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Originally Posted by Frosty
Full on scripting of UI's ala Auctioneer, Outfitter, or any other WoW mod involves having the game engine and the UI plugin communicate. The Turbine engine is not currently set up to do that - you can't just flip a switch and "hey, look at me scripting UIs!"
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Some things I'd like to recommend that you think about as this rumbles around at Turbine World Corporate HQ....
- Don't write your own language (talk to the folks that did Second Life for how that turns out)
- LUA is, of course, a great option, which is why Blizzard chose it. But there are other embeddable scripting languages.
- Start small. There's no reason to support every aspect of your UI on first release. I think auction house statistics trackers and bag mods are probably the two things people will clamor for the most... consider supporting those first.
- If there are security concerns, just drop support for the areas of concern until they're worked out. I'd rather have scripting capabilities where it doesn't break the game and get the other stuff later.
- Consider creating your own distribution and repository system that requires a particular licensing scheme that is reasonable for collaborative development and external hosting of project development where that might help. This avoids lots of community angst and drama.
- As far as auction house mods go, please do a better job of providing basic stats to mods than WoW does. Having to "scan" the auction house is a load on the servers, and a pointless bit of busy-work for players.
I'm heartened to hear that this is being planned. I'm in the middle of writing a fairly lengthy review of LOTRO for my blog, and while almost all of it is positive, this is one big area that I find unsatisfying. I'll definitely make note of the future possibilities, now.