dependent on others

gojira88

Hello, First I must say I know very little about programming and coding that having been said. I am trying to create a plot generator where there is a first table and the result ties to a second table etc. Example for a outer space plot generator the first table has three options 1. On a planet 2. On a space station 3. on a ship. Second table 1. if on a planet identifies the type of planet as either 1. inhospitable 2. hospitable or 3. habitable. 2. if on a space station identifies type of space station 1. outpost 2. ship building or 3. medical. 3. if on a ship identifies the type of ship 1. cruiser 2. destroyer 3. freighter. Please, any help is greatly appreciated, thanks

jdale

This feels a little like doing your homework for you, but maybe the example will help you understand how it works -- which for these sorts of things is actually really easy. There are lots of complicated things you can do, that we tend to discuss because they are the parts people need help with, but when starting out don't get bogged down in that. You can do a lot with tables that are really just lists.

You can of course modify and expand on this in all sorts of ways, but I just used your words.

Table: outer space plot generator
On [@planet] planet
On [@space station]
On a [@ship]

Table: planet
an inhospitable
a hospitable
a habitable

Table: space station
a space outpost station
a ship building station
a medical space station

Table: ship
cruiser
destroyer
freighter 

gojira88

Wow, thank you so very much I did realize that it was this simple, I was making it way harder then I had to? I do have a follow up question regarding generating tables if you are able to answer and do not mind.

This is under the section Generator Files in the Help section "To create a new generator, or to edit an existing one, you would create a new text file or edit one of the existing generator files with a text editor (notepad or other text editor - not a Word Processor). Generator files are stored in the 'Generators' subdirectory under the directory in which the Inspiration Pad is installed. For example, if you installed the Inspiration Pad into 'c:\program files\nbos\InspirationPad', then the generators would be located in the 'c:\program files\nbos\InspirationPad\generators' directory. Within that Generators directory, the individual generator files are then stored in directories based on their category."

Except I installed Inspiration Pad Pro 3.0 in the following directory "c:\programs (x86)\nbos\InspirationPadPro3" I cannot find Generators subdirectory the only subdirectory is Languages. Am I missing this folder or do I have to create it?

jdale

It really is that simple!

I am not 100% certain about the location of that folder for you, because I did a portable installation. But go on the menu to Help > About. Below the copyright date it should say "Table Paths" and then have the location. Wherever that is, there should be a Generators folder. Program Files is actually not a good place for it because of permissions issues. It might be somewhere in your documents folder.

gojira88

Thank you again so much, for your patience and assistance the folder it was right where you said it would be.

gojira88

I'm trying to practice making generators. The instructions say to use notepad which I am but I do not know how to then take the table and save it as an ipt file it only saves as a txt file to be used by the generator.

jdale

Personally I like Notepad++ which will leave the extension however it found it. https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

That said, you can change the file extension for any file if you tell Windows not to hide those extensions. In Windows 10, in the file explorer click View at the top and then check the box for "file name extensions." In Windows 11, click View, then go down to Show at the bottom of the list, and pick "file name extensions." Once they are shown, you can edit them -- you'll get a warning when you change a file name extension but it's OK here.

gojira88

I know this "feels like doing your homework for you" but this is how I learn in the same way I learned math in class we did problems following a given formula then at home I just continued to follow the same formula. That aside thank you for introducing me to notepad++ and giving me instructions on how to change file extension neither are within the help section of the program manual.

Here is what I have done so far under the Encounters folder I right clicked new table which I called outerspace. I then in order to make sure I don't mess up copied pasted the Table provided here in this comment using notepad++ under the name outerspace.ipt. I stored the file in Inspiration Pad Pro/Common/nbos. I then went back to the generator in the program and clicked "save and run" but nothing happened. In the program I right clicked outerspace.ipt and selected edit where this came up.

1; outerspace.ipt
2; created 4/29/2024 7:40:56 AM
3

Why is this generator not working is it because I need to move the outerspace.ipt file to another folder or do I have to edit the outerspace.ipt in IPP3 or is there something else I am missing. Once again thanks for any help.

jdale

If you put the .ipt file in the Generators folder (rather than Common), it will be listed in the left sidebar in IPP. It's possible for one .ipt file to call content from another file, and that's what you would normally put in Common, the things you want to be able to call. At the moment I would not worry about those details, just use the Generators folder.

That aside, what you did is correct to create a new file. But if your file only contains those 3 lines shown, it won't actually do anything. The first two lines are comments so it ignores them, and the last line is blank.

If you then open up that .ipt file and add some content to it and then save it (and you may have done this), there is one remaining sticking point. IPP loads all those files when you start it. If you edit those files outside of IPP while IPP is running, it doesn't realize that something is supposed to have changed. You have to close IPP and then re-open it.

You can get around that by editing the table in IPP itself. Right-click the file in the left sidebar and pick the Edit option. But usually when I do that I end up accidentally closing IPP when I try to cut because ctrl-x is the keyboard shortcut for closing the program! And also I don't like the lack of word-wrapping. So I find it easier to edit in Notepad++ and just close and re-open IPP a lot.

gojira88

I wanted to let you know thanks to your patience and guidance I believe I finally understand how IPP works at least making tables, because the one made from the Information here is up and running and with that I can just use the same formula to make other generators for my use.