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Warmachine Hordes
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Support "Theme Lists" #33

Open JimOrtiz opened 9 years ago

JimOrtiz commented 9 years ago

FA adjustments, free units/UAs, granted abilities, etc. I'd like to see the ability to build a Warcaster's theme list and be accurate and valid. I think the Cephalyx implementation works pretty well, although neither of us are familiar enough with it to know for sure.

I'm not sure all of this can be done, but I'm going to log it and do some research. Ken, what's your favorite Warcaster? I'll pick a Cygnar one and the 'caster of your choice as my first attempts.

Obiken commented 9 years ago

Excellent if you give it a try. I've thought about it previously, but haven't come up with a scheme I think will work well.

My favourite warcaster is Reznik1.

JimOrtiz commented 9 years ago

Themes added for Stryker1, Sloan, and Reznik1.

One small issue is that I had to create "meta-data" entries for some conditions. "Protectorate Unit", "Cygnar Heavy Warjack", etc. Those show up in the roster view. I'd hoped for a "selected but hidden" entry, but found some threads on the BattleScribe board that said no dice.

I also noticed that my modified "Cygnar Heavy Warjack" shared entry is showing as optional even though none of its conditions affect its selections. It validates as required if you uncheck the box, but it's a distraction. I posted a question on the forum about that as well.

It's too bad there's no such thing as shared modifiers/conditions. I got all the way through copy-pasting the mercs FA reductions before I realized I chose "Roster" when I meant "Force". And adding a new branch for the second 'caster involved re-expanding every unit and adding another condition to the group for the modifier.

Obiken commented 9 years ago

I'll test out the Reznik one. Looks intriguing in Catalogue Editor. But looks to be a lot of work.

JimOrtiz commented 9 years ago

I spent some time over the weekend thinking about ways to reduce the work of adding all the "max in force" restrictions. After spending too much time over thinking it, I ended up with what looks to be a workable app. It allows me to pick an entry under a warcaster/lock (which will be the theme) and select all the units/solos/warjacks/warbeasts allowed under that theme. It then updates all the others, adding a condition to their "max in force = 0" block. If they don't have a "max in force = 0" modifier, it should add one with the new condition contained within it.

If we decide this pattern will work, I'll have to think about mercs again, the modifiers for max in force will be different in each catalog. Which might mean that new mercs become more difficult to integrate.

Obiken commented 9 years ago

Been playing around a bit with the Reznik theme force. It feels a bit clunky and hard to understand what entries I need to choose or cannot choose..

Will look into it further and research it on the forum.

JimOrtiz commented 9 years ago

I think I ended up adding a rule under each additional theme I built in Cygnar that shows the allowable jacks, units, etc. Although I did it more for me while I used my utility to set the restrictions. I can't remember if I went back and did that for Reznik. :( I stopped short of putting the entire theme's tier rules in though...think that would help?

I wonder if we append (*) to the unit names (conditionally with rules opposite of the maxinforce=0 stuff), if that shows up in the toolbox before they're selected. I'll try to give that a shot tonight.

The validation messages do show what you need to pick (although they're not always the easiest to read) for a tier, but not necessarily what you gain for having picked them. I only added conditional rules for tier benefits that weren't force organization or unit specific. Maybe adding a tier benefit rule for each selected tier regardless would add clarity?

JimOrtiz commented 9 years ago

Well shoot: You can't modify the name of an entry, only a rule. So no dice on the (*) in the selection panel.

I noticed while reviewing the catalog that Reznik didn't have a rule for the force restrictions, so I added that as well as conditionally visible rules for each tier. So if you select 2 tiers, the rules under the Theme will show requirements for tier 1 and 2. I also hid the "Free Wracks" entry on the Wrack unless you've got 3 or more tiers selected. Maybe that'll help?