Gladiatus Duel History Tool v1.2.0, copyright ©2008 Marko Lokkila
Version date Aug 9 2008
For Gladiatus v0.4.0
CONTENTS
1 Introduction
1.1 General
1.2 Known bugs / potential problems
2 Instructions
2.1 Installation
2.1.2 Update installation
2.2 Startup
2.3 Use
2.3.1 .plf files (Parser Language File)
2.3.2 Tips and shortcuts
3 License
4 The mandatory Disclaimer
5 Contact information
5.1 Feature requests and bug reports
6 Acknowledgments
7 Version history
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 General
The creatively named Gladiatus Duel History Tool is a simple enough program
designed to help players of Gladiatus (www.gladiatus.com) by Gameforge
(www.gameforge.de) keep track of their player-versus-player exploits
in the game. Little more than a crude front-end to an underlying database,
it nevertheless gets the job done.
You need to have JRE (Java Runtime Environment) 1.6 or newer installed for
this program. Many computers probably already do. Regardless, if you need
to, you can get it at the java download page.
1.2 Known bugs / potential problems
GDHT has been tested to work in conjunction with Opera v9, Internet
Explorer v6 and Firefox v2. Each browser seems to insert tables onto the
clpboard in a slightly different way. Due to this compatibility can't be
guaranteed with browsers, or browser versions, other than those mentioned
above. The new-in-1.0 parser can hopefully cope, though. Try and see. Large
enough changes to the Gladiatus game layout may similarly render the
program unable to parse reports. If I'm still playing the game at such a
date or someone really wants a fix, I may do an update (or anyone can,
since the source code is there).
Other than that, I'll leave you with the comforting guesstimate of
'it should work'. See section 5.1 for reporting problems.
IT IS WORTH NOTING...
...that Daylight Savings is a pox upon computing, and once the Gladiatus
servers switch to/from DST there may or may not end up being slight
inconsistencies with the time calculations performed by the program.
BE ADVISED and see the disclaimer about how you can't blame anyone but
yourself for getting banned for bashing.
Also I did not have handy a duel report that ended in a tie, so I can only
hope the parser can handle those fringe cases. If it cannot whenever I get
a tied match, I'll probably fix it.
2 INSTRUCTIONS
2.1 Installation
Just extract the package into a directory (folder) of your liking.
2.1.2 Update installation
If you have used an earlier version of GDHT, please take these steps to
update your program to ensure you do not lose any of your duel history:
* BACK UP your GTDB.script file.
* Now just extract the new files over the old ones (or delete your old
GDHT directory first if you like)
* Restore your saved GTDB.sript file. It will be upgraded to the new
version if necessary, on the first run of the program.
2.2 Startup
Included in the package is the Java source code, a .jar file and an .exe
file. You can use your choice of these to run the program, though just double
clicking GDHT.exe (or GDHT.jar, that ought to work too..) will probably be
easiest for Windows users.
If you want to compile it yourself you probably already know how, and if
you're not using Windows you'll need to google instructions for running
.jar files on your platform. The included hsqldb.jar and tinylaf.jar
are already specified in the class path in the manifest file of the .jar.
The program has not been tested outside the Windows environment.
2.3 Use
Well, it wouldn't be a simple front-end if it required lots of
instructions. You'll be asked for settings on the first run, and
these can be changed later by right clicking in the table listing
area. Switch to the 'Add duel' tab, copy-paste as demonstrated in the
picture below, and click the button. (The gold and/or experience lines
only need to be selected when present, obviously.) Hopefully you just
added your first duel.
Checking the 'Automatically parse...' checkbox in the 'Add duel' section
will attempt to automatically parse a duel when clipboard contents
change. To facilitate this, WARNINGS ABOUT MALFORMED DUEL REPORTS and
duels already in the database ARE DISABLED while this feature is on.
What I'm saying is, pay attention to what you're copying while
using this feature. Malformed duel reports are ignored and so you
may end up missing duel entries if you're not careful.
When adding a duel, the table automatically refreshes to display
duels that took place within the last 5 hours.
In the 'player view' pictured below, you-> means you attacked them
(outgoing attack) and ->you means they attacked you (incoming attack).
And the duel view. The presented view depends on your search option.
I realize some of the search options are kind of redundant due to the
table being sortable by clicking on column headers. I have considered
changing the system to a filter with more customizability. Time will tell.
2.3.1 .plf files (Parser Language File)
The upgraded parser in v1.0 uses these files to correctly parse the copy-
pastes from localized versions of Gladiatus. Only the English language
version english.plf is included with the initial setup.
If you use a different language, you can make your own .plf file by making
a copy of english.plf (YourLanguageHere.plf) and editing it following the
instructions and examples found in the file itself.
Alternatively you can check here for language files already created by
others. Note that this list may not (and early on will not) contain your
language, and that the list and its files may become outdated as changes
are made to Gladiatus itself. Probably the easiest, and definitely the most
reliable, way is to just make your own language file.
2.3.2 Tips and shortcuts
* Double clicking on a table entry will copy that player's name to the
clipboard.
* When searching for duels against a certain player, prefix the name with
an exclamation point ! to find exact matches only (upper/lowercase is
still ignored). E.g. searching for 'bob' will match bob and boBBy and
The_Bob142 where searching for '!bob' will only match bob (BoB, ...).
* Double clicking on the text field in the 'Add duel' panel will paste
the current contents of the clipboard and attempt to parse them.
* To change your name, parser language file or time adjustment, right
click in the display table area and select 'Change your settings'
* If the 'Time since' field of duels is off by some amount (e.g. it shows
-55 minutes when you had that duel 5 minutes ago), change your time
adjustment so that the times are displayed correctly. In the example case
you would select a time adjustment of +1.
3 LICENSE
This program and its source code may be freely distributed AT NO CHARGE.
You must not require payment for passing on a copy of this software, or
any derivative work based on or modified from the source code of this
software (current or earlier version). The licenses of the components
I used that are not created by me (HSQLDB and TinyLAF) are in the 'lib'
directory.
The source code may not be modified, recompiled and _distributed as the
original_. If you want to make changes, feel free. If you want to make
changes AND distribute your work, please let me know and at the very
least give me some credit. The source code is an undocumented mess anyway
as these small personal projects tend to be, I suppose... Not necessarily
an example of all-round good OOP practices and coding conventions.
4 DISCLAIMER
THE CREATOR OF THIS SOFTWARE, THE CREATORS OF ANY UTILIZED THIRD PARTY
COMPONENTS OR ANYONE HOSTING THESE FILES CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR
ANY PROBLEMS ARISING FROM THE USE OR MISUSE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
If you get banned for bashing even though GDHT said you're clear to duel
someone, it's not my fault. If your goldfish dies because you lose track
of time due to going between GDHT and Gladiatus for two days straight and
you forget to feed him, it's still not my fault. If your computer
spontaneously combusts while you're using this program - you guessed it -
it's not my fault. This list of potential problems is not exhaustive.
5 CONTACT INFORMATION
I can be reached for the time being at justmyluckagain@hotmail.com. Hate
mail can be sent there. Also mail saying you liked the program can be sent
there. I reserve the right not to respond, however, and you agree to not
think I'm being rude.
You can also post in the related forum thread.
5.1 Feature requests and bug reports
If there is a feature you think would be cool, or a bug/something you find
not to be working so well, send an email or post in the above thread. Note
that it is not guaranteed that I'll get around to implementing your
suggestions or fixes. I am not getting paid for this and have plenty of
other things to do.
6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I'd like to thank the following people for their assistance in the
development of this tool.
SergioTheGreat Bughunting and feature suggestions
7 VERSION HISTORY
1.2 Aug 9, 2008
* Updated the parser to work with the new layout of Gladiatus v0.4.0. All
old .plf files are now outdated.
* Fixed: A bug from v1.1 where an xp value actually gained by the opponent
would be saved as if gained by the user, in case of a lost duel. This no
longer happens, and existing database entries are automatically corrected.
1.1 Mar 31, 2008
* Fixed: Parser bug with . in 'damage dealt' values
* Added: Ability to delete duels
* Added: XP gain is now saved
* Added: Some convenience features (double clicking to paste&parse,
searching with partial name)
* Added: Time adjustment option
* Added: Some tooltips
* Minor changes to some things that were so minor I've already
forgotten them
1.0 Mar 29, 2008
* Improved the parser to no longer require you to specify your browser.
If some obscure browser has a very convoluted way of storing tables
on the clipboard, parsing still may not work with such a browser.
* Improved the parser to use .plf language files, for compatibility with
localized Gladiatus games.
* Fixed: A bug that would, after a certain search with 0 results was
performed, cause further searches to no longer work.
* Removed: User ID storing, and user info link availability. Useless stuff
that wouldn't have worked right with localized games anyway.
0.55 Feb 12, 2008
* Fixed: The duel info display now correctly shows information related to
the selected duel, even if the table has been sorted by some column.
0.51 Feb 11, 2008
* Fixed: Parser bug related to the . in gold amounts.
0.5 Feb 11, 2008
* Initial release