Paradox Parsing Engine | EU4 Savegame Editor
Hi! I'm Nick, for those who don't know me.
It's about a month before the release, and I've been thinking that this community is missing something -- a community project!
Mission Statement:
To construct an open source tool built by the community for the community
But wait, Nick, that's exceedingly vague!
Correct, that is why I'm suggesting that the first order of business is to create a library capable of parsing and saving a savegame. Since all information the game needs is essentially in the save, being able to parse and write out a savegame is huge first step to larger goals. I know this community is filled with knowledge people and those willing to learn. No task is too outlandish.
So...what do you have so far?
I have a parser that is currently open source on Github (that's what "Fork me on Github" links to). It's pretty battle tested and should provide a good start, if we decide to go down that route. Remember, since this is a community project, I'll suggest paths to take, but it is up for everyone else to disagree and make me come to my senses
As far as the EU4 Savegame Library goes, I have a basic design coded, nowhere near complete because I don't a save game to go off of. So if you're Paradox, and you willing to let us see a savegame so we can get a head start that would be awesome! If not, that's cool too. Just expect us to be busy coding on the day of the release.
Sounds good, I'm fired up. How can I contribute?
Post in this thread or PM me! Let me know you're interested, and that you think this is a good idea. I especially need a group of passionate people. Post a comment with your opinions on how this project should be ran. For instance, I'm not sure how communication will be handled. Right now this thread is fine, but once the project takes off, it might be prudent to switch to another mechanism.
Don't think I should be leading, and that you should be in my position? Post! This is a community project, you decide.
In the near future, the code will be released on Github for all of us to hack on. If you have never coded before, don't worry, use this as a good learning experience. I want us to grow together (too cheesy, ok, I'll dial it down). In all seriousness, everyone is needed to contribute. I don't know all the nooks and crannies, and I'm sure you don't either, but I'm sure that our collective knowledge will prevail.
Tell me the technical details
Note that what I say is subject to change based on community feedback. I will tell you what I have and what my plan is.
C# 4.0 is my language of choice. I find it an extremely productive and easy to learn language that works with no problem with Windows XP. Using Mono, C# can even be deployed on Linux and Mac, so as far as I am concerned, C# is cross-platform. Granted I have never used Mono, so if you've used Mono, I want to talk to you! I want the entire community to benefit from what we will create.
I'll stress that the initial project is a library, and not a fully functional client product. The GUIs can come later.
One last question, why?
Some my recognize me as developing tools for EU3, but the biggest obstacle is that it is too hard for a single person to know everything about the game and then code it! So one of the reasons for this project is essentially a document on how the game works. Another reason is that the work we do here will most likely be applicable to other Paradox titles (read: backport to EU3); so other people with a similar passion can start those projects using this as a base. It is in my opinion that this community has the potential for something absolutely great, and I hope this will be the catalyst for it.
Thanks for listening, what are your thoughts? How should we run this?
Nick
Don't want to read through this thread to know how you can contribute? See the current issues with the parser and see the current issues with the savegame editor
Hi! I'm Nick, for those who don't know me.
It's about a month before the release, and I've been thinking that this community is missing something -- a community project!
Mission Statement:
To construct an open source tool built by the community for the community
But wait, Nick, that's exceedingly vague!
Correct, that is why I'm suggesting that the first order of business is to create a library capable of parsing and saving a savegame. Since all information the game needs is essentially in the save, being able to parse and write out a savegame is huge first step to larger goals. I know this community is filled with knowledge people and those willing to learn. No task is too outlandish.
So...what do you have so far?
I have a parser that is currently open source on Github (that's what "Fork me on Github" links to). It's pretty battle tested and should provide a good start, if we decide to go down that route. Remember, since this is a community project, I'll suggest paths to take, but it is up for everyone else to disagree and make me come to my senses
As far as the EU4 Savegame Library goes, I have a basic design coded, nowhere near complete because I don't a save game to go off of. So if you're Paradox, and you willing to let us see a savegame so we can get a head start that would be awesome! If not, that's cool too. Just expect us to be busy coding on the day of the release.
Sounds good, I'm fired up. How can I contribute?
Post in this thread or PM me! Let me know you're interested, and that you think this is a good idea. I especially need a group of passionate people. Post a comment with your opinions on how this project should be ran. For instance, I'm not sure how communication will be handled. Right now this thread is fine, but once the project takes off, it might be prudent to switch to another mechanism.
Don't think I should be leading, and that you should be in my position? Post! This is a community project, you decide.
In the near future, the code will be released on Github for all of us to hack on. If you have never coded before, don't worry, use this as a good learning experience. I want us to grow together (too cheesy, ok, I'll dial it down). In all seriousness, everyone is needed to contribute. I don't know all the nooks and crannies, and I'm sure you don't either, but I'm sure that our collective knowledge will prevail.
Tell me the technical details
Note that what I say is subject to change based on community feedback. I will tell you what I have and what my plan is.
C# 4.0 is my language of choice. I find it an extremely productive and easy to learn language that works with no problem with Windows XP. Using Mono, C# can even be deployed on Linux and Mac, so as far as I am concerned, C# is cross-platform. Granted I have never used Mono, so if you've used Mono, I want to talk to you! I want the entire community to benefit from what we will create.
I'll stress that the initial project is a library, and not a fully functional client product. The GUIs can come later.
One last question, why?
Some my recognize me as developing tools for EU3, but the biggest obstacle is that it is too hard for a single person to know everything about the game and then code it! So one of the reasons for this project is essentially a document on how the game works. Another reason is that the work we do here will most likely be applicable to other Paradox titles (read: backport to EU3); so other people with a similar passion can start those projects using this as a base. It is in my opinion that this community has the potential for something absolutely great, and I hope this will be the catalyst for it.
Thanks for listening, what are your thoughts? How should we run this?
Nick
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