Q: I've read the previous section. I think I'm ready to make my own data file. How do I start?
A: All data files follow the same basic layout, and almost anything that can be done with a data file has already been done in one of the official data files. The best way to get a grip on the layout of data files is to open up one of the official files and look it over.
For a lot more information on file structure I recommend going to
the GCAWiki.
There is a also
GCA Data File Reference available on the
Docs page of
Armin's Website.
The first two lines *MUST* be:
Version=3
* The version information above MUST be the first line of the data file
Following that the data files are divided into sections. Each section starts with the section header in brackets:
[Author]
[Advantages]
[Skills]
etc...
Most sections will be divided into sub-sections (such as skill categories or spell colleges). Each sub-section starts with the sub-section header in angle brackets:
<Mundane Mental>
<Combat Techniques>
<Meta-Spells>
etc...
Each individual item is formatted with a name followed by a cost (for advantages, disads, modifiers) or type (skills, spells) followed by one of many tags. Tags are specific information contained within parenthesis. Each of these must be separated by a comma. Example:
Absolute Timing, 2, page(B35), cat(Mundane, Mental)
Absolute Timing is the name of this advantage. It costs 2 points. The page number is held within the page() tag. The cat() tag is used to specify which categories this advantage will fall into. It might be found in a data file like this:
[Advantages]
<Mundane Mental>
Absolute Timing, 2, page(B35), cat(Mundane, Mental)
It is often easier to format items within GCA so they take up multiple lines; this makes it much easier for the human eye to read and for you to pick out errors in a particular item. GCA uses two characters as a line wrapper, a regular comma or an underscore. A comma is used to line wrap after a closed tag(), an underscore is used as a line continuation of a single tag.