Sorting Character Select

[Erydanus]

Might it be possible to add some sorting buttons to the character select screen? I'd like to be able to automatically reorder my characters ascending or descending by:

 

- Current Level

- Alphabetical

- Archetype

- Creation Date

- Last Login Date

 

and when none of these are selected let it go back to the default/customized order.  Since the live servers let us only have about 8-12 characters per server so it wasn't really needed but I'm about to start page 3 on my main server and I don't think I'm alone in this. 🙂

[Lost Ninja]

Especially if you could add a "Favourite", to the list. So they're always at the top of the list even if they would be normally further down.

 

I tend to have the characters I'm concentrating on at the top of page one, but even with that I want them in level/archetype/name order. (So for me it'd be Favourite>Level>Archetype>Name.)

[MetaVileTerror]

If the "playerslot" file could be modified to also include that data, one could write a batch or script to rearrange the playerslot.txt, and that would do exactly what you're looking for.  They'd also need to add a "Refresh" button to the character select screen, but . . . yeah.  Do'able, as long as the code for the playerslot reading isn't totally a mess of spaghetti.

[Starforge]

The code is probably wonky enough that such a thing may not work. Just drag and move the characters into whatever order you want.

Edited November 5, 2019 by Starforge

[Erydanus]

On ‎11‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 6:01 AM, Starforge said:

The code is probably wonky enough that such a thing may not work. Just drag and move the characters into whatever order you want.

I have 3 pages of characters and the list is growing, dragging them across pages and trying to order 3 dozen characters is cumbersome. As characters get played their levels will change and require constant hand adjustment. That's why I'm suggesting a sorting function might be worth the effort. 

[Rathulfr]

How handy are you with scripting?  It probably would be pretty easy to write a PowerShell script to sort the playerslot.txt text file according to some defined criteria.

 

[Sailboat]

I posted on this topic a while back (and I'm sure I'm not the only one to do so).  Some replies here might shed light:

 

 

 

[DougGraves]

I care about AT and level.  I could see last played being useful but I would probably ignore it.

 

Rather than sorting by AT, I would like to be able to create tabs or filters.  Filter to just show controllers.  Or set tabs so I can click to my controller tab and see them.

 

if you sort by AT and I want to see Dominators I have to scroll past all of my blasters, corruptors, and defenders.

[Lost Ninja]

46 minutes ago, Rathulfr said:

How handy are you with scripting?  It probably would be pretty easy to write a PowerShell script to sort the playerslot.txt text file according to some defined criteria.

 

I'm doing that by outputting my character spreadsheet into the correct format, main issue is that the playerslot.txt only stores character name and position (well account and shard too), so whatever you do you have to have some sort of external information added to make it sort usefully, unless you just want alphabetic sorting.

[Rathulfr]

34 minutes ago, Lost Ninja said:

I'm doing that by outputting my character spreadsheet into the correct format, main issue is that the playerslot.txt only stores character name and position (well account and shard too), so whatever you do you have to have some sort of external information added to make it sort usefully, unless you just want alphabetic sorting.

Yeah, you'd probably have to write some logic that uses the additional external information to make it sort usefully before re-creating/formatting your playerslot.txt.  I also have a character spreadsheet that includes additional information.  If I were to write the script, my logic would use the additional information from the source file to determine sort order first, then output just the resulting pertinent data to the playerslot.txt.  I'd probably also write a script to import the playerslot.txt file, and merge it with my spreadsheet, so that it's constantly refreshed if I add/delete characters.

 

But then again, I write a lot of PowerShell scripts at work, so that's probably why I'm thinking of this now.  The last thing I want to do when I get home is write more code. 😒

[MetaVileTerror]

So, uh . . . I, um . . . I'm kind of embarrassed to say this, but since I didn't realize it for so long, maybe some other folks didn't either.

There's a SEARCH function in the character select screen already, and you can toggle flags to search by Name, Archetype, and Powers.  It's just above the little dots that allow you to instantly skip to the different pages in the character select screen.

[Call Me Awesome]

15 hours ago, MetaVileTerror said:

So, uh . . . I, um . . . I'm kind of embarrassed to say this, but since I didn't realize it for so long, maybe some other folks didn't either.

There's a SEARCH function in the character select screen already, and you can toggle flags to search by Name, Archetype, and Powers.  It's just above the little dots that allow you to instantly skip to the different pages in the character select screen.

But it doesn't sort anything, you need to type a character name.  Kind of limited utility.

[WanderingAries]

8 hours ago, Call Me Awesome said:

But it doesn't sort anything, you need to type a character name.  Kind of limited utility.

Actually, if you uncheck the "Name" and switch to say "AT" or "Power", then it will reduce the list to whichever you have selected. I just tested it and it's SUPER quick to respond as you type each letter. This doesn't help with level sorting or anything not Name/AT/Power related as it appears to simply be a keyword search function.

 

I also did another thing as a test. I tried to add another "column" of data to the playerslot file in hopes to see...Anything change in the server list (Added "Controller" to an alt), but what happened in the end is that it simply matched the server side list with my local side (for the sorting purposes) and wiped the erroneous data. So customizing that file outside of an external app to adjust sorting is out of the equation.

 

Now IF one were to make such an app for offline usage that could also read the live data (think HeroStats, etc), then you could auto-magically adjust the sort order Before you go into the game. I HIGHTLY doubt you could do this without a full restart of COX as it syncs the files (but IDK when in the login process), so the utility of it wouldn't be that high for on-the-fly sorting.

[Dark Childe]

I've seen, in a couple of similar threads, people saying to just move them around by dragging. Is there some way to move them from tab to tab?  That's my biggest peeve.

[quixoteprog]

6 hours ago, Dark Childe said:

I've seen, in a couple of similar threads, people saying to just move them around by dragging. Is there some way to move them from tab to tab?  That's my biggest peeve.

You can drag and drop from one page to the other. I think you just drag over to the left or right, depending on which way you want to move them, and that will cause the page to flip. Then you can drop on whichever slot you want.

[Roderick]

2 hours ago, quixoteprog said:

You can drag and drop from one page to the other. I think you just drag over to the left or right, depending on which way you want to move them, and that will cause the page to flip. Then you can drop on whichever slot you want.

You can also use your scroll wheel to flip pages, even while dragging a character. 

 

[RikOz]

Never mind, already answered by earlier poster and I missed it.

Edited November 27, 2019 by RikOz

[Dark Childe]

6 hours ago, quixoteprog said:

You can drag and drop from one page to the other. I think you just drag over to the left or right, depending on which way you want to move them, and that will cause the page to flip. Then you can drop on whichever slot you want.

 

4 hours ago, Roderick said:

You can also use your scroll wheel to flip pages, even while dragging a character. 

 

Thank you both!

[three_star_dave]

For some reason I didn't find this post when I posted my own version of it. Noting it here to unify the conversation (though it sounds like something that's not going to happen any time soon, if ever).

 

 

[Greycat]

Heh. Just thinking about this and what I'd want in a character select screen. (Because of course I was, since I was trying to fall asleep.)

 

Personally, the things I'd like to see:

Level / Level Range

Filter side. Yes, you can see the icons, but knowing I want to play redside, for instance, it would be nice to have just those (or those plus grey) show up.

RP / PVP / Farmer. Because why not let you tag some of your own characters. Heck, custom tags would be nice, but probably ridiculously more work than I'd think.

Supergroup name. Not sure if this is able to be "seen" at the character select screen level, but...

AT.

[kelika2]

Take a few minutes and sort them yourself.  Plan ahead.

My example:

Page 1 is all blasters

Page 2 has a few blasters in top slots, gap, corrs on the bottom of page 2

Page 3 is all brutes

Page 4 I play a lot of brutes so this is blank except for one brute that i hope to one day get to

Page 5 you get the idea, you know what you like to play and give yourself room for future alts