Feature Request

[Snikle]

I have a request, and don't say use modules, already thought about that.

I would like a standard format developed for importing stuff into FG. Some of us are looking at developing things and releasing them in small packs. We are taking NPCs, new monsters(with tokens and images included with the stats), new spells, etc. It would be nice for the end users if they could just click an import button, select a file and FG does the rest. Puts the spells in the ruleset, inserts the monster code into the monster.xml file, the same with the NPC code, etc. Perhaps this could be done with some xml code that declares what the next data set it was about to read or something (dont know that much about xml so shooting from the hip on that).

Now some will argue that they could use a module, but I already have about 8 modules installed and we are talking about releasing allot of material over time and I dont think people want to go about having 50+ modules to go through and select. It would be great if the DM could have a core ruleset selected, and the a house ruleset also selected and FG uses both, same with monsters, items etc.

[gurney9999]

or at least an option with the use of modules, to make the information contained with them a 'temporary' addition to a campaign or a 'permanent' one, which would insert it systematically into the campaign's db.xml file.

[Bumamgar]

I agree.

Personally, I don't have much problem with copying files and editing XML to construct my own custom melange of rules, spells and feats. However, I recognize that this is not a particularly user-friendly method. It offers total control and extreme customizability, and I wouldn't want it to be done away with, but it certainly doesn't lend itself to ease of use by a non-programmer.

I wouldn't want to see blobs of XML copied and merged into existing rulesets and campaign databases. I think this could be handled via includes and a clear order of precedence. Have a dialog which shows the current "include tree" and allows adding custom XML files at various nodes in the tree. So if I wanted to add "joes monster pack" to my current campaign, I could open this include dialog, which would show a tree of the currently included rulesets, modules and random include.xml additions to the current campaign, and insert the new monster pack somewhere in this tree. It should be clear from the dialog what would happen if "joes monster pack" included a resource that existed in another file.

For example, say "joes monster pack" includes an "Allip". The ruleset in use (d20) also has a monster node "Allip". Depending on where in the tree "joes monster pack" is inserted, when I chose "Allip" from the monster dialog, I'll get either Joe's "Allip", or the d20 "Allip". It also should be possible to have these nodes parallel, so I'd actually see TWO "Allip" entries (maybe with a [d20] and [joe] suffix to distinguish them)

I believe this can currently be done to an extent by tweaking base.xml for the ruleset in use, but a dialog to extend this would be great. Additionally, it'd be really cool if I could pick and choose (via the dialog) which components of a ruleset I wanted, so that I could take the "Feats" from the d20-SRD, and the "Spells" from the d20 ruleset, and so on, essentially creating a "custom" ruleset on the fly.