ATV-TW: a trait (and future ancillary) validator for RTW/M2TW

[Tamur]

Though I'm not much of a modder, I do make tools as a profession and would like to contribute now that I've got some time to do so.

Interested traiters and ancillary modders, please take a look at this program. Note! you'll need the .NET runtime, as it was written in C#:

ATV-TW zipfile link

The program parses both traits and ancillaries, finds bugs in both, and allows the user to browse both in several different ways.

Two notes:

1) This tool was created simply to find bugs. It currently does not support the editing of the game files, since there are programs that do a nice job of this already. Or TextPad works nicely too.

2) There are a couple of functionalities that are not at all clear in the UI, which I'll be fixing in a UI-update version at some point:

- Trigger browsing. This is keyed to the currently displayed trait or ancillary -- i.e. hitting the ">" button on one of the triggers screens will get you the next trigger that bestows the current trait/ancillary.

- Trait search. If you click on the name of the trait on the Trait screen, it will allow you to edit the value, and hit a Search button. This will search for a trait name, part of which matches the string you typed in. This is not yet implemented for Ancillaries.

If you find it interesting or useful, please let me know what would make it even more useful. I am planning to get the design of the RTW version finalised in the coming months and then make changes for M2TW traits and ancillaries.

[Myrddraal]

Thanks Tamur!

Don't forget to add this to the database.

[repman]

@Tamur
Excellent work, found already one bug in my files
waiting for the ancillaries check

repman

[Tamur]

I've just been informed that the name of this tool is rather vulgar in some parts of the world. Most of the time it's blissful to be completely culturally clueless.

Changing to ATV-TW for future.

[Makanyane]

Hmm, sort of liked the original name - as in don't be a **** use this validator!

Is it possible to make it downloadable rather that running live off the hosting site? Something in my security settings seems to be stopping it finding files and I'd prefer not to have to disable firewalls etc.!!

Thanks anyway for a really useful looking tool.

[Tamur]

hi Makanyane,

Oki, I had thought about making it a zip archive for the small bandwidth savings, but making it required-to-download via zipping it will probably save all sorts of trouble in future. I'll zip it up and change the link sometime tonight.

[Myrddraal]

I haven't tried it myself, but try right-clicking the link then choosing Save Target As, that should download the exe...

[Tamur]

Finally got some connected time, and now the 0.5 version is up, with the basics of Ancillary validation.

A couple of notes on what the 0.5 version does not do:

• it does not find triggers that bestow invalid Traits or Ancillaries
• it does not find bad image references on Ancillaries
• it does not check that you have bestowed a valid Affect (i.e. the hard-coded RTW Affects)

I do plan to add each of these omissions in time, and probably the first one quite soon. But for now, what's there will catch most problems.

P.S. I also turned this into a zip file, which compressed quite a bit more than I had thought, so I'll zip future versions.

[Tamur]

OK, 0.7 is up.

This will now check for triggers that bestow non-existant ancillaries, and triggers that bestow non-existant traits.

Next version will be UI changes, though my schedule looks a bit busy for the next little while. I'll get it up as soon as I'm able.

[Tamur]

0.8 is up.

ATV-TW will now check the syntax of all trait and ancillary trigger conditions. This includes missing parameters, bad logic tokens, a few tokenised values, and any mistyped condition names.

[Makanyane]

Ok, so its only me that has problems with your downloads, sorry !!! - have saved v.8, but trying to open it is giving me - winRAR diagnostic message

! I:\Internet Downloads\Rome Total War\ATVTW.zip: Unexpected end of archive

any ideas? what version of .rar /.zip are you using?

Also (and I'm now cross posting as i just asked question on this in modding_questions, oops!) does v.8 cover valid trait effects?
If not do you know if there is a listing of them anywhere to check manually?

P.S. should have come back and said thanks before for previous versions - it does everything you said really well, a great help!

[Tamur]

Apparently it isn't just you, I've had a couple of people PM me with problems as well. I'll get a new zip onto my server in the next few minutes and then test it myself to see if I can unzip it.

[Tamur]

OK, new zip version up. I'm not sure of the problem. I'm able to open it ok and had one other person who was able to. Hopefully the new zip works for everyone.

edit: removed RAR link, this is no longer maintained

[BozosLiveHere]

Also (and I'm now cross posting as i just asked question on this in modding_questions, oops!) does v.8 cover valid trait effects?
If not do you know if there is a listing of them anywhere to check manually?

I think MarcusCamillus posted a list once....try looking for it in the Hardcoded Limits thread.

[Tamur]

Sorry for not answering your question any sooner, Makanyane... No, ATV-TW does not check for valid trait effects (or affects as they're termed in the traits file for some reason). I couldn't find any solid list to rely on for that check.

If you happen to find one, though, please let me know! That would be my next addition if it were possible.

[Makanyane]

Thanks Tamur, zip file works fine now.

BozosLiveHere, well remembered - thanks - post is no #150 here:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...t=42905&page=8

If I'm reading that right he's abstracted all the effects / affects used in all the versions of the traits files. Not sure if that means thats all that is possible?

[rorarii]

hmmmm, what I need now Tamur is a building validator. I've tried your trait and ancillary validator and it solved my problem in a few seconds. Excellent work.

I've added a new building to export_desc_buildings.txt and added descriptions in \text\export_buildings.txt file but continually get CTDs in the splash screen.

These CTDs are very annoying and I'm sure Validator software will save lots of time and frustration.



R

[Tamur]

@ Makanyane
Thanks! Exactly what I needed. I'll get that implemented as soon as possible, this morning if I can swing it.

@ rorarii
What would you want a building validator to do? I'm not much of an expert with the edb file. I'm assuming that you would need to validate that:

1. the building entries for each building match up with the "levels" enumeration
2. the "upgrades" property of each building matches with the levels enumeration
3. settlement_min entries give valid settlement levels
4. any "recruit" entries give valid dictionary entries from the edu file
5. "cost" and "construction" values are numerical
6. there are no entries in edb without corresponding entries in /text/export_buildings

Anything else that could cause a CTD?

[Tamur]

Anyone who's having troubles with the new conditional checker griping about something that it should not be griping about, please message me or post up here about it. I used JeromeGrasdyke's post in mid-September last year as the conditionals "gospel", but there were a few places where CA's documentation was unclear, and it also appears that there are a few conditions omitted in the docudemon files Jerome posted. I'll have to handle these on an individual basis.

In particular, siege conditions (IsUnderSiege, IsBesieging) were omitted. I'll put up an update ASAP with these included.

[Tamur]

New version (0.83) with bugfixes is up:

• includes IsUnderSiege, IsBesieging conditions
• allows conditions to have the word "Condition" in them
• some internal changes to data architecture

I removed the RAR version (and edited the post above) since I won't be updating it.

[BozosLiveHere]

Anyone who's having troubles with the new conditional checker griping about something that it should not be griping about, please message me or post up here about it. I used JeromeGrasdyke's post in mid-September last year as the conditionals "gospel", but there were a few places where CA's documentation was unclear, and it also appears that there are a few conditions omitted in the docudemon files Jerome posted. I'll have to handle these on an individual basis.

In particular, siege conditions (IsUnderSiege, IsBesieging) were omitted. I'll put up an update ASAP with these included.

Jerome left a zip files that included all events, conditionals and console commands. It's somewhere in the downloads section; if you can't find it, pm and I'll send it to you.

[Tamur]

Yes, that's the one I'm using. Siege conditions aren't in that list, and I'm not sure exactly what else may be missing. Since EB's traits file (the ultimate test!) parses just fine now I'm assuming that with the siege/besieged conditionals in there it will work fine.

edit: looks like I'll have to wait on the Affects checking. I spent a while on it today but it's more of a challenge than I anticipated.

[BozosLiveHere]

Funny because yesterday your validator caught a IsUnderSeige typo in our files.

[rorarii]

@ Makanyane
Thanks! Exactly what I needed. I'll get that implemented as soon as possible, this morning if I can swing it.

@ rorarii
What would you want a building validator to do? I'm not much of an expert with the edb file. I'm assuming that you would need to validate that:

1. the building entries for each building match up with the "levels" enumeration
2. the "upgrades" property of each building matches with the levels enumeration
3. settlement_min entries give valid settlement levels
4. any "recruit" entries give valid dictionary entries from the edu file
5. "cost" and "construction" values are numerical
6. there are no entries in edb without corresponding entries in /text/export_buildings

Anything else that could cause a CTD?

I found my problem, not having a blank definition in export_buildings.txt, as

<building level name>_
<building level name>__desc
<building level name>__desc_short

.. that's time consuming and annoying.



R

[Tamur]

Yes, it is really tedious while a validator can run through things pretty quickly. I'll see what I can do to add this.

[Squid]

I know this was last posted in awhile ago, but could the code be made available to the program?

[Squid]

I was using the validator and its catching the attributes subterfuge and bribery as not being valid attributes.

[Squid]

Two other bugs:

1) The condition I_BattleSettlementFortificationLevel causes the program to crash

2) When checking the ancillary triggers, the last trigger is ignored.

[BozosLiveHere]

It also stopped being able to catch invalid conditionals altogether in EB's edct. I guess the files got too big.

[Squid]

I'm willing to try and fix some of these bugs if the source code were to be made available.