New Spell Editor

[BrainiacVince]

Hey all. I'm planning on trying to write a new spell editor (hopefully with a few nice features) and I'm taking suggestions. I mean no disrespect to the authors of the other spell editors, but they don't seem fully functional and I'm not familiar enough with any of those languages to be of help with the code. So, I'll preface this by telling you that it's going to be done in Java because I don't know any other language well enough to do GUI in it. Also, feature requests may or may not get added, depending on the amount of time it'll take me to code it vs. how useful I think it will be.

I can lay out the gui basically one of two ways (or possibly have both ways as options).
1. The first way will be similar to the two (that I know of, WindCather's and the other's author escapes me atm) existing editors in that it will pre-load a complete list of all the spells from the spell file and have it in a giant selectable list. Beside that will be tabbed panes for different spell options (again, very similar to the existing editors).
2. This way will be similar to how Kayot's DB editor works. Instead of loading the entire list into a window, it will load one spell at a time. It would still most likely load the entire list to memory first, just to make searching more feasible. Loading will most likely be done with a text field near the top that accepts a spell's ID number which then loads the fields into a few tabbed panes for the different spell options.

They aren't that dissimilar, which is why I think that they could both be selectable options, or possibly all in the same layout.

Another option I am considering is having the program create a new DB or a new table in an existing db and loading all of the spells into it. This would require a bit of research on my part, as I am not sure how to do DB connections with Java off the top of my head, but I'm not opposed to learning. This would allow for very nice searching and manipulation of spells, and the data could be read back into the program to be exported as spells_us.txt. The program itself could still be used to edit the spells (this would again require a bit of research for the db editing) or the program could just be used as a gateway between the db and the spells file.



So, let me know what you think, pros, cons, suggestions, anything else you can think of that I may have missed.

[Kayot]

Suggestions:
Heres how I made my spell loader for the new editor.

1. Dim Textline(10000) as String
2. Do a line by line read, use a loop so that the spell end up in the array via spell id = array(spell id). This makes life easy when looking for a spell when all you have is a number. Also makes adding a spell into a joke because all you do is select the blank entry and save into it via selected index.
3. Don't delimit every line. Keep each line in its value^value format.
4. When loading a spell, delimit only the line you need. When searching, only delimit each line as necessary.

There are (I think) 202 values per line. Also, if you want them in alphabetical order, your best bet is to dim a listbox, fill in the values name and id with a tab in between. Then tell the listbox to sort itself and then have it load into another list box via delimiting each line and reversing the values.

a few notes,
after delimiting the line, array(2) is the pet summon and array (144) is the icon. Those were annoying to find.

[BrainiacVince]

Thanks a lot for the help. I was going to try to go back through one of the other editors and pick out what each number was, so I appreciate a little heads up. As a side note, I remember seeing a post on the forums or the wiki somewhere about the schema for the spells file. Does anyone happen to have a link to that post or page? I can't find it for the life of me. ><

On the other hand, I didn't realize that you were already creating a new spell editor, so I might just wait for that if it isn't too far off. I already use your DB editor (great program, btw) for dang near everything it does.

[GeorgeS]

I was not aware there was a spell schema online.. I was pondering wether to make a editor, but others have started, so I will just see what comes out of their progress.

GeorgeS

[BrainiacVince]

I think the biggest thing I want to accomplish with my editor is having the schema as correct as I can, then posting that up on the wiki. Having some documentation for the spells file will be nice.

[John Adams]

Originally Posted by GeorgeS

I was not aware there was a spell schema online.. I was pondering wether to make a editor, but others have started, so I will just see what comes out of their progress.

GeorgeS

The only spell schema I am aware of is what comes with the web based PEQ Editor site.

[GeorgeS]

Actually what Kayot mentioned about splitting the long spell string later is an excellent idea. The memory to hold the entire spells list is huge. I will remember that when (if) I begin to code one myself.

Regarding the sorting, I would use a simple bubble sort or something similar.

But the biggest issue is decoding the spell array ---

GeorgeS

[Dispair2]

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.