L5R plugin

[ladubois]

Since it appears this plugin was abandoned a couple of years ago, I've started to consider updating it.
However, I've never messed with plugins before and the tutorial for making plugins intimidates me a little, particularly since all I'm doing is adding the new cards, not creating an entire plugin. What exactly needs doing in order to do this?

[Trevor]

You just need to find the new card images and add more rows to the card data file, which is a spreadsheet you can open in Excel.
Take a look at the old card data file and see how they listed things. It should be pretty obvious what a new card entry should look like when you can see the old ones. Make sure your new card images are the same dimensions as the old ones. You may need to batch-resize them in photoshop or a similar program to assure they all have the same dimensions as the plugin's cardback.jpg file. When you are filling out the card data file's ImageFile column, make sure the image file listed there matches the new image file for the corresponding card. Again, you can see how the old cards are listed and their corresponding image files, and it should be clear how a new card should look.

One snag people sometimes have is that Excel looks to do really stupid stuff with re-formatting things. An annoying workaround to this is to copy all the cells of the card data file in excel, close excel, open the card data file with WordPad, and then paste the cells into WordPad.

[ladubois]

Thanks, and yeah the reformatting thing is happening. I'll give your suggestion a try.

Now that I've started working on it, I'm not really satisfied with the way the original plugin set some things up, so it looks like I might remake the card list rather than simply update it. The ImageFile and Rarity columns are the only ones that may affect other parts of the plugin, yes?
I think I may even try integrating pack info into the plugin, too, which was originally missing. Also, does the formats.txt file just go in the main plugin folder?

[Trevor]

Thanks, and yeah the reformatting thing is happening. I'll give your suggestion a try.

Now that I've started working on it, I'm not really satisfied with the way the original plugin set some things up, so it looks like I might remake the card list rather than simply update it. The ImageFile and Rarity columns are the only ones that may affect other parts of the plugin, yes?
I think I may even try integrating pack info into the plugin, too, which was originally missing. Also, does the formats.txt file just go in the main plugin folder?

The only required columns are Name, Set, ImageFile. The other columns are mostly there for searching criteria in the deck editor. Scripts and Sound and Type are columns that can have special meaning/uses. Scripts allow cards to make card-specific functions. Sound allows you to have sound files play when a card is played. Type allows you do define a card to be a Token.

formats.txt goes adjacent to plugininfo.txt. Take a look at other plugins for examples.