Help me out with something fairly complex? (Skills, limits, default caps, and more!)

[PK]

Okay, I've tried a lot of different things to accomplish this. In fact, I've never managed to make GCA lock up completely until now. :) So instead of posting the ridiculous builds I've tried, I'd like to just present my needs and humbly solicit advice from those more knowledgeable than I.

I need to create a set of almost-identical IQ/VH skills, but for the sake of this post I'll just focus on one. Let's call it "Path of Magic" for now. This skill doesn't have to affect anything else on the character sheet, but it has some very specific properties.

1. It cannot be learned higher than Thaumatology skill. If you have Thaumatology at 13, your maximum Path of Magic skill is 13.

2. It also cannot be learned higher than (12 + Magery) level. If you have Magery 2, your maximum Path of Magic skill is 14.

NOTE: In this GDF, Magery no longer gives a bonus to Thaumatology skill; I mention this as it's potentially relevant to #1 and #2 above.

3. It defaults to Thaumatology-6. However, your maximum default level is 12, whether you have Magery or not. In other words, if you have Thaumatology-15, you know Path of Magic-9. But if you have Thaumatology-25, you only have Path of Magic-12.

Any ideas on how I can implement all three of these restrictions? When I tried it, I think my need()s went recursive, because GCA just bricked on me. :)

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

1. It cannot be learned higher than Thaumatology skill. If you have Thaumatology at 13, your maximum Path of Magic skill is 13.

2. It also cannot be learned higher than (12 + Magery) level. If you have Magery 2, your maximum Path of Magic skill is 14.

upto(@min("SK:Thaumatology::level",(12+ST:Magery)) ) should cover this - it picks the lower of the two as your hard cap.

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

3. It defaults to Thaumatology-6. However, your maximum default level is 12, whether you have Magery or not. In other words, if you have Thaumatology-15, you know Path of Magic-9. But if you have Thaumatology-25, you only have Path of Magic-12.

Any ideas on how I can implement all three of these restrictions? When I tried it, I think my need()s went recursive, because GCA just bricked on me. :)

Needs isn't a good way to handle caps, that's for sure. That's what the upto tag is for :)

A default cap on the other hand... I'm not sure about. GCA implements the Rule of 20 by default, but that's a "hardware switch" ie set at the program level like which version of the modifiers math you're using, not at the datafile/character level.

This shoooould work?

default(@min("SK:Thaumatology::level"-6,12))

again, takes the lower of "your Thaumatology-6" or "12"

[Bruno]

Nope, I forgot GCA hates using integers for calculating defaults. The upto() works...

If you create a hidden statistic called (for example) PATHDEFAULTCAP that starts at 12 and doesn't get modified, you could do default(@min("SK:Thaumatology::level"-6,ST:PATHDEFAULTCAP )) I think

[Bruno]

Although there's VERY interesting behavior if you don't put points into the skill, just put in the default, and raise your thaumatology over (12+Magery+6) - suddenly GCA assigns a crapton of points to the skill.

That's weird.

[PK]

Hmm... could it maybe all be worked into the upto()? Like, leave the default at Thaum-6 and then include something like

upto(
        @if me::points=0 THEN
                @min("SK:Thaumatology::level",ST:MagicDefaultCap)
        ELSE
                @min("SK:Thaumatology::level",(12+ST:Magery))
)

(NOTE: I know the formatting is wrong, but I wanted to expand it to make my idea clear.) And here, ST:MagicDefaultCap is set at 12.

[tmedwards]

Just tossing in a comment here, based on what's been posted so far. Unless giving users the ability to easily redefine the maximum default level is a design goal, I don't really see a reason for the helper stat, when you could just use the literal value. Only create helper stats if you really need too.

Also, this should perform the same function as your code, but is tad more concise (I haven't tested this though, so…):

upto(@min("SK:Thaumatology::level", @if(me::points = 0 THEN ST:MagicDefaultCap ELSE 12+ST:Magery)))