Abilities/Stats should not use HeroId/Name

[Akkuma]

It is fairly redundant to have a hero object that has at the top level id and then within stats/abilities have the heroId/Name as the only key off of them to then access the real data.

It should look like this:

 "stats": {
      "hp": 700,
      "hpPerLevel": 110,
      "hpRegen": 1.457,
      "hpRegenPerLevel": 0.2265,
      "mana": 500,
      "manaPerLevel": 10,
      "manaRegen": 3,
      "manaRegenPerLevel": 0.0976
  },
  "abilities": [
      {
        "id": "NovaSnipeStorm",
        "icon": "storm_ui_icon_nova_snipe.dds",
        "manaCost": 65,
        "name": "Snipe",
        "description": "Deals 115 (+31 per level) damage to the first enemy hit.",
        "cooldown": 10,
        "aimType": "Skillshot",
        "shortcut": "Q"
      },
      {
        "id": "NovaPinningShot",
        "icon": "storm_ui_icon_Nova_PinningShot.dds",
        "manaCost": 65,
        "name": "Pinning Shot",
        "description": "Deal 40 (+10 per level) damage to an enemy and slow it by 30% for 2.25 seconds.",
        "cooldown": 12,
        "shortcut": "W"
      },
      {
        "id": "NovaHoloDecoy",
        "icon": "storm_ui_icon_nova_holodecoy.dds",
        "manaCost": 50,
        "name": "Holo Decoy",
        "description": "Create a Decoy for 5 seconds that appears to attack enemies. \nUsing this Ability does not break Cloak.",
        "cooldown": 15,
        "shortcut": "E"
      },
      {
        "id": "NovaTripleTap",
        "icon": "storm_ui_icon_nova_tripletap.dds",
        "manaCost": 100,
        "heroic": true,
        "name": "Triple Tap",
        "description": "Locks in on the target Hero, then fires 3 shots that hit the first Hero or Structure they come in contact with for 80 (+33 per level) damage each.",
        "cooldown": 100,
        "shortcut": "R"
      },
      {
        "id": "NovaPrecisionStrike",
        "icon": "storm_ui_icon_nova_orbitalstrike.dds",
        "manaCost": 100,
        "heroic": true,
        "name": "Precision Strike",
        "description": "After a 1.5 second delay, deals 300 (+35 per level) damage to enemies within an area. Unlimited range.",
        "cooldown": 60,
        "shortcut": "R"
      },
      {
        "id": "NovaPermanentCloakSniper",
        "trait": true,
        "icon": "storm_ui_icon_nova_personalcloaking.dds",
        "name": "Permanent Cloak, Sniper",
        "description": "Gain Stealth when out of combat for 3 seconds. Taking damage, attacking, or channeling reveals you.\nBasic Attack range is 20% further than other ranged Heroes, and you see 10% further than other Heroes."
      }
    ]

[jnovack]

That's true for single heros, but what about heroes with a different set of abilities for each form?

• Greymane vs Worgen
• Chen's Earth, Storm, and Fire
• Tychus Odin

[Akkuma]

That is simply to solve. You put the applicable field into applicable abilities, so you add a form into each ability. ie:

{
        "id": "NovaPermanentCloakSniper",
        "form": "Worgen",
        "trait": true,
        "icon": "storm_ui_icon_nova_personalcloaking.dds",
        "name": "Permanent Cloak, Sniper",
        "description": "Gain Stealth when out of combat for 3 seconds. Taking damage, attacking, or channeling reveals you.\nBasic Attack range is 20% further than other ranged Heroes, and you see 10% further than other Heroes."
      }

[jnovack]

Since abilities are child elements of heroes (or "forms" as this discussing is calling them), it follows a logical progression in object-orientated languages.

[Akkuma]

I don't quite understand what you wrote, but I could just be tired. Are you saying something like heroes/forms have abilities, thus Greymane has an array of abilities and Worgen has an array of abilities, since they are two different forms? A Hero Object has Abilities, which can have many Forms, which has many FormAbility in the current version. I'm arguing that a Hero Object can look like has many Ability and an Ability has a Form, which is in this case just a string.

In pseudocode

class Hero
  Abilities abilities

class Abilities
  Forms[] forms

class Form
  FormAbility[] abilities

vs

class Hero
  Ability[] abilities

class Ability
 String form

[jnovack]

An Ability belongs to a Form of a Hero.

HeroName {
  Abilities [
    Form [
      Ability
    ]
  ]
}

So, to access Greymane's Worgen abilities, .['GreyMane'].Abilities['Worgen'] should yield you an array of objects.

[Akkuma]

I already wrote that above. My point is that you can simplify the tree and it still makes perfect sense from OOP. If you must have Forms as a true object then the tree could look like.

Hero
  Forms [
    Form {
      Abilities [ Ability ]
      Stats { }
    }
  ]

To access Greymane's Worgen it would be Hero.Forms['Worgen].Abilities or with my first solution Hero.Abilities.Filter(ability => ability.form == 'Worgen') for the handful of heroes who actually have a form, while everyone else is simply Hero.Abilities