Character Sheet Phase 4 (Savage)

Context: HL Kit … Authoring Examples … Savage Worlds Walk-Through 

Overview

In the previous stage of creating the character sheet, we got started on the right side and solved the most complex piece of the output in arcane powers. The remainder of the right side of the sheet introduce a few more wrinkles, but everything should proceed smoothly from this point forward.

Breaking the Right Side into Sections

The biggest remaining issue with the right side of the sheet is managing our vertical space appropriately. If a character has arcane powers, a bunch of weapons, and lots of gear, there might not be enough space on the right side in which to fit it all. It's perfectly reasonable for that to happen, and we can safely spill the remaining items onto a second page. However, we should give thought to which information is given priority for being shown on the first page and what we're happy to let fall to the second page.

It's very important that we show the region for tracking health on the first page, since that will come into play regularly for many games. Since we're pairing the health and injuries up side-by-side, we need to ensure those get included on the first page. We should also be sure to include a reminder of any actively enabled adjustments on the first page. Weapons and armor are a secondary priority, with gear being the lowest priority for the first page.

In order to ensure that we honor these priorities, we need to carve the right side of the page up into pieces that can be placed in an appropriate sequence. So we need create a new layout that encompasses the material we'll place in the lower right corner, then we need to position it after the powers are handled. Within the remaining space, we can position a separate layout that includes weapons and armor. If we still have space left, then we can squeeze our gear into that region via a third layout.

So our next order of business is to setup these three layouts. We already have a layout for the weapons and armor that we can use. For the gear, we have the table portal and simply need a layout to contain it. That layout can be defined easily as shown below, and we must remove the portal reference from the "oRightSide" layout.

<layout
  id="oGear">
  <portalref portal="oGear"/>
  <position><![CDATA[
    ~position the various tables appropriately
    perform portal[oGear].autoplace

    ~our layout height is the extent of the elements within
    height = autotop
    ]]></position>
  </layout>

The Skeleton files provide us with a table of adjustments and a layout that contains them. For simplicity, we'll just use this layout as our third layout. When we need to add injuries and such, we'll integrate them into this layout. So we don't need to do anything further with this layout.

The final thing we need to do is properly revise the sheet to incorporate these three layouts. We also need to handle these layouts within the Position script for the sheet. This entails positioning the current "oRightSide" layout, then placing the "oAdjust" layout anchored to the bottom of the sheet. Once that's done, we can position the "oArmory" layout beneath the "oRightSide" layout, using up whatever space is available. We'll place the "oGear" layout last, using the final remnants of space on the character sheet. The updated contents of the "standard1" sheet should look like the one shown below.

<sheet
  id="standard1"
  name="Standard character sheet, page #1">
  <layoutref layout="oLogos"/>
  <layoutref layout="oLeftSide"/>
  <layoutref layout="oRightSide"/>
  <layoutref layout="oAdjust"/>
  <layoutref layout="oArmory"/>
  <layoutref layout="oGear"/>
  <layoutref layout="oValidate"/>
  <position><![CDATA[
    ~set this global variable to 1 if you want the logos to be stacked; a value
    ~of zero places them side-by-side
    global[stacklogos] = 0

    ~setup the gap to be used between the various sections of the character sheet
    autogap = 40
    global[sectiongap] = autogap

    ~calculate the width of the two columns of the character sheet, leaving a
    ~suitable center gap between them
    var colwidth as number
    colwidth = (width - 50) / 2

    ~if the user wants to omit the validation report, the hide it and allow the
    ~rest of the sheet to fill that space; otherwise, output the layout and the
    ~top of the validation report establishes the bottom for all other output
    var extent as number
    if (hero.tagis[source.Validation] = 0) then
      layout[oValidate].visible = 0
      extent = height
    else
      layout[oValidate].width = width
      perform layout[oValidate].render
      layout[oValidate].top = height - layout[oValidate].height
      extent = layout[oValidate].top - global[sectiongap]
      endif

    ~position the leftside layout in the upper left corner
    layout[oLeftSide].width = colwidth
    layout[oLeftSide].height = extent - layout[oLeftSide].top
    perform layout[oLeftSide].render

    ~position the logos layout in the upper right corner
    layout[oLogos].width = colwidth
    perform layout[oLogos].render
    layout[oLogos].left = width - colwidth

    ~position the rightside layout in the remaining space on the right
    layout[oRightSide].width = colwidth
    layout[oRightSide].top = layout[oLogos].bottom + global[sectiongap]
    layout[oRightSide].left = layout[oLogos].left
    layout[oRightSide].height = extent - layout[oRightSide].top
    perform layout[oRightSide].render

    ~position the activated adjustments at the bottom on the right; this will
    ~establish the remaining space available on the right for other layouts
    layout[oAdjust].width = colwidth
    layout[oAdjust].left = layout[oLogos].left
    perform layout[oAdjust].render
    layout[oAdjust].top = extent - layout[oAdjust].height

    ~position the armory layout within the remaining space on the right
    layout[oArmory].width = colwidth
    layout[oArmory].top = layout[oRightSide].bottom + global[sectiongap]
    layout[oArmory].left = layout[oLogos].left
    layout[oArmory].height = layout[oAdjust].top - global[sectiongap] - layout[oArmory].top
    perform layout[oArmory].render

    ~position the gear layout in whatever space is left on the right
    layout[oGear].width = colwidth
    layout[oGear].top = layout[oArmory].bottom + global[sectiongap]
    layout[oGear].left = layout[oLogos].left
    layout[oGear].height = layout[oAdjust].top - global[sectiongap] - layout[oGear].top
    perform layout[oGear].render
    ]]></position>
  </sheet>

Adjustments

Since the adjustments layout is always going to be given priority in the lower right corner, we should make sure it's all working now. The only time the adjustments table appears is when one or more in-play or permanent adjustments are enabled for the character when the sheet is printed. For testing, we can add a few of each and preview the character sheet. They appear nicely in the lower right corner, so there's nothing further we need to do to handle them now.