EVE Technology Lab

So digging through some previous threads I can't really get a solid answer to this question. My understanding of the EULA says it is OK but I would like some confirmation. If a GM could reply that would be great.

So what I am looking to develop would be a local watcher. If someone with no or negative standing comes in it plays a noise to notify you.

No mouse movements
No automation of in-game movement/scrolling, activation of modules, etc.
No buttons are hit.
No modification of game files or logs. In fact I won't be using any game files or logs at all.
No reading of log files or any game files.
It would play a sound completely separate of the game.
It will not target the eve client specifically it will capture the whole screen or section of the screen it is set to. Anything in view in that area will be "captured".

It would monitor the screen(or subsection of the screen) for the specific standings icons and plays a noise if they are found. EULA talks about automation of ingame actions mostly but this isn't doing that.

If I developed it would it be safe to use?

Edit:

CCP, I would be more than willing to provide source code if someone would be interested in looking into it. I can code it without using the game by just using screenshots of standings icons or in game.

I believe you are talking about Bacon which used the logserver in a way that was not intended/supposed to be used. I have no intention of using any logs or files generated by eve.

More on bacon here at post 623 obviously that is no longer valid but it brings up how it worked.

i fail to see how this would change or modify the game content

on a side note i feel that a program like this would have a limited use as you can only have so much screen displaying local

A few years back I developed a local watcher which was then tied to an Arduino microcontroller to beep/flash if a hostile entered local doing the same thing as you are suggesting. I passed it along to CCP which soundly rejected it.

So, I don't believe you are going to be able to get something like this out there without angering CCP.

The correct thing you should read in the EULA is this point :



That's to say: if you make a software that provides to you, or any of its user, an unfair advantage / benefit from its use (such as "auto watch local in 0.0", "auto market notifier (if your order has been overbid)", etc.) you fall under this EULA rule and thus, you are "not" allowed to use it, as all other players will not have the same "feature" and benefit.

But at the end, i'd say, you can do what you want, as long as you know what you are doing and the risk involved for your account :)

I think I am safe from "unfair advantage". It really isn't much different than evemon that alerts you when your clone was out of date or your skill queue was about to end. You still have manually correct this just like you would for what I am building. The biggest difference is that it won't use api and that it will monitor the screen itself. Bacon was a similar program except it used log files. It was removed because it used those logs not for what it actually did. So I should be safe in that regard.

CCP: Is there anyone I could send source code to for you guys to look it over and determine where it would fall? The screen reader itself is open source and tailoring it to eve would the the only "hurdle" which would take all of 20 minutes to code.

Minus the bot part and add PVP that sentance would sound perfect... sooo like this ... This is basically a ratting and or threat alert program. You are trying to remove the human error of missing or not immediately seeing a threat enter local.

as the OP stated this is similar to what you would find with Evemon to help people remember to set there skill ques ....well thats human error correction

So? Bot is a genric term for any software that performs an automated task. EvEMon is a bot, market helpers like Elinore are bots, whatever your alliance uses to confirm you are in PL before joining private comms is a bot, and etc. All are allowed by CCP. What is your point? Unless you are trying to use the normal definition used by most people for games which is that it performs automated actions ingame then you are absolutely incorrect.

CCP also does not differentiate between a program intended for notifying someone to help them avoid a pvp situation or having being near to an empty skill queue. The end point is the same in that it notifies people if they are putting themselves into a bad situation but does not do anything to remove them from that situation.

Are you saying that something PVP related is any different and some how better then PVE ?

also it's not automating anything that the human eye can't do already it's just making things easier for lazy people such as Evemon or EVEHQ or EFT or Elinor, Evernus or any other 3rd party program designed to make things easier for Eve Client excluding those that automate your movements

No. It is not automating any action IN GAME. It does not warp you, it does not move you, it does not hit any keys, and it does not move the mouse. All it does is alert you which as far as I can tell from the EULA is not against it. What about out of game utilities like Garpa? That isn't information provided by CCP that is being used. Just because it isn't provided by CCP doesn't mean it is against the EULA. I am not sure why you keep bringing that up.

I don't foresee CCP every implementing this. I am not ignoring the negative effects it would have on game play. They just have zero bearing on what is considered EULA acceptable and not. Especially if it does not involve any form of cheating or automation of movement/flight/defenses/etc.

Can I petition CCP with a hypothetical? It is maybe an hour of basic coding away from being real but I won't build it fully until I am certain it won't get people banned. I can fully provide the source for the "image search".