EQ2U Teaser #1
Several months ago, Dethdlr and I were put in touch with SOE’s Platform and Game teams (including Dan Kinney and Nandor “Zoltaroth” Szots) about a new Data Feeds API that would allow websites to access the same kind of Character, Guild, and Item data which has traditionally been available on EQ2Players.
We have been testing, giving feedback, and developing on this new API since the moment it was available. It’s been a long haul to say the least, but Dethdlr and I have been blown away by how receptive and motivated the folks at SOE have been towards allowing us and others to produce the best possible EQ2 API-powered websites. The answer to most of our questions has been “Sure, we can add that”, or a useful discussion about the best way to organize and present the information.
Equipment View shows Items at-a-glance and which ones have Adornments.
After months of intense development, we are proud to show the first teaser images of the new EQ2U. We are still working on adding site features and styling, but already, we have been getting very good feedback on the site so far.
All of the screenshots below are from the new EQ2U website driven by the EverQuest II Data Feeds API, which is frequently updated (every time your character zones or camps) and so far the information has been highly accurate.
Search for Items, or Browse Items by association, then add them to your Item Wishlist!
NOTE: If you are concerned about your privacy, you can login to your EQ2 account, click the EQ2 Share tab, and opt out of EQ2Players Updates. Characters are Opt-Out, and Alts will be Opt-In (hidden by default).
Every Alternate Advancement and every Warder Specialization, all pixel-perfect.
View the status (and photos) of all 17 of your Beastlord pets in 1 window.
This will be a FREE website that allows all the same kinds of Searches that you would expect, plus new features like Item Wishlists, the ability to add Beetny.com links to your character, and a Gear Upgrade system. And in case you think once we launch, we’re going to sleep on it, we already have a full page of things we intend to add to the site after it’s launched. This is just the beginning!
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Comments (41)
ishidaa
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Looks pretty awesome! I’m excited 🙂
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Dyadem/Gaftep
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These photos look amazing! I can’t wait to give it a go.
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Dethdlr
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I started working on this site in September. I’ll be so happy when you guys can finally see what we’ve been working on all this time. 🙂 And btw, none of these screenshots are mock ups. They are screenshots of the actual pages as they look today with real data from SOE. 🙂 And there are many more features that aren’t included in the screenshots. 🙂
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Ghouti
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This looks very good indeed, good job so far Dethdlr and Feldon and soe for that matter. Can’t wait to be able to use the website.
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Snowdarc
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Very cool! Good job guys
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name (required)
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will opt-outed chars pop up as “anon” or are they vanished alltogether?
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Neftor
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Looks really great!
Will it also work for charakters from french oder german language server?
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Barnz
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Looks like an awesome tool, it will be great to look at what others are wearing and doing with their AA.
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Feldon
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An opted out character looks the same to us as a deleted character. The information vanishes from the feed. We display a suitable error message to anyone who tries to view that character.
Ja. Oui. はい. 🙂
The site is currently in English. The Item/Spell Descriptions we receive from SOE are all in English as well.
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Sole
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nice work fel & deth! looks very nice
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bhagpuss
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What does “Characters are Opt-Out, and Alts will be Opt-In” mean? Aren’t “Characters” and “Alts” the same thing?
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Feldon
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When you search for a character on either EQ2Players or EQ2U, if that character has Character Opted-in, then you can see that character.
When you search for a character on either EQ2Players or EQ2U, if permissions have allowed it, you have also been able to see OTHER characters or ‘alts‘ on the same account.
For instance, if I have 3 alts:
Let’s say I have Character Opt-In enabled for Feldon and Feldyren. If I search for Feldon or Feldyren I will be able to view them. If I look up Felodic, I will get a “This character either does not exist or privacy settings prevent us from displaying it.”
Let’s say I have Alts Opt-in enabled for Feldon but not Feldyren. If I look up Feldon, I will see Feldyren listed as an alt. If I look up Feldyren, I will not see Feldon listed. Neither search will reveal that I also have Felodic on my account.
Starting as soon as next week, there will be a new button in the in-game EQ2Share tab where you can Opt-In to your Alts being discoverable from each character.
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skippydippy
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Looks good chaps!!
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Luminaire
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Looks great guys. Thank you for the time that you guys commit to giving us a great experience.
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Ferk
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Will the AA tool tips be like those of Beetny.com that are set to level 1 values? Or will they change as you level and put points in them?
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Feldon
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The spell description changes depending on how many points you have spent. This was over 10,000 points of data. 😉
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camelotcrusade
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I don’t want to become paranoid, but I wonder… why do people opt-out? Is it because certain gear or indications of great wealth can make your character a target for hacking? Is it to stay mysterious in the face of PvP?
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Feldon
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It’s funny. I don’t use Facebook at all, for a variety of reasons including privacy issues. But I’ve never had a problem with sharing my EQ2 Character data.
I respect people who want it all hidden, but I will say having everyone running around Anonymous and Invisible makes it harder to help people when they have game questions, or want to find gear upgrades. Maybe when people see what sites like EQ2U can do, they’ll reconsider.
I do understand the problem of Stalkers, or not wanting to show large amounts of Plat. Coin was removed from the data feeds.
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Anaogi
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I should note, by the way, that the API only really knows a character exists if it’s been logged in since the new API was put in place, so older characters that have lain around gathering dust might show a particular lack of information. This is something on Sony’s side that all similar projects using the API have dealt with, so when somebody sees this happening after EQ2U becomes available for general use, it ain’t Feldon and Dethdlr’s fault.
Seriously, an awesome, bang-up job guys!
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Raz
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I NEED this now! Looks awesome. Timing is almost perfect. Got a very old problem member trying to sneak back into guild i think using an alt. Wish i could look him up, like i used to on eq2players.
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Feldon
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Raz,
The avenue SOE has chosen is to hide all Alts until people Opt-in to show Alts, so this may hamper your efforts. I would have preferred a global “Show Alts”. With the planned setup, people will be able to hide certain Alts and say “I’m showing all my alts” when they’re not.
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Seggen
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Feldon,
It would be nice if there was a feature to at least say whether a character is truly showing all alts or not.
I haven’t played much in the past 6 months, but this type of stuff is what gets me fired up to play more. Great job Feldon.
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bhagpuss
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Ah thanks for the explanation Feldon!. I’ve spent most of my EQ2 time either on Test, which has never had access to EQ2Players, or Freeport which I don’t believe had it either, although I can’t say I ever checked.
@ Camelotcrusade I keep all my characters flagged Private in any MMO I play that has some kind of visible online functionality. Couldn’t really give you a better reason than that the thought of having them publicly listed gives me the creeps. It just feels wrong and always has.
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Jrel
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This pretty cool.
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Kal
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Great works guys.
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Rixan
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Are world & server discoveries on items also included?
What about GP-like data? Name of guild, Tallon Zek HM, world first xx/xx/12
Looks fabulous.
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Feldon
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This data is in the feed, but we’re not processing it just yet. Soon. [tm]
Those of you who remember when Achievements were first introduced will recall that they were able to apply them retroactively, but only if you had gotten AA kill credit for killing that mob. Unfortunately, EQ2 does not store Named kills unless they give you AA credit, and thus far, AA kill credits are not being reported in the feed. Ultimately, I’d like to see them add a new collection on the character record itself that tracks mobs that you have “Killed, received AA credit” and “Killed, did not receive AA credit”. With these 2 sets of data, plus Achievements, we would get a much more reliable list of kills.
One problem: Even if you had all this information, I’m not sure how useful it would be in building a GuildProgress type site. All this information is going to show is the first time I killed a mob. To reliably report GuildProgress type kills, SOE would have to store the killed date/time every time you kill a named mob, as well as the name of the guild you were in when you killed it.
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Charn
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Yeah, there used to be a feature with the old EQ2 players site that allowed you to set it so only guild members could see more about your character, AAs, and any alts you had. Anyone else not in your guild and that info. would be hidden for them. Is there any way to do that now, or is it a “show to all/show to none” option as-is?
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Lempo of Everfrost
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Quoted from Feldons post here. If anything he is understating the response that Dan is giving in the forums, there is little left to be desired, and the things that are desired are getting added wherever possible as far as I can see.
EQ3/EQNext should include a guild progress type feature, but the data structure they have for EQ2 did not anticipate anything like that and short of churning through an insane amount of server logs there is just no way to do it.
This is *really* good stuff that Dan and Zoltaroth are doing.
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gungo
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Do we have a date on when this will go live or open beta.
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Lempo of Everfrost
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Soon ™ 🙂
Really should be getting close now they are working on installing additional servers and more RAM to improve the speed.
It *IS* happening earlier this week, or last Friday Dan upgraded the memory in one of the servers and the difference was night and day.
I know with the recent track record it is hard to believe, but they really want this to work well when it goes live and I really think that it will.
Feldon may be privy to more info than I am but other than a sneak peek that SOE is having on the video site, I don’t know of any other date.
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Mike
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This is really nice work here Feldon.
I’m quite impressed and axious to give it a spin.
Got a couple questions though…
Being a software developer, I’m curious about APIs. Is it a web service api? Is going to be available publicly, or available through some kind of registration from SOE, or do you know?
Thanks.
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Feldon
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Mike,
The EQ2 API is available here.
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melpheos
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looks awesome !
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Mike
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I was just gonna say thank you, but apparently “Thanks Feldon!” is too short.
Thanks Feldon!
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Lejoni
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Looks totaly Awesome!
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Landiin
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Dude that looks like shit! lol j/k man you guys keep up to hard work it look good.
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Fubeast
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Hey;
Is the API available to the public or is it still private?
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Landiin
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Anyone can use it, you just simply send a query to their site and it spits out info. You can even do from your browser but you’ll just be looking at data.
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Fubeast
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Where is the API located? like the URL? just trying to get more information, is there a website about it?
Fubeast.
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Feldon
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Fubeast, here you go.
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