Hi everyone.
I have been playing around with an idea for a while, which I would like your feedback/opinion of.
I tend to become a bit nostalgic sometimes with my characters, especially if looking at old screenshots of people and places I have been in game.
During the process of preparing a pantheon log parser framework, initially only meant as a computer local DPS meter, I realized that I could most likely capture all sorts of other character related information, such as places you travel, screenshots taken and where they were taken, a trace of your journey around the world as you leveled up, creatures slain, items of significance you looted etc. It all ofcourse depends on what information will be made available in the pantheon log file.
All this information could automatically be fed to a web profile of your character, allowing you to keep a journal or diary of your characters with screenshots and all.
I am thinking of letting the log parser be a background service, always running in the background, not requiring you to remember to switch it on when starting the game.
I intend to make the software open source, to allow others to participate and inspect the code, such that noone will considder the program a threat to their PC.
Additional spin offs:
Some of the bullets would probably be public information while other would be private or only shared with other people of your choice.
I can see a lot of opportunities and possibilities from just reading the log files/installation directory, but I also find it a bit disturbing introducing conveniance features which was on purpose not introduced to the game.
Financially, I am thinking that the money needed to keep the server (web and database) running could be mitigated by some advertising on the web page.
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Let me know what you think.
Sunmistress said:Interesting, would it automatically upload the screen shots taken? Because that would be awesome
Yeah, that was the idea. To have everything automated and context aware, so your screenshot would also be referenced to the zone, time and level of your character etc. Maybe even who you were with. Sort of like an automatic tagging of friends on pictures on facebook.
If you as a user will never remember or bother to enter a lot of tedious stuff into the journal. But a program could do it for you.
BitCrunzh said:Hi everyone.
I have been playing around with an idea for a while, which I would like your feedback/opinion of.
I tend to become a bit nostalgic sometimes with my characters, especially if looking at old screenshots of people and places I have been in game.
During the process of preparing a pantheon log parser framework, initially only meant as a computer local DPS meter, I realized that I could most likely capture all sorts of other character related information, such as places you travel, screenshots taken and where they were taken, a trace of your journey around the world as you leveled up, creatures slain, items of significance you looted etc. It all ofcourse depends on what information will be made available in the pantheon log file.
All this information could automatically be fed to a web profile of your character, allowing you to keep a journal or diary of your characters with screenshots and all.
I am thinking of letting the log parser be a background service, always running in the background, not requiring you to remember to switch it on when starting the game.
I intend to make the software open source, to allow others to participate and inspect the code, such that noone will considder the program a threat to their PC.
Additional spin offs:
- Equipment database and beastery based on automated player submissions. Maybe linking to the profile of the first player who discovered it.
- Journal entries linking to friends (found in the log) with a web profile
- Linking character journal entries to custom made youtube videos.
- Show your position on a map on the web-page by reading /loc output.
- Spawn timer assistence
- DPS/HPS/etc. historic data and progression.
- Conversation History (tell/guild/group)
- Loot history, who looted what and when in your groups
Some of the bullets would probably be public information while other would be private or only shared with other people of your choice.
I can see a lot of opportunities and possibilities from just reading the log files/installation directory, but I also find it a bit disturbing introducing conveniance features which was on purpose not introduced to the game.
Financially, I am thinking that the money needed to keep the server (web and database) running could be mitigated by some advertising on the web page.
---
Let me know what you think.
I'd download it, if VR didn't beat you to it.
I'd really like to keep track of what I do, even if I'm not likely to read through it all just for nostalgia. Having all the information of things I found in different placescould really come in handy. If I spawn a rare mob that isnt detailed somewhere else, I would enjoy looking at what I've done and try to recreate the process. My alts/friends/progeny could of course make use of it, and if I'm comparing my levelin strats with other players this might come in handy too.
The only downside to this sort of thing is if people found ways to break the hardcore aspects of the game with it. They might use it to track where they are in a zone, for example.
Not quite about parsing, but there was another, allied thread I seem to recall which had me thinking about an in-game Journal ...
---- My Journal ---- (I create some bookmarks)
Character Bookmark (Notes on myself, back-history etc):
This is the Journal of Evoras, a Summoner who trained under Sinistra of Frostfell in the stardate year 1476 FA.
Epic progress (Step 0 of 132): Still looking for the starter NPC.
Explorer's Log Bookmark (Notes on the route taken, interesting things I see) :
Perhaps an odd plaque on a tomb I screenshot and annotate. They are date stamped and written in the journal with my nice cursive script.
I include bawdy limericks about people I meet, too. None are very good ... indeed they are very, very bad.
It might include a screenshot of a nearby peak, and the castle on top of it.
Perhaps I annotate it with a few details about animals I see about, or hear - e.g. the noise of (were)wolves.
Mercenaries Bookmark (Notes on people I have dealt with):
QENDIL the Crusader was hired to get me across the Fire Swamp for 5 platinum. He refused all but 10 gold to cover food and whet-stones. We encountered many, many ROUS, including a sentient head-rat which we slew, obtaining its odd-looking pelt. I insisted he take the skin for its fire protective properties. He gave me 10 plat for it, saying it was very rare. I took the money to pay for my ever more expensive spells.
MELEK the Rogue agreed to show me the secret way to the Burned Woods for 5 plat. Unfortunately he got disconnected almost immediately. I never saw him again, but have heard from others he is not to be trusted.
Adventurers Bookmarks (Notes on players, both good and bad):
KILSIN: Rogue 12 - good in combat but never let him pull. Ever.
SMEGHEAD: Dwarf Cavalier Level-3 - think he is a commie.
Quests Bookmark (Notes on quests):
Simple functionality to allow you to cut-paste the last 10-12 lines of text here.
Add a heading for the NPC's name, where I found him and other details I may find important.
Perhaps note my faction to him - whether there are any KOS mobs nearby etc.
Maybe adding a snapshot of the NPC, or the local area I found him - in case he wanders.
-In Conclusion-
So, the idea is to have the players have access to an in-game journal.
This is to link in notes etc and help you keep track of anything you may need later.
It would also allow you to make notes on the reputations of other players you come across.
The more consequences reputation has, the more it will impact players in a positive way.
Helping players keep information for themselves in an in-game journal would mean they would better be able to assess potential PUG members for example.
It would be a 'more useful' version of the current style of 'friends' lists and 'ignores' etc with the added attraction of VR not having to make a Quest tracker system.
YOU can take notes of chat (including quest chat from NPCs) in your journal.
YOU take ownership of your quests, what you log, notes you make etc.
It could even be saved locally in some 'rich text' format.
Heck, you could just re-skin a mini-browser in-game which opens a local page etc.
If you want to go the 'Full Social Media' route, perhaps these journals could even be 'shared' on a website (much like EQ2 player data was).
This could be problematic if it contained user added data (I am thinking rude words/pictures) but, then I am not a hardcore 'Social Media' aficionado.
Evoras, likes Journals he can tailor!
guitarsmasher said:Would you be able to modify the journal? Foir example lets say I take a screenshot of a specific boss fight and I want to add roleplay to said screen shot in this journal is that possible?
Given that the current implementation is just a console output, it is all just a dream currently.
It however makes great sense to be able to make personal notes/entries in the journal, describing or supplementing the automated entries.
I like the idea - some bits more than others - but I *think* it clashes with VR's stated intention to keep client-side information to a minimum. I believe they specifically mentioned DPS meters wouldn't be possible, so unless you do some sort of OCR on the combat text window I don't know if it would be feasible.
daemonios said:I like the idea - some bits more than others - but I *think* it clashes with VR's stated intention to keep client-side information to a minimum. I believe they specifically mentioned DPS meters wouldn't be possible, so unless you do some sort of OCR on the combat text window I don't know if it would be feasible.
VR stated that they would not allow ingame add-ons, only skinning link options. The idea was always to keep it as a game external tool, inspecting the game output.
The functionality possible to provide is ofcourse heavily dependent on what VR makes available in their log files or otherwise, but they already stated that it would probably be possible to build a DPS parser based on their log output. It may ofcourse also change over time, causing my suggest solutions to become impossible.
All of my current ideas is based on what is currently available in the EQ1 client log by simply switching the log on.
Cromulent said:I love this idea. Would be awesome. Just out of interest what programming language are you using to make this bit of software? If I have the skills I'd quite like to help (assuming I have the time).
I am using java for the local client, mainly because this is the language I primary use professionally as well. It makes it an easier spare time project for me.
I am currently working on how to have the local client update itself automatically, not requiring user interaction, and launching some sort of GUI when the game starts. The current solution can start and read an EQ1 log, throw typed events (damage given/taken, loot, level, kills etc.) to event listeners, which right now is simply console output.
Currently I am thinking about also using java for the web services, backed by a MongoDB. This would allow scaling in the future by adding some sharding and replica sets, not to mention load distribution etc. But load distribution, sharding etc. is not something I will otherwise considder for now, but it is nice to be prepared to scale.
I was thinking Angular2 for the web-client, but I have very little experience in JS based languages and web-client development, so I was actually hoping for someone in the community to assist me. Besides I am not much of a design/user experience genious.
BitCrunzh said:Cromulent said:I love this idea. Would be awesome. Just out of interest what programming language are you using to make this bit of software? If I have the skills I'd quite like to help (assuming I have the time).
I am using java for the local client, mainly because this is the language I primary use professionally as well. It makes it an easier spare time project for me.
I am currently working on how to have the local client update itself automatically, not requiring user interaction, and launching some sort of GUI when the game starts. The current solution can start and read an EQ1 log, throw typed events (damage given/taken, loot, level, kills etc.) to event listeners, which right now is simply console output.
Currently I am thinking about also using java for the web services, backed by a MongoDB. This would allow scaling in the future by adding some sharding and replica sets, not to mention load distribution etc. But load distribution, sharding etc. is not something I will otherwise considder for now, but it is nice to be prepared to scale.
I was thinking Angular2 for the web-client, but I have very little experience in JS based languages and web-client development, so I was actually hoping for someone in the community to assist me. Besides I am not much of a design/user experience genious.
Sounds interesting. I'm more of C / C++ / Python guy but I'm sure I could get up to speed in Java pretty quickly. I have done some Java EE programming in the past so I just need to refresh my memory a bit.
You might want to talk to Kilsin though. I'm pretty sure he said they don't want any live DPS meters or any other third party clients running the background. Kilsin will probably read this thread and confirm or deny. If I recall correctly offline log parsing is what they want people to do rather than live log parsing as it happens just to stop things like DPS meters becoming a thing.
You could always send Kilsin a private message with your plans to get the official response from the devs to see if this would be allowed or not.
Cromulent said:BitCrunzh said:Cromulent said:I love this idea. Would be awesome. Just out of interest what programming language are you using to make this bit of software? If I have the skills I'd quite like to help (assuming I have the time).
I am using java for the local client, mainly because this is the language I primary use professionally as well. It makes it an easier spare time project for me.
I am currently working on how to have the local client update itself automatically, not requiring user interaction, and launching some sort of GUI when the game starts. The current solution can start and read an EQ1 log, throw typed events (damage given/taken, loot, level, kills etc.) to event listeners, which right now is simply console output.
Currently I am thinking about also using java for the web services, backed by a MongoDB. This would allow scaling in the future by adding some sharding and replica sets, not to mention load distribution etc. But load distribution, sharding etc. is not something I will otherwise considder for now, but it is nice to be prepared to scale.
I was thinking Angular2 for the web-client, but I have very little experience in JS based languages and web-client development, so I was actually hoping for someone in the community to assist me. Besides I am not much of a design/user experience genious.
Sounds interesting. I'm more of C / C++ / Python guy but I'm sure I could get up to speed in Java pretty quickly. I have done some Java EE programming in the past so I just need to refresh my memory a bit.
You might want to talk to Kilsin though. I'm pretty sure he said they don't want any live DPS meters or any other third party clients running the background. Kilsin will probably read this thread and confirm or deny. If I recall correctly offline log parsing is what they want people to do rather than live log parsing as it happens just to stop things like DPS meters becoming a thing.
You could always send Kilsin a private message with your plans to get the official response from the devs to see if this would be allowed or not.
We will be pretty strict on protecting our data and making the client as dumb as possible to limit the information flow so I can;t answer that question yet but I have already poked the appropriate devs to check this thread out before you guys posted this so we will see what happens ;)
Kilsin said:We will be pretty strict on protecting our data and making the client as dumb as possible to limit the information flow so I can;t answer that question yet but I have already poked the appropriate devs to check this thread out before you guys posted this so we will see what happens ;)
Thx for responding up front. I would hate to put a lot of time into it if it has to be scrapped before launch.
I wasn't aware of the live log parsing position though. I ofcourse intend to adhere to any rules and regulations put forward by VR for how we may "integrate" or not at all.