Modding Tool Beta Test and a Plea for Help

[Unwise]

OK, after spending the Last few weeks on what is no doubt the most hackneyed piece of spaghetti-code I have put out in years, I am ready to foist it on an unsuspecting world.

This is an Excel-based VBA application that I came up with to help me in an even larger project that I hope to have done in a few months. The code is supposed to provide a semi-user-friendly interface and background database for the modder community.

I’d appreciate it if folks would consider taking a couple cracks at beta testing it (honestly it’s probably closer to alpha than beta, but humor me). I’ve put instructions and a download link up on my web site HERE.

Secondly, much of the data I used for the lookup tables is taken from Sunray’s extensive but dated work. Thus, the creature lookup is populated with Dom1 data, and of the 1087 available units, I think a little less than half actually have data - the others are just marked as "unknown".

So for the second half of my appeal, I’d like to suggest/beg that people join me in attempting to compile a more complete and comprehensive list. The instructions on how I propose to do that are on the “Extra Credit” section of the site above.

Or, the game designers could just shoot me a data file. That would work too. No? Ah well.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Unwise:
Secondly, much of the data I used for the lookup tables is taken from Sunray’s extensive but dated work.

Sunray has a recently-revised Version on his site, and I'm second-sourcing it as well.

[Saber Cherry]

I have to admit that I'm largely interested in your work as a source of data for my precious! MY PRECIOUSSS!!!!

Er... I mean the combat sim

Too bad I didn't include ID number support in the combat sim from day 1 or the data files would be much more compatible with Dominions and your mod maker.

By the way, I came up with a nice formula for you This one rips "Fire Resistance" data from the "Special Abilities" column into a new column you make (just enter the forumla in a new column called "Fire Resistance" in Sunray's excel sheet and drag it down). It's easy to modify for the other resistances, of course...

=IF(SUBSTITUTE(Q10, "rF(100)", "")<>Q10,"100","")&IF(SUBSTITUTE(Q10, "rF(75)", "")<>Q10,"75","")&IF(SUBSTITUTE(Q10, "rF(50)", "")<>Q10,"50","")&IF(SUBSTITUTE(Q10, "rF(25)", "")<>Q10,"25","")&IF(SUBSTITUTE(Q10, "rF(-50)", "")<>Q10,"-50","")

...and for special abilities like "flight":

=IF(SUBSTITUTE(Q10, "fly", "")<>Q10,"1","")

or

=IF(SUBSTITUTE(Q10, "fly", "")<>Q10,"Flier","")

Too bad Excel formulas don't support substrings and "CONTAINS", it makes things confusing... so I couldn't figure out how to deal with variable numbers. But I hope that helps anyway=)

P.S. Forgot to mention... looks great so far! Good work!

[ March 13, 2004, 06:05: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

[Unwise]

I'll take a look at Sunray's data again, and if it's more complete than the one I pulled a week or two ago, I'll certainly use it.

Cherry's idea to pull the data out of the notations column Sunray uses occured to me as well, but I didn't pursue it since all the data looked suspect anyway. If Sunray has good Dom2 data now, it may be time to revisit the idea.

Finally, in the spirit of open source code, LaFollet is working on something similar in this thread, and should he be foolish enough to use my poor excuse for code in his VB app, he's welcome to do so.

[ March 13, 2004, 11:39: Message edited by: Unwise ]

[Zeikko]

Is there any way to load dm file, so you could mod it with modding tools?

[Unwise]

A quick bump - I made some minor changes that allow multiple nations to be modded at once. Previously the tool had over-writtem whatever nation was modded previously.