Newb Question - loading a custom ruleset

[Jayfoot]

I am trying to look into modifying a ruleset (or more) to use for Star Frontiers. I have downloaded several rulesets from the wiki page and have loaded them into the rulesets folder and they all seem to work. I opened the Generic.pak folder using winrar and explored a little and read the wiki page about what is need for a custom ruleset. I created a base.xml file, logo.png and license.html file and then used winrar to create a file star.rar. Renamed it Star.pak and placed in the ruleset folder (where all the other rulesets are).

Whenever I open Fantasy Grounds this is the only ruleset that doesn't appear under Create New Campaign or Manage Characters.

Is there something I should be doing differently with winrar to create the pak file?

[Trenloe]

Welcome to the forums Jayfoot.

A few things:
1) don't start a ruleset from scratch. You'll have nothing at all appear within Fantasy Grounds and you'll have a monumental task to build it up. Start with CoreRPG as your base. Info on modifying CoreRPG here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?20651-Modifying-the-CoreRPG-ruleset
2) If you're using WinRAR make sure you: use ZIP compression, not RAR compression; and ZIP from within the directory where the base.xml file is (select the files in the directory and ZIP those up) - don't ZIP from outside of the directory.

[Jayfoot]

Thanks that was exactly the problem - using rar instead of zip. Now loading and I can start playing with all the tables, etc.

[Trenloe]

Now loading and I can start playing with all the tables, etc.
If you're doing testing/development there's no need to ZIP the ruleset up.

Create a directory in <FG App Data>\rulesets with the name of the ruleset and put the files in that directory. But, remember you've done this for down the road as FG reads ruleset directories first before reading .pak files.

[LordEntrails]

And you may want to look at MoreCore Ruleset. It might have most of what you need except for a character sheet and thematic graphics.

Plus one of the community devs is already working on a Star Frontiers extension/environment/ruleset. A little more info here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?38028-Terrorists-Aliens-Megacorps-Politicians-A-New-Campaign-Of-An-Old-Classic&p=335203&viewfull=1#post335203

[vodokar]

I concur with LordEntrails with regards to looking at More Core as your first option. I have built a complete ruleset, and sometimes that is what should be done, but it takes months of devotion to do so. Often though, you are better served by just starting with More Core and possibly doing a theme and/or additional functionality extension, which takes days or weeks, vice months.