Curse

Deviant · Jul 10, 2005, 12:04 AM // 00:04

The initial stages of a web-based character and group builder have been completed. Some of the features include:

- Access control for Private, Guild, or Public builds.
- Ability to post comments and vote on Guild and Public builds.
- Ability to specify a build as PvP or PvE.
- Advanced search functionality for refining what you are looking for.
- Links to display builds associated to a particular user or guild.
- Alert notification whenever a change that impacts your build has been made such as a skill has been updated, or the access has changed. For instance, if the guild was disbanded, or you are no longer part of the guild an alert would be generated.
- Ability to manage "working" builds prior to submitting them, and to allow review of builds that have alert status before resubmitting.
- Integration with the skills database. The ability to add skills is done from the skills page, and also the numbers associated to an attribute are displayed in relation to your current character build's attribute level.

The guild builds work in conjunction with a guild system that supports inviting other users to join your guild. There is some updates to the skills database that is necessary for it to work off of formulas for attribute levels, and final verification of descriptions and other skill stats will be necessary.

http://www.gwkb.org/cBuild.php
http://www.gwkb.org/gBuild.php

Wings of Illusion · Jul 12, 2005, 11:12 PM // 23:12

huh. thats cool.

Knigh7s · Jul 13, 2005, 04:21 AM // 04:21

Added to my ** Guild Wars How-To And FAQs ** thread!

Ollj · Jul 13, 2005, 02:26 PM // 14:26

nice aplication to play with and discuss by.

Deviant · Jul 13, 2005, 08:58 PM // 20:58

I appreciate the feedback. Feel free to create a few character builds, and offer any suggestions on improvements to be made. I expect to have the skills database up-to-date within the next week or so.

Deviant · Jul 18, 2005, 03:23 PM // 15:23

Sorry for any downtime for anyone who was trying to look at this. We recently changed hosts to allow for more bandwidth.

monkeyink · Jul 18, 2005, 07:26 PM // 19:26

Very nice work. As a programmer, I can truly appreciate the amount of effort that went into this project. I only have one suggestion on a possible improvement to the "Show" mode. In the "Skills" section you have an option to expand out to a "Detailed Skill View" which rocks BUT you excluded the skill details rollover found on other modes (List)

I am a big fan of the rollover effect found in "List" mode and find that is much more descriptive (excluding energy/cast/recharge info). Seems like it would be a quick update to make as well since the code is already done =]

Keep up the amazing work ....oh, and lay off the Mesmers dude! lol. peace.

Age · Jul 18, 2005, 09:34 PM // 21:34

Looks nice.

Deviant · Jul 18, 2005, 09:49 PM // 21:49

Sorry, monkeyink. I've been aware of that issue, but unable to resolve it. It works in other pages, but this particular page uses innerHTML to substitute the contents between Compact and Detailed view. For some reason, this doesn't display properly. What I've decided to do instead is to display the description in the detailed view.

Deviant · Jul 29, 2005, 07:58 AM // 07:58

Some updates have been made to the Character Builder:

UPDATE 7/29:
- Fixed an issue where the Top PvP Users section was not sorting properly, and added a numeric representation of the average vote.
- Fixed an issue where the Guild Character Build list did not work properly.

UPDATE 7/28:
- Added into the left-hand column of the main character build page a "recent comments" section giving the last few comments added by players.
- Added in buttons to the Attribute section of the Add Character Build page to increase or decrease the attribute by 1. On the button it will show the attribute points gained or lost with each click.
- Added in a "Preview Description" link under the description field when you add a new build. This will now generate a new window with how the description will look.

UPDATE 7/27:
- Added in quick links to Character Build functions on multiple pages.
- Added the ability to clear all comments for your character build.
- Added in quite a few more options to the Advanced Search page.

UPDATE 7/26:
- While affecting both the builder and skills, I'm posting it here. Comments now display on a seperate line up to 150 characters on the comments list to make them easier to read.

UPDATE 7/24:
- Added in a "Health Penalty" section to the character build.

UPDATE 7/22:
- Added in a button to indicate character builds you have not voted on in the character build main and list pages.

UPDATE 7/21:
- Updated the build listings so that the default sort is according to vote.

UPDATE 7/20:
- Fixed a small bug in the listing functionality where Average Vote and Total Votes were not valid sortable values.
- Added the option to sort by Laste Updated or Added On in the character build list.

UPDATE 7/19:
- Added in the formula calculation for skills. This way, on the character build pages, any skill information display will be a reflection of the attribute level associated with the skill rather than a range of 0-12.
- Updated the navigation bars at the bottom to be on a single line. Also, the results per page is now a drop-down box, and both that as well as the page select will submit on change.
- Updated both the skills and character build comments links so that they would only display if there were actual "comments" associated to it rather than just votes (no details).

UPDATE 7/18:
- The mouseover effects in the Compact and Detailed skill view of the Show Character Build page does not work properly with the innerHTML DHTML substitutions for some reason. Instead, I've decided to show the description in the Detailed view instead.
- Corrected an issue where the Javascript would inaccuratley depict the unused attribute points. To resolve this, the final check is done in PHP when submitted to ensure an appropriate valuee.
- Added in a section for registered user to display their personal character build statistics.

UPDATE 7/13:
- Added in the ability to clear your current build. This is primarily so you don't see the "Add Skill" option in the Skills database, and so the values affected by attribute levels will once again show a range of 0-12 rather than just the one specific to the current character build.
- Added in a couple more statistics on the main page. Now you can see the current totals by access and build type. Also, added a section to display how many builds were pending.
- Fixed an issue where you could create a Guild build if you were not a part of a guild.

UPDATE 7/8:
- Resolved the sorting issue with skills not being pulled correctly from the database in the order they were saved.

UPDATE 7/6:
- Added a skill image for whatever the first skill listed is set to as an image to represent the build on the main page.
- Substituted the numeric value in the Top Users section for the graphical one.
- Added the ability to add skills not associated to any profession to your character build such as Resurrection Signet.
- Added a check to prevent multiple Elite skills from being added.
- Updated the Attributes page of Edit Character Build to include integer checks on some of the Javascript calculations.
- A few minor navigation changes or grammatical alterations.

Related updated to skills:

UPDATE 7/29:
- Above the keyword search, a link to the skills page of your current character build will appear if one is set.
- The skill show page now accepts a passed attribute level. This works for both for the attribute level on the drop-down of the skilll list, and based on the character build associated attribute.
- The default skill list will now use your current character build if set. However, clicking on a profession, searching by keyword, or using the Advanced Search option will override this setting unless you go back into the page. If no current character build is set, it will default to all skills.

UPDATE 7/27:
- Added a different border to elite skills on multiple areas including the character builder to distinguish them better.

UPDATE 7/20:
- Added sorting ability based on PvE or PvP voting on the skill list page.
- Updated the skills page to display the average PvP and PvE vote seperately instead of averaged together.

UPDATE 7/19:
- Mesmer low and high values were put in place.
- Added a "Set Attribute Level" setting at the bottom of the page. When selected, it will display values as per that attribute level instead of a 0-12 range.
- Colorized the value affected by attribute levels in green.
- Elementalist low and high values were put in place.

Enjoy!

Deviant · Jul 31, 2005, 08:46 PM // 20:46

I recently completed the initial phase of the group builder. There are certainly some issues to work out, and enhancement to be made. Howevere, I'd appreciate any testing anyone wanted to do.

kalaris · Aug 02, 2005, 04:42 PM // 16:42

Excellent work, if its alright with you, I'm going to port over my guilds pvp squad (about 12-15 members) and try it out.

some quick things I've noticed:

Its not overly appearent that you can click on the heading buttons themselves (and not the drop down) to get diffrent functions then in the dropdown (like the guild button, clicking it mananges your guild, but unless you tried it you wouldn't know, you'd think it was in the dropdown someplace)

When creating a Build I wanted to share with my guild, it said I couldn't cause I wasn't in a guild, but I just created one, is that because I don't have any members (yet)

So I created a solo build instead.

When creating this build, I tried to submit it on the skills screen, and I got a server side PhP Error (sorry didn't think to copy it) so I moved to a diffrent screen, (main) and it cleared all my attribute points, after it did that a few times, I set them back up and submitted from main again, and it stuck.

All and all I look forward to using this tool alot. Thank you for sharing this with the Guild Wars Community.

Deviant · Aug 03, 2005, 01:51 AM // 01:51

I'm actually hoping to get entire guilds over as that's really where the access control comes in handy. So, the more the merrier.

As far as the overhead menu goes, I had a similar comment before, which is why a rollover image was added to make it a bit more intuitive. At that time, we decided against individual sub-menu items. After a couple minutes people figure it out. I have faith.

The reason why you're prevented from creating a guild build when not guilded is really just to encourage you to create a guild. Otherwise, private access is sufficient. Also, you can change the access level at any time.

There was an error on the Skills portion that had to do with a change I made in column naming conventions (Oops, missed one). It's fixed now. Please let me know if you encounter any other issues.

Deviant · Aug 31, 2005, 04:19 AM // 04:19

I've updated some of the skills that were in the Thursday update. As a result, alert notifications were created for those character builds that utilize those skills. Additionally, any updated character build being used in a group build also caused a notification for that group build.

What's this mean? It means that the build is now in a "pending" status, and not accessible for others to view.

What do I do? Well, you should review the changed skill and see if it still fits into your build, or if any adjustments need to be made in the description of the build or the attributes. After that, you can re-submit as complete so it is again accessible for other users.

I'm also looking for feedback on any ways to improve this process to make it more informative/intuitive. So, if you're updating one of your builds and you have any critiques, feel free to send me a PM on the site or an e-mail.

zehly · Sep 07, 2005, 12:44 AM // 00:44

Why spam something asking for people to sign up at that website. Nice trick.

Deviant · Oct 15, 2005, 09:55 AM // 09:55

Some more updates. There were various updates in other areas such as the Group Builder, skills database, and other areas.

UPDATE 10/12:
- Fixed an issue in the "Recent Comments" section of the main character and group builder pages where it would show comments on Guild Only builds.
- Fixed an issue where it was not properly calculating the head attribute into the affected skill attribute values.

UPDATE 10/11:
- Added in a section for builds you haven't voted on. It will display the oldest builds first.
- Updated it so when you clear comments, it also cleared the current character or group build. This was primarily an annoyance factor.

UPDATE 10/10:
- Fixed "hover" tooltip options on the character and group build listings that were previously not working. Also, added in the a portion of the description of characters under group builds.
- Changed the "Guild Character Builds" and "Guild Group Builds" link on your guild page to display only the "Guild Only" builds rather than any public or guild build.
- Fixed an issue where the +1 head attribute was not being factored into the attribute level effect of skills added to the Skills page of the Edit Character Build page.
- Fixed an issue when displaying your build statistics. It now correctly shows your total for each access and build type.

UPDATE 10/6:
- Updated the top users to require at least 10 votes, and the top builds to require 4 votes.

UPDATE 10/2:
- Added in the ability to clear your reply notification. This was done, because sometimes there are replies that do not make it necessary to change your comments or remove the reply.
- Fixed an issue where if you were setting the primary profession to be the same as the secondary profession use to be, it would fail.
- Fixed an issue where you were able to submit multiple Elite skills if the skill was not previously Elite when you first added it.

UPDATE 9/30:
- Added in weighted average with voting. GWKB Administrators and Build Analysts votes count at 10x the value, and Furies count at 5x.
- Updated it so that whenever you clear comments on a character or group build, it updates the Added On date to be the same as the Last Updated due to the significance of the revision.

UPDATE 9/29:
- In order to make it visually easier to determine what access level or build type a build is, I've decided to color-code them. I may be playing around with the colors for the next couple days to find a combination I like.
- Changed it so when you update your comments it will clear out the reply. This is to prevent inconsistent replies to outdated comments.

UPDATE 9/23:
- Added in notifications on the index page to show when a reply has been made to your comments, or a comment you replied to has been updated. As part of this change, the alerts have now been re-organized to be divided up by whether they are character or group builds.

UPDATE 9/22:
- Added in a "reply" function to be able to respond to comments others post on your character build. Planning on adding in alerts for when a comment is updated that impacts a reply, a reply is made to your comments, and list functionality associated with those alerts.

UPDATE 9/7:
- Fixed the hover descriptions for skills so that it now displays on the Show page. However, due to the DHTML, if you switch between Detailed and Compact views, the hover no longer functions.

UPDATE 9/2:
- Added in the ability to add skills from the "Show" page.

UPDATE 8/31:
- Updated Protection to be Protection/Buffing, and removed Buffing.
- Added in a Movement Reduction category.

UPDATE 8/22:
- Added in the user's guild to multiple different pages in the Character and Group Builder.
- Fixed an issue with the category lists where it would not display properly when adding a new Character Build. Also, fixed an issue where submitting it resulted in an error.

UPDATE 8/19:
- Added a "build category" selection for each build. This is used to quickly define what roles you believe the build fills. Categories are displayed on the build details and can be searched on through the Advanced Search link.
- Updated it so when you post a comment, it now redirects you back to what you were commenting on rather than the main page. This is more just a usability improvement.

UPDATE 8/18:
- Added a frame when posting a comment to display what you are posting a comment against for quicker reference. This applies to Character Builds, Group Builds, and Skills.
- The "Guild Character Builds" being displayed now shows for only those users in your guild. It will display all guilds that match the appropriate access of guild or public. Primarily this is used for a quick method of looking for characters to add to group builds.
- Made the abbreviated comments in the comments list clickable to show the entire comment detail. This is in addition to being able to click on the row number or the actual vote itself to display the comment detail.
- Greatly improved the Javascript in the Attribute page of the Character Builder to handle illegal values. It was always validating when submitted, but now is more fault-tolerant on pre-submission.

UPDATE 8/7:
- Added in a quick check for "Top PvP Users". Only those users with a minimum of 3 votes are factored in. As more votes are made this limit will increase, so it reflects the top consistent user.

UPDATE 8/5:
- Fixed some formatting issues on showing a Character Build in larger resolution types.

UPDATE 8/3:
- Added in a requirement for a minimum of 3 votes to appear on the top build list for both the Character and Group builder pages. As more votes come in, we'll steadily increase that limit.
- Fixed a small bug where the recent comments portion of the main page was displaying the average for the build rather than the vote made by that user.

Ghost. · Oct 24, 2005, 01:39 AM // 01:39

thats nice

A User Name · Oct 24, 2005, 01:52 AM // 01:52

Wow. Very nice website. Builds helpful to say in the least. Thanks