Create unique Skills based on other Skills and different attributes.

[KataH]

Armin - I got all of this working for both IQ and ST based versions of Artist (Woodworking). Thank you both so much.
Now I tried the same thing for Soldier for a divergent skill of Soldier (Situational Awareness) based on Perception.
Here is what I have:

Soldier (Situational Awareness - Per Based), N/A,tl(0-12),
default("SK:Soldier" + "ST:Per-IQ"),needs(SK:Soldier),page(TS11, B221),
usernotes(DO NOT spend points on this DIVERGENT SKILL),
description(DO NOT spend points on this DIVERGENT SKILL), 
cat(_General, Military, _General, Military)

If selected, it does remind me that I need the Soldier skill, however when I click 'OK', instead of adding the Soldier skill at 1 point , it adds 1 point to this Divergent skill 'Soldier (Situational Awareness)' and laves it at that.
Your thoughts? [Again thanks for your attention to this].

[Armin]

Originally Posted by KataH

If selected, it does remind me that I need the Soldier skill, however when I click 'OK', instead of adding the Soldier skill at 1 point , it adds 1 point to this Divergent skill 'Soldier (Situational Awareness)' and laves it at that.
Your thoughts? [Again thanks for your attention to this].

Hmm. I'm not actually sure there's anything we can do about that. The needs() code will see any existing SK:Soldier as what was needed, so it won't add the one that you actually need there. We don't have a way to specify one with a different Type in that need without a ton more work than it's probably worth.

[KataH]

That is so strange as it worked for the original Artist (Woodworking - ST Based) and Artist (Woodworking - DX Based) divergent skills needs. of Artist (Woodworking). In that same format.

I then tried, for example, how it looks in Astronomy that need Mathematics (Applied) and copied that format. That did nto work either.

I will keep experimenting then. Thanks again for replying.

[Armin]

Originally Posted by KataH

That is so strange as it worked for the original Artist (Woodworking - ST Based) and Artist (Woodworking - DX Based) divergent skills needs. of Artist (Woodworking). In that same format.

It worked for those others because *all* skills had name extensions (the part in parenthesis) and they were different. If you specify a skill without a name extension, GCA allows one with a name extension to count, because it assumes you mean "any such".

Are you doing this for GCA4 or GCA5? If 5, you can try specifying #none as the extension, such as "SK:Soldier (#none)". I added some expanded options like that for cases like this, but I thought you were doing GCA4, and now don't see if you mentioned which.

[Angel Darkover]

Additionally, if you look in the Stats section of the GDF, you will see that I have created helper stats for the four basic attributes - as in, nothing with Perception. To use that stat, you will need comparable helper stats that follow the same approach. If you follow their approach as a guideline, you can easily build helper stats for any of the secondary stats as well.

[KataH]

OK Angel, I will give that a go. - Thanks again!

[KataH]

So here is what is happening.
For Artist (Woodworking): If I select ‘Artist (Woodworking) – DX Based’, it correctly informs me that I need ‘Artist (Woodworking) ‘and then adds that skill as well. All is good and works as expected!

Artist (Woodworking - DX Based), 
N/A,default("SK:Artist (Woodworking)" + "ST:DX-IQ"),
needs(SK:Artist (Woodworking)),page(B179),tl(),
usernotes(DO NOT spend points on this DIVERGENT SKILL),
description(DO NOT spend points on this DIVERGENT SKILL), 
cat(_General, Arts/Entertainment, Craft)

Now I try the exact same thing with ‘Soldier (Situational Awareness) – Per based’, it correctly informs me that I need ‘Soldier ‘, so far so good– However instead of adding both skills, it only adds ‘Soldier (Situational Awareness) – Per Based’ and gives it 1 point making it level 2.

Soldier (Situational Awareness - Per Based), 
N/A,tl(0-12),default("SK:Soldier" + "ST:Per-IQ"),
needs(SK:Soldier),page(TS11, B221),
usernotes(DO NOT spend points on this DIVERGENT SKILL),
description(DO NOT spend points on this DIVERGENT SKILL), 
cat(_General, Military, _General, Military)

I have setup the helpers as follows:

Per-HT, symbol(Per-HT), basevalue(ST:Per - ST:HT), step(0), maxscore(1000), minscore(0), up(0), down(0), display(no)
Per-IQ, symbol(Per-IQ), basevalue(ST:Per - ST:IQ), step(0), maxscore(1000), minscore(0), up(0), down(0), display(no)
Per-ST, symbol(Per-ST), basevalue(ST:Per - ST:ST), step(0), maxscore(1000), minscore(0), up(0), down(0), display(no)

I hate to keep bothering you guys on this but I feel I am so close to getting it right.

[Armin]

Originally Posted by Armin

It worked for those others because *all* skills had name extensions (the part in parenthesis) and they were different. If you specify a skill without a name extension, GCA allows one with a name extension to count, because it assumes you mean "any such".

This is why it isn't working as expected.

I don't actually know why GCA is adding additional points to the divergent skill (it shouldn't be doing that).

Originally Posted by Armin

Are you doing this for GCA4 or GCA5? If 5, you can try specifying #none as the extension, such as "SK:Soldier (#none)". I added some expanded options like that for cases like this, but I thought you were doing GCA4, and now don't see if you mentioned which.

GCA5 has another option I added last build that I think would pretty much fix this issue directly: addsorincreases() would let you add SK:Soldier if it didn't exist already, and wouldn't add points unnecessarily to any of the traits.

[Armin]

Originally Posted by Armin

GCA5 has another option I added last build that I think would pretty much fix this issue directly: addsorincreases() would let you add SK:Soldier if it didn't exist already, and wouldn't add points unnecessarily to any of the traits.

For a GCA4 compatible solution, you can use adds(SK:Soldier) instead of needs() to get your main skill added. That may well result in a duplicate being added, but GCA will usually warn you about that, and it can be deleted afterward if so. Not perfect, but works in GCA4.

[Angel Darkover]

Again, as Armin has said, the problem that you are running into is that by referencing a skill without a name extension (e.g. Soldier), the system allows for ANY version of the skill to qualify - including the version you are adding. The solution is pretty simple - you need the change the base skill name to include a name extension. Here is the code for Soldier:

#Clone "SK:Soldier" as "SK:Soldier (Basic Skill)"
#Delete "SK:Soldier"

Soldier (Situational Awareness - Per Based), 
N/A,tl(0-12),default("SK:Soldier (Basic Skill)" + "ST:Per-IQ"),
needs("SK:Soldier (Basic Skill)"),page(TS11, B221),
usernotes(DO NOT spend points on this DIVERGENT SKILL),
description(DO NOT spend points on this DIVERGENT SKILL), 
cat(_General, Military, _General, Military)

You will need to do the clone and delete for ALL basic skills that you want to involve, and you want to do it before ANY new skill that relies on it, so I would do all the clones and deletes first in the skill section. Note that this WILL screw with any other dependencies on the deleted skill (like other defaults) but it will allow you to do what you are trying to do. If this becomes a problem, you can use the #ReplaceTags in the problem skill (also after clones and deletes) to change the dependency (however it works, be it default, needs, or whatever) to reference the new skill name with the extension.

As always, changing the underlying GDF won't work on existing characters until you do a resync of the relevant areas.