4E Item Parser

[valeros]

Updates to item parser:

Updated to create Mundane Armor and Mundane Weapons as equipment so they can be combined with a magic armor, weapon, or implement to form a fully populated magic item.

Updated to also leave a file that can be parsed again without downloading if parsing changes and the option to parse these files from the GUI.

Removed automatic creation of .mod file due to issues. Use the FGPEMUtility.exe to form the .mod file from directory containing output files.

Fixed a couple of bugs.

[Griogre]

I got a chance to use this tonight and it worked fine on the couple of books I tried. I noticed a few things I thought were a bit strange and do have some feedback.

1) There are specialized mundane armor, weapon, and equipment tables that show cost and weight. I was surprised you didn't use them. Likewise for the Magic item tables.





2) In Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium, at least, the equipment is coming in as magic items instead of mundane items like the non magical armor and weapons.

3) It would be nice if you could specify the categoryname for the module so it could be listed with other similar modules like Core or Player's Supplement.

4) Likewise, it would be nice if you could specify an image to use as the module's thumbnail.

5) I would suggest you combine all magic armor, magic weapons and magic implements into one listing each instead of 3 each. If you don't know the exact level of an item having to look in 3 places instead of one means you seem to always pick the wrong one.

6) I'm not sure why you are outputting a common module. I'd personally be nervous about allowing people to distribute the WotC content. A client module might be better.

7) Personally, for MME I had the non magic stuff sort to the top and the Magic sort together but YMWV.

[valeros]

Griogre, thank you for constructive feedback.

1) I do not know FG well enough to undestand how the underlying properties of the controls/files work with the specialized tables. If someone sends me an example file using the specialized tables, I might try changing it. (I did try playing with them, but not successfully.)

2) Fixed

3) Fixed

4) Fixed

5) Fixed with compromise. One listing if less than 1200 items would be in the listing (like Mordenkainen's Magnificient Emporium), otherwise three listings (like when downloading all items at once.) Since I downloaded all the items into one module, FG was not happy about the number of items in the table when I left armor, implements, or weapons as one listing each. The tables were not very responsive and scrolling was a pain. Breaking them into three worked well.

6) Fixed

7) Fixed

[Griogre]

You've been busy.

1) I'll put together something by hand (or more truthfully copying and pasting) but it might be next week.

5) FG really doesn't seem to deal well with a dynamic list of more than a few hundred. I think some people ran into the same issue when they decided to make huge books of powers or monsters from all the books. Its probably part of that extensibility vs. only native code trade off, but I'm pretty sure the original code base never conceived of library modules as large as some are now.

[Asturia]

How do we combine these item files with existing mods?

[Griogre]

Probably a lot of people will want to know that so I made a quick video on how. The basic idea is you take the data and library links from the item parser and put them in the XML for a module made by Tenian's Parser.

https://youtu.be/eesd7csoXjc

[valeros]

Added ability to parse Backgrounds, Deities, Diseases, Poisons, Rituals, and Terrain.

Also, you can combine these categories together into one module. You can add multiple entry types or select multiple files before downloading/parsing.

Items now use the specialized tables.

If you combine more than one data file (i.e., not the module data, the file left behind with the raw data), it creates a new combined data file.

The XML output now puts all data & indexes under one tag for a particular category (e.g., Backgrounds or Items.) There is a tag named the same in the library section. So copying the data into another module means copying the one tag with all the data & indexes and the same tag for the library. See Griogre's video for instructions on how to do that.

Diseases only work as good as FG allows. FG only allows three stages (not five), does not provide ability to handle variable level diseases (i.e., must list a value for the DC, cannot say "Easy DC".) Also, no space to list special info (like Abyssal Plague.)

[Griogre]

I got a chance to try out the new version and it works well. The only strange thing I noticed is that the sort by level for magic other than Magic Armor or Weapons is out of order because of level numbers less than 10, which you are basing your element names on, don't have leading zeros and ANSI sort.

As an example in PH Hands you have:

16 Shadowfell Gloves
26 Shadowfell Gloves
6 Shadowfell Gloves

IE 6 > 2 so it comes after 26. I'd suggest you insert a zero in all the element names with levels less than 10 so something like <ShadowfellGlovesLevel6> becomes <ShadowfellGlovesLevel06>

Edited: For clarity. Apparently, punch drunk from lack of sleep, last night...

[valeros]

Fixed item level sorting issue

[Griogre]

Sorry, I forgot it until I saw you reply. I've been meaning to mention the parser does odd things to an existing directory. It currently deletes them and throws the client in the next level up when running from a file. I think it just deletes everything in the directory if you select entries from Compendium. I'd suggest you make a check to see if the target directory already exists and if it does don't make a new one and just overwrite any the parser's output files. I would typically keep module icons and sometimes modules in that directory.