Two suggestions and a correction

[Minkmuff]

Q1: RE :Advanced Search: I know it might be a lot of work, but could you ever make a button to exclude weapons not available to the public.

Q2: I'm dreaming, but it would be really nice if I could save weapons to a list and see how they match up/get through. Items A+B Vs. Items C+D

Also: The CBT is shown as being multiple use. I don't think so, that would be EVIL at lower levels.

[joe10]

In the advanced search, there is a checkbox that reads "Buyable Only" If you check that box, it will only show weapons AVAILABLE to public.  Buyable only does not mean Neopets' definition of under 100,000, it means that the general public can buy it - so check that box.

I like your other idea.

[Shattered Rift]

Crisp Blue Tunic Wrote:Breaks for the battle after draining.

As far as comparing/contrasting, it's up to you and a Notepad file. I'm not sure there'd even be an efficient way to run a compare/contrast via coding.

[rabid_schnauzer]

Minkmuff Wrote:Also: The CBT is shown as being multiple use. I don't think so, that would be EVIL at lower levels.

I could be wrong, but I believe that it is multiple use when use by a pet below 750 Int, that is it can defend two earth and two water icons with unlimited use, but disappears after draining when used by a pet with 750+ intelligence.

[Minkmuff]

Shattered Rift Wrote:

Crisp Blue Tunic Wrote:Breaks for the battle after draining.

As far as comparing/contrasting, it's up to you and a Notepad file. I'm not sure there'd even be an efficient way to run a compare/contrast via coding.

Copying into Notepad is useless, yielding text "Dark DamageDark Damage Dark..."
Copying into Word includes the icons, and a good visual cumulative representation of a set.
I've toyed with Excel, thinking I would enter numbers of icons (magnitude) in 14(!) columns, for each element offense and defense, making my offensive weapons positive numbers, and my defensive negative. I could add two weapons, and have a sum for both together.

For the opposition, I'd do the same, but make their offensive magnitude negative and defensive positive. So basically when I added their my defense to my offense I'd get a number of icons I get through, and when I add their offense to my defense I'd also have a number of icons they were getting though to me.

The problemS come in with total elemental defense: One can't have a negative "All" or use "All" as a number in a simple spreadsheet. And with variable weapons: Do I want to use minimum or average? For my side, own I'd go with minimum, but for the opposition, I'd prefer maximum, giving a worse case scenario.

I dunno... I wish there was an easier way is all.

[Shattered Rift]

I never said to copy it into Notepad. Rather, my implication was to type numerical values in (4 Dark rather than Dark, Dark, Dark, Dark). And not all of us know how to use Excel, so I can't help you with an effective way to manage it there.

By the sounds of it, you might be overthinking the Battle Dome more than most of us do.

[rabid_schnauzer]

While my Excel-fu is weak, I believe that you could represent full blocking by just copying the whatever value you have from the offense cel and multiplying that by -1.

If you're going to that much trouble, you should account for[/align] boost multipliers too, since you're not always fighting against pets with Def boost == Your Str Boost and vice versa.

[joe10]

I have a few spreadsheets that I keep pretty in-depth about different weapons and different shields.
I just set it up like this
-----------WEAPON NAME Price Icons Burrow Sink Air Dark Earth Fire Light Phys Water MISC NOTES
Fungus Ray 1,400,000 11 3 4 0 3 4 0 0 0 5

I do that for all of the weapons I feel threatened by and then I have another list down below for shields and it is set up basically the same way.  Then, when I want to compare like how many icons get through GShield or FTabard or Leaf Shiled, I can just then put a new row as "Ghoskershield 7,600,000 x x x 3 999 5 0 3 5 0"
But instead of 999, I would set it to whatever dark Fungus Ray does (make the cell =R16 or whatever cell it is)
Then I would either just look or subtract the different columns.
If I then wanted to compare a different weapon to GShield, I could just paste over the Fungus Ray with the new weapon and then since I had "=R16", it would automatically change everything.

To enter different weapons in, I just do it manually - it is not very hard to just go "0tab3tab4tab0tab0tab0tab5" and then it's already in numerical form and everything - ready to go.

This is how I set it up:

That shows what mine generally looks like, but theres different columns for Defenders and another for Dual-Duties (where I have two rows for each weapon, one in blue that is defense and the other black that is offense).

This picture shows one of my comparison sections:

When I want to change fungus ray, I just paste another weapon into the spot where it is - just copy the icons I have on my main list (above) and it will automatically figure it out for that weapon - as you see I have the GShield's dark set as "=R16" so that it just picks up whatever weapon's dark amount is when I'm testing.
You may also notice that for icons through it says "0 0 0 0 0 0 5" with no negatives... this next picture shows that function:


You will see here that I have the bottom row set as a very simple IF command.
Basically it is saying "If Ghostkershield's air minus Fungus Ray's air is less than zero, make it zero... if not, then make it what it is (make it GS air - FR air)"
That way, you get no negatives when you are adding up all of the icons through at the far right... which uses an even simpler "=sum(x)" where x is all of the rows seperated by commas (you can just drag).

I hope that helps...

EDIT:
If you don't want to have to bother at all with a shield that blocks all of one icon, you can just put 999 as the number of icons that shield defends.
Look at this picture, I am comparing 2 weapons to 2 shields:

You can see that I changed the IF statement for this one.  I have it set so that it first adds the total icon type from BOTH weapons and then subtracts that from the total defending of that icon from both of the shields.  You will also notice that I just put 999 as the number of dark the GShield defends.  If you think back to the IF statement, you will know that if something is less than 0, it will go to zero.  Well there are no weapons in neopets that do over 999 dark, so it will always be less than 0.  I could have just added the two weapons' dark together and made that the dark, but 999 might be easier.
PS: That same table above works if you simply delete one of the shields or one of the weapons, nothing changes.
PS2: Also note that if you want to see what you(main attacker + shield) would match up against an opponent(main attacker + shield), you can simply do what I showed you up top twice.. once for your total offensive and then once for their's.

I can also post a comparison of some dual-duties +- shields +- regular attackers if you want...


EDIT2: As for your other question, I simply always use the average.  If no average is stated and there are maybe 5 random icons, I will just divide that number by 2 and use that.  If it has a decimal, I will round up or down depending if I am comparing as an opponent or as me.  I don't think using maximums for opponents is a good idea unless you are doing the very worst case scenario (maybe if you're low on health and risking an all-out bomb).  In that case, just change the number manually to the maximum and leave it at the average for yourself.