Problems MODING the new 3.2, cannot add new Cyborg

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alfred007
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Re: Problems MODING the new 3.2, cannot add new Cyborg

Post by alfred007 »

Doruletz wrote:The only thing I still miss from the old ".TXT" files, is the ability to open them in LibreOfficeCalc for easy comparison and editing of all individual stats values (damage, range, armor, hit points, build points and power, hitpoints, associated .PIE file names, etc)
You can download Notepad++ for free here. And with this program, you can edit almost all files of Warzone 2100.
MIH-XTC
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Re: Problems MODING the new 3.2, cannot add new Cyborg

Post by MIH-XTC »

Doruletz wrote: 02 Nov 2018, 13:33 NoQ, after a bit of practice and all the help I got from y'all here, I started to develop a certain "beginners" degree of proficiency working with ".JSON" files.
The only thing I still miss from the old ".TXT" files, is the ability to open them in LibreOfficeCalc for easy comparison and editing of all individual stats values (damage, range, armor, hit points, build points and power, hitpoints, associated .PIE file names, etc)
I did however found a way to improvise, by using the stats from similar weapon and/or structure entris from the previous versions, that are in the ".TXT" format. After I edit and save those in LibreOfficeCalc, comes the painstaking work of copy/paste editing the correspondent entries in the ".JSON" files, line by line, by line...
Guess you can't have your cake and eat it too, right? :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:
.
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NoQ wrote: 31 Oct 2018, 17:59 P.S. I highly support the conversion to JSON. If you didn't like it, you had years to voice your opinion even before 3.2 was out. It was actively discussed back then. And 3.2 was out for years now. Because you didn't do this, it's clear to me that you don't care at all about what format we use for stats, no matter how much you shout or write in your favorite bold blue font. Intentions are a really terrible thing to lie about. You shouldn't yell at people to do things for you that literally nobody cares about, even you. Please stop.
@Doruletz When I first started modding the stats I had the same thoughts as you, the .txt stats files from 3.1 (they're actually .csv) are much easier to work with in spreadsheet software like Excel and LibreOfficeCalc than the 3.2 .json files. The stats editor that I made basically generates the .json files from an Excel spreadsheet. There are certain data structures that .json can hold that .csv cannot such as nested arrays. .json is the preferred format over .csv in almost all modern code bases. What I learned from modding the stats is that there is no way to realistically manage the stats without putting them into tabular form (a spreadsheet table). It's okay to manually make changes to the .txt or .json files in a text editor but you'll easily lose track of what has been changed. The stats need a major overhaul and the only way to do it is by putting them into tables. The stats editor I made uses Excel but it's not extendable and I need to do a complete remake of it using Python Pandas. Pandas can read/write to .json, Excel, LibreOfficeCalc and perform all kinds of programmatic stats analysis. I'm planning on doing it some time in the next 1 - 5 years, just too busy IRL right now.
Forgon
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Re: Problems MODING the new 3.2, cannot add new Cyborg

Post by Forgon »

MIH-XTC wrote: 05 Nov 2018, 21:12
Doruletz wrote: 02 Nov 2018, 13:33 NoQ, after a bit of practice and all the help I got from y'all here, I started to develop a certain "beginners" degree of proficiency working with ".JSON" files.
The only thing I still miss from the old ".TXT" files, is the ability to open them in LibreOfficeCalc for easy comparison and editing of all individual stats values (damage, range, armor, hit points, build points and power, hitpoints, associated .PIE file names, etc)
I did however found a way to improvise, by using the stats from similar weapon and/or structure entris from the previous versions, that are in the ".TXT" format. After I edit and save those in LibreOfficeCalc, comes the painstaking work of copy/paste editing the correspondent entries in the ".JSON" files, line by line, by line...
Guess you can't have your cake and eat it too, right? :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:
.
.
NoQ wrote: 31 Oct 2018, 17:59 P.S. I highly support the conversion to JSON. If you didn't like it, you had years to voice your opinion even before 3.2 was out. It was actively discussed back then. And 3.2 was out for years now. Because you didn't do this, it's clear to me that you don't care at all about what format we use for stats, no matter how much you shout or write in your favorite bold blue font. Intentions are a really terrible thing to lie about. You shouldn't yell at people to do things for you that literally nobody cares about, even you. Please stop.
@Doruletz When I first started modding the stats I had the same thoughts as you, the .txt stats files from 3.1 (they're actually .csv) are much easier to work with in spreadsheet software like Excel and LibreOfficeCalc than the 3.2 .json files. The stats editor that I made basically generates the .json files from an Excel spreadsheet. What I learned from modding the stats is that there is no way to realistically manage the stats without putting them into tabular form (a spreadsheet table). It's okay to manually make changes to the .txt or .json files in a text editor but you'll easily lose track of what has been changed. The stats need a major overhaul and the only way to do it is by putting them into tables. The stats editor I made uses Excel but it's not extendable and I need to do a complete remake of it using Python Pandas. Pandas can read/write to .json, Excel, LibreOfficeCalc and perform all kinds of programmatic stats analysis. I'm planning on doing it some time in the next 1 - 5 years, just too busy IRL right now.
Hopefully you can manage to get your rebalancing in proper order, so that it might become part of the game.
Incidentally, I have looked at your Nexus improvements and plan to merge them, but this will take time.

JSON has multiple advantages over CSV:
  • standardisation, which makes it easy to validate
  • clarity, because keys are named
  • unlike in a table, unused values can be omitted
I would have preferred ndb. On the bright side, we are not using XML :)
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Re: Problems MODING the new 3.2, cannot add new Cyborg

Post by MIH-XTC »

Forgon wrote: 05 Nov 2018, 21:54 Hopefully you can manage to get your rebalancing in proper order, so that it might become part of the game.
Incidentally, I have looked at your Nexus improvements and plan to merge them, but this will take time.

JSON has multiple advantages over CSV:
  • standardisation, which makes it easy to validate
  • clarity, because keys are named
  • unlike in a table, unused values can be omitted
I would have preferred ndb. On the bright side, we are not using XML :)
I will get the stats in order, maybe around this Christmas break or shortly after the new release. There are already too many changes planned for the next release and I wouldn't want them to be conflated with stat changes so I think it's best to make a stats mod when the next release is ready.

I don't know if you play Fortnite at all but they do stat changes weekly, only because they can push updates to clients without having to reinstall. That's one of the reasons why the game is able to adapt and continually improve. WZ on the other hand does stat changes twice a decade. I think every 6 months would be ideal for WZ stat improvements and feedback.

I don't know if it's worthwhile porting the Nexus. The only reason it plays very good is because the most optimal research routes, build sequence and template designs are hardcoded for the current stats. Then it just spams units. That's all. I only used WZscript because I didn't know how the Javascript API worked at the time. I would suggest focusing on Prot's AI improvements because he uses the Javascript API. The hardcoded templates, research and build sequence can be transferred. I also think the Nexus I made became broken sometime around January when somewhere else in the code base some assertions were being enforced on WZscript and non-fatal errors became fatal and then Nexus caused the game to crash and I fell off the development wagon at that point.
Forgon
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Re: Problems MODING the new 3.2, cannot add new Cyborg

Post by Forgon »

MIH-XTC wrote: 06 Nov 2018, 00:41 [...] I don't know if you play Fortnite at all but they do stat changes weekly, only because they can push updates to clients without having to reinstall. That's one of the reasons why the game is able to adapt and continually improve. WZ on the other hand does stat changes twice a decade. I think every 6 months would be ideal for WZ stat improvements and feedback. [...]
My guess is that Fortnite developers also have a testing mechanism for their stats so that they can rebalance without lots of unintended consequences. Savegames and/or AI scripts could be used in our game to implement one.
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