Hi, I'm a player of the game Alternity (1998) and I was delighted to see that there is a sheet available already on this site, normally my friends and I play with pen and papers, but with the quarantine... There are a few points I'd like to ask. I'm not a pro user, but would it be possible for me to change the sheet available as I've seen some little problems and a LOT of optimisations possible? I'm quite decent with coding (being a computer science student) and I would have no problem doing it, but again I'm not a pro user. If I'm allowed to do it, ignore the other questions and I'll just do it, I could just change the code of the sheet on github, no need for the official tool or whatever,I know what needs to be done. But I'm gonna assume I'm not allowed to change sheets at all if I'm not a pro user so it'd be really appreciated if someone with a little time could do some modifications, I'd be happy to help with the rules if you wish. 1) The Direct Fire skill that should be in the Heavy Weapons broadskill is not at the right place (it's shown in Demolition). This one is the easiest, you just change the place of the <tr> and be done with it, it'd be nice if at least that is done. You don't need to know the system, just move the skill to the right place, it's just an aesthetic problem. 2) It'd be nice if it was possible to automatically track the skill points spent like in a lot of other sheets (there are the achievement points that are awarded after games or stories and when attaining a threshold which is 5+lvl AP, you gain that amount of skill points to spend for your skills or other bonuses). For that to be automatic though, the careers would need to be put as a dropdown list instead of as a text box, and then to hard-code the XP values of each skill, the cost reductions depending on the careers and the number of times you levelled that skill (each time you buy the skill it costs +1 per level, so level 1 cost the base cost, level 2 cost the base cost +1, level three is the base cost +2, etx); so each time you'd increase your skill score you'd have the skill points automatically spent. Also, the perks and flaws should be also hard-coded, OR be different text boxes instead of a single one for perks and the same for flaws (max 3 perks and 3 flaws), with XP cost that you could adjust manually and that'd be automatically deducted from your available skill points. The achievement benefits (perks and bonuses that you can buy after levelling) should have a separate part where there is a +add button that adds either a dropdown list with all the achievement benefits hard-coded (and that adds the corresponding bonuses to the right places) (REALLY HARD) OR a +add button that adds a textbox for the benefit name and an imput box for the skill points cost, and you manually do the changes on your sheet (simple in the scope of the overhaul). Idem for psionic skills (basically the same as the regular skills), and cyber gear (hardcoded in a dropdown list with a +add button for each new gear that modifies the stats automatically, or just textboxes you could add with a +add button and we modify the stats manually). If you're doing that, last resorts ("fate points") should have a buy button and a use button (with a cancel button if you make an error) instead of just a number box, with skill points spent each time you buy one. This'd be the biggest overhaul and the hardest to make, but it would simplify the life of the players by a LOT, the life of the GM by even more (creating NPCs with stats is already a chore, and if you want them to be leveled, it's hard to follow all the XP spent), and reduce cheating (I've had players "forget" to pay the extra cost for levelling a skill and other shit). 3) It'd be nice to have the races as a drop-down list with each racial benefits hard-coded, and the possibility to add a custom race with the corresponding bonuses. If possible add each races' minimum and maximum attributes, with a separate input box for bonus stats from mutations and cybernetics, but this is secondary. This'd be hard too, but less tedious than the automatic skill points overhaul. 4) Idem with the careers' bonuses. 5) It'd be nice to have the weapon skills scores on the main page automatically linked to the weapon skills on the skills page. We could just have a dropdown list with the different weapon skills allowed to link (Blade, Bludgeon, Powered Weapons, etc...). Right now you have to enter that manually in the weapon list and if you rank up a skill in the skills page, you could forget to increase your score on the main page. Also if it's possible, to add a case for the range modifiers, since most weapons have bonuses at short range and maluses at long range, but it changes from weapon type to weapon type. This should not be really difficult, you'd only have to change the first input box to a reference to the skill score box on the skills page, the rest is already automatic. 6) There is already the possibility to make checks on the skills page, but they forgot to add that if you don't have at least a rank in that skill you get a +1 step malus on your checks. Some players always forget to add their untrained malus on their checks. Idem for the Abilities scores check, if you make a check on your ability score, you always have a +1 step malus. 7) Related to the last two point, it'd be nice to have the possibility to add an innate modifier input box to the skills on the skills page and on the weapon part of the main page, that automatically applies to the check made. There are some skills that have a bonus when you level them up to a certain rank, and there are career bonuses, perks or flaws that can modify a check. For example, the flaw Oblivious gives you a +1 step malus to Perception checks while the perk Observant gives you a -1 step bonus to Perception. Also, some weapons give you an innate accuracy bonus or malus to your checks, which is there as a textbox but it is not applied to the checks. That way, we'd only need to apply the situation modifier to the check and not also the innate bonus or malus. Again, I've had some players "forget" to add their flaws malus on checks. It'd be not that hard to to, just tedious. It would be perfect if each bonus and malus would be hard coded but this'd be WAY too long and tedious to do. 8) I'm not sure how that one would be done, but in most Alternity games I've played with different groups, we have a homebrew rule stating we add the ±d10 bonus or malus between the ±d8 and ±d12 for the situation modifier (so ±4 steps would be ±d10 instead of ±d12 and the ±5 step would be ±d12 and we'd add a -6 step at -d20 and a +8 step at +3d20). This is not standard, so I think we'd either need a separate sheet for that, or an option in the settings to add the d10 as a situation modifier, but I don't know if it's possible. 9) It's be nice to have the mutations hard coded (with a possibility to add custom ones), and each bonus and malus applied automatically, but this is the least priority. Point 1 at least would be nice to be done for consistency. Point 2 would be very appreciated but I know it's a lot of work. The points 3 to 7 are possible to do manually already, but making things automatic would simplify our life a LOT. There are already many things to think when playing this game, so each part is important. In most other sheets innate bonuses and maluses are already applied to checks before situational modifiers. Point 8 and 9 would be nice, but I don't know how they'd work with the system, so it's least priority. Thank you for reading, and I hope someone answers soon.
