Idea - Possible new Application Idea

[baaleos]

Funky, I've been experimenting with an idea in my head for a while now.

Recently I managed to modify the php nwnserver status webpage to actually e-mail me when a player is online in my server.

The problem is that it actually e-mails me every 5 minutes when somone is on my server, but thats besides the point.

It just occured to me, using nwnx, its possible to bridge the gap between the real world, and the nwn world, and simtools possibly offers a key step in another idea I had.

Wouldnt it be great if Dungeon Masters, or Server Admins could monitor the chat from a php file, in essence, seeing conversations going on in real time, and not only that, possibly even reply via the php.

The Nwn chat communicating to the outside world would be the easier part, because it would automagically get fed into the sql, and then the php could pick up on the sql text, and then display it in a web display, however, the Real World to Nwn would be trickyer, since it might have to rely on a nwn heartbeat, to actually check for new messages on the sql, and then display in game via shout or tell. (Heart Beat every 8 seconds)


Let me know if this sounds fiesable, I for one would love to be able to communicate with my players via a web interface so I could stay tuned in to the action from work.

If any of this could be implimented, then it kinda means that the other DM commands available with simtools could be used via web interface. Come to think of it, it could be a very very useful thing. Can you imagine a lovely web interface, that shows character portraits and everything, and you can target them, and then it shows the commands available. Lol

Getting carried away, but I think it might be possible to get DM interaction through a php file on the web. Let me know if you have any tips on the matter.

[baaleos]

The main idea I was thinking about was possibly a chat thing going - allowing players to chat to people on the outside world. (Just re-iterating - since I did get carried away)

[FunkySwerve]

Yup, it's all possible. We're actually in the process of setting up feeds so people can see their auction items and such out of game. The problem with going from out of game to ingame is that you would need a predesignated object to issue the commands. To do that you would have to have it recognized in the admin function, most likely by a Tag comparison. You could also assign targeting via playername, setting up the target-checking function used in the commands to recognize a call for an target from out of game. Some pretty extensive edits, but definitely doable (and yes, you would need to poll the database via heartbeat). Because this goes well beyond just nwn, however, it isn't really the sort of thing suitable for inclusion in a public release, so you'd be on your own setting it all up.

Funky