The next release of the CoCGMS will include the following features and bug fixes:

• You are directed to the correct Scenario Editor layout after you delete a scenario.  In v1.43 you were inadvertently directed to the older large Scenario Editor layout after you deleted a scenario from the system.
• All three character record types can have template sources now, not just Monster records.  This will allow you to create nearly complete player character templates that can be duplicated to quickly create player character records with little or no effort.
• Character stat fields and player addition values on skills, melee and range items can be either a straight value like "40" to denote the player's point addition to the item or it can be a value for the CoCGMS to calculate during a final step processing such as deploying a new character record from a template.  These template processing values can be dice roll values like "3d6+2" or a simple numeric range like 30-40.  Either range will be processed during final prep when the character is completed.
• When adding default skills to characters, skills will not be duplicated if they already exist on the characters.  This will help with managing templates since you can now add just a few skills that are important to the character manually and once you have them customized, you can add the remaining bulk of the skills to the character without duplication.
• A feature has been added to skills tab of the character record layout to allow for the deletion of ALL skills on a character with a single click.  This is handy when you need to clear the slate and start again with a character's skills list.
• You can browse any character templates based on game period.  Meaning, if you want to view only the 1920's templates in the system you can do that with a simple click.
• A new "Reseed" option is available on character records.  This feature will repopulate correct values for child elements that depend on parent elements.  Ex: Reseed will examine a character's skill list and make sure entries like Dodge (which should have a base value of 2x dex) are correct.  it will also find skill values like the "Hand Gun" skill and place that on any hand gun range item that might be in the character's range inventory.
• A simple money tracking feature has been added to character management.  You can now denote a characters total available money and their monthly income.  There is also a simple ledger feature to make entries of expenses a character incurs.
• A Keeper's Log feature has been added.  This is a simple blog type area of the CoCGMS that keepers can use to document things like game session summaries to remind him/her of what happened in previous gaming sessions or past character events or anything else of importance.  Categories for the Keeper's Log can be set in the select lists area to anything the keeper desires.
• Added a spell multiplier tracking field on character record.
• Added stat modifier field to general items catalog.  This is helpful in noting things like SAN loss and Cthulhu Mythos bonuses on tomes and such in a clearer place than just in the body of the item description.  Also added a category search to load general item categories quickly.
• Added duplicate button to General Items catalog so that items can be duplicated easily to create variants of items quickly.
• There is a check box on each permanent dice roll set to flag a set as a name roller.  This will allow you to create multiple name sets in the system for use when generating character names.  This can be for sets like "Asian Names", "Anglo Names", "Spanish Names", etc.  Name roll sets should have male names in the first roll position, female names in the second and surnames in the third.
• There is a field for each user preference in the system to allow you to set a default name roller set to use when generating a character name.  When empty, you'll be prompted to select a name roller set to use for each name generation.
• Player and NPC records now have a "Generate Name" link handy for making a name.  Contact names can be auto-generated as well.
• You can generate an on-demand male and female name from anywhere in the CoCGMS by pressing ctrl-4.  You can copy (ctrl-c) either name for later pasting into the field you need it.
• Dice roll sets can be linked to rules for quick accessing.  For example, if you catalog the rule for falling damage and also create a dice roll set for various damages from falling you can link the dice roll set to the rule to have quick access to make dice rolls for the accompanying rule.
• Scenario part notes/sidebar comments can be displayed in a resizable dialog box for easier reading.
• All scenario parts can be displayed in a scrollable list using the new "List" button on the TOC.  Put that scroll wheel to some good use!  Within the new list layout, you can do quick finds to isolate chapter parts for easier browsing and editing.
• The Show All button in the scenario editor will prompt you for displaying all parts in the CoCGMS across all scenarios in the system or just parts within the active scenario.
• A new option is available on the TOC to control what action is taken when you click a TOC entry.  You can choose to open the clicked part in a new window or stay on the same window and hop to the part on the Editor tab.  You can also select to just view the content of the part in a pop-up dialog.
• A default graphic viewer format can be set in the User Preferences.  This can be External, Internal or Prompt.  You can now set your graphic viewer preference and eliminate the prompt when viewing graphics in the CoCGMS.
• Duplicating character records will now create a new window with the title "DUPLICATE: " heading the name.  This will let you keep track of newly duplicated template records and create multiple characters more quickly.
• Changing a character type will also change the title bar to reflect the new character description.
• A new Dialog table feature has been added to the Scenario Editor on each scenario part allowing you to track scripted dialog clips.  Each dialog entry can be assigned to specific characters in the system.
• A complete Dialog browser table has been added to the scenario editor which shows all dialog clips in all scenario parts in the active scenario.  This helps in seeing what dialog is available throughout the active scenario.  You can click a part to jump to the scenario part of the clip is present on or click the character name to jump to that character record in the CoCGMS.
• A new Dialog tab is available on the character details layouts showing all dialog a character has been given on all scenario parts in the CoCGMS.
• The Table of Contents highlight selector has been expanded to include the ability to highlight scenario parts that have dialog clips defined on them.

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010:

Version 1.43 of the CoCGMS introduces the following features and bug fixes.

• The Single Part Scenario Editor display has been updated to include the Dice Rollers linking feature.  This layout was missed during the 1.42 update release.
• The Scenario Editor layout has been reworked so that the initial open size is 500x950 which will let it fit nicely as a window on a Netbook with a display of 1024x600 without needing to scroll.  If you use the CoCGMS with a Netbook this should be a more usable sizing.  You can always expand the Scenario Editor (or maximize it) to grab more screen real estate if you have a bigger display.
• Corrected a problem with priming a character record with default melee entries (Fist/Punch, Kick, Grapple & Head Butt) after an import of new data.  All default melee will be properly added to characters after import/reserializing of data.
• You can now view any graphic in the system externally with the associated OS viewer app.  You're asked whether you want to view a graphic internally or externally now.  Viewing externally with the default graphic app will let you display images outside of the CoCGMS on a second monitor if you choose if you are using the CoCGMS as a live tool to run a game.  Kind of nice if you have a notebook or netbook running the CoCGMS and you have a small secondary USB display that you use to show players images and such.
• The Initiative Selector area now has three check boxes on each combat participant entry to flag if they have acted in the current round already or not.  Per CoC rules, combat generally goes in up to three phases. This will help in keeping track of large combat sequences.  At the end of the round you can clear all flags at once with the "Clear All Combat Flags" option and start again.  You can also highlight the combat phase to further help keep track of combat status.
• The Combat Details layout has been shrunk down a bit to make it fit better on a netbook size display as well.  The default entry for Combat Details is the small display but you can switch back to the larger, more complete display with a switch at the top of the screen.  The new combat phase tracking controls are also on the small layout so you can track combat progress on this layout as well as the Initiative Selector layout.  It's all about portability!
• When clicking a character name in the Combat Details layout to pull up further info about the character, you'll be prompted to chose a small or large layout display.  If you're trying to keep things high and tight as they say, you can look at a smaller window for character details now.
• Fixed error in executing the stat roller script.  All stats can be rolled correctly now.  When the dice rolling feature was enhanced I missed adjusting the stat roller hook which calls the same routines.  Sorry about that error.

Thursday, May 13th, 2010:

Version 1.42 of the CoCGMS contains the following feature additions and bug fixes.

• Window sizes of key areas of the CoCGMS will render more accurated based on the version of your host OS.  This will streamline the interface and reduce empty gutter space between different OSs.
• The skill Quick Check selectors on the Main Menu have been removed.  The Quick Check skills are now set on the Quick Check layout with a button that puts the top selectors into Edit mode so they can be changed.
• The dice rolling functions have been moved to their own layout allowing multiple dice roller windows to be open simultaneously for expanded usabiility.  The titles of the dice roller windows can be customized to note what data they reflect.
• You can permanently save custom dice roll sets for future use.  This will let you create dice roll sets for anything you need and quickly re-access them.  Ex: you might create a dice roll set for "Falling Damage" and then list damage rolls for various distance fallen.
• You can specify any custom selection list as a dice rolling group now.  The list can be either simple or complex.  A Simple list is just a list of values.  For example, a Simple List might be "Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall" and the CoCGMS will chose one of those values when you "roll" that selection.  To favor one or more choices, simply replicate a choice more than once.  Ex: "Winter, Winter, Winter, Summer" will result in Winter being chosen 3 times (roughly) more often than Summer.  A Complex list is a list of values with a numeric range attributed to each value. Ex: 1,2,Arsenic ; 3,4,Ricin ; 5,12,Sarin.  This is complex list of poisons with Sarin heavily weighted for selection (a roll of 5 through 12).  The CoCGMS will determine the high value in the list and roll a number between 1 and the high value of the final list element.
• Like Characters, other Scenario Parts and gaming Rules, Dice Roll Sets can be linked to scenario parts for quick referencing.
• The remaining Main Menu links have been rearranged and streamlined to be easier to use.

 

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010:

Version 1.41 contains the following feature additions to the CoCGMS.

• The ability to open all participants in a combat in the combat summary layout via the Initiative Selector.  This will let you see all combat stats and weapons of players, NPCs and monsters in one place.
• Since the combat layout can now display a mix of player, NPC and monster records, the title of each reference will be colored purple to denote the player records for easier locating of the players entries.
• When you view a graphic, the header notes area will be prepopulated with relevant data for whatever graphic you are viewing.  Ex: character name and profession if you view a character graphic or the graphic title and notes if you view a graphic from a scenario part.  This header info can be cleared, formatted or edited as you need after the graphic is displayed.
• The Timed Scenario Parts browser now displays the time skew from game start in years, days, hours and minutes instead of just days, hours and minutes.  This helps you read longer time skews more easily.
• The Timed Scenario Parts browser now displays the Part Order value of each timed part for easier locating on the TOC.
• Security fix for an Export Mode flaw.
• Added an image/attachment field to the Rules catalog.  This was mainly done so I could attach the CoC Quick Start Guide to a general rule and keep it in the CoCGMS.   If you're new to CoC and want to read the basic rule set, download the Quick Start Guide from this Chaosium web page: http://www.chaosium.com/article.php?story_id=87
• Graphic Viewer can now view any number of images concurrently.  Previously, if you had a graphic viewer window open and opened a new one for a different image, all open graphic viewer windows would display the most recently opened graphic.  Now each graphic viewer window will display whatever graphic it was opened for.  The window title also shows the descriptive text for the graphic (if one exists for it) so that you can locate it on the Windows menu on the top menu bar of the CoCGMS application window.

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

Version 1.4 of the CoCGMS adds the following features and bug fixes.

 

• The Range attack dialog box now has a button for quick selecting a normal range attack.  This will keep you from having to touch the keyboard to select a normal range attack (most common).
• The ability to perform additive imports.  This will let folks create "resource pack" versions of the CoCGMS which can be imported into existing CoCGMS systems.  Example: you might create gaming content of a small town complete with location descriptions, possible encounters, NPCs, monsters, etc which can then be imported into other CoCGMS systems allowing other gamers to expand their scenario content with content you create for a more complete and interactive gaming experience.
• The character interface now has a "Links" tab allowing you to see what scenario parts any character is linked to.  Just click the reference to open that scenario part to see the complete details.
• Deleting a Game Period will remove all references to that game period in the characters database as well as the skills, melee items, range items and general items catalogs.
• Since you can import multiple resource packages into the CoCGMS the Copyright/Package Info area now supports mutiple references which you can flip through to see copyright data on each package your copy of the CoCGMS contains.
• The Encounter field on NPC and Monster character records is now a drop down selector allowing you to select a previously entered encounter reference found on other character records within the same scenario.  This will keep you from having to struggle to remember the encounter phrasing you used on another character record that you need to add another character record to.  You can also select "Other" to define a new encounter.
• Scenario parts can now be duplicated.  This will allow you to make a copy of a scenario part and its related links, images and dev notes then reassign the duplicate to a different scenario in the system.  This will be handy when working with imported resource pack data.  If there is an imported resource pack scenario part you want to use in one of your personal scenarios (such as a definition of a store, library, encounter, etc) simply duplicate it and assign the duplicate to the scenario it should now be a part of.
• The Skill Check layout now includes character images for easier identification of entries.
• Added the ability to clear the database of all character & scenario and/or all catalog data.  This will be useful when prepping the CoCGMS to be a resource pack.  By clearing all data, you can create a CoCGMS that only contains new data intended to be imported by other gamers into their CoCGMS copies.  Ex: a resource pack that only contains new spells, skills, weapons, general items, etc.
• The graphic viewer tip dialog box above the header text area above the graphic will now only be displayed once per session instead of every time a graphic is viewed.  Boy, was that getting annoying.
• The Skill Check layout will display up to three matching skills for checking.  Ex: If you add Psychology to a character three times and customize is once as "Criminal Pyschology" and "Child Psychology" a second time, when you skill check on Psychology, all three will be displayed since each is based off of the same parent catalog skill.

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Version 1.35 of the CoCGMS adds the following features and bug fixes.

• A new area is available to note all package ownership info such as package title and overview as well as copyright and contact information of the author.  If you plan on redistributing your CoCGMS created data, this area will let you give some overview info of the complete package as well as ownership legal hoo-ha you might want to include to secure you rights to the material contained in the system.
• Custom Insanity Effects catalog has a new "renumber" feature to allow you to quickly renumber all insanity effects sequentially.
• Scenario dev notes can now be included on a PDF or print out of the scenario.  A checkbox is available on each note to flag whether it should be included on a PDF or print of the scenario.
• More refining of the scenario pdf/print layout.  FileMaker is weakest at designing layouts for printing.  Hopefully these tweaks will help the scenario pdf/print layout flow slightly better.
• Corrected issue where showing or hiding a scenario part from the TOC would cause the lasted edited timestamp to be updated.  Showing or hiding a scenario part will no longer affect the last edited timestamp.
• Corrected issue when container field insert and export options were not available on the contextual right-click menu.

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

Sorry for the rapid update.  Version 1.31 should be downloaded to correct a deletion bug.

• The browser table on the Character Editor window will highlight the actively selected character record for easier referencing.
• There is a bug in the database lock check logic in v1.3 that will prevent some data from being deleted even when the CoCGMS is not locked.  No data should be at risk from this bug but it is a data maintenance hassle.  This has been corrected in this version of the CoCGMS.

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Release of version 1.3 of the CoCGMS has added the following features and bug fixes:

• Behind the scenes security enhancements and fixes.
• The ability to lock the CoCGMS to prevent alterations to the data.  This is a passworded lock which can be used to secure your work for public distribution to the CoC gaming community.  Once you have a completed scenario with all game, character and NPC data created you can lock the CoCGMS so that it can't be altered.  You can unlock it at any time with the unlock password you set at lock time.
• Improved Scenario Notes creation scripting to help prevent creation of a note with multiple categories assigned.
• Adding ability to print from the Graphic Viewer window.  This will let you include print outs of the graphics in your scenario within PDF exports of your scenario if you are using a PDF print driver that allows new print jobs to be appended to existing PDFs.  Most PDF print drivers will allow this.
• Each CoCGMS user can set their own stat roller levels for Weak, Normal, Strong and Very Strong stat rolls when creating characters.  So, if you have a different idea of how the stat dice should be rolled during character creation, you now have the ability to set the dice rolls yourself.
• Main Menu character links are now scenario specific.  Meaning, when you select to display characters, NPCs or monster records from the Main Menu, only the ones assigned to the selected scenario will be displayed.  There is a new Scenario selection drop down menu on the Main Menu for specifying which scenario to work with for character management.
• When deleting a scenario, you'll be asked if you want to also delete the related character records you may have created for the scenario as well.  If you choose not to delete them, they will be flagged as "Orphaned".  You can browse orphaned character records using a new Main Menu link and either delete them individually or assign them to other existing scenarios.
• Scenario linking (i.e. making symbolic links in one scenario part to other scenario parts [or web links, or characters in the system]) has been revamped to handle multiple scenarios.  Since the CoCGMS can handle multiple scenarios, the scenario title is displayed with links to other scenario parts.
• The Parts Type browser now shows the scenario title of each part in the table.  Clicking a part that is within the current scenario being browsed will jump the display to that part in the same window.  Clicking a part that is within another scenario will pull that part up in its own window.
• The character skills list has two new checkbox fields.  Skills with the Important checkbox checked will be sorted to the top of the list for easier locating.  This can be used to force skills to the top of the list so they will appear on the abreviated print out which shows only the top 4 or 6 skills per NPC or monster.  The second checkbox is used to track skills that have had critical success rolls and warrant a skill increase roll at the end of the session.
• There is a new "Recal" function on character windows that will recalculate all stats dependent on rolled stats.
• A Rules catalog has been added.  This will let you use the CoCGMS to document house gaming rules or just enter normal official rules for easy referencing.  The Links area of the Scenario Editor has been expanded to allow for linking to rules in the Rules Catalog.  This will let you relate specific rules that may be applicable to certain elements in your scenario(s) so they can be referenced quickly during gaming.  For example, a scenario part involving a large lake and a potential for player drowning might have the drowning rule linked to it for quick referencing.  A smattering of official rules have been pre-loaded into the system for convenience.
• A dedicated area has been created to give access to the user editable select lists in the CoCGMS such as the Scenario Parts, Scenario Note Categories, General Item Categories and Rules Categories.  Now that these select lists are contained with the user area of the CoCGMS they will be migrated to newer versions when you import your old CoCGMS to a newer install.
• Character records (Players, NPCs and Monsters) can now be associated with multiple scenarios.  This allows them to be linked to scenario parts within the scenarios they are associated with.
• On the Scenario Editor, the Links and Images tables have been placed in a tab control area to give them each more window real estate.
• The Main character editor window has been unified to cover all character record types.  The summary table on this window now shows the type of character record for each reference.

12/6/2009

Release of version 1.2 of the CoCGMS.  Features and bug fixes:

• Ability to import data from other copies of the CoCGMS.  This feature allows for the migration of CoCGMS data when future updates are available.  Unfortunately version 1.0 and 1.1 of the CoCGMS cannot be imported from.  The ability to import from old versions starts with version 1.2.

• The Main Menu now has an update notification area which will show if you are running the latest copy of the CoCGMS.  Clicking this area will open a new window which will display the version history of the CoCGMS from the main support website.

• The Print/PDF options for Character and Scenario print outs will now send print data to an external driver to allow for printing or PDF creating.  The runtime version of FileMaker does not allow for internal PDF creation so a rewrite was needed to focus on external drivers for PDF creation.  www.primopdf.com offers a good, free PDF print driver.

• Quick Check Skills on the Main Menu are now associated with individual user accounts in the CoCGMS which allows for customization of these choices to each login for the CoCGMS.

• Character images now have a View option to display them in a larger window.

• Cosmetic fixes for minor things like tool tip pop-ups and other such elements.

11/29/2009

Release of version 1.1 of the CoCGMS.  Additional features:

• Added ability for the CoCGMS to handle multiple scenarios at once allowing for campaign usage of the utility or multiple independent scenarios that reference the same player, NPC and monster data sets.

• Improves the Scenario PDF creation scripting to ensure that large scenario parts are not truncated during creation.

11/11/2009

Release of version 1.0 of the CoCGMS.  Base features set.