Windower v4 Alpha

[Olo401]

This is a whole bunch of amazing shit right here.. A point/click interface for FFXI would bring the game at least on par with other modern MMOs for usability.

[shaddix]

Seeing as how the game does not send the status of player buffs/debuffs to all other players, everyone who utilizes something like having buffs/debuffs over their heads are going to all have to be using windower v4. As in you won't be able to point and click someones paralyze off if they are using ps2.

[levish]

early april fools? T_T (hope not)

[BRP]

When these ideas are physical, then I'll get excited about them. A list of ideas on a blog is going to be filled with some disappointment.

[SephYuyX]

Interesting, news to me as well.

However I thought Azaril quit working with the current Windower team, so are they now working together again, or will we be seeing 2 different windowers from now on?

I really hope we dont see multipule windowers, id rather like it if everyone was working on the same project. I hate choices, and it's just bad for the userbase in the end ;E

Though I see he is working with Starhawk, so thats good, but what about Aikar? It would be pretty salty if he wasnt included as he sort of took over as the 'frontman' after Azaril left. And now Azaril comes back to take it away? Granted Windower is Azaril's baby so he can do whatever, but it would suck if this would cause a split with developers going one way or the other. I guess it's a good sign it's being called Windower 4, and not the 'New Windower' or something.

[shaddix]

they are all together lol, hence it being windower 4, successor to 3, and not something completely different

[Sta]

I don't know much about coding and modding games. How would SE detect this? I mean.. everyone has been playing with TParty and dist plugins for years and nothing has happened, would this be more detectable?

Also, is there a rough completion date?

[ringthree]

At some point we should consider discussing the vast majority of the PC communities stance on windower. Windower as 90% of people use it is not bad. Yes, it violates the ToS but it is not to do very much more than anyone should/could expect from a modern MMO.

In essence, Aikar and the Windower team are keeping the game up to date. And the community has done a pretty much excellent job of not abusing the system.

Yes, there are botters, but those programs would exist with or without Windower. Botting is a completely separate issue from Windower, and conflating the issues does more harm to the natural progression of it's development than it does to prevent any abuses by botting.

Windower is also adjustable, in that you can decide how far you want to go, but in the end Aikar and team have acted as an awesome backstop against using the Windower platform as a means to do the truly bad things that very few of us want to see it used for.

I applaud Aikar and team's work. Please keep it up, and thank you very much for being the firebreak between those that want to use Windower for legitimate means and those that want to bot. Let them go blow $2500 for a slight increase in claiming Faf, and let the rest of us have valuable tools to play this game.

[BadKarma]

I was gonna install but i saw it doesnt work with V3 plugins ; ;.

I like my blinkmenot,yarnball and plasticsurgeon

[Destinye]

I don't know much about coding and modding games. How would SE detect this? I mean.. everyone has been playing with TParty and dist plugins for years and nothing has happened, would this be more detectable?

Also, is there a rough completion date?

"Nothing happens" because the 'TParty' plugin only displays data that is being fed to the client by default, but SE never "activated" it because really look at it..it clutters that poor little window.

[Unstable]

Yes, there are botters, but those programs would exist with or without Windower. Botting is a completely separate issue from Windower, and conflating the issues does more harm to the natural progression of it's development than it does to prevent any abuses by botting.

The best bots work with out windower >_>; As less CPU used = better reaction time from PC.

[byte]

Nice and stable so far, is there a way to force false-fullscreen like there was on 3.X?

This is my question too. Also, those ideas on the blog sound great and I think they all have potential. It'll be a shame if we don't see some of them becoming a reality .

[BadKarma]

yeah V4 doesnt even work on my computer. The POL viewer is all pixelated when i start it up, it doesnt say windower enabled and when i try to run FFXI it terminates and say my PC doesnt meet the specifications

[ronin sparthos]

At some point we should consider discussing the vast majority of the PC communities stance on windower. Windower as 90% of people use it is not bad. Yes, it violates the ToS but it is not to do very much more than anyone should/could expect from a modern MMO.

In essence, Aikar and the Windower team are keeping the game up to date. And the community has done a pretty much excellent job of not abusing the system.

Yes, there are botters, but those programs would exist with or without Windower. Botting is a completely separate issue from Windower, and conflating the issues does more harm to the natural progression of it's development than it does to prevent any abuses by botting.

Windower is also adjustable, in that you can decide how far you want to go, but in the end Aikar and team have acted as an awesome backstop against using the Windower platform as a means to do the truly bad things that very few of us want to see it used for.

I applaud Aikar and team's work. Please keep it up, and thank you very much for being the firebreak between those that want to use Windower for legitimate means and those that want to bot. Let them go blow $2500 for a slight increase in claiming Faf, and let the rest of us have valuable tools to play this game.

^

Windower devs are pretty much SEs "other" dev team.... you know, for the people that arent held back by the PS2/360.

Not every windower user cares for the most cutting-edge plugins or functions nor do they care to bot - some people just want a windower that isnt the ass backwards SE windower.

[Byrthnoth]

The "Too many people in endgame do it for it to be a bannable offense" defense is what got Salvage dupers banned. Still, as long as you want to play FFXI with windower or not at all, you might as well keep using it.

I mean, if you interpret the TOS literally then reverse engineering the game is a bannable offense. They could apply this to anything from windower (pretty undeniably reverse-engineering of their program) to the people who developed Accuracy and melee damage calculations. Everyone who has played the game and thought about what they were doing has committed a bannable offense according to the TOS. Everyone who has ever let someone else log in as them has committed a bannable offense according to the TOS. Everyone using a third party program has committed a bannable offense according to the TOS. Everyone who was banned once and started again has committed a bannable offense according to the TOS. In fact, there's no point in trying to steer clear of the TOS really because if SE wants they can ban everyone on the server with or without a reason.

Don't be shocked if they ban you all for using Windower just before Rapture comes out. But if they did that, all your friends would be gone too and there wouldn't be any reason to stick around. I'm not saying don't use windower. That would be silly, if they ban people using 3rd party programs then endgame is empty and FFXI is not worth playing. I'm just pointing out that you put your account at risk every time you log in.

[Raineer]

yeah V4 doesnt even work on my computer. The POL viewer is all pixelated when i start it up, it doesnt say windower enabled and when i try to run FFXI it terminates and say my PC doesnt meet the specifications

It's Alpha, and there's no benefit to using it right now. They are just announcing it and the fact it runs on Windows 7 is a very nice proof-of-concept, the plugin system as we know it will completely change so we need to allow them time to complete the interface to that.

Give em time

[SephYuyX]

The "Too many people in endgame do it for it to be a bannable offense" defense is what got Salvage dupers banned.

You cant even compare those two numbers, it's not even close. Stop being butthurt.

[Araelus]

Everyone who has played the game and thought about what they were doing has committed a bannable offense according to the TOS.

Thinking about the game is against the TOS?

Araelus : Hmm, think I'll play FFXI toda-
[GM]>>BANNED

/brb deleting Excel from my computer

[Darkrift]

If I were SE I would be offering a job to him. I would ask him to overhall the whole GUI, and other tweaks to the game.

[Aikar]

It's Alpha, and there's no benefit to using it right now. They are just announcing it and the fact it runs on Windows 7 is a very nice proof-of-concept, the plugin system as we know it will completely change so we need to allow them time to complete the interface to that.

Give em time

3.42 works on Windows 7 too The windows 7 bug was a VERY tiny issue. It was simply 1 line of code to fix it.

The "Too many people in endgame do it for it to be a bannable offense" defense is what got Salvage dupers banned. Still, as long as you want to play FFXI with windower or not at all, you might as well keep using it.

Yeah but 1-2k players compared to 70k players is quite a different number...