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March 28, 2024, 09:35:36 pm

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WotL Melee Companion App

Started by barbalargas, August 08, 2020, 10:31:03 am

barbalargas

Hello Final Fantasy Hacktics!

I recently started a bubble.io web app that serves as a scoreboard for my roster of premade characters built for a PvP league.  I am looking for feedback and suggestions, and maybe this can serve as inspiration to your own app ideas!

This is only a companion app; it doesn't actually play FFT, or mod it in any way.  I am currently playing these characters on PSP against real-life, socially-distanced opponents when possible, or against myself.

You can check it out here:  fftlive.bubbleapps.io  And you can read on for more context.
 

Before quarantine I was working on a Live Tournament League, and designing some premade PvP characters for participants to use.  The pandemic put the actual tournament on hold but I continued to playtest and refine the characters whenever I could get an opponent.

I was frustrated that I didn't have an easy way to track damage, healing, kills and deaths over the course of a match.  I was relying on 'feels' if certain characters felt too weak or powerful.

My initial attempt at sharing my roster out to others began with a Trello board: https://trello.com/b/ABsGIVy5/fft-wotl-draft-board

This served as a decent springboard for tracking changes, but felt clunky to setup.  It also didn't provide me with the hard data I needed to make informed changes to my characters.

After working with bubble.io (a no-code app builder) on other projects I felt confident I could at least make a scoreboard and load up a Tactics roster into a database.  The only parameters I needed were portrait thumbnails, a name, and a youtube link to their character intro trailer (I am a video editor so I made videos for all the premades).  This was all I needed for the ROSTER section of the app.

I feel a Draft is a necessity to keep players on their toes, and ensure the players know the entire roster and can adapt their play style when their favorite choices get banned.  While not as intuitive and lacking the free-choice flow I come to expect from a game UI, it is a functional draft system with a linear progression.  Thus the DRAFT section was born.

With Character selection in place it was a simple matter of displaying the players' choices on the scoreboard and adding any input fields to the Battle table for that particular match.  Once the player exits the match, the Battle is deleted and the next match's stats are reset.

And here we are!  On the roadmap for improvements:

- Simple scoreboard input method.  Currently you must select each Character when inputting damage/healing/kills/deaths, meaning you must input damage given AND damage received.  It would be better to select a Character, choose their Target, input damage/healing/death/kills once, and the scoreboard updates both Characters simultaneously.

- Map selection, filtered by size of match.  Small maps are exclusively used for 3v3, large maps used for 5v5.

- A post-game battle report screen.  Instead of immediately deleting a match I wish to create a match snapshot that can be exported for sharing, either as a .csv file or an image.

- Mobile responsiveness and general UI touchups

- Ability to add and share your roster via the app.



Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy previewing the app!  I am excited to read your thoughts and answer any questions.  Be well!

  • Modding version: WotL

barbalargas

**UPDATE**

The v.7 of the FFT Live Tournament Companion App is now released.


fftlive.bubbleapps.io

- The Simple Scoreboard is live.  Keeping track of stats is now on an easier-to-read display.  Clicking the + symbol next to a character initiates the damage/healing tracker with a kill counter.  Clicking the checkmark distributes the input to the proper columns on the scoreboard automatically.

- Random selection has been implemented for Draft and Map Selection.  Please give it a moment to calculate the result.

Thanks for reading!
  • Modding version: WotL

barbalargas

**UPDATE**

The v.8 of the FFT Live Tournament Companion App is now released.


WotL Melee Companion App

- Uploading your own Roster is now live!  You may make your Roster Private so only you may view, download the save file, and use in a Draft.

- A video tutorial explaining how to create your own Roster and adding Characters to it coming soon.

- Adding Characters to your Roster requires a Name and a Portrait image to create.  You are also given options for adding Abilities, screenshot for Equipment and Stats, small descriptions, and more.

- You may edit your Characters after adding them to your Roster by using the grey pencil next to their Portrait in the Edit Roster section.  You can reach the Edit Roster section by clicking the grey pencil next to your Roster in the View Roster section.  You may only edit Rosters that are created by you.

- You may also edit the details of your Roster, including deleting your Roster, to the left of the name of the Roster in the Edit Roster section.  Deleting your Roster will also delete all associated Characters.

Please be advised that bugs may pop up and some Characters and Rosters may not save right away.  I apologize ahead of time for these issues.  Please feel free to post any of these as a reply and I will do my best to correct them hastily.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy!

  • Modding version: WotL

barbalargas

**UPDATE**

The v.9 of the FFT Live Tournament Companion App is now released.


WotL Melee Companion App

- Multi-Roster Drafting is now live!  Users can Draft from their own Rosters once they have been added to the App.

- A video tutorial explaining how to create your own Roster and adding Characters to it is live, and watchable even when not logged in or signed up.

- Spectate Match is now live!  Enter in a unique Battle Code to view another Battle before you start a Draft by clicking the Spectate button. 

- After you finish a Draft you can find your own Battle Code in the top right corner of your Scoreboard. 

Please be advised that bugs may pop up and some Characters and Rosters may not save right away.  I apologize ahead of time for these issues.  Please feel free to post any of these as a reply and I will do my best to correct them hastily.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy!
  • Modding version: WotL