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    Haveing a friends list tied to the game or starmadedock so we can know when or friends are online. Because some people don't buy the game off steam.
     
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    You can follow members of the community, and they pop up as larger users in the 'online now' list.
     
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    He means that the game should be tied with the Dock. So, you can see if people are playing Starmade and on which server (or SP).
     
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    That's not something that can be done, afaik.​
     

    MossyStone48

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    If it is done it should be done through the registry. Then it would tie-in better with the launcher and client.

    If implemented correctly it could allow a trusted friend to join the same server easily. With some of the recoding happening right now it might even be possible that it would play well with steam's system as well.

    Forgive me for waxing romantic but I'd love to enable a discord tie-in that would allow some voice chat options working from within starmade. That and discord's devs announced video chat coming to discord soon. It would be out of this world to see someone's face pop-up when they talk like you used to see in the old space combat games. Hell I'd be happy just to see the profile picture pop-up.
     

    jayman38

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    Here's a theory on how it might work:

    1. When logging into Starmade with your registry account, after checking the account's authenticity, the registry could send a datagram to the game with a "temporary" code key and an expiration date/time.
    2. Every time a player logs into or disconnects from a server, the game sends a datagram with the server address, the temporary code key, current time, and the connection status (connected/disconnected). This would allow the registry to direct "friends" to play with this player or to do anything where the player's "location" (current server) is important, like blacklisted/whitelisted servers.
    3. About 5 minutes before the temporary code key expires, the game sends a datagram to the registry with the original temporary code key and a request for a refresh. At this point, the registry sends a new temporary code key and expiration time back to the game. For that five minute window, either temporary code key will reference that particular player. This will ensure that lag will not cause the wrong temporary code key to fail a datagram as an "imposter".

    With that, the registry can track your details and if/when a "friend list" is implemented, friends can use the registry's knowledge of the player's "location" (which server, or none) and allow friends to join in at will.

    The temporary code key should ensure that imposters can't send incorrect data to the registry via handcrafted datagrams, unless they snoop the temporary code key when it is originally sent from the registry to the player. Whenever it is sent, the legitimate code key should be encrypted in such a way that it can always be decrypted back to the original code key. A specific passcode or encryption key (as random and temporary as the code key) should be sent along with the temporary code key by the registry, to ensure that it can be reliably encrypted by the client, and only decrypted by the registry.

    This process can theoretically be programmed by the website developer and the launcher developer in tandem, instead of the core game developer. (Schema) The core developer could then easily implement a quick server-connect/server-disconnect hook to send the datagram for server connections, using processes developed by the other two developers.

    Edit: maybe have a client setting or two for this process, and if you want more privacy, the "guest" login should stop this key and location exchange from happening at all.
     

    Lone_Puppy

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    This is something I've wanted for a long time too.

    The registry should already have the particular game server detail since the auth request is coming from there.

    All it needs is additional data collection for user, server and faction stats. Then you could build a bunch of auth based connectio interfaces for discord, facebook, G+ or whatever.
     
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    In theory it could be done with a login API, although I doubt something like that would be a priority.

    Although its a good idea I don't see any reason why not.