Yesterday I explored some unexpected things in my prerequisite diagrams code (short answer: I did not expect what I should have, the code was working as designed). As part of that I came up with a few things to try, to see if they could resolve the oddities. Examining Updated …
Even when there is no actual narrative, a picture can make something clear that might have been easily overlooked. Yesterday’s build showed me I’d made at least one unfortunate assumption that could lead to incorrect search results. After fixing this I examined some diagrams I knew would be affected, and …
Okay, okay, it’s a little rough yet, but I can see this can work. There are a few things I’d want to add (such as the option of specifying exclusions, bits of a diagram to not include, but it looks like much of my headache is going away. These diagrams …
The only constant we have is change. There was a major change to how I represent data in my workflow. Overall this is a good thing: it gives me more flexibility in what I can capture and model cleanly, it lets me more precisely match things when I’m searching, and …
Don’t ask questions if you don’t want to know the answer. The other day I posted Back to the Drawing Board, describing changing how I create prerequisite diagrams for the Echelon Reference Series. I think I’ll be able to do a lot of the basic stuff through scripts, leaving only …
… as it were. One of the more valuable aspects of the Echelon Reference Series in my mind, and one of the most time-consuming, is the collection of diagrams showing the prerequisite relationships between game objects. That is, many feats have a diagram that illustrates the prerequisites of that feat, …
Over the last year I’ve been reworking my data engine, and I’ve reached a point where it’s actually useful again. It’s not finished, but I am least up to the point of being able to identify object prerequisites and search for objects in text (such as feat names). One of …
I’ve been on something of a hiatus for the last little while. I work in the social sector — the part of the provincial government that provides more or less direct support to vulnerable citizens — and the last couple years put unprecedented demand on us. It’s been tiring. In …
Uniquely identifying objects is one of the more vexing activities in building the Echelon Reference Series. It is good to have a human-readable ID (it’s a great kindness to the developer to be able to see that yes, a parsed link looks like it does refer to the correct item, …
Any time you build a nontrivial data model, you have to expect the original assumptions will be tested, and found wanting. You’re not going to get it right the first time. In fact, I’ve read design books — data modeling and software design — that advise the reader to be …
