AI Research Builder

[Fyron]

Tabs for each state preclude the ability to put the tech areas at arbitrary locations in the file, as well as arbitrary combinations of states. Entries for states do not have to be grouped, and it might be a good idea for the AI modder to mix them up in some cases.

The only way I can see managing complex states working is by changing the AI research listbox into a data grid that has a column for state. Editing it could be a matter of a popup window that has checkboxes for each state (maybe with a button to store the current selection as the default for new states). Of course, then I would be inclined to add in min percent column, and we lose the overall simplicity of the program.

I think that few people make use of AI states for research anyways, other than a couple for not-connected. From the handful of TDM AIs I looked over, they all appear to use the same set of states for most of the entries.

One thing that you could do is use the program to make two separate files, one for normal and one for not-connected. A quick find/replace in the not-connected one and a merging will do the job better than trying to manage all of the state combinations in the program, I think. I could add a checkbox to explicitly set the states to "Not Connected" upon generation, even. Of course, this doesn't really help with loading existing files. Hmm... maybe just two sets, "Not Connected" and "Everything Else". TDM tends to dump the "Not Connected" at the end of the file, not using it in the other tech area states. This seem like a good compromise?

[Rollo]

Imperator Fyron said:... maybe just two sets, "Not Connected" and "Everything Else". TDM tends to dump the "Not Connected" at the end of the file, not using it in the other tech area states. This seem like a good compromise?

yes

[Fyron]

I decided not to go with tabs, due to issues of implementation and efficiency. Instead, I added a drop box for selecting state option. By default, the program behaves much the same as it did in 0.08; it adds everything to the general state list. When you select the Not Connected state option, the listboxes will be changed to have data appropriate to that state.

You can load AI files that have Not Connected entries. How it works is thus:

If the state for the entry is "Not Connected", it will be added to the Not Connected list. If it is anything else, it will be added to the Others list. The program does not seek to maintain any other state combinations that may be present in a file.

AI Research Builder 0.09

I'm sure there will be bugs here and there from the transition, though I did try to test everything.

[Fyron]

I changed the status bar help to use tooltips instead. I also moved the State dropbox.

AI Research Builder 0.10

So has anyone used the last version or two? What do you think?

[gregebowman]

Where can I find this .NET runtime program you're talking about?

[Fyron]

.NET 1.1 Framework

[Fyron]

Any complaints or suggestions from those that have used the program?