[Discussion] Character Tracking, and what extras you track.

Hello everyone!

About me and what I do.

As some of you are aware. I am a software developer by hobby and I like to work on small little tools for use on the site. Most of them of which are just personal tools that I have either chosen not to disclose or are not stable enough to release.

Project Details

My latest project is a total upgrade to the existing mission tracking system. I am moving it from a spreadsheet to a database that can cleanly automate alerts for expired missions, inactivity and more.

Another project I had been planning involved a creating a character tracking system that does not involve using spreadsheets. If you know about my character record template, you probably know it is very messy to update it yourself.

How does this involve you?

Well, the system is already large enough and has to keep track of many different things involving characters. I figured I would merge the other project I had in mind together with this one. The second project involved a special character tracker that would count pages, manage character relationships, and much much more. Just like my existing character record template in google sheets.

I am looking for any and all feedback for this project if possible.
If you are curious about what the design currently looks like. The image below should reflect on the current design of the database.

I'm not exactly sure how it will all work out. I have a few suggestions that I would like to see.

A list of all the characters that RP'd with one of your characters, and who owns those characters. This could work in combination with relationships. (I am personally not able to work with a point system when it comes to relationships, so you should keep that in mind)

It would be useful if there was any kind of personality field. Some Pokemon change over time so the bio does not match how the Pokemon is anymore. This is why it would be nice to keep track of the personality of a character. Maybe also keep a track of likes, dislikes and fears.

Medical status. Some Pokemon are born with some kind of medical issues, others might get some injuries or scars during their journey. It might be helpful to keep track of it. Say a Pokemon lost a limb during an accident, or a bird broke their wing and can no longer fly. A blind Pokemon has no issues with going into dark places and could lead those who rely on their eyes around. Things like these would be useful to know.

Hmmm....This is all I can think off so far. Once again, these are just a few ideas. I don't know if I will be using this system myself but others might like to see these things too.

Similarly to Ev I like to keep track of my character's relationships with other characters, although I agree a point system doesn't seem like the best solution for something that is in no way quantitative, so i'm not sure how you might go about that.

I also like to keep track of what characters are in what thread as well as whether a thread is locked/open/on hold. In my records I tend to also have little notes about each thread where appropriate, such as when meeting someone for the first time or assigning a WS challenge.

I don't know if any of this is helpful or relevant to you but hey ho. That's my piece I suppose xD

Oh also idk if relevant at all but I like to keep separate inventory lists for different threads, and then put them in my main inventory/storage when that thread is over. |D

Evana wrote:: A list of all the characters that RP'd with one of your characters, and who owns those characters. This could work in combination with relationships. (I am personally not able to work with a point system when it comes to relationships, so you should keep that in mind)

It would be useful if there was any kind of personality field. Some Pokemon change over time so the bio does not match how the Pokemon is anymore. This is why it would be nice to keep track of the personality of a character. Maybe also keep a track of likes, dislikes and fears.

Medical status. Some Pokemon are born with some kind of medical issues, others might get some injuries or scars during their journey. It might be helpful to keep track of it. Say a Pokemon lost a limb during an accident, or a bird broke their wing and can no longer fly. A blind Pokemon has no issues with going into dark places and could lead those who rely on their eyes around. Things like these would be useful to know.

Hmmm....This is all I can think off so far. Once again, these are just a few ideas. I don't know if I will be using this system myself but others might like to see these things too.

All excellent things to keep track of. Thank-you!

Also, about the point system for relationships.
That was strictly a limitation I had with spreadsheets. I had to associate some form of value to the statuses. I never really made the display page actually show the name of the status.

This is mainly due to having to redesign a large portion of that spreadsheet to make that work.

Solilo wrote:: Similarly to Ev I like to keep track of my character's relationships with other characters, although I agree a point system doesn't seem like the best solution for something that is in no way quantitative, so i'm not sure how you might go about that.

I also like to keep track of what characters are in what thread as well as whether a thread is locked/open/on hold. In my records I tend to also have little notes about each thread where appropriate, such as when meeting someone for the first time or assigning a WS challenge.

I don't know if any of this is helpful or relevant to you but hey ho. That's my piece I suppose xD

Oh also idk if relevant at all but I like to keep separate inventory lists for different threads, and then put them in my main inventory/storage when that thread is over. |D

Separate inventories per thread eh?
That sounds interesting. I can look into it, but I don't quite see the use in the character record pages unless you really do keep track of that on those pages also.

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