TOAWxml Editor

[76mm]

Expand/Collapse all events with click of a button:

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Filter by Trigger or Effect:

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Or filter by "Causal Chain", or just note the Causal Chain info at the bottom right:

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Can't promise that I can deliver all of this yet, but I'm hopeful. The main obstacle will be understanding and coding for all of the complex interactions within the Event Engine.

One addition I'm thinking about is adding "Events On Same Turn" to the Causal Chain section, so that, for instance, you could see all of the Events triggered on Turn 4 or whatever. Would that be helpful? Anything else?

[76mm]

In case anyone is wondering, the data under each event in the Treeview is the raw XML data and is read-only, while the same info is (hopefully) presented in a more user-friendly manner for the selected event on the right, where it is editable.

[Lobster]

You are a brave man. [:)]

[sPzAbt653]

One addition I'm thinking about is adding "Events On Same Turn" to the Causal Chain section

My opinion is that this and the Trigger and Effect Filters are an accident on the scale of a disaster waiting to happen. Folks can enable these things without realizing that it will change the chain of events as designed, thus causing things to no longer work as intended. I've lobbied for years to remove these but it has not happened. One might think then that they actually serve some usable purpose, but I have asked in the past for anyone to speak up with a reason they would use these and no one ever has. Therefore, I continue to lobby to remove them, and would not recommend that you include them in your work.

[cathar1244]

ORIGINAL: 76mm

ORIGINAL: cathar1244
But, upon selecting the option to edit that value, the in-game editor's display of the internal value treated the entry as if it was equipment that is NOT a fixed wing aircraft, and was showing the entered value divided by EIGHT and not TWO. So, the entered value of "12" was shown in the edit box (meaning an internal game value of "6"), but when I clicked the checkmark, the in-game editor changed the in-game value to "1" because it treated the entry as an AP value for equipment that is not a fixed wing aircraft.

So I guess this is the bug? What happens when you load the file with the value entered via a third-party into the in-game editor, does it remain unchanged?

The game, so far as I know, handles the fixed wing aircraft and other values with no problem when loaded from the equipment file, no matter the editor used on the file. Other than the confusing bit with the AP rating, the game also handles the data entered via the in-game editor with no issue. However --

If the editor you're creating will allow users to set the AP value as part of equipment editing, you may wish to cue them about scaling factors (8X, 2X) depending on the kind of equipment they're editing. I don't know of a way to directly enter the in-game scaled-down versions of those ratings. Hopefully that made sense the way I wrote it.

Cheers

[cathar1244]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

One addition I'm thinking about is adding "Events On Same Turn" to the Causal Chain section

My opinion is that this and the Trigger and Effect Filters are an accident on the scale of a disaster waiting to happen. Folks can enable these things without realizing that it will change the chain of events as designed, thus causing things to no longer work as intended. I've lobbied for years to remove these but it has not happened. One might think then that they actually serve some usable purpose, but I have asked in the past for anyone to speak up with a reason they would use these and no one ever has. Therefore, I continue to lobby to remove them, and would not recommend that you include them in your work.

sPzAbt653, sorry, I'm not following here. Are you advocating removing triggers as a way of activating events? I've no strong feelings either way (scenario design experience with TOAW too limited), but would like to understand the issues.

Cheers

[76mm]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653
Trigger and Effect Filters are an accident on the scale of a disaster waiting to happen. Folks can enable these things without realizing that it will change the chain of events as designed, thus causing things to no longer work as intended. I've lobbied for years to remove these but it has not happened. One might think then that they actually serve some usable purpose, but I have asked in the past for anyone to speak up with a reason they would use these and no one ever has.

I'm afraid that I don't understand your comment at all... The filters will not change any chain of events, but only display events with the filter that you select. I've seen your previous comments about sorting events, but don't understand why sorting (or filtering for that matter)--which is generally purely for display purposes and does not affect any underlying data--would have any effect at all on in-game data; why it seems to in the in-game Event Editor is a bit of a mystery. But in any event I don't intend to (and did not propose to) implement sorting, because I don't think that sorting would be very useful in this context because of how the data is structured.

As to a usable purpose...I think this type of filter would be very useful. The scenario I'm working with has 350 events--let's say I want to see all of them triggered by "Unit destroyed" or "2 occupies", or with the effect of "Cool Front" or "Air transport 1"--instead of hunting and pecking through all 350 events, I can immediately see what I am looking for.

In addition, in my view adding a "Causal Chain" filter should make it easier for designers to ensure that their event chains are working as intended. From the scenarios I've worked with so far, it is obvious that numerous events in many scenarios are broken--necessary values have disappeared or been corrupted during the past twenty years of conversion to successive versions of the game, and so the events basically no longer exist.

Maybe I'm missing something, but as mentioned, I currently don't understand your point at all.

[76mm]

ORIGINAL: cathar1244
If the editor you're creating will allow users to set the AP value as part of equipment editing, you may wish to cue them about scaling factors (8X, 2X) depending on the kind of equipment they're editing. I don't know of a way to directly enter the in-game scaled-down versions of those ratings.

Currently I don't plan to add an equipment editor, for two reasons:
1) as far as I can tell, the in-game equipment editor (and maybe some of the previous third party efforts) seems to work pretty well (other than the issues you've described), and at least to me, the GUI is not as obtuse as some of the other in-game editors; and
2) but more importantly, the effects and interactions of all of the various values and factors do not seem to be especially well-documented or widely understood, and I don't want to create a tool to edit something if we don't really understand what we're editing.

Given all the work you've done on Anti-Shipping values (and the obvious utility of doing so), I am going to try to get that in as "read only" data, but first I want to make sure that that values would be correctly and consistently displayed regardless of how the data was entered. Given that we are working with *.gam files, which are processed by the game before being exported, I'm hoping that this is the case, but will want to check it before adding...

Same issue with the various other combat and movement values that Steve mentioned previously.

[sPzAbt653]

Are you advocating removing triggers as a way of activating events?

No, those aren't Trigger Items, those are Sort Items.

[sPzAbt653]

I currently don't understand your point at all.

If you rearrange the events, this is a bad thing. You are saying that it has no effect on event arrangement, so then it does not matter.

[sPzAbt653]

The scenario I'm working with has 350 events

I suggest that you need a text file for scenario events. With such a file you can keep a list of all the events plus comments and explanations as to what you did or are trying to do. This may seem like a waste of time when you are doing the initial design work, but a couple months down the road all of that will most likely go out of your head and you will be in a pickle if you want to change something or make an adjustment. I keep such an event file for every scenario that I do, no matter if they have 20 events or 3000 events, and even for some of the mods because they are so complicated and who knows what the original designer was thinking. If sorting helps you or others then fine, but I'm suggesting that you really need something a little more detailed.

[76mm]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653
If you rearrange the events, this is a bad thing. You are saying that it has no effect on event arrangement, so then it does not matter.

Yes, the filtering happens in-memory and is not saved to disk. And I'm not including the ability to change Event IDs or move them around.

While I'm sure that there will be lots of complications ahead, hopefully this won't be one of them!

[76mm]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653
If sorting helps you or others then fine, but I'm suggesting that you really need something a little more detailed.

I'm sure it will help me, although I certainly see the utility a print out at various stages during the process. Currently I'm focusing on the GUI and internal logic, but hope/plan to add an Event exporter (similar to the in-game function) at some point.

[Zovs]

So far (still in the early process of learning this fantastic tool) but I have not yet seen a way to add new equipment via this tool. I can easily open up a *.gam file and edit it notepad/vscode so not sure if I am doing something wrong or not.

No worries in any event.

So for example with using a notepad editor I can easily add to an exiting unit like so:

Original data point:

Code: Select all

 <EQUIPMENT ID="20" NAME="Truck" NUMBER="60" MAX="60" DAMAGE="0"/>
 

Modified data point:

Code: Select all

 <EQUIPMENT ID="19" NAME="150mm Howitzer" NUMBER="18" MAX="18" DAMAGE="0"/>
 <EQUIPMENT ID="20" NAME="Truck" NUMBER="60" MAX="60" DAMAGE="0"/>
 

To add in the Howitzer, but I was thinking we could do this in the GUI of the TOAWXML Editor, but it does not seem so unless I am missing something.

[76mm]

ORIGINAL: Zovs
...but I have not yet seen a way to add new equipment via this tool. .

I haven't released the version that allows you to do this yet. It is basically finished, but I want to check a couple of things before I release it...hope to do so in the coming days...

[Zovs]

Very cool!

One request. In the unit view would it be possible to show the date after you input s turn number for reinforcement?

[Lobster]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

The scenario I'm working with has 350 events

I suggest that you need a text file for scenario events. With such a file you can keep a list of all the events plus comments and explanations as to what you did or are trying to do. This may seem like a waste of time when you are doing the initial design work, but a couple months down the road all of that will most likely go out of your head and you will be in a pickle if you want to change something or make an adjustment. I keep such an event file for every scenario that I do, no matter if they have 20 events or 3000 events, and even for some of the mods because they are so complicated and who knows what the original designer was thinking. If sorting helps you or others then fine, but I'm suggesting that you really need something a little more detailed.

What is needed is a flow chart.