Best approach to make custom dat/spr compatible with cipsoft updates

[Albert José]

Hello everyone, recently the amazing @Evil Puncker launched a new Downgraded 13.x assets to .dat/.spr format based on the last cipsoft update, as usual I want to update my .dat/.spr with the new outfits, items, etc. but I have already created some custom items and I have added them there, I know that someone must have already gone through this dilemma, so I opened this discussion to understand the best way to deal with it.

There are a few approaches I've been thinking about:

• Export my items as otb and import in the recently updated .dat/.spr
  • Cons: Remap every item id again
  • Pro: It sounds easy
• Create a lot of empty objets (5000+) and reserve them to new sprites/objets that cipsoft will maybe launch in new updates
• Modify TFS/client allowing to use two different .dat/.spr (I'm joking )

 

[Evil Puncker]

I'd go with using empty objects that cip leaves on their files, every time a new update is released you would only need to import the odb files again

 

[Albert José]

I'd go with using empty objects that cip leaves on their files, every time a new update is released you would only need to import the odb files again

Isn't it common for them to fill in these gaps in future releases? I think they did this in the last update.

 

[Albert José]

There is my best approach until now:

1. I have created a blank .dat/.spr adding only my custom items, additionaly I created a csv that store all my items attributes, including id, name, description, atk, defense, etc.
2. I'm using the object builder to merge the last .dat/.spr launched with my only_custom_dat_spr path, this guarantees the ordering of my objects.
3. Finally I use a node script to read my csv file, creating a new item.xml, but I provide the last object ID from the last .dat/.spr launched and it uses this number to regenerate the new ids.
4. DONE.

Cons:

• I must change my monsters files to use the item name instead of the item id.
• Some scripts and functions that use my custom items should be changed too, maybe I will create a auxiliary lua file with all constants generated by the same node script that I have used to create the items.xml.

 

[dami1310]

Export new tibia spr/dat and import to your custom one?

 

[Albert José]

Export new tibia spr/dat and import to your custom one?

This can create incompatibilities with custom maps or for future TFS updates that point to new outfits, effects or items. I want to keep the official item object IDs for this reason.

 

[dami1310]

Still sounds more reasonable than what you are doing right now.

 

[Albert José]

Still sounds more reasonable than what you are doing right now.

If it is not a requirement to keep the official ids, I recognize that it is a much easier way, but I enjoyed having my custom dat/spr with only the items that I modified, merging with the official later with my script ready now will not be a big deal in the future.