Need help with a tool...

[Fyron]

The best tool is, naturally, a text editor...

There is the SE4 Modder, but it has numerous quirks.

[Black_Knyght]

Thanx all.

I'd hoped there was a better solution, but that may have been asking for too much. I may actually have to put some effort into this.


Ed Kolis : What and where is the Templatizer?

AT : Thanx for that note. I'll take another look at them, and see if something else will work instead.

Fyron : Out of curiosity, what are the quirks with the SE Modder?

[Fyron]

The SE4 Modder should do what you want; its basically a GUI overlay for editing the components (and other data files). It doesn't generate anything from psuedocode like the templatizer, or from an overwhelming myriad of function parameter boxes like the tech gridder.

I don't remember what SE4 Modder's quirks are anymore, specifically. IIRC they were in obscure functions, and shouldn't detract from just adding some new components.

[Ed Kolis]

The Templatizer is described here:
http://wiki.spaceempires.net/index.php/Templatizer

Basically it's a formula parser similar to the one found in SE5 (though unlike with SE5, you CAN define custom functions in python ), and it outputs SE4-readable data files when given files which look like SE4 data files but have formulas enclosed in curly braces.

The download link is currently broken because I don't have the templatizer on my machine at the moment - anyone else have it handy? It's just a python script with a readme and some samples, and I don't feel like installing the hard drive that I think it's on just to retrieve it right now, unless you REALLY want to use it

edit: aha! I found it included with the Low Tech Mod on PBW! No readme or examples, but the documentation on the wiki page should be decent enough I'll put it up now:
http://kolis.dyndns.org/se/templatizer.py.zip