RR Companions Vault, Sorters

Well, I have to say I'm at least somewhat impressed.

Player asked me to update the FOOK2 sorters. I said no. I don't play FOOK2, I don't want anything to do with it. Not only is it a compatibility nightmare, but it does a whole mess of stuff I don't want done to my game.

Said that I'd put the fixed version up if he or someone else wanted to do it, though.

Looks like he picked up my gauntlet. Got a PM, declaring that he had the GECK installed and was going to learn the sorter scripting... and could I give any tips.

Well hell, we've all got to start somewhere.

Truth is, I don't know how to do it, either. I know the theory, but I've never written one. I also know the theory behind a triple bypass operation, but that don't mean you want me cuttin' on your chest with my MOD 875 series folder.

So, I popped one of the existing sorters open in the GECK, and had a look. True to my damnable intuitive grasp of scripting, I immediately identified several problems with ttomwv's original script, and was half way through typing an example into Cipcis' script validator when it occurred to me that I was doing the same thing I always do: throwing my time into a sinkhole of a project I don't like, for people I don't even know. Realizing this, I decided to be slightly more indifferent. Figured up the amount of time it would take me to convey a complete primer required to make someone understand the system of scripts, menus, and tokens I was writing in my head, and deleted the example script right there.

Opted instead to link to some general help posts and the GECK wiki, and offer the same canned advice that was always given to me: "find a script that does what you want, and change it to work on your items". So, I just explained how to rewrite the existing sorter blocks to apply to new items.

Yeah, I'm a dick, I know. But I also don't have the word 'instructor' tattooed across my forehead. I spend too much time doing tech support for people who don't listen as it is.

Personally? I don't see the big damned deal about sorters. Everyone's always yammering on about them... but I think they're a pain in the ass. Instead of just taking what I don't want to carry out of my inventory myself, I run the sorter and it takes EVERYTHING, and I have to go through six containers to get back the stuff I normally carry. Where's the time saver in that?

Still, I wish luck to the intrepid scripter.