powers, advantages, disadvantages, etc.?

3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time.

-top 11 reasons to be a Yazirian, ShadowShack

w00t (not verified)

September 14, 2007 - 2:13pm

I think we should not worry about rulesets at this time.
we could provide additional fields or links if the Player wants to use additional rules.
....make selection of ruleset an additional feature.

: sf.info :
I used CCK and the "node reference" selection.

1. first, create a weapon
2. edit your character, in the weapons section start typing the weapon and it will autopopulate.

when viewing a character you can click on their weapons or gear to see the stats and description. ideally I would have this pop-up inside the current browser window (forgot the module name).

w00t (not verified)

October 24, 2007 - 6:55am

I'd like to prusue coding the weapons and gear section so that there is a pop-up ontop of the current page that references the node of the weapon/gear/defense etc....

I can't remember the module that does that... it's not "thickbox".
Besides that I need to know how we will enter in information for weapons and such.
CCK?

I need suggestions to get started.

CleanCutRogue

October 24, 2007 - 9:11pm

w00t wrote:

I think they should be CCK, but must be cleverly written CCK to allow them to be any type of equipment (weapons, defenses, ammo/energy, vehicle, miscellany), so they appear in the correct place in the character sheet. Also, if it's a weapon, we'll need certain fields entered, yet it it's a defense we'll need totally different fields entered.... etc. It'll have to be a well-written tpl.php

3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time.

-top 11 reasons to be a Yazirian, ShadowShack

w00t (not verified)

November 1, 2007 - 6:41pm

It just dawned on me that Player's may use their PC in more than one campaign.
If we could determine what STATS would change and a way to keep it seperate per game...

ok.. that is a lot of code but something to consider.

I don't know how many w00t's anyone will be able to tolerate in the Character setion of the site.

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