[Suggestion] (Denied) Game-flags/Resident-flags and options, settable VIA the web-site.

To make things a tad easier for us...

Can you make all game-flags and resident-flags settable from our website account pages?

I am not sure if the flags transfer-over if switching residences, but I don't think they remained after I lost my residence and had to get a new one. This would allow that to happen too.

The server just has to check the database flags after any new residence is obtained. Does not have to be a direct database access. (Actually, I advise NOT to make it direct.) Just has to have a coded time to check the requested flags, and then apply them, if possible.

It would also be nice to visit the website account page to see what flags are actually set.

In-game, I can only think of one that might be used to adjust "locked items". I forget if there were any actual in-game flags that were not residence related.

Group-flags too... if factions are going to be implemented. Since we don't control members of a faction, but we would/could create our own "groups", to apply all relevant flags to multiple users.

yeah cool idea, but what is the purpose?

Ease of setting thing up for multiple people...
Ease of knowing what flags are set for others...
Not having to remember or look-up every flag and how to use it, and what it does...
Speed...
Ease of fixing "oops", mistakes...
Expanding familiarity with potential, freeing-up help-requests... "How do I do this?"... "How can I stop people from walking on my yard?"... "How can I let my friend build, but not take things from my chests?"

or, oddly, requesting features that already exist... like flags to do all of that. (Not everyone is a programmer, and "flags" are commonly a device raised up in the air to wave in the wind... "Setting flags", is commonly understood to be raising a flag, a cloth wind-catcher, on something...)

First thing people do in the account, is usually check the "settings". If they see it there, from the beginning, they usually remember it, or a simple reminder can replace a million pages of /help commands that are not fun to navigate in a chat window. Provided that they know how to use the chat window and / commands. (Another programmer thing that is not common. Well, it was sort-of common, in 1990-2000, but not since everyone evolved from IRC into IM's and TXTing.)

i see your problem

with /res cset is very easy to navigate flags and with /res info you can hover over the player(s) names to see which flags they have. donno if this helps you, but at least i did my best

Setting flags isn't possible?

Nothing is "not possible"...

This has nothing to do with saving residences. This has to do with updating the flags of a residence, or reading the set flags. Are you saying that logs can't be read, or databases, or API commands can't be given to the server from your own code, but they can from a simple txt-chat window?

Or just that it isn't within the ability of the programmers? (I find that hard to digest. I have seen what they have done to alter the existing codes. Not trying to insult here... Just trying to grasp why it is "not possible". It's a bit, a flag, a txt-name, and a plot-number on a server ID. I am sure it is all in a flat database file with standard API interface, which is how the text-chat works.)

Yes, that is how I do it now. PITA to setup everything again.

I couldn't imagine 10 individual people doing this for 10 friends, for each account... Having to type it all up.

- Point, click the checkbox, done... Next...
- Load-page, look at what is set, done... Go back to playing...

that is why there are https://empireminecraft.com/wiki/residence-groups/ this makes managing dozens of people flags much easier

Which brings everyone back to the cryptic programmer IRC style /commands...

Not sure why I even bother to suggest anything. One man auto-denial. Not even ten minutes on the board. lol.

Back to digging...

Well, I'm obviously not an EMC developer but I have to agree that there would be a lot of caveats to deal with. For starters the (in)ability to customize the website. It has been mentioned a few times already that the Xenforo version which EMC uses cannot be customized in extensive detail, which would make some customization unavailable for the developers.

Another possible issue, but that's just my 2 cents, is the risk of abuse. Generally speaking a webinterface is a lot more accessible (also to 3rd parties) than in-game mechanics. This is just a rough guess on my part, but I can't help think that there's a reason why we can't really influence anything in-game from the website right now.

[About using residence groups]

Actually it doesn't. When re-reading the wiki page I have to admit that this info is a little bit buried, maybe we (contrib team) can do something about that in the future, but even the group commands can be used with the new chest interface.

So, say you want to add me and my alter ego's to a group. Then you could use:

/res gadd shellies shelluser,ayanamikun,gripceo

This would make a group called "shellies" consisting of AyanamiKun, GripCEO and myself.

If you wanted to set some flags for us on your residence using the new chest interface then all you need to do is:

/res cgset shellies

... and simply point and click in the chest interface like you always have.

Rule of thumb: all flag commands can use the chest interface by adding a c in front of it. So: set becomes cset, pset becomes cpset, and you probably guessed it: gset becomes cgset.

Hope this can still give you some ideas...

Don't despair. You can't win 'm all. And although I can understand that you might be a little disappointed it could be (a little) worse. I also know of people who made a good suggestion (personal opinion), saw both the community and the developer(s) talk positively about it only to see nothing happening for the next months (for the record: not talking about myself).

Just like I know of players who have sent in dozens of good suggestions (IMO of course) only to see only one or even none of them added.

It happens... But please don't let that discourage you from making future suggestions. You never know if the next one will become that big popular addition which we've all been waiting for!

Sorry, I've just never, in my life, seen "Rejected" on a "Suggestion".

Suggestions are usually posed for discussion, for potential, for showing interest, for growth.

It was a suggestion, not a demand. I honestly don't care if they do it or not, or can or can't do it. But, now I know the limitations they have, here... Or, at least that person who has the power to insta-reject suggestions. Must be the owner, no?

Off topic, but my mind was just blown up. I have seen all three of you post on the forums, never knew you were all the same person.

Your suggestion is fine but with the way that these servers work, it just isn't feasible. There is no point in discussing and growing a suggestion that is not currently possible. Also, for the record, this suggestion has been made a few times already and generally has positive support.

The denied label in the title is to let people know who are considering making a similar suggestion that this one is denied, so that they can either not make a duplicate idea or look into why this was denied and apply it to their idea.

Ah, but there's probably a good reason for that. Many (or most) suggestions which got addressed by the staff get archived, just like with the auctions. If you check out the suggestion archives you'll see that you're not alone here. I count an easy 5 other denials in there as well (and that's only looking at the first page).

I program in Java, Javascript, PHP, and various other languages. (Nothing great, just mods like this... easy stuff that uses pre-existing code and data.)

I guarantee that it "would not require reprogramming the majority of the server"... Since the majority of the server has nothing to do with reading and writing "slash-commands", or the raw data it saves, which is another tiny plugin.

This doesn't even require any programming in the server itself (not the game server). This would be all web-server side, with the exception of having a copy of the "flags", or requesting access to read the flags, which is something PHP can handle as easily as loading a website from another location, or a file from someones computer. (PHP or whatever language is preferred for server-side programming.)

The website already reads that data... "Map voxels", "Player exists", "Create new player", "Player location", ("Player hidden" A slash-command)... etc... "Suggesting slash-commands", from a logged-in user to the site, when the player logs-in to the game, would not require rewriting much of anything. It simply prewrites the text and SENDS, using a simple command. (Or, even just copy and paste code would work. Which we could then paste into the chat-window ourselves. Simple javascript there, and NON-DIRECT, as I stated in the suggestion.)

There is no harm in "Reading" switch-command values, from any device. (There is no special access needed and that information contains no potentially harmful personal information.)

[Warning, comical sarcastic and ironic reply below. Intended for humor, with a sarcastic seriousness to it. Digest lightly, with many grains of salt.]

Guess I'll stick to suggestions like, "Make the sky green, instead of blue."

Thus the purpose of it being a suggestion, again... for discussion. Need help... Meh... Just shoot it out of the sky, it can't be done before noon... who cares if everyone wants it. Why even attempt to find a way to get it done. Just say we can't do it, while we reprogram the whole server for the 1.9 update and custom-coded griefing protection... But reading simple settings for a user, or setting them... What do they think we are? Programming gods! That can't be done!

Though, in the light of "not being able to reprogram the whole server"... xD...

I will dare not suggest my dungeons concept. (Not "jails"... Creative dungeons, as a game.) That would require more programming then altering existing code values from blue to green. Plus, that DOES need the anti-griefing protection they are working on. Well, it needs anti-griefing protection... Not sure if what they are working on, would suffice, until I see what it does... [Again, a sarcastic comment, as humor.]

I think it is relevant to point out that Aikar is a very successful Sr. Software Engineer who has an extensive programming history, chicken is a math wizard with a natural programming skill, and MrSocks is/was a web developer (not sure what Breezy has done, but it can't take the skill level of the team down). If something is as easy as you claim it to be, the developer team is the perfect mixture of weird that could work it out in no time.

You assume it is easy to read the residence data that the server stores. I can almost 110% guarantee you that the way the data is represented is gibberish to anything but the server itself. Thus, the way residence data is stored would have to be completely overhauled, along with any and all subsystems that use. I personally do consider that reprogramming a majority of the server. The only other solution is to build a new system, from the ground up essentially, that deciphers all of the residence data and translates it into something that can be interfaced easily. Easy, right? Nope, that is essentially the first method minus remaking subsystems.

Residence data may also only be accessible via special keys that are created and activated upon confirming that a player is logged into the server. Senior Staff+ may be able to override these keys with keys of their own. If this is the case, then an entire key system has to be build into the EMC website. This opens up numerous possibilities not only for malicious attempts at altering residence data, but also requires that the website be in constant contact with the residence data location. This seems like a nice opportunity to waste server resources and bandwidth (arguably minimal though).

Also, this is all just considering a hack-job attempt at what you suggest.

You do not understand how large scale data and program interactions work. Amateur/small-time programming knowledge does not even allow a glimpse into how something as complex as the EMC server system works.

I know I'm playing the devils advocate here, but I think the whole topic is quite intriguing.

That depends. Considering that Spigot (server software) is open source and that Aikar and the dev. team have added plenty of modifications I could imagine a 3rd one: port ("copy") the routines which read ("parse") the data, make them usable for the website and then reuse those routines.

In more technical terms: get some sort of API going which can provide access to said data (so not only read the data, but also parse it).

However, having said that:

This comment would still apply with the idea I suggested above. Now, I am not familiar with the Spigot source code but I can well imagine that the process I'm mentioning above would be anything but a "simple copy & paste".