M:AA Auto Format Script

Marvel Avengers alliance had a robust if complicated and opaque system for creating in combat effects, which we called statuses. After working on the project for ~1 year I unilaterally decided to create a data validated, auto format script to boil down the 25 pages of documentation to function in the sheet. It was a simple solution that saved hundred of man hours.

Click to embiggen.

Link to Sheet Link to Code

Link to Documentation

Goal

• Reduce the amount of reference to cumbersome documentation.
• Reduce time spent testing and waiting for builds (builds took  20 – 50 minutes) due to “fat finger” mistakes .
• Be usable and useful to myself and fellow Design team members.

Details

I folded in 35 statuses, with 29 triggers each with their own combination of valid combat engine tags into an auto formatting spreadsheet.

• Selecting a status type applies data validation to the trigger type.
• Selecting a Trigger type grays out invalid tag fields.
• Google sheet validation and custom formatting is added when the initialization function is run.

Quirks

• Initializing the formatting adds 3 rows.
• For pre-existing data you must change the class name and then change it back for the sheet to update properly.
• Never optimized, runs at acceptable speeds for work pace.