iPhone Hero Builder

Hey forum.

I'm thinking of developing a hero builder for the iPhone and i made a post with some sugestions and ideas and id love some responses to it. As i didnt know where to put the post, i posted it into ideas and suggestions. But shortly after that i saw a iPhone related post here in General Discussion too.
So to be safe and get the maximum responses before i start putting time in it without anyone interested in it, i decided to post it here aswell.



Ever sit on the toilet at working thinking of the next hero thats going to change the world?
Well, I am...

As a 4.5 year vet and recently re-subscribed CoX fan, im quite surprised and annoyed on daily base, that there isn't an iPhone app for City of Heroes yet!
So i decided to to.. well.. make one myself!

Ive recently gotten into iPhone development an im willing to put some free time into making the following statement true; “there’s an app for that!”

But before I start and waste numerous, Id like to knew a few things..

1: Is there even enough interest in this?
2: What features would you like to see in the app?
3: iPhone, iPad, both?
4: What price should this app be in the appstore?

Let me know!
Im excited about this so the more replies i get the faster i start to work!




Please post all replies at my other post in order to keep things organised:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=246530

I'd say if you were going to do this, it would have to be free, as legal issues would definately arise if you took money for it. Then again, the same issues might come up even if you don't charge.

Putting that to one side, I'd definately be interested. Would be nice to have it open while respeccing to make sure I get things right. Not that I'm much of a build maniac, but it would be nice.

Features? Obviously that's up to you. As a suggestion, I'd like a Mids style build designer and if possible, however doubtful, a character creator. Even if it used mock graphics, it would be pretty sweet to see such a thing.

As I have an iPod Touch, I'm going to say that, but you might as well develop for both platforms. People without one of the other would be pretty unhappy if theirs were left out.

My suggestion would be to make it for Android.

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Want. Want want WANT WANT WANT!

As an avid Apple guy, I WANT THIS! Do it! I'll donate to the cause! Making it native to both iPhone and iPad makes it very attractive, and let me just say I'd pay for it.

I'd like it and I'd be willing to pay up to $4.99 for it as it seems to me the amount of work would be equal to what other apps for that price would require.


Really, I wish our Devs would come up with more Apps-- for all Smartphones/Pads, etc-- just because I think it might be a fairly easy way to garner some publicity for the game.

Heck, if they could find a way to release a standalone version for the costume creator that'd rock!

I don't mean this in the spirit of discouraging you, but have you looked into what is involved in releasing an app for the iPhone? I actually pondered releasing a reference app for City of Heroes, basically a simple mission/contact-lookup app.

So I sent $99 to Apple with my developer's application. A week or so later, they sent me an e-mail saying that they wanted me to send them a hardcopy of proof of my identity, so I did. A few weeks later, still not approved, they sent me another e-mail asking me to send a notarized copy of proof of my identity. Keep in mind that nowhere in any of the application materials does it say that this kind of information in that specific format will be required.

Now, around this time, I had also read a lot of horror stories about developers getting applications stuck in Apple's approval pipeline for months, some being rejected outright for stupid reasons, and so on. I sent them a pretty scathing reply that basically boiled down to the following: I've heard a lot of problems from other developers getting apps published. It has been over a month since I applied to be a developer, and I feel that you're placing unreasonable demands on me in getting accepted to the program. Based on this, I tend to believe that the horror stories I've heard from other developers are probably true. I am doing this only as a hobby, not for commercial purposes, and frankly, with all of the trouble you have put me through to date, you have convinced me not to use the iOS as a platform. Please refund my $99.

They did, and I haven't looked back. It's too bad, because I did spend a lot of time and effort learning Objective C, time and effort I really could have spent on more productive things. Speaking of which, if you've never programmed in Objective C before, it ain't easy. Make sure you understand what you're undertaking before you get your hopes up. It's a language in which you have to do low-level things like manage memory allocation, things I haven't had to do in a modern language since like 2000. Also, its syntax is significantly different from C-language variants such as C++, C#, Visual Basic, Perl, Javascript, and Php. It's not impossible, but be aware that it's a lot harder and pickier than those.

Oh, and you probably know this already, but to develop native iOS apps, you must do so on a Mac using Apple's Xcode developer platform. There is no option for doing so on a PC. I've run across people who were interested in it but who didn't have a Mac, and getting a Mac that also serves as a decent developer platform ain't cheap.

Maybe you won't have the same experience, and if not, then I'll wish you luck and look forward to seeing what you produce for iOS. I just want to make sure that you understand that developing apps for the iPhone isn't like developing apps for any other platform. For one thing, there is no free hobbyist option. For another, you have to get everything you do--everything--past the gatekeeper that is Apple, and my personal experience is that it isn't worth the trouble.

I'd pay in a nanosecond for this. Yes yes yes please.

Mids on the iPhone would be awesome.

The costume creator on the iPhone would be uber-awesome.

I'm sure I remember a thread somewhere that had CoH running on the iPhone somehow?

But yes, please make something like WoWs Armory app, but for CoH, and I'll buy it.

Eco

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

I'd love to see this and would happily pay for it!

I have both an Iphone and Ipad, would like to see it on both but either would be great, I would imagine the Iphone/Ipod touch route would be best at first to reach more people, then make an Ipad version taking advantage of the bigger screen.

In all honesty the Devs would be crazy to oppose this as if it were in the app store it would likely bring in new subscribers.

As for what to put in it, just whats in Mids would be enough for me, and I suspect the majority of users.

I don't pay more than $5 for Iphone apps, but I would for this proposed app.

I own an iPhone and iPad. I'd love some kind of character planner app that I could use when not at my PC.

Would I pay for it? Only if it was really, really good.

I'd imagine that a programmer would want to make sure that anything created gets properly removed and cleaned up.

Good coding practices should help with that, but some less experienced programmers (I'm strictly generalizing here, not saying anything about you as we've never met) forget that a language/environment like Flash might not clean up after itself properly. Heck, even I forget about garbage collection sometimes, and I know better.

It is always better to do your own garbage collection, something I've learned from C++.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

I would love this as well. Currently I use TeamViewer to remote in to my home PC and just used Mids that way. It works, but a native app would be awesome.

There's currently an app in the App Store that is a hero builder but it's very very limited and I haven't seen any updates to it in a long time. It almost seems like the dev scrapped it. I realize re-creating a mobile Mids would be a tough undertaking, but I'd aim for that.

I'm wouldn't be interested in some sort of costume creator as much as I would be in a statistical character builder.

Sounds like the best idea ever! You got my vote.

Now ive got a new question; is creating a forum export or even a mids build export something you would highly enjoy?

I'm all for a mobile version of mids, or a lite version of it anyway. Exporting to the forums i don't see as a must, at least not in the first go through, but maybe the ability to e-mail it so it can be opened when I get home.

Right.
Im actually over excited so ill start creating it probably tonight!
I'm having a (skype) brainstorm with some CoX Vets and and another designer to see how best to get started with this and get the best result out of the small screen of the iPhone.

Little side note; we'll be discussing both the build creator as the idea for creating a costume creator to see how we can best solve the issues we could encounter. As of this point, i think both are optional and I already have idea's on how to accomplish both of em. Most likely as separate applications.
I will keep you posted with any progress ^^

I was just checking the app store and there is a builder app already. As to its quality, I have no idea. It's a couple bucks but until I know more about its quality I am reluctant to purchase it. A port of Mids would definitely be something I would purchase though. On a side note, a different superhero game has an app for the iphone, not a hero builder, but it would be nice if we had something similar.

I would really like to see MMO game developers expand the games beyond the PC and maybe have mini-games on smartphones where you can continue your progression, of course at a much reduced capacity. At the least it would be cool to play with the auction house on my phone or get monster/invasion updates.