Lua support coming to LOTRO

[Sparr]

Turbine broke their own NDA and announced Lua support in the upcoming F2P reboot.

http://www.casualstrolltomordor.com/2010/07/lua-script-coming-to-turbine/

Hopefully, lotrointerface will thrive eventually as much as wowinterface currently does.

[Dolby]

We are currently working on upgrades to our site because of it including an SVN. :)

[Deewe]

Finally!

[unclecid]

dont get too excited....you wont have the freedom with LUA on lotro like you do on a game like WoW.

according to Frelorn who recently posted about it on the lotro forums:

“We wanted to clarify a few things about the potential implementation of LUA scripting. As it stands right now, the LUA scripting ability is completely controlled by us and its use is limited.

The Framework API, which controls what can and cannot be done, is separated into two main functional areas. The Framework API provides the basic structure of the scripts (classes), UI creation (windows, buttons, images, etc.), and a controlled setting to receive input, events, and actions generated by the game. The Gameplay API provides access to internal gameplay systems. The first pass of the gameplay API includes access to your own character’s vitals, the ability to interface with quickslots, and the methods for interacting with items in your inventory.

So what does this all mean? Right now, given the limitations we have in place, the “plugins” players can create are restricted to the above Gameplay API areas. They can change some of your UI elements, add built in HUDS and allow for things like a travel panel or a single window inventory bag. Our intent is to not allow players to make “plugins” that will give them any kind of advantage over other players. The main idea here is that LUA allows the players the ability to customize their user interface the way they want to.

We are going to handle things very carefully as we move forward; to be very clear, LUA Scripting is still in the early stages of testing and we don’t yet have a date for when the system will go live.”

:D

[LittleWhiteDove]

Looking forward to new mods here. Some of the standard ones used in WoW would be wonderful.

[daimon]

Must say (as I've been away from my internets for some time now and just saw this) I am quite suprised they announced this. I got a good feeling about this!

[MrJackdaw]

Am I the only one here who finds that this makes them nervous?

[Eili]

Personally I was nervous about Lotro getting the same addons as WOW.

This game has a wonderful community, who care more about players than numbers and help people about class and learning how it works.

With the kind of addons allowed on WOW some people will be push away from fellowing and the game will lost his spirit.

----
and yes I played WOW (6 lv 80) and used a lot of addons : so I know the dependency it create on players

[daimon]

I agree with Eili that's why I'm very happy seeing the following line Our intent is to not allow players to make “plugins” that will give them any kind of advantage over other players. The main idea here is that LUA allows the players the ability to customize their user interface the way they want to.

Remembering the WoW addon hell I wouldn't want to go back there (tho it had it moments). They'll probably allow us to do some sort of buff/debuff tracker as it has been asked over and over in the forum threads .. I just hope they wont let us do a threat tracker..

[Deewe]

Must say (as I've been away from my internets for some time now and just saw this) I am quite suprised they announced this. I got a good feeling about this!
I would say most of us are looking forward being able to tweak the UI making it more convenient like working on the buffs/debuffs, aligning the groups vitals horizontally, scaling the fonts and the mouse cursor.

However I'm with Turbine not willing DPSmeter, GearScore, and so as it would literally change the way players interact with each others.

For now I'm looking at features like: (Wow as reference)
- Bartender
- Chatter
- Move Anything
- ArkInventory
- Auctioneer
- FlightMap
- MouseLook
- Xperl/Pitbull
- IceHud
- FriendShare

Lately I have been pointed at the following UI: pic (http://s.wowinterface.com/preview/pvw38831.png) / source (http://www.wowinterface.com/download...0-LUIv2.0.html)

And I find it really nice, just replace the vitals with IceHud and you have a really clean UI

[daimon]

Aye I modded similar HUD like the IceHud when I played WoW a long time ago. That is one of the things I have really missed and will be a priority for me in Lotro if it's possible to do.

[MrJackdaw]

I am ceasing development on any of my UI work whilst this goes through the pipeline as it could make it all redundant.

All we really want is to modify the UI *without* modifying the gameplay. Let me modify the unit frames, buffs and action bars fully and I will be happy!

No 'Easymode' addons please!


And yet... part of me does hanker for a dps meter. Sorry!

[daimon]

well.. dps meter would be fun in a way if it would only show the results for yourself, I might even support that .. but we all know what would happen in time with those kind of things :c

(personally I wouldn't give a crap if a dps/threat meters like in WoW would be doable as I don't group up with the kind of people who require such things, but it would be bad for the community in the end imo)

[MrJackdaw]

I actually went to sleep last night dreaming of things I could try to do... Sad huh?

There are already things like cstats that let us calculate our personal DPS - but as far as I am aware very few people use them. Maybe this is because the results are not 'live'.

And yes, I see your point about DPS meters.

From my experience with WoW as a Tank a threat meter was basically a waste of screen space - I could tell when I had lost threat! As a DPS'er it made things a little easier, but not a lot.

[daimon]

heh yeah exactly. I am interested of my DPS but I'm not _that_ interested that I would bother with a "third party" plugin.

all in all I'm very thrilled about LUA, no matter where it takes us UI vice, at least it should give us a lot more freedom in creativity.

[unclecid]

Narrel had this to say about LUA:

With the breaking news of Lua’s introduction into The Lord of the Rings Online, we wanted to give you a brief history of how this system came about, what state it is in, and where we want it to go.

History:
To start, I will say that the primary driver behind introducing UI plugins is this: no single version of a UI element will ever be ideal for all players everywhere. What one player loves about part of the UI can send the player standing next to them reeling into a frothing rage of frustration. Knowing this, a small group of us got together last year and began investigating the possibility of adding a UI scripting system.

As several other games have used Lua successfully for UI scripting, we decided to look into it and were quickly able to get a prototype Lua UI scripting interface into our engine. Since then, we have gradually continued to develop the system alongside our other initiatives. Today, we are in the process of Beta testing the Lua UI scripting interface on our closed Beta preview servers.

Current State:
Many of you have been asking what this means when it goes live. This system has been implemented to allow players to override existing elements in the graphical user interface. The functionality available in its current state is small in scope but introduces a lot of fun UI possibilities. Our Lua-based UI plugin system exposes functionality through chunks of functionality referred to as “APIs.” In its current state, we have implemented the following APIs:

• Basic UI element creation (such as windows, text boxes, buttons, etc.)
• Quickslot information (allowing for additional quickslot arrangements for skills, items, etc.)
• Inventory UI information
• Your character’s morale/power information as well as what effects you currently have on you

To clarify, our implementation of Lua scripting in our game is not a macro-able/BOT-able interface. The system does not allow automated input such as mouse-clicks or macroing, nor does it allow automatic skill execution. Any UIs created through Lua scripts will still require human interaction to use.

We intend to continue heavy Beta testing on the Lua UI scripting system on the private test servers. There are several internal hurdles that remain to be cleared before the initial launch of the system and it is not yet guaranteed that “Lua in LOTRO” will launch in the Volume 3 Book 2 (F2P launch) timeframe. Much like our initial launch of QuestGuide or DX10, we will likely launch the feature as a public “beta” stage/“work in progress” as we continue to solidify and expand the initial functionality.

The Future:
As for our future plans for this, our intention is to continue to add more API functionality after the initial launch. For example, some of the popular requested APIs are: target, fellowship, and raid vitals, as well as vault functionality similar to the current API’s inventory functionality. The ultimate goal for this system is to allow players to legitimately customize their UI as a largely upgraded version of our current long-standing “UI skinning” tech. It’s all about the UI and letting players change it so the information we already expose in our current UI can be presented in different aesthetic fashions.

I hope this information clarifies what “Lua scripting” means for The Lord of the Rings Online. As we come closer to the actual launch, we will provide more information into the specifics of the system. We are very excited about this feature and look forward to the day when it goes live allowing players to have a much more customizable experience with our graphical interface.
~Narrel~
Game Systems Engineer
Master of UI and shorts-wearing

he also answers a couple questions in that same thread here:

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid=4825797#post4825797

:D

[Deewe]

Thanks for the link!

I hope they'll consider sending invite to the beta to UI authors.

I'm not subbed anymore so *waves hand* ;)

BTW I would not mind a oneself only DPS meter but I foresee some people/guilds asking others to parse their results if you see what I mean...

(edit) I do hope DDO will get the LUA lovin' too as it seriously needs some care too. The UI is killing the game play, especially the player/opponent vitals frames and the examination window.

[Cairenn]

Thanks for the link!

I hope they'll consider sending invite to the beta to UI authors.
Hey Deewe? Try looking at your PMs some time. :p;)

[Ray]

Curious about how far one will be able to edit the UI with this scripting. Let's hope the have fixed some bugs as well like 3rd quickslot bar hiding behind UI and reposition after switching fullscreen to windowed mode as well as they are developing anyway.

Cheers,
Ray

[Deewe]

Hey Deewe? Try looking at your PMs some time. :p;)

Thx for the hint, didn't notice it at all!

Curious about how far one will be able to edit the UI with this scripting. Let's hope the have fixed some bugs as well like 3rd quickslot bar hiding behind UI and reposition after switching fullscreen to windowed mode as well as they are developing anyway.

Cheers,
Ray
I'm not worried for such things, pretty sure all the layout will be customizable and we will get rid the resolution issue tied to the bottom bar.

[Fauden]

Is there a good place to go, maybe the WoW version of LOTROinterface to learn about LUA scripting or tutorials, that sort of thing?

[MrJackdaw]

Not yet, as nobody has seen the syntax yet!

[unclecid]

i got a question for you knowledgeable types...

will this lua script make it possible to change the mouse icon??

size...shape..color...etc????

:D

[MrJackdaw]

Maybe... maybe not!

[Murazorz]

You won't be able to change the mouse icon atm according to Narrel.

I really look forward to this! Although the functionality so far is quite limited, what Narrel said is currently included in the API satisfy a lot of the basic things I would want to modify/fix/unbreak. And it can only improve, probably...

I really love Lua as a language, it has all the good stuff :). I really look forward to start writing addons again.

What I really hope they open up to the API is the combat log. Fine, they don't have to include all the event info WoW has if they don't want us to make boss mods. But, the current state of the combat log is appalling, it's hardly readable, and contains virtually no useful information. With a proper API to it we could clean up the output to actually be useful/readable. And we could make a full HUD.

And we could most likely borrow a lot of code from WoW addons, just replace the proprietary API calls with new ones.

[unclecid]

okies...the NDA is lifted....

for those in the Beta...what are you working on???????


:D

[MrJackdaw]

There are a lot of really interesting things going on out there! HUD's and Buff bars and new Vitals... Nice nice nice!

And me? I am beginning to realise how rusty I am with LUA...

[D.H1cks]

I am working on a travel window.

http://i34.tinypic.com/25s0b3l.jpg

[Murazorz]

For us who aren't in the closed beta, is there somewhere to check out the apis? Or can any of you in the beta post the patch notes/apis here, without breaking some Turbine rules?

[D.H1cks]

For us who aren't in the closed beta, is there somewhere to check out the apis? Or can any of you in the beta post the patch notes/apis here, without breaking some Turbine rules?

Basically, no. We are not allowed to copy anything from the beta forums to outside, and that includes the API docs and patch notes.

[Cairenn]

Which is why it hasn't already been copied over. Sorry guys.

[daimon]

Seems the current skins work with V3B2 pretty good. Only thing I spotted was the right side main menu buttons (bag buttons by default) as the turbine shop button is now there taking up the space.

[unclecid]

ya know...after looking at pics of new UI....you skinners and scripters wont be able to get new stuff out fast enough.

on a positive note....the gaudy new graphics should increase traffic to this site once again.

anyone know if Led Mirage will be able to redo his stuff or give permission to someone to do it?

:D

[Murazorz]

Which is why it hasn't already been copied over. Sorry guys.

Bah... :mad: