Java: Concept for DII related application

A while back I saw this post in the DiabloII.net community forum. I really liked the general concept of what the poster was intending to create and thought it would be rather helpful. At the time I was looking for a new Java oriented project and seriously considered starting my own version since the OP was using .NET programming. I decided against it as I didn't want to start a competition between myself and the OP and take away from what the OP was doing.

However it now appears the OP is a bit absent from continuing this project, that and his/her will only work on Windows computers while Java works on all operating systems. So I've decided to try and write my own similar program as there won't be any competition. I won't be telling anyone on the boards until I have some pieces completed. Some of my goals are a bit different and less ambitious so that I have a chance of actually completing it as well.


Above is a concept draft, if you can read my writing of course, of one of the pages of the planned application. Only general layout of the different pages has been seriously considered with some attention to the needed components. I've decided to write the shell of the program first, then add functionality later. The goals of this project are as follows:

1. Search for any normal, set or unique item and equip it to a character (I'm ignoring cracked/damaged/crude items on purpose).
2. Assign appropriate skills to a character and calculate their associated bonus. Basically a skill planner like the German one.
3. Display the true statistics of this character taking into account equipment worn and skills available, to replace the current LCS.

I know I have to deal with rare, magical and runeword items at some point so future goals are:

4. Be able to roll any rare or magical item as if it were dropped ingame, and then equip it to a character.
5. Be able to create any runeword item, while also choosing the base item, and then equip it to a character.
6. Be able to roll any charm as if it were dropped ingame and then place it in character's stash. This includes the Torch and Annilhus.

Obviously 1-3 are going to be done first before I even attempt 4-6. I have general ideas on how to do each part but I need to perform some research in Java to determine the best method. Specifically I need a better information storing method than text files, as used in the AMAS program. There are simply too many mods that can spawn and far too many possible items for text files alone. I'm sure I'll be living in the Statistics forum for a while as well and getting quite a bit of assistance in that regard (never my strong suit when it comes to games). I know this will be a very long project, so wish me luck.