BABs, don't forget your promise to me!

[Vanden]

Remember? Remember what you said in this post here? I still wanna know!

[Kitsune Knight]

Who said they were done?



(he could make that claim, as there's still the pools, APP/EPPs, HEATs/VEATs )

[Vanden]

Don't think that hadn't occurred to me.

[Razoras]

Didn't he post that it took a year or two of constant on-the-side work?

[Zekiran_Immortal]

It took a minimum of 1.5 years, once they were able to start dedicating people to it after NC bought the property. With extra hands on it still took at least 1 full year. And no they're not done yet.

[BackAlleyBrawler]

Originally Posted by Vanden

Remember? Remember what you said in this post here? I still wanna know!

It's already been said, but close to a year and a half after the feature was green-light. I couldn't tell you how exactly much of that period of time went into actual work on power customization. It was more start-stop as the tech was created around it, and we had to work on content for other issues. But, I believe our first working prototype powers were for Fire Blast and according to the revision history, that goes back as far as 5/15/2008.

There was also time spent on creating and refining tools and scripts to process the monstrous amount of data before we even dug in and started manipulating that data by hand. One of our programmers wrote a python script that parsed through power definitions, collected all of the animation/FX scripts associated with each power, dug in those and found all of the FX scripts and all of the particle scripts, copied everything over to a separate location (where they could be changed without affecting the original FX/Particle scripts), and renamed/relinked all of these things. That script alone made this feature possible. It took me literally about a week to manually prepare a single powerset consisting of 9 powers while the script could crunch through an entire Archetype in a matter of minutes.

Ultimately, we ended up with 1,200+ customizable powers (counting duplicates across multiple ATs), 2400+ FX scripts, and 6,700+ particle scripts. Every single one of which was at one point edited by hand.

As a feature, it's got a much longer history than even that. I did a lot of fruitless experimentation around the same time as weapon customization. There's also some code in the FX script for hue shifting that pre-dates Issue 8 (when I started). I don't know all of the reasons why Cryptic didn't want to move forward with it at that time or when exactly they made that decision, but ultimately we ended up taking a very different approach to the whole system.

[edit]I should have thought about this before, but all the work with the power FX/particle scripts was only one portion of this whole system. There was also design work done in terms of what the experience of customizing powers should be like, what the costs would be, how the interface would work, lots of back end work to store that data on characters, get those customized FX from the server to everyone's client, and of course the whole power customization window interface integrated into the new character creation workflow. Every player power definition was updated to reference these new visual FX scripts, we got new blend modes for the particle system to make using the 'dark' themes more intuitive, work was done to make customized FX work in demorecords, the list goes on and on. All together there were a half dozen people who contributed a serious amount of work into this system and as we approached the launch of I16 many more joined the effort to get it birthed.

And we've only done primary and secondary powers.

[Vanden]

And yet you still hunkered down and did it. Many kudos to you and your team!

[Zyphoid]

I am just hope some of the nay sayers are still around to see the fruits of your labor.

[Thirty-Seven]

Originally Posted by Zyphoid

I am just hope some of the nay sayers are still around to see the fruits of your labor.

Trust me they are... or there are all new people complaining about the feature (even now).

I have to admit, I was less than stoked when I heard about the feature being implemented. Personally, I like the way almost everything looked before, but this really does open a TON of doors concept-wise, and is just one more thing to draw people to this game, which is ALWAYS a good thing.

Awesome job BaB and BaB's minions!!

[Swamp_Goblin]

Originally Posted by Vanden

And yet you still hunkered down and did it. Many kudos to you and your team!

Thank you very much BaBs and Team. That much work deserves the gratitude!

[Zekiran_Immortal]

BABS, you totally rule, you know that right? Well, now you do. The work that has gone into this has obviously been time consuming and difficult at times but hey - it's obvious to most of us that it's well worth that effort.

[Mikuruneko]

I, as with many of my fellow players, greatly appreciate all the hard work and effort you and your crew put in, BABs. Our characters are even more customizable and able to be more personalized than ever, and that says a lot. It brings our visions for our characters even closer to the ideal in our heads and makes them that much more enjoyable to play.

You accomplished a monumental task in a fairly short amount of time, and it shows the talent and dedication City of Heroes has supporting it in its devs. The best for our game is yet to come,and I'm satisfied we have the talent to get there.

Oh, and your guy who codes in Python gets extra kudos - Python is awesome!

[Calibre]

Originally Posted by Vanden

And yet you still hunkered down and did it. Many kudos to you and your team!

The Team and BaBs deserve Canadian Whiskey for Christmas!

yay!

Cal

[Twisted Toon]

Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler

One of our programmers wrote a python script that parsed through power definitions, collected all of the animation/FX scripts associated with each power, dug in those and found all of the FX scripts and all of the particle scripts, copied everything over to a separate location (where they could be changed without affecting the original FX/Particle scripts), and renamed/relinked all of these things. That script alone made this feature possible.

Have you promoted that programmer to your second in command?

Maybe gave him a nice bonus?

How about a lollipop and a cup of cocoa?

That guy really does deserve some congratulations.

And you do too, BaB, for being the kind of guy you are.

[LordSquigie]

Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler

[The Grand Endeavor]

While reading that, am I the only one who envisioned a timeline-montage, with sweeping orchestral accompanyment?

[Samuel_Tow]

I am officially impressed. I always knew this would be a lot of works (BABs said as much a lot back when we were pestering him about it at every turn), but I didn't suspect it was quite THIS much work. Just goes to show you, guys, they are not sitting on their hands, collecting pay checks and laughing with glee. These guys are working hard at making this a great game, and I for one thing we ought to be a little more appreciative and a little less bitchy, to say the least.

As a matter of fact, reading this gave me an image of one of those Mythbusters moments where they band together and do something huge, thought impossible, kind of impractical, but really, really, REALLY awesome! And do it on a budget, no less. Honestly, at this point in time, I couldn't be happier with the state of the game.

[hazey]

I actually feel a little sorry for new players arriving into the game now, they will have nothing to compare to and will just assume we have always had awesome colour choices for our powers.

[Silver Gale]

Originally Posted by BackAlleyBrawler

One of our programmers wrote a python script that parsed through power definitions, collected all of the animation/FX scripts associated with each power, dug in those and found all of the FX scripts and all of the particle scripts, copied everything over to a separate location (where they could be changed without affecting the original FX/Particle scripts), and renamed/relinked all of these things. That script alone made this feature possible.

Wow, python really *does* make impossible things happen.

[BigFish]

I believed you when you said it could be done, but would take an incredible amount of man hours to do.

You are a modern Herakles, and we marvel at your labors

[Techbot Alpha]

Now, if only they could figure some code to let the Devs come visit us on EU live servers, not just test...


I jest. I love the fact we actualy get nuggets of insight like this (and DO even on the EU side, thanks to the new forums =P ) Awesome work man.