New Spell Editor - Page 2

BrainiacVince · #16 01-15-2008, 03:37 AM

Week 1, Update 1:
My class is every Monday so I will be posting updates either Monday evening or Tuesday sometime.

I am going back to my original plan of using Java to implement this. The AJAX idea is for a separate project the professor had in mind.
This week, I'm going to be working on the GUI layout, which is due next week. This is your last chance to suggest major GUI features that you'd like. Some changes can be made later, but I don't want to have to reinvent this project every other week.

**TheLieka** · #17 01-15-2008, 07:11 AM

I don't know how easy or hard this would be for you, but it would be nice to be able to query and update spells in batch.

For instance, if we notice that fear is landing way too easily, we could update the Resist Level (if you could update it with a calculation rather than a value replacement - for instance +10, rather than setting them all to the same value - that would absolutely rock too) on all spells that contain effectid 34 (or maybe hard code the effect name for each value.

The main thing that most of these spell editors lack is the ability to query the spells and update in batch.

Also, ensure that it's possible to edit the spell effect fields, that's something that OpenSpell doesn't allow you to do very easily, so I find myself using excel for this (which is quite messy).

Also, if it helps, I have broken my spell file into an excel spreadsheet and labeled the columns by how the source reads them. I'll post a link to it if it'll help you (or anyone else).

Dax

**TheLieka** · #18 01-15-2008, 07:19 AM

link below:
http://www.pwnedemu.com/downloads/Do.../spells_us.zip

Dax

BrainiacVince · #19 01-15-2008, 10:13 AM

This "batch" concept is incredibly easy. In fact, you could have already done it, to be honest. Instead of adding the data to a spreadsheet, you can add it to a new table in a database. You can create a new table in the existing database you use for your server, or start a new database with a table just for the spells. Since you already have the column headings, export the data to a .csv file, then import it into a table. (In OpenOffice, choose Save As, not export. Csv is one of the options in the drop down menu.) You should be able to use existing headings (the first row) as your field names for the database when you import the data from csv.

This allows you to execute SQL against it, which will give you batch capability. The only difference between doing it straight in a database editor vs a spell editor is that the spell editor will be able to have some nice drop-down boxes (like you suggested) with labels instead of numbers. Actually, I intend to use both in the GUI, so people can easily associate "Beneficial" with, say, a 2 in that field. I know that with Java, the JDBC (the Java DB driver) allows direct execution of SQL against a database, so it will be virtually no work at all to allow for that. The work will come from creating the drop down boxes in the GUI that associate Beneficial with 2, for example.

Your giant table, as well as some info that AndMetal posted a link to on the wiki, will greatly reduce that work, and I thank both of you again for that.

Dispair2 · #20 01-15-2008, 03:23 PM

I was also planning on working on a little project like this that would use vb.net to connect to a db and decode the .txt file to the db then you can easily update them then simply dump them back to a .txt file however you like when you are done. However i am not able to decipher the .txt formats at this point so any help you can give on this aspect (such as what the heck the field actually mean and how the values are determined) would be great.

BrainiacVince · #21 01-15-2008, 08:08 PM

I haven't started decrypting the beast yet, but the links above will provide you good places to start. I'll post my findings to the wiki, and provide a link from this thread once there is a sufficient amount of data in a nice format. Actually, I'll most likely make a wiki page that will essentially be my project notes and will get changed, updated, etc, as the project goes along. That'll be a convenient way for people to see what I've done and what is left to do, as well as provide an outline for me to work from.

Dispair2 · #22 01-16-2008, 01:42 AM

Well sing as i do not have an idea where to start on a spell editor until I can get a list of what fields do what and how they are calculated in the spells files i am pushing the project to the side and going to add to the current editor that i have. I am going to setup an all in one edit that will do almost everything such as items mec edit and so forth and i hope while working on that project i can get a good break down of the spells files. so everyone knows i am using vb.net to program and using tabs to set different editor types, this will connect to the for now peq db and edit from there, I am starting the project at this very moment and how to have a Somewhat working model by Friday or Saturday.

until then if anyone can find or put together a comprehensive list of the spells files such as fields, field calculations and so forth please email me at rmiller@dnetpa.com, what i really need it what fields are important, hat they are, and how to calculate the numbers such as is 2 = clr 3 = nec 4 = wiz then does it calculate 2 & 3 & 4 or 2 + 3 + 4.