In VoD, Attributes, Abilities (also called Skills in VoD), Merits, Powers, and various traits all use dots and circles to represent the number of dice or level of the trait in question has. In most cases, you can simply click the highest cicle you want and the program will fill in all the dots leading up to it. To reduce the level your character has in a particular trait, you just click another dot and the program will reduce the number of dots to the one you click.
It bears mentioning that in cases where you are allowed to have zero dots in a trait, if you click a trait that has only one dot in it, that final dot will be replaced by a circle. If you do this for a Merit or a Power, then the program will assume you wanted to remove this trait and blank the field for you.
This behavior changes slightly when you are spending Experience Points. To spend Experience, first click the "Spend Experience" button. You can then add new traits or more dots to existing traits, provided you have enough unspent Experience Points to pay for them. If so, VoD records the expenditure in your "Spent On" field in the Expanded Traits tab, adds the cost to the Spent Experience total (also in the Expanded Traits tab), and lowers your Experience Points total appropriately.
You may also try to "refund" spent experience by clicking off the dots you purchased. This works in most cases, but there are some instances where the program will not automatically refund the experience point. First, if the program has no record of the expenditure (for instance, if you have modified the entry in the Spent On field, or if you erased the name of the merit or power before refunding the experience points) then the program cannot refund the experience to you. There are a few cases where VoD may be uncertain as to the actual cost you paid for an item. If this happens, VoD will not allow a refund and it will not reduce dots or eliminate traits.
Clicking this button will cause a small window to appear. Here you will find guidance as to what yet needs to be done to complete the character you are currently working on as a new, beginning character. When you are finished or no longer need the assistance provided, simply click the close button on this little window.
Locking dots is the recommended way to use your character during game play. This will prevent accidentally clicking something you didn't intend to while gaming and end up modifying your character. When you create a new character, Lock Dots is turned off by default so that you can build it. When you open a character file later, it will be turned on by default because VoD assumes you wish to reference the file during game play. If this is not so, and you wish to continue to modify the character, simply click the Lock Dots button off.
To get the latest version of Vault of Darkness, go to the Help Menu and select Check for Updates. If an update is available you'll be given an option to download it. Otherwise, the program will inform you no updates are available.