Thread, why you no sticky? I spent all afternoon looking for you.
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Thread, why you no sticky? I spent all afternoon looking for you.
A couple things I noticed about the parser that would be nice to change:
Languages, these are being reported to the 'Other' tab and there is actually a spot for them now on the main tab. The tag for languages is <languages>.. (yeah.. surprising huh? :) )
Racial Modifiers, these are not being broken out from 'Skills' and it would be nice if they were yanked and dropped onto the 'Other' tab. They end up being 'rollable' where they are and it's kinda tweaked.
Another thought... but somewhat more complicated... Some critters have 'Companion' rules as part of their writeup. Is it worth building in a catch for that info?
OK.. one MORE thought.
Many creatures have both a short description at the beginning of their writeup and a longer description at the end... is there any way to separate these and list them on the Other tab... short at the beginning and long at the end?
I'll look into that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackfoot
It's a little bit of a pain having them show up as rollable, I agree. But, I don't want to deviate much from the standard Pathfinder Statblock and it is at the end of the skills that racial modifiers are displayed. I'll have a think about it though...Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackfoot
I won't have time to create an udpate for a few weeks. The main item I want to work on for the next update is NPC spells - putting them in the spells tab. This would be the most advantageous piece of new functionality in the parser.
I hope people who've used the parser in the past have kept the text statblock file so you can just run it through the parser again when I release an update.
How are you going to make that work? Most of the writeups are pretty vague on spells, I guess you can pull them in from available modules.
Yeah, a bit complicated judging on my brief look at how the companion stats are listed in the bestiaries. I think this will have to be something on the wishlist for now - although when I'm doing updates I may get a flash of inspiration. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackfoot
I could look for a new heading "Description" after special abilities and then just dump everything after that into a "Description" heading on the other tab. The only real problem here is that once you get to parsing the special abilities there is a chance that "description" might appear in special abilities and screw the final parsing up. But, if I just looked for it as a header - "Description" on it's own line (like Offense, Defense, etc.) then that should work.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackfoot
Also, there's not an easy way to distinguish paragraph breaks in the copy/pasted text from a PDF. Each line of text ends in a CRLF (carriage return, line feed) so is essentially a new paragraph in itself. I may initially just have to do this as a bulk "dump" of everything and then leave it up to an individual to put the paragraph tags <P> around each paragraph.
I was just going to link to the Complete Paizo spells module. I haven't had a good look at how the DB entry looks for NPC spells, so I may end up having to parse some key bits out of the spell module to get it to work.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackfoot
Perhaps the first release will require the GM to go into each spellcaster NPC within FG and select "reparse spell actions" to get all the data out of the module spell entry correctly.
The
Description
idea seems like a good one. If the parser user knows about the tag they can add it, if not they can leave out the long description entirely... and it would make it an easy edit on the statblock rather than juggling one has to do now.
Looking at the DB format it doesn't even link to a spell module of the spell that was dragged onto the NPC spell class. So, I'd have to extract all the info from the module and put it in the NPC module DB.Quote:
Originally Posted by Trenloe
I knew it wasn't going to be a simple task - hence why I haven't started it yet as I know it will take a long time to get it even 80% right.
I figured as much. Ouch. :)
So the parser went through the new season "Rise of the Goblin Guild" fairly well, ( I thought) but everything from Tactics on down didnt populate (Tactics, Statistics, feats, etc)
Any idea what Im missing here? Somewhat related...cant I just unlock and edit - doesnt seem to let me do that either. HEre's an example of what I parsed
Ekkie L CR 2
XP 1
Female goblin expert 4 (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 156)
NE Small humanoid (goblinoid)
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +6
DEFENSE
AC 17, touch 14, flat-footed 14 (+3 armor, +3 Dex, +1 size)
hp 22 (4d8+4)
Fort +1, Ref +4, Will +3
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee masterwork dogslicer +4 (1d4+1/19–20)
TACTICS
During Combat Ekkie attempts to flee, continuing the chase, using Acrobatics to avoid attacks of opportunity from nearby PCs.
Morale Ekkie surrenders if someone successfully pins her, if she is reduced to 12 hit points or fewer, or if a PC blocks her escape by getting to the Nightsoil Alley square before her.
STATISTICS
Str 12, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 9, Wis 8, Cha 9
Base Atk +3; CMB +5; CMD 16
Feats Agile Maneuvers, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +10, Disable Device +10, Escape Artist +10, Linguistics +4, Perception +6, Ride +7, Sleight of Hand +8, Stealth +16
Languages Common, Goblin, Varisian
Combat Gear necklace of fireballs type II (with two 2d6 spheres remaining), potion of cure light wounds; Other Gear masterwork studded leather, masterwork dogslicer, wayfinder, backpack, cage-brother’s skull, horse meat rations from the Mariska Knackery (3 days’ worth), masterwork thieves’ tools
It worked fine for me - I copy/pasted the text you included in the post above and ran it through the parser - check you're using V1.0.0.15.
What text editor are you using?
Also, you can't unlock statblocks within a module (as it's read only), you need to drag it to an NPC slot and then you can edit it there.
Thats the one Im using....but I did need to uninstall the prior version....maybe that didnt go so clean...I used the MS uninstaller and immediately reinstalled....any issues with doing that?
Also...saving as ANSI text in Microsoft notepad.
Both of the installation method (it's only a single executable that is installed on top of all the .NET stuff, so as long as you see the version it's OK) and the notepad are fine.
During parsing there is an intermediate file created - with the .fpf extension (it will be the same name as your text file, but with .fpf). Have a look in that file (open it in notepad), it is basically the sections that the parser has stripped out of your text file - it may help to show the section where the issue is occurring.
Also, make sure you only have blank lines between creature statblocks - not in the the middle of them.
Theres definitely something wrong with the formatting...but Im not seeing it in notepad. The fpf file shows it being cut off from tactics on down. Ill keep playing with it, but if someone cared to take a look, here are the zipped fpf, text and mod files created.
Its the "space" character on the end of "TACTICS " that is causing the issue. I thought I'd coded to remove all trailing spaces - but obviously not tactics (the other main headings work OK).Quote:
Originally Posted by Talen
A quick way to remove them is to use Notepad++, select all of the text, and then Edit -> Blank Operations -> Trim Trailing Space.
I'll update the next release to ignore trailing spaces.
Out of interest, what PDF reader are you copying the text from? I've just downloaded the scenario and copy/paste for me from Adobe Reader X doesn't get the spaces.
Hmm.. it definitely is screwing up right there. I ran through the file as well and in the log it seems to be having trouble finding the TACTICS header even though it is clearly there.
Quote:
8/18/2012 11:37:09 AM: FormatDataFile: Written Melee line as: masterwork dogslicer +4 (1d4+1/19-20)
8/18/2012 11:37:09 AM: FormatDataFile: End of Offense section - sOffenseText =
8/18/2012 11:37:09 AM: FormatDataFile: The title of the next section to parse should be in sCurrentLine = TACTICS
8/18/2012 11:37:09 AM: FormatDataFile: Should be at Staistics line - Calling GetAndFormatLine "Statistics" to step to next line.
8/18/2012 11:37:09 AM: FormatDataFile: Calling GetAndFormatLine "XXXXXXXX" to retrieve al remaining data for this creature.
8/18/2012 11:37:09 AM: FormatDataFile: Remaining data to parse = STATISTICS Str 12, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 9, Wis 8, Cha 9 Base Atk +3; CMB +5; CMD 16 Feats Agile Maneuvers, Weapon Finesse Skills Acrobatics +10, Disable Device +10, Escape Artist +10, Linguistics +4, Perception +6, Ride +7, Sleight of Hand +8, Stealth +16 Languages Common, Goblin, Varisian Combat Gear necklace of fireballs type II (with two 2d6 spheres remaining), potion of cure light wounds; Other Gear masterwork studded leather, masterwork dogslicer, wayfinder, backpack, cage-brother's skull, horse meat rations from the Mariska Knackery (3 days' worth), masterwork thieves'
That did the trick (using notepad++ toeliminate the trailers)! Thank you for taking the time to walk me through - as always your help is invaluable in making these games run as well as they do.
I had the genius idea of cutting from Adobe Reader 9 into MS Word 2007 and then pasting into notepad. I had *thought* that would make spotting formatting issues easier. Little off on that assessment.
Add thank you Blackfoot as well!
No problem - glad to help.
I've started looking into parsing directly out of the PDF - not just creatures but story entries, images, etc. However, my first investigations show that this will be very, very hard (if not next to impossible). I need to be able to identify different formats used within the PDF to try to identify what each type of text is. This may never be 100% accurate (or, require a config file be created for each scenario)... This won't be available anytime soon (if ever). So, keep doing what you're doing...
I'm actually wondering how it got as far as tactics without screwing up. Shouldn't it have missed OFFENSE and DEFENSE as well? Both of those had trailing spaces too.
I added the tactics code in a later release to the code that checks for OFFENSE, DEFENSE etc. I thought I would have used the same code as the other headings (which does strip trailing spaces), but I obviously didn't. I don't have the latest code with me, so I can't check. But, I've put this in my list of updates for the next version.Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackfoot
Holy Mother of God! That is brilliant!! Trenloe, thank you so much for this sausage machine magic!
I don't know how much time I've spent copying NPCs laboriously by hand into my burnt offereings module, but this sure did the trick for chapter 4.
If you're interested in hearing the tweaking issues I had with a straight cut from the Rise of the Runelords anniversary edition PDF then this is what caused me grief.
1. the "CR #" in the PDF appeared after the XP bit so I had to manually shift those entries around
2. I copied the traps in at first and that caused their entry to concatenate with the following critter - removing the traps from my txt fixed that.
3. I noticed the spells didn't go into the spell tab in FG. Not sure if that is a 'feature' or whether that is normal. They seemed to appear in the other tab.
All in all though that saved a hell of a lot of time (and given I've got 5 more modules of the rise of the runelords to go, it will be worth the hour it took me to figure it all out)
thanks again!
Just an fyi since its the first time I've come across it. Some PDF's will eliminate the space in the cr line. "CR 9" works. "CR9" does not.
Traps aren't part of the creature parser. I may look into it in future, but it's not high on the list.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tubel
This is normal and how the parser is currently designed. Spells in the spells tab is on the to-do list, but may not be done for a while as this will require a lot of additional coding to do as most of the functionality is tied into the dropping of the spell link into the tab and not the background NPC Fantasy Grounds DB format.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tubel
I know this is going to sound dumb, but I have tried to use this several times and I have been very unsuccessful. Is this something someone who is not very computer literate can use? If so could someone give me a step by step?
There are some basic steps included in the readme.txt file in the zip file downloaded from the first post.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ironman
The main thing to know is that the application takes a text file as input. This text file contains creature statblocks that adhere to the Paizo format as defined in the first chapter of the Pathfinder Bestiaries.
I've tried to design it so you can just copy/paste the creature statblocks out of a PDF - there are some gotchas depending on what your source PDF is, see the first post.
There is an "Example Creatures File.txt" file in the downloaded zip that provides you with an example.
If you have specific issues please post here.
Thanks Trenloe! It am always amazed at what I can learn by reading the directions and why I never go to them first. This is a really great program and an incredible time saver.
Does my trap extension not work? This should give you a place to put traps.Quote:
Originally Posted by Trenloe
Isn't this incorporated into the base ruleset now.. or at least something similar? I know traps are an option in the 3.5e/PF creatures tab now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bidmaron
As Blackfoot says, traps are now in the V2.9.1 3.5E ruleset.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bidmaron
I may look at putting traps in the "creature" parser in the future, but it's not high on the list at the moment. NPC spells are the next big release I'm working on but it's slow going.
I was just reacting to the post where he said he had nowhere to put trap info. I've been away from FG for almost two years, so it may well have been added while I wasn't looking. But if it has, I don't understand why the parser fellow said there was nowhere to put trap info.
This post you are referencing is from over 1 year ago - the trap functionality was added after that. Hence, that's why the parser fellow (me!) said there was nowhere to put the trap info back then. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Bidmaron
See my post 2 lines above (post #111) - traps are on my list, but they are not a priority at the moment.
Trenloe, thank you very much for the work you've done on this, and I hope I didn't come across ungrateful that you hadn't done the traps.
No worries. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Bidmaron
I was wondering if anyone has tried parsing in any of the npc's from the Shattered Star AP yet? I'm having problems with them as cut and paste of the txt is putting large spaces between many of the words its really frustrating me as I parsed a lot of nps's from Council of Thieves and it worked brilliantly but I can't do it for Shattered Star : ) I dont think its a problem with the parser but the particular font paizo used for the new AP anyone else tried this yet or know of a work around?
Can you give a couple of examples (perhaps just provide Shattered Star AP part number, and the page number on the PDF so that it will avoid any chance of spoilers) and I'll have a quick look. I've tried a couple of statblocks from part 1 and 4 and they seem to work for me OK.Quote:
Originally Posted by hamlyntp
First a big thank you for this tool its one of the things that sold me on using Fantasy grounds.
Is the Parser a windows only tool?
inside the mod file is there a xml file you can use as a character sheet, the reason I ask is that I want to use some the iconics in the npc codex
I'm glad you find it useful. :) I must admit, it exceeded my hopes from when I first had the idea while on holiday last year and spent the flight home thinking about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by hawkwind
Yes it is. I developed it in MS Visual Studio - VB .NET to be precise.Quote:
Originally Posted by hawkwind
I'm guessing you want to use NPCs as PCs? Unfortunately, there isn't a way to convert an NPC into a fully fledged PC. Blackfoot has put together an extension that allows a player to control an NPC here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forum...ad.php?t=17846Quote:
Originally Posted by hawkwind
it looks as though Herolab are going to release the whole of the Npc Codex as a por file soon which will be handy