Weaponsmith Archive

Hey all ... I've decided to start making myself a little computer program that will select the best materials that you have on hand for a particular schematic. Here's how it works (prelimenarily) ...

You have a small database (Access ...I hate it, but it's portable) that holds all of the materials you currently have in stock, their attributes, the quantity you have on hand, and a price of the mineral that you set.

In a separate VB application, you click on the schematic, and it spits out the best materials to use for this particular schematic for its given attribute requirements, quantities requiredand also computes the cost of the product to you. This should work for both components and finished weapons.

I've just started and am not exactly pouring all my time into this. It's somewhat of a trick because some things take 'metal', or 'ferrous metal' or whatever, so there's lots of possible sql statements to be banged up against the sorry little database. Also, some take one attribute 'OQ', some take two 'Shock' and 'Toughness' (or something like that) - somewhat tricky functions to be written, but not hard, just time consuming.

Any input as to what anyone else would put into a program like this would be greatly appreciated. When I get it done, I'm thinking of distributing it throughout the community once it's somewhat bug free. Trick is, you will need to at least have Access on your computer to fill the database with your materials and keep this thing up to date .... Unless Sony wants to give me an API to their database (HA HA, and open source game).

Oh, don't flame me 'cos i'm using Microsoft stuff, it's just what I like

Thoughts ...

-=cicatrix=-

Soon to be Mater Weaponsmith

Radiant -

*Mater Weaponsmith* -- niiice -- you know what I mean. Maybe I will scrap this program and make a new Forum with an EDIT function instead. Grrrr...

You may want to check out http://www.swgcraft.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6049&page=1&pp=15 for Fooman's Weaponsmithing tool. He has done what you're suggesting in Excel. An incredible effort. It keeps track of your resources/stats and when you select a schematic it picks the best resources from your list for the job.

I already have a Access database programmed that does just what you ask, anda lot more. You can read about it and see some screenshots here:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=armorsmith&message.id=16229

It isn't ready to be distributed as of yet, but at this time it is VERY functional. I have all the weaponsmith schematics entered. I can pull up any schematic, hit the BEST button and it shows me the optimal resources from my stockpile pool. It correctly displays the total # of resources used in a schematic, even when the schematic uses components that also might have subcomponenets (this was a SQL nightmare). I can punch in a price per resource and # of items to be made in the factory and it shows me price to charge for the item and quantity list of resources to put in the factory.

I even have a SQL query that checks all the weaponsmith schematics and resource weights (like 50% CD and 50% OQ), and then displays a resource category list with # of schematics that require a particular weight combination. This helps you quickly evaluate what resource stats are important on any given resource. Here is an example:

FullCatName StatWeights QtySchematics
Iron Ferrous Metal Mineral Inorganic 50% CD 50% OQ 12
Iron Ferrous Metal Mineral Inorganic 100% SR 3

Most of the work was done on the program in the last month, and the major hurdle to complete prior to release is being able to set individual price per resource and have the program calculate prices that way.

Oh and another thing, I've made it generic enough that ANY crafting profession can use my database, not just weaponsmiths. I have a field on the schematics tablethat contains what profession it belongs to. Other crafters in my guild track their resource stockpiles with the program.

I have multiple problems with Foomans excel tool, maybe its just me. The main problem is the text size, then comes the issueof it stating that some metal should be used here instead of which metal.

I have an Access database comprising of virtually every component and resource attributes made. Let me know if you could use it.

Felonous -- As a new Novice Weaponsmith, please let the community know when this is ready to distribute. It might make sense to let this out to ten or so weaponsmiths as kind or a beta program. /Re'ji

Actually, what I need is crafters who are not weaponsmith to beta test (I have already entered all weaponsmith shematics). They can enter all the schematic detailsfor their proffession (currect data, not copied from web sites that are out of date). Then I can collect all the copies and write a update query to pull all the schematic information into one db. This is when I would open the program to the public.

If you are also a crafter in something besided weaponsmithing, or know someone in another crafting field that would like to assist on this db, have them/you send me a PM. I'll reply once I have a beta ready version to be downloaded.