MacroQuest64

Hello,

I became a subsriber and paid for a year subsrciption with IS. I am totally new to scripting. Just started playing EQ again and wanted to try this out. I chose IS over Macroquest2 because of reading what other have said about IS being a lot better.

Coming to the foums I dont see much at all in the way of scripts and or help with IS. The last post before mine was last month, and beyond that the are scattered over last years with lots oftime in between them.

Is IS not that popular or are people just hoarding thier scripts for fear of SoE and other game dev finding them then nerfing them? Also I went to the Lavish website and dont see much in the way of tutorials.

Can someone point me in the right direction to find lots of scripts and/or tutorials for IS, or should I just try my hand with Macroquest2?

Not a lot of folks want to spend the time converting MQ2 stuff to IS. You can theoretically plug MQ2 scripts straight in to ISXEQ, but if you're trying to learn native ISXEQ scripting, you'll need to use the few examples out there and work from their yourself. Otherwise, use MQ2 scripts within ISXEQ and work your way up from there.

Disclaimer: I've not used ISXEQ for more than 5 minutes, I've stuck with MQ2 for familiarity reasons - I may be wrong on the finer details.

Well, I just checked out the ISO forums and saw that for the most part, people are charging for scripts. I am really dissapointed with that. I wasnt expecting to have to fork over more money to be able to get scripts. Its a shame really.

I should have done more research before I spet my money on the 1 year subscription to IS. My fault, so I will head over to the Macroquest2 area and just learn from them. thanks,

Windzor

Windzor wrote:Well, I just checked out the ISO forums and saw that for the most part, people are charging for scripts. I am really dissapointed with that. I wasnt expecting to have to fork over more money to be able to get scripts. Its a shame really.

I should have done more research before I spet my money on the 1 year subscription to IS. My fault, so I will head over to the Macroquest2 area and just learn from them. thanks,

Windzor

I still use MQ2 for familiarity reasons also, but also use WinEQ (which requires the same subscription...)
If you aren't running ISXEQ, you can still use IS with MQ2. I don't think it's a total loss as I like some of the features I get. Setting up single hotkeys from my Nostormo for switching EQ sessions being one of the highest on the list, along with PiP. Those are features possible with IS also, but harder to get working.
If you can get used to IS, I think you'd be ahead. Even if you have to get used to MQ2 in the mean time.
I also agree that having to pay for scripts does nothing at all for the starting scripter (makes it much harder to learn with few or outdated examples), and limits the available scripts to a select few, but people have seen a lot of work stolen lately so I suppose I don't blame them.

I should have done more research before I spet my money on the 1 year subscription to IS

If you're not going to use the software, shoot me an email and I'll refund your payment. It is of course wise to look at what is available before purchasing a subscription with the intention to use scripts that might not be available. I can't imagine what you found for EQ1 that you would have to pay for, though. I don't think there's really even scripts available.

Also, keep in mind that when you purchase Inner Space, you are not purchasing scripts. You're purchasing the platform, just like buying Windows for your PC, or purchasing a gaming console. You get software that runs on the platform, which may be free, may be for pay, may be closed source, may be open source, it's entirely up to the author.

But really, is it a shame that someone would want to get paid for their work? Personally, my time is worth too much to too many people to go offering everything for free. If you like someone's work, fork over a couple bucks. You know you'd appreciate the same in return if it was you writing it.

Also, to answer your question about popularity. IS is not popular for EQ1, because MacroQuest 2 is available for free and there's already tons of scripts and plugins available for it for free, and people are generally happy with that. Granted, there are massive benefits if people wanted to spend the time to convert, but it's hard to beat free. For EQ1, stick with MQ2. For other current and future games, IS is where it's at.

For the record, I wasn't trying to say it's a shame people are charging for their work. I do like your software, and that's the reason I continue to pay for it... Just a shame there's so few examples of what can be done with it, and quite a few are outdated.
Sorry if I came across wrong Lax.

I don't know if you have VIP access here or not, but I've posted a few working ISXEQ scripts and extensions here, and continue to do so as I expand my personal script repository.

In general, it's not all that hard to convert from MQ2 scripting to LavishScript. LavishScript is similar in flavor, yet significantly more powerful, than MQ2's scripting engine.

There certainly aren't a lot of resources for EQ1 scripts with IS, which is too bad. As someone who used MQ2 for years and has been using IS for about 8 months now, I'm quite glad I made the transition. It certainly wasn't easy, but it really is a much more robust platform for scripting than MQ2.

Ok, what I want to do is use IS for EQ1. Are there any extensive tutorials explaining what and how to script using IS? I found the one for MQ2 and it is very informative.

I checked out the wiki for IS and there are many gaps where no information is available yet. Are there people working on filling in the info on the IS wiki?

I am totally new to scripting so if there is a large learning curve to using IS I am probably out of luck trying to start learning using IS.

Windzor

There's no more of a learning curve to IS scripting than there is to MQ2 scripting.

In fact, the game-specific parts are the same, since ISXEQ literally IS MQ2.

In other words, you use this website, and the MQ2 documentation, to learn about the various EQ specific Top Level Objects and functions available. You use the LavishSoft website to learn about the language specific pieces like control structures, variables, etc.

LavishScript reference: http://www.lavishsoft.com/wiki/index.ph ... vishScript

MQ2 Documentation: http://www.macroquest2.com/includes/wassup/manual.php

Just a shame there's so few examples of what can be done with it, and quite a few are outdated.

Well ...over at isxGames.com there are a few amazing publically released scripts for EQ2 and Vanguard. It's a little different than ISXEQ ..but the lavishscript scripting syntax is the same ..so you could use it as a model of what's possible.

Honestly, I'd say quit EQ and move on to a newer game: WoW, EQ2, VG, ..hell, anything....some games are meant to last forever ...EQ was not one of them.

Amadeus wrote:

Honestly, I'd say quit EQ and move on to a newer game: WoW, EQ2, VG, ..hell, anything....some games are meant to last forever ...EQ was not one of them.

I would submit that WoW is too simple (no content for the higher end), EQ2 was a nice idea, but ended up a console game that somehow got ported to the PC platform (kind of like how they screwed up SWG), Brad is in charge of VG, he's an inspired designer/visionary, but I wouldn't want him managing a hotdog stand for day to day operations. EQ is the only one of that list that is meant to last forever.

To be fair, VG looks to be incredible. if they would fire Brad once they get it running, I'd think about it. I had too much of his sillyness in EQ to ever be subjected to it again.

i have been going back and forth between inner space and MQ2 also. my first objective was met by finding a working MQ2 for the titanium EQ client for Eqemu. my next objective might be to bring the titanium version of MQ2 close to the current MQ2.

but before i get carried away, i would consider inner space if:
1) i could build a version that works with Eqemu
2) allow me to extended to my own platform which is not wow, eq, or antyhing else (nothing particular in mind, just the ability to do so would be great)

concerning item 2, i have written test engines before with their own language and blah blah. i dont want to do that and certainly not for every project i might want to deal with. i would perfer one common tool that i can adapt to whatever needs with includes a combination of detour and what ever other method i want.

right now i am still getting up to speed with MQ2 and i guess i need a subscription for inner space if i want to work with that.

from my reading here since my objective is to go beyond EQ1, then inner space would be the choice for me. or do i have to wait for a new extension to be done, i mean suppose i had my own client i wanted to automate.

i suppose the other way for me to look at things is:
1. keep the current titanium version working with Eqemu
2. dont apply any fixes from current MQ2 to titanium version
3. use inner space with MQ2 scripts that work with EQlive
4. learn inner space to add in my own platform (is that the right term?)
5. if i want to dink around with wow or eq2 or whatever, i can dink around with inner space

an additional step might be to get VIP status to MQ2 because there are some scripts and possibly plugins that are available only through VIP.

i am pondering...

Amadeus wrote:

Honestly, I'd say quit EQ and move on to a newer game: WoW, EQ2, VG, ..hell, anything....some games are meant to last forever ...EQ was not one of them.

Well, it's off topic.

But Vanguard just sucks, way to buggy, zero content. EQ2 is just boring, and empty. And WoW.. Yes WoW was nice but it's full of kids.

I am looking forward to warhammer online to come out. Dont really care if its ground-breaking or anything, but I've been a long-time fan of WH and WH40k in general. Might be the first MMO I dont look for automation utilites right away for.

Windsor, if you still troll the forums and read this, then here is some info.

The main gunners for ISXEQ are in our IRC channel (irc.lavishsoft.com channel #isxeq). I have been sitting there helping people since I started the channel 2 years ago. There are some folks who have working scripts, some others that are working on a .NET wrapper and so on. So if you are still interested you stop hop on IRC and idle with the rest of us. You could say it is a small underground community (the isxeq folks).

-Red