So we all know 3.0 is coming, we just don't know when. Specific suggestions related to the 3.0 patch aren't requested yet by the staff, but I have a suggestion that could apply to any patch, just not specifically 3.0.
A lot of us are really partial to the new races 3.0 offers. I know I am personally partial to the Warborn, because they're freakin amazing.
That being said, I'd like to formally request the ability to change races. Given that this is all just data on the server side, this is more than possible, but I'd imagine requires a little bit of work. Some suggestions to make the transition between races easier would be as follows:
ONLY ALLOW LV 55 characters to race change. This alleviates the pressure of figuring out quests from a database perspective.
ENSURE An account has at least one open character slot. If it does not, do not allow the race change until a slot is opened.
VALIDATE the character requesting a race change has no mail, no incoming trade pack mail, or any auction house listings. This will save backend work. If they do have any of this, they will lose it.
Assume a Harani character named Vulgrr wants to change to a Warborn:
1. Create the requested character and race in the DB, with a AlphaGUID appended in part to the end of the current characters name. So, you'd have the Harani Vulgrr, then the warborn VulgrrAIFTAB
2. Elevate VulgrrAIFTAB to 55.
3. Mark all racial story line quests (gilda quests especially) to complete. Regular quests can be left open. Rewards from those won't unbalance the game. This will likely be the most difficult part to script. I don't know how quests are outlined in the database. Someone might have to manually write a script for these rows for each of the racial questlines.
4. Copy the table for Vulgrr's warehouse into VulgrrAIFTAB's warehouse.
5. Copy the table for Vulgrr's skill trees into VulgrrAIFTAB's skilltrees
6. Apply Vulgrr's class table and stat table (Intelligence, Strength, Agility, etc. Stat migrations) to VulgrrAIFTAB's class table and stat table. To alleviate pressure, if necessary, ignore any spent skill points. Force the player to respec skills. Not the end of the world
7. Apply Vulgrr's inventory table to VulgrrAIFTAB's inventory table. Scan for bound items. If items are bound to Vulgrr, mark them as bound to VulgrrAIFTAB as well. I'm not sure if this is necessary, as I don't fully know how the server treats bound items if directly injected into a character via the DB. Items might be bound with GUID, if those exist per character. That wouldn't be a hard field to modify.
7.a If the above is not possible, have the query generate mail with the items instead.
8. Property transference might be tricky. I can only think of three ways property exists and is marked as belonging to characters. It is either account ID then Character Name, Character GUID or just straight up Character name. If it is straight up Character name, or Account ID and Character Name then nothing would need to be done here. If it is GUID based, I would mark the property as belonging to the new character GUID (VulgrrAIFTAB) instead. This would include chests, and the bound items inside them.
9. Run Vulgrr through the standard Deletion process. Rename VulgrrAIFTAB to Vulgrr. If done right, the transfer to another race should be perfect. The only modification, if it exists, would be to the Character GUID. It would be the new one.
This of course assumes some things about the database structure. I'm not entirely sure if characters have GUIDs or not. There would still be a way to do this even if they didn't, but it'd be more tedious.
EDIT: Trion was lazy, and didn't want to do any of this. At the end of the day, MMOs are just databases. MAYBE some serialized XML data on a character basis as well. If dedication is put in, this is more than possible.
Performed some formatting
A lot of us are really partial to the new races 3.0 offers. I know I am personally partial to the Warborn, because they're freakin amazing.
That being said, I'd like to formally request the ability to change races. Given that this is all just data on the server side, this is more than possible, but I'd imagine requires a little bit of work. Some suggestions to make the transition between races easier would be as follows:
ONLY ALLOW LV 55 characters to race change. This alleviates the pressure of figuring out quests from a database perspective.
ENSURE An account has at least one open character slot. If it does not, do not allow the race change until a slot is opened.
VALIDATE the character requesting a race change has no mail, no incoming trade pack mail, or any auction house listings. This will save backend work. If they do have any of this, they will lose it.
Assume a Harani character named Vulgrr wants to change to a Warborn:
1. Create the requested character and race in the DB, with a AlphaGUID appended in part to the end of the current characters name. So, you'd have the Harani Vulgrr, then the warborn VulgrrAIFTAB
2. Elevate VulgrrAIFTAB to 55.
3. Mark all racial story line quests (gilda quests especially) to complete. Regular quests can be left open. Rewards from those won't unbalance the game. This will likely be the most difficult part to script. I don't know how quests are outlined in the database. Someone might have to manually write a script for these rows for each of the racial questlines.
4. Copy the table for Vulgrr's warehouse into VulgrrAIFTAB's warehouse.
5. Copy the table for Vulgrr's skill trees into VulgrrAIFTAB's skilltrees
6. Apply Vulgrr's class table and stat table (Intelligence, Strength, Agility, etc. Stat migrations) to VulgrrAIFTAB's class table and stat table. To alleviate pressure, if necessary, ignore any spent skill points. Force the player to respec skills. Not the end of the world
7. Apply Vulgrr's inventory table to VulgrrAIFTAB's inventory table. Scan for bound items. If items are bound to Vulgrr, mark them as bound to VulgrrAIFTAB as well. I'm not sure if this is necessary, as I don't fully know how the server treats bound items if directly injected into a character via the DB. Items might be bound with GUID, if those exist per character. That wouldn't be a hard field to modify.
7.a If the above is not possible, have the query generate mail with the items instead.
8. Property transference might be tricky. I can only think of three ways property exists and is marked as belonging to characters. It is either account ID then Character Name, Character GUID or just straight up Character name. If it is straight up Character name, or Account ID and Character Name then nothing would need to be done here. If it is GUID based, I would mark the property as belonging to the new character GUID (VulgrrAIFTAB) instead. This would include chests, and the bound items inside them.
9. Run Vulgrr through the standard Deletion process. Rename VulgrrAIFTAB to Vulgrr. If done right, the transfer to another race should be perfect. The only modification, if it exists, would be to the Character GUID. It would be the new one.
This of course assumes some things about the database structure. I'm not entirely sure if characters have GUIDs or not. There would still be a way to do this even if they didn't, but it'd be more tedious.
EDIT: Trion was lazy, and didn't want to do any of this. At the end of the day, MMOs are just databases. MAYBE some serialized XML data on a character basis as well. If dedication is put in, this is more than possible.
Performed some formatting
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