[Wild_Cujo]

Now before you get upity hear this out. I understand many pilots especially PVP do not want information published about the pilots but many times that information is very useful for other pilots, or useful for 3rd party tools. Its even more useful for PVE and/or events. What I'd like to see is an authorization token system. Basically you can publish the information you want and if you want it to be semi private you could have a public token you can give out for people/systems to access your pilot information. I'd also like to have a squad token as well so squadies can see more, if you choose, than a public one.

Some of the things I would love to see:

• Sector location
• Cargo
• Ship type
• Ship config
• Docked/Flying

You could also employ a similar technique for squad mechanics.

[Jump]

I'm all for more and better info. The issue I see is that when you put anything on the web that has layers of permissions then it becomes a hackable target. I would hate to see them spending loads of time chasing down bugs in web data security.

Also, if someone like me makes a pilot data tool, why would you use it if you can go to JOSSH and see more info on people you have permission to view? So there would be no motivation to create outside tools since they wouldn't be used.

Just some observations.

[Wild_Cujo]

Originally Posted by Jump

I'm all for more and better info. The issue I see is that when you put anything on the web that has layers of permissions then it becomes a hackable target. I would hate to see them spending loads of time chasing down bugs in web data security.

There are OS systems out there to handle this thing, additionally a simple UUID + Handle would be secure enough I would imagine. We implemented a rudementary system like this before that passed HIPAA and SOX audits.

Also, if someone like me makes a pilot data tool, why would you use it if you can go to JOSSH and see more info on people you have permission to view? So there would be no motivation to create outside tools since they wouldn't be used.

My thought was they would offer this as a service, mostly for 3rd party tools. I'd really like to see more services exposed for tool makers. I've always wished JOSSH would be more service oriented so tools could focus on decision making and not information providing. I think, and no offence to Net Devil, the tool makers for this community can provide much better interfaces than Net Devil can provide. This is not to say Net Devil can not provide splendid tooling or interfaces I just think they have limited resources and constraints that the community developers do not face.

[Jump]

I guess part of it depends on how well that they develop this in game flash interface they have now. It may be good enough to put all of us tool makers out of business.

Still though there are a lot of people that like to check on the game from work, or whenever they can't play, just to stay on top of things.

I've always felt that it would be better to just have a read only MySQL database that mirrored the data on a separate server. Then "approved" sites could just access that data remotely. Much faster and no need to parse pages whether they be html, text, or xml.

As for your idea I suppose they could have pilots add a pass code to their accounts which is encoded in the database. Then remote sites could offer an option to enter a code for extended data on specific users.

Stuff like this would necessitate that tool coders sign legally binding agreements of course.

I haven't decided if I will do any tools for Jumpgate Evolution yet. I guess it depends on how much advance information we get on what data is available and how it will be formated. If that comes after the game is available then I will probably spend my time playing not coding.

[Wild_Cujo]

Interesting idea with the database, that just not the architecture I am used to, I also think it over complicates things with encryption. With SOA, token authentication is fairly common. In this case I see it working something like (psuedo code):
service_handle = Jumpgate Evolution.com/services/api.wsdl;
client_auth = service_handle.authenticate(to ol_id);
pilot_info = service_handle.getExtendedPilo tInfo(client_auth,pilot_handle , pilot_public_key);
pilot_info = mapCanonicalXMLtoNativeDataStr ucture(pilot_info);
return someAlgorithm();



Here's a simple usecase for a tool. I am going out to mine pure roids, I could do, /getToken this would return a token for my session (I could see this working different ways like through a web interface and pasting it into the tool as well but I am hoping Jumpgate Evolution will over a slightly more advanced type/communication terminal with C&P maybe). Once I've basically authorized my information be published under a key I could start using the tool. Assuming a JGrotPro (and jgrot script) style interface, then I might do something like /mining 5, token (telling a tool I am mining look up every five minutes and here is the token to use to get my info). That tool could then check every five minutes, where are you and what you have in your hold. From there it could tell you where the best place is to deliver your goods it might do something like: "100,000 Kilo: 2 Jumps Oct Core 300,000c , 5 jumps Oct Outpost 230,000c" If you wanted to get more advanced the tool could (given the info I want) also look at the ship type and engines and calculate a rough estimate on which station would provide the most effifient profit or estimate 5 jump ~ 10min, 2 jumps ~3min. Now the advanced one would require more work than I think I would want to do but the first part I already have much of the code for Jumpgate Classic its just very manualy to enter everything :-/

[Grimfalcon]

Something I very much liked in EVE (i know, i know) was the 3rd party tool Evemon. While a lot of what made that program powerful doesn't apply to Jumpgate Evolution (Skill Tree planning, training time alerts), I did very much like a lot of the economy calculators.

Something I'd like to see is Jumpgate Evolution opening up the economy feed for 3rd party tools. Things such as Financial Planners based on selling history of common items, Market Calculators, Inventory Alerts for transporting, etc would be fun. With a player driven economy, opening up that information and making it accessible is key to letting the players really manage it. Not saying this most likely isn't planned but that I hope it is.

Other than that, part of me in Jumpgate Classic really thought a News Cast would have been fun, alerting online but out of game events currently happening in game. (Beacons in Sector XY have been flipped, Bounty placed on Pilot Joe Blow, pirates attack npc this, station x severely out of stock of Y). Totally base it on automated/detectable events so that ND doesn't need to put a full time employee on reporter watch. But, even with that, it'd be fun to make some sort of item/broadcaster for pilots wanting to go the reporter/diplomat route, giving maybe people with certain faction access to the news feed or player feeds in game, putting some of the player ran RP/Events in the hands of player ran newspapers. (could of course, just be a blogroll on JOSSH even).

I really think that would give the game some realism by letting the 99% of us that can't play 24/7 a way to stay connected to what is happening while we're away and a way to trace history in some sort of searchable news archive versus putting all our faith in ND not to erase all of our RP boards without backing them up (ahem) and losing all that history from the first half of Jumpgate Classic's life.

[Wild_Bill]

Interesting idea Grimfalcon! Jump you and W_C are just too far over my head for me to even have an idea of what you are talking about, but it sure did sound impressive!

[Ambrosius]

Originally Posted by Grimfalcon

Other than that, part of me in Jumpgate Classic really thought a News Cast would have been fun, alerting online but out of game events currently happening in game. (Beacons in Sector XY have been flipped, Bounty placed on Pilot Joe Blow, pirates attack npc this, station x severely out of stock of Y). Totally base it on automated/detectable events so that ND doesn't need to put a full time employee on reporter watch. But, even with that, it'd be fun to make some sort of item/broadcaster for pilots wanting to go the reporter/diplomat route, giving maybe people with certain faction access to the news feed or player feeds in game, putting some of the player ran RP/Events in the hands of player ran newspapers. (could of course, just be a blogroll on JOSSH even).

This is an incredibly cool idea . . . create an automated news ticker that can be accessed in-game for a period of time (say last 24 hours) . . . have it appears as news on the website . . . and provide it in some flat file and/or RSS format for 3rd party tools and individual access.

This would be an immersion++ feature!

[netburnr]

In other words, KTRI on steroids?

[Jump]

I always felt the message were annoying as it was. There is only so much HUD real estate and too much info can be a pain. Maybe if I can permanently close the news screen so I don't have to see it.

[Ambrosius]

I believe chat windows are going to be quite a bit different in Jumpgate Evolution. Perhaps the news ticker could simply be a channel "tab" -- or a separate closeable window.

Constant reminders that "Hyperial needs Xenon" get a bit old when you KNOW there's almost no Xenon to be found anywahere (not true ATM though). But "Pirate Activity reported in Zealots Refuge" or "Four Quantar ships and six Octavian ships destroyed in Primus Point battle" might be a bit more interesting and useful.