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

If you liked this project, please don't forget to star the repo ;) .

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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".

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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.

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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.