Does GCA have an "Optimize Character" function like in GCB?

[Calliban]

Back in 3rd edition days GCB had a "Optimize Character" function that would basically rearrange stats, skills, defaulted skills and techniques in order to decrease point cost while increasing stats/skills. My players loved it so much it became a meme in our group, and it was a godsend for dealing with highly skilled PCs and Martial Artists in general.

Does something like this exists in GCA? If not, would it be viable to code a plugin for that purpose?

[Armin]

No, there is no such thing in GCA.

It could be done with a plugin, but I don't currently have support for general plugins because it hasn't been asked for yet, and I didn't have a need for it myself yet. Right now, there's only support for plugins that are print sheets, exporters, and Unified boxes.

I can put support for general plugins on my short list, to do sooner rather than later. Such plugins could be listed on the Tools menu and called from selecting them there; they could probably receive the current Party data and probably have Options save/load support (like Unified boxes--they wouldn't show up in Sheet Options and the plugin would have to manage access to them).

Someone else would have to write the actual plugin.

[Calliban]

Originally Posted by Armin

No, there is no such thing in GCA.

It could be done with a plugin, but I don't currently have support for general plugins because it hasn't been asked for yet, and I didn't have a need for it myself yet. Right now, there's only support for plugins that are print sheets, exporters, and Unified boxes.

I can put support for general plugins on my short list, to do sooner rather than later. Such plugins could be listed on the Tools menu and called from selecting them there; they could probably receive the current Party data and probably have Options save/load support (like Unified boxes--they wouldn't show up in Sheet Options and the plugin would have to manage access to them).

Someone else would have to write the actual plugin.

Thank you for the answer. I think I was not clear, I was proposing to code the plugin myself if it was viable in the current version. I'll be eagerly watching for version updates from now on!

[Armin]

Originally Posted by Calliban

Thank you for the answer. I think I was not clear, I was proposing to code the plugin myself if it was viable in the current version. I'll be eagerly watching for version updates from now on!

Ah, great! Thanks!

[Armin]

Thinking about it a bit just now....

You could probably do this as a Unified box right now. If the algorithm didn't cause too big a performance hit, it could be sitting there saying 'if you do this, you'd save these points' while the user was working away, then they could just click a button to make the suggested changes. Just a thought!

[sir_pudding]

Noting that Talents do make optimization slightly more complicated in 4e.

[Phil Masters]

Also, the option to float skills to different stats on occasion may make optimisations slightly less absolute.

[Armin]

As of the newest update to GCA (5.0.218), there is new type of plugin: the Called Plugin. This type of plugin can be launched from the Tools > Launch menu. That plugin can do a thing and immediately end, or it can stick around and work while the user does other things in GCA.

I have created an example Called Plugin, cleverly named Called Plugin Example, for coders who may want to do something like the optimizer discussed here (or for lots of other things that GCA doesn't do already, really). This example creates a dialog that hangs around so the user can use it repeatedly, without having to constantly launch and exit.

The example is on my blog site here: Called Plugin Example.