What Tools Do You Want?

[_NOPE_]

Now that I've got the Dev Tracker about as good as I think I can get it, I'm looking for a new side project to work on. With HC proper being tied up in the negotiations and not taking any code submissions, I think the best place where I can help is to make some more ancillary tools for the community. Here's some ideas that I had or others suggested, but I wanted to get all of your opinions, because what I think might be useful and interesting might not be what you all think is, and I'd hate to waste my time working on something that only *I* will end up using:

 

• Bring back Project Spelunker and see it to fruition.
• An offline Mission Architect Mission Builder, where you can create and edit mission files through a basic non-pretty (I'm not a graphic artist, so I really can't make things pretty) user interface (UI).
• An application with a UI that allows you to, in a fairly easy way, silence or replace specific game sounds.
• ???
• Profit!

 

Or what other ideas do you have? Please note my limitations as a programmer, I can't make things look pretty, I can only make them functional. I'm no artist.

Edited February 6, 2020 by The Philotic Knight

[Grouchybeast]

I hadn't rediscovered CoX back when you were working on Project Spelunker before, but that looks brilliant!

[nihilii]

1 hour ago, The Philotic Knight said:

An application with a UI that allows you to, in a fairly easy way, silence or replace specific game sounds.

Even though I'm not sure I'd use it myself, I have a feeling this would be a high impact choice.

[EmmySky]

A Mids type planner on my phone.  I know someone was working on one a while back but havent heard anything in months.  Really dont know if that's in your wheelhouse either.  

[Fan Mail]

A Mids planner that is web-based. so basically, it's device agnostic.

[Dazl]

An interesting tool would be one that gave you build suggestions. Put in your AT and power sets along with some basic other info, like heavy defense, and spit out build options.

[_NOPE_]

4 hours ago, EmmySky said:

A Mids type planner on my phone.  I know someone was working on one a while back but havent heard anything in months.  Really dont know if that's in your wheelhouse either.  

 

3 hours ago, tafilr said:

A Mids planner that is web-based. so basically, it's device agnostic.

Yeah, I'd thought about that, but... With the game being PC Only, how would you get the build from the phone to the PC? 

[Oubliette_Red]

6 hours ago, The Philotic Knight said:

 

• An application with a UI that allows you to, in a fairly easy way, silence or replace specific game sounds.

 

Not that I don't mind spelunking for sfx files, it can be daunting at times. Anything to make it easier for the general player.

 

🙂

[trogenion]

1 hour ago, The Philotic Knight said:

 

Yeah, I'd thought about that, but... With the game being PC Only, how would you get the build from the phone to the PC? 

Copy/paste the texified version. 

[_NOPE_]

4 minutes ago, trogenion said:

Copy/paste the texified version. 

I'm... not following. How do you copy and paste from a phone to a PC? Is that some functionality that I'm not aware of? Is there an app for that™?

[VileTerror]

As certain people from the internets have taught me to say:  "Windmill Slam" for the Architect program.  

Forget about fussing over the UI!  The thing can look like OpenOffice's Calc just so long as I have something to parse the mission files in a less cluttered, chunky-bubbles UI than the in-game Mission Architect stuff.

[FallenHero]

An online Mids would be my first choice (and would be amazing). A UI allowing me to silence/replace in-game sounds would also be nice.

[EmmySky]

2 hours ago, The Philotic Knight said:

 

Yeah, I'd thought about that, but... With the game being PC Only, how would you get the build from the phone to the PC? 

I would use my eyeballs and input it manually 😝....or I can Bluetooth or tether transfer files from one to the other.  Mostly I would just be planning builds while at work so I can learn sets and procs better.

 

Also, a web-based planner so device is a moot point is a good idea too.

[Black Zot]

10 hours ago, The Philotic Knight said:

 

• An application with a UI that allows you to, in a fairly easy way, silence or replace specific game sounds.

 

This is WAY overdue.  Certain sounds in this game are outright deafening, and no, turning down the volume EVEN FURTHER is not a viable solution, so STOP SUGGESTING IT!

 

I am sick to death of being accused of having my volume too high when any other game on my PC would be inaudible at the settings I play CoH on.   If your idea of fun involves damaging people's hearing by spamming Foot Stomp or whatever, you are on my shitlist.  If that offends you, you deserve it.

Edited February 2, 2020 by Black Zot

[VileTerror]

There also appear to be some sounds which are immune to positional data.  They're equally load regardless of how far away the source is.  I notice it with some of the new Sets' sound effects, like Street Justice.

[Redlynne]

10 hours ago, tafilr said:

A Mids planner that is web-based. so basically, it's device agnostic.

 

4 hours ago, FallenHero said:

An online Mids would be my first choice (and would be amazing).

 

We've needed an online web page based build planner since 2007.

[Oubliette_Red]

6 hours ago, The Philotic Knight said:

I'm... not following. How do you copy and paste from a phone to a PC? Is that some functionality that I'm not aware of? Is there an app for that™?

You can tap/hold to get selection sliders on your phone, then you adjust for what you wish to copy. From there you can paste it into any number of text apps on your phone, connect phone to computer or just share it to yourself. Or you can drop it onto your computer if you have that set up. There are several methods available.

[_NOPE_]

50 minutes ago, Redlynne said:

 

 

We've needed an online web page based build planner since 2007.

There used to be one called... I think... Sucker Punch? 

[SeraphimKensai]

8 hours ago, The Philotic Knight said:

 

Yeah, I'd thought about that, but... With the game being PC Only, how would you get the build from the phone to the PC? 

An option to email the build to yourself?

[Redlynne]

23 minutes ago, The Philotic Knight said:

There used to be one called... I think... Sucker Punch? 

LONG since abandon-wared.

[_NOPE_]

1 minute ago, Redlynne said:

LONG since abandon-wared.

Wow really? I guess I had no clue because frankly I never used build planners. Well, I suppose I could make a web based one. It'd be a good way for me to grow my ASP.NET skills. I could start with a basic one that ONLY has the powers themselves listed without the numbers (because the only numbers I'd have access to would be the ones from Leandro's original leak, which I'm sure are out of date). And then maybe some day we can get HC proper to provide an API to obtain power data... 

[Bopper]

I would love *LOVE!!!* to see an updated and working City of Data again.

[Redlynne]

2 minutes ago, The Philotic Knight said:

Well, I suppose I could make a web based one. It'd be a good way for me to grow my ASP.NET skills. I could start with a basic one that ONLY has the powers themselves listed without the numbers (because the only numbers I'd have access to would be the ones from Leandro's original leak, which I'm sure are out of date). And then maybe some day we can get HC proper to provide an API to obtain power data... 

Here's a tip for that project.

You want it to function akin to (although obviously not exactly like) THIS KIND OF THING that was used for World of Warcraft.  The basic idea is that the "code hash" for the build gets incorporated into the URL dynamically as you edit the build.  That way, all you have to do is provide a link to the build, with the correct code hash incorporated inside the URL and the link takes you to the build on the web page for the build planner.

 

Now, obviously the UI would necessarily be somewhat different, since the Talent Trees for World of Warcraft were rather simplistic and weren't computing throughput performances of actual builds ... but the coding of that legacy build planner ought to give you some tips, tricks and pointers for the kind of functionality you'd want to have as an end user when making a build plan for City of Heroes on a web page.

 

I would honestly recommend building for an SO only build planner, just to keep it simple enough to test out the features and functionality, but deliberately design the coding for it to be extensible into HO slotting, Accolades, Inventions, Incarnates and so on as "modules" that can be plugged into the basic architecture of the web page.  I'd even go so far as to say it would probably be best to just start small in order to get everything set up and learn how you want to organize your data and coding by doing a testbed on a single archetype with maybe a single primary/secondary and maybe just 1 pool so as to proof and test everything before extending outwards from there in a deliberately organized fashion that allows you to add data and functionality as you're able to complete it.

 

Perk: Easy to Modify (+10)

 

Document what you're doing so that if you get volunteers to help you, you don't have to do everything yourself.

[_NOPE_]

Sounds like you know exactly what to do... why don't you tackle that one, since you seem already very knowledgeable on it?

[Redlynne]

Because my skills lie in a completely different direction.  I know what is theoretically possible, because I've seen it done (elsewhere) ... but have absolutely no idea how to do it myself, or even where to get started.  Just because I know how to drive a car doesn't mean I have the slightest idea how to construct one (from scratch), let alone what goes into making one.