what Lua things is everyone creating?

Discussion in 'Lua Discussions' started by Feldon Grimshaw, Nov 11, 2019.

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  1. Feldon Grimshaw

    Feldon Grimshaw Avatar

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    I thought i'd start a thread where we can post little snippets of what we're working on. Here's a short twitch video i made showing off the beginnings of a "total kills" meter.

    https://www.twitch.tv/videos/507060029
     
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  2. Drake Aedus

    Drake Aedus Avatar

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    I approve of your progress bar!

    :D
     
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  3. Tiina Onir

    Tiina Onir Avatar

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    very cool
     
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  4. Lazarus Long

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    Nice stuff.. but last i looked streaming the QA is not allowed.
     
  5. Girlsname

    Girlsname Avatar

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    Pretty sure Chris has said on a stream that streaming QA is allowed.
     
  6. Alley Oop

    Alley Oop Bug Hunter Bug Moderator

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  7. Chris

    Chris Tech Lord Moderator Ambassador SOTA Developer

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    You can stream QA now. Atos approves!
     
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  8. Brass Knuckles

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    I’ve still no idea how any of this helps me personally I def don’t understand the hype. I think you must have to be a programmer to really understand this huh?

    I guess people will be able to write mods because of this though and create a soft form of a bot, will there be a place in the fours where people can drop these and is there any chance they could put nasty things like pass word loggers etc?

    I’m assuming that anything avail won’t constitute a violation of some portal adon program violation?
     
  9. Tiina Onir

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    It gives people a way to make alterations to the UI. Some of us will use that ability to release things publicly, which you can use as well. Generic keyloggers are unlikely and Chris is not going to give us access to your password.

    If you're neither a programmer, nor willing to trust any of the mod authors, you will personally gain nothing.
     
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  10. Beaumaris

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    Its a great question by Dark Tidings.

    Even if we do trust mod authors, I really wonder about the game play value of it given all of SOTAs other needs.

    Stuff like a 'total kills meter' might be great for statisticians. But it isn't making SOTA a better game. Its just giving me more data about the game I am already playing.
     
  11. Tiina Onir

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    Only time will tell about the value.

    In theory, giving US access to expose the information we want means the paid development staff don't have to worry about these less-critical UI issues, instead letting the community handle it. That frees more of their time from one of the most time-consuming and lowest productivity topics, to work on other aspects of the game. It also lets them know what the most popular things people are using. That means they can SEE what's super-important to get into the main game code, and what is just a vocal minority of us (which can be serviced by the mods anyway), again allowing them to allocate their developer time better.
     
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2019
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  12. Vladamir Begemot

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    @Aventine The UI is a huge portion of any game. Just take a great game and slap an old UI on it and see how well it holds up.

    Heck, take any of the great games I play and look through the Steam workshop. Those mods often take a great experience and make it classic, or turn a painful one into a joy.

    This is a huge force multiplier if done correctly.
     
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  13. Steevodeevo

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    I think all sides are right here. But what I think is important is not to mix quality of life and cosmetics with content.

    QOL is critical to a good game and a slick interface can go a long way to delivering that. An artistically cool interface is just a pleasure to work in.

    Lua enhancements and interface design is not gaming content, @Chris and his Devs have to continue to deliver that and that is what is potemtily cool about all this and why I guess tbe Devs are relaxed about it; they continue to enhance precious gaming content with their limited resources whilst handing off some of the distracting workload on cosmetics and interface to a talented community who have griped about interface for years.

    Individual players can tben decide for themselves whether these reports and GUI mods are suitable or indeed needed to enhance their gameplay enjoyment.
     
  14. Beaumaris

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    @Steevodeevo - All of that is logical enough. But the proof is in the pudding. Read the Release 72 update text to judge content.

    I'm just observing that SOTA's user interface' is 'ok as is.'. Maybe it does not generate kill statistics for every nth detail a handful of people want to measure. Maybe it doesnt tell a power leveler which people have the weakest DPS to boot out of their group. Maybe it doesnt put the top PVP list on screen. But it does do a lot of things right that enable a player to experience the SOTA game world well enough.

    And here's the thing: Until very recently, lack of Lua was not a top issue being expressed by a majority of SOTA players.

    But now observe that a majority of development posts this month were on Lua, not Inky that might be useful, not on polishing old scenes that need polish, not on fixing a broken skill or two, not Episode 2 that many folks here paid for. But something that even pros here admit that the value remains to be seen on. *shrug*

    All I gotta say is that if we are losing a few months of Chris' time to Lua, the community darned well better make some good stuff out of it. So if you are reading this, get to work!
     
  15. Drilikath

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    I do not think you understand what LUA is going to do. Why/How it can be used, and how much better we can all help make this game.
     
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  16. Vladamir Begemot

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    I disagree. The UI isn't even at the "Ok" level. It barely communicates with the player and is holding back raids.

    What buffs do I have active? What DOTs are on the Mob? Maybe an ant with a magnifying glass could tell me, the UI certainly doesn't.

    The skill bar has to be looked at all of the time if you're using an unlocked deck, but the can't be broken apart so just the unlocked parts are taking up center screen.

    No idea what's going on with damage numbers, it's like number popcorn.

    What loot did I get this time? Nobody knows. Or at least I never do.

    And don't even get me started on the crafting UI. Or the quest UI.

    All stuff we've been complaining, posting new designs for, ranting about for years now. So Lua is the possible fix to something we've been ranting about for years. Literally. I posted mock ups in 2017 for the character dialog UI. Lua is hopefully the end of the multi-year wait.
     
  17. scroda

    scroda Empyrean Enforcer

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    working on floating combat text unless I get bored
     
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  18. Daxxe Diggler

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    While I agree with you that "fix the broken stuff first before introducing new broken stuff" is usually the best policy to follow... I think @Vladamir Begemot has the right of it.

    Yes, the current UI is "functional" and barely gets the job done. And, players are talking about making fancy stat counters and such that many players may not want... but the basic features a UI should have are lacking in SOTA and have been since the beginning. This will fix some of the earliest recorded complaints about the game!

    The inept UI that we have (inability to move UI elements on-screen, unorganized quest journal, critical stat information missing, etc.) is a big reason in why a lot of people left to play other games. The reason you haven't heard much complaint about it until recently is due to those people already moving on to other games.

    LUA will take a few months for @Chris to introduce to the game, but once that is done, the community will be able to create adaptations that are both visually pleasing and much more functional than what we have now. And the best part about it is that Chris won't have to spend precious time fixing all these broken UI aspects that make people leave. In fact, with LUA integrated, everyone will be able to customize everything to their own liking and SOTA will be attractive to a much wider player base since the UI won't be a factor to so many people.

    Again, I agree that priority should be given to many of the things you listed as important... but think of this as an investment for the long run. LUA will allow players to not only "fix" the UI but make it extremely powerful. This will bring in more players and reduce the Dev time that would be later devoted to all this.
     
  19. Sulaene Moon

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    @Daxxe Diggler hit the nail on the head!!
    The first thing I will download and ensure its working properly will be any LUA that enhances the current UI. I won't add anything else until I know there is a decent one someone has made & tested.

    The people who started with me and tried the game since I joined have left and the UI/Journal was one of their biggest issues. While I worked through it, for many others it was a turn-off. If only the devs would have fixed it on their own long ago, I bet this game would be much more populated then it is now.
     
    Last edited: Nov 14, 2019
  20. Vladamir Begemot

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    The ONLY problem I have with this method is "What about the new players?" They are still staring at the junk UI, unless they are like me and download mods before they ever start the game up. I don't think most people are like that. So unless the best generic version is integrated into the base game then we still have a problem, Houston.
     
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