I'm using Metacreator more and more - and we are finally (after 4 years of saga play) getting around to make actually crunch for our covenant. I used to use a complex excell-sheet to calculate all and any details of character development, but I must say that I've really grown to love Metacreator as a much better alternative.
Now I'm faced with a challenge - in spite of it's many qualities, and having explored the programme, I cannot make the Advance|Study|Book|Covenant to include the characters Poor Student in the calculations. The programme usually includes similar flaws/virtues but I cannot make this work and it more or less defies the idea of having made an extensive book-keeping of the covenants huge library. In fact they are quite a few magi PCs with this specific flaw - for unknown reasons (unless the SG being a poor student of the programme being an indicator).
Anyone got a clue on how to help me out? I've already tried both reading the digital manual and trying to decipher the syntax of the flaw. Without luck.
Just tried this out with my own Metacreator (ver 4.1.1) and you are correct. When the one dialoge box pops up, it shows the Study Bonus as (0). This may be a flaw in the prgram that the Study bonus can not be less than zero.
I will email the dude I worked with in the beta to see what he says.
While I can't help you, I would suggest contacting the fine folks of Alter Ego Software. Their customer-service never failed me - whether on their Yahoo-list or in email, they are always prompts and always helpful.
Here is the answer to the Metacreator issue from Bruce Kvam:
Yes, I see. The problem is that the various flaws and virtues are not reciprocal. That is, Apt Student is not the inverse of Poor Student. The penalty has to be sprinkled about the various places in the script where the penalty should be applied.
We'll fix it in the next release. As a work-around, you could add an adjustment of b_bookQuality-3 to Poor Student's adjustments. While it's not perfect, it should make the numbers come out right in the case you're interested in.
Thank you for the replies and especialy for the response from Alter Ego, guys! I was thinking of asking them next but thought I might try here first. I'm glad it wasn't just me missing something obvious.
I guess we'll go on with making our covenant-file, but do things a bit different when it comes to the players with poor student.