Wanted: Online Pretender Database

[Edi]

If you want to use it just to upload the .2h files, then my concepts indeed won't help much. What I was getting at was that if a frontend is constructed that uses the game facts to calculate the point cost for a pretender and saves the info to a separate table where anybody can access it and use it to replicate the pretender design on their own computer. No need to upload or download the actual files.

That one would be really simple, as you only need to display dominion strength, scales, magic, pretender name/ID and possibly nation for it. You don't need to list the special abilities, stats or anything else from the greater DB. The pretender designs table could also be browsed with a rather simple query page where you select the pretender from a dropdown menu and select one or two magics and the level desired for them. Or by nation and you'll get a list of the existing entries in that table.

My concept of this online pretender DB is that it can be added later as an additional functional block that is or at least can be independent of the larger DB (though then you'd need a different, more complex sort of frontend to use it.

Doesn't mean it's the only correct way of doing it, but for Dom3 I think it is perhaps the one that requires least effort once the big DB is up. The Pretender DB as you envision it is a completely tangential interest for me, I've nothing invested in the idea nor do I personally have much use for it.

Edi

[Agrajag]

I know. I just responded to silhouette's vision of the DB, which seems to me to be very different from yours.

[Edi]

Agrajag said:
I know. I just responded to silhouette's vision of the DB, which seems to me to be very different from yours.

Ah, sorry about the confusion. My reply was intended for Silhoutte, not you. I forgot to quote him. If you want to go ahead with the suggestion in your previous post, don't let me or my ideas stop you.

Edi

[silhouette]

Yes, Edi, I think having your database available could make some enhancements to a pretender database easier, for example data validation (legal pretender point totals, attributes, etc). Also, if you plan to have information overlays for Mods, that would be the best way to be able to query and sanitize pretender stats, because there is no way I would want to capture all the costs, attributes, etc from mods to validate updated pretenders. If your database had a remote query interface it wouldn't even be necessary for them to be hosted together.

Sill

[Edi]

Hrm, I don't have an idea of what an information overlay is, so we can discuss that later. Remote queries I understand as a concept, but I'm out of my depth trying to implement them.

I figured, put the DB online, and have it available for download so that anybody who makes a mod can make a variant of the DB specific for that mod (very useful for projects like a possible Dom3 CB mod), which they can host. That way only the data changes, the same frontends and queries could also be used.

If we want to get really ambitious, have all the various DBs hosted at the same place and have the frontend have the capability to select which DB you query, and then it just plugs that query for the selected DB and gets your results.

However, as I said, it's a lot more ambitious than the basic DB, and certainly beyond my capabilities to implement. I can do the base original DB, but the frontends, some of the queries and how to tie them all together, those will have to be done partly or even completely by other people. I have almost no practical experience in even modest scale DB management, so it's going to be a learning experience just making the basic DB, never mind the other stuff I've been talking about.

The Dom2 documentation I produced was something I did and maintained on my own, but I wanted a format for the Dom3 DB that allows for more flexibility and expanded possibilities for the community, and it allows others with more knowledge to also pitch in.

Edi