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Meghan “Patience” Rodberg was a special guest on Stuncast episode 5 released yesterday. Meghan announced (at about 37 minutes in) that LOTRO will be adding the use of Lua script to allow player created add-ons (called mods) for the game.

If you’re not aware, Lua is a programming language that allows someone to create a mod that alters the interface or even use information from the game depending on Turbine’s preferences. Scripts like this are widely used to create mods for World of Warcraft and other games.

Before you freak out let me give you my experience using mods in World of Warcraft. For the most part, they are wonderful and optional. Not all mods are winners but find the ones you like and work well and you’ve got yourself a great enhancement to your game! Blizzard even takes successful mods and incorporates their functions into the base game from time to time when they find a mod that works really well and really improves the player experience.

I want to stress that this will only work with the functions and information in LOTRO that Turbine allows. We will have to wait and see what information is released regarding programming specifically for LOTRO mods but this is big news!

There are many helpful Lua Programming booksavailable out there for Lua scripting that may help you if you are interested in learning the language. There are some books specific to World of Warcraft scripting which you may want to avoid until we’re clear on what rules Turbine will set for us.

I’m very curious to see what mods players can come up with!

We wanted to clarify a few things about the potential implementation of LUA scripting. As it stands right now, the LUA scripting ability is completely controlled by us and its use is limited.

The Framework API, which controls what can and cannot be done, is separated into two main functional areas. The Framework API provides the basic structure of the scripts (classes), UI creation (windows, buttons, images, etc.), and a controlled setting to receive input, events, and actions generated by the game. The Gameplay API provides access to internal gameplay systems. The first pass of the gameplay API includes access to your own character's vitals, the ability to interface with quickslots, and the methods for interacting with items in your inventory.

So what does this all mean? Right now, given the limitations we have in place, the “plugins” players can create are restricted to the above Gameplay API areas. They can change some of your UI elements, add built in HUDS and allow for things like a travel panel or a single window inventory bag. Our intent is to not allow players to make “plugins” that will give them any kind of advantage over other players. The main idea here is that LUA allows the players the ability to customize their user interface the way they want to.

We are going to handle things very carefully as we move forward; to be very clear, LUA Scripting is still in the early stages of testing and we don’t yet have a date for when the system will go live.

QQ Thread from the general forum (http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=343993)

I wonder how many of the doomsayers in there have actually been burned by guilds requiring them to install DBM, and how many of them are just repeating campfire tales.

I also like the part where people think that Auctioneer gives its users an "unfair" advantage over non-users.

Or that the reason they got excluded from the ICC 25 pug is because someone invented GearScore.

There's also an old-school grognard running around the thread saying that Omen and Recount and DBM are crutches that play the game for you. The thread could be kind of an interesting anthropological study.

Eh, I tend to agree with them too. Auctioneer is a good thing technically speaking (informed market), if it's used by everyone - otherwise it is fucking obviously an unfair advantage. It's like having a chainsaw at a woodchopping contest.

No, see, the "unfair" advantage doesn't just come from using Auctioneer. Without the addon, you can still run a search on the Auction House and see what everyone else is charging. And with the addon, you're not going to start being able to start buying low and selling high, without putting some effort (i.e. time) into it.

In order to obtain the "unfair" advantage, you have to spend a lot of time interacting with the AH. People will either do this or not do this regardless of the existence of the add-on. Auctioneer doesn't just hand out "market awareness". Market awareness comes from studying the market, which means spending a lot of time running searches and reading prices and god knows what else (I personally don't do this, I make most of my money via dailies and weeklies).

If you're having trouble making money on the AH, merely installing Auctioneer isn't going to help. It's not magic.

Being able to use Auctioneer might just extend my subscription time a bit. I love dealing with AH stuff, but it is fucking tedious as hell in LOTRO. I end up way underpricing things just to get them out of my inventory- I get more than I would from a vendor, but I know I am selling myself short. Just about everything about the LOTRO AH interface makes me stabby.

 :facepalm:

At present, those are:

    * Arbitrage - Determine if an item can be sold at another auction house for a profit, this includes cross-faction and cross-realm searches.
    * Converter - Determine whether items are posted that can be easily transformed into their other forms and sold at a profit. e.g. Greater Essences morphed into Lesser Essences.
    * Disenchant - Determine if an item is worth buying in order to disenchant with Enchanting.
    * EnchantMats - Determine if an item is worth buying in order to enchant with Enchanting.
    * General - A simple filter, for the most basic searches.
    * Milling - Determine if an item is worth buying in order to mill with Inscription.
    * Prospect - Determine if an item is worth buying in order to prospect with Jewelcrafting.
    * Resale - Determine if an item is priced such that you can bid or buyout the auction, relist, and potentially still make a profit.
    * Snatch - Determine if an item is worth buying in order to quickly purchase all such items on the auction house.
    * Vendor - Determine if a game NPC will purchase an item for more than the current list price- buyout, bid, or both.

Tell me that someone not using this can compete, it removes the need for any in game knowledge or effort.

Nope. Auctioneer is MAGIC compared to not using it. Normal users dont get the price history, or comparisons, or the ability to use bottom scanner (that got moved to its own app), that automates the thinking part of playing an auction house.

Tell me that someone not using this can compete, it removes the need for any in game knowledge or effort.

I don't give a damn about the unfair advantage, the default auction interface for LotRO is just plain shitty. The stuff that Auctioneer allows as far price histories and that sort of thing, whatever, I don't care. I just want the batch posting and such.


A) That's just not true. How are you going to get stuff to sell in the first place without ingame knowledge or effort?
B) Why would anyone not use it anyway? Having some hardline "oh I play the game without crutches" stance is ridiculous, the line between what goes into the base game interface and what the devs didn't feel like implementing as far as this stuff goes is awfully arbitrary.

In order to obtain the "unfair" advantage, you have to spend a lot of time interacting with the AH. People will either do this or not do this regardless of the existence of the add-on. Auctioneer doesn't just hand out "market awareness". Market awareness comes from studying the market, which means spending a lot of time running searches and reading prices and god knows what else (I personally don't do this, I make most of my money via dailies and weeklies).

How did I do it? Because I have a memory and can perform basic mathematical calculations. Additionally, a lot of the older players learned what items could be turned into what raw materials because we didn't have things like auctioneer.

STOP. DEFENDING. EVERYTHING.

I'm guessing you haven't used Auctioneer much

WTF? I actually do not like the possibilities lua scripting opens up.

STOP. DEFENDING. EVERYTHING.

If it means getting a UI that isn't total ass in nearly every respect in LotRO, I say BRING IT ON.

WoW failed for me at the point I realized that I wasn't playing the game, but rather the interface.  I'm tired of managing bars, counters, and cooldowns.  I want to watch my avatar and the world that it is in.  Anything that distracts me from that changes the game from one of adventure to a game of bar management.    

I still can't see why anyone would think interface modding/customization would be a Bad Thing.

There's no mod that plays the game for you. There's a limit on what you can compress into one button macros.

In a game with PvP and a global economy it severely unbalances the game in favor of those able to master the modding mini-game. 

With the breaking news of Lua’s introduction into The Lord of the Rings Online, we wanted to give you a brief history of how this system came about, what state it is in, and where we want it to go.

History:
To start, I will say that the primary driver behind introducing UI plugins is this: no single version of a UI element will ever be ideal for all players everywhere. What one player loves about part of the UI can send the player standing next to them reeling into a frothing rage of frustration. Knowing this, a small group of us got together last year and began investigating the possibility of adding a UI scripting system.

As several other games have used Lua successfully for UI scripting, we decided to look into it and were quickly able to get a prototype Lua UI scripting interface into our engine. Since then, we have gradually continued to develop the system alongside our other initiatives. Today, we are in the process of Beta testing the Lua UI scripting interface on our closed Beta preview servers.

Current State:
Many of you have been asking what this means when it goes live. This system has been implemented to allow players to override existing elements in the graphical user interface. The functionality available in its current state is small in scope but introduces a lot of fun UI possibilities. Our Lua-based UI plugin system exposes functionality through chunks of functionality referred to as “APIs.” In its current state, we have implemented the following APIs:

• Basic UI element creation (such as windows, text boxes, buttons, etc.)
• Quickslot information (allowing for additional quickslot arrangements for skills, items, etc.)
• Inventory UI information
• Your character’s morale/power information as well as what effects you currently have on you

To clarify, our implementation of Lua scripting in our game is not a macro-able/BOT-able interface. The system does not allow automated input such as mouse-clicks or macroing, nor does it allow automatic skill execution. Any UIs created through Lua scripts will still require human interaction to use.

We intend to continue heavy Beta testing on the Lua UI scripting system on the private test servers. There are several internal hurdles that remain to be cleared before the initial launch of the system and it is not yet guaranteed that “Lua in LOTRO” will launch in the Volume 3 Book 2 (F2P launch) timeframe. Much like our initial launch of QuestGuide or DX10, we will likely launch the feature as a public “beta” stage/“work in progress” as we continue to solidify and expand the initial functionality.

The Future:
As for our future plans for this, our intention is to continue to add more API functionality after the initial launch. For example, some of the popular requested APIs are: target, fellowship, and raid vitals, as well as vault functionality similar to the current API’s inventory functionality. The ultimate goal for this system is to allow players to legitimately customize their UI as a largely upgraded version of our current long-standing “UI skinning” tech. It’s all about the UI and letting players change it so the information we already expose in our current UI can be presented in different aesthetic fashions.

I hope this information clarifies what “Lua scripting” means for The Lord of the Rings Online. As we come closer to the actual launch, we will provide more information into the specifics of the system. We are very excited about this feature and look forward to the day when it goes live allowing players to have a much more customizable experience with our graphical interface.