Required Attribute points

[RobKamm]

Another one for today (it's nice to have the house to myself for a few hours).

I know we can have a template require a bunch of spells without specifying which ones (from DF1 -- needs (30 spells=1pts)). Is there a way to do something similar for Attributes? I'd like to require 60+ points in attributes, but am not sure how it would be done. Thanks in advance.

[ericbsmith]

needs(ST:ST::Points >= 60)

If you only want to count positive points:

needs(@max(0, ST:ST::Points) >= 60)
EDIT: Err, no, @max() seems to cause a crash when used in the needs() tag.


For multiple attributes you simply add them together:

needs(ST:ST::Points + ST:DX::Points >= 60)
EDIT:And... addition doesn't seem to be working in needs() either. So I'm at a loss.

I'm not sure how to automatically get the cost of all the attributes at once, but given the limited number of attributes with a point cost it shouldn't be hard to add them all together.


EDIT:Only thing I can think of is that you create a new attribute, call it Attribute Cost, with a basevalue() equal to the cost or positive cost of all the other attributes, then use that as your needs() check:

[attributes]
Attribute Cost, basevalue(@max(0, ST:ST::Points) + @max(0, ST:DX::Points) + ST:IQ::Points + ST:HT::Points)

needs(ST:Attribute Cost::level >= 60)

[Armin]

Yeah, needs handling can be trouble, because it's largely a matter of special case coding once you're beyond "SK:Skill=20" kinda stuff. Lots of stuff that will work as a formula in math sections elsewhere is just too much for the left side of a needs() block.

Eric's stat idea is probably the best solution for now, but I'll throw this on the list and maybe get some other stuff in the handling code.

Armin

[RobKamm]

Here's what I ended up using:

Specialties, basevalue(0)

Attribute Cost, basevalue(ST:ST::Points + ST:DX::Points + ST:IQ::Points + ST:HT::Points + ST:Hit Points::Points + ST:Fatigue Points::Points + ST:Will::Points + ST:Perception::Points)

<SNIP>

x(_
	#message("You will need to spend at least 60 points on Attributes and select three specialties packages.")_
			),
		 needs(_
			ST:ST >= 10,
			ST:DX >= 10,
			ST:IQ >= 10,
			ST:HT >= 10,
			ST:Hit Points >= 10,
			ST:Will >= 10,
			ST:Perception >= 10,
			ST:Fatigue Points >= 10,
			ST:Attribute Cost >= 60,
			ST:Specialties = 3_
),

It is clunky, but seems to be working. The Specialties is just a counter for some small skill packages that the player must select from.