Discworld GDF

[Armin]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

The annoying about this is that a simple "AD:Flight" works fine in other places - such as the needs() or taboo() clauses of other ads and disads. So I naively assumed it should work everywhere. Consistency is all I ask.

I'm sorry about that. They grew out of different requirements. And, as things grow organically, differences happen.

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

I'll put the full file up on GitHub, under my current branch.

I shall try and take a look at it soon. Unless somebody else tackles it first. I'm in the middle of some other things at the moment.

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Because all this has exposed some other problems...

Windows 10 really, really doesn't like allowing me to hand-edit stuff in a Programs sub-directory such as the one where GDF files live, even after I stopped it being read-only, even when I'm granting Admin rights whenever requested. It has developed a weird habit of sometimes reverting to old versions of the Discworld GCA file which I put in there, after I've edited and even deleted it. (So I'm never 100% certain I'm testing on the right version of the file.) This is probably a problem with my Windows set-up, which I should doubtless try and sort out when I've got a spare week and the word "Reinstall" doesn't make me scream.

But that's my problem (unless anyone here can shed any light). My immediate workaround was to try and load the edited GCA from my working directory. This, however, appears to be impossible. I can go to the "Change Loaded Data Files" dialogue; I can click on the "Change User Drive or Folder"; I can select a different directory where I know the GDF is sitting -- but nothing happens as a result. Nada. I still get the list of data files in the programs sub-directory, and nothing else.

Is this a bug in GCA, or a weirdness on my system?

Okay. First off, you shouldn't be putting your working files in your Programs folder. You are correct, and Windows really does not like that. It also has some annoying "safety" features that "protect" your files by caching them elsewhere. This is the root of that part of your issue.

GCA allows for you to have all your User files in a folder in your Documents structure. By default, that's Documents\GURPS Character Assistant 4\ and also by default, your data files would be stored in Documents\GURPS Character Assistant 4\data files\.

That \data files\ sub-folder in Documents is where you should keep, and work on, your Discworld file.

Now, in the Change Loaded Data Files dialog, there are *two* lists of files listed in the Available Data Files listing, stacked one on top of the other in the listbox. The files from the GCA install Program folders are at the top, and they're shaded white. The files from your Documents folder are at the bottom, shaded green.

When you click the Change User Drive or Folder button, it allows you to change the *green* files, so you'll need to scroll down to them to see what's available being referenced from that folder.

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

(And now I'd better go do something else. Quite how I ended up doing all this, when I don't claim to be a GCA guru and it's basically free development work on an SJGames product, I'm not sure. It'd be real nice if someone else took a crack at some of this stuff.)

I feel you. I'm sorry that you've been doing this yourself.

It won't make you feel any better, but I've learned a number of things from your struggles that I'm attempting to use to make the next GCA's handling of things better. (Although I'm afraid consistency across various features will remain a problem, due to needing backward compatibility with existing data files.)

[tmedwards]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Windows 10 really, really doesn't like allowing me to hand-edit stuff in a Programs sub-directory such as the one where GDF files live, even after I stopped it being read-only, even when I'm granting Admin rights whenever requested. It has developed a weird habit of sometimes reverting to old versions of the Discworld GCA file which I put in there, after I've edited and even deleted it. (So I'm never 100% certain I'm testing on the right version of the file.) This is probably a problem with my Windows set-up, which I should doubtless try and sort out when I've got a spare week and the word "Reinstall" doesn't make me scream.

But that's my problem (unless anyone here can shed any light). […]

You've run afoul of the VirtualStore, which is a part of the User Account Control that debuted with Windows Vista a decade ago (SEE: Security and safety features new to Windows Vista > User_Account_Control). The relevant quote (final paragraph in that section):

Applications written with the assumption that the user will be running with administrator privileges experienced problems in earlier versions of Windows when run from limited user accounts, often because they attempted to write to machine-wide or system directories (such as Program Files) or registry keys (notably HKLM). UAC attempts to alleviate this using File and Registry Virtualization, which redirects writes (and subsequent reads) to a per-user location within the user's profile. For example, if an application attempts to write to "C:\program files\appname\settings.ini" and the user doesn't have permissions to write to that directory, the write will get redirected to "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Prog ram Files\appname\."

The only way around that bit of filesystem virtualization is to execute all of the relevant processes as the Administrator account—simple on-the-spot elevation is, generally, insufficient. That said, do not do that. Some time after Vista came out, GCA4 was updated to include support for a user directory within your Documents directory which is where all custom GCA files should go. (Armin's covered the details about that already, so I'll not rehash them here.)

[Phil Masters]

Thanks for the advice on directories; I've now purged both the relevant Applications directories of data files and put them all under my Data directory, and it looks like I'm at least using the right version of the Discworld GDF, every time.

I've still got Air Move firmly stuck at zero (even when it is displayed), and Ground Move not being zeroed when it should be, but I guess this is progress - at least I know for sure that it's the correct GDF that isn't working right...

[Phil Masters]

I've now got the GCA file into a state that I think is more useful than annoying. Anyone who prefers can download it from https://www.philmasters.org.uk/RPGs/Discworld-GCA.zip.

It still doesn't calculate flight movement for reasons that continue to elude me, it doesn't change the reach on Kick attacks for creatures with Short Legs (advice on how to do that would be welcome), and it doesn't have any occupational templates (apart from some legacies from the Basic Set that I left in because it couldn't hurt) because those are tedious amounts of work which I'd love to leave to other people. But I don't think that it's too buggy.

[tmedwards]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

I've now got the GCA file into a state that I think is more useful than annoying. Anyone who prefers can download it from https://www.philmasters.org.uk/RPGs/Discworld-GCA.zip.

Here's one of my dreaded gcalint reports:

--------------------------------------------------------------------

[Discworld RPG.gdf]

536: error: <attributes> trait "Basic Air Move" missing several line continuations within its basevalue() tag

769: warning: <advantages> trait "Flight (Winged, Can Hover)" unquoted name & name extension components contains comma

771: warning: <advantages> trait "Flight (Winged, Cannot Hover)" unquoted name & name extension components contains comma

776: warning: <advantages> trait "Swarm Body" tag "replacetags" redefined

1074: warning: <advantages> trait "Danger Sense" tag "mods" redefined

1176: error: <advantages> trait "Sense of the City ([whichcity])" contains a spurious comma after its x() tag

1384: warning: <perks> trait "_New Perk" tag "x" redefined

1806: error: <disadvantages> trait "Compulsive Spending" contains a spurious closing parenthesis with its conditional() tag; note: spurious closing paren is near the end of line 1808

2831: error: <spells> trait "_New One-Form Spell, (Magical Form (%FormList%))" contains a spurious comma between its name & name extension components

4355: warning: <modifiers> trait "Mitigator (Glasses)" tag "mitigator" redefined

4778: warning: <modifiers> trait "Mitigator (High-Strength Sunscreen)" tag "mitigator" redefined

4782: warning: <modifiers> trait "Mitigator (Displacement Focus)" tag "mitigator" redefined

6644: warning: <equipment> trait "Wind or Liquor (per bottle, Status %StatusList%)" unquoted name & name extension components contains comma

--------------------------------------------------------------------

[Phil Masters]

Many, many thanks; I've just fixed all those errors, and just for a start, that fixed the air movement rate problem. I've updated the base version on GitHub, or alternatively, you can download it from https://www.philmasters.org.uk/RPGs/Discworld-GCA.zip.

Please do try it out, people; it's entirely possible that I've missed something.

Just one question now; what's the syntax to allow a disadvantage to set Kick combat reach to "C" only?

[Armin]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Just one question now; what's the syntax to allow a disadvantage to set Kick combat reach to "C" only?

It's a bit tricky, because it affects a tag that's basically just text information, and replaces it with more text information. And you'll probably want to affect Kick reach for the unarmed combat skills, too.

Look at the Dwarfism disad in Basic Set, the gives() for that does exactly what you're after for the affected attributes and skills. It also affects Basic Move, Size Modifier, and the Disguise skill, so if you don't want those, delete those bits from the beginning of the gives(), but probably keep the rest of it.

Armin

[Phil Masters]

Yep, I swiped the details from Dwarfism, and that (basically) worked.

The only glitch, technically speaking, is that this reduces Kick Reach by 1, while the rules as written say that Short Legs reduce Kick Reach to C. So strictly, this gives incorrect reach for creatures with SM 1+. But there shouldn't be many or any of those with Short Legs, and this version probably makes as much sense if any do crop up, so meh.

I also fixed a couple of other small issues that I spotted, and I've updated the versions of the file on my Web site and on GitHub.

[Armin]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Yep, I swiped the details from Dwarfism, and that (basically) worked.

Great.

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

The only glitch, technically speaking, is that this reduces Kick Reach by 1, while the rules as written say that Short Legs reduce Kick Reach to C. So strictly, this gives incorrect reach for creatures with SM 1+. But there shouldn't be many or any of those with Short Legs, and this version probably makes as much sense if any do crop up, so meh.

Size Modifier increases reach. So, even though reach for short legs starts at C, it's then increased by SM. I believe this is correct, as short legs on large creatures would reasonably be longer and have more reach than short legs on small creatures.

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

I also fixed a couple of other small issues that I spotted, and I've updated the versions of the file on my Web site and on GitHub.

Thanks for your efforts!

[Phil Masters]

One more update just applied - adding hides(yes) to all racial templates. Both the GitHub main version and the copy in the zip file on my site have been updated.