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  #1  
Unread 02-14-2007, 04:25 PM
jaws jaws is offline
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Auctioneer

Has anybody thought to start making an Auctioneer-type WoW addon for LOTRO yet?

Auctioneer, being free & open source, may be easily enough converted to the LOTRO game (says somebody with only VERY little programming experience).
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  #2  
Unread 02-14-2007, 05:05 PM
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Cairenn Cairenn is offline
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While others that have had more opportunity to play with the Interface in LotRO are welcome to jump in here to correct me ....

LotRO doesn't allow "programming" of any form at this point. Purely skinning. Ie changing the graphics of the existing windows. So unless I'm completely wrong on that, or until such time as they (Turbine) open it up more, things like Auctioneer won't be possible.
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  #3  
Unread 02-14-2007, 07:19 PM
jaws jaws is offline
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Maybe, as a community, we could encourage them and show them how successful addons were in WoW. Heck Auctioneer was the only reason I stuck around as long as I did in the game....I was making about 80 G a week.
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  #4  
Unread 02-15-2007, 12:51 PM
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Frosty Frosty is offline
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I'll just jump in and confirm what Cairenn posted earlier.

Currently (emphasis on "currently") Turbine only allows skinning (image replacement) of the UI.

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!"

It's a significant development task to enable. However, with that being said, it's something that we all want to devote some time to doing. The "skinning" ability was something we needed to see if was even viable as a first step to full scriptability.

-P
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  #5  
Unread 08-20-2009, 03:27 PM
Miskaton Miskaton is offline
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Quote:
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!"
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.
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  #6  
Unread 08-20-2009, 09:50 PM
Murazorz Murazorz is offline
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I most wholeheartedly agree with Miskation in this thread and what's mentioned in this thread.

I really hope they bring scripting into the game in the next expansion. In my experience it creates a community and Turbine can actually "outsource" part of the UI work to that community.

What I don't want is boss-mods a la BigWigs. Having boss-mods is actually both good and bad, it enables the developers to make harder or more advanced fights, because players can rely on the mod to catch it all and warn you, while it would be almost impossible to keep abreast of all the factors without a mod. The bad thing is obviously that people don't have to learn the fight the hard way and so on, and it dumb things down. And I must say that I like that the fights are a bit less hectic in LotRO than some of fights in WoW.

One of the things I liked the most about WoW's modding was the ability to track buffs/debuffs in an easy way, so I knew when to refresh them without pearing at a 4x4 bitmap. And of course the ability to completely modify my UI.
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  #7  
Unread 12-06-2009, 01:28 AM
Farinhin Farinhin is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Miskaton
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.
I was thinking something on the lines of a very limited amount of support. This could be done by forcing the mods to be called through a built in filter, and if it has anything not supported it will inform you and close the mod. I am not really wanting a ton of mods out there. They were both the best, and the worst thing about WoW after all. I do think it would be nice to have some informational mods though. I would be happy with things like auction statistics, a list of what is in my bank at any given time (for tradeskills), and maybe a modification to the craft window that will show (maybe in parenthesis) what finished product I could make out of the raw materials I have (bank and on hand would be nice).

Last thing I would like is a shopping list type of concept (could be part of the quest/accomplishment tracker). Basically, you could select an item to track in your craft panel and it would calculate the materials needed to make it, and then keep a list of what you need up.

Example of how this would work is as follows.
Lets say I want to make "Heavy Cloth Armour." I tell the game to track that recipe. It then quickly calculates that it takes the following.
  • 1x leather binding,
  • 2x leather pads,
  • 1x bold of rough cloth,
  • and the crit item (could be excluded if master level not attained).

It then checks to see what I have of the listed items. Let us say that I have 1x leather pad. It would then display that I need the following
  • bought:
    0/1 - bold of rough cloth
  • crafted:
    1/2 - leather pad
    - 2/4 - Piece of light leather
    0/1 leather binding
    - 0/2 - Piece of light leather
  • Raw:
    2/6 - light hide
  • Crit Item
    Whatever it is now

As the items on the raw list are attained they would be checked off as it does with accomplishments/quests. If I were to buy one of the crafted items needed it were to reduce the "Raw" needed by the necessary amount and check off the item. Let us say that I get another leather pad from an alt. It would then remove the item from the list (like a quest does), and change the raw materials to "4/6 - light hide."



Now these do not need to be made by the community. I would be perfectly happy with them being made officially and released in a volume (3 would be good) or expansion.


Just my 2-cents.

@Frosty,
If you can only get one done, please consider the idea for the craft tracking. It will make crafting less tedious (which is the reason I have given up on it for now).

Last edited by Farinhin : 12-06-2009 at 01:32 AM.
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  #8  
Unread 02-15-2007, 12:52 PM
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Frosty Frosty is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jaws
Maybe, as a community, we could encourage them and show them how successful addons were in WoW. Heck Auctioneer was the only reason I stuck around as long as I did in the game....I was making about 80 G a week.
Community feedback is always a good motivator to change the functionality. So is mailing me some gold. I'm on the Sen'Jin server as.... nevermind.

-P
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  #9  
Unread 02-15-2007, 12:58 PM
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Cairenn Cairenn is offline
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That's good to hear Frosty.
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  #10  
Unread 02-15-2007, 04:11 PM
jaws jaws is offline
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Hehe, too bad. I gave away several hundred gold to random people to get rid of it when I quit Wow.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Frosty
Community feedback is always a good motivator to change the functionality. So is mailing me some gold. I'm on the Sen'Jin server as.... nevermind.

-P
It's also good that you clarified. Being a n00b at UI skinning I wasn't sure how WoW addons worked. Dissapointing to hear that there is no current way to do it.
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