4E Character Sheet

[Poor_Knight]

4E Sheet is loaded and all the fields have been added.

Next step for this sheet is to set up some client side auto-calcs - yes, people will no longer have to add their ability mods anywhere. It will be derived from the actual ability score then cascade down the sheet. Along with the 1/2 lvl bonus and the skill training bonus.

Then after auto-cals the actual processing/storage of the data.

I've added several selection boxes too to help facilitate character searches. Race, class, paragon, epic, level, gender, size, and alignment are all selections rather than inputs. Plus, I've gone ahead and added the race selections from the back of the MM that had PC-like templates. This will of course be limiting in the fact that you cannot be ANY race or class, only what is selectable. I've debated over this and decided to just go with it. I can set up a feature request link somewhere so if people are wanting addition stuff added then its just a matter of adding it to the selection.

The selected values will not auto-populate any race or class data. Its still largely a fill-it-in-yourself sheet with the addition of a few automated conveniences. Per OGL you are not allowed to make character generators. Even the race/class selection may be overstepping in that area but we'll see.

This time I will add more fields for the sheet in the DB - the 3.5 sheet  takes all the character data and converts it to one string and sores it in one field in the DB. I think this is part of the reason for some people losing sheets. A corrupted or unescaped character may cause a problem and wipe out the string, which happen to be an entire character. This time I'll do it in smaller chunks, like abilities, and skills, equipment, etc. Plus, with the auto calculations there is less data to save. Anywhere an ability mod is used is an entry that doesn't get added to the db. All that info comes from the ability score itself.

[theterran]

Will there be a 3.5 available here as well? 

[Poor_Knight]

Yes, for the time being I will move the current one over here. I'll also make a 'generic' sheet that is just a few text area to hold the character info for other gaming systems.

[Azerack]

Hah.. nice work.. I'll go see if I can break it. 

[Azerack]

Um.. how do I access it? 

When I click on Characters -> Just Mine it still shows, "Coming Soon"

and the Create Character button goes to a empty page.

[Odinseye]

yep me too he must not have it turned on yet.

[Poor_Knight]

Sorry, that is correct. Its not ready yet, I was just posting about its progress and next steps.

[Azerack]

Ahh.. such a tease..      

 

[Poor_Knight]

Well I have most of the auto calcs done now - just need the attack rows and to total the skills. I think I may have gotten carried away with the auto calcs.

You can play with the sheet by using the create character button on the home page and selecting the D&D 4E sheet. You won't get anything with the other systems at this time.

The sheet doesn't save any data yet so its only for looking and playing with.

**edit** Finished the skills calcs...sleepy...

[Azerack]

Like *cough* another person's idea, you may want to allow people to turn off auto-calc so that Dragonborn aren't stuck trying to fix the Healing Surge value (* they get their CON modifier added to it).

Or there may be some change the GM wants to make.

- post post - Actually, looks like you just allowed overwrite of the values.. good thinking. 

[Poor_Knight]

Yeah but you'd have to keep remembering to fix it every time the sheet loaded since it will run through the auto calcs on load up.

I can add a toggle to turn off auto calcs but it will disable the whole sheets calculations. Hmm, I guess maybe I can add a toggle at each area. Not sure about that one though, I'd have to see how the functions are interacting.

Maybe I can allow the toggle to be on and auto-calc the sheet, then turn it off when you want to go back in and customize values. So you can benefit from both and switch back and forth. Only, when you go back to auto mode all custom values have a chance to get overwritten.

Or - is there are certain areas where I should just leave auto-calcs out of. I didn't add an ability modifier to AC because it doesnt know what armor you have on. Same with Attacks, it doesn't know what the attack requires. So those you just have to fill in.

The auto calc is kind of nice though, fills in maybe 75% of the first page. But it does go against my philosophy when I created the 3.5 sheet and that was to make is simple and allow for anything. But adding in the mods for those skills all the time tok its toll I guess.

I've finished all the auto calculations. Try filling out the sheet completely and see if I missed any important information.

There is a bug in determining which ability to use for the defense value. For some reason it doesn't know how to work with negative numbers and thinks -2 is greater than -1. It must be converting them. But it knows 1 is greater than -2 - go figure.

Also, I don't have a place for rituals. I don't really want to make this a multi-page character sheet either. So I am thinking of getting rid of personality/appearance on the back and combining them for rituals.

[Azerack]

Maybe I can allow the toggle to be on and auto-calc the sheet, then turn it off when you want to go back in and customize values. So you can benefit from both and switch back and forth. Only, when you go back to auto mode all custom values have a chance to get overwritten.

The only one you would really have to worry about IS that little bit with the Healing Surge value. so far.. But considering that toggling auto-calc on and off would only mean adjusting one value when you turned the auto-calc back on ..so far.. it really wouldn't be that bad.. OR.. have the auto-calc be a button instead of automatic?

 

Also, I don't have a place for rituals. I don't really want to make this a multi-page character sheet either. So I am thinking of getting rid of personality/appearance on the back and combining them for rituals.

Alternately, you could have one more page with just "Character Notes" and they can list Appearance and Background, there, as well as other campaign notes they choose to make?

[theterran]

Are we now able to save the 4E sheets...or is it still just in "poke around" mode?

[Poor_Knight]

Its poke around still - but getting close. Barring any changes to the sheet I just need to save it to the DB. The biggest task by far is setting up the form fields.

I started moving over the 3.5 sheet (doesn't work yet) but it made me consider the multi-page option for the 4E sheet. I think I will add the rituals where I said but create the bio page and maybe alternate ritual and power pages.

I'll be setting up the print-to-pdf function for the sheets so offline users can actually print these ones out. And if you didn't use the bio or extra sheets you can just have your printer print pages 1 and 2.

[Odinseye]

looks great on my end so far.  I am viewing it with IE7 and I am not seeing any issues.  I havent been able to see any problems with any of the auto calcs or anything.  Looks pretty solid.