1)The item database is just missing the information for Dual swords. (can be added later easily.)
2)On the colored window for results:
Red = Over NPC value
Blue = NPC value
Green = Under NPC value
3)I don't take taxes or scarcity into account when checking prices...this is just a tool to let me know how much I'm paying per crystal when crushing stuff.
4)I thought there was something else like this out there, but ****ed if I could find it after searching...so I thought this would be a good time to brush off my programming skills
5)I want to add a 'full NPC value' to the bottom status bar, seperate from the 'per crystal cost' of the main window. And that will pretty much make this 'feature complete' for me. beyond that anything else I do will either be database cleanup or just making the code cleaner. (Maybe rework the way I handle storing the data, but thats something else at this point.)
6)Oh! And yeah, the cost per crystal is insane for A helms...you can get full S weapons for less cost per crystal. (Even from "those" people.)
OK, just a little more cleanup and I should have a version of this for people to try out in a day or so...although there is one question I'd like to ask for some feedback on.
At the moment I have (pretty much) every crushable item in the data files for this, EXCEPT dualswords. Now the things is, duals are a bit of an awkward case for displaying and selecting. (Their names are long and there are a lot of them with identical stats, except the SA.) Thus I would like to ask ahead of time what would be the preferred method of adding the dual sword information to this project.
1)Just add their data to the existing "Weapons" selection list.
2)Create a Fourth selection list, so that you choose Crystals (D to S) and then below it the next row of icons is [Armor]. [Weapons], [Jewelry], [Duals].
Option 1 is the easy way, as all I have to do is add their data to my database and reexport the datafiles.
Option 2 is slightly harder as I will need to make and test some program changes (albeit not that hard really.) Although given the current setup, this would add one more datafile that would have to go with the exe.
I'm leaning slightly towards option 2 myself at this point, but I can't help but think it's so much more 'elegant' to just have 3 'types' of gear to select without making 'duals' an oddball case. So.....let me know if I should go ahead and make duals #4 or listen to that little voice and just stick them in with the other weapons.
I think option 2 would be the best...you should also try and see if you can somehow include the datafiles into the exe file making it one file, that would make it the best.
I think option 2 would be the best...you should also try and see if you can somehow include the datafiles into the exe file making it one file, that would make it the best.
>_< I would LOVE to do this...and there are hints on how it can be done...but just TRY and get a clear example or answer on how to do it is like trying to decipher an aeons dead language without a 'Rosetta Stone'.
Compiler documentation? (Delightfully not covered)
Help Files? (Wonderfully obtuse and vague.)
3rd Party "Developer's Guide"? (Incredibly unuseful.)
Online Help via Google? (Brilliantly related....in other languages with decades old examples.)
Painstakingly decrypting and re-inventing the wheel from scattered partial fragments of help files, tangently related and suitably ancient and unmaintaned webpages as much as sheer guesswork? (Wish me luck!)
So at the moment having the data files seperate is the best you hope for until I find some definative and easy to understand resourse/explanation of the Windows 'resource' file, (uncompiled, rc&rh) format and syntax and how to access them within a C++ program using TResourceStream...
All the Dualsword data has been entered and for now it's still jammed in with the other weapon data. The 'clutter' from so many entries wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting, so I'm going to leave it that way for the moment.
In other matters, I have kinda-sorta got the data->exe thing down...except I cannot read the files in the same way, so I'll have to re-write my data load procedures in order to get things to work. I also need to do a bit more testing to verify it works the same as well...so not quite ready for release yet.
yep - in the same way that Internet Explorer is a 3rd party program in relation to the L2 client. after all, we're all looking on the forums for info about the game aren't we?
-pah, some people.
I love the UI you have designed, but i'm curious why you chose C++ and not one of the "newer" languages (dare I say dot Net?)
I love the UI you have designed, but i'm curious why you chose C++ and not one of the "newer" languages (dare I say dot Net?)
Honestly, I haven't done any programming for some time now, so when I wanted to pick it back up and work on this I used what I already had and was sorta-familiar with. (What I used for programming classes before .Net came out.) And Borland C++ Builder v6.0 Professional is what I had sitting on my shelf along with a bunch of books. (Although I have to say the books included with the compiler are extremely deficient compared to the ones that came with v4.5 and the Developer's guide I have is pretty much a waste of paper considering what I wanted information on.)
I've been looking at various other languages to see if I want to try picking them up, but for the most part your choices are a bit limited. You either can pick a MS branded .Net language/environment (C#/VB/Visual C++) or something like Python/Ruby/Java/Delphi which may or may not have some RAD type Visual environment. (And may or may not require an additional runtime packadge your users may or may not have.)
LOL. You actually think its a sniffer? He has drop downs to select the item and text boxes to enter values like current crystal prices and so on. Basically it is a L2 centered calculator.
LOL. You actually think its a sniffer? He has drop downs to select the item and text boxes to enter values like current crystal prices and so on. Basically it is a L2 centered calculator.
Haha! About the only thing I have been 'sniffing' is the Knowledge base here and at fansites (Stratics, Warcry, Vault, etc.) to create my item database. And for that I use a web browser!
Reminds me of the time some noobie asked if I was 'cheating' because my Light Elf Scout was seeding and the 'firework' animation made it look as if I was spoiling.
Everything seems to work properly and nothing blows it up anymore...I think. So those interested should download it (40K zipped, 116K unzipped) and give it a test.
NOTES:
1)I've done the best I can with the data, but for a few pieces (Apella, boss Jewels, sealed/unsealed A and Clan Oath) I'm not 100% sure I have the counts correct...so yell if you notice something not being right.
2)Next update will have some database cleanup. I have a few Jewelry dups in the DB, that came from when I was using it to sort out drops/spoiling, so removing the redundancy is my next cleanup task.
3)I'm thinking of adding one more field to the form, for the full NPC crystal value. So you can directly compare full crystal price versus purchase price and not just per crystal prices.
4)I haven't decided on leaving duals in the normal weapon fields...so try things out and let me know if it's something that would be useful to have it's own 'button'. (Or if it's fine the way it is...)
Ok, I was able to build in all but two of the dll's....as the form completely dies if you don't "Use Dynamic RTL " despite supposedly being able to do without them.
(Research suggest SOMETHING in one of the humoungous number of include files for the VCL (Borland Form Library/Pascal objects) automatically adds it despite unchecking it in the compiler options.)
As long as you unzip all three files to the same dir (preferably their own folder to make removal as simple as deleting the folder.) it should work...if not let me know. ZIP is again a bit bigger, but still under 1MB.
It's not entirely unlike trying to run a VB or .Net app without their respective libraries....it's just that *everyone* who runs windows has their respective libraries installed by default these days by Windows and Windows Update.
Let me know if the app *still* complains about not having a file. (Should be ok now, but I can't exactly test that...had to rely on what Process Explorer was telling me.) Oh, and same link again.
As a feature would it be possible to make it (if its not too much work) so it reacts to the numerical keyboard?
The lowercase C isn't so much of an issue, just more to have the file hosted, I like keeping everything lowercased, since Linux is case sensitive unlike windows.
As a feature would it be possible to make it (if its not too much work) so it reacts to the numerical keyboard?
Give an inch and they want not just a foot, but the entire leg as well! =P
I'll keep that request in mind...shouldn't be impossible, but I'd like to at least wait and see if anyone finds any obvious glitches first. :o
And who knows....I may just end up switching to another language (probably a .Net) that doesn't require the extra files to run....don't count on that anytime soon though. :eek:
I should have probably included a FAQ for this...oh well, something for the next update. (Although Honestly, it's simple enough that not having one isn't all that big of a problem.)
Technically not a mistake (see my notes above). More specifically, it's not the Ring that says that...it's the recipe. And since the DB I'm pulling the data from started as a set of spoil/drop notes the Jewelry data still has some listings like that.
Since the information I've found indicated that A/S Jewelry has different crystal amounts if sealed/unsealed in some spots I had partially corrected/left the data that way...it's on the to-do list though.
Ok, unless someone comes up with an obvious crystal count error, the cleanup of the database is done for this. I'm going to add a 'base crystal value' somewhere on the form (probably the status bar on the bottom) so that you can see the adena/crystal value (Total cost not just per crystal) breakpoint for each item and do a bit of code cleanup. But other than that everything is pretty much final.
And since having the Duals included with the weapon data doesn't seem to be a problem/issue I'm just going to leave them 'as is'.
And that's where I'm going to leave things (under this codebase anyway.) I can't think of anything else worth adding and everything works stable. (Nobody has reported anything at least.)
Given my current state of busy-ness, (I need to level my characters too!) I'll probably rebuild and put out a final 'release' version of this sometime next week.
...my next project probably won't even be L2 related as I can't think of anything else to work on for it at this time.
LOL. You actually think its a sniffer? He has drop downs to select the item and text boxes to enter values like current crystal prices and so on. Basically it is a L2 centered calculator.
was refearing to the sniffer being a 3rd party program also but i guess you cant get that.
LOL. You actually think its a sniffer? He has drop downs to select the item and text boxes to enter values like current crystal prices and so on. Basically it is a L2 centered calculator.
was refearing to the sniffer being a 3rd party program also but i guess you cant get that.
Riiight. Thats like seeing a screenshot of msn and saying "walker walker" and then expecting people to know that you were saying you were taking your dog for a walk. Argue it all you want, but you were implying that it was a sniffer program.
LOL. You actually think its a sniffer? He has drop downs to select the item and text boxes to enter values like current crystal prices and so on. Basically it is a L2 centered calculator.
was refearing to the sniffer being a 3rd party program also but i guess you cant get that.
Riiight. Thats like seeing a screenshot of msn and saying "walker walker" and then expecting people to know that you were saying you were taking your dog for a walk. Argue it all you want, but you were implying that it was a sniffer program.
sniffer sniffer! can mean it your way hey i think its a sniffer program but im not dumb like some people and know it doesent sniff drops so QQ more
LOL. You actually think its a sniffer? He has drop downs to select the item and text boxes to enter values like current crystal prices and so on. Basically it is a L2 centered calculator.
was refearing to the sniffer being a 3rd party program also but i guess you cant get that.
Riiight. Thats like seeing a screenshot of msn and saying "walker walker" and then expecting people to know that you were saying you were taking your dog for a walk. Argue it all you want, but you were implying that it was a sniffer program.
sniffer sniffer! can mean it your way hey i think its a sniffer program but im not dumb like some people and know it doesent sniff drops so QQ more
Im not crying, just laughing at your stupidity. Notice in my first post I put "LOL" (laugh out loud for those that think its crying) at the beginning. Keep digging, eventually you will get out of the hole.
Now with 'Base value' and a slightly smaller size due to some code cleanup. Brand spanking new FAQ included. (Even if I cheated and asked the questions myself. =P )
So, go ahead download and poke it a bit. Let me know if I missed any needed library file as well, but I should have included all the needed ones again.