Is an addon like this possible?

Barik.Morloc · 12/12/14, 01:21 PM

I had an idea for an global auction house addon and found out it was already made it was called ESO Outpost

But the site was shutdown and the addon was discontinued.
Looks like ZoS really doesn't want an addon like this.

Barik.Morloc · 12/12/14, 01:29 PM

The way I see it this is completly possible.
Basiclly the addon would be displaying a database that is on your computer.
The database would be the ads of other players who want to sell/trade and would connect to a website that updates the database.
When you list something in-game the third party program would than take that information and upload it to the website database.
When you wanted to search for things the third party program would update/download its database and display that information.
I know this can be done am I wrong?

Garkin · 12/12/14, 01:49 PM

This third party program is possible. But data can be updated only when you are not logged into the game, so it would be inconvenient.

There is no way to read/write external data using the in-game API in real time.
Only way to export data to external application are saved variables, but they are saved only when you close UI. It means when you reload UI or when you log out to the character selection screen.
Reading data is even more difficult - if you want to modify saved variables using the external program, game must not be running or you must be in the character selection screen. If you modify data when you are logged in with character, data won't be loaded and will be automatically overwritten when you close UI. Maybe you can avoid overwritting if you generate data file directly to the addon folder, but you will still need to reload UI in order to update data.

Barik.Morloc · 12/12/14, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by Garkin

This third party program is possible. But data can be updated only when you are not logged into the game, so it would be inconvenient.

There is no way to read/write external data using the in-game API in real time.
Only way to export data to external application are saved variables, but they are saved only when you close UI. It means when you reload UI or when you log out to the character selection screen.
Reading data is even more difficult - if you want to modify saved variables using the external program, game must not be running or you must be in the character selection screen. If you modify data when you are logged in with character, data won't be loaded and will be automatically overwritten when you close UI. Maybe you can avoid overwritting if you generate data file directly to the addon folder, but you will still need to reload UI in order to update data.

Can't one just script that into the addon to reload ui as well? So you click on an update button ingame and it than updates the data and does reload ui after?

rkuhnjr · 12/12/14, 08:46 PM

Originally Posted by Barik.Morloc

Can't one just script that into the addon to reload ui as well? So you click on an update button ingame and it than updates the data and does reload ui after?

Yes you can but the hatred for such a "feature" i fear would doom the addon from the start

Barik.Morloc · 12/13/14, 09:07 PM

And by hatred i guess you mean from the developers themselves?

QuadroTony · 12/14/14, 02:15 AM

nop
from users

they will not use this addon, im sure

Barik.Morloc · 12/14/14, 03:18 AM

I disagree. As long as the addon was stable and convenient I know heaps of people who would use such a thing. There's websites that do the same thing and they have a lot of players using it. The inconvenient thing with that is it isn't ingame. Being ingame makes it a lot more convenient in many different ways.
If anything it would be the developers that would hate it.

QuadroTony · 12/14/14, 03:23 AM

how much registered players?
on the website

Barik.Morloc · 12/14/14, 03:41 AM

Originally Posted by QuadroTony

how much registered players?
on the website

How should I know? There's the most popular one endorsed my ZoS - TESO Marketplace has over 5000 posts. Theres a few more as well but not as popular like reddit, epicnpc etc.

Thing is they suck...
They suck because there not ingame and inconvenient. If it were ingame and it was simple as posting an item by linking it, adding how much you want, and a little bit of text to put in details. Or for looking up items doing a search which than downloads the info you searched for and than refreshes the database/ui....

ALOT more people would be using an addon like that... thing is not that many people would hate it. Sure some might but it would be the developers that would want to stop it if it got to big.

Barik.Morloc · 12/14/14, 03:55 AM

Actually having done some research an addon "was" already made.
It was called ESOOUTPOST

http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=34363
http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info464-ESOutpost.html

It was in early stages where they didn't have an external program to upload it to the site. You could link your item and than post it on the site. Thing is it was shutdown.

I wonder who shut it down? (sarcasm)

QuadroTony · 12/14/14, 04:18 AM

Originally Posted by Barik.Morloc

But the site was shutdown and the addon was discontinued.
Looks like ZoS really doesn't want an addon like this.

i see this site still working

or not?\\

yes, it was another site

so, first i think you need to create the topic on off forum with question
people will not use this addon because they will fear the ban =)

or i will create the topic right now

Barik.Morloc · 12/14/14, 04:20 AM

nope they had a site for it at one point but it is not up anymore. The addon was updated last month though and you can use the addon with some errors becuase of the new patch but yah the site is gone which makes me believe that ZoS shut it down.

Barik.Morloc · 12/14/14, 04:22 AM

Originally Posted by QuadroTony

i see this site still working

or not?\\

yes, it was another site

so, first i think you need to create the topic on off forum with question
people will not use this addon because they will fear the ban =)

or i will create the topic right now

Ok??? So their is another site for it?

QuadroTony · 12/14/14, 04:27 AM

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com...ed-your-answer

QuadroTony · 12/14/14, 01:27 PM

looks like ZAM closed this site, because it was not profitable....

and after Seerah, the main developer, was retired

i think

rkuhnjr · 12/14/14, 07:46 PM

The addon is the easy part, the site itself would be an immense undertaking because one would need to maintain the database of items that the code from the addon relates to as well as provide the interfaces for interactions

ESOHead of course had that data at the time from their standard data mining addons but that is a luxury most of us dont have.