MOHAA Make Me Stock Program :: Moves Unstock Mods Temporarily Out of Main & Back

[dax]

hi own-3-mall....
ok, will give it a try,thanks ....
Dax

[own3mall]

Anyone try the new version yet? I need a way to advertise it to all the spearhead, breakthrough, and AA players since it works will all versions.

[dax]

working perfect here !!!!!

[JoTo]

Tested on win xp sp3:

You had not advertised that it supports the german version (How can you forget that, what is the game about ? lol) but the proggi itself does.

Starting works fine, clicking then "Make me stock" pops up error msg with can't create moh dirs bla. You should integrate a line at the head showing the current temp directory, if it is blank the user knows then it needs to be specified. Clicking then "Change Temp Directory" did the trick, make stock works aswell undo function.

A check should be done if the user has specified a valid path, immediately after user has insert path, even better would be to let the user select of a path-tree - users are lazy and you cannot assume that every user is familiar with the path syntax.

A status line should be included in the head, showing the actual status, atm its given only message if you click somewhere.

If the game is stock and the user changes the temp directory meanwhile, it doesnt find the old temp path and only popping up empty message box, if the user has bad memory the files are lost.

Use a custom icon for the proggie, taking the mohaa icon only leads to irritation, use also the icon for showing the app in the taskbar.

Make it more generic: Let the user select his game from a combobox, depending on his choice registry is scanned and the appropriate settings are made.
Take for the base data either a XML file or sqlite database. XML file has the advantage user can enhance it themself with a editor.
That way its also open for other games.
Define background image paths in a XML file so user can enhance or change it themself.

How far are you with your C# experience ? Java is nice when it comes to interoperability but on windows it looks bit alien, .Net is much better here (in every way).
I can make you the skeleton for the conversion to .Net so you can fill it.

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It would be good if the tool also checks for integrity of files meaning doing a MD5 checksum compare with file checksum stored in the XML file. Implementing of config reading from the XML file is also needed for future versions of the patch as there are coming more dll files with newer patch versions along (like bass.dll etc.)

[own3mall]

Tested on win xp sp3:

You had not advertised that it supports the german version (How can you forget that, what is the game about ? lol) but the proggi itself does.

I'll add German to the list of supported languages on the website in the near future.

Starting works fine, clicking then "Make me stock" pops up error msg with can't create moh dirs bla. You should integrate a line at the head showing the current temp directory, if it is blank the user knows then it needs to be specified. Clicking then "Change Temp Directory" did the trick, make stock works aswell undo function.

Were you running this in Linux, or did you not have a C:\ drive? If it cannot create the temp directory, users know to update the temp directory path.

A check should be done if the user has specified a valid path, immediately after user has insert path, even better would be to let the user select of a path-tree - users are lazy and you cannot assume that every user is familiar with the path syntax.

The check is done when the user enters their MOHAA Main path, and if the temp directory cannot be created, that is the check for the movement of the mods.

A status line should be included in the head, showing the actual status, atm its given only message if you click somewhere.

I suppose.

If the game is stock and the user changes the temp directory meanwhile, it doesnt find the old temp path and only popping up empty message box, if the user has bad memory the files are lost.

Why would the user ever change their temporary directory more than once? At the moment, the temp directory they enter is saved in a file. Shouldn't be changed. I could always prompt the user before changing the temporary directory if there are files still in the old temp directory.

Use a custom icon for the proggie, taking the mohaa icon only leads to irritation, use also the icon for showing the app in the taskbar.

Got a program that creates ico files with a transparent background?

Make it more generic: Let the user select his game from a combobox, depending on his choice registry is scanned and the appropriate settings are made.
Take for the base data either a XML file or sqlite database. XML file has the advantage user can enhance it themself with a editor.
That way its also open for other games.
Define background image paths in a XML file so user can enhance or change it themself.

The purpose of Make Me Stock is to make it as simple as possible to move unstock mods in and out for the end user and the programmer. Combo Boxes are bad. Check Boxes are much simpler, and the games you have installed are automatically checked when the program loads. Adding XML is complicated and XML never made sense to me as is. Was just a free-form-free-for-all data definition language whose purpose seems completely unnecessary. Not gonna create a database for filenames. MD5 hashing is unnecessary in this case as well, as MOHAA looks for files named pak0-pak7.pk3 --- without them, it won't work. I'm not going to account for every change in a file's MD5 or whether or not it matches a particular version or not.

Background images are hard coded into the java package as a resource. You can recompile it with different images though.

How far are you with your C# experience ? Java is nice when it comes to interoperability but on windows it looks bit alien, .Net is much better here (in every way).
I can make you the skeleton for the conversion to .Net so you can fill it.

Disagree with you completely. Java makes more sense in terms of object oriented design, and it actually makes you have to code more leading to a better understanding than just cheating with Visual Studio. If you feel that .NET would do a better job than JAVA, please feel free to code it using such building off of my source code. All I ask is that you credit any of the work you use. However, I will continue to develop my version, so I don't see why we're debating which language it's built in. Make Me Stock was originally written in Java; therefore, I will continue to add to Make Me Stock using Java. Had I learned C# before making Make Me Stock, I may have used C#, but with all the hours I've spent programming Make Me Stock to begin with, I won't be changing the language Make Me Stock is written in.


I built a complicated course management database system using C# and .NET, so I'd say that's my experience.

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It would be good if the tool also checks for integrity of files meaning doing a MD5 checksum compare with file checksum stored in the XML file. Implementing of config reading from the XML file is also needed for future versions of the patch as there are coming more dll files with newer patch versions along (like bass.dll etc.)

Easy to update the method that builds the list, or I could just add filenames in a textfile and have java read them one by one. Then, all you'd have to do is update the text file. No need for XML. Filenames are simple. This would however defeat the purpose of Make Me Stock, as users could add exceptions which would lead to nonstock mohaa's even after Make Me Stock is run. I'd rather keep that section closed off from edits.

[own3mall]

Joto, hopefully I didn't offend you with my last post, and I thank you for your suggestions.

I have added some more UI components that you may find interesting. I have also improved some of the dialogs, but I haven't implemented a status message as to what files are currently being moved, nor do I plan to add this feature.

Also, if a user clicks on the Change Temp Directory button, it checks to see if there are any mods that haven't been moved back to the main. If some nonstock mods are still in the old temporary directory, the undo button click is triggered before the user can update their temporary directory. Perhaps I should also delete the old temp directory... hm... will get right on that.

[own3mall]

If anyone is interested, the latest beta can be downloaded here:

http://makemestock.tk/beta/MakeMeStock_Setup.exe

New Features:

• Printed output of which files are being moved
• New icons
• Taskbar ICON to run commands directly from the task bar
• Now checks to see if you have any unstock mods left over if the temp directory is changed and moves them back to the correct folders before allowing you to save the changes
• Additional Information in the headers

Can anyone please try the Beta and let me know what you think?

Issues I've Noticed & will be fixed shortly:

Doesn't set the label for temporary directory with the default path (easy to fix)
Double spaces in output of which files are moved (super easy... lol)

It's mainly just been redesigned... let me know if you like the direction it's heading in... and I might include an option to change the picture......

[own3mall]

The newest version will be released shortly.

New Features:

• Change the main picture to any other image
• Images auto scale.
• Fixed a lot of bugs / GUI issues
• Directory choosing is now GUI instead of enter your path as C:\example
• Added latest reborn compatibility
• Added links to the 1.11 Patch and NO CD Crack download & added a MOHAA Reborn about link which opens a browser up to x-null.net

[Razo[R]apiD]

Wow, that's great news! I like the way we support each other

[bulldozer]

just a minor request...own3mall, could you please upload some screenshots about the program to the first post?