Alistair Cray
Posts: 114
7/17/2015
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Delicious friends!
I have a confession to make. I'm a compulsive clicker.
After briefly looking at the results of an action, I tend to click away from it faster than I can read the description, immediately regretting this. Or the fact that I did not echo it to my journal.
As an experienced extensionsmith, I thought it logical to draft and assemble an automaton to keep a short log of last actions my character took. A sort of black box for Fallen London.. Or a secretary that keeps track of your affairs. It looks something like this:
Clicking the added sidebar button opens this interface, which is a scrollable log of the last few (aiming for 30-50) events/storylets/conclusions you've experienced.
Green arrows mark clickable points that will bring up the echo-to-journal interface for the corresponding event.
Some caveats:
- This extension is in very rough prototype stage. I'm not making it public at this point.
- This extension parses FL interface as best as it can. Nevertheless, there are always corner cases that it will not understand.
- For the same reason, it is very prone to breaking if/when Failbetter makes changes to Fallen London.
What is the purpose of this thread?
- To assess public interest in such an extension, in view of caveats above. Please share your feedback on this.
- To request some sort of assessment by Failbetter - whether this extension has a right to live or must not be made public.
With respect to that last point:
- The extension tries to uphold the spirit of "no automation" rule - it does not allow to automate any actions. Echoing still requires an explicit action and goes through the normal form.
- Ability to echo content that is already navigated away is equivalent to the player opening a new tab and then continuing to play from there, eventually clicking "Record this to my Journal" in the original tab - it works.
- It does not allow to echo/see content that was not seen by the player.
- It does not try to build a database of content - all records are ephemeral and only last in memory while FL is open, with a set limit on how far the history goes.
Judge away, fellow Londoners.
edited by Alistair Cray on 7/18/2015
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MrBurnside
Posts: 188
2/7/2016
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I'd missed this when it came around the first time. Sounds invaluable!
Nanako wrote:
I'm extremely interested, especially in those accurate CP counts.
I could use that to fill in a lot of blank spaces in the wiki
That hadn't occurred to me, but is a great idea.
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Alistair Cray
Posts: 114
2/9/2016
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Optimatum wrote:
I'd be interested in helping out if a few beta testers would make things easier.
Not at this point, but continued interest is noted; I'll try to get it into presentable, if buggy, shape.
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Alistair Cray
Posts: 114
5/8/2016
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"Good news, everyone!"
I have taken a stab at stitching the most gaping wounds in this extension's body, and I think I can give a sneak peek at it.
Disclaimers:
- THIS EXTENSION IS NOT, AT THIS STAGE, WHITELISTED BY FAILBETTER. USE AT OWN RISK.
- (That said, the only non-passive interaction with FL is (manually) echoing storylets).
- The extension is not in a finished state, and so may break in places and does not cover all corner cases.
- The extension is heavily reliant on specific markup structure of the page. If Failbetter changes it, extension may break spectacularly.
- This is only for Chrome, and probably will stay as such.
Are you cool with all of the above? Then download it here. (Note: this is unlisted in the Store, so it's only discoverable though this post)
Note: this is mostly intended as a tool for Wiki editors at this point.
Current functions:
- Maintain a log of last 50 events (storylet-branch-conclusion) you experienced in Fallen London.
- Provide ability to Echo (record to Journal) for said 50 events.
- Estimate the Change Points for quality changes.
- Quick access to the Wiki - from the log, or anywhere as a context menu option for text selection.
Planned:
- Keeping track of your Echoes, so you don't Echo the same content twice by accident.
- Improving CP prediction using known values.
- Fixing the longstanding bug with echoing "Quoted headers".
- More corner cases taken care of.
Feedback very much welcome.
edited by Alistair Cray on 5/8/2016
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Alistair Cray
Posts: 114
5/9/2016
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Some storylets do have images attached to them, but they are not show in the interface (not until you AJAX-request the Share dialog). Since I do not send any queries to FL servers, I can't guess what the image is. All information shown is best-effort at harvesting it from rendered UI.
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Refreshing is a known limitation as everything is kept in memory of the tab (as of now). I'm already thinking stuffing the history information in storage (keeping a limit) just for convenience.
The reason for the limit is, well, I do not want to attract the ire of Failbetter by compiling a copy of their texts en masse. I want to keep it 1) limited, 2) ephemeral. As such, I don't know if manual pinning would go against that spirit. Granted, I didn't have any feedback from them yet.
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Sulky bat is a bug I know about, but don't understand yet. Somehow the extension loses link between the event and the conclusion (and renders it as an event you didn't play and a conclusion that's "orphaned"). If you can find a non-Opportunity instance, it would help.
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Alistair Cray
Posts: 114
2/8/2016
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Sorry for the lack of response: I have this working, but it has a lot of corner cases and is in general messy. As such, it's not yet for public testing.
Note that CP counts are accurate if and only if no change of level occurred. The interface is buggy in case of level changes and I cannot reliably infer CP from that.
edited by Alistair Cray on 2/8/2016
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metasynthie
Posts: 645
7/17/2015
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Neat! I've definitely regretted clicking away too fast, and have missed reading some things like rare success descriptions as a result.
Any reason (perhaps logistical/technical) you removed the progress bars that show the amount of gain/loss of a quality, and the levels the quality is between? That's some of the most useful information to keep track of, IMO, since CP progress isn't displayed anywhere but in storylet results (except for Menaces and Attributes). If dealing with the animated bars is a pain, it might even be more useful to just display the CP numbers, which can be calculated pretty easily from the numbers that create the bar.
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Alistair Cray
Posts: 114
7/17/2015
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metasynthie wrote:
I think it still gives the initial percentage (it's the beginning of the animation, the % the bar is set to initially) but yeah, it doesn't give you the final amount, so it's impossible to tell exactly how much CP was earned. I don't think so. If I recall correctly, it always goes from 0% to 100% in this case.
metasynthie wrote:
However -- and here's the interesting thing about your Secretary -- if you change that quality in a subsequent action, the player could see the initial CP level of the second action, which is the final CP level of the previous change. Having multiple results tallied by the secretary would certainly help with that kind of record-keeping. I'd love to have a decent estimate of how beneficial saving souls and contracts as a Shephred really is, for instance.  That kind of state tracking, while possible, is beyond the scope of this idea. Also, it's bound to be inaccurate if the Secretary does not see all gameplay (e.g. you played on your phone for a bit, then continued on the desktop).
Don't get me wrong, I was initially thinking of precisely that - collecting reward statistics. But that's quite murky from the point of view of "no automation" rule.
edited by Alistair Cray on 7/17/2015
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Alistair Cray
Posts: 114
7/19/2015
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New screenshots. Extension now recognizes quality changes, challenges and special card borders.
When a quality goes over the level, it will show an estimate of CPs required:
Next up: timestamps and parsing requirements.
I'm still waiting on some kind of comment from Failbetter: whether I should scrap this or is it okay to make this public.
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OleanderPale
Posts: 6
7/19/2015
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Count me in as very interested. What the prior actions used or caused us to 'lose' would be interesting, too, but I don't know how feasible that is. Just spitballing.
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Okay with any actions that don't wound or kill me. May decline actions that lower MW, depending on how close Time The Healer is drawing.
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Kade Carrion (an_ocelot)
Posts: 1372
7/20/2015
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Also very interested!
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Possibly-Useful Things: Spreadsheets and hints and link collections, oh my.
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metasynthie
Posts: 645
7/20/2015
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Those CP counts look great and useful!
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http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/metasynthie
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genesis
Posts: 924
7/20/2015
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This looks great! Is this script currently (or with minimal effort) able to display things like Airs of London values that have been changed?
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http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/mikey_thinkin
Keeping track of incomplete content and loose ends in Fallen London
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Alistair Cray
Posts: 114
7/20/2015
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genesis wrote:
This looks great! Is this script currently (or with minimal effort) able to display things like Airs of London values that have been changed?
Sadly, no. The interface simply does not contain the information about exact levels of Airs, Bundles, etc. And I will not do additional queries for qualities - that's too invasive. My aim is to be a passive observer (except for the echo to journal commands).
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Quilster
Posts: 25
7/22/2015
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How very interesting. I admit I share your failing of too-quick-clicking and the second-too-late wait, what? I am, perhaps, a bit too green in the game to benefit much from your add-on, but am curious nevertheless.
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fallenlondon.com/Profile/Quilster will reach me.
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Eru Illuvatar
Posts: 65
7/22/2015
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Another interested citizen, checking in!
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Eru Illuvatar - Acceptor of social actions! Do-er of things! Collector of shiny objects!
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Optimatum
Posts: 3666
2/7/2016
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Indeed, is this something you continued to work on or was it abandoned for whatever reasons?
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Optimatum, a ruthless and merciful gentleman. No plant battles, Affluent Photographer requests, or healing offers; all other social actions welcome.
 Want a sip of Cider? Just say hi!
PM me for information enigmatic or Fated. Though the forum please, not FL itself.
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metasynthie
Posts: 645
7/17/2015
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Just checked on a couple different qualities -- it does start at the correct initial percentage and then animate to 100%, at least when raising qualities to a new level.
I definitely think you're right not to expand your scope to have the extension keep track of more than what the game is reporting! To clarify, I was just thinking it'd be useful (for human-performed non-automated tracking) if the CP % given by the game were recorded by the Secretary, for humans to do what they will with. (Write them down, put them on a wiki, forget that you were trying to keep track of it and go off to play on your phone, etc.)
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http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/metasynthie
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Erika
Posts: 528
7/18/2015
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For reference: I would be quite interested in a thing like this, even more so if it could state the amount of CPs I had at various points in time. I wouldn't need it to track the difference between actions either, that could be manually recorded with ease.
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 Where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep.
Going on a fate expedition? I'm collecting data! Help me?
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Alistair Cray
Posts: 114
7/18/2015
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metasynthie wrote:
I think it still gives the initial percentage (it's the beginning of the animation, the % the bar is set to initially) but yeah, it doesn't give you the final amount, so it's impossible to tell exactly how much CP was earned. Unfortunately, this does not seem to contain exact information about the CP level "before", or is bugged. I tested it with +3CP increases from 60+49CP, 60+48CP, 60+47CP, and all corresponded to animating from 98% to 100%.
It would actually be easier to learn the final CP than the initial CP, now that I look at it closely.
Still, I think it's way too much (guess)work for the scope of this extension.
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metasynthie
Posts: 645
7/18/2015
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Oh, how annoying! I tested it with an 3 CP increase from 58+49 CP and got the same 98%, but figured it was correct in that case. Also tested it with a 3 CP increase from 6+5 CP and it went properly from 71% to 100%, so perhaps it's something buggy about certain increases. I can definitely see what you mean about the guesswork. Sorry to be a bother!
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Alistair Cray
Posts: 114
7/17/2015
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metasynthie wrote:
Any reason (perhaps logistical/technical) you removed the progress bars that show the amount of gain/loss of a quality, and the levels the quality is between? That's some of the most useful information to keep track of, IMO, since CP progress isn't displayed anywhere but in storylet results (except for Menaces and Attributes). If dealing with the animated bars is a pain, it might even be more useful to just display the CP numbers, which can be calculated pretty easily from the numbers that create the bar.
It's quite rough at the moment, like I said. Some things are not parsed, like the quality progress.
Do note: it's impossible to calculate how many CP you received if you jumped up or down a level. FL simply does not tell the initial and final fractional result, only the levels.
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metasynthie
Posts: 645
7/17/2015
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I think it still gives the initial percentage (it's the beginning of the animation, the % the bar is set to initially) but yeah, it doesn't give you the final amount, so it's impossible to tell exactly how much CP was earned.
However -- and here's the interesting thing about your Secretary -- if you change that quality in a subsequent action, the player could see the initial CP level of the second action, which is the final CP level of the previous change. Having multiple results tallied by the secretary would certainly help with that kind of record-keeping. I'd love to have a decent estimate of how beneficial saving souls and contracts as a Shephred really is, for instance.
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Positively antique
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/metasynthie
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Optimatum
Posts: 3666
2/9/2016
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I'd be interested in helping out if a few beta testers would make things easier.
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Optimatum, a ruthless and merciful gentleman. No plant battles, Affluent Photographer requests, or healing offers; all other social actions welcome.
Want a sip of Cider? Just say hi!
PM me for information enigmatic or Fated. Though the forum please, not FL itself.
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domonju
Posts: 6
2/9/2016
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I'd be interested in this!
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Corran
Posts: 401
2/9/2016
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I am very, very interested in this.
Way too often I forget to echo things, I keep double checking if I did in the monthly stories; this would help so much.
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Erika
Posts: 528
5/10/2016
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Alistair Cray wrote:
Sulky bat is a bug I know about, but don't understand yet. Somehow the extension loses link between the event and the conclusion (and renders it as an event you didn't play and a conclusion that's "orphaned"). If you can find a non-Opportunity instance, it would help.
Ahaha! Found one: http://i.imgur.com/KqbSope.png
It didn't grab the branch event either.
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Where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep.
Going on a fate expedition? I'm collecting data! Help me?
"Bottles of Oblivion" drunk in the name of content: 57
Catboxes (send more!) opened in the name of science: 1093
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Alistair Cray
Posts: 114
5/26/2016
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And I caught the bug. Now I feel very silly.
if (lastContentId & currentBranch) {
No wonder it wasn't easy to reproduce - random couple of numbers is likely (~97% for IDs that Fallen London uses) to give non-zero bitwise AND..
A bugfix has been published. That's all the changes for now, hopefully I'll get some time to work on this further.
edited by Alistair Cray on 5/26/2016
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Erika
Posts: 528
5/9/2016
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Alistair Cray wrote:
Note: this is mostly intended as a tool for Wiki editors at this point.
Ahahah! Yes! I'm using chrome now and this extension had completely slipped my mind. This is going to come in handy.
My feedback:
It looks great.
Recording change points yes please.
I can't see the images for MUST storylets.
The record button isn't doing anything, is there something I'm doing wrong?
The wiki context menu is great, I use something something similar: http://i.imgur.com/zaEHvyW.png but this is going to be a welcome addition.
It'd be nice to pin some of the events up the top, to make prevent losing any events before we can add them to the wiki.
I think it should be noted that echoing content will preserve current location, not the location where the echo took place (which is how I did this: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/8?fromEchoId=8104603)
And a very minor pet peeve: I personally think cp looks better/makes more sense when written as 5-3 CP rather than 5+3 CP, but again, minor pet peeve.
edited by Cecil on 5/9/2016
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Where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep.
Going on a fate expedition? I'm collecting data! Help me?
"Bottles of Oblivion" drunk in the name of content: 57
Catboxes (send more!) opened in the name of science: 1093
Fancy a friend?
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Erika
Posts: 528
5/9/2016
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Alistair Cray wrote:
Cecil wrote:
I can't see the images for MUST storylets.
It'd be nice to pin some of the events up the top, to make prevent losing any events before we can add them to the wiki.
I don't understand you here, can you explain better?
In the case of dying by wounds 8, there's a MUST storylet that you instantly move to upon reaching the requirements, in this situation you can't normally see the storylet image, the same thing happens with most redirects. It's still possible to see the image though, if you go to record the storylet (or card in some cases). Exceptional Stories tend to have a bunch of MUST storylets in them.
By pin events, I mean preserve them from being pushed out of the buffer of 50. (does that help?)
Cecil wrote:
I think it should be noted that echoing content will preserve current location, not the location where the echo took place (which is how I did this: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/8?fromEchoId=8104603 )
Oh wow, that's nasty. There's nothing I can do about it though.
No! Of course not, it's just how Fallen London works,
Also, here's a bug: http://i.imgur.com/78XiF7H.png
The Sulky Bat card is greyed out like I didn't do it, where clearly I did.
And another: Refreshing also clears the contents of my Secretary out (and logging into a new account appears to require a refresh in order for my secretary to work).
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Where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep.
Going on a fate expedition? I'm collecting data! Help me?
"Bottles of Oblivion" drunk in the name of content: 57
Catboxes (send more!) opened in the name of science: 1093
Fancy a friend?
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