How much will it cost me to get someone to Update Iron Heroes?

[Magnatude]

Heya all...
Well I've had enough... Iron Heroes, with each update from FG2 is becoming more and more irratic with errors.
I have a group that has been playing the same campaign faithfully every week for the last year.

I would like to have a 3.5 extension... so how much is this going to cost me?
Seriously.

[Moon Wizard]

I have no experience with Iron Heroes, so I have no idea of the magnitude of the work needed. Perhaps you could summarize the parts of Iron Heroes that vary from 3.5E (other than content)?

Regards,
JPG

[Zeus]

I haven't played Iron Heroes but from my loose knowledge of the game it was written by Mike Mearls and Monte Cook and based upon d20 D&D with some differences to Feats, Skills and combat mechanics (e.g. armor doesn't decrease chance of hit but reduces damage).

I would suggest an extension for 3.5E would mainly need to just augment the charsheet with the the games' specific set of Skills etc. Perhaps an Iron Heroes themed skin as well? The rest of 3.5E's base ruleset code should be applicable to iron Heroes gameplay.

For that reason, I think your looking at another variant (in line with Pathfinder) for 3.5E

[Magnatude]

Skills need to be checkboxed to be "Group" cost 1 rank or unchecked/"Ungrouped" costing 2 ranks

Defence instead of Armor Class.

I'll summerize all the changes including the Character sheet calculations it uses in an email. I'll pay via paypal or whatever will work. PM me if you are interested with a contact email.

[Moon Wizard]

I was thinking that if you post the differences online (at least as they pertain to the VT), that would open it up for more people to help. Once I get v2.9 released, I'm going to try and help as well.

Regards,
JPG

[unerwünscht]

If I could get a list of the changes that need made, I can probably do them at the same time that I am doing the Fantasy Core (https://www.facebook.com/FantasyCoreGames) ruleset.

[ddavison]

Unerwünscht, (or anyone else interested) if you end up doing this update... please shoot me a note. We've posted this on the list of rulesets needing updates and seeking developers for some time and without much luck. Our compensation model probably falls short on some of these good, but less popular product lines... so an alternate model will likely be required. We'd be willing to support this monetarily instead of having the end user pony up more money to support an official Fantasy Grounds product.

Magnatude has been incredibly patient and more than understanding. It should fall on SmiteWorks to properly support him.

[unerwünscht]

From what I can tell the changes that would be required for Iron Hero are similar in practice to the ones needed for the Fantasy Core ruleset, I was just thinking of killing two birds with one stone when I go to make ours ;)

[Magnatude]

Wow, thanks guys... my players would love this if it gets done. I'll get some info posted on the ruleset (changes from 3.5 comparison) Just been working a lot of loooong shifts but the long weekend is coming up and I'll post a great deal of info with images of the current Iron Heroes and the "needs".

[Magnatude]

Uploaded a pdf with some pictures of the current IH Character sheet and what changes there are compared to a 3.5 sheet. Also some notes on some changes like "Token Pools" which are points you can spend on special bonuses/attacks... (not related to Picture/Icon/Tokens) which would make the sheet more functional for this game feature.

PDF HERE!!! (https://bloodflyte.com/images/IHChanges.pdf)

[unerwünscht]

Thank you for the awesome notes. I am pretty sure I have access to the current IH ruleset. I should be able to start working on these soon. I have two more chapters to write out on my core rules then it will all get handed off to other people to finish. Once that is done, I have all the time in the world for a few months, and will put updating rulesets on my list.

[unerwünscht]

While I am looking at all of this, what do you think of the current IH theme/skin?

[Magnatude]

Well... I'm kinda used to it now after a year... lol... but if you feel like swapping it out or having an optional version? why not?
Overall, its no biggie... my players are hyped to the max that you are doing this, we are excited to hopefully get a fully functional ruleset... just so many scripting errors beating on this current one (mostly involving adding characters to the combat tracker)

I cant wait to finally have "Encounters" or "Notes"... its been brutal setting up encounters on the fly (as they do not save after shutting down, start again from scratch)


I have no idea why IH isnt more popular, but I guess its from lack of GM's using it... but my players were very impressed at the way combat and tokens work, giving 3.5 a fresh feel to the system... hopefully this brings a second wind to this ruleset.

[unerwünscht]

Well I have at this point looked over all of your notes, and played around with the existing ruleset a bit. I am thinking that honestly starting from the new 3.5E ruleset and rebuilding will be the most effective way of doing this. That way it will be up to date with all the latest features of FGII. Also looking into how hard it would be to just make it a full featured extension so that it will be self-updating when new version of FGII are released.

[damned]

i think that if it can be done as an extrension that woudl be the best way to assist in keeping it updated and updateable. im very interested to see how this goes as maybe that is the direction that any new updates to c&c shoudl take..

[Magnatude]

We just finished having our IH session, and put the question to the group on the Theme... my players all like the current Theme and hope its still going to be used. :)

Thanks again guys, I'll try to keep up on this thread and help out with any questions.

[unerwünscht]

Ok.. I have started to play with this to see what can be done. I have dissected the original IH ruleset in favor of a modular build environment. Anyways, the question I have right now is when you first start a 3.5E game it gives you a popup asking what ruleset you want to use 3.5E or Pathfinder.

Anyone know how to tie into this? because it still comes up even if you are loading extension that change the character sheet and mechanics.

[Moon Wizard]

For the code that pops up the selection window:
desktop.lua :: onDesktopInit

For the code that adds the option:
manager_options.lua :: onInit

Cheers,
JPG

[unerwünscht]

Just wanted to let everyone know, I am still looking into all the options and playing around with things. I might have a developer wishlist soon, that would make keeping things up to date a lot easier.

[Magnatude]

how are things going? just asking cuz my players are asking, lol... just happy someone is endeavoring on this.

[unerwünscht]

Oh sorry, I thought I had posted an update about a week ago.. .I guess I was dreaming it or something :).

At this point I have split up the original ruleset into single feature extensions, and have been waiting for the final version of 2.9 to come out before I even attempt to figure out what will and will not work.

There are some up sides and some downsides to this method. The good news is if I can get it all to work, there should be no need for feature updates in the future. The bad news is not everything is working the way I had expected.

[SilverEagle82]

i want to see the expansion for the iron heroes rule set updated badly i love the ruleset alot