Import/Export PC's Why so hard ?

[Graiskye]

Okay I like to use as lot of NPC's, some created on the fly, some beforehand. I must say that I just assumed that FG would have this capability, seeing the NPC creator only stoked my entusiasm. Now Im frustrated as all heck. I can t understand why such a simple thing has been overlooked ? I cant import a character from another game ? Im shocked to find how hard it is too do, and have yet to be able to import a NPC !
Is this something the devs are planning to fix, or am I the only one that wants/needs this capability?
People slam OpenRPG pretty hard in these forums, but from the direct comparison I have conducted so far, Im not sure that FG is so superior.
I can use any OpenRPG character in any the game with ease(have been running an OpenRPG game for six month, not one issue/dropout/nothing), I can use any material in one adventure and just move it to another one. Im not saying FG is crap, or I wouldnt have bought it, but it too leaves a few simple things to be desired.
I bought FG because I thought that people who have paid for the software allready are probably more likely to show up on game day, and I want o see how the two do compare, Ill continue the Open game, and eventually just use the one that works best ?
SO if theres somewherre that I can go to learn how to get NPC's into FG please let em know where? Thanks Graiskye

[kalmarjan]

SO if theres somewherre that I can go to learn how to get NPC's into FRG please let em know where?

Alright... I sense your frustration! Now, the interface was designed so you could put NPCs on the fly into the program using the exisiting interface.

Believe me, I understand how hard that is on a realistic scope... I have about 200 more to enter in my campaign (And I am sitting at 119 already.)

For right now, the best way to do this using the NPC creator is to create the NPC using sequential nodes. They start at 00001 and work their way up. For the <category> tag, that states which tab the NPC is on.

You open up your DB.XML file in your campaign, using notepad or another text-xml editor and cut and paste the NPCs to your hearts content. Make sure that they are in the Parent node first <NPC> that is. If you are starting with none, make a dummy NPC in the game, and figure out where they lie in the DB.XML

I am sorry that there is no better way to do this yet... but I have the sneaky suspicion that Mynex and crew over at CMP are trying to rectify this. I am at the wait and see approach.

If you have any questions on how to accomplish this, feel free to PM me, and I will help you as best as I can.

Cheers,

Sandeman

[Graiskye]

Okay I think I may be getting a better idea of what is required, so I actually just copy and paste the NPC info right into the DB file? Ill go and have a look at a couple of the DB files and see what I can determine. Im happy to teach myself , just need the tools to accomplish the task I guess. The tools being info I guess. Thanks again Sandeman Graiskye

p.s.: thx for not mistaking frustration for anything more than that, sometimes simple frustration gets misinterpeted as being negative critisiscm, so thx. Poeple on the FG boards for the most part seem pretty darn helpful, and quite undersatnding , thats been my experience so far , so cheers, keep up the good work.

[Brenn]

This is something I think needs to be addressed. Especially with the E-Tools to FG exporter aparrently on the horizon. Being able to export characters individually from Etools isn't nearly that great if you cannot easily get them into the campaign. It'd be nice to extricate that whole structure from the db.xml file into individual xml files (like local characters) in respective subfolders of the campaign folder (e.g. \mycampaign\PCs and \mycampaign\NPCs).

[Goblin-King]

Since the technical bit about how to do it outside the FG interface has already been covered, I'll give you a quick note about why things are how they are.

First, players can create player characters into separate files and import them, for the very reason that it's easy to do and understand. Adding NPCs and such was seen as an advanced operation at design time, and it is intended that this be done through the advanced options available (see below). We've been somewhat surprised by the enthusiasm of GMs in the power tools they want, and we are designing some things that would help with this. However, the more powerful the tool is, the harder it is to get right (meaning unobtrusive to those who don't want it and easy to use for everyone).

Second, we use XML for the reason that it's a very globally accepted standard, and we wanted to make it as easy and convenient as possible for users and third parties to create modifications and utilities that do modifications. If it was, say, a file system based system, it would be harder to make bigger changes, and it would be a lot harder to come up with an indipendent utility to manage it. We (the developers) are focusing our efforts on making the interface and customization options even better at the moment, but with the open format, the community can help with managing the data.

Third, you have modules that are intended for this to some extent. Not really importing, but for transferring NPCs between campaigns and such. We do want to add a bit more info on how to edit modules on a lower level, which will probably happen after we get the online documentation section open on the site.

[Graiskye]

Thanks for the lowdown. Seems the thing is just to sit tight, and try to learn more about .xml. We really need some tutorials or something worked up by some kind soul who is adept at it. Im sure most of the DeVS have their hands full, anybody interested ? Just something that outlines the basic steps ? Ill cross my fingers. :wink: Grai