There has to be an easier way x_x

ID:40459
 
Mar 17 2008, 8:00 am
Outside of hiring myself a code monkey is there anyway of producing large amounts of repetitive code without it being SO GOD DAMN BORING?

What I need to do is take this list...
http://www.byond.com/members/TheMagicMan/files/mons.txt
And give each thing on it between 10 and 25 or so variables.
I also need to come up with a short description of each thing on that list (though I might just not do this).
And finally, about half of the things on there want to use an AI that is somewhat customized to do things other than just attack.

Seriously x_x Is there some way of doing this without it being so BORING?? And what do you people do when you have to do things like this to stop yourself from being bored out of your mind?
Mar 17 2008, 11:21 am
Ask the people in Chatters. There's gotta be a demo or something of some kind that helps with this.
Mar 17 2008, 1:37 pm
No matter what, you'll have to write some stuff down. It'll be long, and boring.

It shouldn't be in code, though. The AI routines, yes, but the actual stat definitions should be in a data file that's loaded at game start. Modability, doncha know.

Keep in mind that if your /code/ (As opposed to your /data/) is repetitive, you're probably doing something wrong. Code is at its most perfect when it looks like line noise - you never know what's coming up next.
Mar 17 2008, 2:19 pm
Jp wrote:
No matter what, you'll have to write some stuff down. It'll be long, and boring.

I am seriously going to train one of my animals to do things like this for me. It probably wont talk half as long, and wont be nearly as boring x_x
Which sounds better? Code Cat, Code Dog, Code Bird or Code Fish?

It shouldn't be in code, though. The AI routines, yes, but the actual stat definitions should be in a data file that's loaded at game start. Modability, doncha know.

Though I was tempted to do this I decided against it.I want people to keep the same character regardless of what server they play on, and that brings up a lot of problems. Such as one server having monsters that are easy to kill, but give insane rewards, which can then be transfered to a more balanced server.
That and I don't fancy dealing with idiots who would go to do something like this, only to screw up and bug me about it.

Mar 17 2008, 7:47 pm
Any time you're looking at a bunch of classes like that, what you need is a spreadsheet. Create stats in Excel, and then you can update as needed while exporting to .csv format that BYOND can be easily made to read.