New Character Pruner for 1.05 nearing completion...

[Beauclerc]

Remember, you will need the .NET Architecture v2.0, which you can download from Microsoft. So anyone intending to use this application and doesn't yet have it may like to download that in the meantime... so you can be up and running straight away when I ship the ckTrim application (hopefully).

 

[ECLoco]

I will add an additional feature that allows you to exclude any characters belonging to a particular dynasty...

You might also like to provide some suggestions for some features you might find useful.

It would be great if you could select the excluded dynasty by its name from a drop-down or something. Not that important for your first release though. I could make do with a command line version for now anyway, you know.

 

[Beauclerc]

90% of the interface is done, and the dropdown for Dynastic names is included already, so I'm not far away

 

[gigau]

90% of the interface is done, and the dropdown for Dynastic names is included already, so I'm not far away

Getting more and more impatient :rofl:

 

[mib]

Great! Once this comes out I can start my CK->EU2->Ricky->DD game-athon!

Actually, I can start now... and learn to play EU2.

 

[unmerged(11427)]

Did you figure out why are certain blocks written in one line while majority have structured appearance?

An example:

    marrige = { primary = { type = 4712 id = 11387 } secondary = { type = 4712 id = 11468 } startdate = { year = 1204 month = april day = 9 } } 
    marrige = { 
        primary = { type = 4712 id = 11531 } 
        secondary = { type = 4712 id = 11378 } 
        startdate = { year = 1204 month = april day = 12 } 
        enddate = { year = 1224 month = february day = 26 } 
        }

I find this to be rather strange in savegame files. Maybe it's like that on purpose? Is the first type only for marriages that don't have enddate?

 

[Reveilled]

Did you figure out why are certain blocks written in one line while majority have structured appearance?

An example:

    marrige = { primary = { type = 4712 id = 11387 } secondary = { type = 4712 id = 11468 } startdate = { year = 1204 month = april day = 9 } } 
    marrige = { 
        primary = { type = 4712 id = 11531 } 
        secondary = { type = 4712 id = 11378 } 
        startdate = { year = 1204 month = april day = 12 } 
        enddate = { year = 1224 month = february day = 26 } 
        }

I find this to be rather strange in savegame files. Maybe it's like that on purpose?

Any block of information with more than three terms inside it is paced out on subsequent lines to aid readability.
The marriage on one line has no end date, thus only three terms, so one line. Similarly within the data blocks on characters, characters with three or fewer traits have their traits on one line, while characters with four or more have multiple line trait info.

 

[Beauclerc]

That's handy because that's the algorithm I use when writing the save file back. It's not relevant for the parser though. Providing I can separate all the individual 'tokens' (ie words or strings that belong together), and there only needs to be a space, or a defined character for that (ie a quote, a brace, an equals sign etc).

I have had a bit of connundrum the last day or two. My Parser library when released will be separate from the ckTrim application. This library will be usable by .NET developers to use in their own tools. Other developers will be able to use the library to develop their own bridefinders and family tree makers, and the parser will do the reading, writing and organising of the data into a usable class structure. They just have to use the data in whatever way they want, and then ask the parser to write any changes back.

However, I haven't developed the public interface to this yet, so am reluctant to release it.

But, the decision I made is to put the library code in with the ckTrim application. This means I can release the ckTrim application for those waiting... before finalising my library. The downside is that it will make the .exe a bit bigger - but it'll still be manageable.

 

[mib]

Yes, please.

 

[Beauclerc]

Latest news:

So close now. Putting in some final interface error trapping. Won't go overboard as the first release will be a beta.

Then all I have to do is learn .NET's Setup functionality and then the Beta Release will go ahead.

 

[ECLoco]

Latest news:

So close now. Putting in some final interface error trapping. Won't go overboard as the first release will be a beta.

Then all I have to do is learn .NET's Setup functionality and then the Beta Release will go ahead.

Oh. Would you mind doing a zipped release too? I hate setups...

 

[Beauclerc]

It depends on what I see in the deployment of .NET apps. If I get the impression it'll run as a simple .exe then no problem. However, if doing this requires the user to know anything about copying files to various places etc then I'll do a setup. Likely I'll do both.

I don't really want to get too many questions about getting the thing to run if possible.

 

[Beauclerc]

I am going to set the release date as Friday 4th July.

I have a window of opportunity on Thursday to finalise everything.

 

[ECLoco]

It depends on what I see in the deployment of .NET apps. If I get the impression it'll run as a simple .exe then no problem. However, if doing this requires the user to know anything about copying files to various places etc then I'll do a setup. Likely I'll do both.

Ah great! I was hoping for that.

 

[unmerged(11427)]

I am going to set the release date as Friday 4th July.

I have a window of opportunity on Thursday to finalise everything.

Isn't it like August, now? Next year, then?

 

[Beauclerc]

Ummm err... yes. Doh! :rofl:

Official release date for Beta will be Friday, 4th August 2006

 

[mib]

Ummm err... yes. Doh! :rofl:

Official release date for Beta will be Friday, 4th August 2006

GMT? Anyway, yay!

 

[unmerged(38668)]

Great! Once this comes out I can start my CK->EU2->Ricky->DD game-athon!

Actually, I can start now... and learn to play EU2.

Actually im doing this RIGHT NOW but why should i need this purge tool in order to play my thousand years empire of rock'n'roll?

 

[Reveilled]

Actually im doing this RIGHT NOW but why should i need this purge tool in order to play my thousand years empire of rock'n'roll?

Many people find that without pruning dead characters, CK can slow down to unplayable levels in later years.

 

[Beauclerc]

It reduces the size of the file by about half (first time you run it). This saves on loading times and also memory in game (as CK loads all the dead characters in too). So performance is improved.

The characters removed aren't 'useful' to the game except perhaps in terms of people who want to produce Family Trees - but there is a dynasty retaining function which helps with that.

Anyway, for the sake of about a minute or less you can tweak performance... that's the key.