MapleQuestAdvisor

A road planning tool for cruising quests in MapleStory

Head developer: Ronan C. P. Lana

This tool investigates and traces a quest trajectory for a given player at any point in mapling. Expected inputs range from environment rates, to current player level and completed quests.

Development information

Status: Released.

Mission

With non-profitting means intended, provide keen quest-leveling maplers world-wide a quality time with quest management.

Vision

By seeking several aspects of utility within quests, look forward to route possibilities for a desirable quest cruising.

Values

Autonomy, seek self-improvement for finding new ways to do a task;
Orientation, plan ahead and perceive the surroundings to model a smooth activity;
Aptitude, enjoy the good moments provided throughout the cruise, be active to course-correct in staggering moments;

Support MapleQuestAdvisor

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Installation steps

1. Download and install the required tools.

Download items:
- Git - Open-source distributed version control system, LuaRocks operates with it - https://git-scm.com/
- mingw32-gcc - GNU C Compiler, LuaRocks operates with it - https://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/
- LuaRocks - Lua modules manager, standalone flavor with Lua interpreter embedded - https://luarocks.github.io/luarocks/releases/
- LOVE - a graphic interface engine for Lua - https://love2d.org/
Git and GCC compiler, proceed to install one suitable for your system.
- Git - download and install with default paths, select-default all options on installation wizard;
- mingw-get-setup.exe - download and install with default paths, at package catalogue: "All packages" tab -> opt for "mingw32-gcc": "bin" and "dev";
LuaRocks and LOVE packages selected during development were:
- luarocks-3.3.1-win32.zip;
- love-11.3-win64.exe;
Install items:

For expediency later when setting environment variables, it is recommended to use the following install paths:
- Git - use default install path;
- Open and install mingw32-gcc, opt to place into "C:\MinGW" (default path);
- Extract LuaRocks into "C:\Program Files (x86)";
- Open and install LOVE, opt to place into "C:\Program Files";

Then, set "MapleQuestAdvisor" the folder on a place of your preference. The selected path will be referred next as <LOCATION_FOLDER>.

2. Install LuaRocks

Find the LuaRocks folder in your file system and, in there, right-click "install.bat", and click "Run as administrator", as you will need admin privileges to install this package manager.

3. Configure environment variables

Add into User Variables:
- LUADATA - C:\Program Files (x86)\luarocks-3.3.1-win32\win32\lua5.1
Add into System Variables:
- LUA_CPATH - %LUADATA%\LuaRocks\lib\lua\5.1\?.dll;c:\program files (x86)\luarocks-3.3.1-win32\win32\lua5.1\lib\lua\5.1\?.dll;
- LUA_PATH - C:\Program Files (x86)\LuaRocks\lua\?.lua;C:\Program Files (x86)\LuaRocks\lua\?\init.lua;%LUADATA%\LuaRocks\share\lua\5.1\?.lua;%LUADATA%\LuaRocks\share\lua\5.1\?\init.lua;c:\program files (x86)\luarocks-3.3.1-win32\win32\lua5.1\share\lua\5.1\?.lua;c:\program files (x86)\luarocks-3.3.1-win32\win32\lua5.1\share\lua\5.1\?\init.lua;
Edit "Path" System Variable, and ADD the following path:
- Path - C:\MinGW\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\luarocks-3.3.1-win32\win32\lua5.1\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\LuaRocks;%LUADATA%\LuaRocks\bin;C:\Program Files\LOVE;

4. Install package dependency

Use the now installed LuaRocks to install the required modules.

For this, open command prompt (Right-click, "Run as administrator") and type to install each dependency module:
- luarocks install luabitop : bit-to-bit operations.
- luarocks install penlight : STL-like for operating data structures with Lua.
- luarocks install xml2lua : XML parser.
- luarocks install json-lua : JSON parser.
- luarocks install lsqlite3complete : SQLite DB library.
Verify whether the packages have been installed by your LuaRocks with: luarocks list.

5. Extract XML and images

Use the HaRepacker application, encryption "GMS (old)".

Select and export each WZ file at a time:

For the XMLs, EXPORT (using the "Private Server..." exporting option), to the following location:
- <LOCATION_FOLDER>/lib/xml
For the images, EXPORT (using the "PNG/MP3" exporting option), to the following location:
- <LOCATION_FOLDER>/ui/media/images

After exporting, at both folder locations should be present therein subfolders ending with ".wz".

About the tool

This tool is designed to be a standalone, running in Lua.

This tool provides 2 running options:

The quest route skimming.
The graphic UI, in which the intended end-user experiences the application.

To run, open the command prompt and point directory with "cd <LOCATION_FOLDER>\src", then for each running option:

> lua5.1 router/main.lua : runs the quest routing process.
> launch.bat : opens the application.

The route skimming runs through a group of quests around the player's level, and displays volume measurement from quests traveled.

Basing on a player entry (with level, job, current map and inventory/quest/skill data), each generation loads a board of quests that the player is very likely to try. Within the board, quests are selected arbitrarily but in an arranged way, to build a "desirable" path for the player to track.

User input

The MapleQuestAdvisor loads info from "lib/userdata" to predict next quests for the player, using CSV files in 4 flavors:

Character - Pertinent info such as Level, EXP, Job...
Inventory - Items the player has gotten.
Quest - Holds current quest states the player has achieved.
Rates - Environment info, such as ongoing EXP, Meso, Drop rate.

During application use, the user can view several informations regarding current quest prediction:

The HUD Ongoing Quest element, on top of the screen, shows the quest in progress. More information about it can be retrieved from the Book icon.
By selecting an element inside the Resource book, the user is able to quickly reach areas in which the item can be found.
Sift through next quest predictions by quest selecting and pressing the "NEXT" button, or return from with the "BACK" button.

gogogosco / MapleQuestAdvisor