Building a Rule Set

[laxarus]

I would like to build a new rule set with Core RPG as the Basis, however the information on the site seems to be fairly confusing in terms of reference material. What would help me most is if there was a rules set that was fully commented so as to show where things were in the existing code. Are there any examples of this?

I am attempting to put together a version of the old CP2020 rules and add in Friday Night Firefight automation. Unfortunately the reference material present seems to be lacking in examples that demonstrate what is done where and when I comb through the D&D examples and some of what folks have put together I find it difficult to find the various sub-parts and how they connect together to form various functions. It's almost as if every single functional area of every sheet has a separate sub-file with further sub-files that detail parts of them, etc. This gets hard to navigate when you grew up programming in languages that put everything in one place.

[dulux-oz]

Yeap, I feel your pain - unfortunately, the only way (at the moment) to learn how to do this is by reverse engineering a Ruleset, which means going through each file to learn how it all fits together.

I found the best way to do this is use something like Notepad++ so that each file could be opened in a separate tab but that the global search still works, and then simply "doing the slog".

The Developers Guide and similar documents on the Wiki are also useful - at least for the basic foundations of which (base) objects do what.

By my estimation there are at least 4 different programmers who have worked on FG over the years (based on at least 4 different "styles" of coding I've identified in the XML and LUA) - while there is some consistency it is obvious that this is the case.

However, if you have a good understanding of OOP, Encapsulation, Polymorphism and Inheritance, it shouldn't be too hard to figure things out, once you get going

Cheers

[damned]

have a look at the MoreCore extension -
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...on-for-CoreRPG

It adds some extras to the PC and NPC character sheets and also adds some stuff to the Combat Tracker.
These are the basic things that you will do with a new ruleset and it is reasonably well commented.

[Trenloe]

Some additional pointers here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...oreRPG-ruleset

[Brenn]

To add what is above, don't shy away from the LUA. To do much of any type of automation you will have to get into the scripting. Also (in some cases) doing the gui implementation through lua is easier than screwing around with the XML( that said, I wouldn't start trying to do any of that until you are solid with your basic lua stuff). But if you want automation you are going to have to get deep into the scripting.

Notepad++ works quite well for me in figuring things out. You can do a Find In Files and search for a particular procedure that is called to track the flow of something down. Note that some of the script is embedded in XML, though the bulk of it is in the LUA files. Initially it is very time consuming until you get a feel for how stuff is laid out, then it really isn't so bad. They have really done quite an excellent job with the CoreRPG implementation. Believe me, I know what it was like prior to this. Comments might be sparse, but overall the code reads fairly well so I've found that while I initially would have liked something robustly commented, I don't really need it any longer.

You have to be prepared to devote some time. It will not come quickly, but if you are like me, each visual/procedural advance keeps the fires stoked. You really can (now) do a lot within the XML/LUA framework.