Guildwars (the game) style class switching

Speedz · #1 01-30-2012, 03:34 AM

Just had another idea that I wonder if it could be done.

Imagine a NPC in PoK or where ever that you could go talk to and they would save your current character (level, class, gear, spellbook and anything else that would be tied to a toon specific setup).

Then the NPC gives you a selection of class to switch to. You select that class and you start over as level 1 on that class. Maybe add the option to port to the starting city or tutorial.

Level up this class or get bored and go back to the same NPC and switch back to your previous class or any others that you have saved.
This is much like shrouding, but a bit more than that as a list of classes could be worked on and saved. One could say, "Just make another toon". But the point is to expand on ideas and allow more than what the game currently is. Also you are limited to the amount of toons one can make on a single account. Not to mention the time taken to log in and out.

Maybe add an ability to dual class, tho this would be one heck of a undertaking and code rewrite I would suspect, maybe the client wouldn't allow this.

The couple ideas I have come up with is I guess a way to reinvent the game with the parts of other games I liked.

**trevius** · #2 01-30-2012, 03:49 AM

Dual classing wouldn't really be possible without simulating a lot of stuff due to client limitations. Also, you would still need to relog your character after switching classes as it will boot you out when you do a class change so it can take effect.

I think the rest of it could probably be done with some creative scripting using the existing code, but I don't see much of a point to it. As you said, this isn't much different than just starting another character. Yes, you are limited to 10 characters per account, but that is more than enough for most people, especially when it is free to make as many accounts as you wish.

If anything like this was going to be implemented in the official source, it would be shrouding. I think Derision had done a little work on it a ways back, but never committed anything since it wasn't complete. It is pretty complex since it requires managing multiple inventories and other information that would be a ton of work to make it all work as it should.

Speedz · #3 01-30-2012, 03:59 AM

Yea I suspected it would take much change in the db for inventory/spell storage etc. I was thinking something like an advanced shroud type thing. Which doesn't log you out, just a matter of figuring out how to implement it.

That does offer some promise to the idea that it has been attempted at one point. Maybe if I can get good enough I will play around with it and see what I can break....er make.

This is mostly a personal preference of avoiding the cumbersome log in and outs to switch toons/accounts, but other ideas could come of this I would think. Tis why I thought it up

Thanks for the reply, any feedback is good to see, even if its a "Heck no are you nuts!" lol

**trevius** · #4 01-31-2012, 05:56 AM

Well, Derision is one of the best EQEmu coders this project has ever had. If shrouding was too difficult or too much work for even him, then I think it is pretty unlikely any newer member would ever get it implemented (at least not properly). Actually, I am sure he could have completed it if he had wanted, but I think the need was not great enough to justify the amount of his time it would have taken to do right. I wish the best of luck to anyone who tries, but just trying to let you know that it is not a simple task.

Speedz · #5 01-31-2012, 06:49 AM

Thats a "Heck no are you nuts!" :-P lol yea I am not looking to make some grand patch or anything anytime soon if ever really. But that is a good heads up. Probably saved a few headaches lol.

BrandeX · #6 01-31-2012, 10:55 AM

EQlive has this: Shrouds

sorvani · #7 01-31-2012, 11:50 AM

You know, I do believe that the OP mentioned that right there in his post...

Quote:

This is much like shrouding,

Yup.

Caryatis · #8 01-31-2012, 04:50 PM

I did this for an unreleased server of mine, wasn't too bad really. I created a few new DB tables to store templates of shroud and to store the users shroud(profiles and inventories) after they acquired them.

I wasn't able to get the playerprofile to switch dynamically so it had to involve a forced zoning to actually change the shroud and it wasn't really anything like live shroud(although live shrouds are a pretty stupid idea imo), more like the ability to play many different characters(also had it so that your chars were more powerful, the more powerful your shrouds were so there was incentive to level offbeat shrouds).

I had it setup so each shroud has its own skills, AAs, inventory, etc however bank space was shared among all the shrouds so there was some element of being able to transfer gear between shrouds. I would post a diff but since there was quite a bit of custom DB work, prob best for you to do it your way if you wanted to do it.

Don't be put off that Derision didn't do it as what Derision was doing was way beyond what you need. If you want to get shrouds working like Live, then yea you looking at a shit ton of work but if you want something similiar then its totally doable.

Speedz · #9 01-31-2012, 05:34 PM

Yea, what you worked on is pretty close to what I mean. I figured it would need some extra db work. The forced zoning wasn't something I anticipated, but that could be tolerable since I would have each class restart in their starting zone at first. But later on would have to figure out how to incorporate a needed zone into the switch. Something to make it seem to flow with the feature on the player side.

I would love to work off example if you were ok with sharing your work. But aside from that I was going to mess with it a lil to see what I can break lol.

Thanks for the thoughts and replies.