@nNullzone, the data is stored in XML files, so not easy extract, but I'm pretty sure we will find the way.
Ugh, XML If you want, you can send me the files as they are, and I'll see what I can do with them (should have an XML prettifier somewhere) . Will send you a PM with my email.
I just read the PocketTactics review. Well ... meh. This is exactly why I normally don't read any. My biggest gripe is that this guy normally seems to review PC games and has no clue about what is available on iOS. Also, complaining about GPU power in context of a 4X game? What's he trying to do, play Witcher3 in 4K/120Hz on an iPod1? Yes, overall the review is very positive. How he then arrives at a 3-Star rating is a total mystery to me. Even more so when a decidely mediocre game like "Deathwatch:Tyranid Invasion" gets 5 stars from another reviewer. And don't get me started on that completely inane "Super Tribes strikes me as the better 4X gaming experience" comment...
Thanks a lot for the files, doomtrader! That was fast. A simple Excel import made them readable already. Need to figure out some details, so if anyone knows his way around XML/CSS/XSLT I'd appreciate help on the following: Most units have several SpecialAbilities and/or attacks. Excel creates an extra row for each of those, so e.g. the King Tiger with 2 specials gets 3 lines (one special being empty, and one for each of his abilities). It should display those in multiple columns instead; e.g. column 1 "Special=Forester", column 2 "Special=Living". The XML looks like this: <specialAbilites> <SpecialAbility>Forester</SpecialAbility> <SpecialAbility>Living</SpecialAbility> </specialAbilites> I assume the "creating multiple rows" happens because the parameter "SpecialAbility" exists more than once (and because Excel does basic stuff only). I'll see if I can figure out a CSS stylesheet and/or an XSLT transformation to make this look better. Since this is pretty new territory for me, it'll take a while. So if anyone knows how to do this easily, please holler.
Can you JavaScript? There is an excellent xml2json node module, from there you could have it output however you want
Not really. I am a techie, not a Web dev I found a few xml2json converters earlier already, but couldn't figure out what to do with the json then From what I could find out with my amateurish XML knowledge: If I want some pretty display - e.g. like an index card with the unit data - I'll have to create a .css or an .xsl for it, to get the display right. Looks like a ton of work to do that, especially when you start from square 0. The Excel table format works, but is a huge pain to read. I attached the files here, so if you want to play around, be my guest The "one unit example" is just that, only the XML for the Highmen Settlers. The 2 .xsd files are the maps I created via Microsoft xsd.exe generator; one with, one without, AI Type (that thingie caused a wacky error with xsd.exe). Another pretty big thingie to get right: In the unit info, available spells are only referenced by spell ID number. Need to figure out how to display the spell name, just in case I manage to get something reasonably pretty to display the data.
Sounds like a programmer needs to hack a converter together. I'm flat out on my private project but if I get a chance I'll do what I can. One massive blocker for me at the moment is that I'm in China where the Internet is beyond horrible. Makes googling and general web dev molasses slow.
What format do you want them in? Parsing through XML is fairly trivial for me to code up (provided it's formatted correctly) using Python 3. JSON is a fairly standard format, along with CSV for spreadsheet importing. Are the spells listed by ID in the zip file? On the PocketTactics review: Zac was inordinately focused on the graphics, and it's well known that the star rating is very arbitrary. The review text matters more than the rating. I'm still working up a comment to the "Super Tribes is a better 4X experience". EDIT: It also doesn't help that he reviewed it on an iPad Mini, and likely not the latest iPad Mini so even more problems playing the game.
@faceleg & @athros: No worries, especially faceleg. If you two don't have time, I can ask my girlfriend when I'm back home if she can help out; she's the webdev-y of us two Anything that looks somewhat readable is fine, would be great if you can cook up something. For me personally, all I currently want to see is the name of the unit and what spells it can cast. Don't know what others have on their wishlist, though. But going by your earlier comment that you work on a full list, I take it you'll want something more fancy. As far as I can tell, the XML is valid. W3C's Validator isn't complaining about any of the 3 files. The spells are listed by ID in "spellsAndAbilities.xml", like this: <tacticalSpell> <id>3</id> <spellName>GuidingWind</spellName> ... </tacticalSpell> I normally don't pay attention to PocketTactics, but I could guess that their ratings come out of their behinds without rhyme or reason And holler when/if you wrote a reply to that comment, don't want to miss the fireworks. UPDATE: Hah, just saw you posted it, excellent rebuttal
The nesting on these XML files is pretty nuts, so it's going to take me a bit (3-4 levels of nesting means I need to be able to extract the data in order to format it). Overall, once I have them extracted, then I can start collating the data together and putting in spells, stats and such in a nicer format. I try not to be too much of a jerk, but PT has a severe problem with sacred cows (otherwise known as: topics that any expressed dissenting opinion is shouted down) and it seems that Super Tribes is becoming one of those pretty fast. I also don't think the review was very good (read the next comment, which which i agree completely with).
@athros: Oops, sounds like way more effort than I expected, sorry for that. If it gets too annoying, just forget about it. And I read that comment you refer to. Boy, does he shoot the review down, and with style to boot (no "u teh stoopid" insults, just calm opinion). Ah well, I'm pretty sure TA has its own sacred cows (like the frontpage love for butt-ugly pixel heaps ), so there's that.
@doomtrader, @Nullzone: Initial conversion to JSON is done. I'm hosting my stuff here: https://github.com/athros/Planar-Conquest-UM-Work Those are some big files If you want me to take them down, let me know doomtrader, and it'll vanish. The next step is to serialize the JSON into something more useful so cross correlation can begin! XML is a pain to work with for stuff like this.
Could you commit the script used for conversion? That way if you disappear we don't have to start from scratch
It'd be great if we could somehow import the modified data into wikia, so we would end up with something like: http://xenoblade.wikia.com/wiki/Beach_Forfex
Oh yea. I'm still working on it, and really have some focus time coming up shortly (kiddos are about to go to bed). The first commit of that will be tonight. Progress update: I have the units.json file into Python dicts and I'm slowly tearing that to individual units that'll make it easier to format, and make changes to. My end goal is to get something that can be used in multiple places, mainly wikis and the PDF manual that doomtrader and crew are putting out. EDIT: there. Super basic version is up. Python 3.5 required.
Any good Dwarven strategies out there? Does anyone have good ideas how to play Dwarves? I am doing a Dwarf/Earth game currently, and I didn't find the best way to use them yet. Currently - around turn 65 - I am still not really on the offensive: I took over only 1 enemy town, and did not go Dungeon delving at all so far. To a large degree because the stunties are so slow to get anywhere, I am turtling up in my home area, slowly expanding by founding new towns (3 so far). I also got lucky with getting an Elven Settler from an Inn on the other side of the map, founding another town a good bit away from my main area. On the plus side, I have to say that not having to develop military turns the Dwarven towns into veritable Upkeep support powerhouses. Both my Capital and the first of my founded towns already have the whole tech-tree (except military) installed, and are spewing out Gold, Mana and Research at a pretty high rate. My Dwarf towns - even with 2 still being in development - can comfortably support the Drac town I took over. That one is almost ready to start producing fully powered Elementalists (Fighter & Armourer Guild, War College) . Supporting the new Elven town also is no problem. That town is slowly gearing up for bringing its own army to the table; but even with only putting out Archers it'll take a good while (I estimate 20+ turns). Casting so far is mostly Fertile Soil, Mineral Attunement, and Strands of Power where worth it. Combined with summoning about a dozen Owlbears, which are on garrison duty in my Drac and Elven towns. On top of that I got a Paladin from an Inn, and started pimping him out with Enchantments. The biggest downside so far is that when I discover an enemy Sorcerer town, I can't just rush across the map to bring it down. With the general slow pace so far, my main concern is that the Dwarves will be too weak (in terms of total towns, which boils down to economy) against the improved AI. One idea I have is to compensate for the slow military by using Summoning 9 & Summon Mastery, instead of e.g. Earth. Or try the Swarm build and see if it works with the stunties too. And I wonder if spawning more towns - say, 5+ - early game to expand territory control could be a valid strategy (better combined with Swarming I guess).
This is all so far above my head that my advice can only be: keep trying, you'll figure it out! I finished my first game. Think my hero died in my first battle. Not sure as I want sure what was going on at the time. Fun game though. Very reminiscent of the strategy I prefer on computers. It's never leaving my phone.
I'm keeping the repo updated. JSON file fixes are done, so now all of the JOSN files should be in a format that throws no errors. The script is also closing in. Now that I'm stripping out individual units, and then digging through the nested lists/dictionaries the formatting will be coming along in flat text for units with no cross correlation initially for spells/abilities but that will change as I dig into those separate files. Thank you for the files doomtrader!
