NPC & Loot Editor revision
 

NPC and Loot Editor
08.24.00 - Large update. Changed color scheme and now several buttons added for interactive editing. Many many enhancements...


As the description states, a pretty large update. The color scheme should make it easier to read and edit for most of the utilities.

Many utilities are now enhanced with search/filter capability. Makes it easy to search for a particular spell list or searching for a particular race

Another interactive enhancement added is when you click on say a NPC and in particular a field called class, then a colored button will appear (adjacent to where coin is shown), and if you click it, a class reference sheet loads.
Fields which have interactivity are
Class,level,race,merchant, pri/sec weapons, npc_spells_id, or any field where a colored button shows.

I will add more in time.

Various people asked for some of these, and more, and I think I covered most of the requests.

Also, I'm not sure people are familiar with a particular feature of the integrated merchant editor. You have the ability to find merchants who sell a particular item, and if you want, remove it from all merchants that sell it. You can randomly assign items or from a list to a select set of merchants.

The coin redistribution tool basically changes the amount of coin dropped PER ZONE by a multiplier. Say you want to double the coin - then you would use a 2 multiplier. It works per zone and not per selected npc.

Some of the menu items were reorganised, but they are still all there FYI.

GeorgeS

Wow, those are some nice additions. I just started working with the new features and I am already spoiled. Thanks for the update!

Oh quick question....Are you planning to make a similar pop up list for bodytype in a future revision?

Yes, I'm adding support for as many fields as possible. In the current version as of this am, bodytypes and others are supported. The field under name will load a NPC name generator.

George

My only suggestion is to make windows resizable. Your programs is fairly small in my windows. My resolution is fairly large.

hey george, is there any plan on updating the race list in your editor?

Sure - I can update it if you can send a list of the recent ones.
I probably have an older Ti version..


Then probably need to extract the model graphic once I get the list.


GeorgeS

Alright, ill look in to doing that, Im thinking about making a database of models and putting em a really simple VB program that has the model, textures, sex needed like 0 1 2 and the lines youd need to put them in your global load

http://www.eqemulator.net/wiki/wikka.php?wakka=RaceList
http://www.eqemulator.net/wiki/wikka...a=RacesPost473
http://www.eqemulator.net/wiki/wikka...a=RacesPost586

Is there an auto way of linking the model with the race, or does it have to be done by hand?

Thanks, got them in the program. The next problem is getting the pictures from the spawns. Anyone know how to do this easily?
I just need the pictures from screen captures, but the spawns are not global and there has to be an easier way.

Astral, if you can help getting the latest ones #474 onward?

GeorgeS

I have another request if it is possible and if you find the time to check into it. The request is to add a way to edit multiple spawngroups at once. What I am looking for is to use the spawngroup editor to search for all spawngroups for a single NPCID (which the tool already does). Then, to be able to add another NPCID to all of those spawngroups all at once. So, say the NPC I am looking up is a_bear, and I find that it has 10 spawngroups in the zone. Then, I want to add a_snake to all of those 10 spawngroups at once. Assuming a_bear was the only thing in the existing spawngroups, it would then just add a_snake to all of them and maybe allow setting a chance for the new a_snake to be added in with. If I set a_snake to be added with a 40% chance, it would adjust all of a_bear chances to 60%. If there are more than just a_bear in the original spawngroup, it would adjust all of the existing spawns to equal 60% chance total (by scaling each existing one down proportionately) and then add a_snake in at 40% chance still.

Hopefully that isn't too confusing the way I phrased it lol. Basically, I am just looking for a quick easy way to add more variety to spawns in the new packet collected SoF+ zones. I think all of them currently only have single NPCs in their spawn groups and it would be nice to just be able to go through trash spawns in a zone and pop them into other's spawn groups really quickly like that.

Another thing that would be really nice in relation to spawns is being able to adjust respawntime quickly. Adding a box to the spawn editor that allows it to adjust all respawntimes for the currently displayed list of spawngroups would be great. Another possibly better solution would be to add respawntime as a field directly in the NPC Loot Editor display with the rest of the NPC stats. So, you could then edit respawn time for all a_bat in a zone with a single entry, or could even adjust them all for the whole zone at once with the propagation or add/sub/mult/div tool. I am sure that would be a bit more complicated, as if there is variety in respawntime for a single NPCID at multiple spawn2's it might be hard to know what to display. Though, I think in most cases, it would work out pretty simply. I am guessing that might cause the window to display info slower, as it would require quite a few more queries and maybe some extra logic (to figure out which respawntime to display if multiple).

These 2 requests aren't in major need, but just some ideas I think would help out a bit to speed things up when needed. As always, thanks for all you do!

Hi Trevius,

I think it is not a problem for the first request, adding spawns to multiple existing spawngroups.

For the second request, that is something I need to think over - how best to approach that. In any event, the first one should not be a huge task, and the supporting code is mostly there for this.
I'll code something up and see how it works..

GeorgeS

Sounds good. The first request was the main one. It isn't overly hard to adjust a zone with queries in most cases.

I was thinking a bit more about it and some ideas for loading respawn time into the main display are:

1. If there are varying respawn times with the same NPCID, you could just have it display something like 0 or -1 signifying that it varies.

2. To prevent extra load that may not be needed 99% of the time, you could have a checkbox or button to enable/disable the queries for respawntime to display, otherwise they are left blank.

Not sure when this started, but I just noticed that in the version I am running of the NPC Loot Editor, and on Rev 1824 of the source, it seems something is wrong. When an NPC has a loot table, it shows in the correct column of the editor, but I don't see the loot table details at the top when the NPC is selected. I noticed if I click in that field, it says that they are "A Merchant!" at the top of the editor. Since the merchant_id field is to the right of loottable_id, I tried moving the loottable_id field to the mana_regen field to its left. After moving it, I could then see the loot table in the editor.

It seems that the fields all show correctly, but that the loot table display is linked to the wrong field in the list. The version of the editor shows 08.24.12.

The same loottable issue is happening to me as well. The last time it worked correctly for me was when I was using base db rev1667 updated to 1753 with emu rev1753. It stopped working correctly after I changed the base db revision to 1751 then updated to database rev1753 using emu rev1753.

I've had the same problem, I thought it was the dB until I actually dug deeper via the table entries. So that makes three, I think it started at 1751, I updated my dB with the latest peqdB rev.

Definitely sounds like a schema issue- a shift in the field order most likely. I'll need to download and update to this db version to check the issue.

I'm working on this tonight, and I'll report when I discover the fix

GeorgeS

Ok, discovered the problem, and it's easy to fix (short term), however whenever a schema change occurs, this will always break the tool. I have decided to rewrite the core schema decoding code to accept new schemas, but will take a few days to re-write. It's a big task, but should be better in the long run.


GeorgeS

Thanks George!

I fixed the schema issue, and the program now checks database builds against itself, and won't run when a table issue is encountered.

I'm working on the spawngroup editor now - adding npc's to multiple groups at once, etc..and other features.


A build should be available saturday.


..I did notice quite a few field changes in the latest db build. Stuff like this will break every tool out there.

GeorgeS

Mass editing and pruning of npc's in selected spawngroups now works!

What it can do?

You can search for all "bats" in zone=commons and then add/remove a npc of your choice.
You can search for all "bats" by either the word "bat" or a specific npc ID within a zone or global (all zones in game) and then add/remove a npc of your choice to the entire spawngroup set.

for example, If you create a high ranking "orc", you are able to add it to all selected spawngroups at one shot where npc name="orc" in the spawnentry table.

This is a feature Trevius requested, and I am working on the rest of the feature list now

GeorgeS

NPC and Loot Editor
08.25.01 - Adding/Removing of NPC's to all selected spawngroups is added. Resetting respawntime to selected spawngroups is also added. Look in spawngroup editor under tools

Should be live in about 10 minutes

GeorgeS


..also built in is the new schema checker on the splash screen. If your npc_types table is different from what the program expects, it will not run.

Thanks for updating the tool. Encountered a bit of a problem though....program initially launches ok but when I click get started I get an error.

I did run the register.ocx again. Any ideas what might be causing the problem?

Getting the same input past end of file error 62 here as well

Sorry for the problem. I'm uploading the zip again. Anyway it should be live in a few minutes.


GeorgeS

It is working great now. Thanks!

Awesome Tools !!
 

Just wanted to say thanks for the awesome tools. I've been using the npc
editor for awhile now, and just tried out the spell import/export tool.
I have all spells in my DB up to HoT now thanks to that tool :)
And most of all it gave me some older missing spells, (such as Temerity).
Thank You.

Very awesome, GeorgeS! I love that we can now see all NPC fields :D

I will test out the new stuff and let you know if I see any issues or think of anything else. very nice update so far, though!

If I run this on Vista/Windows7 I get the initial graphic with the start option, but it does not allow me click start, nor does it give any errors.

Previous version worked fine...

Any ideas?

Kayen

I have the same issue. I'm going to guess it doesn't recognize my database schema although it is 1751 as far as I can tell.

Here's a screen shot of the splash screen. If this is a case of unrecognized database it would be nice if there was an easier way to quit than killing the process manually.

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/3...ashscreent.png

I'll beef up the code to remove the splash lock up screen issue.

Since your splash screen says dbversion unknown, I will guess you don't have the version field in the variables table. But at least I think it's a missing version field. In a previous version the program fixed this by adding the field to your database.

I will add this code back tonight

Thanks fo letting me know


edit*
I take it back, it's not db schema, but the sound playing dll. I am fixing it now...
Also please check for your everquest folder in db.ini. The program looks for a file in this folder and it crashes if the path is wrong.

I am compiling the new version now - it should be live in 10 minutes..


GeorgeS

That was the problem. I just copied the db.ini from an older version and didn't change anything. That file had a comment that said you'd just get no music if it was set to an incorrect directory, so I left it set to the wrong place on purpose. :)

Working now, thank you.

Unless I am just not seeing it, it looks like the qglobals field may have been removed from the NPC editor main screen.

Sorry, it's back in the latest build - must have been inadvertently removed during my coding frenzy :)

GeorgeS

anyway to disable the blue background, its horrible on my eyes

Yes, but I've had this discussion numerous times before and changing it again as usual messes up viewing the table correctly. Sorry, but it stays.

GeorgeS

Need some help if possible, I had this working on my desktop before I reformated and now I can't get it working. I am pretty sure my problem is with my db.ini file, though it looks ok. can anyone tell me what it should look like please?

I get an error saying "MYSQL Connection FAILED! - Check DB.INI or MyODBC Drivers not installed"

I copied all the drivers over to my system32 and got them registered ok.

my db.ini file reads:
host=localhost
user=eq
password=eq
database=peq
everquest_folder=C:\EverQeust_titanium
quest_folder=c:\EQEmu\quests

tried changing localhost to match my IP
EQ folder i tried leaving it as everquest_sod
and database i also tried peq_1751

Please help!

(sorry, I named my db "peq" and I am running titanium)

Was that a copy/paste or were you typing?

everquest_folder=C:\EverQeust_titanium

Not saying that it is your problem...

No misspelling that part should not cause a problem.

You need to DL my connection test tool, as it's a basic mysql connection tester.

Also, MyODBC Drivers were installed?
Is the MYSQL service running?


Check also with Heidisql SQl browser (free download), to eliminate other possibilities.

GeorgeS