IMPROVEMENT IDEA - PRESETS for FORMATION/RUNES/WEAPONS

[RiverBummer]

Every item tied to a character has a distinct ID, including runes. This is just the basics of database management for a game like this. It would be extremely easy to keep track of a rune or a weapon or a helm as it levels up, as you're only keeping track of the "association ID" between the player and the item. The only possible issue would be during an upgrade from say, Hope Bringer's to Champion's level, or Champion's to Guardian's, but to fix that you have a small piece of code that says, "While upgrading this item, find the item's old ID and replace it with the new ID of the item that replaced it during the upgrade." It's also possible that the item ID tied to the character/player doesn't change, only its "template" ID. "I am an item of template type Champion's Sword with ID 3, but now am a Guardian's Sword with ID 4 and my level has reduced by 3. I am associated to the player with ID 27, and that hasn't changed."

In other words, there are plenty of ways to manipulate the data to maintain presets should the developers choose to. Please don't make comments about the difficulty of programming something if your experience is just dabbling rather than as your profession, as it seems (and I hope it is) to be.

Exactly Klepto - as the item upgrades (change in attribute value not change of class) the item KEY in the database stays the same unless it is absorbed into a higher level item. If it is just changing the level from say purple to yellow of the same super class (e.g agility to nimbleness [i.e. generic category DODGE]) it just updates the preset key to the one superior in pedigree. If its a whole new class change (e.g. DODGE to BLOCK or HIT to HP) then the preset gets marked as "in need of user maintenance due to upgrade" and perhaps the GUI gets a RED FLAG indication to come make a decision to redefine that preset (but it goes ahead and keeps the new item key as a default until told otherwise so SOMETHING loads EVERY TIME). This is classic object oriented design where super classes absorb their siblings.

It might be subject to some "gotcha's" to shake out the concept in beta for a month or two with user feedback but I think this is a MUST have to get optimum fun and utility out of the game. A real sophisticated programmer worth his salt could even program simulated attack or defense profiles to monte carlo the best power setup and formations automatically using thousands of simulations (in a second or two) for a given rune set and maybe make suggestions on minor rune improvements/upgrades to give PROFOUND game performance rather than the current manual trial and error heuristic. Could be a really FUN project for a top SW developer to take on and push this game into a new class of higher end offings online that would give a market advantage.