Web-based Character DB for FFXI?

[Okuza]

A long time ago, I thought I had seen a nice FFXI-oriented player database tool for linking to a forum. I tried a bit of web hunting and only came up with this so far: Senobeya's FFXI DB

The one I recall seeing had features similar to Seno's plus it also had scheduling data (typical online times and events) and a pretty nice search function -- like "search for players available wed. night that still need rank 7-2 fight for sandy" (this was pre-COP by a lot). I remember thinking "Hmm, this would be a really nice tool for helping run a shell" and bookmarking for later.

Unfortunately, either my memory is faulty and I never bookmarked it or it got lost in one of my bookmark cleanups. I was hoping that some of you out there might know of other similar tools either with or without an FFXI slant. The scheduling data is particularly nice to have. I think I'd rather add FFXI fields and pages to a good general-purpose tool or one from another game that had this kind of feature than try to hack up Seno's and add search & schedule there.

If any of y'all know of such a tool out there, please post a link. ^^

[Ahnuld]

It looks cool.

[weeee]

*a lot* of japanese use this + a BBS board.

Even the korean FFXI site uses this(ffxizone.com in case of you never knew there was a korean website for ffxi )

It never got popular with NA's

[Foustian]

I haven't used this or even know anything about it really, but based on the description it seems kinda like what you're asking for.

LinkshellLeaderPro

[Okuza]

Thanks -- I'll look into it. I'm hoping it's something that people can use to do their own character updates wrt. flags, schedule, & such. Running a die-hard shell is easy (everyone is always on) -- casual shell is rough with all the schedule juggling unless you want to bloat it up to 100 people and sometimes end up saying "uh, sorry, you can't come to <event>, we're full."

[Dark Vincent]

http://www.ffxiparty.com/

This is one I found when I started playing even

[shotgn]

The most important things for a site like this to have success are:

1. Large userbase
2. Idiot-proof interface
3. Updated in real-time

in that order.

No site has achieved these goals, hence we're still stuck with ingame LFP functionality.

I still say ffxiah.com should implement functionality for bazaar searching and LFP searching on multiple jobs (i don't think event scheduling is "killer app" enough for this), because they, like Google, already have the captive audience (#1) - all they need to do is write the code (#2 and #3).

However, writing the interface properly for this to work (i.e. getting the moronic population of ffxi to adopt it en masse) is tricky, and they'd probably do it wrong, thus causing the initial venture to be a failure, and thus shelving any prospect of getting this to actually work for months if ever.

[Matricide]

the reason ffxiah works is because the auction house is able to be queried without the client and assumingly without encryption/keys that POL generates.

i'm guessing the other things you are talking about are not that readily available and accessible.

[spooky]

the reason ffxiah works is because the auction house is able to be queried without the client and assumingly without encryption/keys that POL generates.

i'm guessing the other things you are talking about are not that readily available and accessible.

Yep, that's why DDoS attacks are always on search / AH, because they are such an easy target.

[shotgn]

In the spirit of this thread, I meant a LFP/bazaar database consisting of user contributions. Was just saying that ffxiah.com already is popular enough to have the critical mass to make a user-contributed "bulletin board" worthwhile for these two uses.

My point was that up til now no site that has attempted an event scheduling database/bulletin board or anything similar (and there are many) has succeeded, simply because they didn't have a broad enough user base to start with. They didn't have the foundation. Ffxiah.com does. (So does alla, probably, judging by how fast people respond to threads on there.)

[Senoska]

LinkshellLeaderPro [the program I run] is for linkshell leaders more then members. I wanted to make it a client/server type of thing were a leader would set up logins for their members to download their stats but I have absolutly no idea how to do this. Im not really sure what your looking for beyond that.

[yukijin]

I actually remember seeing something like that, but unfortunatly I dont remember what was its name. I'm looking fot it as well

[Sykes]

Most of the linkshells I know of either use a system custom coded by one of their own members, or they adapt a DKP system designed for other games to FFXI.

I don't know of any web-based databases specifically for FFXI that are public except for the one you listed. I guess most people just don't want to release their code (I know that I'm to embarassed by my own code to release ours XD).

[Okuza]

An LFP scheduling tool would be nice, but unfortunately I think it's doomed to fail. You'd have to be able to access it from game for it to really work.

BTW, FFXIparty.com was an interesting idea when it happened. He got the localization idea right, but the UI has no calendar. It's a list. Instant failure for any event scheduling tool that has no calendar-oriented UI.

The ideal would be something like Magelo/EQrankings (for EQ) or Thottbot (for WoW) that could auto-update an entire character (all levels, all quest status, etc) and just let the user fill in scheduling details -- things like "typically LFP mtw 7pm-10pm for xp on drg" or "will drop anything to do PM6-4".

The autoupdate aspect is highly unlikely to really get moving in FFXI. It would be like announcing on a web-site "ban me for 3rd party tool use!" The DB aspect of Senobeya's FFXI DB is nice, but there's no search. Each user can keep himself updated -- so doesn't require the leader to babysit everyone and update them himself. Looks like best bet might be to do my own or modify that one; what I want most is to be able to find out "who's missing which dynamis flag and which of our two days are they available." It's becoming irksome to do a run on one day and then hear "/cry, my best friend soandso needs this flag and can only play on [the other day]".

[Aladwar]

ShirtNinjas, a Linkshell on Pheonix/Shiva has a fucking amazing character manager that allows the user to create numerous gear, mission, etc. profiles. It makes me cry, being that it's server-onry.

I'd kill to have a FFXI-wide, free character profile site. That would own some serious ass.

[Okuza]

I just checked the shirtninjas.com site and you're right about that DB -- it's very nice indeed. I wonder if he'd do a GNU-style license release for the code? Obviously asking him to open it to the entire ffxi public is too much. His bandwidth and storage needs would go up dramatically.

[yayaok]

weeee, you on ffxizone? 한국분이면 말해주세요 ㅎㅎ

[weeee]

no korean fonts at work
yayaok na ffxizone register ha neun deh, but i dont use it much. no mo lazy nom iya. I visit it from time to time though.

[shotgn]

An LFP scheduling tool would be nice, but unfortunately I think it's doomed to fail. You'd have to be able to access it from game for it to really work.

I disagree. It would be only targeting those people who either use windower or have access to another computer. However, given that LFP takes up such a large portion of actual FFXI playing time, I think the motivation to use such a site might be there.

For example, I'm pretty sure most crafters use windower or a separate machine to access websites while crafting. It's pretty indispensable. If you took this kind of attitude and got even half the playerbase to adopt it for LFP, it would be a godsend. It would only take a minute to put up your status on the page, or search it. But maybe I'm too much of an engineer and overestimate people's willingness to put in a little extra time to be efficient.

[Okuza]

I agree that the scheduling too concept is vital for any activity that relies so much on doing things as a group. FFXI has a very large incentive to do group based events -- from casual XP on up to HNM, all group things beat solo things for fun and effort:reward. Actually, IMHO, the order of importance for FFXI needs goes like this: UI -> scheduling -> RMT/CB removal -> extra content / job balancing / etc..

The problem with web-based is getting people to use it. Watching a forum like this or the crafting sites gives one a false impression about how much people use the web during play or even while offline. It turns out to be incredibly difficult just to get shell members to visit the shell forum and post their dynamis flag needs. Had web addy in lsmes for months. We keep telling people "post or no flag for joo!" and still we get folks that say "oh, I never knew there was a forum" or "how come we never do Bastok!?" (we did it last night!) "oh, I can only come on Sat.". Grrrr.

'Course, my supposition that a *web* based searchable DB would somehow magically help this situation might be a trifle optimistic.