This is a very poor design doc, in that it's just a text dump with no flowchart and no graphics. But I just wrote it right now, so you get what you pay for.
So, what would we expect from an iPhone app for D&D4? I'm going to limit functionality to that which I think I could acheive on my own with the aid of, say, one programmer friend of mine, and the participation of WotC for data and layout and some other functionality.
1: Easy of use. It should feel like an iPhone app, which at their best are well organized and make it easy to get to the data and functions you want.
2: Intuitive, but not explanatory. I.e. if you know how to play D&D, you will understand how to use this app. If you do not know, it will not teach you.
3: Designed for Play. In other words, this is not a character editor. One exception might be; if you level up in the middle of a session, you could press a "level up" button and it would help you update your dude. This would require the synch function to work both ways. Builder -> iPhone and iPhone -> Builder.
4: Integration with the Character Builder. You create your character in the Builder, you can synch it to your iPhone. The ability to do this remotely, i.e over the internet, is not within the scope of this project as it would require a significant (but, I feel, necessary and inevitable) update to the way the character builder stores data.
5: Manage multiple characters. No reason to expect there would only be one character.
6: Does not have DM functionality. That'd be a separate app for a couple of reasons.
7: Contains only your content. I.e. if you put six characters in it, it only knows the powers for those six characters. It would not, for instance, let you change which Powers your character knows, because that would require it to have all the powers for all the classes from all the books and this is beyond the scope of this project.
8: Would track your choices and generate results over the course of play.
So how would it work?
HOME SCREEN
From here you are prompted to choose one of your characters. Simple list which you can scroll through, sorted alphabetically. Bad apps tend to overload the user with choices, while Apple learned it's best to just watch how people use things and then give them those choices. So no option to sort by other methods, Keep It Simple.
Once you choose a character you're taking to the CHARACTER MAIN SCREEN
CHARACTER MAIN SCREEN
In the upper left, a HOME icon to get you back to the Home Screen.
Here you see your character's name and core stats. Basically the same info displayed on the Character Card you get from the Character Builder.
Along the bottom, buttons for SKILLS, POWERS, GEAR, and COMBAT.
Below that, two buttons. SHORT REST and EXTENDED REST.
SKILLS
In the Upper left, a BACK icon which takes you back to the CHARACTER MAIN SCREEN
This page is just a table with a list of all the skills and your bonus. Math is not shown, just the total.
To the right of each skill entry is a ROLL button.
Taping this button brings up a DIALOG BOX.
The DIALOG BOX shows the math for your total and has two buttons; OK and ROLL.
OK takes you back to the SKILLS PAGE.
Roll brings up another DIALOG BOX that shows the result of a d20 roll + your Skill, with a button below it that reads OK.
OK takes you back to the skills page.
POWERS
In the Upper left, a BACK icon which takes you back to the CHARACTER MAIN SCREEN
This page displays your first (in alpha order) At-Will Power. It's color-coded to match the WotC layout.
It directly duplicates all the stats on the WotC Power Card. May require some formatting work to make legible.
At the bottom of the Encounter and Daily "power cards" (might need to be the top for usability) are two buttons; USE and MARK AS USED. At-will powers only have a USE button.
MARK AS USED removes the power from the set of active powers. It will now not be displayed until the proper REST button on the CHARACTER HOME PAGE is tapped.
USE brings up a DIALOG BOX with the results of the rolls associated with the power (to-hit and damage, when applicable) and an OK button.
Pressing OK takes you back to the Power's page, unless it's an ENCOUNTER or DAILY power in which case the "card" is removed from the "stack" and you're taken to the first At-will power, the top of the stack, as it were.
SWIPING to the left or right takes you to the next power in the "stack."
GEAR
Manages the abilities you get from your magic items. See POWERS, above.
COMBAT
The COMBAT page shows you your character's CURRENT HP, TOTAL HP, SURGE VALUE, CURRENT SURGES, TOTAL SURGES and your basic attacks.
Next to your CURRENT HP value are two buttons; DAMAGE, HEALING, and TEMP
Tapping the DAMAGE button brings up a numeric pad, allowing you to select how much damage you just took. Entering a value and pressing OK subtracts that number from your CURRENT HP, and takes you back to the COMBAT page where your values have been updated.
Tapping the HEALING button does the same, but the value is added, not subtracted.
Tapping the TEMP button takes you to a numeric pad where you may enter your current total Temporary HP. Doing so takes you back to the COMBAT page where a new entry: Temp HP is displayed. Damage from this point forward is first subtracted from TEMP and then CURRENT HP.
Next to CURRENT SURGES there's a button for USE SURGE.
Tapping this button brings up a numeric pad showing how many HP you will gain from a surge. Above the pad it reads "BONUS HEALING" allowing the player to enter a value. Pressing OK without entering a value adds HP to your character's total equal to the surge value, and takes you back to the COMBAT page where these values have been adjusted. Entering a number under the BONUS HEALING header and pressing OK does the same, but adds the number entered in the BONUS HEALING box as well. Current Surges in both cases would be decremented.
These values all adjust as per the rules when the user pressed the SHORT or EXTENDED REST buttons.
The BASIC ATTACK section includes buttons for each basic attack available to the users along with a USE button that brings up a DIALOG BOX with the attack and damage results, and and OK button returning you to the COMBAT SCREEN.
SHORT and EXTENDED REST
These buttons on the CHARACTER MAIN SCREEN both put powers and gear back in their appropriate stacks and adjust HP and Surges accordingly, depending on the type of rest.
That's it for now. Just a rough sketch but should show my vision for how such a thing should work. Sure, there are lots of functions you might want that would enable the app to work like a piece of scratch paper, but this isn't meant to completely replace the need for a character sheet. It's a tool that makes managing your character during play convenient. You may still need to go rummage around for your sheet in some cases and it's possible for something to happen over the course of play that the App doesn't or cannot understand.
90% of this is very simple, the real work is in getting it to communicate with the character builder. Might just be able to use the character data files.
The DM version would work in basically the same manner except it'd just be one stack of MONSTERS and PCs. You'd select them using the CHARACTER BUILDER or maybe the ENCOUNTER BUILDER, this is a tricky part since WotC has not produced a single app that lets you manage both. You'd first assign them initiative values and then manage the stack of MONSTERS and PCs the way you do powers. A SWIPE takes you to the next on the initiative order.
Each monster would have tabs for their card, their powers, and their HP. Probably also STATUS functionality for all of them.
__________________ I wrote a fantasy novel. It's online for you to read. At least a few people said they liked it. You might too! Probably not, but you never know!
I'd say more, but I think it's better if you have no idea what you're getting into.
Have you checked out iplay4e? I hear that one of the WotC bigshots - Tweet or somebody - is hoping to run his character entirely from the iPhone in his next game, using iplay4e.
Have you checked out iplay4e? I hear that one of the WotC bigshots - Tweet or somebody - is hoping to run his character entirely from the iPhone in his next game, using iplay4e.
James Wyatt.
__________________
James Knevitt
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iPlay4e is awesome, limited only by the fact that it doesn't work offline (for the ipod touches who are not w/in WiFi range) & isn't really an editor - it's more like a very, very fancy character sheet.
I think it pretty much has to be the model for any iPhone app that wants to do 4E character management, as it's already got the right feel & functionality.
I don't think you should expect your app to handle levelling up, since that would mean weird interactions with GSL stuff. Just have it render the XMLof a .dnd4e file in a cool, iphone-friendly manner, and have it auto-sync from the /Documents/ddi/Saved Characters folder.
__________________ ind4e, in which I copy and paste other people's efforts to kitbash D&D 4E to include Exalted's Stunting, SoTC's Aspects, and TSoY's Keys.
Have you checked out iplay4e? I hear that one of the WotC bigshots - Tweet or somebody - is hoping to run his character entirely from the iPhone in his next game, using iplay4e.
No, and it's not even clear to me looking at that site, that it's an iPhone app.
__________________ I wrote a fantasy novel. It's online for you to read. At least a few people said they liked it. You might too! Probably not, but you never know!
I'd say more, but I think it's better if you have no idea what you're getting into.
It's not an iphone app - it's a web-based app optimized for use on mobile devices that just happens to look like an iphone app.
I think it's germane to this discussion because it's a really good example of the look, feel, & functionality that I (and this is just me) am looking for in a 4e iphone app.
For instance - I'd like the app to be similarly linked to compendium entries for the powers (though I understand that the app probably won't store WotC's database locally, so said linking will only be available while online).
__________________ ind4e, in which I copy and paste other people's efforts to kitbash D&D 4E to include Exalted's Stunting, SoTC's Aspects, and TSoY's Keys.
It's not an iphone app - it's a web-based app optimized for use on mobile devices that just happens to look like an iphone app.
I think it's germane to this discussion because it's a really good example of the look, feel, & functionality that I (and this is just me) am looking for in a 4e iphone app.
For instance - I'd like the app to be similarly linked to compendium entries for the powers (though I understand that the app probably won't store WotC's database locally, so said linking will only be available while online).
Ah, okay, my mistake. I made the assumption (not owning an iPhone myself) that if people were running using it on their iPhones, there was some downloadable app to it in addition to the website thing. My bad.
Have you checked out iplay4e? I hear that one of the WotC bigshots - Tweet or somebody - is hoping to run his character entirely from the iPhone in his next game, using iplay4e.
Probably to reverse engineer it & figure out how to charge money for using it, then threaten to sue the crap out of the people who made the website if they don't take it down. I honestly think this will get shut down by wizards sometime within the next year. Which is a pity, because this site is awesome.
I don't think iplay4e is going to get shut down - they aren't hosting any of wizards' intellectual property. Their program has links to the compendium, which require you to enter your DDI password to follow.
__________________ ind4e, in which I copy and paste other people's efforts to kitbash D&D 4E to include Exalted's Stunting, SoTC's Aspects, and TSoY's Keys.
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