Also the text on the Info panel. But, similar to my suggestion earlier, this could also be added to VerboseLogging.
Discussion External API Requirements Thread
- Thread starter Michael Brookes
- Start date
- Status
Also the text on the Info panel. But, similar to my suggestion earlier, this could also be added to VerboseLogging.
Ok, so no app will be able to set your hyper route then (aprat from maybe the official companion app
) . thanks for the infoAlongside the usual market data stuff that everybody seems to want, being able to track my actions history would be nice. For missions (success, failure, impact on factions), visited systems, exploration results, individual bounties, ships destroyed and their allegiance, trade history, etc...
TBH, I would like being able to see this in game, but I don't mind you offloading that on external developers.
I could probably write such an app once you release the API, but I strongly suspect that I won't take the time though
TBH, I would like being able to see this in game, but I don't mind you offloading that on external developers.
I could probably write such an app once you release the API, but I strongly suspect that I won't take the time though
Viajero
Volunteer Moderator
- List of systems with active conflict zones, or at least those that the game considers as publicly known including, but hopefully not limited to, galnet news ones.
- Name of factions involved in each conflict and their respective local influence basic info
- Generic background summary text info on the nature of the conflict if available (ref Galnet).
Goal of this would be to allow the creation of combat / conflict heat maps or simply listing those for players to know where the action is.
- Name of factions involved in each conflict and their respective local influence basic info
- Generic background summary text info on the nature of the conflict if available (ref Galnet).
Goal of this would be to allow the creation of combat / conflict heat maps or simply listing those for players to know where the action is.
Last edited:
Could we please have the game client api at least have the possibility to send text to the INFO pane in the game?
For example to send info from a KWS scan there.
* current targets scanned data (bounty , faction name) to be able to overlay the information instead of having to look it up each time in the left (contacts) list.
(a temporary info popup in the same way to scan / discovery of planets) with this specific information..
You just (Killwarrant) scanned a ship .. "Warrent open: Cr 19.000 on target"
or send to "voice attack" as command .. Computer: Commander the target has a 19.000 cr bounty on his head that might interest you! <evil grin>
*especially usefull in anarchy systems.
(a temporary info popup in the same way to scan / discovery of planets) with this specific information..
You just (Killwarrant) scanned a ship .. "Warrent open: Cr 19.000 on target"
or send to "voice attack" as command .. Computer: Commander the target has a 19.000 cr bounty on his head that might interest you!
<evil grin>*especially usefull in anarchy systems.
Last edited:
I'm interested in a cmdr's log type application. I'm thinking of something like an interactive 3D map of systems visited. So I'd need system name and coordinates for each visited system. This would best suit a push/event API but could work with a query API. The more info that could be captured the better (in approximate order of desirability):
I'm one of the guys working on crowd-sourced coordinate data (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=43362). Hopefully the API will make that project redundant, but that will depend on exactly what galaxy-map data is available. If coordinates of systems are not going to be provided then it'd be great to have some support for the data we need to calculate coordinates: specifically the ability to get the name of the current system and distances from the current system to other named systems to at least 0.01 Ly accuracy (would prefer 0.001 or better). The ability to get the names of all systems within a set range (say 20 Ly to match the nav panel) would also be great.
- System name
- Coordinates
- Allegiance (Federation/Empire/Neutral/Independent)
- Station visited (ideally including type, distance to star, etc)
- Number of objects discovered
- Government type
- Controlling faction
- Reputation with controlling faction and major faction
- Commander data such as cash, ratings, etc.
- Distance to station
- Goods bought/sold (including price and quantity)
- Station available services
- Other factions
- Economy of system and/or station
- Star type
- Other stations in the system
- Trade data (prices, supply/demand)
I'm one of the guys working on crowd-sourced coordinate data (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=43362). Hopefully the API will make that project redundant, but that will depend on exactly what galaxy-map data is available. If coordinates of systems are not going to be provided then it'd be great to have some support for the data we need to calculate coordinates: specifically the ability to get the name of the current system and distances from the current system to other named systems to at least 0.01 Ly accuracy (would prefer 0.001 or better). The ability to get the names of all systems within a set range (say 20 Ly to match the nav panel) would also be great.
I think most of the things I'd like to see have already been covered here, but just to wave my hand in the air for market data.
It would be nice to be able to request the data for your current system, as already appears in the current companion app, but also get a feed for any market data that you've purchased while it's still valid and available. Obviously any data retained by the app would become stale as the markets are traded, but it would be a great means of keeping track of where you've traded recently.
I'd also like to be able to pull recent transactions and locations, eg. "X tonnes of Coffee purchased in system Y for Z credits, transported to system A and sold for B credits". Would make for some interesting graphing possibilities and tracking personal influence (if any!) on a particular system.
- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -
Makes sense, though that idea of having an in-game display that could be interacted with is very cool. There are plenty of screens in my Type 6 that show nothing but static images; it would be great to get them to be more interactive.
It would be nice to be able to request the data for your current system, as already appears in the current companion app, but also get a feed for any market data that you've purchased while it's still valid and available. Obviously any data retained by the app would become stale as the markets are traded, but it would be a great means of keeping track of where you've traded recently.
I'd also like to be able to pull recent transactions and locations, eg. "X tonnes of Coffee purchased in system Y for Z credits, transported to system A and sold for B credits". Would make for some interesting graphing possibilities and tracking personal influence (if any!) on a particular system.
- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -
Makes sense, though that idea of having an in-game display that could be interacted with is very cool. There are plenty of screens in my Type 6 that show nothing but static images; it would be great to get them to be more interactive.
Apologies if this has already been requested in this thread but an API to support software such as SimVibe and Bass Transducers would be very much appreciated. There is a thread about it here:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=35128
I have made an application in the meantime which controls subwoofer volumes based on joystick button presses. It works but full SimVibe support would be out of this world.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=35128
I have made an application in the meantime which controls subwoofer volumes based on joystick button presses. It works but full SimVibe support would be out of this world.
In terms of API and data, I think most of the main points have been raised, and I am largely in agreement with the points expressed by kfsone (I am one of those independent standalone database users of his application, and have just begun looking at ways to contribute to that project) so just a couple of comments. While I can see some benefits to XML, it is a bandwidth and parsing hog that slows things down incredibly. I think JSON or .csv or even (shudder) a proprietary binary interface would be best from those points of view.
I would also like to float the idea, already expressed in my post here, that FD consider the following in addition to exposing an API for this data. If communications are near-instantaeneous, there is really no reason why pilots would not have access to the commodity data of all the systems they have visited (at least) if not all the systems in the immediate sector, and/or belonging to a certain faction they have influence with, or for which they have bought trade data. Presumably there would be market data of that sort available to the ship's commerce or trading software (like the various 3rd party trading apps). Maybe FD could consider an upgradeable and configurable ship's module which would allow users to purchase with credits (or even real $$ as an expansion) so as to integrate the 3rd party application of their choice to be able to use them in-game as part of the HUD without having to run them separately and pinning screen focus or alt-tabbing to do so? This could be as minimal as allowing a separate sandbox window (with no access to any other HUD or game functionality) to be launched in game that the 3rd party app would run in.
I would also like to float the idea, already expressed in my post here, that FD consider the following in addition to exposing an API for this data. If communications are near-instantaeneous, there is really no reason why pilots would not have access to the commodity data of all the systems they have visited (at least) if not all the systems in the immediate sector, and/or belonging to a certain faction they have influence with, or for which they have bought trade data. Presumably there would be market data of that sort available to the ship's commerce or trading software (like the various 3rd party trading apps). Maybe FD could consider an upgradeable and configurable ship's module which would allow users to purchase with credits (or even real $$ as an expansion) so as to integrate the 3rd party application of their choice to be able to use them in-game as part of the HUD without having to run them separately and pinning screen focus or alt-tabbing to do so? This could be as minimal as allowing a separate sandbox window (with no access to any other HUD or game functionality) to be launched in game that the 3rd party app would run in.
Michael Brookes
Game Director
It can certainly be discussed, however the moment we allow any communication into the game that immediately requires additional security concerns.
Michael
Michael Brookes
Game Director
Indeed and this is why we're happy for this to be a relatively open discussion of what people would like to be able to do at this stage. We'll then review and see what we should support and how we move forward.
Michael
Viajero
Volunteer Moderator
Even text chat facilities?
The API Query itself is an inbound communication that will have to be sanitized and validated so thus can create the buffer overflow/security concerns.............
For use of a widget on a site or a standalone "System Tracker" app. This would provide a quick reference to any systems of interest. For instance, the recent conflict in Durius, there were lots of posts on our forums and queries in TS about the current status and who or how many people were there. It would require there to be various properties disclosed about the system:
- Name
- Allegiance
- Government
- State
- Controlling faction and it's influence
- All other factions and their influence (inc any State that the faction is in or has pending)
- All Stations and their controlling faction
- Coordinates
- Player traffic (24hr period?) - just a number, we don't want to allow for individual player tracking!
I don't think this sort of data would promote any kind of exploitation of the game, it would be more of a convenience than a means to boost ingame progress. An app could be configured to show all systems that are in a state of war, allowing a player to travel to the nearest conflict available. Further filtering on the app side with this data would allow you to find all systems currently under the control of a given faction. There are a variety of use case scenarios that would benefit from this kind of data.
- Name
- Allegiance
- Government
- State
- Controlling faction and it's influence
- All other factions and their influence (inc any State that the faction is in or has pending)
- All Stations and their controlling faction
- Coordinates
- Player traffic (24hr period?) - just a number, we don't want to allow for individual player tracking!
I don't think this sort of data would promote any kind of exploitation of the game, it would be more of a convenience than a means to boost ingame progress. An app could be configured to show all systems that are in a state of war, allowing a player to travel to the nearest conflict available. Further filtering on the app side with this data would allow you to find all systems currently under the control of a given faction. There are a variety of use case scenarios that would benefit from this kind of data.
Last edited:
I certainly agree we shouldn't delay the simple, high-value cases people have identified because of complex, medium-value cases we might look at later. But now would be a good time to start declaring sets of permissions used by different apps. A good example might be Chrome's permissions system for browser extensions - when you upload your extension, you have to list all the things your browser wants to do (i.e. which parts of Chrome's extension API it should expose to your extension), and Chrome prompts users to accept that list when they install an extension. That gives pretty good security guarantees, controlled by the user and understandable to even the newest extension developer. And as a developer, I'd be much more comfortable writing a read-only app of an evening if I knew it was that simple to secure my code against abuse.
The initial implementation of this could be as simple as requiring extensions to send {"permissions":"read-only"} when logging in, and blocking anything that sends a different string. We can worry about the rest if and when new interfaces are discussed.
- Status