Is this possible? - Complete [Class] Handbook

[DNH]

Is this possible? Or rather, is there an easy way of doing it?

What I would like to do is to create a 4e library module for each of my players that includes all the relevant and up-to-date data for their character classes. So I would be looking to make something like a "Complete Paladin's Handbook" which includes all Paladin powers from all sources, as well as all Paladin class features, all Paladin Paragon Paths etc etc. Then I would do the same for the other classes.

All this with Tenian's parser, of course.

Here is what I have started doing:

1. - Go to DDi Compendium and search for Paladin powers
2. - Sort those powers by source
3. - Put the parser in Compendium scrape mode
4. - Point the parser at those sources, one by one, appending the results to those of earlier passes

The resulting data, while it does include ALL the required powers, includes also a lot of powers from other classes and paragon paths. In order to make it usable for my "Complete Paladin's Handbook", I am having to go through it to delete non-Paladin (or Paladin-PP) powers. Which is of course a massive time-sink.

I had looked at the parser to see if there are any options I was not making use of, perhaps an ability to select by character class (which would be ideal) but it doesn't look it. I had also thought of using the Catalog but I have had issues with this in the past (in essence, it gets too big and includes every class when I only need the five of my party, and getting so big brings performance issues). Also, it only deals with powers, so no PPs or feats. Could I perhaps use the Catalog mode and then edit the resulting XML - would that work? Or is there perhaps a way to reverse the cataloguing so that I can add in the PPs and feats from subsequent scrapes (I think Dr Zeuss had such a project at one time)?

Any suggestions gratefully received.

[Zeus]

Q: Is this possible?
A: Yes

Q: Is there an easy way of doing it?
A: Not really, let me expand:

The scrape functionality of the 4E Parser is keyed to source module, meaning the scope of a single scrape is limited to a single source module only. Of course you are free to edit the components of a scrape e.g. Powers, Magic Items etc. however its an all or nothing affair.

An alternative approach to doing this, would be to scrape the PHB rulebooks (1, 2 and 3) and splat books into separate folders. Then create subsets of the data (manually copying and pasting the relevant scraped data into new files) you require for the class modules.

I would then suggest keeping the module source files for the class based modules as well as the source for the PHBs and splat book, this way you can easily re-create/update your modules as required moving forward.

On thought though, wouldn't it be simpler to just scrape/parse the PHBs and splats at source level rather than going to the extra effort of creating the class modules, seems an awful lot more work for little gain.

As for editing the XML of a 4E Catalog, yes its doable, just take care to ensure your edits leave the XML in a valid and consistent state. You can use my 4E Module Decompiler tool to reverse engineer a 4E module into 4E Parser source files, however not sure if the 4E Catalog modules decompile OK as I have never tried to use it in this example.

[DNH]

Thanks Doc.

I think my overall goal is a minimalist approach, if you like. I want to have the bare minimum data available. There are 64 classes available in 4e, including Essentials and Hybrids, but we only use five at a time (in my group anyway). So I don't want to waste resources on parsing and handling an awful lot of XML data that we won't actually ever need. We only get to play for a few hours once a week, and every time we have technical problems really rankles. So I am looking for anything I can do to minimise that possibility.

I will let you know how I get on.
Thanks again.

[Jharii]

I am in the wee (planning) stages of something that will address this. Think of it as FG Modules on Demand. You check which boxes you want in, and it creates the mod file. Obviously, you would already have the data in the system.

Don't hold your breath, though. I'm not a professional programmer by any stretch of the imagination. This is going to take some time.

My plans are to make use of the data that is created by 4EParser and then it imports it into a database. You will also be able to create whatever custom content you wish from within the program.

[DNH]

Sounds interesting. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

[DNH]

So, I have been playing about with a couple of options here.

Sorry, DrZ, but I couldn't get your decompiler to work with the Catalog. I forget what the specific problem was, if I ever knew, but it doesn't matter becaused I moved on in a slightly different direction.

In conversation with a couple of my players, I decided to move from the "minimalist" approach mentioned above (ie only have info relevant to the characters in play) to a "zero-minimalist" approach which will have us include only relevant information that is actually in use. That is to say that I will make library modules that only include powers, feats, etc that my five characters have already selected. The argument made above about having so much data for all those classes we are not playing also holds for the levels above our current one (Level 5). As we always level up our characters between sessions and outside of the game anyway (FG2, great as it is in many respects, is not the best tool for levelling up characters), it won't be a problem for me to update the reference modules (with new powers and feats) for the next session.

So this is what I currently have: a Feats module (all Feats taken by all players); a Powers module (all Powers taken by all players); an Equipment module (all equipment available in the game); a Rituals module (all Rituals currently known/available to the players) and a couple of reference modules (Class/Race and Skills) that were requested by the players.

I have mentioned before on these forums that I have had problems in the past with FG2 campaign loading times. This used to be in the region of ten minutes, until we got the /flushdb facility, but even since then it has been in excess of five minutes. Removing all the modules I don't need and stripping things down to this "zero-minimalism", my campaign now loads in about 40 seconds! (Moon's network optimisations for 2.7.5 may have something to do with this too, of course.)

I realise this is not for everybody and, to be honest, I would somewhat prefer to be able to have everything on hand for me and my players to peruse in-game, but that is just not possible with my ageing machine.