Public API (shooting for the stars with this one)

[Huggz]

CSV would be a great in addition to JSON, as my destination, in the absence of an API, would be a spread sheet.

[burtybob]

I would be interested in seeing some sort of export with stats to be able to do some graphing. Also a basic API for guild stats would be handy although how you would handle the authentication on that would take some thought.

You would possibly need some sort of randomly generated "APIKey" similar to facebooks app key. The guild leader would need to be able to force a regeneration of the key in case you had someone malicious in the guild that you then kicked. ALTHOUGH since the API would most likely be read only that's not a major problem.

[Xesc]

I very much like this idea too. CSV is probably the most universal and simple format for this?
Obviously, the players being queried/reported would have to approve/give their consent to it somewhere. I wouldn't appreciate people pulling data on my progress/performance without my knowledge.

[chaosguard]

Well, as you told me to bug you again, here I am, bugging you again!

Would really love to see an API or simply a button to extract our info in a nice format (cough, JSON!!!). Currently, active guilds use spreadsheets which are helpful but overly tedious to update or maintain, causing a lot of frustration.

This really should be rather simple, and would allow for SO MUCH in terms of guilds, 3rd party fansites, etc. IMO, it should be pretty high up there, because people love to see how best they can optimize stuff (think Cookie Clickers, and well, all idlers that made it big xD). In a game like this, it would be taken to a whole new level because of guilds, progress charting, etc. A whole community could flourish that would add great value to the game while requiring you yourself to do nothing beyond providing the ability to export data.

[Ragekai]

I actually like updating my guild sheet manually. It's lots of fun and charting growth is fun too. I also color code stat boxes indicative of value with 9 different tiers. Not to mention my custom avatar system. . I think manual update has its advantages..I get a good idea of who's actively concerned with guild by how often they update sheet and us all coming together to build a solid sheet from scratch builds community.

[Aaron Storm]

I'd love to see this for guilds. Like right now the guild I'm in has a guild spreadsheet which contains a ton of information, but players have to keep it updated.

Would be nice if a guild leader could just pull the data, even if it was just in text forum and they had to pull it apart in excel. With the right setup in excel they could then paste it, maybe do a text to columns on it, and then have the rest of the spreadsheet pull from that. Would save a bunch of players a ton of time updating dozens of cells every few days.

Even if it was just something that ran on the servers once a day and compiled the data. We don't really need data that is updated every minute or even every hour, once a day is more than enough.

Plus if you are compiling that data each day I would think it wouldn't be a bad idea to use it to also backup all the characters in case something ever happened to the server, then again I have no idea what is currently being done to backup data so that may not be needed.

[Alice]

Just to add my own feedback here; as a software developer who also creates game-related utilities as a hobby, I've been hoping for the introduction of an API for a long time. I know that an API would be a low priority development, but I feel that it would allow passionate (and talented) members of the community to create utilities for the game that will result in an improved level of participation from the greater community.

tl;dr: I feel that the implementation of an API would benefit the game greatly. Please make this happen?

[chaosguard]

(11-01-2015, 01:05 AM)Ragekai Wrote: I actually like updating my guild sheet manually. It's lots of fun and charting growth is fun too. I also color code stat boxes indicative of value with 9 different tiers. Not to mention my custom avatar system.  . I think manual update has its advantages..I get a good idea of who's actively concerned with guild by how often they update sheet and us all coming together to build a solid sheet from scratch builds community.

You do sure, but why force everyone to that same standard. I dont like repetitive tasks. I especially dont like pointless ones: such as parsing data from one database to another in the most laborious way possible. I play an Idle MMORPG for a reason.
Worth noting: There would still likely be a manual element. I suspect that an API is unlikely (more work entailed, but it would be awesome...) however a data export in a standard format is very possible, especially since Ray said he likes the idea. This would require people to copy paste the exported data in something that someone like Alice or myself makes.

(11-02-2015, 02:15 PM)Aaron Storm Wrote: I'd love to see this for guilds. Like right now the guild I'm in has a guild spreadsheet which contains a ton of information, but players have to keep it updated.

Would be nice if a guild leader could just pull the data, even if it was just in text forum and they had to pull it apart in excel. With the right setup in excel they could then paste it, maybe do a text to columns on it, and then have the rest of the spreadsheet pull from that. Would save a bunch of players a ton of time updating dozens of cells every few days.

Even if it was just something that ran on the servers once a day and compiled the data. We don't really need data that is updated every minute or even every hour, once a day is more than enough.

Plus if you are compiling that data each day I would think it wouldn't be a bad idea to use it to also backup all the characters in case something ever happened to the server, then again I have no idea what is currently being done to backup data so that may not be needed.

Right?!
Fortunately, theres no reason for the data to be spit out as plain text - it could be and would be handled. But programatically, it may even be easier to spit it out as JSON since there are lots of very highquality libraries built just for that due to JSONs popularity.

(11-03-2015, 02:28 PM)Alice Wrote: Just to add my own feedback here; as a software developer who also creates game-related utilities as a hobby, I've been hoping for the introduction of an API for a long time. I know that an API would be a low priority development, but I feel that it would allow passionate (and talented) members of the community to create utilities for the game that will result in an improved level of participation from the greater community.

tl;dr: I feel that the implementation of an API would benefit the game greatly. Please make this happen?

Unfortunately, I really suspect that API wont happen. BUT! We can still do all the same stuff with Data Export, it just wouldnt be aggregated on the entire playerbase (automagically no less...) would be quite lovely though and lend that much more to the credence of the game being an MMO.

[Ray]

Hold your sheeps here...

The new service transfer will definitely bring the potential opportunity for protected back-end database reads. API is definitely in the roadmap now.

Ray

[Ragekai]

You should be careful with this Ray giving too much info willy nilly will have everyone running 3rd party software with perfect cookiecutter builds in no time. Diversity and figuring your own build is half the fun. Everyone at 99.995% efficiency is boring..then it really is rank by who been on longest and paid most purely. Use caution here to preserve integrity.