Making Spellcast App

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Making spellcast app
 Sylph.Hitetsu
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By Sylph.Hitetsu 2011-04-05 05:25:10
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I'm shooting to make a Spellcast app that will create simple Spellcast files.

I'm looking to the community for "commonly used code" that could be useful across multiple files.

So far I'm planning Elemental Obi's/Twilight Cape, RDM/BLM/SCH/WHM Sleep Timers (BRD Lullaby Timers too). Stoneskin/Sneak cancelling, etc.

Anyone have any other ideas/suggestions for things that are commonly used/useful?
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 Bismarck.Cerelyn
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By Bismarck.Cerelyn 2011-04-05 05:43:30
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gl
 Cerberus.Kvazz
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By Cerberus.Kvazz 2011-04-05 06:14:36
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Ugga pendant and Artemis' medal aswell maybe?
I'll try to think of some more
 Bahamut.Yoroitsune
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By Bahamut.Yoroitsune 2011-04-05 06:24:23
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Possible for MDT/PDT sets as well ?
 Cerberus.Kvazz
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By Cerberus.Kvazz 2011-04-05 06:33:10
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Bahamut.Yoroitsune said:
Possible for MDT/PDT sets as well ?

Just make the sets and make a macro to equip the set?
//sc set pdt
etc
 Sylph.Hitetsu
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By Sylph.Hitetsu 2011-04-05 06:49:04
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Cerberus.Kvazz said:
Ugga pendant and Artemis' medal aswell maybe?
I'll try to think of some more

Ohh, forgot about those (somehow /facepalm)

I'm aiming to have the user put all their sets in and then you make simple rules based from Menu boxes (something like Insert -> Spell Rule => User input Spell => User input Set -> Appended to Spellcast), aside from the Pre-made chunks, I doubt I'll be able to get it to be as fantabulous as a manually written file (partially because it's been years since I've done any programming XD partially because I'm not all that fantastic with SC myself)
 Cerberus.Kvazz
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By Cerberus.Kvazz 2011-04-05 06:53:29
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Sounds like a great idea :3
 Lakshmi.Snuffy
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By Lakshmi.Snuffy 2011-04-05 08:04:27
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Is editing XML that difficult that we need to streamline it? What your suggesting is basically the same work of taking your particular gear and pasting it into templates, only instead of manually doing it, you guide your homebrewed copypasta code into doing it. I suppose it's got some placebo affect of fooling timid people into editing XML templates anyways.

If you want to write a code that does more than just copypasta, it'd have to be very smart at understanding what is optimal for not just your gear, but your play style and typical schedule. For example, for a BLM do you have your default nuke set up be MAB or MACC or an intermediate? For a BLM main, MAB in most cases, but if you got BLM leveled in Abyssea, then you need MAC until you're skills are capped. Then again even if you're a great BLM with capped skills and merits, what if all you ever do is fight Kirin? Yes the player can just switch to a set he needs for the situation, but then what is the value added if you're churning out generic spellcast XMLs not perfectly tailored? You're just running a slightly tailored template.

My point is that there's only two functions a "spellcast app" can provide: hand-holding you through copypasta, and making optimization decisions. The latter would be laborious to do right and you have no incentive to do it. "I love coding" is not an incentive; we all love coding, that doesn't mean we can maintain the motivation to produce QUALITY software for unwieldy projects like this.

My 2 cents.
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 Cerberus.Kvazz
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By Cerberus.Kvazz 2011-04-05 08:09:19
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Would make it way easier to learn for people new to spellcast.
It's not needed in any way, but it would be a very nice tool, so if this dude wanna make it, I'm not gonna stop him :P
I'd probably use it myself
 Unicorn.Aleste
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By Unicorn.Aleste 2011-04-05 08:25:06
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So really, you're just looking for the stuff that are in a decent include.xml ?

Techno's is quite good, might be worth a look at. Had to web-cache it since the official windower site is acting weird for me.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:UgR2wFsDT6wJ:www.windower.net/plugins/spellcast/userxml/include/techno_include+windower+include.xml&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&source=www.google.co.uk

~EDIT incase the link doesnt work
 Lakshmi.Andromida
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By Lakshmi.Andromida 2011-04-05 08:28:21
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Not everyone is as capable with computers as you are Snuffy. You could say that no one needs Dreamweaver or any other WYSYWIG HTML editors because HTML is so easy to write, but Adobe still makes a fortune out of developing it.

I see your point about motivating yourself to completely produce and maintain an application. I started a project to remind myself of Flex before I started work a couple of months ago called SpellCast Builder. Although its only simple it works well for building SpellCast equipment sets. I had hoped to add extra functionality to handle rules and variables and things like that but since starting work I just haven't felt like it.

If you want to start a little project for your own amusement that is awesome, if you release it to the general public that is brilliant too. I had fun making my little project.

As a word of warning when it comes to SpellCast XML, do not expect it to be valid in any way, shape or form. I had a hell of a time trying to get a PHP's DOM library to read the bloody XML and convert it into something usable. I ended up converting the entire file to lower case just to make it read the tags correctly, and don't get my started on the XML includes namespace.

Ether way you can get a lot of help from some of the other developers on the Windower Forums, I got some useful bits of information from Yekyaa (Windower developer and SpellCast's maintainer) and Whitewing (develops a couple of apps for FFXI).
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By Fodder 2011-04-05 15:04:24
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Zodiac Ring

For the melee melee classes rules for setting aftercast sets based on status (engaged, idle, etc.). Maybe also add in tp based weapon locking for the melee mages (not me) out there with a control var to make it more flexible. Movement enhancement, etc. as well.

SJ spell/JA overrides and set selection. For instance, when a WAR/SAM hits their Utsu macro because they are on the wrong palette cancel it and override with Seigan>Third Eye. Nifty tricks like that are always nice.

I never remember to look, but an elegy override would be nifty. If Carnage Elegy recast is not up, cancel and input Battlefield Elegy. I used to overload the macro, but it *** up gear swaps.

Most of this stuff is out there somewhere, but strewn about and not nicely packaged.
 Bahamut.Dasva
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By Bahamut.Dasva 2011-04-05 15:13:40
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Lakshmi.Snuffy said:
Is editing XML that difficult that we need to streamline it?
Alot of them are. I swear half the ones on the site are designed just to confuse anyone that wants to mess with them. I've litterally found ones that have 2-3 times as many rules needed to do what they did. And often made longer rules to do so. And over complicating them like that often makes it harder to understand and/or change without *** everything up.

I've no ***seen spellcasts sets that do exactly what some of mine do but sport file sizes double mine (and I still have some redundancy I need to get rid of) ... and when you consider the fact most of mine is in my sets...
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