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[Rii Nagaja]

So it finally happened. I saw a good character sheet for excel, discovered it on this forum, and got around to make some characters with it: http://cipher-studios.com/AnimaBB/index.php?topic=3941.0
But the sheet was still quite incomplete and I couldn't put out alot of ideas I had. At this time it was still more economic to make the characters by hand in this case, but then I came to the point where I had an idea which needed mass(/fast) character creation abilities. (which I won't tell yet, because I fear it might get stolen or lamed out by someone like in the 'official npc stats and backgrounds'-threads here) So suddenly making a sheet first could actually save me time, i figured. ..I was probably wrong, because beside being somewhat experienced, I still underestimated the work. But who knows how much time I will save in the future by not having to crosscompare everything in the books. (especially building and reediting characters of higher level was a terror..)

I got alot of ideas and inspiration from this sheet above, which I put back for a long long time. ..But then one day in november I had an epiphany on how to design the layout of this and get it to work.

Long story short, here is the link at first: http://files.dynaesdarksbane.com/
(download "Anima Levelstream Charactergenerator" on the site)

(I initially wanted to get there before christmas, ..but, you know... .)


And now: It is obviously not fully finished, but everything you need for any normal character ( and I mean 'normal' by Anima standards, including psychics, technicians, warlocks...), is allready there and good to use. About the only things left out to be exact, are Elan (which should be pretty easy and quick to put in -- next on the list), limits, the creature powers (a lot of busywork, but nothing undoable), the magic level distribution (shouldn't hinder anyone -- it's a useful addon), and then the demon of the system: the metamagic ability tree.

I have no idea how to get that one done in excel. From my first days notes I can see, that allready then I marked the Arcana Shepirah as my personal archnemesis. It will literally be like making portraits in paint, to get this one expressed in excel.
Just think on how much chaos the "Versatile Metamagic" Advantage will cause, as you can even select it on every later level. Q_Q  ..This makes my head explode.
I will probably just end up putting a picture of the Shepirah between the sheet and then let the user figure it out with an universal dropdown.
So if somebody has a clue, or can put out some macro magic, be my guest.


Now, the reason I uploaded it before completition is that the creature powers will have me recheck and reedit everywhere nontheless, so I will be fit with every section again (whereas now, I have allready forgotten how I figured out the first page with the base statistics, especially the advantages section... ohh the advantages section). The perfect opportunity to eliminate errors at the same time, which for sure have sneaked their way through somewhere.
So see this as some sort of open beta.

And please, report anything, not just obvious error messages, but even little things like inconsistencies in the formating (e.g. a missing thick border). I cannot possibly find them all by myself, and considering how many I got today as I looked through it again, there will be some more... .


Ok, now some notes and questions for the more laborious readers. (tried to put them into spoilers, but this forum doesn't have this function it seems..)

-> I only own AE, DE, the game master toolkit and the basebook, which means that some of the advantages data I so boldly copied out of the other project is unknown to me. I have no idea what some of these advantages do, and therefore a function or another may not be integrated.
You may mainly notice that with the availability of the advantages on later levels. I think I left everything in, even against common sense ('powerful enemy' disadvantage...), just to be sure.
So if somebody could correct this, or explain a thing or another, that would help.

-> Copyright of the pictures in the Ki Builder: I took some of Wen's pictures and put them into a format where they could be nicely integrated into the sheet. But I have no idea if that is legal as it is (I made the copyright note). If not, I will take them out instantly.

-> The Color Choices: I am not sure about the coloring in some parts. The overall slight-grey on near black design is brilliant of course (it is also my firefox and windows theme), but the brownish attributes, the red and violett when they come up.. . Maybe someone has better suggestions, because I think in contrast to what I took out of the other sheet, my choices look often like 'unprofessional' in comparison and that sticks out.

-> Should I integrate these automated sorting functions into the tables of the data sheets? Right now things like the Advantages, and KI Abilities follow their own kind of sorting rule, which is mostly the order in which they appeared in the books, but alphabetically may be better... .

-> Tutorial Notes: As the one who build this to now, I cannot really forsee the problems that others might have understanding the sheet, so if you have some more suggestions on what notes might help to see through it (or is it allready enough?), please leave them here.

-> Floating header: Midway it came to my mind, that making the "Remaining DP", MK etc. Rows a floating header would probably have been the better choice. It would scroll down with you and you could allways see how much you have left. Well, I think one can live without it (too much work just for that for me), but if anyone is willing to make one, I would like to have it.

-> A better place to upload: I don't really know where I can upload this for free for anybody to download it without time limit. I have a free mediafire account, but this one deletes after a while too. If anybody can give me a tip where to put it, ..all hail the swarm-intelligence!


Ok, so, that is it for the moment I think.

///Since the link above is now remote, I will never have to re-edit this first post anymore, yey.
Probably.

[vytzka]

Looks very useful, although I don't have the time to play with it at work right now. Thanks for your effort.

[Rii Nagaja]

Ok, I got a tip to use my potential google drive. I have never activated it, although I saw it daily.

So now there is a stable link I hope.

[Dynaes]

Rii, I own some webspace where I'm already hosting a pair of Anima files (including the previous charsheet from this thread).  I don't think bandwidth is going to be an issue from the people likely to download it, and I'd be happy to let you host it there.  I requested access from my gmail account...once you grant that I can download from google and I'll send you the link to my site so you can add it to the post.  I don't have any adsense nonsense or anything, it's just a barebones site for my friends and me to host stuff.  Let me know if you'd like to use it.

[Rii Nagaja]

Thank you, that sounds really good.

I didn't notice yesterday, that the file was only set to view per default, but I found the setting now, so it is downloadable for everyone for the moment. But uploading it somewhere remote is even better.

[Dynaes]

Cool deal.  I'll get it hosted and set up sometime after work this evening (US time), and I'll PM you the details.

[Rii Nagaja]

Updates are now delayed a bit, because I have to send them to Dynaes first. I already made a bigger one, but it will take some time to appear in the link. (I will probably just hand Dynaes the notes over next time {if there are any worthwhile telling}, so he can like quote-post what happens when it happens?)

Newest Edition will feature:
Alot of corrections like getting Jack of All Trades to work, and Aptitude in a Subject/Field, which I both forgot about. Also typical fixing of some little errors, like DP sumup.
There are now advanced explanations on how the green fields are working.

Most remarkly: The "update link" message on sheet openings. I didn't see it myself anymore, because I turned those notifications of, but now I edited all the references that I could find and disattached the obscure remains, so the problem is hopefully gone.

[Dynaes]

The update is live!

[EVILrokzz]

Not bad, it's pretty good

Although a bit to cluttered for my taste and I like it better when you enter the DP value instead of the value you want

I'm working on my own version this week

Anyway, I'll PM you about something

[Rii Nagaja]

One of the issues I found with the other sheet is that you couldn't see live how much points you got out of your DP. You always had to have the translation factor (1,2,3) in your head for all the classes, or quickly cross compare with the printout after a change. Also, with putting DP in first, you could end up with strange division numbers, e.g. getting a skill increase of 3,333 , because you paid 10 DP and the factor was 3.

So I figured you should have both, DP cost and gained value at the same time visible, and since one of those has to be chosen as the true input field, it seemed more useful to favor the value, because this way no strange (and illegal) comma numbers would come to live. Everything you put in into this field is automaticaly valid as long as you don't force to break the system.  (like writing comma numbers on purpose)


Hmm, exchanging those two fields again is however not that much of a problem, just time consuming.


/// By the way, the 'update files' problem was still present with the last version, but is gone by now for sure. (or at least with the next upload)

[shinjox]

I was wondering if there was something special one needs to do to have the sheet open in Open Office or Libre office properly? As I only have Office XP (which is pre 07) it does not open in Excel properly, to much layering and to many rows/columns and when opening in wither Open Office or Libre office, they seem to do the same, lots of #refs and the like.

edited
So, while I was looking for another program for something different, i cam across Foxit and the Kingsoft office, and its spreadsheet seems to be working PERFECTLY for it, though you do have to set the iteration in options for all the references that keep referring to the cell that the calculation is taking place in

[Rii Nagaja]

Damn, I knew there would be compatibility issues at some point. I think the biggest reason is the extended formula space (they doubled it in either 07 or 10) which cannot be translated into other versions. Another is conditional formating (like font changing color/turning red depending on the cell result), that I used alot, had many restrictions in the past that don't exist anymore in 10.
Glad you found a program solution yourself, because I sure wouldn't be able to help with incompatibility of that magnitude (Link), and I wouldn't have known an alternate program either.

Kingsoft fancies himself iterations?