Save the cheerleader

Originally written on Dec 13, 2016. Reposted on Dec 18, 2022. Original blog available at: https://theexcelrpg.wordpress.com/

Save states. Save states seem like they’ll be the most challenging element of this project, however I’ve got a temporary solution in mind. This solution could be extended to a permanent one, but I’ll have to test it out a few times before I’m certain.

The idea I have involves a macro – as most of this project will – however it’s a reasonably simple one. So we have our character sheet, into which we choose our race, ability scores, skills, class etc etc. I haven’t actually gotten round to adding skills or classes yet, but that can wait. I’ll then have a workbook entitled save state, where all of this will be saved. The user will not have access to this workbook (standard protection.) The interaction with the macro is quite simple as well – I’ll create a button called “Save Character”, and then upon running this macro two things will happen. Firstly, the count in cell A1 of the Character Save State will be increased by 1 (so from 0-1 initially.) There’ll then be an IF loop in the code, and if the count = 1 the character details will be assigned from the input sheet to the save sheet, and if the count > 1 nothing will happen. This means that the character can be saved once and only once (unless a new game is started.)

This was all fairly easy to do, and then I also added a count to the assign abilities. Counts seem to be the easiest way to keep track of saved states and checkpoints – however we’ll see later on.

The next post will be all about classes, and I think I’ll post it again today – time willing. However for the sake of brevity I’ll cut this one off here.

See you in a bit.