Improved filter on debug spawn item and / or additional catalogues in item browser

Game Talk The Drawing Board
1

So I was all fired up to go through the complete list of ‘OTHER’ items and see which (like the ‘pipe cleaner’) should, IMO, actually be TOOLS. Only it looks like you can’t use “c:other” in the / filter of the Debug spawn item screen.

No matter, I thought, I’ll just use the Item browser. Only there isn’t (as far as I can tell) any way to list all ‘Other’ items there.

I’ve always thought that the ‘Other’ category contains a significant number of items that could, and probably should, be in a category other than other but unless I’m missing something there isn’t a very user friendly way of listing them.

Am I missing something? I would think it’s entirely possible! Please let me know if there’s a handy trick I could be using.

2

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search all the json files for “type”: “OTHER”, and it should give you a list of those that have those items in it.

… obviously this is the complicated version of doing it, but it also gives you all the files that you’d be changing to make those changes anyhoo.

3

OK, yes, that is technically a correct answer. :stuck_out_tongue:

Maybe I can find a search tool that gives a preview of the file contents around each match so I don’t have to open them all. That should save a little time.

[EDIT] Except it’s “category”: “OTHER” right?

[EDITx2] This is weird. I’m really having a hard time finding any matches.

[EDITx3] Right. It’s fuggin “type”: “GENERIC” not “OTHER” at all. *shakes fist angrily*

[EDITx4] Or not? The more I look stuff up, the more confused I get.

4

i mean i didn’t know the exact classification, just that that was one way to do it.

generic covers coat hangars, cords, ropes, strings, bullet casings… etc.

hmm…

pipe cleaner is specifically found under ‘generic.json’ in the main items folder, under a list that contains a lot of pseudo-items like animals, fire, wind, etc.

5

Yeah, it wasn’t as easy as it first looked.

I’m finding things out I never knew. Like, for instance, the pipe cleaner recipe has “subcategory”: “CSC_OTHER_TOOLS”. … why is it not just in TOOLS? I just can’t see the point of having a subcategory of OTHER_TOOLS instead of putting them in tools in the first place. OTHER is a terrible muddle of all the crap that doesn’t really fit anywhere so I would have thought that the less items in it the better.

  {
    "type": "recipe",
    "activity_level": "fake",
    "result": "pipe_cleaner",
    "category": "CC_OTHER",
    "subcategory": "CSC_OTHER_TOOLS",
    "skill_used": "mechanics",
    "difficulty": 1,
    "time": "2 m",
    "reversible": true,
    "book_learn": [
      [ "manual_shotgun", 0 ],
      [ "manual_rifle", 0 ],
      [ "manual_smg", 0 ],
      [ "manual_pistol", 0 ],
      [ "recipe_bullets", 0 ],
      [ "textbook_mechanics", 1 ],
      [ "mag_mechanics", 2 ],
      [ "mag_rifle", 2 ]
    ],
    "components": [ [ [ "wire", 2 ], [ "cable", 2 ] ] ]
  },

The actual pipe cleaner item information is found with “type”: “GENERIC” and doesn’t have ‘category’ information.

  {
    "id": "pipe_cleaner",
    "type": "GENERIC",
    "name": { "str": "pipe cleaner" },
    "description": "This is a tool designed to clean interior surface of pipes, bottles, and similar objects.  This one is thin enough to be used for cleaning firearm barrels from dirt and fouling.",
    "weight": "50 g",
    "volume": "250 ml",
    "price": 500,
    "price_postapoc": 50,
    "material": [ "steel", "cotton" ],
    "symbol": ";",
    "color": "light_gray"
  },

But there are “type”: “GENERIC” items that aren’t OTHER so basically, if the category is not given then it is OTHER.

How am I supposed to search for something that doesn’t exist!!

6

its likely used as a flag for a specific purpose, pipe cleaner being exclusively used for cleaning guns and nothing else.

7

That doesn’t make it less of a tool, though. From a practical point of view, if I’m standing next to my TOOL pile trying to clean a gun and the OTHER pile is half a dozen tiles away I’ll think I don’t have a pipe cleaner and end up making another one. (Actual RL example)