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03/22/14, 04:28 PM   #1
DuchessOfKvetch
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 9
Roleplay overhead tag idea

There's certainly been a lot of chatter on rp forums for a mod in the style of WoW's MyRolePlay (similar mods exist for a few other MMOs as well).

The problem to me seems to be the requirement of such a mod to share data between other mod users, as opposed to simply changing the UI on the client side. Data would have to be added to the shared stream somehow, without a place for players to store arbitrary text on the game server. As I recall, the authors of the WoW mods did some really funky stuff with hidden chat channels that were posted to regularly in a zone, and then parsed into local variables for display when a player using the mod came into view.

Thus I didn't believe such a thing would work for ESO. But someone in my guild noticed a particular field that potentially could be used to store such metadata: the "Notes" field in the character roster for guilds. Any number of different pieces of info could be stored in this field, and potentially redisplayed. There are even a few API calls to retrieve this data, though it seems it currently is not done in bulk, which may be an issue.

And of course, you'd have to know the guild name. But one of the things we're trying is to use "umbrella" guild collectives anyway - ostensibly to assist with phasing, since there's been indications that guilds members are supposed to phase together. SO even if this code only works within a guild, it could still be useful since the utility\umbrella guilds are still used by rpers in a transparent manner (people join them and then don't use guild chat, to maintain immersion).

GetGuildMemberInfo(integer guildId, luaindex memberIndex)
Returns: string name, string note, luaindex rankIndex, integer playerStatus, integer secsSinceLogoff
GetGuildMemberCharacterInfo(integer guildId, luaindex memberIndex)
Returns: bool hasCharacter, string characterName, string zoneName, integer classType, integer alliance, integer level, integer veteranRank

I don't know yet if anyone has had any luck with adding contextual info overhead, or if ZOS is hiding that info by design. If it can be worked around, this might be a useful field for all kinds of metadata, perhaps.

Last edited by DuchessOfKvetch : 03/22/14 at 04:31 PM.
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03/22/14, 05:00 PM   #2
Vuelhering
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 169
That's a cool idea.

In fact, you could probably even use it to to display chat bubbles by having it send their location when they do a /say. Only the addon would monitor the umbrella guild chat, and then display bubbles if you're nearby and looking that direction.

It would have to be a guess, unfortunately, because I don't think you can get the camera angle and distance for a projection method. At least, I couldn't find it in the API. There might be some tricks that can be done, but I haven't looked into it.

Just remember the limit of 500 accounts per guild.
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03/23/14, 09:16 AM   #3
DuchessOfKvetch
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 9
Well, what I've been seeing lately on some other forums is that attaching overhead info to characters has been problematic to say the least. It's tied up in the eternal chat bubble debate, but I'm not even interested in those- just know a LOT of people want the ability to read extra character info.

The simplest form of this is simply a mod that indicates another user who has the same mod installed via some kind of visual display attached to the other character(s). Once that is established other information could be added once the API improves, I would hope.

I've been a bit annoyed with the hardcore stance I hear from ZOS regarding wanting to maintain their "high immersion" branding, at the expense of those who want the ability to customise, but that horse has been flogged enough elsewhere.
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04/15/14, 10:42 PM   #4
DuchessOfKvetch
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 9
A bit of neco here, because it's now come up again.

I'm playing with a modification of a reticle-type mod, similar to the ones that change color or display text when the mouse is over guild mates.

I can IN THEORY pull down information about guildmates via looping through the memberlisting, and calling such API functions as GetGuildMemberInfo. However- it seems that the 2nd return argument ("Note") only returns an empty string, regardless of the setting seen inside the actual guild roster.

Anyone know what's going on here?
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04/16/14, 11:42 AM   #5
Iyanga
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Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 183
I think it's a better idea to nag ZOS to support the roleplayers.
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04/17/14, 10:51 PM   #6
DuchessOfKvetch
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 9
I spoke incorrectly before... I'm just a noob to LUA scripting. You -can- display the Guild Notes, and they're shared between all users.

Far from an ideal ZOS-supported feature, sure, but it is *something*.

What the rpers have been doing is joining big "umbrella" guilds at either the server or faction level, and using them to "travel to" other rpers in the same guild (since "weighted" phasing doesn't seem to work as intended). So since a few hundred of us are online at any given time, we can far easier make use of something that displays these guild fields. Yes, you can just mouseover them in the guild roster, but it's not as organic as seeing them in the game UI directly.
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04/19/14, 07:33 AM   #7
DariusBlackthorne
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 1
Just curious - is there a repository or list of active roleplay guilds around to utilize for the time being? I myself have a budding rp guild, and am hoping to find some like minded people. Regardless, I'm thrilled to see that there is interest in this kind of thing! I've used versions in WoW and more recently, The Secret World, though I admit until I read this I had no idea how they actually worked. I don't know exactly how I could assist, but should you think of a way, do contact me, I'd love to do whatever I can to facilitate an easier way for roleplayers to find one another.

Darius Blackthorne
<House Blackthorne> of Daggerfall Covenant
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04/19/14, 11:04 AM   #8
DuchessOfKvetch
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 9
Have you joined TESO-RP.com yet? That's the big website for ESO roleplayers. There's a bunch of guild-related forum threads therein.

You can also ping me at @DuchessOfKvetch, as we also maintain an "umbrella" guild of rpers to assist with networking (there's several, in fact).
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