News "API"

Just a suggestion for people to discuss, since I have no idea what the general thoughts would be about it. Sorry if it has been brought up before, but I looked and didn't see anything like it.

On another game I play you have a newsfeed where you can see all the hits being made in the game pretty much as soon as they happen. This newsfile is then being used by alliances to make IRC-newsbots and what not.

The news in that game has in a way made the alliances very well-knit, people call/text others under attack to get online and defend, etc.. I know there's a delay in place for alliance and officer news, so perhaps this isn't very interesting for this game.

However another advantage of the news is that quite a few websites has been created for the games community for anything between hit-stats to general statistics. This would still be possible to do with 4 hours delayed news.

Figured I'd suggest it and see what admin and others might think

I am up for the idea. Also that game use it to update status.

I welcome your suggestion pxn, and you got my support!

It will make the game more interesting and more exciting, especially for players who are not involved and have no events on their account, at least they can see what's happening in the world of Aderan.

ok, let me get this straight, ANYONE in the game can see hits made immediately but alliance and officer logs dont show up for hours?


If this is the case then NO

it ruins the need for logs, secondly those online for hours on end every day can see a friend being massed and defend them.

Give them a delay if need be

also, its open to abuse and extortionist, i see someone go on a farming run, and then tell them to give half or get massed. I say no beans, maybe the reset server but not main.,

lol no

what we are talking about is
the same time frame for alliance logs, and hidden logs.
Remeber officers show up right away now.

what API is allows up to get the news from the server. and put it into our own database and we can use it for what ever at that time.

But its open for all the server to see? so alliances can go back to hording dead accounts and be able to see any hits on them? or even see hits on dead accounts "claimed" by someone more powerful?


idk, im not for nor against but I have concerns


No power levels are given correct?

It would be more for the news of the hits.

I not sure I would do the server output, more for the alliance output.

I do not really like. It is up to abuse and should be kept out of the hands of players. The Database should stay with the Game admin and not with us.Plus it really makes alert lvls obsolete. I do not like it.

Good point magnus

and if its just for alliances, then its just alliance attack logs and thats something I thought Admin gave a definite NO on?

Magnus wrote:I do not really like. It is up to abuse and should be kept out of the hands of players. The Database should stay with the Game admin and not with us.Plus it really makes alert lvls obsolete. I do not like it.

What is abuse?

How is a player getting access to the database?

how does it make alert lvls obsolete?

This is for players such as myself to be able to get the news from the game and store it so that it can be shown later..
This is for the alliance for the alliance to get. It only shows the news.

now using the example that pxn gave, IRC bot, this wouldn't work due to the 4 hour delay. However this can be stored and looked over by the alliance leaders to make sure that players are making good kuwal/raid farms. That they aren't doing hostile hits.

Nomad wrote:Good point magnus

and if its just for alliances, then its just alliance attack logs and thats something I thought Admin gave a definite NO on?

while the other game sends out all news, that is instant. Thats something I know wouldn't work here. They also have a setup that allows you to upload your status to the site where you tell it too. The admins of that game also have a site full of tools built for the game, so the game/site are linked.

While I do agree this would be more for alliances then for single players, I am sure that instead of making it alliance based. It could make it player based. Also the 'api' that the game gives is only given to the player, so its up to the player to give his code.

tbh i not 100% sure how it works. I have never worked with it. It would most definitely be something new for me.

making the newsfile instant would ofcourse require the ingame alliance reports to be instant too, or it would be a bit odd.. as i wrote in my first post, this might not work for this game.. but worth discussing atleast

as for what news would be displayed, what wouldnt be etc is also something to be discussed.. either it would be all news for everyone to see.. but that would perhaps display a bit too much information that everyone can see

the other option is making it alliance based.. so using your API-code or your username/password you can see the alliance news, if you're not in an alliance you get restricted to seeing only your own news

perhaps this would need some tweaking, maybe so alliance leaders gets to decide who can use the API etc..

if admin is at all interested i can post a link that describes the other games API to give him some ideas how it works there

as for the abuse part.. the database itself is never opened to the players.. just the information about hits.. i doubt that can be abused in any useful manner, feel free to post a concrete example of how it could be

i like this idea, itll be like sky news as its breaking only better ( no ads)...
as for abuse, i dont know how that could be possible and there are definite gains to be made, like you said it would increase the interaction of alliance members and thats always a good thing... so yeah id give my support.

it would also open up everyone farming lists to everyone else. If your name appears in the logs much more and more will hit you. If your hiding behind covert stats that plan will be useless now.

These are the types of abuses I am referring too.

They are the as now Nomad, all that would need to be done is tracked by someone with a lot of time on your hands.

The 'API' idea gets rid of having to do the manual work, it is work to get it right but once it is, then it jsut loads into the database.

Well the work to be done should be done by the player that wants to be active and not by the game itself. Where is the fun in farming if you can not have your own list with secret farms. The idea is plausible, but I do not think it should be used.

" by Magnus Yesterday at 2:53 am
I do not really like. It is up to abuse and should be kept out of the hands of players. The Database should stay with the Game admin and not with us. Plus it really makes alert lvls obsolete. I do not like it. "

Agreed.

" by Nomad Yesterday at 3:28 am
Good point magnus

and if its just for alliances, then its just alliance attack logs "

That would be great.

" by Nomad Today at 2:27 am
it would also open up everyone farming lists to everyone else. If your name appears in the logs much more and more will hit you. If your hiding behind covert stats that plan will be useless now.

These are the types of abuses I am referring too. "

Agrees with Nomad on that.

The only thing that should be changed is for alliance logs to be activated so alliances can act like real alliances and protect one another, with no delays from the time hit to the time it shows up in the alliance logs, No one wants others to see who they farm or raid, that idea is just lame, Now a news report of the wars that happen, as long as it's the information that the leaders provide to the news, may it be truth or false.

¤ Angel Slayer wrote:
The only thing that should be changed is for alliance logs to be activated so alliances can act like real alliances and protect one another, with no delays from the time hit to the time it shows up in the alliance logs, No one wants others to see who they farm or raid, that idea is just lame, Now a news report of the wars that happen, as long as it's the information that the leaders provide to the news, may it be truth or false.

Now that is a Idea I am in for , but it would mean it should stay truthful and not lied in. It should stay factual and not able to be abused and everyone knows who will be accused of that

so, on the fear of sounding stupid, & trying to understand what is being discussed, let me ask this...

If this happens will I be able to see who has been hitting who in the game,(farming, assualts, spying, assassinations, etc.)? & will all players be able to see who I have been farming/raiding? I don't like the idea of my avtivities being tracked, & as far as I know unless you are my commander or the leader of my alliance or the AA, no other player knows what I'm doing & thats the way i want it, otherwise what is the point of spy training, & spy techs? I think that I may need further explaination,( I like to say explain it like you would to a 3 year old)...

kingkongfan1 wrote:so, on the fear of sounding stupid, & trying to understand what is being discussed, let me ask this...
If this happens will I be able to see who has been hitting who in the game,(farming, assualts, spying, assassinations, etc.)? & will all players be able to see who I have been farming/raiding? I don't like the idea of my avtivities being tracked, & as far as I know unless you are my commander or the leader of my alliance or the AA, no other player knows what I'm doing & thats the way i want it, otherwise what is the point of spy training, & spy techs? I think that I may need further explaination,( I like to say explain it like you would to a 3 year old)...

dude, your activies are already tracked.... in the logs page,
@ nomad as far as abusing it goes, i really fail to see how a simple scrolling message at the top stating nomad just spanked ragnarok, (message that woudl show for normal attack) or nomad anhialated ragnarok for when you fully mass someone stats, be it, defence, covert whatever)
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE SHOULD BE VISIBLE OTHER THAN THAT, no clickable links to view the results, and it should only be for attacks, not raids assasinations etc, and as for covert, well if that showed up on there then we can hardly call it covert ops can we?

instead of slating someones idea guys why cant we work out where it can improved? after all if your not part of the solution, your part of the problem.

I don't think some are getting the idea

we are talking about things scrolling at the top.
players wouldn't have access to the game database.

I am not sure what pxn had in mind orginaly

I however am talking about a news feed for alliance or player.
This wouldn't be public information. Thats the point of the API code. Basicly I have a script on a site, that would 'knock' on the door, present the API code for my allinace, then would be sent the news feed.
----------------------

Now that other game has it setup for statuses also. However in order for the status to be sent, YOU the player have to hit the send button.

I am all for ideas that will make the game more interesting especially it it will provide some information for those that are not involved in what is currently the most active events such as wars etc.

I also strongly favor any improvements or changes that will increase interaction between members of alliances in particular and also between players in general. Also changes need to be of benefit to all players,

The real issues here are what information should be available, where it is made available, who can see it and finally how it is made available.

My personal position is that whatever happens in-game is only available in-game. I know that in reality this is impossible to do easily but I believe that those who want to do something with the information should have to do some of the work so I'm not in favor of any feature that would provide the information at the click of a button.

I've seen comments around not making attack logs public because you don't want others to know who your favorite farms are or what your doing and comments on the delay in events appearing in logs.

Lets face it, with a little bit of observation many of these things are easily seen in the battlefield pages. A few refreshes of a page will show you who is either active or being farmed or attacked.

I'm also sure that most if not all alliances pass information around their members on who to Farm or Raid. There may be some who keep some information to themselves on particular favorite target but in general it's beneficial for this information to be shared so that all members can benefit and grow.

So what information is available currently and where. The News page contains some Global Statistics that are viewable by everyone. Attack logs are viewable in detail by each individual. Less detail from them is viewable by commanders and Alliance leadership.

An individual player can see their own logs and if they are in an alliance they get to see who else is in it their Rank and Army size and some overall details . Commanders and Alliance leaders get the ability to look at log files ant also the ability to mass mail officers or alliance members and that's about it.

This leads to the question of what can be added to make things more interesting so here's a few thoughts.

1. Alliance Leader Board - Place this on the news page and include ALL Alliances with some overall Stats and an indicator that shows the stat is increasing or decreasing. I did consider including the number of members but discarded it so that Hidden alliances are no as easily found.

2. Alliance mail - give everyone the ability to send mail to the whole alliance.

3. Alliance Battle Log - in two sections, offense and defense. Shows cumulative totals of Kuwal stolen, UU Raided, Units assassinated by alliance.

4. Alliance Member Battle Log - again in two sections, offense and defense. Shows Strikes and Raids on a member by member basis. allows you to drill down one level to see individual events.

Both 3 & 4 could be limited so that only the last x number of events are shown and earlier events would then drop off the lists.

Benefits - Well the Alliance Leader Board shows where each alliance sits in relation to the others and the indicators show that there is some activity.

The Alliance ideas are designed so provide information to the members of the alliance as a whole. It encourages involvement by all members and the sharing of information and advice. The information is factual and accurate.

And finally one other thing can be done now and without any coding - Simply encourage more people to come to this forum and participate in it. The more vibrant and active that this forum is, then the more chance that other new player will want to stay and join us.

seaborgium wrote:
I however am talking about a news feed for alliance or player.
This wouldn't be public information. Thats the point of the API code. Basicly I have a script on a site, that would 'knock' on the door, present the API code for my allinace, then would be sent the news feed.

@ seaborgium - And what happens when someone gets hold of someone else's API code.

then that could be a problem for the player.

As for that, I honestly don't know what the admins do, I didn't play the other game much. the only way for someone to get someone elses API code is for the the player to give it or the admin of the site which the user put it in.

Ragnarok wrote:

kingkongfan1 wrote:so, on the fear of sounding stupid, & trying to understand what is being discussed, let me ask this...
If this happens will I be able to see who has been hitting who in the game,(farming, assualts, spying, assassinations, etc.)? & will all players be able to see who I have been farming/raiding? I don't like the idea of my avtivities being tracked, & as far as I know unless you are my commander or the leader of my alliance or the AA, no other player knows what I'm doing & thats the way i want it, otherwise what is the point of spy training, & spy techs? I think that I may need further explaination,( I like to say explain it like you would to a 3 year old)...

dude, your activies are already tracked.... in the logs page,

This much I understand, I think, as I understand it now, the ONLY people that can review MY logs are MY COMMANDER, MY ALIANCE LEADER, & MY ALLIANCE ADIVSOR. not every player in the game. if I am mistaken then please someone inform me of who else has access to my logs... I am not for/against this Idea at the moment, Just trying to understand it... I am against people,(other than those stated above) being able to review my logs, as I think it defeats a certain aspect of the game, namely the spy/covert aspect...

Currently that is correct. With the API thing I am talking about, it would still be the same. Cept for, others in the alliance could see it, as long as it is logged somewhere. If no one is logging it then again noone would see it.

okay.. since some still don't seem to get what i was after i'll try again..

someone did bring up a form of newsticker at the top of the page.. perhaps not that bad an idea, but not at all what i was referring too

mainly the idea for the newsfeed would be for a 3rd party website to be able to generate statistics.. since most of you guys seems to be against the idea of a general newsfeed (in a way i can understand that with raid-targets etc) it would most likely be an alliance news feed.. so what gets sent to the newsfeed is exactly what an alliance leader can see in the attack logs..

you might have seen the numbers Ian has been writing down about having killed this many UU or stolen that much kuwal.. calculating that by hand is most likely mindnumbingly boring, writing a webpage that takes the data from the newsfeed and creates a live page isn't all that hard.. what you get (if you're somewhat good at coding) is nice graphs and numbers for each day of a war, or each player involved or whatever you can come up with

who gets access to the API might be best to leave to the alliance leaders

as for the API-key and someone stealing it.. it wont be any easier to get to that than your own password.. most likely the API-key will be harder, since it would probably be a random 10-15 character passphrase

so basically, if you make it an alliance-newsfeed it wont show anything more than an alliance leader can already get, it'll just make it available in a format easier to parse with a programming language, the same thing can most likely be used today.. but it would require a lot more work