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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TheOverlord" data-source="post: 4808329" data-attributes="member: 83747">Program Scope and FunctionalityThis probably could be its own thread but just for fun...I believe Wizards always realized the potential of applications for their products but never managed to figure out how to accomplish it. They attempted character generators, e-tools and several other application and not a single one was a success. I believe they found that outsourcing the development to people who didn't know the game inside and out was incredibly difficult. Character builders/creators are incredibly tricky. There are things you have to take into account in an application that don't ever matter when you just play it on paper...and good luck imparting those things to a developer who doesn't know the game...and good luck even realizing what all those things are until you are deep into development.For example...keeping track of skills. If you spend a point in a skill while just playing the game all you really care about is whether it is a class skill and if you DM later lets you swap a few skill points around you just swap 'em 1 for 1. You will realize when I describe what you need to take care of in an app that the just swap 'em method leads to all sorts of small inaccuracies that don't matter on paper but will matter in an application.What class is spending the point? Was it a class skill when you spent the point? Did the skill later become a class skill due to cross-classing? If you refund a point which class are you refunding it to? You need to know when the point was spent into the skill if you are going to determine whether it was a class skill or a cross-class skill at the time.Fun example. I take 1 level Ftr, 1 level Rogue and then another level in Ftr. At level 1 I spent a cross-class point in use-magic-device. At level 2 I spent a rogue skill point in use magic device which is now a class skill. At level 3 I spent a fighter skill point in use magic device which is still a class skill because the rule is once a class skill always a class skill. I now have 2.5 ranks in Use magic device.Now I want to change just that 1/2 a rank out...In an application if I wanted to simply remove a skill point...if I am not forcing the user to designate which point to remove things get tricky. Which one do I remove? Do I remove the most recent point and just let the user somehow know it was a fighter skill point from level 3? Because if I refund the cross-class skill point in fighter it must be spent as if I were still a level 1 character with only fighter skills as class skills...and oh, by the way, I have to display the skill list properly so that I even know that at level 1 my class skills were different than they are now at level 3.....Have fun with all that. Obviously, I haven't even gone into the full detail but to keep a program from allowing all sorts of rule-breaking one has to handle these issues. This by the way is not the most difficult thing to overcome when writing a character generator. You will just have to take my word for it. I cannot spill all my secrets.</blockquote>

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