Mass-Edit Advantage Costs

[Dark_Daemon]

Is there a way to mass-edit advantage costs?

Specifically, I want all Cyberware and Bioware (from Ultratech and Biotech) to be half-price in terms of points.

Presumably, this can be added via a discount component. This can be applied to every item in the appropriate categories.

I could try and use text-replace to add in the discount component in the books directly, but then I have two different books, and it's harder to share with my gaming group. Ideally, a file like the 'remove TL equipment' would be best.

Thanks.

[Armin]

I'm afraid that there are no data file commands that can do that. There is nothing built into GCA to support doing that kind of process. (There is something like it on the To Do list, but it's never been prioritized.)

There are commands for deleting items by tag matching, so that can be done in bulk by picking the right tags. But there are no commands for changing values of things on a mass level, and none that can do math, such as halving a value, before replacing one.

So you could create a file that changes all the values you're targeting, but it would basically be a big list of commands targeting every specific item with the new value you want to apply. (Which is how it has been done for some things in the past.)

I'll add your query to the other one in the To Do list, to give it a bump, and maybe I can come up with something for this in a future build. But I'm afraid it's pretty much tedium, for now.

Or, I suppose, you could just create a modifier that halves the cost, and folks could apply that in your games. Not a great solution, but a Campaign Discount modifier would be much simpler on you than a whole file.

[Dark_Daemon]

#mergeModTags and #MergeTags wouldn't work? I was looking through, seeing about adding a modifier.

Is it possible to make a custom book with the "cheap Biomod" modifier, a 50% discount, and then it wouldn't need a custom modifier for each advantage?

Or is there some simpler way to do this?

Also, is there a good way of sharing a 'campaign' file - chargen rules?

Thank you.

[Armin]

Originally Posted by Dark_Daemon

#mergeModTags and #MergeTags wouldn't work? I was looking through, seeing about adding a modifier.

Sure, you could use #MergeTags to add a tag to all the various traits you are concerned with, but you'd basically have to target every trait, so it would be a file full of stuff that looks like this example from Basic Set:

#MergeTags in all "SK:Criminology" with "default(SK:Detective!)"
#MergeTags in all "SK:Detect Lies" with "default(SK:Detective!)"
#MergeTags in "SK:Electronics Operation (Security)" with "default(SK:Detective!)"
#MergeTags in "SK:Electronics Operation (Surveillance)" with "default(SK:Detective!)"

except you'd have "AD:Whatever" and with "cost(XX)".

Certainly an option. Probably a bit tedious, but totally doable.

(Honestly, at that point, instead of doing all those lines, I'd probably just copy the entire Cyberware and Bioware sections from those books into my own file, and then just change the costs in there. Load that file after Ultratech and Biotech and they'll replace the ones from those books. That would likely be less work to me.)

Originally Posted by Dark_Daemon

Is it possible to make a custom book with the "cheap Biomod" modifier, a 50% discount, and then it wouldn't need a custom modifier for each advantage?

Or is there some simpler way to do this?

Yes.

Encoding=UTF-8
Version=3
//   The version information above MUST be the first line of the data file
Program=5.0.148

[Modifiers]
<_General>
Cheap Biomod, -50%, group(_General), page(Campaign Option)

By putting it into the _General modifier group, it should appear available for *every* trait, but that's the easiest way to make sure it's always there on the All Applicable Modifiers list.

That's probably the simplest way I can think of to do this.

But you can't have it always apply to every trait of a type you take. Your users will still have to pick the modifier for each trait they take.

But, within GCA, if your user applies the Cheap Biomod modifier to a trait, if they then Copy Modifiers, they can paste that mod easily into other traits that they select and CTRL+V onto.

Originally Posted by Dark_Daemon

Also, is there a good way of sharing a 'campaign' file - chargen rules?

Use Build Campaign Book to build your own file with everything that might be needed for your campaign, including that custom modifier if you use that, or including a custom book full of changed costs if you end up preferring to do that. (Be sure it's complete, including Basic Set, if this is the *only* file you want your group to use.)

Once you save out your custom file, say it's called "Dark_Daemon's Campaign Book.GDF" then you can send that file to your users, they can put a copy into their Documents\GURPS Character Assistant 5\books\ folder, and then they can create a Library using just that book, and use that library to make their characters.

(I don't know how to make that process simpler, although I'd sure love to do so. Without some kind of back-end hosting for GCA file exchanges, I can't build that whole process into GCA.)

Originally Posted by Dark_Daemon

Thank you.

You're welcome. I hope this helps.