Character Planner/ Custom Paths

[Uska]

I like the thought of adding some type of utility that would allow you to "upload" a custom path for your characters during character creation. Instead of having the pre-designed paths you upload your own path. The only issue I would have is the ever changing enhancements and feats that could have an impact on your build which would make your pre-designed path now outdated. This is easily fixed with the use of the external character builders (Ron's and DDO Character Builder Lite) when they get updated. If there is a way to "create your own" and just load all the abilities, feats, and skills then that would be interesting. However, you would have to go over the issue of tomes as well.

I see this as being a neat feature but I'm not sure it is really needed. Unless of course this coding would be much less complicated than I'm already thinking.

That is my issue with the dev time it would take a like of work to do this especailly like the OP wants he wants it to be customizable I dont know if they could even do so but if so it wouild take a lot of work I am sure.

[Infinitedrift]

For it: (9)
Davmuzi
Ellis Dee 37
Coyopa
Unbongwa
Ron
Zaswal
FrancisP.Fancypants
Erdrique
Infinitedrift

Against it: (3)
DDOKILLINGMACHINE
Uska
Moomooprincess

On the fence:
Drakos? (likes idea, thinks dev waste of time) Seems like a majority to me. More comments would be telling, though (by players who haven't commented yet, of course)

[Drakos]

I cant see it even bringing 10% of the cost back. I see it as a waste of dev time better spent on content, bug fixes and lag

Ok, I wasn't saying that is should be done. In fact I said in an earlier post that I think the limited dev time would be better put to other things. I was just trying to illustrate the potential benefit over the free planners. I will say that I think it could generate more revenue that the cost to implement it. I know a lot of people planning for completionist would love it (I don't generally TR characters myself). I believe I would buy it, for the convenience, if it was made. Also, based on what I have observed over the 9+ years of this game the FotM crowd would love this feature, especially if designs were shareable.

[Infinitedrift]

Ok, I wasn't saying that is should be done. In fact I said in an earlier post that I think the limited dev time would be better put to other things. I was just trying to illustrate the potential benefit over the free planners. I will say that I think it could generate more revenue that the cost to implement it. I know a lot of people planning for completionist would love it (I don't generally TR characters myself). I believe I would buy it, for the convenience, if it was made. Also, based on what I have observed over the 9+ years of this game the FotM crowd would love this feature, especially if designs were shareable.

This is precisely why I suggested the idea; this is something that I would consider desirable, and I believe many other players would desire. Thanks for the input Drakos

[Coyopa]

Even if this cost me $20, it would be money well-spent (for me). I have enough characters and I like TR'ing enough that I would get lots and lots of use out of this. I've shared a couple of my builds with friends and it would have been even easier to do that had I had something like this. I think a $10 price point is probably the most that they could reasonably ask for this, and I think a $5 price point would probably maximize their return on investment.

[Xenich]

35 views and no responses? This idea sucks? This idea is awesome? Feedback?

Why not just load a virtual machine of a version of windows. Problem solved.

[Coyopa]

Why not just load a virtual machine of a version of windows. Problem solved.

Loading a virtual machine with Windows on it will help him figure out what things work/stack together on a druid?

[Xenich]

I cant see it even bringing 10% of the cost back. I see it as a waste of dev time better spent on content, bug fixes and lag

Pretty much.

Most people are using Windows already (or have access to a machine that has windows).

Most people can get a hold of windows free and use the free VPC to install it in a VM.

Then there is the solution of using WINE which I believe also supports MAC and may be a solution for the application to run.

Point is... there are numerous solutions for the OP to achieve a reasonable solution without having the developers waste money and time providing a tool that most don't have trouble accessing anyway.

/shrug

[Xenich]

Loading a virtual machine with Windows on it will help him figure out what things work/stack together on a druid?

No, loading a VM with windows will allow him to run the windows character planner application that won't run on his MAC.

Was my comment confusing or something?

This was his comment " Someone suggested to me that I use a character planner, but the one he gave me a link to does not work on mac. "

[Xenich]

Ok, I wasn't saying that is should be done. In fact I said in an earlier post that I think the limited dev time would be better put to other things. I was just trying to illustrate the potential benefit over the free planners. I will say that I think it could generate more revenue that the cost to implement it. I know a lot of people planning for completionist would love it (I don't generally TR characters myself). I believe I would buy it, for the convenience, if it was made. Also, based on what I have observed over the 9+ years of this game the FotM crowd would love this feature, especially if designs were shareable.

This: http://www.rjcyberware.com/DDO/

Has been around for a while and I think he keeps it fairly up to date. You can even print and paste the formatted output as well as share the files themselves.

[raznorw]

Custom paths with autoleveling? Easier ETRs? Sign me up!

I've definitely paper-napkined a build, started leveling it up, only to discover I forgot to account for some stat or BAB requirement on a feat. Whoops. You'd think i'd have learned to consistently use planners by now...

Also, I have lesser played alts and taken the occasional multi-month break from the game. Too often i've looked at a char and had no idea what i'd been planning for it (even after look at what i'd already done). Sure, better organization on my part would alleviate that, but having it built into the game? That's the kind of convenience feature i'd pay for.

[Coyopa]

No, loading a VM with windows will allow him to run the windows character planner application that won't run on his MAC.

Was my comment confusing or something?

This was his comment " Someone suggested to me that I use a character planner, but the one he gave me a link to does not work on mac. "

Yes, it was confusing because I didn't have any context for it. So, thanks for clearing it up!

[Xenich]

Yes, it was confusing because I didn't have any context for it. So, thanks for clearing it up!

Not a problem.

[Coyopa]

This: http://www.rjcyberware.com/DDO/

Has been around for a while and I think he keeps it fairly up to date. You can even print and paste the formatted output as well as share the files themselves.

Yes, and Ron's planner is great. I've used it for a few years (at least 3). However, the OP's suggestion goes beyond what a third-party planner can do. The point is to be able to have your selections at level up made for you, as though you were on a pre-built path. That's the idea: To pre-build a path for your character and make leveling easier and faster, especially when doing an epic reincarnation where you have to level back to 20 before you get back to having fun.

[Amundir]

I think i've seen something like this suggested before...

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...lanner-Sandbox

[GnomeRaider]

I will start with this, I get told all of the time to "just do it like this, it is easy".

An integrated character planner would take a lot more coding then most people realize.

Not only would it be an interface, where would the builds reside, how and where would you have the build you want selected, how would they be interacted with, where would you take levels, what about banking, would it do epics, and how would it handle epic destinies?

Would the builds be character, world, or account specific?

What happens if you pick a different race then your character build planned for? How will any changes to feats or enhancements affect it?

Let me put it another way. I have run Ron's character planner since 3.9.1 and have greatly appreciated the work that has been done with it. But, 4.25.03 grabs all the memory on my machine and basically locks it up and makes it unusable and I have to hard power it down.

Me personally, I would rather the devs spending time on a fighter pass and then adding gnomes.

[Coyopa]

I will start with this, I get told all of the time to "just do it like this, it is easy".

An integrated character planner would take a lot more coding then most people realize.

Not only would it be an interface, where would the builds reside, how and where would you have the build you want selected, how would they be interacted with, where would you take levels, what about banking, would it do epics, and how would it handle epic destinies?

Would the builds be character, world, or account specific?

What happens if you pick a different race then your character build planned for? How will any changes to feats or enhancements affect it?

Let me put it another way. I have run Ron's character planner since 3.9.1 and have greatly appreciated the work that has been done with it. But, 4.25.03 grabs all the memory on my machine and basically locks it up and makes it unusable and I have to hard power it down.

Me personally, I would rather the devs spending time on a fighter pass and then adding gnomes.

I never said, nor even intimated, that it would be quick or easy. There are a lot of technical decisions to be made, followed by technical problems to be solved. However, I still think the return on their investment on this would justify the investment.

As far as builds being character, world, or account specific, I would think "account" would be the best choice. If I've got a build I enjoy and want to start playing on another server, then I should be able to select that build's custom path and use it on the new server. There's no reason why I should have to copy builds from server to server, if I want to play the same build on multiple servers. (I don't know that anyone *does* play the same build on multiple servers, but the possibility exists.)

[EllisDee37]

An integrated character planner would take a lot more coding then most people realize.

A fair amount of work, for sure, but not an exorbitant amount. With the way I would like them to do it, the answers to your questions would be:


Where would the builds reside?

Online, on a server accessible both from web browsers and the game servers. (Ideally including Lammania.) The idea being you create your builds (or browse publicly-shared builds) in chrome/firefox whatever while goofing off at work, then in the game you could apply builds to your characters.


How and where would you have the build you want selected, how would they be interacted with, where would you take levels, what about banking, would it do epics, and how would it handle epic destinies?

They would add a "custom" trainer (or whatever name) to all the complete trainer areas -- korthos, harborx2, market, house deneith -- that you would talk to for all these questions. The custom trainer would offer you a list of all builds you are currently compatible with, and let you "follow that path." When following a path, talk to that same custom trainer to stay on the path at levelup and when accruing enhancement and destiny AP to spend. His dialog would then be two options:

- Follow my current path
- Choose a new path

If you pick the first one, anything that could be done would be done: Take the next level, or spend available AP. Banking would be self-managed, as you simply wouldn't talk to the guy until you wanted to take your next level. Epics and Epic Destinies would be handled the same way as heroic levels and enhancements.

Picking the second option would bring up al ist of all builds you are compatible with, which means no deviation in any aspect. Because of how much variation there is in builds, this list would never end up very long. Some simple filtering tricks should make it efficient to weed out all the incompatible builds.


Would the builds be character, world, or account specific?

Technically I'd like it to be none of those, but instead be build-specific. In practice, for most builds they would be account-specific, but if you opted to share it publicly then anyone could use it.


What happens if you pick a different race then your character build planned for? How will any changes to feats or enhancements affect it?

Those builds would then be considered incompatible and the custom trainer guy would no longer offer it as an option. If you had already chosen it as a path, you'd have your path cleared, as if you never chose one.

Let me put it another way. I have run Ron's character planner since 3.9.1 and have greatly appreciated the work that has been done with it. But, 4.25.03 grabs all the memory on my machine and basically locks it up and makes it unusable and I have to hard power it down.

That in no way means that a character planner requires tons of resources. (And honestly that sounds like an issue related to your computer.) My character planner is light-weight, requiring very little in terms of resources.

(I don't know that anyone *does* play the same build on multiple servers, but the possibility exists.)

Running each server to 100 favor would be an example.

[Drakos]

This: http://www.rjcyberware.com/DDO/

Has been around for a while and I think he keeps it fairly up to date. You can even print and paste the formatted output as well as share the files themselves.

Yes, I know of that Planner, in fact that is the one I use. How does that relate to the post you quoted.

That planner does not allow you to use the design automatically in DDO.

[Infinitedrift]

Yes, and Ron's planner is great. I've used it for a few years (at least 3). However, the OP's suggestion goes beyond what a third-party planner can do. The point is to be able to have your selections at level up made for you, as though you were on a pre-built path. That's the idea: To pre-build a path for your character and make leveling easier and faster, especially when doing an epic reincarnation where you have to level back to 20 before you get back to having fun.

Precisely. Thank you, Coyopa.