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10-25-2008, 12:19 PM
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#31 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: GCA4 FAQ - GURPS Character Assistant 4 Frequently Asked Questions
Q: When adding traits (especially spells) a selection window opens asking me to choose between possible prerequisite chains; some of the prerequisite chains start with a prefix such as ST: or SK: - What do those prefixes mean?
Those prefix tags tell the program what type of trait it's looking for, differentiating between traits types such as Advantages and Skills. The full list of prefix tags is as follows: ST: or AT: Statistic/Attributes (synonymous) AD: Advantages PE: Perks PO: Powers (GURPS 3rd Edition compatibility, not used in GURPS 4th Edition. Powers & Perks share the same tab in GCA, so PE: and PO: are effectively synonymous) DI: Disadvantages QU: Quirks TE: or PA: Template/Package (synonymous) GR: Groups (as defined under the [GROUPS] header) SK: Skills SP: Spells EQ: Equipment LI: Lists SAMECAT: refers to an item from the specified category, of the same type as the item being needs checked. CA: or ADCAT: refers to an item from the specified category, for advantages DICAT: or DISADCAT: refers to an item from the specified category, for disadvantages CL:, SKCAT: or SKILLCAT: refers to an item from the specified category (class), for skills CO:, SPCAT: or SPELLCAT: refers to an item from the specified category (College), for spells EQCAT: or EQUIPCAT: refers to an item from the specified category, for equipment TECAT: or PACAT: refers to an item from the specified category, for templates/packages Last edited by ericbsmith; 06-02-2017 at 07:30 PM. |
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10-25-2008, 12:27 PM
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#32 |
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: GCA4 FAQ - GURPS Character Assistant 4 Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What are the Magery attributes I see listed as prerequisites when adding spells? e.g. ST:Magery Air or ST:Magery Fire
It has been a very popular house rule for many years that you may take some levels of Magery without limitations and additional levels of Magery with various limitations such as One College Only. i.e. Magery 2 [20] and Magery +2 (Fire College Only, -40%) [12]. This results in an effective level of Magery 2 for most spells but Magery 4 for Fire Spells. In GURPS Thaumatology this house rule has been made an official optional rule. In order to track the exact level of Magery that applies to each college within GCA it became necessary to create these "dummy" attributes/statistics. The attribute that's listed in the prerequisite selection window is simply saying what combined level of Magery is necessary in that college in order to fulfill the prereq. It can only be fulfilled by taking enough combined levels of Magery and Magery (One-College Only). Last edited by ericbsmith; 02-26-2011 at 12:31 AM. |
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01-10-2009, 09:57 PM
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#33 |
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: GCA4 FAQ - GURPS Character Assistant 4 Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How do I create a new Power set within GCA?
That's a rather complicated question to answer. First I will direct you to GURPS Powers page 7 for a full description on how to create a power in GURPS. To create a power we need to start out by designating a Source and a Focus. The easiest way to do so in GCA is to start out by adding the advantage _New Parent Item and designate it's name as the Source (and Focus) for your Power. To sort a power to the top of the advantage listing when printed place an _underscore at the beginning of the name. e.g. for a Psychokinesis power you may wish to name it: _Psionic (Psychokinesis) Next, apply all modifiers to the newly created _New Parent Item which you wish to apply to all of the abilities within the Power. The most important modifiers for Powers are contained within the Modifier groups _Power Modifiers and _Psionic Power Modifiers which you can access from the drop down menu at the top of the Modifiers window. Once you've added all of the modifiers to the Parent Item you may then right click on the newly created Parent Item and select Copy Modifiers *TO* Buffer then right click on an ability within your Power and select Copy Modifiers *FROM* Buffer to apply those modifiers to individual advantages. You may select multiple advantages to target by holding down the CTRL key as you click on them. Next you will want to group all of your Powers abilities together under the Parent Item (a Parent item is a "container" under which you can file other abilities within GCA). To do this select all of your powers advantages by holding down CTRL and clicking on them, right click on them and select Make Child Of... selecting your Power advantage as the Parent. Last you will want to take an appropriate Power Talent from the advantage category Talent - Powers, or create a new one by adding the advantage _New Power Talent. Once added you may apply modifiers to any Power Talent which allow you to specify which skills and advantages will receive a skill bonus from that talent. Last edited by ericbsmith; 02-26-2011 at 12:32 AM. |
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01-18-2009, 10:04 AM
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#34 |
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: GCA4 FAQ - GURPS Character Assistant 4 Frequently Asked Questions
Q: I've selected a portrait for my character, but when I print there is no portrait. How do I include the portrait on the printout?
Unfortunately, the design constraints of the standard Character Sheet don't really leave any room for the portrait to be printed into. Currently you have to go into: Tools > Character Sheet Options > charactersheet.gcs > Miscellaneous Options and set the Print the Character's Description and Notes starting on a new page? option to Yes to force the notes to a new page and make room for the portrait on that page. For better handling of the portrait you may want to try using one of the alternate character sheets, such as Armin's Color Flow or Phoenix. Last edited by ericbsmith; 02-26-2011 at 12:32 AM. |
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04-19-2009, 10:37 PM
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#35 |
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: GCA4 FAQ - GURPS Character Assistant 4 Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How do I add Enchantments to equipment?
Enchantments are treated as modifiers in GCA; they may be added to a piece of equipment by selecting the equipment and clicking on the Modifiers button. All Enchantments have a tilde (~) at the beginning of their name - this ensures that they are listed alphabetically at the end of the Modifiers list. Q: How do I change the cost of Enchantments for my campaign? You will need to make a custom data file which contains several Enchantment Attributes which are campaign dependent and affect the cost of Enchantments: EnchantmentSlowAndSureCost is the cost, per point of energy, of enchanting using the Slow And Sure method of Enchanting. EnchantmentQuickAndDirtyCost is the cost, per point of energy, of enchanting using the Quick And Dirty method of Enchanting. EnchantmentQuickAndDirtyThreshold is the energy cost of an enchantment at which it is cheaper to use Quick And Dirty Enchanting rather than Slow And Sure Enchanting. If an Enchantment has energy equal to or less than the Threshold number the price will be based on EnchantmentQuickAndDirtyCost, otherwise it will be based on EnchantmentSlowAndSureCost. EnchantmentEnergyMultiplier is a multiplier applied to the energy cost of a Slow and Sure Enchantments. The energy cost is rounded up before multiplying by SlowAndSureCost. EXAMPLE: The default setup is that Enchanter is an Average Job. Enchanters make on average $33 per day at TL3; this sets EnchantmentSlowAndSureCost to 33 and EnchantmentQuickAndDirtyCost to 1. Medium sized circles are fairly common, allowing enchantments up to 60 energy to be produced; EnchantmentQuickAndDirtyThreshold is 60. The energy costs are exactly as listed in GURPS Magic, so EnchantmentEnergyMultiplier is 1. Don't forget, if you're making a new data file you need to include proper headers. See FAQ #13 for full details: Code:
Version=3 * The version information above MUST be the first line of the data file [ATTRIBUTES] EnchantmentEnergyMultiplier, basevalue(1), display(no), hide(yes) EnchantmentSlowAndSureCost, basevalue(33), display(no), hide(yes) EnchantmentQuickAndDirtyThreshold, basevalue(60), display(no), hide(yes) EnchantmentQuickAndDirtyCost, basevalue(1), display(no), hide(yes) Code:
Version=3 * The version information above MUST be the first line of the data file [ATTRIBUTES] EnchantmentEnergyMultiplier, basevalue(0.066666666), display(no), hide(yes) EnchantmentSlowAndSureCost, basevalue(66), display(no), hide(yes) EnchantmentQuickAndDirtyThreshold, basevalue(100), display(no), hide(yes) EnchantmentQuickAndDirtyCost, basevalue(2), display(no), hide(yes) Using the formula's on Magic p. 22 using the Typical Monthly Pay from p. B517 we can come up with the following costs for Enchanters at various tech levels: Code:
TL Daily Q&D
Pay Cost
0 30 x0.79
1 31 x0.82
2 32 x0.85
3 33 x0.9
4 38 x1
5 42 x1.4
6 47 x2
7 100 x2.75
8 124 x3.3
9 171 x4.5
10 267 x7
11 386 x10
12 505 x13
EnchantmentSlowAndSureCost will be based on the first column: @indexedvalue("ST:Tech Level::basevalue"+1, 30,31,32,33,38,42,47,100,124,171,267,386,505) EnchantmentQuickAndDirtyCost will be based on the second column: @indexedvalue("ST:Tech Level::basevalue"+1, 0.79,0.82,0.85,0.9,1,1.4,2,2.7,3.3,4.5,7,10,13) Code:
Version=3
* The version information above MUST be the first line of the data file
[ATTRIBUTES]
EnchantmentEnergyMultiplier, basevalue(1), display(no), hide(yes)
EnchantmentSlowAndSureCost, basevalue(@indexedvalue("ST:Tech Level::basevalue"+1, 30,31,32,33,38,42,47,100,124,171,267,386,505)), display(no), hide(yes)
EnchantmentQuickAndDirtyThreshold, basevalue(60), display(no), hide(yes)
EnchantmentQuickAndDirtyCost, basevalue(@indexedvalue("ST:Tech Level::basevalue"+1, 0.79,0.82,0.85,0.9,1,1.4,2,2.7,3.3,4.5,7,10,13)), display(no), hide(yes)
Last edited by ericbsmith; 08-28-2011 at 06:01 PM. |
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07-07-2011, 10:00 PM
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#36 |
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: GCA4 FAQ - GURPS Character Assistant 4 Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How do you implement Alternate Form in GCA?
As an ability Alternate Form is a bit tricky, regardless of whether you're using GCA or not. Lets start out with a quick explanation of how Alternate Form works in GURPS rules, then go through how it works in GCA. Alternate Form allows you to swap out the character's Racial Template for a different Racial Template. This essentially means that the player must keep track of multiple character sheets, one for each Form the character can turn into, marking all of the differences. For extremely simple forms this can be hand-waved away, but for templates that make significant changes, especially to attributes, it is absolutely necessary to maintain a character sheet for each form in order to properly reflect all of the changes that are made in attributes, secondary attributes, skill levels, and other calculated values such as damage. This requirement does not change just because you are using GCA. You will need to maintain multiple copies of the character, each with a different Racial Template applied to it. Or, alternatively, you can remove one Racial Template then add the other Racial Template to the character, then print out the character once with each Racial Template applied (printing out multiple versions of the character). Either way you will wind up with multiple versions of the character. So, step by step, to create a character with multiple forms you will need to:
Last edited by ericbsmith; 12-08-2012 at 05:17 AM. |
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10-16-2012, 04:17 PM
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#37 |
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: GCA4 FAQ - GURPS Character Assistant 4 Frequently Asked Questions
Special thanks goes out to all the Data File Authors, those people who have taken time to bring new features and templates into GURPS Character Assistant 4:
Staffan Björk (bjork), Richard Brown, Stephen E. Brown (bumbot), Alex Camacho, Scott Ellis, Martin Etherington, Rob Kamm, Mike Kuehn, Jason Levine (Rev. Pee Kitty/PK Levine), Phil Masters, Renne Rantakoivu [a.k.a. Sergen], Craig Roth, Emily Smirle (Bruno), Eric B. Smith, Orin Sonders, Armin D. Sykes, Jared D. Voshall, David L. Watkins, Roger Burton West, and Otto R Whitehead
GURPS Character Assistant Design and Programming by Armin D. Sykes GURPS Character Assistant Produced by Chris Maka GURPS Game Design by Steve Jackson GURPS Fourth Edition Revision by David L. Pulver and Sean M. Punch Cover Art by John Moriarty, Torstein Nordstrand, and Bob Stevlic GURPS System Design: Steve Jackson GURPS Line Editor: Sean Punch GURPS Data File Coordinator: Eric B. Smith Production Manager: Monique Chapman Production Artists: Alex Fernandez, Armin D. Sykes, and Marzo Sette Torres Jr. Print Buyer: Monica Stephens Marketing Director: Paul Chapman Sales Manager: Ross Jepson Errata Coordinator: Andy Vetromile GURPS FAQ Maintainer: Stéphane Thériault Iconic Characters Created by Kenneth Hite Proofreading by Scott Haring, Steve Jackson, Chris Maka, and Sean Punch Additional Materials and Assistance: Thomas M. Edwards, Craig Roth, Eric B. Smith, Stuart Stinson, Marzo Sette Torres Jr., Jim Trigg, David L. Watkins Playtest: Orion Adrian, Monique Chapman, Paul Chapman, Nathaniel Eliot, Alexander Grimgoth, Steve Jackson, Shawn M. Kelley, Chris Maka, Sean Punch, Giles Schildt, Emily Smirle, Dan Sugalski, Stéphane Thériault, Thomas Weigel, Loren Wiseman
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Eric B. Smith GURPS Data File Coordinator GURPSLand I shall pull the pin from this healing grenade and... Kaboom-baya. Last edited by ericbsmith; 04-21-2016 at 08:02 PM. |
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02-03-2014, 10:38 AM
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#38 |
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: GCA4 FAQ - GURPS Character Assistant 4 Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why does GCA crash with an Error 6: Overflow whenever I use _New Racial Template or _New Meta-Trait?
Unfortunately this is a known issue which cannot be fixed, but does have an easy workaround: Load fewer data files when using _New Racial Template or _New Meta-Trait. The error is caused when some of the trait lists used in these template builders get too long for GCA to handle; the trait lists get too long when too many data files are loaded. To make sure that these list don't grow to be too long you need to load fewer data files when using them. On an existing character you will also need to Resynchronize the Groups after loading the new Data Set and before using the _New Racial Template. Alternatively you can create a new Racial Template or Meta-Trait by creating a new character and adding all of the traits you'd like, then going to File -> Save As -> Template within Data File (the last bit is found under the Save as Type drop down below the file name). You can thus save the character as if it were a Racial Template/Meta-Trait into a data file then add that data file to your data set, at which point the new template you created will be available in the Templates tab. Last edited by ericbsmith; 04-12-2017 at 08:08 AM. |
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09-10-2020, 06:34 PM
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#39 |
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY, USA. Near the river Styx in the 5th Circle.
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Re: GCA4 FAQ - GURPS Character Assistant 4 Frequently Asked Questions
Q: GCA is not responding - a window failed to open or opened off-screen, how to fix?
A: GCA has two types of sub-windows it will open. Some, like the Modifiers and Edit windows, GCA will remember the position of and place them back in the same position the next time you open them. If your monitor configuration changes this means they can open off-screen if you had previously placed them on a monitor that is no longer present. The second type, "Modal" windows, are general response windows such as the ones that open when you need to specify the specialization of a skill or advantage. These normally open on the same monitor that GCA is active on, but can sometimes open on another monitor, including in the desktop space where a monitor used to be - meaning they can also open off-screen. When these windows open off-screen it can seem as though GCA is not responding, since these sub-windows have the focus and the main window is inactive until the window closes. Pressing the Escape key should close these windows and should return focus to the main GCA window. To reset the position of all remembered windows, you can Clear the App Data as described in FAQ entry #3. This will reset all user settings for GCA, not just window positions, so may not be be the best way of resolving the issue. It also won't affect the "modal" windows positions if they are opening off-screen. If you are using Windows 10 you can reposition most program windows by pressing the Windows Key + Arrow keys to move an active window around. Pressing Win+Right once will snap the window to the right half of the screen; Holding Win and pressing the right arrow a second time will move the window to the next monitor; continuing to tap right again moves the window to the next next monitor. So if a window opens off screen just hold Win and start tapping the Right Arrow until the window moves onto a usable monitor. Win+Left Arrow works the same way, but pins to the left and moves to the previous monitor. Win+Up Arrow maximizes a window. Win+Down Arrow will unmaximize a maximized window and minimize an unmaximized window. Clever, and easy to remember. However, this generally only works for the non-modal windows in GCA, such as the Edit and Modifiers windows. For modal windows - the response windows - you'll need to use the next method of moving them. An old trick that should work with all of GCA's sub-windows and in all older versions of Windows (going back to Win 3.1 and NT) is to press Alt+Space. This opens the old system menu for a window; The top option of that menu is Move, which you can select by pressing M. If you then press an arrow key this will move the window a few pixels in that direction *AND* attach the window to your mouse cursor, which should then allow you to move your mouse around and drag the window onto your screen. If that doesn't work try using Alt+Tab to select GCA as the active program and then try Alt+Space again. Thanks to Bruno for telling us about the old trick trick, as I had to look up her old post (again) to remember it.
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Eric B. Smith GURPS Data File Coordinator GURPSLand I shall pull the pin from this healing grenade and... Kaboom-baya. Last edited by ericbsmith; 09-13-2020 at 09:40 PM. |
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