30 replies to this topic

[dkly037]

I played an excessive amount of Mass Effect 3's multiplayer. I would visit the forums and see a lot of discussions on how people were skilling their character. In Diablo 3, people could share builds using this online calculator,http://us.battle.net...lator/barbarian. So I thought, why not do this for Dragon Age Inquisition's multiplayer?

I have been working on this for the past two days, and have managed to complete part of the Legionnaire's ability tree. What do you think? Anyone interested in using this? Should I keep working on it?

creversely.com/dai/#/legionnaire

 

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UPDATE 3:

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IT'S DONE! creversely.com/dai

 

Some interesting observations I have made:

 

--- Zoom-in on any in-game passive ability, notice the icon is not completely surrounded by the border

 

--- several abilities share the same icon image, for example, passive ability Balanced Combat (legionnaire, guardian ability tree) and Deep Reserves (legionnaire, combined arms tree) have the same icon.

 

--- there are two completely different abilities called Deathblow, one under the Reaver's Bloodlust skill tree and one under the Assassin's Assassination skill tree.

 

--- The Assassin's ability Flank Attack (under Stalker tree) and Sneak Attack (under Assassination tree) use the same icon, except one is an active ability and one is a passive ability.

 

--- The Spike Trap active ability in the Archer's Evasion tree cannot be upgraded (this and Firestorm is the only active that cannot be upgraded). However, the same ability in the Hunter's Trapping tree can.

 

--- The most times an icon is used to represent an ability is 3 times: Second Wind (Hunter's Survival tree), Balanced

Combat (Legionnaire's Guardian tree), and Deep Reserves (Legionnaire's Combined Arms tree).

 

--- some icons are exactly the same except the color is different.

 

--- The archer is the only class to have 5 passives in a row.

 

--- In the Necromancer's Permafrost tree, there is a row with this pattern: active, passive, passive. That is the only instance of this pattern.

 

There will be spelling errors. I did not proof read it. Luckily, I can fix them quickly if you tell me. Special thanks to -PenguinFetish- (AntarticWildLife) for making my life easier with the skill tree videos on YouTube.

 

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UPDATE 2:

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UI is done. I have the architecture finished. That just means I only need to feed my web application data and it will automatically generate the classes.

 

I would not mind some help in data entry. Here is how. . .

 

An ability is composed of 4 elements: name, description, type (active or passive), and bonuses. Pick any class and send me a file with all their abilities in the following format:

 

"ability name":{

"type":"ability type",

"info":"ability description",

"bonus":["bonus 1", "bonus2"]

},

.

.

.

"ability name":{

"type":"ability type",

"info":"ability description",

"bonus":["bonus 1", "bonus2"]

}

etc.

 

EXAMPLE:

 

"Shield Wall":{

"type":"active",

"info":"You stand firm and block incoming attacks at the cost of stamina. Each block adds to your guard. You move much more slowly while sustaining this ability",

"bonus":["none"]

},

"Chevalier's Step":{

"type":"active",

"info":"When you use Shield Wall, your movement is not slowed as much. You also protect nearby allies by giving them improved armor.",

"bonus":["Range: 4 meters", "Armor Bonus:30%"]

}

 

Copy the exact spelling and wording found in the multiplayer. SEND ME ONLY THE FIRST TREE. The second tree is usually composed of skills from other classes. Message me if you are interested in helping so I can put your name in the below list. That way people do not send me duplicate files. Do not worry if an ability is found in multiple classes, include it anyways, I will write a script/program to remove duplicates.

 

CLASS STATUS

 

Complete:

------------------------------

Legionnaire

Templar

Reaver - thanks to 21T09

Katari

Archer

Assassin

Hunter

Alchemist

Keeper

Necromancer

Elementalist

Arcane Warrior

 

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UPDATE 1:

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Here is the latest user interface I am considering. I am all ears for suggestions. The reason I do not show ability descriptions on hover is because hover does not work on mobile devices (tablets, smart phones, etc.). Once I iron out all the user interface problems/ suggestions, and people are generally happy, I will move on to doing the rest of the classes.

 

[Moridan]

Now if I could only access that site from work.  9-(

 

But I am glad someone with the correct programming knowledge is starting this!

[dkly037]

Why can't you access it from work? I should note, you will need the latest browsers to view the website. I recommend Firefox or Chrome. If there are any other issues please notify me so I can fix it.

[Beerfish]

Looks good so far and this type of thing is VERY helpful as was shown by the kalence ME3 mp builder which was used like a bible for showing builds.

[KalGerion_Beast]

Very nice start, looking forward to seeing more (if you decide to pursue it).  

[dkly037]

Holy cow, that kalence ME3 builder is so good. I wonder, should I copy the UI from the multiplayer exactly? The reason I haven't done so is to make the website mobile friendly/ toilet friendly, and viewable on smart phones.

[Rolenka]

That's cool! You might want to try to find out if Bioware is working on something similar before you pour too many hours into it. Maybe share it with one of the developers (private message?) and ask. David Gaider and Mike Laidlaw are the lead designers. There may be other names (like a multiplayer lead or something) in the in-game credits.

 

Or you never know; someone may respond right here. Though with most game companies, the only way to find out anything is on Twitter, unfortunately.

 

 

Why can't you access it from work? I should note, you will need the latest browsers to view the website. I recommend Firefox or Chrome. If there are any other issues please notify me so I can fix it.

 

 

You must not be American. Employers block all sorts of websites so we stay productive all 40+ hours of the week. His must use a white list (you can only access pre-approved sites).

[dkly037]

That hurt a little, lol. I am American.

 

I don't think they are working on a similar idea, as they did not do one for the me3 multiplayer. I'll look around though, see who the appropriate person to contact is.

[TormDK]

Shows promise.

 

I would request that the icons were a bit smaller though, so you did not have to scroll.

[JRandall0308]

Excellent start.

 

I would make it visually resemble the in-game U.I.; that is, center spine with abilities on both sides.

 

Would also prefer to see the name of the ability near its icon.

 

Also more visible indicator of which abilities I have chosen.

[Drogonion]

I always encourage this kind of stuff.  Some players have made some of the most amazing things to assist others with their enjoyment of the game.  

[dkly037]

Nevron

 

Shows promise.

 

I would request that the icons were a bit smaller though, so you did not have to scroll.

 

Yes, I need to make them smaller so they fit on smaller sceens anyways.

[dkly037]

Excellent start.

 

I would make it visually resemble the in-game U.I.; that is, center spine with abilities on both sides.

 

Would also prefer to see the name of the ability near its icon.

 

Also more visible indicator of which abilities I have chosen.

 

I am working on your suggestions. There is one problem. I am not sure how to show the name of the ability by the icon. If you look my mock up, under navigation, the word Archer is about two icons wide. So if I put longer words side to side, they would overlap. I can make the text really small, but there is no point if you cant read it.

 

A possible solution. If you hover over and icon I can make the ability's name fade-in, like a tooltip. This solution is not ideal, as mobile devices cannot use this feature. If I can't think of other solutions, I will probably default to the one I just described.

[DragonRacer]

I fully support this. If you get it fully functioning, pop me a PM and I'll be happy to add it to The Unofficial DAMP Resource Library. We had two of these types of fan-made class builders in ME3MP and they were very useful and popular.

 

As far as folks to contact, I would NOT advise David Gaider as he is a lead writer. 

 

To be honest, I'd recommend contacting one of the online team (such as the folks who did the Keep, as they may be doing Inquisition HQ as well or know who is) or one of the DAMP team. If you don't want to Twitter and would rather PM someone here, from Keep I'd recommend Renata or Justin Edmond. From DAMP, I'd recommend Bryan Johnson or Derek Hollan.

 

You might also PM Allan Schumacher. He's QA, not on DAMP (I don't think), but he IS very active and helpful on the forums and could probably either pass your message along or point you in the right direction.

[dkly037]

To be honest, I'd recommend contacting one of the online team (such as the folks who did the Keep, as they may be doing Inquisition HQ as well or know who is) or one of the DAMP team. If you don't want to Twitter and would rather PM someone here, from Keep I'd recommend Renata or Justin Edmond. From DAMP, I'd recommend Bryan Johnson or Derek Hollan.

 

You might also PM Allan Schumacher. He's QA, not on DAMP (I don't think), but he IS very active and helpful on the forums and could probably either pass your message along or point you in the right direction.

 

Thanks for the names. I will contact Edmond, Johnson, and Hollan.

[Justin Edmond]

I haven't seen anything like this come near me.

 

the DAI HQ might look at something like this I suspect, but I also expect it would not be in the near future, so your tool would definitely fill a niche for a good while.

 

Looks cool so far! Have you done much work in Angular before?

[Bastion6six6]

Great job man! 

 

Odd that one guy can do in his spare time of 2 days what a triple AAA company can't "in the near future", or am I the only one who finds the juxtaposition suspect.  Bioware should pay this guy instead.

[dkly037]

Looks cool so far! Have you done much work in Angular before?

 

I started learning Angular last month. I'd say I have around 50 hours of hands on learning (writing, watching and reading tutorials). I was deciding on learning a front end framework and narrowed it down to Ember or Angular. This is is the first time I have used a framework before, and man, I can't beieve how productive I am.

 

If you look at my main source code

• creversely.com/dai/main.js, its about 418 lines of code
• http://creversely.co...egionnaire.html(press ctrl+u to view source code), it's 63 lines of code

I essentially only wrote 463 lines of code for the core web application! To create another class, all I have to do is copy and paste legionnaire.html, change some variables, and Anjular will consume JSON data to generate the page. Amazing!

 

At first it looked wierd inlining JS code in html, but now, it still looks weird, lol. Legionnaire.html also looks more like some crazy softwae algorithm, rather than simple markup language, it is something to get used to.

 

 

Great job man! 

 

Odd that one guy can do in his spare time of 2 days what a triple AAA company can't "in the near future", or am I the only one who finds the juxtaposition suspect.  Bioware should pay this guy instead.

 

Hey, thanks for the compliment! I think the current web develoment team is working on The Keep, so they are busy with that project. I am currently looking for work, so I wouldn't mind getting hired.

 

Here is some super, top, important, crazy, secret insight:

• companies want their website supported on all web browsers, and some of these browsers require writing a lot of extra code to work (cough, Internet Explorer, cough). This is why I believe IE6 has been alive for so long
• In comparison, I don't care about that, so I do not have to do all that extra work. My target audience are people who update their web browsers. If developers  did not support IE 6, users would of gladly downloaded another browser to access their favorite website. My philosophy is, if your content is great, people with update or switch their web browser to use it.
• my current website is running on 1 server (i.e. a computer whos only job is to respond to internet users). Imagine, if I had 500 servers, with millions of users, each server would need a copy of the code. For 1 server, I write code, and the website gets the new changes automatically. For 500 servers? I have to copy and paste my code to each comptuer, or 500 times. Plus there are other challenges with scaling.
• Passion goes a long way. I played a lot of ME3 MP (+800 hours, I think). I know how useful this tool would be. Thinking about people that will use the website keeps me up at night.

[dkly037]

I finished.

[Devtek]

Any thought to having the active ability upgrades as separate icons and limiting the number of selections to actual skill point restrictions?

[pejot82]

One thing that should definitely be added to this is a summary of passive stat increases one gets while picking skills - both primary and secondary. This could be based on the assumption that MP stats work the same way as SP.

 

This way, by taking 6 passives for e.g. archer you could see a list that you have +12 DEX, +6 CUN and this means +6% ranged damage, +3% crit rate, +3% ranged def... etc.

[Sergwynn]

Maybe, i'm clicking in the wrong area, but are there no icons for the upgraded version of skills?  Since they also take a point to get.

[BoogieManFL]

Clicking the icon for a skill adds the skill, while clicking the + brings up description? Perhaps that is backwards?

[Silent Fear]

Thanks for your hard work mate. 

[dkly037]

I added an animation effect when you select a class. I may add more effects in the future. Some additional features I have in mind, depending on how popular the class calculator is:

 

--- have a home page with the top builds, voted by users.

--- search for builds by class

--- linking builds to this forum.

 

Any thought to having the active ability upgrades as separate icons and limiting the number of selections to actual skill point restrictions?

 

I wasn't sure how to handle upgrades. In-game, the upgrade icon are slightly below the main icon. If I did the same thing, that icon would be tiny, around 25x25 pixels. I will try to think of a solution over the weekend.

 

By restrictions, do you mean something like: people cannot select a random ability on the skill tree at first, they have to work their way down to the last skill? Or do you  want to limit the actual selections, people can pick any skill they want as long as it is under the limit. What you really want is for the web application to ensure the build is valid and not fake, correct?

 

 

One thing that should definitely be added to this is a summary of passive stat increases one gets while picking skills - both primary and secondary. This could be based on the assumption that MP stats work the same way as SP.

 

This way, by taking 6 passives for e.g. archer you could see a list that you have +12 DEX, +6 CUN and this means +6% ranged damage, +3% crit rate, +3% ranged def... etc.

 

Do the MP stats actually work the same way as SP? Once that is confirmed in some way, I will put it on my todo list.

 

 

Maybe, i'm clicking in the wrong area, but are there no icons for the upgraded version of skills?  Since they also take a point to get.

 

I wasn't sure how to handle upgrades. In-game, the upgrade icon are slightly below the main icon. If I did the same thing, that icon would be super tiny, around 25x25 pixels. For now you have to tell people whether or not to upgrade the skill or not, something like:

 

Archer Build

skill 1(upgraded) - This skills should be upgraded because. . .

skill 2(not upgrade) - I don't want to upgrade the skill because. . .

skill 3 (upgraded) - This skills should be upgraded because. . .

skill 4 (not upgraded) - I don't want to upgrade the skill because. . .

 

I will think of a solution over the weekend.

 

Clicking the icon for a skill adds the skill, while clicking the + brings up description? Perhaps that is backwards?

 

I don't think it is that confusing; even if it is, it is easy enough to figure out. If you want, you can pick what I change the plus symbol to. It can only be up to 3 letters, no offensive language. Send me a personal message when you got something.