Elements the Game Forum - Free Online Fantasy Card Game

Elements the Game => General Discussion => Topic started by: Jenkar on December 27, 2011, 05:54:04 pm

Title: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: Jenkar on December 27, 2011, 05:54:04 pm
Ohai! So, i wanted to know how the tool Jen-i, ~Napalm, UTAlan (script) and me design worked. What comes to your mind that could have been better (barring a ''add 9001 cards to your team'' button)? Please post feedback!
Title: Re: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: Zeru on December 28, 2011, 12:00:58 am
Something painful about the vault was the lack of a "current vault" option. Basically Vault minus Cards used in decks.
This is a very huge error. It's not posting decks and salvage that is problematic in War. It's forming a proper strategy.
Make 8 great decks out of 270 cards without knowing how many cards you have left? Sure, possible, but your brain might fry in the process.

For that reason I saw the vault as more painful to use than something that I could make by myself. Another thing was that I was afraid of editing the thing. Almost each cell contained some "magic functions" that required a lot of insight into the work you have done. My private sheets evolved over time according to my needs, here I could not touch anything because I was worried that I would brake something.
Maybe give us an empty sheet without any functions in it, so that we can edit it without fear?

I also missed a "History" option. You could not see how your vault has changed over the rounds if you didn't keep an independent database.



Time for the kind words. Everything you have done was great. Pasting deck codes. Automatic vault updates. The fact that audits were so much easier (there were, right?). Just look at vault errors done last war and this time. I have done a lot of drama to mobilize other teams to be more perfect. You on the other hand gave them a tool that allows them to make less mistakes. I guess your method is better.



Summing up. Everything you have done was good, it's the little but important things that are missing that bothered me through the entire event.
Title: Re: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: willng3 on December 28, 2011, 12:11:47 am
I wasn't a fan of decks being used that round disappearing from the appropriate tab within the tool itself.  We were able to recover deck codes through the salvage/discard tab after the battle phase had started, but it alarmed me at first because attempting to copy the code resulted in some kind of garbled text appearing, but pasting it would still cause the deck code to appear.  Unnecessary alarm, at the very least, and I'm still not at all comfortable with messing with cells in the document for fear of it exploding and kev having to come down and spank me for being a dunderhead.

Aside from that, a history function would have been nice.
Title: Re: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: majofa on December 28, 2011, 12:14:47 am
- Current Vault (not updated after decks are posted)

- Cards Remaining after decks have been posted

- Export function for the decks that can be used to post in the threads

- Vault change history
Title: Re: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: Jenkar on December 28, 2011, 12:24:28 am
History tab? Eh, i think i told kev we should have made the archive public.

Basicly, one of the tabs does exactly what you said (shows what card were in your vault each round. I think it would have made sense to make it visible to everyone with access to vault.

Majofa : I think your first suggestion is in tab 4 of the vault.

Cards remaining after decks are inputted will probably be easy to implement.

Can you devellop on ''Maybe give us an empty sheet without any functions in it, so that we can edit it without fear?'', Zeru?
Title: Re: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: majofa on December 28, 2011, 12:26:47 am
But once you start to input decks, it changes the vault.
Title: Re: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: Jenkar on December 28, 2011, 12:40:51 am
But once you start to input decks, it changes the vault.
By that, you mean after deadline? (just tried, no changes)
If so, it'd enter the history suggestion (since after deadline it's previous round's vault)
Title: Re: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: EvaRia on December 28, 2011, 08:22:45 am
Okay, personally I found it really confusing because all the edits and changes to all the things important to them team were basically in its own little world and made up of bits of code that holds little meaning to us...

It just felt like what we were discussing in the threads and the finalized results that came out of it were completely different.

When the spreadsheet is edited it's really hard to just look over it to see if you agree with the changes... Usually it ended up being discuss, the spreadsheet is final, and just go with whatever is there...

Because of that, I request a function that allows you to export the information on the spreadsheet as forum code.

This way you can visually post any changes that you have made without it feeling "secret" or "seperate" to the main discussion.

It might be fairly hard to code, but I know Xenocidius did something similar in his card image builder, so it shouldn't be impossible.
Title: Re: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: Xenocidius on December 28, 2011, 10:19:50 am
Xeno senses tingling ... someone mentioned my name!

*Reads*

Because of that, I request a function that allows you to export the information on the spreadsheet as forum code.

This way you can visually post any changes that you have made without it feeling "secret" or "seperate" to the main discussion.

It might be fairly hard to code, but I know Xenocidius did something similar in his card image builder, so it shouldn't be impossible.
That's a very easy thing to do, actually, in any competent scripting language.

Regarding all these cases of celleditphobia ... I'm no spreadsheet expert, but couldn't the built-in data validation tools be used to make certain cells impervious to accidental editing?
Title: Re: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: Jenkar on December 28, 2011, 12:06:23 pm
Xeno senses tingling ... someone mentioned my name!

*Reads*

Because of that, I request a function that allows you to export the information on the spreadsheet as forum code.

This way you can visually post any changes that you have made without it feeling "secret" or "seperate" to the main discussion.

It might be fairly hard to code, but I know Xenocidius did something similar in his card image builder, so it shouldn't be impossible.
That's a very easy thing to do, actually, in any competent scripting language.

So not in gdocs? :silly:

Regarding all these cases of celleditphobia ... I'm no spreadsheet expert, but couldn't the built-in data validation tools be used to make certain cells impervious to accidental editing?
Can't protect individual cells :S
Title: Re: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: DrunkDestroyer on December 29, 2011, 11:13:03 am
and again hello!

I have no proposed solutions and understand that individual cells can't be locked and this was through the fault of one of our own (who will never be known - which is good because I find it very likely to be me) - but the idea of someone triple checking the vault tool and ect before the deadline, (especially someone nervous about taking control and screwing up :P ) should not be greeted by kevkevs penalty thread, due to a nonexistant bone pillar and equally nonexistant yellow warning message thing.

It was also a bit single player oriented, rather than promoting of team discussion, but I have nothing to compare it to, and imagine it was a huge relief after the other Wars, definitely made the whole thing a little easier. I guess the chat function may have added to the team effort, but thats probably a 'google' thing
Title: Re: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: Jenkar on December 29, 2011, 11:21:19 am
and again hello!

I have no proposed solutions and understand that individual cells can't be locked and this was through the fault of one of our own (who will never be known - which is good because I find it very likely to be me) - but the idea of someone triple checking the vault tool and ect before the deadline, (especially someone nervous about taking control and screwing up :P ) should not be greeted by kevkevs penalty thread, due to a nonexistant bone pillar and equally nonexistant yellow warning message thing.

It was also a bit single player oriented, rather than promoting of team discussion, but I have nothing to compare it to, and imagine it was a huge relief after the other Wars, definitely made the whole thing a little easier. I guess the chat function may have added to the team effort, but thats probably a 'google' thing
'tis.
I believe the adding of current vault & showing vault history will open team discussion.
Title: Re: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: Jenkar on March 19, 2012, 05:12:34 pm
Okay, reread this thread. Here's what i've concluded from it so far that must & will be added :

- Archive should be open (incredibly easy, nothing to add, just a tab to open to eyes)

- Have ''current vault - cards used in decks'' tab (easy, probably a bit time consuming) EDIT : okay, that was way easier than expected. Done.

- Generate a forum coded version of datas. (medium, very time consuming)

Any other suggestions before it is final are welcome. (and yeah, i've added war 5 rules *kills assassins*)
Title: Re: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: Sevs on March 19, 2012, 07:05:03 pm
Is there a way to add spaces to the deck codes it generates within deck building tool, so you can copy and paste from the bottom to the top of the page without having to go through the game import/export? I guess it doesnt really matter because you have to double check the decks anyway.
Title: Re: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: Jenkar on March 19, 2012, 10:53:09 pm
Is there a way to add spaces to the deck codes it generates within deck building tool, so you can copy and paste from the bottom to the top of the page without having to go through the game import/export? I guess it doesnt really matter because you have to double check the decks anyway.
Done.
Title: Re: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: Jenkar on March 20, 2012, 01:26:19 am
Okay, personally I found it really confusing because all the edits and changes to all the things important to them team were basically in its own little world and made up of bits of code that holds little meaning to us...

It just felt like what we were discussing in the threads and the finalized results that came out of it were completely different.

When the spreadsheet is edited it's really hard to just look over it to see if you agree with the changes... Usually it ended up being discuss, the spreadsheet is final, and just go with whatever is there...

Because of that, I request a function that allows you to export the information on the spreadsheet as forum code.

This way you can visually post any changes that you have made without it feeling "secret" or "seperate" to the main discussion.

It might be fairly hard to code, but I know Xenocidius did something similar in his card image builder, so it shouldn't be impossible.
Example :
Sapphire Charger10
Armagio10
How's the format? Fairly graspable? Also, where else is this needed? I'd imagine starting vaults & in construction vault. Is it needed for SDCPA?

For majo : deck exporter :
General
Code: [Select]
55l 55l 55l 55l 55l
(and so on for all positions with a deck)
      
Title: Re: War 4 vault tool : Feedback
Post by: Jenkar on March 20, 2012, 07:40:23 am
I hate triple posting but...
Implemented all suggestions. If something seems off, please do tell :>

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AurJM9dMuH3bdHZBbDIxaG5nS0Mzd0dtbDNIT1k0cmc#gid=8
blarg: