Status API

A fellow in the GM forum asked if GM had the ability to notify a user's weapons that the user had been capped, so the weapon could auto-sheath.

I think the idea that the meter might announce events on a common channel might be useful for that type of application, as well as if a sim owner wanted to track stats in their sim, like who has the most caps, hit accuracy, etc. This could be an optional function enabled by the server... as it does add additional messages that the meter must broadcast. Various types of events could be broadcast, such as only captures or death, but the sim owner might want to enable hit tracking as well.

Tala, I think we once discussed the idea of a HUD API so that people could develop their own HUDs. This could be a part of that API. It would also allow a user to track their own stats, even if sim-wide, the capability is disabled. OOohhhhhh...

raddick wrote:A fellow in the GM forum asked if GM had the ability to notify a user's weapons that the user had been capped, so the weapon could auto-sheath.

Such notifications, like requesting a weapon to sheath, have been established by the battlezone meter, and are still in use. I think most weapons respect sheath-commands from a meter broadcasted on the "battlezone channel". I thought GM does that, too. Anyway, ML does.

raddick wrote:I think the idea that the meter might announce events on a common channel might be useful for that type of application, as well as if a sim owner wanted to track stats in their sim, like who has the most caps, hit accuracy, etc.

The GLM puts much emphasis on such a system. The idea that the meter sends various kinds of commands to the weapons (and vice versa), and the weapon must react on that, is problematic though, in my view: one can't be sure that the weapon really respects the requirements. This might have various reasons - it might be an open door for cheaters, or maybe some people just don't care about it, or they can't script too well.

An example: with ML, when someone is fallen the meter sends auto-sheath command to the weapons. However, it might be that the person re-draws a weapon, attaches another weapon, or that a weapon simply ignores the sheath command. That's why ML uses in addition other methods to block weapons of a fallen person.

So, for every rule we set up for a weapon, we must also think of all possible exceptions and loopholes that could be used for cheating (as an aside: this is why ML describes all weapon properties abstractly in a small set of variables, which reduces the number of rules that must be enforced dramatically, compared to other meters).

However, I am fond of the idea that a weapon can get information from the meter on the state of a person. I did some steps in this direction with ML 1.10, where an API has the communication with the region server has been introduced. This is though very basic still.

So, I think the answer is: Yes, for providing data to the weapon about the state of a person (health, stamina, amount of armour, strength etc etc). No, for introducing a messaging system which gives commands to weapons which cannot be enforced otherwise.

raddick wrote:
This could be an optional function enabled by the server... as it does add additional messages that the meter must broadcast. Various types of events could be broadcast, such as only captures or death, but the sim owner might want to enable hit tracking as well.

Ok, that's no major technical problem, and I think it's a good idea.

raddick wrote:
Tala, I think we once discussed the idea of a HUD API so that people could develop their own HUDs. This could be a part of that API. It would also allow a user to track their own stats, even if sim-wide, the capability is disabled. OOohhhhhh...

I remember our chat. In principle yes. I deliberately set up the system in a way that the HUD is optional ... so performance would not suffer if we allow third-party HUDs. I'll try to provide an API in one of the upcoming releases.

I agree that we cant rely on a weapon to react to a message from the meter, but my interest was more, enabling optional, informational status messages.

It may be that the weapon makers are not using this capability because they are unaware of it, as I was until the topic came up. And I was told yesterday that GM uses channel 21 to issue a 'recovery' message. GLM uses a negative channel for this purpose.

And on that note... is it possible to query the meter for information like what role the wearer has selected?