CEO Companion Application (Open Source)

[BatXmaN]

Hey guys/gals,

I've started a small companion application for this wonderful game.
I decided it would be open source so anyone can pitch in, either, via coding or bug reporting.

Here is the project page (http://code.google.com/p/ceo-companion).

Here is where you can post bugs (http://code.google.com/p/ceo-companion/issues/list).

Here is a page where you can comment at will (http://guscarreno.blogspot.com/p/ceo-companion.html).

I hope this helps our community with a better game experience.

Edit: Per Hobnocker (http://forum.castleempireonline.com/members/382247-Hobknocker)'s request, and a sensible and politely formulated one as it is :) , I'm explaining what it does:

The User interface is multiple tabs.

New Tab The first tab is now the News tab. Apart from my side of some news, I'll also try and add news from the game.

The second tab is now "Todo list". It's a simple task editor.

The third tab is "Keyboard Shortcuts" and has the 3 keyboard shortcuts that I know of.

The fourth tab is titled "FAQ" and will contain a copy of all the FAQ content I can muster.

The fifth tab is titled "Tips and Tricks" and will have content that seams important from the forums.

The sixth Tab is called "Adventure Guides". This tab will have a list of the best Adventure Guides on the forums.

The seventh tab is titled "Battle Calculator" and should have code from Selak (http://forum.castleempireonline.com/members/374685-Selak), if he replies to my private.

The eighth tab is titled "Production Chain". It contains the contents from BB_Arad1 (http://forum.castleempireonline.com/members/374571-BB_Arad1)'s post on the subject. It will however contain a calculator with more interaction so you can put your building and their levels and it will calculate if you have enough to not go short.

New Tab The nineth tab is the Trade Calculator. Still not done, but I still have a long way to go.

The last tab is the "About" tab and contains various links related to the app.

Will post a/some screenshot/s once I choose which app to use on Ubuntu :)

Developer Diary
Wed 28 Mar 2012: I've added a tab for Adventure guides, just the tab :) . I'm building a software library of the units(Buildings, Settlers, Bandits) that can be used in this app and by future developers if they want.

Sun 1 Apr 2012: I've added a Todo List tab so we can track our todos. I've picked this one up from suggestions for the Dev team forum.

Sun 8 Apr 2012: I've been mildly busy at this and had the time to test some components for Free Pascal/Lazarus.
I'm now using an HTML Viewer which will give a better presentation of all of the content I'm planning on getting on.
I've also started the Settings Dialog with the early stages of all the tweaks I can muster onto the app.
Content will be served from the source repo and can already be seen under the content folder.

Mon 9 Apr 2012: The settings functionality is up and running.
Added the possibility to configure Top or Bottom for the tabs.
A stub for language selection is in place.
A stub of the frequency for update checks is also in place.

Wed 18 Apr 2012: Add, Edit and Delete are done, on the Todo List tab.
Just need to code the Save, now.

Thu 26 Apr 2012: Re-wrote all of the tab management system to include the hide tabs feature.
Added 2 more tabs: News and Trade Calculator.

Sun 6 May 2012: Added the possibility to turn "Show Close Button" on/off for the tabs.
I've started to add Hints to some components. They show as regular Hint Windows and a more detailed int show on the Status bar.
This includes having the address for the clickable links on the About tab showing on the Status Bar.
One of the containers for the Online Updates was created.

Next release will be RC2 (Release Candidate 2) with the Online Update feature.

Cheers,
Gus

[BatXmaN]

Hey guys,

So here are some screenshots of the app on my side of the court (Ubuntu 11.10 amd64):

The Todo list
http://ceo-companion.googlecode.com/hg/Screenshots/ceo-companion_task-list.png

The Keyboard shortcuts
http://ceo-companion.googlecode.com/hg/Screenshots/ceo-companion_keyboard-shortcuts.png

The Production Chains
http://ceo-companion.googlecode.com/hg/Screenshots/ceo-companion_production-chains.png

The Settings dialog
http://ceo-companion.googlecode.com/hg/Screenshots/ceo-companion_settings.png

Hope you like it.

Cheers,
Gus

[Majikrider]

Awesome dude, I put in a suggestion for something like this a few weeks ago so I'm glad to see a player who has the knowledge and is ready to put in the time. Great work and keep at it.

[BatXmaN]

Awesome dude, I put in a suggestion for something like this a few weeks ago so I'm glad to see a player who has the knowledge and is ready to put in the time. Great work and keep at it.

Thanks mate. I've just finished the Add, Edit and Delete on the Todo List so I'll be doing a Release Candidate(RC1) real soon.

[BatXmaN]

Hey fellow settlers,

Like promised I've released the RC1 with the Todo List feature.

You can get the files here (http://code.google.com/p/ceo-companion/downloads/list).

If you have any bugs to report, please do it here (http://code.google.com/p/ceo-companion/issues/list).

Change log:
1. An initial settings dialog is added.
2. The Todo List feature is complete(almost?)

[BatXmaN]

Hey guys,

I've just realised that I didn't have a place so everyone could give it's opinion about the app.

So I've blogged about it here: CEO Companion Application (http://guscarreno.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/ceo-companion-application.html)

In the hopes you are enjoyin the new release!!

Cheers,
Gus

[BatXmaN]

Wilst trying to get a feature in, the one that would allow to hide some tabs, I realised I had to re-write the entire Tab management system.

So that was my afternoon, re-doing all of the tabs in order to get this feature in. But it wasn't at all bad. I realised that one of the bugs that I had before, couldn't put the tabs either left or right, has now gone and I've already included the options on the Settings.

I've added two more tabs, News and Trade Calculator. They will come live on the next release(Release Candidate 2 RC2) with the online update system.

Once the online update system is in place an relativately safe to publish, I'll be spending some time in producing the content. So it will be a while once I re-start the coding of the app. This will also mean that all the content I'll produce will be ready right after I upload it to the server and in your system once you checked for an update.

Cheers,
Gus

[BatXmaN]

So I've been investigating the best way to provide the online updates and I've come to the conclusion that I need to go into something called threads. This is needed so the User Interface does not freeze when the updates are running, kinda like a background task.

But it's very well known in the programming comunitty, that, whenever you get into threads, you have double trouble. So keep your fingers crossed and let's hope I don't mess it too much.

Cheers,
Gus

[BatXmaN]

Well, I finally decided to bite the bullet and try to compile CEO Companion for Mac OS X.

I'm in the middle of installing a Mac OS X Lion Virtual Machine and I'm hoping that RC2 will also be released for Macs.

I've already started the Online Update effort with the object that compares the local and remote versions of the App and the content. I'm trying to get RC2 out by next week or this week end.

Cheers,
Gus

[BatXmaN]

I just realized that my machine is older than it should for a programmer :(

I'm missing the hardware to emulate a Mac OS X machine.

I'll try and compile it at a friends.

[BatXmaN]

Lately I wasn't feeling like doing some creative coding, like the Online Update, so I went into the repetitive coding mode instead.

This means that I'm doing the units library that I was talking about. It's the group of objects that contains all the information about Settlers, Bandits and Buildings. It's also the basis of the calculators.

I'm including one or two images with every object. I found out about the Settlers Fan Kit and after inspecting it's contents, it's not complete. It has images for buildings, for bandits, nice screenshots, for some resources, etc... but is missing the Battle units, like the Recruit, Bowman, etc..

I could go an Google some images, but my slight OCD, kinda gets me in trouble every time. I decided I would try and get the images that the browser loads, directly, from BlueByte/Ubisoft. These are the original ones, with more quality, and I already have a disclaimer stating that all belongs to them anyway.

I found out that there are quite a lot of images that I can use that come in PNG format. I also found out that others are contained inside binary files.

After some investigation, I found out that those binary files are AMF(Action Message Format) encoded, and most of them are simple arrays of the PNG files with a name attached.

This is where I'm going to be slightly delayed. I've done some Googling about AMF and the programming language I'm using for this app and came out with a commercial only solution. Not being one to admit defeat, I'm now trying to read those BIN files on my own.

I had an AMF project already in my mind, but it never came about for lack of a legitimate use. This changes it. So looks like I'll have to complete the AMF library after all.

I'll be keeping you informed of my image recovery efforts along the way.

Cheers,
Gus

[BatXmaN]

Sun 6 May 2012: Added the possibility to turn "Show Close Button" on/off for the tabs.
I've started to add Hints to some components. They show as regular Hint Windows and a more detailed int show on the Status bar.
This includes having the address for the clickable links on the About tab showing on the Status Bar.
One of the containers for the Online Updates was created.