SpellDamage meets BlogEngine.net

Finally, I’ve integrated BlogEngine.net with SpellDamage. This gives me the capability of treating the homepage of spelldamage as my blog and get all those cool blog services like pings, social buttons, etc…

It wasn’t really all that hard, blogengine.net is setup quite nicely for integration. Although I did have some problems with jQuery which has caused me to hold back some features that I would have liked to release now (post comments, tabbed sidebar widgets, etc). I’ll be working to resolve those issues and get them up.

I’m not quite happy with the front page design. It’s too big, so I’ll be working on streamlining it some more… and adding some more polish to various UI parts. I’m also not really happy with the sidebar, partially due to the jQuery troubles and partially because I had to scrap some graphics I had planned for it. That will definitely be changing in the somewhat near future.

One big change is how I reworked the site navigation. It’s now grouped by functionality. The navigation bar has the following links: Home Browse Calculate Compare Leaderboards & Contact. When you hover your mouse over Browse, Calculate, or Leadersboard a small popup will appear allowing you to choose between Mage, Warlock, or Priest. Hopefully this navigation is intuitive, as now you choose what you want to do, and with which class. If you have any problems, let me know.

A loss I had to take in the nuts are the articles I’ve already written. I’ve got them all backed up to Word docs, but the entire article system I had before is gone. Now, those cached backlinks and pages in Google are wasted… I’ll have to work on getting them back again. Oh well… the loss is worth it I think.

I’ll be writing some articles, and making some videos about my journey of merging SpellDamage and BlogEngine.net.

Minor Upgrades: 06/03

Today I made a minor upgrade to spelldamage. It’s primarily a code maintenance release, but the upside is that you should see the error page less often (if you even saw it at all). According to my logs, quite a few of my visitors were being directed to the error page for various reasons.

Hopefully this release makes spelldamage so stable you never see the error page. But if you do, please let me know.

Thanks!

Very big changes coming to SpellDamage

In case you missed this post, “SpellDamage to Focus on Cloth Casters“, go read it. Basically, it says that Druids aren’t coming soon anymore. Sorry Druids, Shaman, and Paladins. Perhaps someday I’ll get to you.

So, the big changes. Yes, I’m reworking spelldamage again. I don’t want to write articles, and I don’t want the homepage to focus so intently on articles. So, I’ve rewritten the homepage (and a large portion of everything else too). Read this post, “Big rework coming soon“. It goes over a bit of what coming.

SpellDamage:Discovery is Live, and Druids are Next

Quick update here, SpellDamage:Discovery is live… check it out www.spelldamage.com. Watch this video to see the new features in action.

All you Druid players out there will be happy to know that Druids are the next class to be implemented in SpellDamage… in the next release. Check the under development page to keep informed.

SpellDamage 2.0, It’s Getting Close!

Alright everyone, SpellDamage 2.0 is very close now. I’m just finishing up the Priest calculator, should be done by the end of the weekend. After that, I just polish the site until my host has finished setting up ASP.NET 3.5.

So what’s coming? Here’s a quick review of whats new:

• Spell Database – Probably the single most important update. Now that I have an accurate database of the spells for each class, I can provide calculations to every level range. Yes, that’s right, you 29 twinks out there can now use SpellDamage too! I’ve even developed some back end tools to help me keep the spell data current (in case Blizzard changes things).
• Full Level Range Calculated – I know I mentioned it above, but it’s worth making it into it’s own bullet. The entire level range, 1-70, can now be calculated.
• US, EU, and Korea Support – Well, actually I’m not sure about the Korea support, but 2.0 fully supports the European WoW players! If you happen to know a Korean character/realm, test it out when 2.0 comes out, let me know how it works.
• Tabbed UI – The tabbed UI saves tons of screen real-estate, which frees the site up to better display the calculation results. It also helps a ton to keep everything clean and organized. It’s a billion times better than the current UI, and it’s AJAX’d so it’s nice and fast switching between tabs. To top it off, if the tabs are in the way, you can hide them!
• Top <class> – Each class has a Top <class> page that lets you show off! The data is filterable so you can see who’s truly top of their class. For example, the Top Mages page by default shows the mages who have the top mana, hp, spell damage, etc… with no filters. You can begin applying filters to it, such as level range, realm, battlegroup, etc… If you wanted to see only the 20-29 mages in the vindication battlegroup, you can!
• Article System - There’ll be an article system in 2.0, where I’ll write articles about class balance, theorycrafting, and anything else I feel like!
• LINQ - Actually, this is a feature of ASP.NET 3.5, but LINQ has allowed me to be extremely productive with the little free time I have. The auto-generated classes right from the SQL database top the cake!
• WoWArmory Data – I’m pulling a bit more armory data than before, and storing more of it as well. This supports the Top <class> pages.
• And more…

Hope you all enjoy SpellDamage 2.0 as much as I like developing it!

The Countdown Begins! SpellDamage 2.0 Draws Closer

Well, since Microsoft decided to finally release ASP.NET 3.5, my host has notified me that they’d like to test the update for a couple weeks. For me, and SpellDamage 2.0, this means the countdown has begun. I’m working as hard as I can to make sure SpellDamage 2.0 is ready once my host has ASP.NET 3.5 operational.

So, who cares? What does SpellDamage 2.0 bring to the table? Well, I’ll be making a few more videos to show it off, but in the mean time, check these out:

First, just a general preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fkdFrqWU24
Then a preview of the Top Mages feature: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avY6xQcb8RI

edit: New preview video, showing the “Tally” feature in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOz1aznOuLM 

Also, SpellDamage 2.0 has changed a bit cosmetically since those videos were made. I’m streamlining the CSS to make the page load faster, and make it easier to maintain.

Anyway, more to come… back to work!

Warlock Calculator Primary Development Complete

The primary development, that is – the development that needed to be done before any spell damage calculations could be performed, is complete. Now I simply need to add the warlock spells into the spell database and code some simple calls to the calculator engine (which I’ll talk about in a future article). The process is really simple, but a bit time consuming as I’m culling and entering the data into my spell database manually.

I’m doing it manually for two reasons:

1. I want to ensure the data is accurate. Too many downloadable, parsed databases running around… plus they have more properties for each spell than I need.
2. I want to  add in some spell properties that aren’t standard properties. They are simply there to help me pull the correct spell for each level/class combination.

Hopefully, I can have the Warlock calculator done this week. I’m still working with my host to find some .NET 3.5 hosting, if I cannot have the hosting ready by the time the Warlock calculator is done – I’ll start working on the Priest calculator.

Damn I can’t wait to get all the classes done… exciting times. Stay tuned for more!

Mage Calculator is Complete

Well, the SpellDamage 2.0 Mage damage calculator is complete. I’ve decided once I’ve finished the Warlock calculator, written some articles, and polished the site up a bit more, I’ll release the new SpellDamage. I just can’t stand having that old one online, it’s so crappy compared to the new one.

So, if things go well, I should be able to launch the new SpellDamage by December 1st. After launch, I’ll work on more articles and the other class calculators (and top score pages).  Very exciting times… so much goodness in the next release, I can’t wait to show it to you!

Euro Support & Perhaps Korean Too… how ’bout a sneak peek too?

For all those Euro players out there, spelldamage 2.0 will support player pulls from the euro version of the WoWarmory! The wait will be over with the next release. It’s been tested and the feature is in! I’m even planning on supporting Korean (and perhaps Thai) if I can get some valid links to some Korean and Thai characters from their respective armory pages. In the future, I plan to support any continent that blizzard builds a WoWarmory for.

And, because I’m in a bit of a giving mood today… I drafted a small sneak peek. The following screenshot is of the Mage calculator (with some parts mudged up so there are some surprises left). Bear in mind, I haven’t populated the spell db entirely, so only Fireball, Fire Blast, and Frostbolt are calculating at this time.

You’ll notice the tabbed interface. That will be expanded as I develop the calculator more. But for now, it contains the important parts and does a good job of keeping the UI very clean. If you look up and to the right, you’ll see a blue [hide] button. Clicking this will hide the tabs entirely, and it will change to a [show] button (clicking show brings the tabs back).

Still a lot more to do, but hopefully that soothes your curiosity a bit. At some point in the future, I may release a quick video showing it in action.

Enjoy!

Membership has it’s advantages!

Yes, I’m finally building a membership system into spelldamage. The primary features of becoming a member at launch will be that you can download my free ebook, and you’ll be able to bookmark your character. Of course, at this point membership it totally free and there will always be the free option. I do plan to have some primo features that may have a small monthly fee (really small, think < $5.00).

By bookmarking your character, the calculator will automatically enter your data into the fields, perform the armory pull, and calculate the damage – all when you visit the page (while logged in). Of course, this is in the free membership.

Of course, many more features to come, I just wanted to get this one out there so you can ponder it. I’ve got my ideas for some premium (small fee) features that I think you may like (and hopefully be willing to pay for). What’s yours? If you’ve got some ideas, perhaps you could win yourself a free premium membership, who knows. I’d love to hear what you think.