Question regarding available info

[hashashin]

Is there a way to get the names of users w/plugins currently connected to the lackey server without logging in?

[Trevor]

No

[hashashin]

Are the names and plugins being stored in a db of some sort once they login?  I would assume so.  If you're interested, I could try to write a webapp that would allow communities to see if users are online, and with which plugin.

[Trevor]

I don't think that would be ideal. I think there are plugins that can be hard to find games for. I think a possible solution would be some sort of network people could subscribe to and communicate.

For example, if you played star wars, everyone who wanted in could subscribe to something like twitter. One person could tweet something like "Looking for a game of star wars" and everyone who was on the list would be instantly sent the broadcast on a variety of devices.

Ideally, there would be enough people that played all the plugins so people could find a game whenever they wanted, but less popular plugins can't seem to do that now.

I'm not sure a web app broadcasting the current player list would help. I mean, there isn't much difference between that and staying logged in with lackey.

I think it would be cool if existing networks could be used. Maybe a Facebook group, or twitter, or something else. I'm open to ideas.

[hashashin]

A twitter feed would be great.  I am one of the players of the less popular games (Shadowfist) and I'm really trying to come up with ways to get people more involved.   

I still like the idea of having a webapp that would pull and show all active online users.  I know if I saw someone logged in with the shadowfist plugin, I would immediately log on. This is the same mindset behind a lot of the new video games.  you see your friends are logged in, so you jump on as  well.  If I could figure out a way to pull online users, I could also make an auto tweet feature that tweeted the number of players online filtered by plugin. 

Right now, I'm trying to think of a way to hack something together that just pulls the info from the plugin window.  This, of course, is pretty half ass and will require me to keep a client running at all times to get the necessary info.

[hashashin]

Actually, I guess I can't do that either, as it seems I can't pull the winclass name or handle from Lackey...  That would have been too easy... 

[Trevor]

A problem with the list of people online is you don't know if someone playing a different plugin online also plays your plugin. So it seems like a twitter feed sort of thing would be better. If you are looking for games, you can tweet about it and you know that people who have also subscribed are willing to play your game even if they more typically are playing a different game.

I don't use twitter myself, or anything like it, so I can't say what is the best thing to use. Maybe a Facebook group or something.

[hashashin]

Ideally, I would pull the plugin, as well as the username, showing a list of usernames with plugins currently being used.   I'm using spy++ right now seeing if I can pull the info from one of your controls     No luck so far.

[hashashin]

For whatever reason I can't pull out the handle for that text box or whatever that has the username and plugin info.  Is it a listbox or a textbox? Would you be willing to give me the handle of that box for purposes of pulling the usernames out? 

[Trevor]

For whatever reason I can't pull out the handle for that text box or whatever that has the username and plugin info.  Is it a listbox or a textbox? Would you be willing to give me the handle of that box for purposes of pulling the usernames out?

I don't think you'd be able to pull the information from the objects. I could make some sort of output to a file, which in turn could be read by you. That would be fairly easy to implement on my end.
But I am not sure if it would be a good idea. People might not want their information posted online like that. Could you perhaps email me a sketch of what you would imagine things would look like?

[hashashin]

Certainly!

This is just a mock up, and the colors/fonts could be changed.

If the plugin can be sent to a text or csv or whatever, I can sort the info by plugin, and create some web app/widget to allow users to see more info by pressing the "+" button next to each plugin type.   I would just write an app looks at the output file every ten minutes or so and sends the info to my FTP so I could host the info.  I would then allow users to use my code to use the same widget on their website or whatever.   I could maybe even turn it into a free android app.  I could also do things like auto tweet every ten minutes the number of users currently online for each plugin.

[Gordon228]

i can see this being really useful not just for finding players but also to see if the server is online as there should always be the host and if he is not on then you know the server is off line.

[Trevor]

Certainly!

This is just a mock up, and the colors/fonts could be changed.

If the plugin can be sent to a text or csv or whatever, I can sort the info by plugin, and create some web app/widget to allow users to see more info by pressing the "+" button next to each plugin type.   I would just write an app looks at the output file every ten minutes or so and sends the info to my FTP so I could host the info.  I would then allow users to use my code to use the same widget on their website or whatever.   I could maybe even turn it into a free android app.  I could also do things like auto tweet every ten minutes the number of users currently online for each plugin.

That seems useful, especially for people that have difficulties finding opponents.

I could log, for each player:
Name
Plugin (currently Loaded)
AIM name
Facebook name
google+
yahoo IM name
MSN messenger name
Email
Player note (where a player can write a short comment)

All that data would be optional, and I think I will have an option to have a person not be added to the log. And I think it would be relatively easy, if people include their IM info, to use the app to instantly send an IM. Is that all the popular IM networks?

That sound good to you?

Want to IM me so we can talk about details?

[hashashin]

That sounds awesome.  I will shoot you an IM at some point tonight.  Working on another project ATM. ....and playing shadowfist on Lackey

[jorch72]

Wow!! this would be great!!
I'd love it if it would be an Android App!!! I always have my phone on!

I could log, for each player:
Name
Plugin (currently Loaded)
AIM name
Facebook name
google+
yahoo IM name
MSN messenger name
Email

Is that all the popular IM networks?

How about twitter?
I find myself using it more and more...