Author Topic: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)  (Read 46128 times)

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #60 on: 11 February 2019, 18:53:02 »
I mentioned this before, but around 4:30 or so, it might be worth mentioning that SUBTOTALs are excluded from SUM functions, so they're safe to have in a long list you want to add up later.

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #61 on: 11 February 2019, 18:54:12 »
Around 5 minutes, the thing to know is that Early Childhood is always 10 years, and Late Childhood is always 6.

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #62 on: 11 February 2019, 18:58:38 »
Around 8:00, the fact that the SUBTOTAL range is correct is a direct consequence of inserting/deleting in the middle of the list.  Excel is actually pretty smart for a spreadsheet...

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #63 on: 11 February 2019, 19:02:08 »
The keyboard shortcut for BOLD is Ctrl-B (that should save you a bit of ribbon navigation)...

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #64 on: 11 February 2019, 19:07:12 »
You might want to explain that "9" in the SUBTOTAL function (it tells Excel to just do a normal SUM vice something odd like Standard Deviation, Average, etc.). You'd have thought SUM would be the "1" option, but who knows what Microsoft was thinking...  ::)

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #65 on: 11 February 2019, 19:09:27 »
I've mentioned this before too, but the easiest way to adjust the range of a SUBTOTAL (or any function with a range, really) is to just click and drag the corner of the range.  This refers to ~12:00.

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #66 on: 11 February 2019, 19:11:39 »
At about 12:43, you say "Column B" when you mean "Column E" (verified via close captioning).  You might want to fix that before going final.

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #67 on: 11 February 2019, 19:16:49 »
Around 15:00, you probably want to do the "Fill Down" from the middle for one of the same reasons as you insert or delete in the middle: it keeps the formatting cleaner.  The reason you got outlines around all the cells in column I was that you filled from the top cell, which had an outline at the top.

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #68 on: 11 February 2019, 19:25:38 »
Excel tip: a "$" symbol tells excel to never automatically adjust the row or column reference prefaced with it.  So that miscellaneous check cell will always look in column F, but we have to rely on the user to do the insert/delete process you outlined correctly to make sure the row reference is correct.  This is one of the reasons the instructions are insistent on spanning so many columns when inserting and deleting.

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #69 on: 11 February 2019, 19:30:48 »
OK, last but not least, the Surplus column (Column L) tells you when you've spent too much XP on an Attribute, Trait, or Skill.  When you threw 240 at INT, you had a Surplus of -40 (it should always be 0).

Otherwise, great video!  I appreciate all the time you've put into explaining my sheet in video format!  :thumbsup:

BiggRigg42

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #70 on: 11 February 2019, 19:33:26 »
At about 12:43, you say "Column B" when you mean "Column E" (verified via close captioning).  You might want to fix that before going final.

Darn closed captioning, I really thought I said it right.

Thanks for all the feed back. There is some work and school stuff ahead of me this week, but making this latest version was fairly easy. So, making a final version with your latest feedback in it should not take me too long.

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #71 on: 11 February 2019, 19:35:26 »
Awesome... glad to hear the process is getting easier for you!  :thumbsup:

BiggRigg42

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #72 on: 11 February 2019, 19:37:53 »
I've mentioned this before too, but the easiest way to adjust the range of a SUBTOTAL (or any function with a range, really) is to just click and drag the corner of the range.  This refers to ~12:00.

I'm not sure how I missed that, probably had too many things happening in my mind to implement it. However, that is the more sensical way to do it.

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #73 on: 11 February 2019, 19:39:26 »
If Excel was easy, there wouldn't be a wage premium for knowing it...  ^-^

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #74 on: 11 February 2019, 19:57:20 »
I did notice one thing. I was playing around with making a Clan character and my Charisma wound up at a -30 after all the Modules. The optimization aspect added 100 to the score, bringing it up to 70. However, it should have brought it up automatically to 1, rather than just adding 100 to it.

Same with the EDG score which wound up at 0 (yeah, Clan characters are kind of...eh if you go by the modules...). The optimization process should be bringing the stat up to 100.
Hmmm... not sure what's wrong there... when I had put in odd amounts of negative XP for EDG to experiment, it correctly brought the stat up to 100...

Maelwys

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #75 on: 12 February 2019, 01:55:08 »
I'll play around with a new copy, see if I broke something during copying and pasting and will get back to you tomorrow about it.

One thing BiggRigg42 might want to cover is how to handle Buying additional XP by purchasing negative traits. I'm not sure the process is intuitive.

Maelwys

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #76 on: 12 February 2019, 11:31:00 »
Or the computer I was working on could crash completely, so I might be a bit silent on this while I figure out things.

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #77 on: 12 February 2019, 18:05:28 »
No worries... I'll be here whenever you get back!  :thumbsup:

BiggRigg42

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #78 on: 12 February 2019, 19:06:03 »
One thing BiggRigg42 might want to cover is how to handle Buying additional XP by purchasing negative traits. I'm not sure the process is intuitive.

I explain that in two other videos that I have in the playlist. It may be too much for people to learn how to use Excel and how to create a character at the same time.

Zinmar

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #79 on: 16 February 2019, 14:39:32 »
The video is unavailable, did it get pulled to be worked on?

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #80 on: 16 February 2019, 16:01:37 »
That would be my guess... we've given BiggRigg42 a good chunk of feedback.

BiggRigg42

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #81 on: 16 February 2019, 17:04:33 »
The video is unavailable, did it get pulled to be worked on?

Yep, I took it down because I am working on the final draft. In fact, I just sat down to finish that final draft.

BiggRigg42

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #82 on: 16 February 2019, 17:16:05 »

And I'm not sure on this next suggestion, because its more of a how to to use the sheet rather than how to make the character, but at no point do you say (or atleast I don't think you did) "Okay, the Starting XP column is how much XP you gained from the Life Modules, the Optimization column is showing how much excess XP you have over the highest usable value, the subtotal column is the optimized XP value, the spend column is how much you want to spend from your pool, and the End XP column is how much you have total in that attribute/trait/skill, and that determines the final value according to the rules."


I'm taking notes on this feedback and incorporating it: thanks.

BiggRigg42

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #83 on: 17 February 2019, 01:31:59 »
I got a good take in today of the final draft, but I may be able to get a slightly better take in later. It actually looks like I know what I'm doing now. This final version will all be done in one take with no iMovie editing to prevent the green screen from happening; it will also be under 25 min.s long.

We can expect the final draft to be up within a week. 

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #84 on: 17 February 2019, 05:08:50 »
Excellent, I look forward to seeing it!  :)

BiggRigg42

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #85 on: 12 March 2019, 10:21:54 »
Sorry this took so long. Work and school got really brutal. This draft is going to have to do. I got much of everyone's feedback in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1-lSiXUGoE

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #86 on: 12 March 2019, 18:58:20 »
No worries... I was on the road all last week with less than stellar connectivity anyway.  It's a bit late tonight to start a review, and tomorrow is my (usually) weekly D&D game.  Hopefully I'll be home earlier on Thursday.  If not, it'll be the weekend before I can give you a good scrub.

Thanks again for doing this!  I think it will definitely help sell more people on AToW!  :thumbsup:

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #87 on: 17 March 2019, 19:19:38 »
Just got to 4:00... it's hilarious, but you might want to edit out that sneeze... ;)

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #88 on: 17 March 2019, 19:29:12 »
That was a good discussion of SUBTOTAL around 8:00 or so.  The only other thing I might have mentioned was that SUBTOTALs aren't counted when doing sums on the whole column.  Basically, it helps the human error check while not screwing up the machine error checking (that compares the sum of the whole column to what's been entered to the right).

Daryk

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Re: AToW Character Generation Spreadsheet (Redux)
« Reply #89 on: 17 March 2019, 19:45:24 »
Around 18 minutes, I have to say you're copying the SUBTOTAL formula the hard way.  You can just copy and paste the whole cell, then adjust the range as you previously described.

 

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