ISXOgre:ComingSoon

ISXOgre: Coming soon

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• What is ISXOgre?
  • ISXOgre is an extension built for innerspace. The same idea as ISXEQ2 but it does a very different thing. ISXEQ2 "hooks" into EQ2 to provide you information. ISXOgre "hooks" into ISXEQ2 to read information.

• Will you still need ISXEQ2?
  • Yes, because ISXOgre just hooks into the information that ISXEQ2 provides. ISXEQ2 (Amadeus) does something called reverse engineering. Simply put, he takes apart Everquest 2.exe and passes information in it to ISXEQ2. I don't have the skillset to do something like that, so we need to continue to use ISXEQ2.

• Will this replace the SVN?
  • Short term no, long term - that is the goal. Everything should be auto-updating so you are never out of date! Just keep in mind, that replacing the SVN is a long term goal. We are talking months at best (more than likely).

• Short term goals
  • Get ISXOgre working. Which will change how you load everything from:
    • Old way: run ogre <paramaters> -- such as: run ogre login kannkor
    • New way: ogre <paramaters> -- such as: ogre login kannkor
  • Get everyone used to the new format with minor changes.

• Long term goals
  • Have all "core" files included in the extension. This means they will always be up to date. (Core files are things like the main bot, the main interface etc).
  • Have all non-core files still available via auto-updating or SVN. (Non-core files are things like spellexports, your /saves/ etc.).
  • Authentication - Add in authentication. Same idea as ISXEQ2, it does it when you load the extension.

• Why all the change?
  • Two reasons. One much larger than the other.
    • First reason (biggest one) - I enjoy coding, and wish to persue it futher. One large part of this is making more complex applications over just scripts. Building an extension is an enormous task and is a huge learning experience for me. Just in the last few weeks of working on this, I have learnt an incredible amount.
    • This will allow me to market the bot if I desire. I say if I desire because I like having it a small community of players. What it will allow, is me to get the experience (again, more so the first reason, to learn) to create a bot and market it in the next game I play.
    • Third reason - This will allow for more advanced features in the future. When writing a script only, you are limited to what is inside the game. When writing an extension, you pretty much have access to anything in and outside of the game. There are lots of possibilities, we shall see what they bring.

• What about me? (you, in this case).
  • In the grand scheme of things, very little will change other than the way you use commands (no more "run"). Your membership is and will always be good, regardless of if Ogrebot is marketed. You are all basically founders, and I won't forget it :).
  • As time goes on, more and more things will be capable and added in.
  • Speed.. kind of. Running an extension for the commands used in the extension are much faster than a script. Having said that, the main bot is still a script, so that is unchanged, and for most of the rest, do you think you will really see a difference if something goes from 5ms to 3ms? (milliseconds)?

• Other things worth mentioning that are planned.
  • Multiple version of the bot. This will easily allow me (and others, is the plan) to be able to run a development version of the bot. Here's an example of what I mean.
    • You will use the following command to load the bot: Ogre (assuming you are already logged in). This will load the "released" version.
    • Lets say you want to try out a new feature in the development version. You could close the bot (not your eq2 session), type something like: ISXOgre:EnableDev, then reload the bot (by typing; ogre). It would then load the development version. Maybe it's too buggy, or it breaks a fight you want to do. You would simply, ISXOgre:DisableDev, then restart your script.

• Drawbacks - Unfortunately there are always drawbacks.
  • One of my mid-term goals is to embed the core functions of the bot. This means it will be like craft - how there is no "script" and you can't edit it. This is for multiple reasons. 1) Security, information that people can't see or touch is more secure. 2) Allows for auto-updating. When the extension is updated (automatically - long term goal), your script is updated also.

• Report bugs/errors.
  • This is a very new process for me, and I have started re-writing some scripts to be part of the new extension instead. As I start releasing bits and pieces, if you notice anything different, or any bugs please make sure you contact me to let me know. For example, I re-wrote all of Ogre.iss to be inside the extension (that is how you can Ogre, instead of run ogre). If any command no longer works, I need to know, as it's possible I broke something.

Like always, feel free to contact me. MSN or IRC are your best choices. I'll update this as I get more information. I'm hoping to have a basic extension up and working within a week or 2!