There have been many fitting tools put together for DUST 514. And while they have been quite good and useful, they have mostly been Google Docs spreadsheets. Plus, there were additional hangups with having exact item stats and the like. But G Torq has been working on a new fitting tool and has released it into open beta.Dust.Thang.Dk is looking to become the premiere fitting tool for DUST 514!
History
Earlier this year, G Torq decided he needed a small hobby project to keep his mind sharp and maintain skills he doesn’t use in his regular work. Playing DUST, he had seen the aforementioned Google Docs-based fitting tools, but they seemed awkward to him and initially didn’t include skills or reviewing items (though this has since been remedied). They were functional and colorful, but not always immediately intuitive.
From this, he decided to try his hand at creating a simple website for creating and sharing fittings, as well as tracking your merc’s skills. It would be a challenge, as he had not really done any programming for almost a decade and it would require using an assortment of skills. A “core” feature he wanted to include was to show various statistics regarding fittings, such as stats that are not directly available in game or that could be extended upon (such as EHP and actual DPS).
During this development, CCP released the first CREST interfaces for Planetary Conquest. Eventually, Torq decided that he could help get a static data export by hinting at his project to CCP employees. He began sharing screenshots of the project with CCP employees on IRC and when 1.7 hit, locked down the site hoping the export would be coming soon.
Of course, that didn’t happen immediately, but a SDE did come! Once that was released, he began to implement it into his tool.
Process
The site and toll are built using a small selection of languages, toolkits, etc. MySQL DMBS with PhpMyAdmin for managing the database, PHP as the backend language, Bootstrap and jQuery for the client-side functionality and UI, Select2 for searching for items, Datatables.js for listing and searching skills, JSON for (some of) the data exchanges, and the EVE Static Data Export for the initial data seed.
For most of the work, he used Aptana-Studio 3 to develop in and FireFox (Aurora) for testing. He used Android 2.3 phones and an iPad2 to test elements of the Responsive UI provided by bootstrap and I’ve used his phone to successfully create a fitting.
An early version was seeded using a mixture of the data from the EVE SDE, which Fuzzysteve had converted to more practical formats, and exports from the spreadsheet-fitting tools, most notable from hydraSlav.
Against common sense, he decided to not build a separate development environment, so when changes are being made, they (and their bugs and debug output) show up briefly. Once the codebase has matured, he is likely to get around to creating a development & test setup.
He has done work in PHP from past freelance jobs, including some from a marketing company many moons ago. He is familiar with DBMSes from his work (though not MySQL specifically). The rest were either suggested to him or found while googling.
For things he was not familiar with, he engaged the #DUST514 IRC channel on Coldfront.net in the process by sharing ideas, screenshots, early access, and getting feedback and suggestions from people that would be potential users or even “competitors”. It was through this process that the use of Bootstrap and JSON were decided and where he managed to get some help with the Javascript and jQuery functions on the site.
As other developers were facing similar questions, he created a sister-channel on IRC called #Dust-Dev, where people could join and specifically discuss challenges and ideas or ask for help regarding all things related to 3rd party development for DUST.
One interesting conundrum was how to handle logins. He heard CCP was working on an OAuth-based authentication process for EVE and DUST, but as little information was available, he opted to use an interim solution by employing Google’s OAuth2 API. As a result, access currently requires a Google account, but he hopes future migration will be relatively trivial.
A current challenge is to decide how to handle some of the unusual data seen in the SDE, such as the excessive slows on vehicles. While there are reasons for doing this, from an outside point of view it is not immediately helpful.
Future
Torq doesn’t have any particular time frame for when the tool will leave beta. He strongly doubts there will be a point when he declares it done and complete, as there will always be something needed or some place that can be improved.
The main features he is looking at is being able to create a fitting and get statistics based on it. As a base-line, he decided this would include:
Registering a DUST character.
Registering current skills for each character.
Create fittings for each character
Get EHP, DPS, and other basic statistics for each fitting
List skills required by the fitting
Manage a skill-queue, driven by fittings
Allow browsing equipment
Allow 3rd party access to the SDE via JSON
For future features, he’s started working on sharing fittings, both publicly and within a corporation. Corps being able to have good base fittings they can share with new members, and the tool currently allowing you to queue skills based on fittings, would help get rookies the skills and gear they need, fast.
He also plans on improving the skill queue functionality to better show needed skill points, especially for fittings, while the general UI for skills is also planned to be polished. Corp functionality in general is a big open gap, though he’s disinclined to put much more work in it as he finds the current APIs available to not suit his desires and he prefers to have it all automated rather than having the users maintain data.
One desired functionality he wants it to be able to get a report on a simulated encounter between 2 fittings. For instance, which one would be more efficient (damage vs HP vs rangers) or more valuable (intel, equipment, etc), but this will be after some of the polish around the fittings-statistics. Rucdoc of Dust514Stats.com has already begun some work in this area and has publicly shared his code, so it’s ultimately a matter of implementing it.
About G Torq
In DUST, Torq says he likes to do things wrong. In Chromosome he specced for TARs and armor-tanked suits, while prior to Uprising 1.7, he specialized in Logistics LAVs and spider-tanking for HAVs. Some of the most fun he’s had was when frantically trying to keep an HAV alive or spidering for 2 HAVs while repping infantry.
With the recent changes, he’s had to find something else wrong to do. He’s been having fun gunning from dropships, as well as disassembling enemy HAVs using various explosive devices. He looks forward to eventually having PvE missions in DUST.
He is also the owner of the #Dust-Dev IRC channel, the cofounder of NewEden-Dev.com, and a moderator for the Dust514 Beta community on Google+.
In real life, he’s a project manager working in supply chain management for the largest provider of IT solutions in SCM (he jokes it’s sort of EVE Online without the spaceships and shooting). He’s done projects on 4 continents, from Botswana to the UK, Mexico to China, and lots of places in between.
Besides that, he’s a dad with two small girls, meaning juggling time between work, school runs, and games also requires negotiating with the kids for who gets to use the PS2 when and for what. Being a multilingual family (he, his wife, and kids all use separate languages) makes for some entertaining times and playing games with other players from around the globe means he gets to practice a small variety of languages when coming across people from other places.
Final Thoughts
Torq would encourage anyone interested in DUST 514 to visit the various 3rd party sites, such as Dust514Stats.com by Rucdor or DustReports.com by Brushmaster. There are also several other fitting tools being developed, such as hydraSlave’s. Anyone who has been hit by an orbital strike in FW would go to zKillboard and look for the killmail describing the violent end to their clone.
For those interested in developing 3rd party tools and sites for DUST 514 and EVE Online (and eventually EVE Valkyrie), he recommends visiting NewEven-Dev’s website and chat channel, as well as reading the DUST514 SDE Primer he wrote on the forum.
Those interested in the tool can visit the website or their official forum threadhere.
History
Earlier this year, G Torq decided he needed a small hobby project to keep his mind sharp and maintain skills he doesn’t use in his regular work. Playing DUST, he had seen the aforementioned Google Docs-based fitting tools, but they seemed awkward to him and initially didn’t include skills or reviewing items (though this has since been remedied). They were functional and colorful, but not always immediately intuitive.
From this, he decided to try his hand at creating a simple website for creating and sharing fittings, as well as tracking your merc’s skills. It would be a challenge, as he had not really done any programming for almost a decade and it would require using an assortment of skills. A “core” feature he wanted to include was to show various statistics regarding fittings, such as stats that are not directly available in game or that could be extended upon (such as EHP and actual DPS).
During this development, CCP released the first CREST interfaces for Planetary Conquest. Eventually, Torq decided that he could help get a static data export by hinting at his project to CCP employees. He began sharing screenshots of the project with CCP employees on IRC and when 1.7 hit, locked down the site hoping the export would be coming soon.
Of course, that didn’t happen immediately, but a SDE did come! Once that was released, he began to implement it into his tool.
Process
The site and toll are built using a small selection of languages, toolkits, etc. MySQL DMBS with PhpMyAdmin for managing the database, PHP as the backend language, Bootstrap and jQuery for the client-side functionality and UI, Select2 for searching for items, Datatables.js for listing and searching skills, JSON for (some of) the data exchanges, and the EVE Static Data Export for the initial data seed.
For most of the work, he used Aptana-Studio 3 to develop in and FireFox (Aurora) for testing. He used Android 2.3 phones and an iPad2 to test elements of the Responsive UI provided by bootstrap and I’ve used his phone to successfully create a fitting.
An early version was seeded using a mixture of the data from the EVE SDE, which Fuzzysteve had converted to more practical formats, and exports from the spreadsheet-fitting tools, most notable from hydraSlav.
Against common sense, he decided to not build a separate development environment, so when changes are being made, they (and their bugs and debug output) show up briefly. Once the codebase has matured, he is likely to get around to creating a development & test setup.
He has done work in PHP from past freelance jobs, including some from a marketing company many moons ago. He is familiar with DBMSes from his work (though not MySQL specifically). The rest were either suggested to him or found while googling.
For things he was not familiar with, he engaged the #DUST514 IRC channel on Coldfront.net in the process by sharing ideas, screenshots, early access, and getting feedback and suggestions from people that would be potential users or even “competitors”. It was through this process that the use of Bootstrap and JSON were decided and where he managed to get some help with the Javascript and jQuery functions on the site.
As other developers were facing similar questions, he created a sister-channel on IRC called #Dust-Dev, where people could join and specifically discuss challenges and ideas or ask for help regarding all things related to 3rd party development for DUST.
One interesting conundrum was how to handle logins. He heard CCP was working on an OAuth-based authentication process for EVE and DUST, but as little information was available, he opted to use an interim solution by employing Google’s OAuth2 API. As a result, access currently requires a Google account, but he hopes future migration will be relatively trivial.
A current challenge is to decide how to handle some of the unusual data seen in the SDE, such as the excessive slows on vehicles. While there are reasons for doing this, from an outside point of view it is not immediately helpful.
Future
Torq doesn’t have any particular time frame for when the tool will leave beta. He strongly doubts there will be a point when he declares it done and complete, as there will always be something needed or some place that can be improved.
The main features he is looking at is being able to create a fitting and get statistics based on it. As a base-line, he decided this would include:
Registering a DUST character.
Registering current skills for each character.
Create fittings for each character
Get EHP, DPS, and other basic statistics for each fitting
List skills required by the fitting
Manage a skill-queue, driven by fittings
Allow browsing equipment
Allow 3rd party access to the SDE via JSON
For future features, he’s started working on sharing fittings, both publicly and within a corporation. Corps being able to have good base fittings they can share with new members, and the tool currently allowing you to queue skills based on fittings, would help get rookies the skills and gear they need, fast.
He also plans on improving the skill queue functionality to better show needed skill points, especially for fittings, while the general UI for skills is also planned to be polished. Corp functionality in general is a big open gap, though he’s disinclined to put much more work in it as he finds the current APIs available to not suit his desires and he prefers to have it all automated rather than having the users maintain data.
One desired functionality he wants it to be able to get a report on a simulated encounter between 2 fittings. For instance, which one would be more efficient (damage vs HP vs rangers) or more valuable (intel, equipment, etc), but this will be after some of the polish around the fittings-statistics. Rucdoc of Dust514Stats.com has already begun some work in this area and has publicly shared his code, so it’s ultimately a matter of implementing it.
About G Torq
In DUST, Torq says he likes to do things wrong. In Chromosome he specced for TARs and armor-tanked suits, while prior to Uprising 1.7, he specialized in Logistics LAVs and spider-tanking for HAVs. Some of the most fun he’s had was when frantically trying to keep an HAV alive or spidering for 2 HAVs while repping infantry.
With the recent changes, he’s had to find something else wrong to do. He’s been having fun gunning from dropships, as well as disassembling enemy HAVs using various explosive devices. He looks forward to eventually having PvE missions in DUST.
He is also the owner of the #Dust-Dev IRC channel, the cofounder of NewEden-Dev.com, and a moderator for the Dust514 Beta community on Google+.
In real life, he’s a project manager working in supply chain management for the largest provider of IT solutions in SCM (he jokes it’s sort of EVE Online without the spaceships and shooting). He’s done projects on 4 continents, from Botswana to the UK, Mexico to China, and lots of places in between.
Besides that, he’s a dad with two small girls, meaning juggling time between work, school runs, and games also requires negotiating with the kids for who gets to use the PS2 when and for what. Being a multilingual family (he, his wife, and kids all use separate languages) makes for some entertaining times and playing games with other players from around the globe means he gets to practice a small variety of languages when coming across people from other places.
Final Thoughts
Torq would encourage anyone interested in DUST 514 to visit the various 3rd party sites, such as Dust514Stats.com by Rucdor or DustReports.com by Brushmaster. There are also several other fitting tools being developed, such as hydraSlave’s. Anyone who has been hit by an orbital strike in FW would go to zKillboard and look for the killmail describing the violent end to their clone.
For those interested in developing 3rd party tools and sites for DUST 514 and EVE Online (and eventually EVE Valkyrie), he recommends visiting NewEven-Dev’s website and chat channel, as well as reading the DUST514 SDE Primer he wrote on the forum.
Those interested in the tool can visit the website or their official forum threadhere.
