sloejack
June 15th, 2007, 04:28
I've been doing quite a bit of module creation and conversion over the last 6 months and while I've developed a pretty good system for myself, I wonder what others are doing to see if there's some better ideas out there. In addition to that there's at least a post a week mentioning trouble with doing this or that so I'm hoping to start a (stickied?) thread about what tools are used (and how) to make getting started in the workshop easier.
Software:
Since my real world job isn't in development or graphics design, one of the big keys for me when it comes to software is cost. Every now and then I'll get access to a back version of something like photoshop at a price mortals can afford (I suppose it helps that it's a version or two behind), but in general I stick to quality software at bargin prices.
7zip (https://www.7-zip.org/) -
This combined with any editor is the coolest thing since ice cream. It's free, it handles a huge variety of formats, and what makes it great for working with FG modules is that I can open a module in it and having assigned my editor in the configuration I can select a file in the module I want to edit, hit F4 to have it open the file in my editor, make changes and close the file and it updates the .mod/zip file with the new version. No more messy unpacking and repacking.
Notepad++ (https://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/) -
I used to be a heavy UltraEdit user, I'm now fully converted to Notepad++. Not only do I get syntax coloring for XML and LUA which helps with readability and visual error checking, it has plugins that make it even more useful for more in depth error checking for your large and complex files (XML Tools v1.1.3) and if you're working with LUA there's a handy plug-in for that (Function List v1.2). Now, just in case that wasn't enough you can record macros and assign them to keystrokes to help speed up formatting. I'll get into macros more in the hints section.
The GIMP (https://www.gimp.org/) -
The GIMP is a free, full featured, graphics manipulation and creation tool. I've used it off and on since the first betas hit the web and for doing things like creating icons, buttons, maps, and portraits this thing does it all with the ability to add visual effects simply. For the truely interested, it has its own scripting language to be able to do things as simple as repeat style combinations against images or generate graphics from scratch (great for buttons).
ActivePERL (https://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/) -
Because of the way I write out adventure, Personality, and Item data I needed a way to parse it and quickly plug it into XML format with the tags FG expects for the d20 ruleset. Fortunetly I know perl and this allows me to automate some of the more tedious things like incrementing the id number of a node for my campaign db.xml files (a pain to have to go through and tweak and not make mistakes by hand). I can write out my modules and format it using notepad++ and then leverage the scripts I've written in perl to take that data and turn it into a fully formed and functional db.xml.
Hints:
Writing data from start to finish in XML is not something I can do so I tend to write things out in chunks in a text file and then I go back through and format it with HTML or XML that FG uses to that end, I make the following macro that not only speed up the formatting process but also help make sure I'm consistent in the way I format things.
In Notepad++ creating a macro is as easy as 1, 2, 3. 1. Press the "Start Recording" button on the toolbar. 2. Perform the actions that you want the macro to repeat. 3. Press the "Stop Recording" button. Now, to run the macro you can push the "Playback" button, or for things I want to be able to do from session to session you can select the "Macro" menu option and then "Save the Current Macro" which will allow you to name the macro and assign it to a key combination like alt-h for example.
Some examples of macros I use:
Assigned to ALT-H I recorded the following keys to make doing header tags easier.
HOME
<h>
END
</h>
HOME
To help with doing <frame> tags for creating text I want to be able to drag to the chat box I do something similar and assign it to CTRL-SHIFT-F:
HOME
<frame>
END
</frame>
HOME
I use bold prefixes in some of my work, for example
DM Note: Stuff I want the DM to know.
Since the part I want bolded is always at the beginning of the line and ends with a : I create the following macro and assign it to CTRL-B:
HOME
<b>
CTRL-F (This is 'Find' in N++)
Type ':' in the "Find what" box and hit enter, it moves and selects the : and I hit the close button
:</b>
HOME
I type out the : before closing the bold tag since the find selects it as part of finding it and I don't want to lose it when it addes the closing tag which would replace it if I didn't type out the : also. I have some lines where I want to put the text in italics and use the same process and assign it to CTRL-SHIFT-I.
N++ can do some pretty complex things with it's find including regular expressions so more advanced stuff could be done there.
One-offs:
I know perl so I tend to lean on it a lot to automate and make my life generally easier. Since parsing text is one of the things it does best, using it with FG works out very well for me. For example, I format my text files with a blank line between records. In my perl script that generates the db.xml it uses that key to know when to create new id nodes. I still have to go into FG and create links by hand but with the major content, including NPCs and items, created and in the nodes already, the linking is trivially easy. This also means that I can edit and change a much more eye friendly file and re-run my build script if I need to make changes while I proof the output.
I hope this has been helpful, and look forward to hearing about any other finger or time saving tips folks have come up with for working on campaigns and modules.
Software:
Since my real world job isn't in development or graphics design, one of the big keys for me when it comes to software is cost. Every now and then I'll get access to a back version of something like photoshop at a price mortals can afford (I suppose it helps that it's a version or two behind), but in general I stick to quality software at bargin prices.
7zip (https://www.7-zip.org/) -
This combined with any editor is the coolest thing since ice cream. It's free, it handles a huge variety of formats, and what makes it great for working with FG modules is that I can open a module in it and having assigned my editor in the configuration I can select a file in the module I want to edit, hit F4 to have it open the file in my editor, make changes and close the file and it updates the .mod/zip file with the new version. No more messy unpacking and repacking.
Notepad++ (https://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/) -
I used to be a heavy UltraEdit user, I'm now fully converted to Notepad++. Not only do I get syntax coloring for XML and LUA which helps with readability and visual error checking, it has plugins that make it even more useful for more in depth error checking for your large and complex files (XML Tools v1.1.3) and if you're working with LUA there's a handy plug-in for that (Function List v1.2). Now, just in case that wasn't enough you can record macros and assign them to keystrokes to help speed up formatting. I'll get into macros more in the hints section.
The GIMP (https://www.gimp.org/) -
The GIMP is a free, full featured, graphics manipulation and creation tool. I've used it off and on since the first betas hit the web and for doing things like creating icons, buttons, maps, and portraits this thing does it all with the ability to add visual effects simply. For the truely interested, it has its own scripting language to be able to do things as simple as repeat style combinations against images or generate graphics from scratch (great for buttons).
ActivePERL (https://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/) -
Because of the way I write out adventure, Personality, and Item data I needed a way to parse it and quickly plug it into XML format with the tags FG expects for the d20 ruleset. Fortunetly I know perl and this allows me to automate some of the more tedious things like incrementing the id number of a node for my campaign db.xml files (a pain to have to go through and tweak and not make mistakes by hand). I can write out my modules and format it using notepad++ and then leverage the scripts I've written in perl to take that data and turn it into a fully formed and functional db.xml.
Hints:
Writing data from start to finish in XML is not something I can do so I tend to write things out in chunks in a text file and then I go back through and format it with HTML or XML that FG uses to that end, I make the following macro that not only speed up the formatting process but also help make sure I'm consistent in the way I format things.
In Notepad++ creating a macro is as easy as 1, 2, 3. 1. Press the "Start Recording" button on the toolbar. 2. Perform the actions that you want the macro to repeat. 3. Press the "Stop Recording" button. Now, to run the macro you can push the "Playback" button, or for things I want to be able to do from session to session you can select the "Macro" menu option and then "Save the Current Macro" which will allow you to name the macro and assign it to a key combination like alt-h for example.
Some examples of macros I use:
Assigned to ALT-H I recorded the following keys to make doing header tags easier.
HOME
<h>
END
</h>
HOME
To help with doing <frame> tags for creating text I want to be able to drag to the chat box I do something similar and assign it to CTRL-SHIFT-F:
HOME
<frame>
END
</frame>
HOME
I use bold prefixes in some of my work, for example
DM Note: Stuff I want the DM to know.
Since the part I want bolded is always at the beginning of the line and ends with a : I create the following macro and assign it to CTRL-B:
HOME
<b>
CTRL-F (This is 'Find' in N++)
Type ':' in the "Find what" box and hit enter, it moves and selects the : and I hit the close button
:</b>
HOME
I type out the : before closing the bold tag since the find selects it as part of finding it and I don't want to lose it when it addes the closing tag which would replace it if I didn't type out the : also. I have some lines where I want to put the text in italics and use the same process and assign it to CTRL-SHIFT-I.
N++ can do some pretty complex things with it's find including regular expressions so more advanced stuff could be done there.
One-offs:
I know perl so I tend to lean on it a lot to automate and make my life generally easier. Since parsing text is one of the things it does best, using it with FG works out very well for me. For example, I format my text files with a blank line between records. In my perl script that generates the db.xml it uses that key to know when to create new id nodes. I still have to go into FG and create links by hand but with the major content, including NPCs and items, created and in the nodes already, the linking is trivially easy. This also means that I can edit and change a much more eye friendly file and re-run my build script if I need to make changes while I proof the output.
I hope this has been helpful, and look forward to hearing about any other finger or time saving tips folks have come up with for working on campaigns and modules.