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Tulkas, the strongest and most warlike 'Champion of the Valar.'
Introducing the Tulkas plugin for LotRO, v.2.
What is Tulkas?
Tulkas is a plugin to help with itemisation. Through the built-in database of over 60,000 items, you can search by name, set name, item level, class, type, stats, and quality to find the items you need. Items can then be compared or added to hypothetical builds to preview the stat changes. Should an item be missing or entered incorrectly, Tulkas makes it easy for you to edit or add new items.
Why should I use Tulkas?
If like me, you often find yourself overwhelmed with the choices in equipment and uncertain in which to take, using Tulkas will help you determine which item will closer realise your stat ambitions, whether that be for a greater physical/tactical mastery rating, in-combat power regen, or just more morale etc. Tulkas breaks the stats down and converts them into the actual stats you would see if you were to equip that item. Case example: You are crafting a new cloak for yourself but with the different outputs, you aren't sure which one you would prefer. Load up Tulkas, search for the cloaks and add them to the compare bar, then hit the compare button.
You can also use Tulkas to preview entire builds, helping you get a better idea of which items you really want to go after.
Installation and loading:
Extract the zip file to your plugin directory. It should be as follows:
C:\Users\<yourname>\Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online\Plugins\GaluhadPlugins\
You can load Tulkas in-game by either using the load command:
/plugins load tulkas or through the plugin manager.
Note: You will also need the Turbine scripts which are included with the download. Please move the 'Turbine' folder up one level.
Current languages included: English, Russian
Not yet translated: French, German
If Tulkas has loaded correctly you will see the Tulkas icon in the top left corner. This can be dragged around the screen to a position that you prefer. Double click the icon to access the Tulkas menu.
Features and how to use them:
Search Items
With v.2 the search window has been completely revamped. You can perform a simple search for an item by name or set name, or alternatively use the advanced search features to filter precisely the type of items you are looking for. You are now also able to search for alternate classes and armour types (light/medium/heavy) without restriction. You can search for multiple item types and quality types at once and Tulkas will return all items that match within the search parameters. However, Tulkas will only return items that match all selected stats, so if you get no search results try reducing the amount of stats selected.
For example, the above search will return all items between level 59 and 63 of type necklace, earring, ring or bracelet that are of quality rare, incomparable or legendary and with stats might and vitality.
There have been a number of improvements to the way the database and searching are handled in v.2, users will see a noticeable decrease in search times.
The search window will scale depending on screensize to occupy a larger space, making it easier to display multiple results at a time. Results are paginated to reduce load.
You will find a tiled list of items, displayed with the key item information. The icons work as normal and can be used for trying on an item in the dressing room or linking the item to the current chat channel.
At the bottom of each item result you have a set of buttons.
1) Item Options - Menu for edit item or edit set/add to set
2) Add Item to Build - Menu of build names to apply the item to
3) Compare Item - Adds the item to the compare bar (this will drop down from the top of the screen when items are added).
4) Bookmark Item - Save the item in your bookmarks to come back to later.
Compare Items/Builds
You are able to compare items individually or entire builds - however you cannot compare an item of one type (e.g. earring) to an item of another type (e.g. bracelet).
Items can be added for compare from the search results window. Builds are added through the builds window.
When an item or build is added, the compare bar drops down from the top of the screen. You are able to add multiple items for comparison, but must set one as being equipped (right-click on the item label in the compare bar). If you have set your equipped items in the build window, Tulkas will pull your equipped item automatically. Tip: You can set/update your equipped items at any time using the command
/tulkas equipment.
The compare window gives the stat breakdown for the selected items/builds. You are able to switch stat calculations between classes if needed.
Bookmarks
Items can be bookmarked for future reference. This can be done at a number of places within the plugin through pressing the star button (bookmarked items will have a yellow star).
You can view your bookmarked items either from the main menu, or by pressing the bookmark button in the search panel on the main search window. Unlike previous versions of Tulkas, you can no longer make notes for these items.
Builds
The builds window now displays the item info controls instead of item names. It was designed to closely resemble the character panel in-game.
As items are added to the build, the stat contributions for a selection of stats are calculated at the side of the window. This will make it easier when jumping between tabs to get a fast overview. Items are added to builds through the search results.
You can rename all builds except the equipped build, which Tulkas will always handle as being the build that holds your currently equipped items. You can update your equipped items using the 'Get Equipment' button. This will open a new window with instructions on how to load your items into the build. This button only appears on the equipped page, but you can copy builds from one to another. Note: Tulkas only stores information on the main stats, so you will find quite often that most set-bonuses will appear empty. This is not an error, just a design decision not to include things like "Skill x has a 25% chance to do z".
Item Editor
Items cannot be added to Tulkas without an ID. The only way to get a valid ID is through linking the items to a chat channel and filtering it, importing a list of IDs, or via the item scanner (see below). Tulkas will log all items linked to any of the chat channels (this can be disabled). Items scanned from the chat logs will be added to the list on the Edit Items window where they can be selected. Each item will have an indicator as to whether it already exists in the Tulkas database.
You can import a list of items through a string of item IDs. This was designed to be used alongside
Item Treasury, which can output a string of IDs from selected items. Tulkas will check each ID to see if a valid item exists from it, if it does then the item will be added to your saved items list where it can be edited.
With 2.0.2 you can edit multiple items at once using 'Edit Group.' Any changes made will be applied to all selected items, making it easier to modify multiple items of similar types. Variances in level, class, slot and quality are ignored on group edit if they are left blank, meaning existing data won't be overwritten.
Your locally saved items will be listed on the left. Please help the community by exporting any saved items you have so the database can be kept updated.
Filling in the rest of the information is pretty straight-forward.
Set Editor
Sets can be created or edited through the set editor. To edit an existing set, you must select 'Edit Set' from an item in the set from the search results page. To create a new set, you must add items by selecting 'Add to Set' from the item in the search results page. These are the only ways to bring up a set or add to one.
Items belonging to the set will be displayed, you can remove an item by right-clicking on it and selecting remove.
Bonuses are easily added. You will only be able to add bonuses for the main stats. Skill bonuses and so on aren't included.
Item Scanner
When Turbine release a new update, it will be a while before Tulkas is updated. The item scanner will allow you to scroll through all the items that exist in the game to help find anything that is missing.
The scanner searches one ID at a time, if an item exists at that ID then it will be displayed. There will be a green light in the corner if the item already exists in the Tulkas database, and a red light if not. You can select items while scrolling through the pages and add any selected at the end (or however frequent you want). When you start a scan, Tulkas will automatically save the next starting location for you. There's over 250,000 possible IDs so I recommend taking the scans in steps.
Where do the items come from?
Unfortunately it is not possible yet with the LoTRO API to pull item stats directly from the game, therefore the plugin relies on a built-in database listing all the items and their properties. Maintaining the database is a huge task which is not possible without the help of the community. Turbine are frequently making changes to stats, or adding/removing items which results in discrepancies in Tulkas. If you need to make any adjustments to an item/set please export all your changes and paste them here. It will make maintaining the database a lot easier.
Commands:- /tulkas - Shows/hides the menu icon
- /tulkas <id/name> - Performs a search using the given item ID or item/set name
- /tulkas scan <start ID> - Opens the item scanner window and begins a new scan from the given item ID
- /tulkas equipment - Opens the 'Get Equipment' window for updating your equipped build
I would like to say a special thank you to the following:
-DToX for maintaining Tulkas v1 and the item database along with a few others from the Russian Community.
-Equendil for the Item Links Decoding script for instanced items.
-Garan for AddCallBack function and always being so quick to offer help when I ask.
Please do let me know if you have any comments, suggestions or requests. Thanks
Lastly, make sure you add to favourites so you can see when there have been database updates.
Change Log:
v.2.1.1 - 25.05.14
- 'All' option is now working for class and armour type dropdowns.
- Some item changes in the database (thanks DToX).
v.2.1.0 - 27.04.14
- Added Update 13 items (thanks again to DToX for providing these).
- Changed stat calculations for each class in-line with Update 13.
- Vindar Patch readded to prevent issues with saving/loading number values.
- Searches now strip accents from item/set names to make searching easier - code borrowed from Garan.
- Searching by name will now part-match each word entered into the search box. e.g. 'dex fin' will find things like 'Greater Dextrous Cloak of Finesse'.
- Add an 'All' option to the class and armour type dropdowns in advanced search.
- Item scanner now has buttons to jump ahead/back 10 pages at a time.
- Fixed an error in the code that caused armour values in the compare window contributing stats to always show as 0.
- Added a search text box to the items window, making it easier to find edited/added items.
- A number of tweaks made to accomodate Russian translations.
v.2.0.2 - 03.03.14
- You can now edit multiple items at the same time in the item editor. All items selected will be saved with matching data.
- Added option to import items from a string of IDs. Tulkas will check the game for matches to each ID, if an item exists then it will be stored in your saved items list where it can be edited.
- Added new ranged weapon category - rifflers.
- Added instruments, chisels and rifflers to the database.
- Added buttons to the item scanner so you can select only the missing items, or reset by selecting none.
- Scanned items list now has an 'Add All' button.
v.2.0.1 - 26.02.14
- Fixed an error that prevented items being compared when the equipped build wasn't set.
- Fixed an error that caused empty ID tables in the database to bug out when searching.
v2.0.0 - 26.02.14
- All parts of this plugin have been completely re-written, and users will benefit from a vast improvement in speed when loading and searching.
- Database has undergone some major changes resulting in a 40% reduction in file size. Support has been added for translation of all item names and set names into French, German and Russian.
- Database updated to include all Helm's Deep items (Thanks to DToX and the Russian community).
- All strings are now translatable into French, German and Russian - nothing is hard-coded - however all translations from version 1 have been lost.
- Bigger, less cluttered search window - scales depending on screen size.
- Simple search bar at the top for item/set name, advanced options displayed only when button pressed.
- Option to select class and armour type in advanced search.
- Added support for Instruments and Chisels in ranged weapons (though at this time, I've yet to add any to the database).
- Ability to select multiple item types, stats, and item qualities in advanced search (for example, you could perform a search for earring, necklace, bracelet and ring, with stats vitality and will).
- History of most recent searches.
- Paginated results.
- Option to sort results by item type, item name, minimum level, or item quality.
- Option to edit any item.
- Option to edit any set/add item to an existing set
- Functioning ItemInfoControls in search results, no more greyed out quickslots. These ItemInfoControls will allow you to link the item to chat or try it on as any normal item.
- Compare item/build feature can now compare more items/builds than the existing three.
- Compare results has added options for each item to bookmark, or to remove from the compare results.
- Tooltips added to each line of the compare results so it's easier to identify stat variances further along the grid.
- Compare results now displays variance as a percentage as well as the actual value.
- Builds window has been revamped and looks much neater.
- Builds are no longer fixed to the three existing, you can add many more and delete as needed.
- ItemInfoControls are used to display items in each slot in the build instead of the item name (displays the same as the character panel).
- Each build tab shows some basic stat contributions for that build without going through the compare window (eg. Morale, Power, Armour, Might, Vitality etc.)
- Build items can still be copied to other builds / cleared.
- Added a list button to each build tab, when clicked all items in the build will be listed in the chat window. This can be copied to wherever else you may want to store it.
- Adding new items now requires an item ID. To ensure that this is not missing, the only way to add a new item is through scanned channels or the new scanned items feature (more below).
- Scanned items will now always return the item ID, even when from an item instance (Thanks Equendil).
- Channel scans are no longer restricted to a selected channel, when enabled the plugin will take any items linked through all channel.
- Scanned items are displayed in a list of recent scans, making it easier to link multiple items at once.
- Scanned items display an icon showing whether the item exists in the Tulkas database already.
- When adding/editing an item, the item ID cannot be edited. An ItemInfoControl is displayed alongside to verify the item ID.
- Field added for item level.
- Saved items can be selected for export/delete as before.
- Set editor has been introduced. Where sets are missing you can add items to a new set and add any set bonuses. You can also edit existing sets where the game has been updated but Tulkas has not.
- Item ID Scanner has been introduced (more for admin use). This will allow you to search through each possible ID to look for items that are missing from the Tulkas database. Where an item exists at an ID location, the name will be returned and displayed. Items that exist in Tulkas will have a green box, items that don't exist in Tulkas a red box. Items can be selected and added to the database. This will be useful when new updates are released from Turbine in finding the latest items.