Talk:Planar Travel (3.5e Variant Rule)

Things

This is majorly under progress including formatting (I'm new to wikis). Feel free to edit this, so long as the general idea remains. Also free to add new abilities though I haven't fully recorded the benchmark abilities yet so there might be a lot of balancing. Aarnott 09:28, 7 January 2007 (MST)

Thanks for the formatting earlier Green Dragon. I'm plugging away bit by bit to add each element. Is there a better way I could organize this? Right now it is going to end up being a VERY long page. Anyone is free to add stuff that makes sense. I keep play testing this for balance, but it can be difficult. Aarnott 13:29, 8 January 2007 (MST)

Yes, there is a better way you could organize this. I would recommend making "Supplements". Supplements are supposed to be used mainly in Campaign Settings, however this would be a perfect use for them. For each type (Fire, Water, No Type, etc) make a separate page. Each of these separate pages would have a different energy type, and the link to every separate page should be on this page. The separate page name for fire (for example) would be Fire Element (Planar Travel Supplement). Also, if you were to create this page, it would have to be part of [[Category:DnD]], [[Category:User]], [[Category:Variant Rule]], [[Category:Planar Travel Variant Rule]], and [[Category:Supplement]]. This should make this page more manageable. --Green Dragon 16:40, 8 January 2007 (MST)

After extensive playtesting, I have come up with a slight modification to add more balance to attack skills. For clarity, I also am removing fractional multipliers to attack and magic when calculating damage. Aarnott 07:59, 10 January 2007 (MST)

Perl Script

I created a Perl script to translate stuff from the ability pages into the format I am using for the tables on these pages (it was getting to be a pain to copy and paste a lot). Here is the script -- it requires an element.txt file which contains the complete source from the ability page.

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use POSIX qw(locale_h);
use locale;
my @textArray;
my @element;
my @skill;
my @desc;
sub readFile ($\$);
sub writeFile ($\$);
readFile "element.txt", my $text;
@textArray = split(/\n/, $text);
my $count = 0;
foreach my $line ( @textArray ) {
	if ( $line =~ /(.*)(Element:)/ ) {
		if($textArray[$count + 1] =~ /\|.*\|\s(.*)/) {
			push( @element, $1);
		}
	}
	elsif ( $line =~ /(.*)(Name:)/ ) {
		if($textArray[$count + 1] =~ /\|.*\|\s(.*)/) {
			push( @skill, $1);
		}
	}
	elsif ( $line =~ /(.*)(Description:)/ ) {
		if($textArray[$count + 1] =~ /\|.*\|\s(.*)/) {
			push( @desc, $1);
		}
	}	
	$count++;	
}
$count = 0;
foreach my $e (@element) {
my $s = $skill[$count];
my $d = $desc[$count];
print	'|- class="even"' . "\n" .
	'! align="left" |' . $s . '' . "\n" .
	'| align="left" | ' . $d . "\n";
$count++;	
}
sub readFile ($\$) {
	my $file    = $_[0];
	my $content = $_[1];
	open(my $FH, $file ) or die "Can not open $file: $!\n";
	$$content = join( , <$FH> );
	close $FH;
}
sub writeFile ($\$) {
	my $file    = $_[0];
	my $content = $_[1];
	$file .= '.updated' unless -w $file;
	open(my $OUT, '>' . $file) or die "Can not open $file:$!\n";
	print $OUT $$content;
	close $OUT;
	print "Wrote updated content to $file\n";
}

What does this do (I'm not a programmer)? And do you have to have Blue Dragon (the 'techie') change something to make it work? --Green Dragon 20:40, 11 January 2007 (MST)

It's really just a convenience thing because I got tired of creating all the abilities for an element and then having to copy all the information down to transfer it to the main page. What it does is figures out what data needs to go on the main page by looking at the source for the main page.

I should have put the usage. Here goes:

• Install Perl on your computer (just google and download it)
• Go into the source for this page, and copy the code with ctrl+c
• Paste it into notepad, and save it to some directory (hereafter referred to as ELEM_DIR) as element_list.pl (not .txt -- you'll have to save it as "All Files"
• Make a list of abilities (say for mechanical), and then when you are done the ability page, go to the source for it and copy and paste it into a new notepad window.
• Save that new notepad document as element.txt in ELEM_DIR
• Open up a command prompt (you can choose Start>Run and enter cmd as the file to run) and then from the command prompt type: cd ELEM_DIR
• Type: element_list.pl >> output.txt
• Open output.txt in DIR, and Voila -- you now have the rows to use in the main page tables.

Some people might wonder why I bother, but a programmer builds things to save time off tasks (not necessarily net time). It was much more fun to program the perl script in 20 minutes and use it to save 5 minutes of boringness here and there.

If you ever find yourself doing a very repetitive formatting task Green Dragon, just post on my user page and I'd be happy to at least try to write a script to do it for you. Aarnott 07:16, 12 January 2007 (MST)

You would really be willing to write a script if I need one? See, I have come under this problem before. The techie on this site, Blue Dragon, also writes scrips, however he only cares about the server side of the site really and it is hard to make him take the time out of what he is doing to make him write one for me. This does not only apply to scripts but to all things. For example, he has not got around to fixing the dlpc extension (to make it use templates) because he is doing other things. So, if I need s script written (or improved) can I just ask you? --Green Dragon 10:24, 12 January 2007 (MST)

Depends on the task required, and if I am working on an existing one, depends on what language. But yes, if you need a script written to automate some sort of task you are doing client side, I can definitely do that. Types of things I can do that are no problem involve searching text for data and formatting data (such as taking values and auto-generating a table). I can't really write server side scripts though. Aarnott 11:16, 12 January 2007 (MST)

I know you cant do server-side scripts, but how about improving on a script that Blue Dragon already wrote, that is not server side? --Green Dragon 12:55, 12 January 2007 (MST)

I can definitely look at it. Send it to my junk email address clown_d3{@AT@}hotmail[DOWT]com (don't want more junk than I already get :P). Just make sure to explain what it is supposed to do and what you need changed. I'd love to help if I can, because this site is great. Aarnott 13:07, 12 January 2007 (MST)

Sent. Thanks for the complement about this site too :). --Green Dragon 14:05, 12 January 2007 (MST)

Pokémon?

Is it just me or is this heavily (VERY heavily) influenced by Pokémon? Not that that's a bad thing since I like Pokémon, but the abilities do all seem to be a bit combat oriented. --Robrecht 21:47, 9 August 2007 (MDT)

Forgot to sign --Robrecht 21:47, 9 August 2007 (MDT)

Yes sir this is very heavily influenced by Pokémon. I was playing Emerald at the time I started this :P. It has been abandoned for now because I had way too much trouble balancing it without making it bland. --Aarnott 05:25, 10 August 2007 (MDT)

Edit->I should also point out that this is completely fair game to edit. If you want to add content and/or balance it, not just are you permitted, you are encouraged! --Aarnott 06:38, 10 August 2007 (MDT)

Planar Travel?

Is this really travel? Should it just be planar forms? --Sabre070 06:35, 7 December 2008 (MST)

If anything it should probably be deleted... But yes, you are right. --Aarnott 21:29, 8 December 2008 (MST)

Suggestions

I was toying with building a planar form for a character of mine(while ignoring AP costs on purpose) and noticed that the system really isn't designed for people to get insanely high-leveled elements. Perhaps restricting the primary element to a max level of 20(same as non-epic D&D proper) would suffice. This would necessitate the non-primary elements stopping at Lv10, being able to eventually get every element is another issue to be addressed but may not be as critical. --Sephikus (talk) 05:35, 21 July 2015 (MDT)