I've taught myself enough VB.Net to program my calculator, and I'm pretty good at following directions if they're spelled out, but the decal programming is too complicated to just jump in for me.
I'm hoping there's a step-by-step set of instructions for beginner programmers like myself that could show me how to:
1) Create a decal plugin that intercepts/masks/creates text
2) Put the GUI into the plugin that would look as below
In case anyone is interested, below are the details of what I had in mind:
My hope is to be able to write an expanded friends list that allows an indefinite number of chars and asociates all sub chars with a main and allows a nickname like AKA. Ideally it would even intercept the chat and add the nickname in parentheses next to the character name e.g.:
The Delivery Man (Cleaner) says, "I wish I knew who my main was..."
or:
[General] The Delivery Man (Cleaner) says, "I wish I knew who my main was..."
So that once you know who a character is associated with and you add it in you'll know who's talking to you. It would work by adding and removing people from your actual friends list.
I envision it having a simple box interface with 2 tabs:
1) Who's Online: A list box with 4 columns 1 the nickname, 2 the actual character name, 3 online/offline and 4 Society. The box would be sorted the way current friends list are right now - I.e. alphabetically (by nickname) with the online chars listed up top.
The tab would also have an "Check Now" button so it doesn't constantly need to send checks. The program however would take note of the "XXXX has come online" and "offline" text from the game itself.
The list would look like quest timer and you could delete single lines off the list with a button after each name. At the bottom in addition to the "Check Now" button, there would be a line with 3 text boxes and an "Add Name" button. The 3 text boxes would be for the nickname, character name and Society.
The Society thing would be helpful for identifying PK's who are hiding their Society.
The list would update automatically when you first open the box but would need the button to recheck if you leave it on and people not on the core list, or who are not your patron or direct vassals, were going on- and offline.
2) Core Friends List: This tab will have a list box with all the names from tab 1. It will also allow editing of the list as above. The list however will be a checkbox list like Alinco's mob id list. This will set your core friends list and it will allow the same number of chars as the current AC list. In fact it will be your actual AC list that you see when you check with the native AC interface. This list will be sorted by those included on the list rather than who's online. After a "Check Now" button press, the list will be reset to the Core Friends List. This tab will have a "Set Now" button to make the changes after manipulation in the box.
Anyways, I could do this relatively quickly in regular VB.Net as none of it is really that complicated. The real problem is figuring out how to do it in Decal using VB.Net.
Cleaner
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The Cleaner - UA/XBow - Growing Naturally
Phage - Battlemage - Incubating in Col
Retired but lurk occasionally
Phage - Battlemage - Incubating in Col
Retired but lurk occasionally
The way that you make it sound, it'd have to "/friends_add friendname" and "/friends_remove friendname" every time you click on check.
