LUA and Inky

Discussion in 'Lua Discussions' started by Proteus Tempest, Nov 1, 2019.

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  1. Proteus Tempest

    Proteus Tempest Avatar

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    I read that Lua and Inky would be added to sota.

    For what reason is this happening?

    What will we be able to use these things for?
     
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  2. Violet Ronso

    Violet Ronso Avatar

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    I don't know much about these two, so I wont go past what I've heard, and let other get more technical, but :

    LUA : will allow people to make UIs and stuff, I imagine it will allow people to make us some nice warnings when we can proc special skills, like after a parry for riposte or when our buffs are about to wear out.

    Inky : great system to allow people to make quests, NPC conversations and stuff. This will be great to make player made quests and have a town crier that can have a whole conversation.

    This is as far as I can go with these, I dont know more.
     
  3. Mishikal

    Mishikal Avatar

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    LUA is a programming language. It's used with many games to allow MODs (modules) that let you interact with the game in various ways via a published API (application programming interface). What can be done with LUA depends entirely on what the developers allow. An example of a game that allows you to make numerous and significant modifications to the game with LUA would be World Of Warcraft. You can replace the entire default UI, the entire crafting UI, etc. WoW also has an event system that addons can key off of, so that when a given event occurs the MODs do various things based on what the author wants.

    Depending on what SOTA allows, one could for example replace the default Questing journal with an entirely different one (there are dozens of quest journal replacement MODs for WoW, for example). Perhaps a different way to represent the utility bar or the combat bars, etc. Damage meters are another popular type of addon that might be useful. Hopefully things like sotastats could be moved entirely in-game rather than being an external program you run.
     
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  4. Morgana Pendragon

    Morgana Pendragon Avatar

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    I bet you will not be allowed to modify/replace the UI of the Character Creation/"New You" shop in 2020. :p
     
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  5. Ravalox

    Ravalox Chief Cook and Bottle Washer Moderator SOTA Developer

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    As has been said already above, LUA is a scripting language that is used by many games to allow players to change their experience to better suit their tastes (without affecting any of the mechanics of the game) Elder Scrolls Online (ESO), World Of Warcraft and others use LUA to allow these types of changes.

    When the LUA implementation phase2/3 are put in place, then the UI for "New You" may be allowed to be changed, because it would be only the UI (User Interface) that you would be impacting; not the available styles or other options. And anything changed would only display on your screen, not other players. (of course other players would/could install the addons you create if you share them).

    Inky is a really exciting addition; opens the door for many possibilities beyond what Chris outlines below.

    Here's what Chris wrote on LUA and Inky:


    Original Thread: Update From Atos!

    Hope this helps
     
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  6. Proteus Tempest

    Proteus Tempest Avatar

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    Thanks Rav!
     
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  7. Steevodeevo

    Steevodeevo Avatar

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    Whilst I am excited by the various innovations to enable player made content, it is interesting that Cryptic are going the other direction with their player made Quest hub (Foundry) for STO and Neverwinter and are actually closing it down.

    Their justification (see link) is based in loss of expertise and the amount of resource to maintain this system. This worries me slightly as there is probably less resources available for Shroud than Cryptic has.

    Reading between the lines it appears that a lot of the demands in maintaining Foundry are related to the interface, which was designed to provide a rating system and QC for the standards of player content. I expect a ratings system is key to the success of player content as you don't want to waste time finding out whether a quest is incomplete, broken or just poor quality by having to play them first.

    Maybe there is more to it than Cryptic are stating. For example, why not use a Lua module (being topical) to enable a player run rating system or simply hand it back to players and allow a website to be created to rate content? The problem with this of course is QC. It means their game may have player made content that is sub standard as far as the Devs are concerned which reflects on their product.

    In my view Sota Devs are opening a can of worms here. And again, I hope this doesn't create too big of a distraction or resource drain from creation of core content and quests developed to high standards by professional development.

    https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/11102923-foundry-sunset-april-11,-2019
     
  8. Sulaene Moon

    Sulaene Moon Avatar

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    This is long over due and a great tool. The only issue I see is that this doesn't fix the fact that new players trying the game will still see the old boring UI. It's not until someone tells them that there are other options in downloading addons. With other games like WoW and Neverwinter their UI was still clean and fine without needing addons, where SotA is ugly from the start without addons. So using LUA and Inky are just bandaids without fixing or at the least trying to improve the basic game's UI that new players will see when starting off.

    It also tells me that Episode 2 will have the same stuff as episode 1 unless I download an addon and use someone else's creation. So while Ep2 was advertised having new systems, it seems it will only have it if I go out and load someone else's work. Only time will tell if it attracts new players and gains much needed attention.
     
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  9. Astirian

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    My hope is that they'll incorporate the best or most popular UI and dialogue box mods into the base game.
     
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  10. Anpu

    Anpu Avatar

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    I’m very excited about this! Because a player who basically has endless amounts of time to work on a new interface will always be something a dev person cannot do. It takes a lot of time. I’m expecting some really great new interfaces in the game and NPC dialogue!
     
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  11. Violet Ronso

    Violet Ronso Avatar

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    Chris did mention that great Player Created Quests in Inky could be made as official Quests with rewards and everything, so why not UI features? When they find out 90% of the population uses a specific UI, they might simply make it the official one right? Thats what I duspect at least!
     
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  12. Sulaene Moon

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    I hope you're right, we will see.
     
  13. Mishikal

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    Well, one thing to keep in mind is that as the modules are developed by another person, they are subject to the license that the author provides for that module. Depending on the licensing, it could be problematic for SOTA to incorporate such a module into the game natively, as the license may require that SOTA open source their code for it to be included, or pay them royalty fees, etc. I tend to prefer as permissive a license as possible (MIT or BSD, etc).
     
  14. oplek

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    Way back in the day when I played WoW, there was a mod called "Quest Helper", which I loved. Presumably that was done in LUA, including adding markers to the minimap. If we could also include camera controls, there's a lot of potential.
     
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  15. Mishikal

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    Yep! Questie does the same thing right now for WoW Classic. I'd love to see an addon like TomTom for WoW inside of SOTA as well.
     
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  16. Astirian

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    Yeah I'm keen to see if we'll have access to camera stuff but I don't know how powerful it will be. Imagine getting a snap of the npc and using it as a portrait etc... I'm also curious to see if we get access to different fonts as well. Or access to settings even, like the ability to set nameplates to large etc...
     
  17. Paladin Michael

    Paladin Michael Bug Hunter

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    I'm curious how to set flags to track quest steps ...
     
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  18. Helverian

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    Is there an official or inofficial Lua or Ink(y) chat / forum out there?

    The potential of both are amazing.
     
  19. Toular

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  20. Joe Zhudarak

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    Who will make better UI players or the devs ?
     
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