I might be oversimplifying this, but could generating the leader be a separate mini program that just exports to the gang?
I.e it asks you to pick one of the four stat lines, then it asks you to pick an affiliation and it applies whatever the modification is for that rather than looking up the final result, then the same for the archetype.
The final result is then exported.
Say you start with a 1. The option adds another one. Instead of looking up a table of what the result of 1+1 is, it adds 1 to 1. So instead of 500 different final results to choose from, it's only 35 sets of modifications. After all, this is how you do it when actually generating a leader - the book doesn't print 500 options. I hope that makes sense.
I totally understand where you're going with this. The stats, skills and equipment are all stored as some kind of option array. When you create the fighter you have to select from the options which builds the final version, without having to store all possibilities in the tables. It's a completely logical method of creating this type of fighter. It's also a lot of work to make that happen from an interface perspective.
The current structure was taken from the old Necromunda tools based on a fighter type being rather set in stone to what they have access to. We had some gang types like Venators and new Goliath which introduced the possibility of different stats for the ganger. The ability to apply gene-smithing etc was a hack that worked, and Venator templates works but isn't ideal.
As I'm currently working on re-designing the data structures and building a new backend for the tools, with some of the options available to players and the custom work I've had to do to support these new features, I'm wondering if a new approach of "templates" can solve a lot of these problems.
*note, I've had a few beers so this is a stream of consciousness*
When creating a new ganger, it's basically a simple master reference of your ganger's entity, with a name and not much else. Once created, you can then apply these templates to build the ganger. For 90% of these gangers, there will only be a single template available for stats, skill, equipment etc. These will be automatically assigned and essentially you'll end up with the current version of the tools. You create a ganger and everything is available for you already to choose from as there's no options.
For types like Venators, Outcast Leaders, Gene-smithing etc. you'll get to choose a specific template for your main stats, and if available as well, your skill selection and available equipment. Or if you've created some custom templates for stats, skills or equipment, you'll be able to apply these instead to your ganger, modifying or replacing the existing templates.
In the above structure, the Template blocks are the only addition to the existing schema. The stats, costs, Xp options etc. in Rules Template would be moved from the Master Record to the Template.
In the example of the Outcast Leader, you would have 4 Rules Templates, 25 Equipment Templates and 5 Skills Templates available. For the Equipment Templates, these would all be existing ones, like the Escher HoB template, which would be associated with the Outcasts Leader type to be available for selection.
