Data Sharing In Groups
 

Could the game developers implement a small API for sharing data between players live?

Currently, addons that share stats between players in a group (dps, hps, ultimates, location) that are critical for coordination (such as ulti' drop timing) use a "hack" to achieve this. EVENT_MAP_PING often through an addon will repeat this event, which results in errors, crashes, and general incompatibility between addons. (The use of this feature resulting in errors and crashes is a game bug.)

Adding the API to handle data sharing will greatly improve the quality-of-life of most of the core game population, and will be greatly appreciate by the addon developer community. Even if limited to only accommodate how we currently use it. Thank you.


Some of the current addons using this:
https://www.esoui.com/downloads/info...leversion.html
https://www.esoui.com/downloads/info...roupTools.html
https://www.esoui.com/downloads/info...ceofCandy.html
https://www.esoui.com/downloads/info...mateShare.html

This is not a bug, but a wish. There's already such a thread: https://www.esoui.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8443

Thanks for sharing that. It's a shame to see no game dev' had responded there, at all. That thread is a few months old.

This thread IS actually about a bug. The extensive use of map pings causes errors and crashes. The game dev's could fix that specifically, letting us "hack" that feature freely for this purpose. But that sounds counter-intuitive and overly complicated. I'll add this clarification to the op.

I've moved the thread.
Please add your response to the existing wish list thread and if you really do want to make a bug report, include steps how to reproduce the issues. Simply writing "it crashes" is not enough and I usually just delete such threads. ;)

p.s. I think you are confusing LibGPS for LibGroupSocket

Is it meaningful to add to the wish list thread, when no game dev' has responded to it in months?

I made an exception to the "how to reproduce," because it's a widely known and accepted bug. Even in his own very popular addon description, Hoft says:
Is that not the case anymore? I recently got errors for doing that, and friends reported errors and crashes both. Seemed expected. If you think otherwise, I don't mind testing further and writing down instructions for the game dev's to follow. :)

Hopefully, this response or further steps will qualify this thread as a bug, as I suspect the developers will take this topic more seriously then.

Why do you think I'm confusing LibGPS for LibGroupSocket? LibGPS uses LibMapPing, for the same reason.

When enough people show interest, it may sway them to do something, but it's hard to keep track if it's in several places over several years. And just because there is no answer doesn't mean that ZOS isn't keeping an eye on it.

About the steps to reproduce, I kindly suggest you read the rules for the bug report forum. This is not some customer support forum, but something that is read by the devs themselves. Dev time is expensive, so I'd like to ensure a certain amount of quality to these bug reports. If you leave out important information like that, you may as well just report it ingame via the /bug command and never hear about it again. ;)

And no, LibGPS doesn't use LibMapPings to send group pings. It only sets player waypoints to do measurements, which is something entirely different and doesn't count towards any request limits as it's entirely local.

That aside, what do you even mean with errors and crashes? When you talk about errors you absolutely have to include their message and stacktraces, otherwise it could be literally anything. And if you mean "kicked from the server" with your "it crashes", that's not a bug. The addons simply hit the api rate limit for map pings, which is actually something I've solved for LibGroupSocket, but since most authors seem to prefer to slap together their own implementation, they can't profit from that protection.

That said: They hopefully will read and change their addons to make all compatible (my fight against windmills continues ;) Thanks for the info.).

Fair enough, I'll remove LibGPS from the list then.

I'm confused. You're the author of both LibGroupSocket and LibMapPing. The former has not received an update since 2017. The latter looks like a newer version with the same functionality. Sharing data over map pings. Is this not the case?

Thanks for linking that older thread. It's been a few years. I suspect this could be a great time to figure this issue out, with all the new technical patches coming out shaking the world. :)

I'll get on procuring errors and crashes for this, as you say. I'm sure that'll clarify this better.

To be fair, even with LibGroupSocket it wouldn't allow more things to be sent before getting kicked and it would just silently omit some of the shared pings.

Well, I might as well eat my hat. Just tried running a whole bunch of these addons actively sharing data, at the same time (stats and ultis.) A grouped raid in Cyro' for two nights. Other than some meaningful sluggishness (that I don't have without this setup,) I had no errors, crashes, or disconnects of any sort.

Surprising. Could be more luck than brains, but that's that. At this point, I agree that this is a discussion rather than a bug-report. :) As usual, well done siri on pushing to clarify this.