OK. At Clint's request, I'm working on a separate Excel based program
that will help team captains collate team data. (Automagic use not
required, but Excel will be.)
Palantir does an EXCELLENT job of giving you the overall picture, (if
you're not using it you really, really should be!), but there are some
features it doesn't have, and some things that would just be nice to
have in an easier to view format.
Basically, it started out as a team economy viewer, showing all
commodities for each nation, along with tax rates, deficits, etc. Clint
then asked me if it could grab even more data from the XML files. Well,
XML files don't have ALL the data, (scries, artifacts secreted, etc),
but I am working on adding features to the file that will include...
1. ALL current friendly characters, sortable by name, location, nation,
or any of the various skills.
2. Rumors, broken down by who did what where, once again filtering out
useless data.
3. ALL names & locations of enemy/independent characters which show up
on the Pop Center lists. (It will cross-check these with the friendly
names and won't show those.)
It's this last one I need help with. Currently, if you know the
nationality of an enemy character (via a character scout), the XML file
contains that info. So, the enemy/independent character listing will
show the nationality, if known, but I'd also like it to show when
someone is a known NPC. So, in other words, if "Throkmaw" showed up, it
would say "Dragon" in the nationality box.
While I believe I do have most the various NPC names, what I don't know
is whether or not ALL them are available in 2950. (Only played it 3 or 4
times.) Likewise, what other NPC's aren't available in 2950 or 4th Age
games? I THINK the following is true, but I really don't know.
DRAGONS:
All available in 1650 & 2950. None available in 4th Age?
ARMY ENCOUNTERS (Demons, Balrogs, Ents, Woses, Eagles, Hobbits, Razarac,
Mumakil, etc.):
All available in all scenarios?
NPCs (Galadriel, Celeborn, Gandalf, Saruman):
Available in 1650 only?
OTHER NPCs (Daeron, Shelob, Celgor, Cirdan, Slyardach):
Available in all scenarios?
OTHER ENCOUNTERS:
Anyone aware of any other differences between scenarios?
I think this info would be useful, especially to new players, but also
just to get the team captain's attention and help sort through the info.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike Mulka