TICKET-012: Refactor LoaderUtils

[FirebrickRed]

Priority: LOW
Status: TODO
Description: 1000+ line utility class doing too much
Acceptance Criteria:

• Split into specialized parsers (Ability, Language, Equipment)
• Remove static methods for better testability
• Consistent error handling
• Reduce complexity per method

[FirebrickRed]

Related Technical Debt Issues:

• Issue TICKET-010: Refactor MenuClickListener #10: Refactor MenuClickListener (498-line god class)
• Issue TICKET-013: Implement Proper Error Handling #13: Implement Proper Error Handling (logging)

These architectural improvements could be done together for consistency.

Note: LoaderUtils.java already has a detailed TODO comment at line 1 outlining the split into AbilityParser, LanguageParser, EquipmentParser, and FeatureParser classes.

[FirebrickRed]

Additional Refactoring Needed

While working on Issue #30, discovered that several loaders use unsafe type casting that should be addressed during this refactor:

Current Problem:

• ItemLoader, WeaponLoader, ArmorLoader use unsafe casts: (String) data.get("field")
• This causes ClassCastException if YAML has wrong type (crashes entire loader)
• No fallback values when fields are missing

Solution During #12 Refactor:

When splitting LoaderUtils into specialized parsers, ensure the base utilities include:

1. Add asBoolean() method (currently missing, see SpellLoader.java:136 TODO)

   public static boolean asBoolean(Object o, boolean def) {
       if (o instanceof Boolean b) return b;
       if (o instanceof String s) return Boolean.parseBoolean(s);
       return def;
   }

2. Refactor these loaders to use safe parsing:

   • ItemLoader.parseItem() (lines 49-54)
   • WeaponLoader.parseWeapon() (lines 56-64)
   • ArmorLoader.parseArmor() (lines 53-58)

3. Benefits:

   • Type mismatches return defaults instead of crashing
   • Consistent error handling across all loaders
   • Better flexibility (asInt handles both numbers and strings)

Example Fix:

// BEFORE (unsafe):
item.setName((String) data.get("name"));

// AFTER (safe):
item.setName(LoaderUtils.asString(data.get("name"), "Unknown Item"));

This ensures one bad YAML value doesn't crash the entire data loading system.