Zugg Software :: View topic

Newbie Joined: 19 Jan 2004 Posts: 2 Location: Australia

One of the best features of AC explorer was the tracking facility ... the program would use whatever /loc command there was in the game and then use that to track where you were on the map. You also had a client/server arrangement, so you could run the explorer client on a seperate PC and use it to view where you were. This was GREAT stuff!!!

Can we expect the same functionality in zExplorer??

Wizard Joined: 10 Oct 2000 Posts: 1551 Location: Australia

Zugg is currently reviewing the legality of the tracking function because it involves reverse-engineering each game to discover the required memory offsets, etc which would be against the license agreement you accept when installing the game. Therefore it may be he needs to get written permission from each developer to extract this information, or look at alternative ways of doing the tracking so as to avoid any legal issues.

Further info is in his new years letter: http://www.zuggsoft.com/zuggsoft/newyears2004.htm

Newbie Joined: 19 Jan 2004 Posts: 2 Location: Australia

My main interest is Horizons. In kow it is possible to set up a repeating /printpos command, which (I think) is recorded to the log. Perhaps this could be used track movement on the map?

Wanderer Joined: 07 Nov 2001 Posts: 53 Location: Australia

LOL! I just want the existing tracking functionality for AC1 ported across from AC Explorer!!!

Zugg, would it not be worth doing this so all of us AC1 AC Explorer users to migrate to zExplorer to save you the hassle of supporting multiple products?

Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2004 8:13 pm

Not at this time. Since AC Explorer continues to work fine for existing AC1 users, there is no particular need for them to upgrade. Supporting multiple products for the small number of users that are effected by this isn't a big problem. Adding the tracking to zExplorer is a significant work in porting code, and if tracking is only going to be active for AC1 users, it doesn't seem worth the effort. Back when I thought I could do tracking for each game I was excited, but now that games are writing tougher and tougher EULA, it's just not clear that I'm going to be allowed to add this kind of feature to other games.

As I said, it's possible I might add this in the future and just let other people write the "server" piece that determines the player location. But at this point it's too low of a priority given all of the other project I need to work on.

Beginner Joined: 02 Apr 2001 Posts: 21 Location: Germany

Thanks for the update Zugg...

I noticed that the online tracking disappered from your plans for 2004... it was mentioned in the plans of 2003...

So i allready thought that you changed your mind about that, but thanks for posting it here.