crusaderUnitEditor uploaded to org

[Lord Gnome]

(I was going to post this in the dungeon but I just discovered the rank system... so here it goes )
To any who are interested in a crusaders_unit_prod11.txt editor I have just uploaded a small prog to the org.
It is called crusaderUnitEditor, and does what it says. it's not as pretty as viewing the file in excel but you can save your changes, and it's easier than doing it in wordpad. here's the readme file I've put with it:

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Crusader_Unit_Editorv1.0b 3/2/03

tool to view/edit crusaders_unit_prod11.txt

If like me you enjoy messing with the crusaders_unit_prod11.txt file you may find this program useful.
I adapted an old bit of vb code I had to do this because I was frustated by navigating the unit_prod11 file in wordpad, and try as I would I couldn't get excel to save the files in the right format. This editor isn't particularly pretty but it is at least functional.

Be warned though - the Editor does not do any error checking on the values you enter into the fields, it just reads/writes the string data to and from files in the correct format and makes it easier to navigate the data. It can cope with any number of units in the file (within reason, but far more than the game can probably cope with.), but I haven't included any functionality to add units to the file. Your best bet is to copy a units data to the end of the list (or wherever after data start) manually, save the file and then load/edit the new units data in the editor. I may add this function if I get into adding lots of new units myself. (you do know there is a massive ton of real work to add new units don't you? the data in prod11.txt is just the easy bit ) other functions that may never be added are: value checking, mdi, compareWithOtherFile function.

As this is a vb program it requires the vb6 runtimes to be installed on your system, you might well already have them but if not they can be got from microsoft or any download site. The files needed are: Msvbvm60.dll and comctl32.dll. I think comctl32.dll is a standard windows file (check in windows/system and /system32) so you may only need msvbvm60.dll if at all.

I have tested this program on win98 and win2000 and it seems to work fine, good luck with me/xp (it'll be nice if it works, but I have no idea.).
If you find a bug then feel free to drop me an email (attaching any botched file and/or some kind of description of the error) to crusadereditor@craven-griffiths.net.
This is a kind of beta, I think it should work okay but it has had exactly one tester on just two systems (and one of those is the development machine.) so who knows. If it dosen't work and you let me know I'll be sure to have a go at fixing it.

installation:
unzip the crusaderUnitEditorv1.0b.zip to wherever you like, if you check 'use folder paths' it will create a folder, but you can put it any folder you want. The program requires no registration etc. to run. The '.bak' file included contains the default data and can be replaced with a newer version of crusaders_unit_prod11.txt if we ever get a patch past 1.1. To uninstall the editor just delete the exe.

Of course you use this at your own risk, and please backup your original crusaders_unit file before you start over-writing it.

Lord Gnome.

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comments are welcome.

[Gregoshi]

Welcome to the Org Lord Gnome We like gifts. Yes we do. Thank you. I'm going to copy your post to the Dungeon since you can't (yet).

[Lord Gnome]

Thx for the welcome Gregoshi (and also to barocca [and any others @the org] for hosting my editor.)


this is in reply to Kraellin's post in this topic's counterpart in the dungeon: (if some kind soul could cut/paste this reply into there I would be very grateful.)

thx for the kind words Kraellin. I'm glad you find it easy to use and like the 'range-selector', I found I was often only interested in a few fields at a time (across many units) so a range-selector was essential. Now to answer your questions in no particular order:

The editor (I like 'gnome editor' btw:) should work just fine with v1.0 unit_prod11 files as the file format was unchanged, the critical part is that each field is tab-delineated and there are still 50 fields per record (71 in the editor I know, but only 50 actual 'tabbed' fields in the file.) Actually I'll just quickly test this... yep, works ok
The editor does for the moment only work with unit_prod though, not build_prod or projectiles.

As to #15 column, yes it's bloody big Even if I 'undock' the names column I still wouldn't see all of it on my max resolution (1024x768) anyway, larger resolutions might have more luck. (btw- it's not actually #1col docked - it's a seperate display like the field headers, note you can't edit the names in this col but the #1col is still present in the main display for editing.)
I can make the names column disappear fairly easily, also how about if I make it so that when you give #15 column the focus (click in it) it expands vertically (temporarily obscuring the next unit's data) to display the whole text? It would revert as soon as it lost focus. (cols 50/51 and maybe a couple of others could also benefit from this.) Hmmm, I'll have a looksee anyway. Maybe I'll give it a little button to toggle on/off also.

out of interest, what os and resolution are you using? if you answer this you will double the test sample

[Gregoshi]

Done. BTW Gnome, check in later, you should be able to post in all forums soon.

[Lord Gnome]

[thx for the promotion Gregoshi , now until it goes thru would you mind just doing a spot of the old cut/paste routine again?]

I have just uploaded crusaderUnitEditorv1.1 to the Org.

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changes made in 1.1:
[thx to kraellin for suggestions]
added button to hide the names column to give maximum possible width to display columns.
fields with too much text to display in one line expand automatically to display the whole text for editing.
the field currently selected is highlighted together with the row/col labels so you don't lose track of the cursor.
fixed a minor bug in range input, made the error reporting on invalid input for ranges more informative. (still NO error checking for actual field values though.)
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The changes were easier to make then I thought, with the names column hidden or with an expanded text box it's harder to keep track of which unit is selected so I added some highlighting and the unit names as tooltips to the unit Nos labels on the left side. The highlighting is generally useful as well just for better awareness of exactly which field of the 200 currently displayed you are trying to edit

Build_prod editing is a possibility... no promises but the file format is very similar so it's just a question of a little tinkering to actually read the data, (the editor will actually read the data from a build_prod/projectiles file as it is - it just then discards it as it has the wrong no of fields ) but then I have to think about how I handle it.... hmmm, maybe, ok, no eta's but I'm looking into it...

campaign editing - I'm glad you don't want this (it's tempting as I only ever play self-modded campaigns and would get a lot of use out of such a tool, but there are so many unexplained rules in the format, only about 3 in 4 of my campaigns work, nightmare.)

[Gregoshi]

You beat me to it.

BTW, it looks like your tool is well received. Great job Gnome

[Lord Gnome]

For those that are interested in further releases of CrusaderUnitEditor you'll find them uploaded to the Org and announcements/comments in the Dungeon.

Thx for the swift work Gregoshi in transferring my posts and now me to the Dungeon - service with a smile , what more can you ask for? I was a bit surprised by the hierarchy system you have here but if that's the reason this forum is incredibly well behaved (compared to almost all other 'major' games' forums - really, go look at a few if you don't believe me) I'm all for it, there's nothing like a thousand screaming idiots to put you right off your post.

now I scuttle off to the Dungeon never to see the light of day again...

adios Entrance Hall.