around the same time as betas, i imagine alphas will be with the NDA still as they will still be working on it and improving it. it would be unfair to scriptwriters if they made all these great scripts with their hard work and time only to have them not work on live due to fixes or changes made to the system, but once they are confident with how the feature works they will most likely let people know. so either betas or before exposition i would assume.

In my opinion, getting access to the code sooner will mean that the scripting community will be more advanced and have more discussion with the devs prior to launch. Also, if the engine changes then a scripter can change their code too, but you do bring up another point. Releasing an OPC script would probably mean releasing documentation for the soul born engine or a library or something which would create more work for them unless there's already an inhouse library or something.

I don't want to create more work for them, I'm just suggesting that maybe if not a script, then someone could tell me what kinds of code I'd need to be familiar with to write/modify a OPC script.

tldr; I want to know how hard OPC scripting will be.

Caspian said once, that OPC-Scripts will be in C# & Javascript. I don't know if this is still true. But if it's still true, you basically need to implement a Interface which one or more methods with the provided hooks. It should not be so hard for beginners to beginn with scripting, but to make really good scripts you will need some time.

I don't think that we will see the scripts soon, I think they will come to release or with the beta.

I guess I'm really just asking if anyone actually knows details about the scripts since speculating on how the code might work is pointless, for me at least.

I'm not sure if the devs read these very often...

There was also the answer that they don't want to let people do real programming work. I think it is more something like a macro editor where you can use some prebuilt blocks to built your so called script.

I'm sure by launch and probably by Beta that A spiffy UI will be included in the game so that there will be no need for non-technical folks to hire a programming staff to operate their OPC. ;-)

Oh, well that's actually kinda disappointing. That sorta answers my question though so thanks.

I'm not sure how it will work. However there are some games I know of where scripting is how you play. They are called Screeps and Codespells. Screeps uses Javascript to code your units to perform certain tasks, While Codespells uses a block based coding UI to create spells. It will likely be done something like this. Although that is purely speculation.

The more I have been looking at the OPC side of things, as unfortunately I do have a real life and cannot play this game all the time, I have been wondering how they would handle this for t he less tech advanced such as myself. I am happy to see that others are also looking at this, just from the opposite perspective.

I would hate to be at a disadvantage because I am not able to code or script. While that may be a draw for some, (the true MMORPG of coders and scripters everywhere) it does make an already niche game even "nichier" Very hard to mass market a game that requires the ability to make it to play it.

Hopefully for the sake of those of us who are so, "non-technically advantaged", the system will allow an equal playing field, while still letting those with the skills (and willingness to provide these essential services) a viable outlet, without it unbalancing the game.

If "scripts" become tradable for economic commodities within the game ( an OPC action has a monetary value or can be exchanged for a horse, or shoes, or horseshoes, etc.) then a ptw door gets opened, intentionally or not.

Posted By kajoreh at 11:28 AM - Tue Jan 17 2017

The more I have been looking at the OPC side of things, as unfortunately I do have a real life and cannot play this game all the time, I have been wondering how they would handle this for t he less tech advanced such as myself. I am happy to see that others are also looking at this, just from the opposite perspective.

I would hate to be at a disadvantage because I am not able to code or script. While that may be a draw for some, (the true MMORPG of coders and scripters everywhere) it does make an already niche game even "nichier" Very hard to mass market a game that requires the ability to make it to play it.

Hopefully for the sake of those of us who are so, "non-technically advantaged", the system will allow an equal playing field, while still letting those with the skills (and willingness to provide these essential services) a viable outlet, without it unbalancing the game.

If "scripts" become tradable for economic commodities within the game ( an OPC action has a monetary value or can be exchanged for a horse, or shoes, or horseshoes, etc.) then a ptw door gets opened, intentionally or not.

i can see that happening. i too am concerned about not having any knowledge of scripting. Lets hope for the best, and maybe the dev's will share the scripts that other players are creating.

Posted By Steedsurge at 8:44 PM - Mon Jan 23 2017

Posted By kajoreh at 11:28 AM - Tue Jan 17 2017

The more I have been looking at the OPC side of things, as unfortunately I do have a real life and cannot play this game all the time, I have been wondering how they would handle this for t he less tech advanced such as myself. I am happy to see that others are also looking at this, just from the opposite perspective.

I would hate to be at a disadvantage because I am not able to code or script. While that may be a draw for some, (the true MMORPG of coders and scripters everywhere) it does make an already niche game even "nichier" Very hard to mass market a game that requires the ability to make it to play it.

Hopefully for the sake of those of us who are so, "non-technically advantaged", the system will allow an equal playing field, while still letting those with the skills (and willingness to provide these essential services) a viable outlet, without it unbalancing the game.

If "scripts" become tradable for economic commodities within the game ( an OPC action has a monetary value or can be exchanged for a horse, or shoes, or horseshoes, etc.) then a ptw door gets opened, intentionally or not.

i can see that happening. i too am concerned about not having any knowledge of scripting. Lets hope for the best, and maybe the dev's will share the scripts that other players are creating.

I have heard that OPC scripts might be able to be traded in game, but only time would tell how valuable they'd be. Perhaps a skilled coder might commission a tailored script for a king in exchange for a house or make a large number of different scripts and sell them for some profit.

That said, I don't see how this would be pay to win(if that's what Kajoreh meant by ptw). Once the game launches, there will be no way to convert real world currency to direct in game benefit. Sure, the coder hasn't gained in game wealth by their in game skill, but they used one of their other skills to benefit another or many players, thus a transaction took place in game.

If by pay to win you mean that players with a lot of in game wealth will have an advantage over players with less in game wealth, then yeah. That's how MMOs work.

Also, I'm 100% sure there will be a serviceable number of free OPC scripts to choose from. I'm mainly talking about OPC scripts can be tailored to match certain character traits, perhaps I might want my OPC to be more bombastic and welcoming than the standard OPCs are, for example.

SBS have mentioned that if there was an OPC script that behaved more realistically then their NPCs, it wouldn't be too absurd for them to change their NPC's scripts to match that of the new OPC script(they're both AI after all and they work on in the same engine). There would obviously be some sort of relinquishment of the intellectual property rights of the coder so SBS would own the OPC script for all intents and purposes. There's also nothing stopping SBS from making a popular OPC script free after a while assuming that OPC scripts can be traded, though I'd imagine that they'd want to give the coder some sort of acknowledgement like a forum badge or something.

Lastly, OPC scripting might be a subtle way of incentivizing coders who might normally make EULA breaking scripts to instead make code that actually contributes to and benefits the community. If SBS handles it right it will literally make the game better for everyone.