Please integrate the functionality provided by several plugins that have existed and are used heavily for 10 years or more.. as follows:

Sharing of playerseen data between players.

includes:
Options menu additions to enable/disable and who to share with.
HUD box for display of the information.

purpose:
This will put control of this data sharing in the hands of developers and allow it to be written in more efficient code. It would allow developers to control how the information is used instead of it being shipped out over the net by a plugin.

this is a functionality that is long ingrained in VO and is widely used in plugins, though the implementation is pretty much the same in all the plugins that do it. This is one of those plugin types that has surely already earned a place of permanence in the game as have others that I have suggested also. I believe it is long past due to implement this in game code and remove the need for plugins to provide this service. It will also reduce the amount of bandwidth an connections being used by the clients in general.

+0.5. While I like the idea I don't get why we need it integrated into the game. Isn't the current plugin-based system OK?

The current plugin system is certainly OK and it has been for 10 years or more. However some statements made on a similar suggestion presented concerns about how it is being used. Integration of the functionality would give devs a whole new set of tools to control visibility of players based on any number of factors. It would also allow for the removal of that functionality from the plugin interface.. which would secure greater control of the data. This also works toward the ability to close outside communication through the plugin system, which is a window for all sorts of application the devs don't prefer (cheating, automation,etc..)

CONS of using plugins for this:
1. extra open port and potential security issue for players.
2. insecure data being transmitted across the web about players in VO and when they are online
3. promotes "spotter bots" and other tactics that the devs do not prefer
4. does not allow devs to control whether a brand new player can be seen or under what circumstances the data can be broadcast (possible greifing window)
5. does not allow players to individually manage who they share data with (plugins are generally guild oriented and the data shared out according to the will of the guild leader or server operator)
6. poor execution speed reduces game performance and increases bandwidth usage (integration would create a centralized place for data flow and allow for the code to be written in a language that is much more efficient)
7. Players who don't understand LUA can be dupped into relaying location data when using a plugin that should be unrelated.

I actually like the plugin system as it gives more flexibility to the players. But I see your point. The potential for misuse is much higher when unsupervised by the Devs. +1

There's already a system in place for reporting other pilots' locations. This is the existing chat system that other players already use. Anything else only reinforces the practice of spotter bots and would give a stamp of approval from the dev's on the behavior.

-1

We aren't talking about spotter bots at all. The players relaying info aren't bots. If I see a potentially hostile player on and want to notify my guild members, this just automates it for me. That doesn't make me a spotter bot.

We aren't talking about spotter bots at all. The players relaying info aren't bots. If I see a potentially hostile player on and want to notify my guild members, this just automates it for me. That doesn't make me a spotter bot.

So, does it also make you "not a bot" if you have software capable of AFK botting or trading, and happen to be sitting at the keyboard?

The problem is the scalability issues inherent with automation (as in the AFK botting or trading above), and (in this particular case) the massive intelligence-gathering awareness that comes with that.

I don't know any such software. You probably know more about that, and I can't question you on that topic. So yes, if it is possible for someone to actually create a software that can automatically fly a ship around the galaxy reporting spots, it is misused.

But this potential for misuse already exists with the plugins. The suggestion is supposed to give the Dev's more control over the spotting. That's what I inferred from it.

The suggestion is supposed to give the Dev's more control over the spotting.

We already have complete control over the game client, the Suggestion here doesn't change anything in that regard. The meaningful question here is whether we think the resulting "feature" is beneficial to the game or not.

my thread was just incorporating it into capships. I'd be happy if it only worked in deneb and grey. We could start there. It be nice to see an enemy spotted my dent before coming back in a rag.

But, this is a +1 as well. It would be nice to have this built into groups and guilds as long as we can toggle it.

thank you for responding Incarnate.

The suggestion was just based on the fact that the functionality is widely used but it is also hard to control without turning it off in the plugin system. I realize it's not necessarily something you are interested in but I do thank you for giving it a moments thought. My thinking was that it could play well into other aspects of your continued improvements to the game. Sometimes more controls help you steer better, sometimes they are just a bigger burden.

"Anything else only reinforces the practice of spotter bots"

Well said, i completely agree -1

Don't forget the good ole typing "I saw (insert name) in (Insert location)" Takes like 15 seconds and hopefully you are not pvping the person you saw.

The suggestion was just based on the fact that the functionality is widely used but it is also hard to control without turning it off in the plugin system.

The recent (somewhat related) discussion around Capships acting as sensor relays featured people digging up a lot of prior quotes from me, including:

"So, spotter bots are well-known, they are not a new problem. We've made some recent changes to make them less effective, and we'll be continuing to make more changes until they cease to exist."

"Spotter bots are undesirable and are being eliminated from the game"

"Spotter bots are not intended gameplay.. at all. They've been ignored up to a point, but they've been getting out of hand for awhile."

People sometimes believe that, because we've been busy on server development, or localization technology, that must mean that other things I've referenced previously must be "forgotten" or no longer a priority. But that's not how development works. We tend to hit large areas of development in "batches" that are related, in terms of the codebase, because it's an efficient use limited resources. And we are quite resource-limited, so things can sometimes take awhile, but that doesn't mean they've been forgotten, or abandoned.

So, to clarify, my viewpoint has not changed from the above quotes.