Can we get a Phone App for Crew Skills please?

[robotkar]

dump

[arestesian]

WoW had an app that let you use the AH from your phone. This is no different really.

 

It's very different.

You could only if I remember right re-post auctions and collect money and auction things that were already present in your inventory.

 

This would let you gather items instead of just acquire or sell items that were already in the GTN or your inventory

 

Personally I think it's a bad idea because it lets you automate the gathering side of the economy. That being said I wouldn't have a problem with a remote GTN app.

[ColonelKer-Nal]

It's very different.

You could only if I remember right re-post auctions and collect money and auction things that were already present in your inventory.

 

This would let you gather items instead of just acquire or sell items that were already in the GTN or your inventory

 

Personally I think it's a bad idea because it lets you automate the gathering side of the economy. That being said I wouldn't have a problem with a remote GTN app.

 

How would this automate anything? It would allow you to play when you were not at your PC.

 

Nothing is automated. User interaction is still required on a regular basis.

[arestesian]

How would this automate anything? It would allow you to play when you were not at your PC.

 

Nothing is automated. User interaction is still required on a regular basis.

 

Sorry about that got distracted and only posted well, nothing resembling logic why for that jump.

 

Here's my logic for it allowing automation, though I may just be foaming at the mouth.

 

The smart phone app if it allows gathering would have to do one of two things in regards to the idle timer in game. It would either have to require a login for every action and not keep the session live (more then a bit annoying, based on experiences with similar apps for other things)

Or not use the timer, because there would be no character movement to reset the timer and the crew skill missions begin to have fairly long wait times in comparison to the idle at about the 17-25 mission level range and up.

There may be other workable options but I can't think of them off hand.

 

This would make it very easy to write a program that fakes screen presses and automates the gathering process.

The one way I can see to avoid this would be to force the smart phone app to send the data over the cellular connection and not allow the wifi data connection, but I don't know enough about the various phone operating systems know how realistic of a solution this would be across different (or any) phone platforms.

 

From the effect on the game economy side:

Allowing gathering by phone would result in the same end result as automated gathering.

As gathering stand now - unless you're in a group generally you have a companion out assisting you in game.

That means at the beginning of the game effectively you have 0 companions to send out while running missions, then when you get your second companion you have 1 etc.

With a remote app that allows gathering it removes this effective limit on gathering.

Also crew skill maximums are not tied to your level, (One of my characters is at 400 slicing and isn't level 25 yet.).

This fact combined with a remote app that allows gathering has the potential to make commercial level farming trivial, because you would not have to be in game to gather. Since slicing generates money suddenly you have to potential for hyperinflation of prices for auctioned items. The math is in various slicing guides and charts, some slicing missions are guaranteed money not large quantities but small amounts over very long amounts of time 8 hours for example is a lot.

 

I hate to trot WOW out as the example, but I think they lucked out on the remote access side. Because WOW's gathering and crafting mechanics required player characters to be in specific locations in game it avoided these potential issues entirely.

 

For everyone that stuck with the post to the end, thanks.

[Kemedo]

I would really like the Devs to either:

 

a.) rework crew missions such that you can pick from the full list of missions available at your skill level (rather than getting random mission options) and then allow players to queue up at least 24 hours worth of missions.

 

or

 

b.) create a web app (with good coding to work/display well on smartphones) to allow players to assign crew missions, receive items from missions and RE items in inventory.

 

Also, whether they do anything along those lines with crew skill missions, I'd still like a web app to access GTN, post items to GTN, check in-game mail and receive items from GTN transactions.

 

That's what I'd like.

 

That! JUST THAT!

 

The Web App should run at PC AND tablets... But the first idea is the best to implement. Maybe avaliable this via Legacy

[ColonelKer-Nal]

Sorry about that got distracted and only posted well, nothing resembling logic why for that jump.

 

Here's my logic for it allowing automation, though I may just be foaming at the mouth.

 

The smart phone app if it allows gathering would have to do one of two things in regards to the idle timer in game. It would either have to require a login for every action and not keep the session live (more then a bit annoying, based on experiences with similar apps for other things)

Or not use the timer, because there would be no character movement to reset the timer and the crew skill missions begin to have fairly long wait times in comparison to the idle at about the 17-25 mission level range and up.

There may be other workable options but I can't think of them off hand.

 

This would make it very easy to write a program that fakes screen presses and automates the gathering process.

The one way I can see to avoid this would be to force the smart phone app to send the data over the cellular connection and not allow the wifi data connection, but I don't know enough about the various phone operating systems know how realistic of a solution this would be across different (or any) phone platforms.

 

From the effect on the game economy side:

Allowing gathering by phone would result in the same end result as automated gathering.

As gathering stand now - unless you're in a group generally you have a companion out assisting you in game.

That means at the beginning of the game effectively you have 0 companions to send out while running missions, then when you get your second companion you have 1 etc.

With a remote app that allows gathering it removes this effective limit on gathering.

Also crew skill maximums are not tied to your level, (One of my characters is at 400 slicing and isn't level 25 yet.).

This fact combined with a remote app that allows gathering has the potential to make commercial level farming trivial, because you would not have to be in game to gather. Since slicing generates money suddenly you have to potential for hyperinflation of prices for auctioned items. The math is in various slicing guides and charts, some slicing missions are guaranteed money not large quantities but small amounts over very long amounts of time 8 hours for example is a lot.

 

I hate to trot WOW out as the example, but I think they lucked out on the remote access side. Because WOW's gathering and crafting mechanics required player characters to be in specific locations in game it avoided these potential issues entirely.

 

For everyone that stuck with the post to the end, thanks.

As for your first issue, give the connection a 15 minute (or whatever the default in-game) time out. So as long as your crew skill missions take less than 15 minutes you won't be logged out of the game. And yes, I do support that you MUST be logged in and get logged out. This should not be a persistent connection.

 

Missions cost credits, and it is far more cost effective to gather basic mats from nodes than missions. So that's a limiting factor, but not much of one for someone at the level cap. Disallowing REing would make inventory space a limiting factor, but I would hate to see that approach taken.

 

However, I just don't see a surplus of mats, or even finished goods, breaking the game economy. Ultimately you only have 50 GTN slots anyway.

 

Even if the app allows GTN access increased supply can only drive prices down. And with mats being available only through missions (and possibly GTN purchase) that will drive crafting costs up (a bit anyway). So I see it as a wash.

[Alife]

Those complaining that it's discriminatory towards those who lack the smart phone/tablet need to consider that, using the same logic, it's discriminatory that some people are able to play upwards of 10 hours a day when I, and many others, have adult commitments which some of the neckbeards lack.

[arestesian]

As for your first issue, give the connection a 15 minute (or whatever the default in-game) time out. So as long as your crew skill missions take less than 15 minutes you won't be logged out of the game. And yes, I do support that you MUST be logged in and get logged out. This should not be a persistent connection.

 

Missions cost credits, and it is far more cost effective to gather basic mats from nodes than missions. So that's a limiting factor, but not much of one for someone at the level cap. Disallowing REing would make inventory space a limiting factor, but I would hate to see that approach taken.

 

However, I just don't see a surplus of mats, or even finished goods, breaking the game economy. Ultimately you only have 50 GTN slots anyway.

 

Even if the app allows GTN access increased supply can only drive prices down. And with mats being available only through missions (and possibly GTN purchase) that will drive crafting costs up (a bit anyway). So I see it as a wash.

 

I can agree with those points. I guess the only spoiler would be the slicing profession generating credits, though not allowing the lock boxes to be opened in inventory through the interface would get around that.

 

Hrmm, guess you have a convert at this point. What you said largely makes sense.

[Nathaen]

There already is a phone app, you guys don't look very hard at all. Just go to http://www.hypercanestudios.com and check it out. I've been using it for a couple months now. Works great at work for crew skills, just added chat features I think.

[psandak]

haven't read through all posts so I do not know if this has been mentioned yet...

 

WoW did something similar with the Auction House app in that game. For a real world fee, one could work the auction house on there smart phone. The fee was the limiting factor. It was not very high but it was a monthly charge. the same thing could be done with a crew skill app. So the functionality is possible and it would not throw off a server's economy as much as some claim.

 

However, the WoW AH app only came out a couple of years ago now; easily 4+ years after release. Granted when WoW first came out smartphones were not as ubiquitous as they are now, but it also took them a long time to figure out how to get the system working properly.

 

My point is, considering all the "more important" issues that need resolving, I would not expect a crew skill app anytime soon.

[Azure_Prower]

Please don't turn this game into WoW.

[ColonelKer-Nal]

Please don't turn this game into WoW.

 

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

That ship sailed a long time ago.

[nameisimmaterial]

I just read this entire thread.

Why do people whine on the internet?

 

My thoughts:

A website with a mobile interface.

No app. Too much of a head ache for Bioware.

Limits:

 

Longer missions, (from the web only) (slows farmers down, and legit users (people at work) wont be on the dot, starting a new mission as soon as the last one ends),

and/or

Costs more credits the more you send companions on missions, but cost goes down over time, (again from the web) (farmers make less profit).

[Kemedo]

My ideas:

 

1) No to access GTN/Mail via API/iPhone. So you still need to log in the game to get your sales or put things to sale, besides the App was only to crew skills.

 

2) The best way to avoid exploits in outside crew skills management is double the time for the missions AND crafts.

 

3) An authenticate system for every minute inactive. Like questions, a real log in/pw, or even captcha. This is boring as hell but it is trying to avoid bots.

 

4) The loot of the missions should occur when people log in the game via normal cliente, in a "area mission loot".

 

I know this is a long term debated post, but worth to post some ideas (originals or not) about this awesome feature...

 

Or simply keep as we are now, and don´t care about remote desktops third part software.

[ColonelKer-Nal]

1) No to access GTN/Mail via API/iPhone. So you still need to log in the game to get your sales or put things to sale, besides the App was only to crew skills.

 

Why or why not? What harm does it do to allow someone remote access to the GTN? Particularly since they can have that already with Splashtop, Teamviewer, etc?

 

2) The best way to avoid exploits in outside crew skills management is double the time for the missions AND crafts.

 

What possible exploits? Generic fearmongering gets you no respect, please be specific.

 

Some people can play 4 hours a night, some can play 4 hours a week. Why should I be penalized for trying to keep my crew busy when I'm working a bunch of OT?

 

3) An authenticate system for every minute inactive. Like questions, a real log in/pw, or even captcha. This is boring as hell but it is trying to avoid bots.

 

What bots? It's far easier to write a bot for Windows than for Android. This is another generic FUD attempt. Besides, the whole point of having access on your mobile device is to perform these tasks manually! Seriously, the point is not to carry a bot with you (when it would be so much easier to set up on your Windows system) but to manually keep your crew busy.

 

Full login, including security key if you use one, and the default time out for inactivity should be sufficient for security.

 

4) The loot of the missions should occur when people log in the game via normal cliente, in a "area mission loot".

 

Again, why? What are you hoping to prevent here?

[Dalmorn]

I just read this entire thread.

Why do people whine on the internet?

 

My thoughts:

A website with a mobile interface.

No app. Too much of a head ache for Bioware.

Limits:

 

Longer missions, (from the web only) (slows farmers down, and legit users (people at work) wont be on the dot, starting a new mission as soon as the last one ends),

and/or

Costs more credits the more you send companions on missions, but cost goes down over time, (again from the web) (farmers make less profit).

 

Limits? Yeah, thats real smart and will really help the casual player. Sorry, but no way no how, terrible idea. Like SWTOR has a problem with BOTs or spammers now, cause it don't, this isn't AION or WOW. However, being able to manage crewskills from the SWTOR website would be fine.

 

Anyway, Teamviewer is another good one for remoting in to your PC from your Iphone/Android and doing crewskils.

Edited March 28, 2012 by Dalmorn

[Rookss]

You can already accomplish this by setting up Remote Desktop via one of the many apps available on iPhone and Android. I realize a good portion of people aren't technically savvy enough to do it, but this is a good reason to learn (which I am all for. Can never have enough techy people in the world.)

 

As for BioWare creating an app for use instead - that'd be great.. But I am fairly certain they have more than enough other things on their plate than to worry about this. If/When an API is released for add-ons, it's possible we'll get some mobile functionality and someone can create one. (The person who said it would be difficult doesn't know what they are talking about.) This would basically be a graphics-light button pressing app. Insanely easy with an interface provided to BioWare login servers.

 

Anyways - I wouldn't hold your breath for it anytime soon, but i'd be 99% sure that this will EVENTUALLY happen. BioWare is all about quality-of-life improvements, and this falls in that category.