shinspell - simple spell handler.

[Shin Noir]

The purpose of this tool is handle your spell files if you hop between different emulated servers.

I didn't really plan to release this, as it was just something I threw together in python in like 5 minutes a month or so ago, but figured some people may enjoy it.

Download of source is here: http://gigaplox.com/shinspell.py
Download of EXE form is here: http://gigaplox.com/shinspell.zip

If you have python installed you can actually execute the python source instead.

I forget the dependancy files needed for python exe's, let me know if you have any issues running it.

How to use this:
Copy the file you download to your EQ directory. Run it once. It will create inside your EQ directory a 'spells' subdirectory. Open the subdir, and create a new folder there called something to represent a server. My directory looks like this:

<eqdir>\spells\thf\
<eqdir>\spells\sh\
<eqdir>\spells\tita\

thf is the hidden forest, sh is shadowhaven. tita is my titanium original copy, I use that when visiting new servers.

Go to the server's web site and download their spells_us.txt files, and instead of putting them into<eqdir>, put them in their respective spells subfolder.

<eqdir>\spells\thf\spells_us.txt
<eqdir>\spells\sh\spells_us.txt
<eqdir>\spells\tita\spells_us.txt

Then right click shinspells.exe, and go to create shortcut.
Right click the shortcut and go to rename, calling it a server you want it to link to.
Lastly, right click the shortcut and go to properties. It should open up the window with the Target: field selected. Add to the end after shinspell.exe the name of the folder you created earlier, such as: thf or sh.

So two examples of how it may look, depending on OS version:

C:\Program Files\Everquest\shinspell.exe thf
"C:\Program Files\Everquest\shinspell.exe sh"

(Win XP quotes it I think, Vista/7 don't).

Repeat for each server. Now just drag the shortcuts to your desktop or wherever and run them. The program will copy the spells_us.txt of the custom server into the <eqdir> and start the game up for you.

That's it.

Alternate tip: If you don't specify the the folder to run, it will prompt you in a dos command prompt with a list of options, and you can simply type in the custom spellfile you wish.

I do not know if the client loads the spellfile at all after initial load up. If it does, I do not recommend using this to be on two different servers at the same time. If it does, it should work to allow you to be on as many different servers as you like while using one EQ directory.

I guess I will include something like this on the neoncube patcher one day if needed.

I got an error! How do I report? Python should do a traceback report automatically I can use to debug it, but the program is likely exiting before you can see the error. If you know how to use DOS, you can press Start button, Run, and type in cmd. then type in cd\program files\everquest\, or whatever your EQ directory is, and type in shinspell.exe to execute it. The error will remain after it exits shinspell on the command window for you to copy.