RP Tools and Future Addons Request Thread

[Phayte]

But really for Role play it would be nice to have a more versatile text box to copy/paste.

 

I'm curious what you mean by versatile textbox? Since yesterday, I've been thinking about it more and thought for those who play in windows mode to have like a scratch pad that always on top of the window.

 

When you say more versatile textbox, I think of a glorified notepad that will allow you post past the regular chatbox's limit in game, and automatically break up your paragraph into the appropriate size so you can copy and paste.

[Maril]

I would really like something that Rift's RP addon (Merisioux, 10 points if you get the reference) had, which is additional tagging and a meta information section. 

Essentially, beyond tagging yourself as IC/OOC/AlwaysIC you could also pick several style choices, such a Lore/Non-Lore, Mature/Non-Mature, Conflict/nonconflict and could also set yourself as Mentor which meant that you'd be willing to help newbies.

The Meta section was then used for additional information such as stating the way you wish to fight (if any), I for example used it to state that if my character was challenged then my style of fighting (freeform) would apply.

 

It really helped with not just getting a view of the character via descriptions and history, but also of the player so you know what to expect right off the bat - and essentially drowning any potential drama conflicts before they even happened.

There's so many ways of doing RP and it's all been influenced through the years by various games, I think it's good if people simply embrace the differences rather than fight over which way is the "correct" way to RP. And having more style choices would help that along IMO.

[Kage]

But really for Role play it would be nice to have a more versatile text box to copy/paste.

 

I'm curious what you mean by versatile textbox? Since yesterday, I've been thinking about it more and thought for those who play in windows mode to have like a scratch pad that always on top of the window.

 

When you say more versatile textbox, I think of a glorified notepad that will allow you post past the regular chatbox's limit in game, and automatically break up your paragraph into the appropriate size so you can copy and paste.

The chatbox in FFXIV is just... so unwieldy. It constantly scrolls even when you have settings set for things... you can't easily copy and paste what you have in it. An RP session that took an hour may take you like 5+ minutes to copy and paste because you.can't.scroll.while.copying.ugh.

[Phayte]

The chatbox in FFXIV is just... so unwieldy. It constantly scrolls even when you have settings set for things... you can't easily copy and paste what you have in it. An RP session that took an hour may take you like 5+ minutes to copy and paste because you.can't.scroll.while.copying.ugh.

 

Unfortunately for that particular scenario, there's nothing that can be done to modify the behavior of the ingame client and physical logs written by the client are unreliable. The OP was hoping to make tools for something that wouldn't violate the ToS by going into the memory to extract the data. I'm still tempted to make an attempt at this For anyone who uses ACT or FFXIV-APP, it's pretty much already doing the same thing. Instead of parsing battle data, you'd just be parsing character speech data.

[Kage]

You're free to look at what Natalie dabbled in? It's more of a client side application. The problem is still that the way FFXIV logs that stuff is... well... a little horrible.

[Jancis]

I do write in Notepad often to start getting ideas in so I don't lose them. So even if the scene changes I can re-read and edit to fit what happened. If I write too far in the game text box it is difficult to scroll back through and fix little things.

 

I don't normally go over the max limit for the characters, but having that instant plug in would be a nice quality of life trait.

 

Shame that copy/paste isn't available. I filter down another tab and copy as large as I can, but it is a little outdated in function. I wouldn't want good people taking risks because of the few that ruin good intentions. Like parsing speech data. A Copy All would be a step up.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

I do write in Notepad often to start getting ideas in so I don't lose them. So even if the scene changes I can re-read and edit to fit what happened. If I write too far in the game text box it is difficult to scroll back through and fix little things.

 

I don't normally go over the max limit for the characters, but having that instant plug in would be a nice quality of life trait.

 

Shame that copy/paste isn't available. I filter down another tab and copy as large as I can, but it is a little outdated in function. I wouldn't want good people taking risks because of the few that ruin good intentions. Like parsing speech data. A Copy All would be a step up.

 

You can copy/paste for the chatbox in-game, but it's not always reliable. If any new text is posted, it freaks out though. :

[Jancis]

Sorry I was referring to the add-on to do that.

 

How am I suppose to easily copy the sweet youtube tunes people paste in the chat box first try?! Hehehe

[Kage]

How am I suppose to easily copy the sweet youtube tunes people paste in the chat box first try?! Hehehe

So much this. Sometimes I take three tries to copy something someone said or pasted because it's so damn stupid in-game to do it.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

How am I suppose to easily copy the sweet youtube tunes people paste in the chat box first try?! Hehehe

So much this. Sometimes I take three tries to copy something someone said or pasted because it's so damn stupid in-game to do it.

 

I get the best luck by keeping my mouse button down to force it to stay highlighted and then doing my control-c to copy. ...it helps keep the box from moving too much, but sucks for trying to copy a big block of text.

[Titor]

Yeah if they allow that heavy of a UI mod I definitely plan on refining the chatbox. It is awful right now, I think, especially since links are not clickable (even Minecraft has clickable links). It just warns you you are about to go to a website.

 

I would also allow for regex filters and, if at all possible, a community filter list that would work in a way similar to how adblock plus does it, where there is a common list of phrases used by gil spammers, and after a certain phrase has been reported so many times it will automatically block that version of a tell, so that gil spammers will constantly have to change their messages (regex will account for the random characters they add at the end of a message).

 

If it is community kept and easy to report (by a click of a button) I think it would potentially cull a LOT of gilspammers. 

 

And making it more rp-friendly with the copy and paste. Maybe even select two messages as a region, and then select the characters you want to copy data from, and it will keep the whole conversation.

[Phayte]

DISCLAIMER: FFXIVAPP IS AGAINST THE SE TOS OFFICIALLY, YOU USE THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK AND DO NOT TALK ABOUT IN GAME. THIS IS HOW THEY FIND PEOPLE USING IT. THIS IS NOT A PROMOTION TO USE THE APPLICATION If this is against the rules to mention this, I will delete the post or a mod can do it, but the idea is still to promote RP and give tools to users. In addition, please note that the application uses Google Analystics and sends information from your client. I've looked at the code and it sends minimal data (like the current version you're using of the client). It's a minor note, but I believe it should be pointed out to respect people's privacy and say it explicitly for those who don't like that sort of stuff.

 

I had previous dabbled in building a framework to absorb the information in the client and was going to start again, but I realized I don't have the time for such a daunting task to maintain a framework or the expertise to really go poking around in memory. FFXIVAPP's open framework really allows from some cool stuff (so much so that some of it might not really seem legit to use).

 

Either way, I was thinking of possibly building a plugin for it. Originally, I was thinking about this log parser/formatter that people could use. However, after hearing about all the other mods in like WoW, the possibilities are way more open that I had originally though. One of the items was how everyone was talking about how to find RP'ers. If there could be a central database/site that everyone could connect to and update, a plugin could easily scrape the data and process it. Every time you had a player come in range, it would pull up their data into an overlay. it's possible to even just use Wiki's for static data if the format was more standardized.

 

An interface would be like a list that looked like (in a nicer columnar format of course):

 

| Status | Name | Type | Note |

| OOC | Joe | Heavy | I'm a villain. |

| IC | Bob | Medium | I'm a hero. |

 

As implied the limitation would be that you would need be near them. The client could be rigged to write online status too, but it get s a little bit tricky, like if your client crashes before it can go out to the central site/database to update your status then things become unsyced and a player who's offline may appear online. And I'm sure other people would be hesitant having a 3rd party client sending out data, but the code would be all open source for anyone to look at and make contributions too.

 

Of course if no one uses the application, it's sort of useless too. Though with the RPC's wiki, a client can search for particular player and just mark them if they are a RPC member too so it wouldn't require other people to have it as well. it'd be a RP vicinity buddylist of sorts in it's simplest form. Anyway, just sort of musing at what cool ideas we could implement still without the help of SE giving it to us.

[FreelanceWizard]

The latest revision of the Materials Use License doesn't prohibit the discussion of things that would violate TOS, so it's open for discussion.

 

That said, third-party parsers most definitely violate TOS, and while the community reps have more or less said "you can use them as long as we don't find out about it, and we can't let you talk about them" on the official forums, that's a very weak assurance (and there's nothing saying SE might not implement Warden or VAC-like functionality in the client to catch such software). Please consider all the risks involved before using any third-party applications.

 

For what it's worth, wiki pages can be pulled out using the MediaWiki API. It'd be pretty trivial to implement a web service that holds and updates character status information, though authentication might be a little interesting (I suppose one could just authenticate against the RPC database, though).

[Phayte]

Thanks Mr. Admin for deleting my multiple posts. I messed up on hitting quote, thinking I was actually. editing. Also, thanks for the heads up on the wiki API. I may dabble with things for fun rather people want it or not just for my own amusement. If anyone has ideas or comments or maybe even contribute, feel free to contact me!

[Titor]

Yeah, I know about the parsers and such like that, and even took a cursory overview at how to make a plugin for it. However, I really really do not want to violate the ToS or be associated with developing part of a tool that violates ToS. I really care about the game and value not only my account be SE's wishes, thus anything that will go against the ToS is completely out of the realm of anything I will do.

 

However, anything that does not relate to parsing or 3rd party tools modifying the game is open for immediate development, and when they open an API I plan on learning every last bit of it I can. If they allow simple get or post requests (probably not, though) That would be SO awesome. Or at least some way to communicate between the plugins to store data.

[Phayte]

Yeah, I know about the parsers and such like that, and even took a cursory overview at how to make a plugin for it. However, I really really do not want to violate the ToS or be associated with developing part of a tool that violates ToS. I really care about the game and value not only my account be SE's wishes, thus anything that will go against the ToS is completely out of the realm of anything I will do.

 

However, anything that does not relate to parsing or 3rd party tools modifying the game is open for immediate development, and when they open an API I plan on learning every last bit of it I can. If they allow simple get or post requests (probably not, though) That would be SO awesome. Or at least some way to communicate between the plugins to store data.

 

I totally hear you on this and respect anyone who is totally against this and other 3rd parties that extract memory. It's one of those things that's just very gray. If you use xivdb.com, you're technically indirectly using a third party tool which they use to parse out all the data from dat files.

 

It's just really sad that after a year now, they still haven't given any information on a mod API for the client. There are just some things that seem completely wrong (i.e. radar), but other tools like the DPS parser is really useful (but can be detrimental to the community if people use it to harass players). When I use to be in a static that was working on T4 and T5, we were able to identify who were the weaker links in the group. Nobody was harassed, but it really encouraged every to take it up a notch and breed some healthy competition. Unfortunately, SE can't make any exceptions or else it'll just open a can of worms for them later on.

 

It's been a interesting learning experience and if something comes out of the that the community might be able to use, all the better.

[LiadansWhisper]

Yeah, I know about the parsers and such like that, and even took a cursory overview at how to make a plugin for it. However, I really really do not want to violate the ToS or be associated with developing part of a tool that violates ToS. I really care about the game and value not only my account be SE's wishes, thus anything that will go against the ToS is completely out of the realm of anything I will do.

 

However, anything that does not relate to parsing or 3rd party tools modifying the game is open for immediate development, and when they open an API I plan on learning every last bit of it I can. If they allow simple get or post requests (probably not, though) That would be SO awesome. Or at least some way to communicate between the plugins to store data.

 

I totally hear you on this and respect anyone who is totally against this and other 3rd parties that extract memory. It's one of those things that's just very gray. If you use xivdb.com, you're technically indirectly using a third party tool which they use to parse out all the data from dat files.

 

It's just really sad that after a year now, they still haven't given any information on a mod API for the client. There are just some things that seem completely wrong (i.e. radar), but other tools like the DPS parser is really useful (but can be detrimental to the community if people use it to harass players). When I use to be in a static that was working on T4 and T5, we were able to identify who were the weaker links in the group. Nobody was harassed, but it really encouraged every to take it up a notch and breed some healthy competition. Unfortunately, SE can't make any exceptions or else it'll just open a can of worms for them later on.

 

It's been a interesting learning experience and if something comes out of the that the community might be able to use, all the better.

 

Curious..."radar"?

 

As far as the rest...um, no, harassment isn't a valid excuse on SE's part.  I do not need a gaming company protecting me from the "mean and nasty players" on the internet.  I'm a grown adult.  I can take care of my own damn self.  It's just a copout to buy them time to either scrap doing an API at all, or to allow them to make mediocre content until they finally get around to the API.