A free tool has risen

[magnet]

Originally Posted by aric_swartzell

What is NGD's stance on 3rd party software? I know most games don't allow 3rd party programs of any kind being used.

NGD should have built those features in the client long time ago. Now that people do that for them, it would be a shame if they did anything against it. Especially when Eli and others discussed about the application earlier in forum posts (at the time it was a map helper, before NGD introduced the in-game map).

[Miraculix]

Screenshoting and OCR is about the only thing that's possible besides packet sniffing and reverse engineering them. It's very resource heavy, but it could get the job done.

Problems:
Need to have Alt+I window open?
What if the mouse cursor happens to be on top of mana/hp bars?
OCR isnt perfect even under noise-free conditions
Again, it's REALLY heavy (by description, havent tested it) on the machine. Screenshots are a REALLY slow action, OCR is cpu heavy, and finally there's added bandwidth usage on top. The game itself is hogging up all the CPU already, and gets lag spikes with just the tiniest traffic from other programs. I really don't know how this could work unless someone had an uber-pc with an uber-connection...

PS: if this is not some kind of prank, my congratulations to the author, this is an awesome tool (if it works), thanks a lot for the time you devoted

[CumeriTarenes]

Originally Posted by Hellman2

Try it, test it, gimme feedback.

it was not: read it, gimme feedback.

Before you start discussing you should test it, and I give my word that you can download it without getting a virus. The source is very serious, the developers are my clanmates and I myself used the tool already. It works very well.

At the very beginning I had some problems to set up it right, because I didn't know that it works with screenshoots. But with the given info and the help in the tool itself it it no problem to set it up.

[Miraculix]

Is it too much to ask to get the source then?

[Hellman2]

@Miraculix:
The Text recognition was not that easy. Thanks to Eli we got the OCR working quiet performant after a while. And we grap only needed parts of the screen. If something is overlapping the needed areas, this may lead to false information in some way.
The Window via ALT+i is needed (sorry for that, but that was the only way)
And my PC is not the best... P4 with 2,8GHz is more or less outdated. But for me its working. Some slower systems, especially Notebook systems, may have bigger problems with it, even if the graphics card needs lots of CPU resources as well.
But you can run it in a view mode (without the screen grabbing) with one mouseclick.

@aric_swartzell:
I dont know whats NGDs opinion on the tool. But its not manipulating any code of them. They havent said anything about using Teamspeak/Mumble or something else. So why should they complain about it. Maybe they find some options of the tool fine enought to take it over in the game itself.

@magnet:
If you want to use the map yourself, you need a windowed mode. Overlay would be nice to have, but thats again system dependend i think. But if someone has some ideas for it, i would like to hear them.
But first we need some tests with more users and the information if the tool may be used at all, or if its big bullshit.

@all:
I will provide the source in the webspace as well. Its a Netbeans 6.0 Project.
My only wish is, that if anyone do changes on the code, you provide me with the changes, to take them maybe over. But beware... the code is not that much commented as i wished it to be.
I think in a few hours, after i finished working i will upload it.
If someone likes to develop it further (s)he should sent me a PM and i will possible give out suberversion contact data.

[Hellman2]

I just found some problems... that only occures if the system starts the first time (without any config file existend). Sorry for those who tried it yet on the V31.

The V32 Version is just released and i placed the sources there as well.

[magnet]

I tested V32 (V31 did not work here) and it works fine. My suggestions: automatically change maps to the proper one (ie, select map for wherever you are), tracking your own character should be default/clearer, the toggle buttons aren't very clear in the map...

Target capturing doesn't work that good (I only tested on mobs): I only got one mob right.

Other than that it's pretty fine ... but can't you screenshot only Regnum instead of the whole screen? I mean sometimes I move the window and the calibration goes straight to waste.

Even on windowed mode, the app takes too much place, there should be a light mode only with the map, no tabs, window decoration. (when you double click on the map for instance) and shortcuts for "Im attacked/stuff like that". Maybe capturing the log could take care of it . And the panel with hps/mana should be detachable and sorted by distance to your own char and life requirement. Friendly dead players should appear with a skull on the map.

Other ideas include putting strategies in the app a bit like in a RTS game (like arrows for charge, retreat, etc).

Congratulations on the very good stuff seen so far. With a few tweaks and more people using it will be great. I had a similar idea but I wanted to do it through packet sniffing which gives more information on what's happening ingame without needing configuration -- however it implies reverse engineering the protocol and it's way too ugly for me.

I look forward to using it, I hope those tweaks I talked of can make it into the app soon to make it usable.

Thanks for the hard work

[magnet]

Originally Posted by Katiechan

Be careful with this... NGD has made no official stance yet but these tools could be considered cheats.
It doesn't matter what they do, it's beyond the intended capabilities of the game.

Using something like this, as innocent as it seems, would get you banned on every other MMO.

Katie awaits the arguments

Not at all, some MMOs accept 3rd party programs (on an individual basis). With UoAssist and UOMAP (two "OSI/EA" approved programs) you can do exactly the same since 1998 on Ultima Online. UOA is a personal helper which sniffs the connection, and it accepts plugins (a lot of them exist) including UOMap which gets position/health etc from UOA.

Both are commercial though. (UOMAP is a "true" shareware, no time limit; UOA has a free key for 15days then must be bought).

NGD has no way to check it anyway: would you have preferred Hellman to keep the tool private and be safe from any risk, but have an advantage (which I would have considered fair since he went through the trouble of coding it), or give it to the community?

I know it's not about what we think -- but hopefully NGD will think likewise, that is, if they have any common sense, which I think they do! .

[CumeriTarenes]

Originally Posted by Katiechan

Be careful with this... NGD has made no official stance yet but these tools could be considered cheats.
It doesn't matter what they do, it's beyond the intended capabilities of the game.

Using something like this, as innocent as it seems, would get you banned on every other MMO.

Katie awaits the arguments

what about voice chat? What about instant messengers to call your buddies to resurrect you?

What about people who have accounts in different realms? In the terms of use it is not forbidden to use an application like this, but it is forbidden to have more than 1 account. Does NGD do anything about it? No.

[magnet]

By the way I take the opportunity to ask again to NGD to offer a small shared library in C (because it's easy for them to export, and easy for us to bind in different languages) which exports the things they ACCEPT to share (so that we're clear that we can make third party apps which take advantage of that info).

I think it should be a small .so along with an header file which contains functions:

- A function to get the position (struct position { int posX; int posY }; ).
- A function that gives the angle the char is looking towards
- A callback when the char moves
- A function to know whether you're in attacking or "peace" stance
- A function which returns a struct with life, mana, hp_max, mana_max
- A function which returns whether you're dead or alive
- Callbacks for life loss, gain, mana loss, mana gain...
- A struct for targeted object:

struct mob {
   const char* name;
   const position* pos;
   const int difficulty; /* 0: unranked, 1 unchallenging, 2 very easy, 3 easy, 4 normal, 5 challenging, 6 hard, 7 very hard, 8 impossible */
   const int type; /* 0: creature; 1 syrtis, 2 alsius, 3 ignis, 4 developer :P */
   const int life_percent; /* 0 - 100 */
  
};

- A function to return a pointer to the current target.
- A function to return a pointer to your own char's mob struct (to get realm, etc)
- A function to get user count (equivalent /users)
- Functions to get the current fps or ping value

OK now all these functions only "poll" information from the game, and all these infos can be gotten through screenshoting.

Now: WOULD BE BETTER:
- a fonction to cast spells (along with a spell table)
- callbacks to know what spells are casted by and on you.
- changing attack/peace stance
- items management
- info for mobs even untargeted...

I already said it many months ago but I say it again: Let the community make the game better! Even WoW does this (public interfaces in lua, there are a lot of GUI mods for WoW).

I hope there will be some answers to this thread (and this post too).