Modes Flying in Open? Last night, EDR saved my life. It could save yours too!

[LeKeno]

Update (2017/11/13)

Fdev clarified the intent of the TOS. In response, I've made some changes to EDR so that it doesn't rely on the cmdrhistory file which wasn't meant for public consumption. Beside that, Fdev was actually supportive of EDR's features. I also made a few other changes based on other feedback.

Update (2017/11/6)
A few valid points have been brought up in this thread. In particular, whether or not all the features of EDR run afoul of FDEV's TOS. I've reached out to FDEV to get their opinions because ultimately it's their call.
In the meantime, I've disabled EDR from the server side (Note: the plugin will claim that a mandatory update is available). Subscribe to this thread for further updates. You can still apply for the Beta but don't expect a response until this gets resolved.


Disclaimer
If you don't fly in Open or if you are not interested at all in Open: just ignore this post.


Hi! This is LeKeno from Cobra Kai,


I've been busy working on a companion software for Elite Dangerous, called EDR. You can see it in action in this video:


[video=youtube_share;-ROFdT0_oA0]https://youtu.be/-ROFdT0_oA0[/video]

Note: the karma, squadron and role are placeholders for demonstration purpose. The actual plugin shows useful information for these.

EDR is a plugin for EDMC. It warns you about dangerous commanders when playing in Open. It's also a server to help bounty hunters and law enforcers track commanders on the wrong side of the law.


More info and instructions to apply for the beta test in this document.


Special thanks
This plugin would not have been possible without help from:

• Fellow Cobra Kai and allies who have been dogfooding initial versions
• Ian Norton for his EDMC Overlay plugin and help with last minute fixes
• Jonathan Harris for his EDMC program (it does the heavy lifting)
• The Elite Dangerous Developer Community

 

[Leo Sagan]

Hey Lekeno, just wanted to say that even if I don't fly in Open, I still think this is a very interesting idea and I hope you'll get useful feedback for your beta.

+rep, thanks for providing us a new 3rd party tool to experiment with

 

[LeKeno]

Thanks for the support!

 

[Lobey]

Good idea - though I tend to assume everyone is a threat (intentionally or not ).
And you could've been docked by the time that guy was half way out the station entrance.
But a nice addition that would be good to see built into the game.

 

[Jukelo]

I'm sure noone will be petty enough to send bogus reports.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Am I correct that this plugin detects people before you legitimately scanned them? In other words, is a cheat?

 

[LeKeno]

I'm sure noone will be petty enough to send bogus reports.

Yes but there are ways to deal with bogus reports.

 

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

Am I correct that this plugin detects people before you legitimately scanned them? In other words, is a cheat?

I suspect it gets the data from the CMDRs list (in the coms panel). Speeding up the process of looking at that list for known CMDRs you might want to avoid. You can get the CMDR name and ship type even without scanning that ship from the coms panel.

Thing is, those tools can be made and will get used - no matter if they are made public. Would be interesting to know what other tools are got created and used by players.

 

[Bomba Luigi]

Am I correct that this plugin detects people before you legitimately scanned them? In other words, is a cheat?

You already have that out of the Box in the history panel, you can see the cmdr names of every player in your instance there. You won't know which hollow triangle is which until you scan them but you do know intantly who is in your instance.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Looks like one of the glaring omissions of ELITE is about to get Patched by the Community : IFF

Good work.
OP shows what a capable individual can do vs. an inept and negligent publisher failing to provide the very basics for an MMO.

 

[CMDR IAN NORTON]

I'm very excited about this, my own ED:Trust thing kind of stalled.

 

[Arguendo]

And you could've been docked by the time that guy was half way out the station entrance.

If works exactly the same when jumping into a new system, so you get the warning when in Supercruise as well. Could be very useful for traders at CGs

I have done some testing for it, and it really is a very cool plugin!

 

[Ian Skippy]

Looks like one of the glaring omissions of ELITE is about to get Patched by the Community : IFF

Good work.
OP shows what a capable individual can do vs. an inept and negligent publisher failing to provide the very basics for an MMO.

Huh? WoW, ESO, LOTR and such give warning messages based on the proximity of crowd-sourced enemy lists?

I suspect it gets the data from the CMDRs list (in the coms panel). Speeding up the process of looking at that list for known CMDRs you might want to avoid. You can get the CMDR name and ship type even without scanning that ship from the coms panel.

Thing is, those tools can be made and will get used - no matter if they are made public. Would be interesting to know what other tools are got created and used by players.

You already have that out of the Box in the history panel, you can see the cmdr names of every player in your instance there. You won't know which hollow triangle is which until you scan them but you do know intantly who is in your instance.

The difference is you have to check. Its part of being aware and alert. It wont bother me much in practice, I'll just stay away from it, but it seems iffy to replace cognitive effort by automated plug-ins. Just my opinion of course, and props to the OP for the effort and sharing.

 

[Faybs]

Nice. This is how you get people back in open!

 

[Gunnet]

Very nice. That's a good concept and good work.

As important as it is for traders etc to see dangerous CMDRs in their instance, I'm particularly interested to see how its use as a bounty hunting/law enforcement tool will develop. People have long been lamenting the lack of tools to really hunt criminal players, and with enough participation this could be a game changer in that regard.

 

[Bomba Luigi]

The difference is you have to check. Its part of being aware and alert. It wont bother me much in practice, I'll just stay away from it, but it seems iffy to replace cognitive effort by automated plug-ins. Just my opinion of course, and props to the OP for the effort and sharing.

I mean I do check the history tab and it takes like a second or two, hardly a big deal. And as pretty much all third party tools its a QoL feature, more quick and convienient access to information is what those tools are all about.

 

[Faybs]

Huh? WoW, ESO, LOTR and such give warning messages based on the proximity of crowd-sourced enemy lists?

Other MMOS have game mechanics to prevent the problem - strong NPC guards, game admins playing god tier NPCs, and so on. In ED if i want to be a nuisance to other players, there's very little the game itself can do to stop me.

The difference is you have to check. Its part of being aware and alert. It wont bother me much in practice, I'll just stay away from it, but it seems iffy to replace cognitive effort by automated plug-ins. Just my opinion of course, and props to the OP for the effort and sharing.

Exactly. This is a proximity warning for a'holes

 

[Arguendo]

...I'm particularly interested to see how its use as a bounty hunting/law enforcement tool will develop. People have long been lamenting the lack of tools to really hunt criminal players, and with enough participation this could be a game changer in that regard.

Real time tracking isn't possible unless every single cmdr in the game has a tracker, but it will atleast be better than what is in the game now; find a system where your target is among the five most wanted, then maybe you have a chance

 

[Ian Skippy]

I mean I do check the history tab and it takes like a second or two, hardly a big deal. And as pretty much all third party tools its a QoL feature, more quick and convienient access to information is what those tools are all about.

The challenge isn't looking at the tab, but reminding to look at the tab. If people did the simple things we wouldn't be having these constant "OMG griefers!" topics here. All we need now is an app that triggers some VA commands when a warning is given to automatically select a system and high-wake when a griefer shows up. Add apps to find trade routes and a docking computer for automated landings and one has to wonder why there is even a cmdr in the cockpit in the first place!

 

[Gunnet]

The challenge isn't looking at the tab, but reminding to look at the tab. If people did the simple things we wouldn't be having these constant "OMG griefers!" topics here. All we need now is an app that triggers some VA commands when a warning is given to automatically select a system and high-wake when a griefer shows up. Add apps to find trade routes and a docking computer for automated landings and one has to wonder why there is even a cmdr in the cockpit in the first place!

Nobody has to use any tools they don't want to though. If somebody wanted to make their ED experience as automated as possible, it wouldn't affect me or you. Just like how some people refuse to use any external tools or references. It's one place where the "play your way" thing is in full effect.