Dom3 Unit Maker v1.07

[paradoxharbinger]

Dom3 Unit Maker v1.07

changelog:

version 1.00
- initial release

version 1.01
- fixed protections and resistences to take negative values
- fixed seduction command
- added missing make monster commands
- added option to leave out main mod commands
- added option to append
- rearanged some of the abilities in the gui
- fixed missing #end for mod

version 1.02
- fixed supply bonus for gluttony
- new preset item slot button: 2 hands, head, body, feet, 2 misc
- hotkeys to select tabs: f1 general, f2 armor, f3 weapons, f4 abilities, f5 magic, f6 leadership, f7 item slots, f8 create
- tab indexes fixed (tabbing to next control works logically)

version 1.03
- fixed start age to accept -1
- added a modifiable list of weapons and armor in the data directory
-- each entry must have the item number followed by a tab followed by the item name
--- ex: 14 Plate Hauberk
-- if a file is missing, a default list will be used as before

version 1.04
- seige, pillage group renamed to other and moved to third abilities page
- added new commands from 3.08 patch
-- spread dominion (#spreaddom) added to magic->abilities
-- increase unrest (#incunrest) added to abilities->page3->other
-- no bad events (#nobadevents) added to abilities->page3->other
- fixed item slot values
- added the fourth hand slot

version 1.05
- checked list boxes will now check on click
- fixed ressize, didn't work
- detailed comment on body slots
- clear button on each main tab
- reset all button on create tab

version 1.06
- enabled clear button for abilities
- fixed 'eyes'
- fixed 'castledef'

version 1.07
- added copy stat functionality, added to 'Create' tab
-- copy stat
-- clear
-- clear magic
-- clear special
- tab rearangement
-- stats and abilities now all under 'Abilities' tab
-- armor, weapons and item slots under 'Equipment' tab

todo
- random button
- add support for loading units from database
- improve append to look for end of mod
- tool tips
- new modules to create weapons and armor

[Sombre]

Cool. Any chance it will be able to grab values from the unit database automatically? That way you could load up all the stats for say, Ulmish infantry, make a few changes, then turn it into mod commands text.

That would really speed things up a lot and reduce the amount of messy copystats that people tend to use.

[paradoxharbinger]

thats a possibility for future development, just focusing on the basics right now though

[paradoxharbinger]

things are going well, most of the basic modding commands are working and outputting to file. i should be able to make a release in a few days

[lch]

If you're looking for projects, you know what would be really really cool? A pretender maker. Just something where you can create a pretender and save your settings and load them again and maybe modify them a little.

[paradoxharbinger]

you'll be able to make pretenders with this just like any other unit

[paradoxharbinger]

sorry for the delay kids, i should have this thing out soon

[Londo_Mollari]

Can't wait for this one, modding will be much more friendly with such a tool

[paradoxharbinger]

ok, i've finished it. you can download it at the top of the thread.

one note: you will have to have the .net framework installed to run it, because it's written in c#, but since youre likely running winxp, it probably ought to be on your machine already.

everything as far as the program goes ought to be pretty self explanatory: select your options, and save; pretty simple.

there may be a few commands missing, there are an awful lot of them, so a few may have slipped through the cracks or be implemented incorrectly, but just let me know if you find one.

also, the weapons and armor section only contains the common equipment found in the mod documentation. when i get a chance i can expand on those.

aight, enjoy.

[Foodstamp]

Wow, this is really nice. First to download and first to use woot. Am i correct in thinking this creates the unit in its seperate mod file and you just copy and paste the stats into your real mod file?

Awesome work, I love it.

[Amos]

Make monster is 1-5. Meaning "make monster 1" creates one monster, "make monster 2" creates two monsters etc. all working on the same character.

[lch]

I don't want to piss on your party, but why not program it in Mono? (a free alternative to visual C#) Then you'd have the tool ready for all operating systems: Windows, Apple Mac and Linux.

[Dedas]

Yeah, would it be possible to have a more linux friendly version?

[paradoxharbinger]

@ich / dedas

never heard of mono. aside from that, visual c# generated the thousands of lines of code required to setup and maintain all of the gui components. so if i can port c# code over to mono easily, then thats a possibility.

@amos

i didnt know about those makemonster 1-5 commands, the manual only lists makemonster1, i'll add them when i get a chance.

@foodstamp

yeah, just copy and paste. i'm thinking about putting an append option in there

[lch]

paradoxharbinger said:
visual c# generated the thousands of lines of code required to setup and maintain all of the gui components. so if i can port c# code over to mono easily, then thats a possibility.


I don't know if there will be any work involved to get your software working on Mono right away or how much work it might be, maybe check the FAQ (http://www.mono-project.com/FAQ:_General) for that. The 2.0 branch in CVS does support .NET 2.0, and they're working on 3.0 compatibility, 1.0 is fully supported. You might want to have a look at http://mono.ximian.com/class-status/ for compatibility info for the class libraries, and try the Mono Migration Analyzer (http://www.mono-project.com/Moma) on your program.

[BandarLover]

This doesn't work for me. Says it 'failed to initialize' then asks me to close.

[paradoxharbinger]

you have to have the .net framework installed for it to run which you can get here (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=262D25E3-F589-4842-8157-034D1E7CF3A3)

[Foodstamp]

I wrapped up a mod using the new unit maker.

Here are my impressions and a few bugs I found.

This was my first time using the unit maker to make a mod, so I was a bit slow with it, and I am not sure it saved me any time at all working on the mod. That being said, I think the more I use it, the faster I will get with it.

It did save me from the annoying typos I make that crash the game the first time I run a mod. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

The weapon and armor list is very limited. I found myself adding weapons and armors after I had finished the unit in the creator.

You cannot enter negative values in the protection/resistance fields to create vulnerabilities.

Using "seduce" to create an ability like "#seduce 15" yielded "#seduce15" instead. I am not sure if this would have caused an issue in the game, i just added the space between the value and the command just incase.

Make monster is a tad limited, but that is no biggy.


Overall impression...

I love this tool. I am going to use it for now on. As I get better with it, I believe it will save me a lot of time, if it is not saving me time already. It eliminated the need for me to hunt down those first run typos I normally make thus saving me time and headache.

Excellent work, simply incredible!

[BandarLover]

I went to the link and downloaded .net, after install, the unit maker told me I needed .net framework v 2.0.50727. All I could find was 2.0 and even after downloading that it still won't work for me. I've a feeling it's because my PC is old and it's having issues running my recent XP upgrade.

Lesson in all this: I need a new 'puter.

[Sombre]

I'm too old skool to use this, although maybe I'll change my mind when I start work on several more mods at once.

If it was tied into the databases (in a future update maybe) and could reproduce 'mod language' versions of vanilla units I'd probably have to worship you as a pretender though :]

[paradoxharbinger]

@bandarlover
sorry for that mixup, i just grabbed the first link google gave me. maybe try the windows update?

@foodstamp
thanks for the bug reports. the weapon list is limited, at the time i only had the lists in the modding manual, so that's what everyone got. i am looking to expand them however.

[Edi]

If you want the full lists, well -- *points at sig* -- you've got them. The weapons and armor lists are complete. The unit list is also, though rsource stat is not the actual base value and the display page does not show old age or protection correctly. You do need Open Office to read it though and opening up the unit DB takes a while because of all the calculations.

[paradoxharbinger]

thnx edi, i'll have a look at them asap

[paradoxharbinger]

version 1.01 is released, check the top of the thread for changelog and the new release

[paradoxharbinger]

just released 1.02, see the top of the thread

next release should have expanded weapon and armor lists

[Juzza]

I just wanna say thanks! this unit maker is great! saves me tons of time modding!

[Gandalf Parker]

I would also love to see a vanilla unit maker. But Im not sure if thats possible.

However if someone wanted to use the mod maker and create some for us that would be great. Maybe mod one nation at a time.

[BandarLover]

Yay!! Told ya I needed a new PC. Finally got this working and while I've not gotten around to using it as yet, it's very nice.

Silly side note: When I first heard of this I thought 'Cool a tool to create units' thinking it would be able to actually allow you to make graphics for them as well. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif I'm so silly.

Now if someone where to make something like that as well I'd prolly pay money for that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif I don't think it would be very feasible though.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. Great job so far, Paradox. Great job indeed.

[paradoxharbinger]

thnx for the praise everyone, it is greatly appreciated.

@gandalf

what do you mean by vanilla units? templates for plain humans? if you guys give me some templates, i can add buttons that set the appropriate checkboxes and everything, that's not a problem.

[Gandalf Parker]

A template for plain humans might be helpful.

In my case, I meant an ability to duplicate a unit that is already in the game. Even better, to duplicate a nation by mod commands.

[lch]

I have now tested this with Mono 1.2.2.1 and it works fine for one negligible unimplemented method:
<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>Unimplemented: Control::set_AutoSize(bool)</pre><hr />
and one shortcoming: You seem to be using the backslash as directory seperator which gives problems with non-Windows systems, of course. Since Windows is POSIX-conform since WinNT and takes a slash "/" instead of a backslash "\", too, could you change your program to use slashes instead, or find out what the right character to use is? I think the trouble is just that you have the backslash hardcoded so far. So far, it saves the files under weird filenames (in the parent directory where you want to save it, with the filename "dir\file.dm" for the file.

[paradoxharbinger]

yeah, those slashes are hardcoded. i believe windows will take either the back- or forward slash, so should be an easy fix. ive been waiting for my new lappy to arrive before starting to play with new software, my old pc is barely limping along. so after i get that i'll experiment with mono and get that multiplatform release out.

[Gandalf Parker]

Will MapGen come out multiplatform also?
Id like to program a basic program to run batches of daily maps off of my server. Something like I did for Dom2 with DomMap (which I might resurrect)
http://www.dom2minions.com/~dominion/Dominions2/RandomMaps/RandomMaps.html

I was thinking of having it run at night on my Windows machine then automate transfering them to the linux server. But Id much rather it all ran on linux

[Juzza]

so, when can we expect the next version of the unit gen?

I love this thing! saves me tons of time modding!

[lch]

paradoxharbinger said:
yeah, those slashes are hardcoded. i believe windows will take either the back- or forward slash, so should be an easy fix.


Yes, that's what I meant with WinNT and successors being POSIX-compliant. I had a quick look and it seems that there is a Path I/O class (http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2002/08/05/io.html?page=4) in System.IO which gives you the directory separator char via (Alt)DirectorySeparatorChar. This should give the right character to use on non-Windows environments, too. I just had a try with DirectorySeparatorChar and AltDirectorySeparatorChar and both output a slash ("/") for me: <font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>using System;
using System.IO;
public class Test {
public static void Main(string[] args) {
Console.WriteLine("This is the DirectorySeparatorChar: " + Path.DirectorySeparatorChar);
}
}</pre><hr />


Gandalf Parker said:
Will MapGen come out multiplatform also?


Mono does not recognize the assembly because of the depency on Microsoft DLLs. Wine chokes on MSVCP80.dll and MSVCR80.dll, even after installing them, I guess that's because my wine version is too old (I'm using wine 0.9.29). I can run it with Cedega 5.1.1, however. So if you want to run the MapGen then either get Cedega or a newer wine version than I'm using, then you can use the MapGen on Linux.

[Gandalf Parker]

Thanks for the info. Or a vmware to run an emulation of winxp.

But no Id rather not. My 2 linux boxes are internet servers so I try to avoid gui and emulated environments. As kludgy as it sounds, Id rather do a nightly transfer from my desktop. Its more serverish (thats not a word)

[paradoxharbinger]

eventually i will try and get mapgen to be multi-os. think i mentioned this before, maybe not.

[lch]

P.S.: Since I'm getting the Dom3 server monitor tool ready for Linux / Mono, too, and there is the same trouble as here: Probably the best way of getting the full path for a file is to use Path.Combine. Example code:

<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>using System;
using System.IO;
public class Test {
public static void Main(string[] args) {
string s = Path.Combine(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("HOME"), "test");
Console.WriteLine(s);
Console.WriteLine(File.Exists(s));
Console.WriteLine(Directory.Exists(s));
}
}</pre><hr />

I didn't have any experience with C# so far, but it sure is nice, I must admit. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Gandalf Parker]

For some reason that doesnt work on my linux system.

Personally, since you have a config file asking for a path to a file, Id just add another option for the path seperator.

Or if I were to do a test I think it would be something like this.
can I see
./program.cfg
or do I have to look at
.\program.cfg

[lch]

Gandalf, have you installed Mono (http://www.mono-project.com/)? What does "mono --version" tell you?

If you have installed it, then running "mono Dom3UnitMaker.exe" should work for you without problems, except for lots of "Unimplemented: Control::set_AutoSize(bool)" messages.

[paradoxharbinger]

hmm... might be useful, but relative paths are plenty for what im doing

thanks for the tip on the path separator character

also, should have expanded weapon and armor lists soon

[Gandalf Parker]

I didnt have mono installed, I do now.
And then I realized that the problem I had was with one of Ballbarians programs. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/stupid.gif

Im mostly waiting for the map generator. I dont have much need for the unit builder personally.

[lch]

Gandalf Parker said:
And then I realized that the problem I had was with one of Ballbarians programs. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/stupid.gif


Which one? I see that he hands out the source code to his programs, too, so I could take a look at it. Even though he's programming in BASIC. Who the hell still programs in basic?? /threads/images/Graemlins/Cold.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I had a quick look and I see that he already has some form of support for *nix in his code, although he missed a couple of occasions. I haven't programmed BASIC in, like, ever, but since it's little more than batch programming it shouldn't make any trouble. Just say what you need.


Im mostly waiting for the map generator. I dont have much need for the unit builder personally.


Well, as I wrote in the other thread it already works with Wine. You said that you don't want emulators on your server or something, but if you didn't know what Wine stands for: WINE Is Not an Emulator. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif It's an alternative implementation of the Windows API, you should rather compare it to Mono: open source implementations of native Windows DLLs. paradoxharbinger could probably even compile his Windows program for *nix via winelib (http://www.winehq.org/site/docs/winelib-guide/) without any changes to the source code, too. Although I'd encourage a rewrite under C# because it looks like a really nice programming language with lots of useful classes.

[Gandalf Parker]

lch said:

Gandalf Parker said:
And then I realized that the problem I had was with one of Ballbarians programs. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/stupid.gif


Which one? I see that he hands out the source code to his programs, too, so I could take a look at it. Even though he's programming in BASIC. Who the hell still programs in basic?? /threads/images/Graemlins/Cold.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif



Heehee. You dont want to get me started on this. But a short answer is that I probably caused that. Most of my cgi's, linux scripts, windows batch files, and map utilities still get written in basic. Its an important part of my administration tools. Not nearly as dead as people think. (by the way, dominions was originally written on an Atari in Basic altho it is in C now).


I had a quick look and I see that he already has some form of support for *nix in his code, although he missed a couple of occasions. I haven't programmed BASIC in, like, ever, but since it's little more than batch programming it shouldn't make any trouble. Just say what you need.


Yeah thats what I think happened. Ive been meaning to write him about it. Its on my list. My long LONG list.



Well, as I wrote in the other thread it already works with Wine. You said that you don't want emulators on your server or something, but if you didn't know what Wine stands for: WINE Is Not an Emulator. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif It's an alternative implementation of the Windows API, you should rather compare it to Mono: open source implementations of native Windows DLLs. paradoxharbinger could probably even compile his Windows program for *nix via winelib (http://www.winehq.org/site/docs/winelib-guide/) without any changes to the source code, too. Although I'd encourage a rewrite under C# because it looks like a really nice programming language with lots of useful classes.


The mono thing convinced be because of the command line example you gave. I just run the command with mono in front of it. My impression of wine was that you ran wine, and then ran things in that environment. But it has been a long time since I looked at it so I might be foggy on it.

[lch]

Gandalf Parker said:
The mono thing convinced be because of the command line example you gave. I just run the command with mono in front of it. My impression of wine was that you ran wine, and then ran things in that environment. But it has been a long time since I looked at it so I might be foggy on it.


Nope, with Wine it's just the same: "wine something.exe". Then all calls to the Windows API get handled by Wine. Since the mapgen makes some calls to the VisualStudio C++ DLLs over fairly new interfaces, Wine has problems to load them correctly (it tells the program "nope, you don't have this"), but if you use the DLLs which I linked then that problem has been taken care of.

I do agree that it would be nice to get away from crutches like Wine and get more cross-platform code from the beginning, though, even though it works via Wine. But fortunately we already have a positive response to that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Gandalf Parker]

Well I definetly dont want to get too attached to wine. It would be bad admin of me to start whipping off any old windows app on the servers on a whim. It gets away from why I have linux servers and windows desktops. Maybe someday I will do a linux desktop and play with such things but not yet.

But *sigh* OK I installed wine. I will just have to try and limit my use of it drastically. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[paradoxharbinger]

as always, the download and changelog are at the top of the thread

[Foodstamp]

OMG OMG. I just spent the past hour using the old version to do my Rohan mod. Now you go and release a new version as I am putting the finishing touches on the last unit!

Thanks anyway http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[paradoxharbinger]

oops my bad, i can take it back down if you like http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Foodstamp]

I just looked over the changes. The only thing it would have affected was me doing the weapons/armor in the editor instead of doing them by hand http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[paradoxharbinger]

hmmm... i see the new patch is out, expect another update soon

[paradoxharbinger]

the new version with the new commands from the 3.08 patch is now up

[Endoperez]

I didn't see correction of the itemslots value in the list of changes. Did you always calculate them from the raw values? That would've averted the problem.

[paradoxharbinger]

there's a problem with the item slots? i skimmed back through the thread, didnt see any mention of it.

[paradoxharbinger]

ok, i spotted the problem, had some of the values screwed up, also added the fourth hand in. i'll post the retooled version in a minute

[Endoperez]

paradoxharbinger said:
there's a problem with the item slots? i skimmed back through the thread, didnt see any mention of it.



Some of the later pre-calculated numbers in the manual were wrong. 128 appeared twice in the "2 hands, head, body, 2 misc" style numbers, giving modded units a virtual head (helmetless, of course, so it halved head protection).

* Enforce some rules for #itemslots modding to prevent weird bugs in mods.

That means that the virtual head is now visible in the item slots and the error is easy to spot. Mod manual was also updated.

[paradoxharbinger]

i wasnt using any of those precalced ones. what happened i think was that i just started using powers of 2 rather than looking at the chart. so those values are now fixed. missed the fourth hand somehow too, fixed that as well.

[Amos]

Some of the later pre-calculated numbers in the manual were wrong.



This number in the manual is still wrong - 13574 2 hands, head, body, 2 misc. It should be 13446.


missed the fourth hand somehow too,



In the previous version of the manual there was no fourth hand value.

[paradoxharbinger]

@amos

no need to worry about those pre-calculated values, the unit maker doesnt use them. also thank you for the reassurance that im not a complete idiot, it wouldnt be the first time that i missed something that was completely obvious

[Endoperez]

Amos said:

Some of the later pre-calculated numbers in the manual were wrong.



This number in the manual is still wrong - 13574 2 hands, head, body, 2 misc. It should be 13446.



I noticed that the numbers don't add up to that. In a quick test I did the test subject didn't show up with two heads.

[paradoxharbinger]

got my laptop this week, so getting mono and going to try and put a build together for all of you. i'll keep you posted

[lch]

's cool. I think you don't even have to recompile with the Mono Compiler at all, but doing so might help to find out what won't work like intended under Mono. Other than that VS and Mono seem bytecode-equivalent?

[paradoxharbinger]

ok, so is this something that people can install and then have c# apps run on thier machine?

[lch]

Yes, basically that's it. And they can compile programs with it on their machine, too, and even hand it over to "regular" VS.NET users, even though they compiled it on *nix.

But if you got Mono then you can check for yourself if your code might have any trouble with it, so it's a good thing.

[paradoxharbinger]

version 1.05 is out kids, check the changelog for the info

[paradoxharbinger]

if anyone is having trouble with the attachment, there's a link at the top of the first post where i'm hosting the file, i'll try to remember to keep it up to date.

[Gandalf Parker]

Is the link in your sig any good? It says MapGen Alpha

[paradoxharbinger]

the links in the sig lead to the threads in the forums. the alternate links are going to be at the top of the body of the first post for each thread. the unit maker has an alternate link, but mapgen doesnt yet, i will probably wait to do that for a few days yet.

[Kostadinov]

What command do i use to make a unit that changes shape when it's badly hurt ( jaguar warrior ) ?

[Mr_Matt]

Hey man great job on this program. I may find myself using it pretty soon. Just did a test run with it and it seems that the only two commands that didn't work for me are eyes and castledefense

Just figured I'd give you a heads up

[paradoxharbinger]

version 1.06 released

Mr_Matt, fixed those commands for you.

Kostadinov, not sure, take a look at the mod manual

[paradoxharbinger]

hmmm... doesn't look like there are any new commands for the 3.10 patch. anyone see something that i missed?

[lch]

paradoxharbinger said:
anyone see something that i missed?


copystats button. randomize button. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

It works well with Mono under Linux, only the display is a little off. See attached screenshot.
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/uploads/557794-um106.jpg

[paradoxharbinger]

copy stats, i think that can be done easily, you would just tell it the unit number to copy and it prepends the rest of the unit commands. would need the various clear commands as well i suppose.

randomize would be a little trickier; what ranges would be good for what stats is the question. if some sort of consensus could be reached about how the random should be done, then i'd be happy to put it in.

as far as appearance, it looks like all of the autosize properties are set to false, i'll try turning them on.

[lch]

paradoxharbinger said:
copy stats, i think that can be done easily, you would just tell it the unit number to copy


Yes, same as with secondshapes / firstshapes.

[paradoxharbinger]

further on the appearance: looks like the tabs are quite jammed together, so ima group the existing tabs under new subtabs. moving weapons, armor and slots under an equipment tab, for example.

[paradoxharbinger]

are there more than just #clear, #clearmagic and #clearspec? seems like there ought to be a clear command for armor, weapons and slots too. do they not exist or are they undocumented?

[Zeppelin17]

I'm having some trouble. After I create the unit, I create a new game and all, but then when I click on "end turn", the game starts to calculate the next turn then freezes on "research" or any other step, or then creshes after done calculating with the error message "ConvArmyNbr: error!"

[paradoxharbinger]

can you post the mod you made? that would help alot, otherwise anything i say is guesswork. could be a bug that hasn't been caught yet.

[paradoxharbinger]

also, is anyone familiar with the workings of #restrictedgod? can it be used multiple times so that a god could only be used by multiple nations? or will using it multiple times overwrite the previous one?

[Zeppelin17]

Here's the file.

[Zeppelin17]

I think it is a problem with the game, since i tested a few other mods and the same problem happens

[lch]

Zeppelin17 said:
I create a new game and all, but then when I click on "end turn", the game starts to calculate the next turn then freezes on "research" or any other step, or then creshes after done calculating with the error message "ConvArmyNbr: error!"


Could be the piracy protection. Check if the key in your key file is correct, or delete that file and enter it again. You might want to contact Shrapnel support to check if the key you are using is banned and tell them where you bought the game.

[paradoxharbinger]

yeah, not seeing anything wrong with the mod, havent had a chance to try and run it, though. sounds like the anti-piracy strikes again.

[Zeppelin17]

I runned system recovery and reinstalled the game, now its running right. Thanks.

[paradoxharbinger]

@zep
that's good news

@all
just as soon as i get a bit of free time, i'll wrap up 1.07 and post it

[paradoxharbinger]

1.07 released