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Request - Standardize Maros, Conditions, Usage and Everything else. (1 Viewer)

Joined
Apr 1, 2020
RedCents
2,327¢
Greetings Folks. Hope everything is going well with you all (or is it yall ). Anyway I have a problem, not with KissAssist or VV but trying to learn how to work with all the different items that are here. The only programing I have had is back when Commodor 64 was the big deal. I know that some remember this time and many have never even seen one. (I still have mine) The problem I keep running into is that nothing seems to follow any kind of standard.

1. The first thing I ran into is you have EQBCS, EQBCS2, EQBCSeqmule, DanNet, to name the main ones. They all do about the same thing but have a slightly different structure in how to use and apply them. Commands in EQBC are different than the ones used in DanNet. (I am not saying one is better than the other but trying to learn is getting frustrating.) Is it possible to say just focus on one and use that one as standard?

2. I am trying to figure out what conditions are, how to use them, and when to use them. I have looked at all the forums, read all the different links, and even have the watch (set up) so I can quickly go to the needed reference to try to find out how something is done. Like: Guide: Useful commands/hotkeys to save time and trouble! Another one I have tagged to watch and follow is Guide - Conditions and you. Coding tutorial information. These are great and provide a lot of information (to someone that has a background in working with code.) But I am sorry to say that I am not one of them. I can learn and I am trying but it takes a while for this old brain of mine to process what my eyes are seeing (once the blur goes away). My point is that their is not a lot of explanation given to some of the examples. So could their be a standard format to give a reference to what is being said and asked in a condition?

3. I think right now my biggest misunderstanding is with the setting up of the game hotkeys. I go through the posts and find one example. I want to try it but when it is put into a hotkey it doesn't work. I find a niffty (is that a word) condition that looks promising but I find out that it is only used for the other type of broadcast server and the command structure is different (one that I have not learned yet).

Sorry this is so long and may be jumbled up but can we move to some sort of standard or maybe set up a forum for just using say EQBC and one for just DanNet so that someone using either one can go and see examples and ask questions for that area. Maybe even when using an example show both ways to use it. I have seen some examples that do this.
 
In regards to #1:

I think there's certainly an opportunity to standardize on a single EQBCS I would think. I use EBCS2. DanNet is a different beast all together given its support for queries and observers. It's also built around a plugin and, at least as far as I'm aware, loses the ability to host on a third party machine like you can with EQBCS. In terms of learning, though, you really only need to remember one and just keep in mind the other if you're trying to change someone's hotkeys that use it. You can also run both at the same time. I do it regularly.

In regards to #3;

I half-suggest looking at Set Social keys. It's EQBCS/DanNet agnostic but because the hotkeys are written to be created from a macro, they're not as straight forward to read and understand (to see comparison examples between EQBCS/DanNet).
 
... but can we move to some sort of standard ...

Although I feel your pain, many of the contributors are doing their own thing and making a substantial portion of their effort available for free (or darn near it!). For example, think like NAPA Auto Parts makes and sells you a generic "Car_01" but gives you complete access to all the inventory on the shelves and in the back room to "customize" your car however you see fit (and in real time too!).
 
Ah the standardisation dream- always makes Me want to bring out one of my favourite xkcd comics:

1592751716413.png

Here, the challenge with a group of individuals contributing code together is that different people have different needs and different preferences- so your going to get proliferation of similar solutions. I think the small amount of variety found here is actually quite impressive. I also think one of the very powerful things about a community like this is you can get a lot of help when you are trying to do things, here and in discord. This community seems super willing to go into a lot of detail to get peoples individual set ups working. I’d urge you to post you specific issues and see if you cant get some support, and then as you go along you may get a better feel for doing some of those conversions yourself. I agree there is a super steep learning curve, but you don’t have to go it alone :)
 
EQBCS.exe was our attempt to standardize, but people were upset when I removed all other eqbcs options, so we decided to keep them all.

If anyone wants to take up the torch,


 
I was looking a while back at consolidating all of the EQBCSx versions. There's different features in different ones and I think there are 4 forks of that program. I don't think there should be and I think it's worthwhile to just combine them all and get rid of the rest because no one has a clear understanding of when one works and the others don't. It's mostly just superstition.

However, since I don't use EQBC that just means I have 4 different source folders staring at me from my desktop without a huge motivation to put in the work.
 
I was looking a while back at consolidating all of the EQBCSx versions. There's different features in different ones and I think there are 4 forks of that program. I don't think there should be and I think it's worthwhile to just combine them all and get rid of the rest because no one has a clear understanding of when one works and the others don't. It's mostly just superstition.

However, since I don't use EQBC that just means I have 4 different source folders staring at me from my desktop without a huge motivation to put in the work.
I commend you on finding the source for the others, I haven't seen them in years!
 
The thing is, MQ2 is not a 1-size-fits-all approach. It's a conglomeration of multiple projects, developed by different contributors with different goals and agendas. Hell, Redguides isn't even the only place you can get MQ2. The development is not centralized so any attempt to enforce "standards" is just going to lead to resentment and arguments. Not to mention, will stifle creativity by preventing contributors from exploring other options and things that don't "fit the mold." It's also incumbent on the end user to make decisions with regards to their own personal setup. Take what you need, what you find interesting and discard the rest. You don't have to learn everything, I certainly haven't. There are certain things here on RG that I just never look at because it's not part of my setup. This is modular software, not massive bloatware.
 
I disagree with you on the EQBCS side. If the PLUGIN had multiple versions then I might believe that it was just different forks doing different things. But it's one plugin and a bunch of different servers that interact with the same plugin.
 
Thank you all (or is it yall) for the incite. Please don't stop doing all the great works here. I think that I was getting frustrated trying to find set ups and different macros. Trying to sift through all the knowledge that is here is a bit much. I just thought that if things were put together in groups like folks that like and use EQBCS can go and look at this area. Folks that like and use DanNet can look here and find what they need. Folks that like and want to work on conditions can go here and no one has to spend hours and days reading everything (I do but thats beside the point) just to find out how to do something.

When I say standardize what I was trying to say was gather like things into a group and then have different groups to go to. Please don't get me wrong I like the flow of ideas and like to see how others look at a task and come up with a solution. I guess I was thinking more of Organize the knowledge than say you have to do it this way...

Again I thank you all and please keep sharing the Ideas and Knowledge.
 
Thank you all (or is it yall) for the incite. Please don't stop doing all the great works here. I think that I was getting frustrated trying to find set ups and different macros. Trying to sift through all the knowledge that is here is a bit much. I just thought that if things were put together in groups like folks that like and use EQBCS can go and look at this area. Folks that like and use DanNet can look here and find what they need. Folks that like and want to work on conditions can go here and no one has to spend hours and days reading everything (I do but thats beside the point) just to find out how to do something.

When I say standardize what I was trying to say was gather like things into a group and then have different groups to go to. Please don't get me wrong I like the flow of ideas and like to see how others look at a task and come up with a solution. I guess I was thinking more of Organize the knowledge than say you have to do it this way...

Again I thank you all and please keep sharing the Ideas and Knowledge.
it gets easier, i promise!

there is so much to take in, especially when its so exciting and you just want to DO ALL TEH THINGS!
 
Request - Standardize Maros, Conditions, Usage and Everything else.

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