Strategus Enhancer

[GuiKa]

Strategus Enhancer

Web site : http://strategusenhancer.net/ (omg i bought a new domain !)
Script : http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/150956 (Don't forget to update it)


Sorry for the old account , there were not enough data to justify a mirgration. Just recreate one .


I. What is it ?

Based on : Kinn post

  This is the combination of a web site, a web service, a windows service and a script to add new experiences to strategus. This include share of line of sight for members of the same faction with a simple and powerful role system to protect your data. Additionally there is contracts which are basically some sort of quest between factions/players, these contract will impact of your renow/infamy on the web site.

Site home page:

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Script:

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Solo/Faction section:

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From to create contracts:

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List of contracts:

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II. Factions and Solo profiles

  On my system every user can have one faction, one solo profile or even both. A profile is what link you to the different features of strategus enhancer, this is where the LOS and contracts will be stored.

  A solo profile can be disabled by entering a faction which doesn't allow player to have it, a disabled profile will be unable to apply for contract and therefore do anything on the system.

  A faction is like a solo profile but with multiple user in it, the right to act in behalf of the faction or alter it is managed by roles. A role is assigned to a user which will determine what he can do :

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  These two object also hold the infamy and the renow, visible by everyone.



III. Contracts

  This is probably the main dishes: a quest system for strategus. This will, if it works properly (lol) allow solo player as well as faction to enjoy strategus en make goods on it.

  Contracts have a life cycle :

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  Each contract will go from state to state depending on the contractor or mercenary actions, here is the "normal" course of action :

-Pending: Contract just created, no one can see the private property of the contract. No one can see who created it. The contract is added to the list in the Tavern.
-Accepted: The contractor accepted one of the mercenary who applied for it, the timer for the deadline will now start. The mercenary now can see all property of the contract.
-Fulfilled: The mercenary has fulfilled the contract, or at least claimed to have. The contractor now has to confirm it.
-Confirmed: The contractor has confirmed that the mercenary has fulfilled the contract. He now has to pay the man.
-Paid: The contractor had claimed to have paid the mercenary. The merc now has to confirm that.
-Closed: The mercenary has confirmed that the contractor has paid him. The contract is now visible by everyone.

  Each time you have have an action to make you will have a deadline of 24 hours for it. If you fail to make the action in time you will get infamy.
  All actions are made from the Contracts page of your Faction/Solo tab and will send a notification to the contractor or mercenary.

  In case of deny both the mercenary and contractor will get infamy, the may seams unfair but it is necessary and realistic. Chose your mercs wisely.

  There is three types of contracts:

-Basic: This is the most basic contract, it has a public and a private description.

-Scouting: This is a contract with a position that the merc will have scout. The fulfillment is done by pressing the "start" button to upload you data while being near the position.

-Trading: This is a contract with two town/castle or village in addition to the private and public description. The fulfillment is manual like for basic contract, the two locations are here to clarify the therms.



IV. Finaly

  There will be bugs as i just deployed the solution, don't panic if you see an exception page this is just because I've activated the details error for everyone. If you encounter one just post the exception message (the sentence in red at the top of the page) and say what you were trying to do.


I've uploaded the visual studio 2012 solution on mediafire like always : http://www.mediafire.com/?tn1rrm4mur62twy

You may notice i added a Windows Service project, this is for periodic tasks.


For the great debate :

Who have access to the Database ?

Awnser: Me and only me. You can read the first 3 pages of this thread and decide if you want to trust me or not. But please don't whine about it this could never work without a remote server.



Regards,

GuiKa.

[Kelugarn]

Would be great if this was already a normal feature, but as a user-script the legality is in a very grey area. Plus it seems too easy for someone to exploit the user-script...

[Butan]

Wow, just wow.

I asked Kinngrimm for your other works and I hope he communicated my respect to you, if not, you have it.

I wanted to have a go at your previous version multiple times but was a bit lazy... this userscript will be quite handy.

Please continue your work! We desesperately need it.



Edit: spotted no bug atm but need more documentation on

- whats happening when you click on "upload" or "download" (I know upload must mean you send what you see, and download you receive but precisely?)
- the roles related powers from 0 to 5 (SeeLOS    SendLOS    ManageFaction ) needs to be shown somewhere (unlike in current strat where "ranks" had no meaning until people understood there was rank for seeing faction members (rank 1 and above), rank for modifying roster (rank 5 and above) and rank for modifying clan data (rank 10))
it is shown but only when you "create role" I suggest putting the infos on each role somewhere when you just look at the list of faction's roles.


Also maybe add a "home" button when you are in the "documentation" part 



P.S.: I will brainstorm/debug a lot for you if you let me ! I want this baby to grow and I hope you are motivated ! 

[Erasmas]

Hm.....

I would like to know where the data are uploaded to, who has access to them, and who has administrator rights here.

I am not overly paranoid, but i really wouln't like Kinngrimm to read all messages that "higher ranking members can send to lower ranking members of a faction", or see what happens in Balanli where I am atm, etc .... No offence Kinn, I know you are ok (although Ni guys may have a different view on that ), but I also know that you are involved in this, and my comment is not personal.

Also, I would like to see a clear statement that chadz and team approved this particular solution.

[GuiKa]

Would be great if this was already a normal feature, but as a user-script the legality is in a very grey area. Plus it seems too easy for someone to exploit the user-script...

All security is handled server side.

Edit: spotted no bug atm but need more documentation on

- whats happening when you click on "upload" or "download" (I know upload must mean you send what you see, and download you receive but precisely?)
- the roles related powers from 0 to 5 (SeeLOS    SendLOS    ManageFaction ) needs to be shown somewhere (unlike in current strat where "ranks" had no meaning until people understood there was rank for seeing faction members (rank 1 and above), rank for modifying roster (rank 5 and above) and rank for modifying clan data (rank 10))
it is shown but only when you "create role" I suggest putting the infos on each role somewhere when you just look at the list of faction's roles.

Also maybe add a "home" button when you are in the "documentation" part 

I changed the tutorial page to include more information and added a "go back" link.

P.S.: I will brainstorm/debug a lot for you if you let me ! I want this baby to grow and I hope you are motivated ! 

No problem about that, what's your experience ?

Hm.....

I would like to know where the data are uploaded to, who has access to them, and who has administrator rights here.

I am not overly paranoid, but i really wouln't like Kinngrimm to read all messages that "higher ranking members can send to lower ranking members of a faction", or see what happens in Balanli where I am atm, etc .... No offence Kinn, I know you are ok (although Ni guys may have a different view on that ), but I also know that you are involved in this, and my comment is not personal.

Also, I would like to see a clear statement that chadz and team approved this particular solution.

Everything is stored on a database which is on an EC2 amazon instance http://aws.amazon.com/fr/ec2/, obviously i have full access to it. I am not a cheater and i will never develop a way to parse the data which is not from my profile.

For the chadz statement you can look in one of the thread about Strategus Viewer, i can't find it anymore. I bet kinn saved it.

[bagge]

LOS sharing should be forbidden already

[GuiKa]

LOS sharing should be forbidden already

chadz clearly said that the reason their is no LOS sharing on strategus already is because they could not afford it. Too much bandwitch would be used.

[Erasmas]

chadz clearly said that the reason their is no LOS sharing on strategus already is because they could not afford it. Too much bandwitch would be used.

He did? I clearly missed that. When and where?

obviously i have full access to it. I am not a cheater and i will never develop a way to parse the data which is not from my profile.

So currently you do not have the map where all LOS info is shown? And, we have you word as a guarantee that you or anyone else will ever have it, right? Sorry for asking, but I am kinda reluctant to trust the the "client side customisation", where the data are stored somewhere else than actual strat servers, and someone else than strat developers have access to it.  Hell, I am event reluctant to trust them, to be honest, but I have to live with that, hoping they are to lazy busy to mess around with stuff.
 
Some more questions before I even try to log in:

1. Will my application to the faction require approval of the leader?
2. Can I change the faction?
3. Who has access to the data I will upload? My teammates only? What part of the information in available to the public?
4. Who is in charge of fuck-ups and bugs?
5 Can I delete my account permanently?

[GuiKa]

He did? I clearly missed that. When and where?

Yes he did i'm not sure in which thread =x , i will search it later on by browsing all chadz posts.
http://forum.meleegaming.com/strategus-general-discussion/cheating-or-no/msg671015/#msg671015

So currently you do not have the map where all LOS info is shown? And, we have you word as a guarantee that you or anyone else will ever have it, right? Sorry for asking, but I am kinda reluctant to trust the the "client side customisation", where the data are stored somewhere else than actual strat servers, and someone else than strat developers have access to it.  Hell, I am event reluctant to trust them, to be honest, but I have to live with that.

I am the only developer on the project, and i always was. Well sure i could "stole" the los of others using the system to know where everyone is ... but i will never do that and i don't even really "play" strategus anyway, i just follow kinngrimm leadership.
As long as i am a wolves if you trust kinn you shouldn't have any problem with that, and kinn would rather die than cheat. Everyone know that  .

Some more questions before I even try to log in:

1. Will my application to the faction require approval of the leader?
2. Can I change the faction?
3. Who has access to the data I will upload? My teammates only? What part of the information in available to the public?
4. Who is in charge of fuck-ups and bugs?
5 Can I delete my account permanently?

1. Yes
2. Yes (i am working on this i will release the form to do that in few hours)
3. If you are in the faction and you have the right to send data (send LOS), your data will be shared with your teammate who have the right to See LOS. If you are using a solo profile you are sharing the data with you only (pointless for now will make sens with contracts and relations).
4. Me
5. Well the account part and the logic are separated, the data you send are not stored depending on your account but on your solo profile or faction. If you leave your faction the thing you sent will still be in it but rapidly outdated (6 hours), if you delete your solo profile everything will be deleted.
So you can't delete your account (at least for now) but you can completely be out of the project as an account alone does nothing and cannot be seen.

[GuiKa]

Released a new version of the site :

-Fixed few bugs

-Added a link to leave your faction

-Added a link to delete your solo profile

-Added a page "Me" in the tab Home where you can :
    -See some information about your account.
    -Join/Create a faction if you don't have one already.
    -Create a solo profile if you don't have one already and your faction allows it

-Added a checkbox in the edition form for faction to change if the faction allow solo profile or not

-Depending if the faction allow or not a solo profile members profile already existing are either disabled or enabled (when the attribute of the faction change) :
   -Disabled solo profile still exist but cannot be interacted with anymore. For instance if the profile had a contract and is disabled the contract will still be active and the use will have to fulfill it. But it will be impossible for the profile to get any more contracts.

So basically i made things ready to add the upcoming features.

[Butan]

Would be great if this was already a normal feature, but as a user-script the legality is in a very grey area. Plus it seems too easy for someone to exploit the user-script...

No malware found in this script, from unknown neutral security check party 

Hm.....

I would like to know where the data are uploaded to, who has access to them, and who has administrator rights here.

Obviously, Guika has access here.



You cant "create" something on strategus since only the developers of donkey team have access. So except adding stuff that are ALREADY in strategus (recompiling infos and showing them in new tabs, adding some buttons, basically) you are FORCED to create an external website, like Guika did, and have sole access to administration, if you want something that REALLLLYYYYY gives functionnality that we desesperately need (dear chadz, give us some help too!). This thing here could be the beginning of something really great.


Forget one moment that Guika is actually in a clan, and believe that what he's doing is for the sake of enhancing strategus. Right from the moment we create an account somewhere (cRPG account too), we trust the guys behind it to not exploit the infos they have access to. chadz could also kill us all with a pression on WIPE button!
Guika takes free time to do something without asking for payment, just to give something worth playing for him and others. Dont be that douche and throw doubts and suspicion just because of strat politics.

No problem about that, what's your experience ?

no experience at all if you speak from a programming/computing perspective, but I know to press all kinds of buttons everywhere and seek the mighty bug ! Also brainstorming coz I have a brain. RLY. So I will maybe sometime throw a bit of ideas here and there like a boss. But I will wait a bit to see what more you have planned...

[kinngrimm]

and again you amazed me Guika, great work!

@doubters/politicians or anyone else who is in dislike for what ever reason
The tool had been cleared to be programmed before it was started, it was cleared when the first version was out again and with the added content i would expect that it would be cleared again for use as it still goes conform with the restrictions i was told. In addion there had been done more balancing to get some things more challanging and not even be able to automat LOS. If after all what has been done you still don't like it, well it is "free" to use, free also in like "free not to use". I can't help you with suspicious thoughts or a general dislike for the one or other function/option included. There then i would suggest do it better yourself, make it public so we would have diversity to choose from or help improving this here.

If in the end anything you do would be complaining here ... then

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fuck off 

[CrazyCracka420]

The people here are bringing up legitimate concerns.  I personally think that LOS sharing defeats the purpose of a game like strategus. Instead of having scouts report their findings back to a commander (or to an officer who relays the info to a commander), you can just have some ghost account, or afk account sitting on a mountain pass never moving.  And now that AFK person doesn't even need to physically relay the information or message anyone? 

But as far as exploits and issues of that nature, someone has access to the server this is hosted on, and would have access to everyone's LOS.  Think of it like how Google has access to everyone's searches from around the world. 

I just wish this was all coming from the c-rpg/meleegaming website, and not third party.  But ideally I just wish it wasn't used in the first place.  I think being able to see fief information from across the entire map is lame to begin with, and this just moves it further into one person being able to do everything for a faction.  It makes having ghost accounts even more valuable than before.

*EDIT*
I understand you have to click a button "los upload" or whatever to upload the information to your faction of what you see, but this is easy enough to do with 3rd party macro programs (to keep the session open) or with remote viewer applications.  I just think this is something that can be easily exploited, and makes it easier for inactive factions to have one person controlling many characters.  For me, strategus is one person working together with other "one persons" to do something larger.  And this is moving away from that vision.

[Erasmas]

Chill out, Kinngrimm. The discussion is fairly calm at  the moment and there is no need to heat it up.  It is fair, however, to ask some questions. For the entire community sake, and for my personal knowledge and understanding. 

If I read you message correctly, it means that the script is not officially approved by the donkey crew, although you are convinced that it will not be banned due to approval of initial assumptions/earlier version of this project. It is important, cause I would like to avoid a next banwave if the entire GO start using this piece of software. Do I read this correctly?

It is also fair to ask - and receive the clear answer - who will have access to the collected data, especially considering that:

- this is not an official strategus script,   
- it collects data on movements and LOS of players from various clans,
- it is - after all - a script made by the guy form the clan you are leading, and
- you are heavily promoting it. 

No offense, mate, I really do not want to challenge your honesty, or - what is more important here - Guika's honsty.  But everyone deserve a cool answer and promise - yes, promise! - that noone will have access to the collected data. The information "if you do not like it - don't use it" will not do here, as this script changes the chances of clans that use it and clans that don't. And there is no reason to be pissed off about that.

EDIT (following CrazyCracka's edit):

I upvoted CC's post, but I need to add this: as you all know we, the Grey Order, are promoting introduction to Strategus of the official, reasonable, limited and accessible only to high-ranking clan leaders mechanism for management of clanmates accounts. This piece of software is a step in the right direction.

[kinngrimm]

If you are concerned it is noted, it was also noted the time in the other 3 threads it had been mentoined before by people who havent even tried it out yet. So again try it out and you will see that the posibillities are far less powerfull as you may imagine in your mind atm.
Atm i am pretty calm, but i am also annyoed that things which had been already talked over and over are again talekd over and over while those who rising their concerns still haven't once tested this. So calm but dudes you anoy the hell out of me with

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this "GIVE ME GIVE ME ... NO NOT THAT GIVE ME STH ELSE while NO I DIDNT TRY WHY? this is not your playground to demand things, this is a crap load of work by someone as all the other devs invested it by taking it of his sparetime and instead of being appreciative or giving advice "HOW TO" do it any better(after testing), all you can do is fucking complaining ... so i am very sorry for being annoyed by you and again if you cant do anything else get the fuck out of here.

Also as i initiated these efforts i may be protective about it, also i am very concerned about the quality and i have defently tried to influence what has been implemented in terms of features, but this attitude that we cant trust this stuff because it is from an enemy faction in strategus, wow you are trully shallow, then again all the source code is open to copy and implement on your own system(at least it was with last version) so you could just use that if you are so concerned about your pretty small dots that you think i would feel the need to get all your data this way and build a similar system for yourself or maybe you have this already for a long time and you are the one now anyoed now because others can use it too or that multiaccounting/accountshraing now doesnt make that much sense anymore ... well if so ... na then i am not sorry