Sometimes I'm really bad with acronyms. Okay, maybe most of the time. Reading any in-depth SWTOR guides written by players of the faction opposite of what I was playing at the time was like trying to read a foreign language, and I had to have a reference site open in another tab just to frequently look up skill names. For that reason, I scripted this search-and-replace tool to help with the "translation" process, allowing to you input an arbitrary block of text and have all of the selected class's skill and talent names translated to its mirror faction equivalent. It even takes it a step further by adding corresponding skill tooltips for your reference.
How To Use
- Input the text you would like to "translate" into the Input textarea box. The text can include HTML tags.
- Click on the name of the advanced class that you're translating from (i.e. the class whose skills are named in the input text), so that the tool knows for which class skills to search.
- Click the now-active Convert button.
How It Works
At the most fundamental level, this tool is just a fancy way of performing a lot of search and replace actions.
What Search Terms Are Loaded
When you click the "Convert" button, the tool will load a list of terms (skill names, talent names, talent tree names, and other phrases) related to the selected advanced class and its base class for searching. This also includes shorthands and acronyms I've seen used* for each term (although there are a few reserved acronyms like CD = cooldown and CC = crowd control, that are not used, e.g. Corrosive Dart does not have the acronym CD, to avoid confusion in the translated text).
A basic set of search terms (class names, skill names) for all other advanced classes and base classes of the selected faction is also loaded for comprehensiveness. So, for example, text that references basic abilities of a Commando will still be translatable even if you've selected the Gunslinger. Shorthands but not acronyms for these terms are loaded. No talents for these other classes are loaded either, including talented abilities (although this may change in a future update).
Acronyms
Acronyms typically must be capitalized for the translator to process them as such (with a few exceptions, like HiB = High Impact Bolt and DfA = Death from Above, which are case insensitive). For example, "FA" is Full Auto (when a Trooper advanced class is selected), but "fa" is ignored. Not every term has an acronym associated with it, only abilities that are often referenced, such as activated skills.
Spelling
A skill name has to be spelled correctly for the search to match terms (case insensitive), with a few minor exceptions:
- There are a few skill names that are "plural", but frequently incorrectly written in the singular. For example, "Wounding Shots" is sometimes incorrectly written as "Wounding Shot", but the tool will match either.
- There are a few skill names that are a single word, but often incorrectly written as two words. For example, "Backblast" is sometimes incorrectly written as "Back Blast", but the tool will match either.
- Irregular spacing between words in a skill name will not affect a match, so
"Sucker Punch" and "Sucker Punch" will both be matched.
HTML Tags
The tool preserves HTML tags. So, for example, if you input <a href="some-url.com/trooper/etc">some trooper text<a>, then the translated output would be <a href="some-url.com/trooper/etc">some Bounty Hunter text<a>.
Compatibility
Requires JavaScript to be enabled in your browser (like the rest of this site!). Tested in Google Chrome 24.0.1312.52, Mozilla Firefox 18.0.1, and Internet Explorer 9.
Looking Ahead
Originally, I conceptualized this mirror skill translator tool as a browser plugin that allows you to "translate" skill names to their faction mirror equivalent in any web page you were browsing. I hope to eventually produce something in that format, but for this first version, I'm going to keep it simple, and then add bells and whistles in future iterations.
I have been working on an auto-suggest/auto-complete lookup search field to inspect the dictionary used by the search-and-replace. It would probably complement the functionality of the translator tool well as a quick means of searching partial names, acronyms and shorthands to get the full ability name or correct spelling. Added in version 1.2.
Adding support of SWTOR-Spy tooltips (an option between that and TORhead) might be nice.
Another feature that might be nice to add eventually is heat ← → ammo numerical value conversion.
Version History
- 1.2 - February 20, 2013
- 1.1 - February 7, 2013
- 1.0 - February 5, 2013 (Initial Release)