#Choice syntax

[Stormcrow]

I want to give the user a choice of Military Ranks 1–4. I think the #Choice directive is the one I want, but I'm not sure where to put it. The wiki says "the output generated by this directive will be inserted in place of the result variables, instead of in place of this directive." I don't understand what this means. I tried something along the lines of

adds(#Choice(AD:Military Rank=1, AD:Military Rank=2, AD:Military Rank=3, AD:Military Rank=4))

but that doesn't seem to work. I get the choice when applying the template, but Military Rank doesn't show up in the character.

[ericbsmith]

Your best bet is to look in the existing data files for examples and copy from there - that's almost invariably what I end up doing all the time when I'm writing the official files.

All #Directives go within an x() tag; this tag is parsed then emptied once added to the character. The output can be in any other part of the trait.

adds(AD:Rank = %examplealiaslist%),
	x(#ChoiceList(_
			  name(example),
			  title(Rank Choice),
			  text(Choose the level of Rank you'd lie to have:),
			  picksallowed(atleast 1),
			  method(bynumber),
			  list(_
				 "Rank 1",
				 "Rank 2",
				 "Rank 3",
				 "Rank 4" _
				 ),
			  aliaslist(_
				 "1",
				 "2",
				 "3",
				 "4" _
				 )_
			)_
	)

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by ericbsmith

Your best bet is to look in the existing data files for examples and copy from there - that's almost invariably what I end up doing all the time when I'm writing the official files.

Yeah, I do that. I didn't find any with the #Choice directive, though.

All #Directives go within an x() tag; this tag is parsed then emptied once added to the character. The output can be in any other part of the trait.

What does that mean, "the output can be in any other part of the trait"? The output doesn't just live by itself in the x() tag, so where does it go?

adds(AD:Rank = %examplealiaslist%),

How exactly does %examplealiaslist% work, and what other variables are there? Is this where the #Choice output goes?

[tmedwards]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

How exactly does %examplealiaslist% work ... ? Is this where the #Choice output goes?

AFAIK: The replacement token %examplealiaslist% is generated by the #ChoiceList. Its name is derived from the name() tag of the #ChoiceList, which was "example" in Eric's example, and the name of the aliaslist() tag. Its value, as you've probably already surmised, is the selected item's alias as defined by the aliaslist() tag (i.e. if the user selects "Rank 3", %examplealiaslist% is replaced with 3).

That's about the extent of my knowledge here, unfortunately.

[Stormcrow]

Ah, okay. So I put the concatenation of name() + "aliaslist" (surrounded by %s) somewhere in the item. The #ChoiceList will display the list() to the user and return his choice as the corresponding item from aliaslist() to wherever the variable is in the item.

I see that the Mechanic skill uses %examplelist% instead of %examplealiaslist%, and it has a list() but no aliaslist(). Thus, you can use %namelist% as well, if you don't need an aliaslist().

I suppose the aliaslist() corresponds to the list() in a one-to-one manner?

The name() tag, therefore, lets you use more than one #ChoiceList in an item, by naming your variable.

I'll bet all this would work for just plain old #Choice too...

Thanks! That helps a lot!

[ericbsmith]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

I see that the Mechanic skill uses %examplelist% instead of %examplealiaslist%, and it has a list() but no aliaslist(). Thus, you can use %namelist% as well, if you don't need an aliaslist().

Correct. In fact, if need be you can use both %namelist% and %namealiaslist% to output two different strings to two different locations in the trait, e.g. to output the %namelist% to the nameext() for displaying on the printout and %namealiaslist% to the needs() tag.

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

I suppose the aliaslist() corresponds to the list() in a one-to-one manner?

The name() tag, therefore, lets you use more than one #ChoiceList in an item, by naming your variable.

Correct on both counts.

There's more information here and here as well.

[Stormcrow]

Ah! I hadn't seen those before. Thanks!