RBI-editor version 2

[nightwulf]

I think I've reached the "good enough" point of rbi-editor version 2. The new editor can be found at the same URL (http://nightwulf.rbicentral.com/rbi-editor) as the old.

Changes:

• A valid username is now only required to save ROMs online.
  
• ROMs can now be downloaded in 96k or 256k formats, and compressed (.zip) or not (.nes).
  
• Information in MarquisEXB's tab-delimited format can be imported into and exported from the editor.
  
• You can now export your ROM information to a text file similar to what you may have seen me post for other ROMs.
  
• The whole team icon system has been completely redone. The icon can now be "drawn" from within your browser. It's easier to play around with it than to explain it; give it a shot.
  
• Hacks for "Long batting averages" and "Long ERAs" are now supported.
  
• A "switch" button has been added to allow you to easily switch two players, even between teams.
  
• The color of the field (grass and dirt) can now be modified.
  
• The various copyright messages that appear in the game can now be modified.
  
• Per-pitcher batting data is now supported. You can now enter batting data for each pitcher on the "Batters" screen.
  
• If you'd still like all your pitchers to bat with the same stats, you can modify the stats that are loaded when any pitcher bats.
  
• The number of runs for a "slaughter" can now be modified, or removed entirely.
  
• The power bonus that a pinch hitter recieves in his first at-bat can now be modified.
  
• Just for the hell of it, you can "disable" strikes and/or balls.
  

There's still a few minor changes I need to finish, but functionally I believe the editor is complete. Please feel free to let me know of any errors you find, or any questions / comments / complaints in general.

Nightwulf

[TβG]

Bless you

[Gantry]

The five minute test with crappy recommendations:

1)  Put a link near the right-side login page to load a ROM, skipping registration.  Or some text saying a much, I'm going to guess that a fair % of people won't want to login and it isn't apparent at first that they can skip the login and registration...

2)  A button to revert the team colors to their original state would be nice, especially if the change is instant and you can't verify the colors you just put in...

[Lips]

nightwulf, great shit!!!!  The features that you have included are cool.  I can't wait to play a game on a ROM built from this editor.  I'll have to wait until tomorrow, though.  Anyways...I went through the editor, and here are a few of my suggestions/fix requests.  Let me know what you think.

1. When initially going to the "Teams" page, even though Uniforms is selected...I cannot change the color.  I shouldn't have to re-select Uniforms.

2. To use any ERA, click "Hacks" in the menu and enable "Long batting averages." Note that this has no effect on gameplay.
-- The bolded text should be corrected to "Long ERAs".

3. In the Strings section on the "Colors / Text" page, you might want to show the previewed text (just like you did for the team icon/2 letters).  I think that would be nice to see.

4. Just like in #3, possibly showing all 10 team icons consecutively (like how they would show up on the game's team-selection menu) would probably be nice, to see if all the lettering is lined up nicely.

5. Continuing the theme...instead of having a rectangle for the grass and dirt colors, maybe show it a little bit differently.  Present a part of the game which shows off both colors.  Maybe show the pitcher mound (when in fielding mode).  Basically, present the field colors just like how you present the team colors, in the end state.

6. If you click the "Batters" link twice consecutively...the first batter, the first sub, and the first pitcher names' textbox will all get background-colored with a yellowish color.

7. After attempting to enable long ERAs, I goto a Pitchers page and change an ERA value to something like "8.79".  I still get the warning.  So when I go back to the Hacks page, I see that long batting averages are enabled...not ERAs.

8. On the same theme of #3,4,5...maybe show the preview of the both the team names (Attract mode team name and End-of-game newspaper team name).

[Lips]

Yeah, I know...  My issues are a bit heavy on the UI.  Sorry about that.

[nightwulf]

1. When initially going to the "Teams" page, even though Uniforms is selected...I cannot change the color.  I shouldn't have to re-select Uniforms.

2. To use any ERA, click "Hacks" in the menu and enable "Long batting averages." Note that this has no effect on gameplay.
-- The bolded text should be corrected to "Long ERAs".

7. After attempting to enable long ERAs, I goto a Pitchers page and change an ERA value to something like "8.79".  I still get the warning.  So when I go back to the Hacks page, I see that long batting averages are enabled...not ERAs.

The above are fixed.

6. If you click the "Batters" link twice consecutively...the first batter, the first sub, and the first pitcher names' textbox will all get background-colored with a yellowish color.

I was unable to reproduce this error. Can you provide more detailed steps to cause the error to occur?

Everything else I'll look at tomorrow ...

Nightwulf

[Gantry]

Two letters for you....   IE

Happened to me on the first try... IE6 on windows 2000, nothing on firefox.  Only had to click once...

[nightwulf]

Bizarre. Doesn't occur in Mozilla, and making things even more interesting, it doesn't occur in IE on my machine (Windows 98se, IE 6.0.2800.1106). I'll have to try and find a way to reproduce the error ...

Nightwulf

[fryak]

I'm trying to import a tab-delemited file and into RBI-editor and am not having any success.  None of the stats are being uploaded.  I'm sure it's something I'm doing wrong.  Has any one else tried this feature?  Thanks!

[nightwulf]

I'm trying to import a tab-delemited file and into RBI-editor and am not having any success.  None of the stats are being uploaded.  I'm sure it's something I'm doing wrong.  Has any one else tried this feature?  Thanks!

Try loading any existing ROM into the editor (default NES, etc.) and export it. Make sure the file you're trying to upload matches the format of the file exported.

Nightwulf

[fryak]

I got it working.

There several things to watch for when importing CVS format:
1) Make sure all the player names are exactly 6 characters
2) The BA field is actually BA*1000
3) Make sure you have 2 unknown batter columns U1 and U2.
4) Use names like team 1, 2, etc. rather than your own names.
5) Make sure pitchers have T = RO, LO, RS, or LS rather than just left or right.

[nightwulf]

1) Make sure all the player names are exactly 6 characters
2) The BA field is actually BA*1000
3) Make sure you have 2 unknown batter columns U1 and U2.
4) Use names like team 1, 2, etc. rather than your own names.
5) Make sure pitchers have T = RO, LO, RS, or LS rather than just left or right.

I can change the parser to allow names of <6 characters, and to detect whether the batting average given is actually "BA*1000" or not. The 2 unknown batter columns can be killed too. The "RO, LO, RS, LS" is required unless someone comes up with a better suggestion to differentiate between overhand and sidearm pitchers.

The team names (TEAM1, TEAM2, etc.) are a little more complicated. Rather than "counting" lines to determine which player is which, the parser uses the "TEAMn" and player number on any given line to determine which player you're talking about. The main reasoning behind this is so that per-pitcher batting data can be included or left out. (Actually, looking at the export format, it appears that PPB is never included. Will fix shortly.) This also means that lines can be entered in any order, and files don't need to list every player in the game (if you're only working on pitchers or batters, for example).

In all due respect, please remember that personally I have no use for this tab-delimited format; it was included at the community's request per MarquisEXB's specifications. This means those who do use this feature need to let me know what works and what doesn't. If requiring "TEAMn" is a problem, I can go to counting lines. In this case, if anyone's using PPB, I'll need to come up with a way to signal the end of the batters (look for a line beginning with "PIT<TAB>" perhaps?).

Happy to make the format work for those who'll use it, just let me know.

Update: PPB data is now included in export. Batting averages should now work whether they're the actual BA or "BA*1000". The two unknown columns (in batters) are not required to be present. I'm a bit confused on the six-character names though. The parser looks for "one or more" of all of the characters used in player names, so names <6 characters should work. If you're familiar with regular expressions, "([A-Za-z\ \.]+)" is used to match the name.

Nightwulf

[fryak]

I think the import feature is GREAT     It allows you to create your game in excel (or the eq.) which makes it easy to do calculations, sort, etc.  Here's my thoughts on each item:

1) pad names with spaces if < 6 characters
2) the BA thing
3) add the batter U1 and U2 fields if the user didn't include them
4) None of these are too big of deal so I wouldn't even worry about this if it's too much trouble.  I misunderstood the meanning of the field.  I had names like At, Bo, Ch, etc.  I thought you were using the names like keys to a data structure so if a line had a like key it would be added to the structure.  Like I said, I wouldn't sweat it.
5) This wasn't a big deal for me, but I didn't know about it.  I would include a note for it on your website.

Thanks again!  Awesome editor!

[Dryden]

Night-

I can't seem to get the slaughter hack to work at all, either in FCEU or Nesem...  it seems to not work with either the 96 or 256k ROMs.  I'm not sure if the other hacks are interfering with it or not, but if I try setting it to 0 or to 200, it still gets called after 10 runs...

Any thoughts?

[nightwulf]

Night-

I can't seem to get the slaughter hack to work at all, either in FCEU or Nesem...  it seems to not work with either the 96 or 256k ROMs.  I'm not sure if the other hacks are interfering with it or not, but if I try setting it to 0 or to 200, it still gets called after 10 runs...

Any thoughts?

None of the other hacks overwrite the "slaughter hack"; this hack overwrites existing ROM code and doesn't add anything else like the others do. I tried this both in Nester and Fceud, in 96k and 256k flavors, with and without other hacks enabled, in 2p and "watch" modes, and it worked in all cases.

Can you provide further information? Specifically, which hacks are enabled, what is the number of runs for a called game set to, and which game mode (1p, 2p, watch) did the hack not work in? If you can get me a copy of the errant ROM as well, that'd be great.

Nightwulf

[Dryden]

Here it is, dawg.

Got long ERAs, long BAs, and no pinch-hitter bonus going on.  It didn't work in 1P mode - that's the only mode I've tested in.

Runs in this ROM is set to 200, but also appears not to work with 0, either (again, in 1 player mode).

[Not Gantry]

Great Editor Nightwulf!

One problem I have run into is sometimes, not all the time which makes it weird, but sometimes when you put in a number for a team name in the attract name and the newspaper name, like 84 tigers,  it causes the rom to be unable to save.

I use mozilla.

[nightwulf]

Here it is, dawg.

Got long ERAs, long BAs, and no pinch-hitter bonus going on.  It didn't work in 1P mode - that's the only mode I've tested in.

Runs in this ROM is set to 200, but also appears not to work with 0, either (again, in 1 player mode).

I'm puzzled on this one. Browsing through the attached ROM I did find the number of runs changed to 200, and it played correctly in Fceud and Nester. I set a breakpoint in the debugger just before the "slaughter hack" to make sure it was executing correctly, and it did.

The number of runs can be found at offset B561 (1B561 in 256k ROMs). It should be whatever you've set this number as in the editor, or 234 if you set this number to zero. I have absolutely no idea why it's not working for you, and I'm open to suggestions ...

Nightwulf

[Dryden]

Just played it in Nester (nester public beta 4, from nester.dranalli.com) in single player mode, still stopped at 10 run slaughter...

Is there some game genie setting or something you're turning on?  Or does it just not work in single player mode (vs. computer)?

Have you gotten it to work in 1 player mode at all?

[Gantry]

Some brainstorms without thinking:

There is more than one place to set the slaughter, perhaps as a combo of two fields?

The entire byte of this address isn't used for the slaughter?

Slaughter for 1P, 2P and/or CPU are in different places?

There is a bounds check on the slaughter, causing it to ignore a number that is too large?