Town Data - the Illyriad Helper app

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This is a quick summary of Albatross's Illyriad Helper web app, from a developer perspective.
Please see "Who can use it?" below, before asking the obvious question :o)

Screenshot at: https://sites.google.com/site/illyriadhelpers/ss_illyHelper_201206_a.png?attredirects=0
What is the Illyriad Helper?
It is a web app that uses data provided by the Illyriad servers, to display information about towns in a player's vicinity. It analyses populations of all towns over time (that's more than 65,000 towns, over more than 120 days' activity), to find the players who are likely to be inactive. It also shows allies in the area, suspended player accounts, and those removed recently from the map.
Why was it created?
When playing the game, it is difficult to know if a player is inactive, and it is difficult to find towns belonging to 'suspended' players. This app makes things easier, by monitoring changes in population, and providing a local context for this information, so that you can quickly find towns of interest near you.
How does it work?
Periodically, there's an offline compilation of the data from the Illyriad server, which makes compact files for the website. The website (PHP) presents this data to the browser, as a HTML-5 document, which also contains the JavaScript interface. We just use one external library, for handling the encoding of HTML characters, which illustrates that native HTML/Javascript browser apps can be written fairly simply.
Who can use it?
We haven't published the URL, but it is known to players in the mCrow alliance, and it can also show data for other 'Crow confederation' members when it is given the correct keys. We have no current plans to extend availability, but it is technically able to provide information relevant to any alliance's players.
Some Discussion Points
Should town data be made available, so that an in-game advantage can be gained by writing apps? Is it fair that only people who can write apps (and their allies) can gain this advantage?
I know that static population is not a reliable indicator of a player who has stopped playing. There are various measured approaches that could be adopted to improve this reliability, thereby avoiding costly and embarrassing mistakes.
Who else has tools like this? Does it benefit or hinder an alliance to publicly reveal that these tools are available to them? ("Join us; we have good tools" vs "Oh, I could write one of those").
I estimate that the effectiveness of these tools would decrease sharply if more than four big alliances had them, and those without the tools would be very lucky to (a) find, and (b) gain booty, from theft candidates.
Is it 'fair' to loot inactive (not suspended) towns before the time that the Illyriad server deems that the player is not returning? I have seen some practice of towns being thieved after less than 20 days' inactivity. At what point can this looting not be overlooked as being 'without aggressive intent'.
I've only mentioned theft so far. This app also helps the finding of 'capture' candidates, planning resource distribution, finding settle spots from erased towns, detecting town moves, and finding allies who are able to help in a locality -- some of which could be done from Illyriad's own map.
Looking forward to the debate on this one...

Edited by Albatross - 30 Jun 2012 at 10:13

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Albatross Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster General Joined: 11 May 2011 Status: Offline Points: 1118	Topic: Town Data - the Illyriad Helper app Posted: 30 Jun 2012 at 02:08
	This is a quick summary of Albatross's Illyriad Helper web app, from a developer perspective. Please see "Who can use it?" below, before asking the obvious question :o) Screenshot at: https://sites.google.com/site/illyriadhelpers/ss_illyHelper_201206_a.png?attredirects=0 What is the Illyriad Helper? It is a web app that uses data provided by the Illyriad servers, to display information about towns in a player's vicinity. It analyses populations of all towns over time (that's more than 65,000 towns, over more than 120 days' activity), to find the players who are likely to be inactive. It also shows allies in the area, suspended player accounts, and those removed recently from the map. Why was it created? When playing the game, it is difficult to know if a player is inactive, and it is difficult to find towns belonging to 'suspended' players. This app makes things easier, by monitoring changes in population, and providing a local context for this information, so that you can quickly find towns of interest near you. How does it work? Periodically, there's an offline compilation of the data from the Illyriad server, which makes compact files for the website. The website (PHP) presents this data to the browser, as a HTML-5 document, which also contains the JavaScript interface. We just use one external library, for handling the encoding of HTML characters, which illustrates that native HTML/Javascript browser apps can be written fairly simply. Who can use it? We haven't published the URL, but it is known to players in the mCrow alliance, and it can also show data for other 'Crow confederation' members when it is given the correct keys. We have no current plans to extend availability, but it is technically able to provide information relevant to any alliance's players. Some Discussion Points Should town data be made available, so that an in-game advantage can be gained by writing apps? Is it fair that only people who can write apps (and their allies) can gain this advantage? I know that static population is not a reliable indicator of a player who has stopped playing. There are various measured approaches that could be adopted to improve this reliability, thereby avoiding costly and embarrassing mistakes. Who else has tools like this? Does it benefit or hinder an alliance to publicly reveal that these tools are available to them? ("Join us; we have good tools" vs "Oh, I could write one of those"). I estimate that the effectiveness of these tools would decrease sharply if more than four big alliances had them, and those without the tools would be very lucky to (a) find, and (b) gain booty, from theft candidates. Is it 'fair' to loot inactive (not suspended) towns before the time that the Illyriad server deems that the player is not returning? I have seen some practice of towns being thieved after less than 20 days' inactivity. At what point can this looting not be overlooked as being 'without aggressive intent'. I've only mentioned theft so far. This app also helps the finding of 'capture' candidates, planning resource distribution, finding settle spots from erased towns, detecting town moves, and finding allies who are able to help in a locality -- some of which could be done from Illyriad's own map. Looking forward to the debate on this one... Edited by Albatross - 30 Jun 2012 at 10:13


Sisren Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Forum Warrior Joined: 03 Feb 2012 Location: PA, USA Status: Offline Points: 446	Posted: 30 Jun 2012 at 03:33
	Hi Albatross, the image does not show up. In response however: Should town data be made available, so that an in-game advantage can be gained by writing apps? Is it fair that only people who can write apps (and their allies) can gain this advantage? The data is available already. Apps have already been written. I know that static population is not a reliable indicator of a player who has stopped playing. There are various measured approaches that could be adopted to improve this reliability, thereby avoiding costly and embarrassing mistakes. Static Population is one method yes, others include IGMing the person, or even looking at the GC logs. Who else has tools like this? Does it benefit or hinder an alliance to publicly reveal that these tools are available to them? ("Join us; we have good tools" vs "Oh, I could write one of those"). I personally think that these tools should not be rendered to the public at large. I can foresee many instances of attacks on persons who look to be inactive, but are not. Simply because someone 'did not know better' and can start a war. I estimate that the effectiveness of these tools would decrease sharply if more than four big alliances had them, and those without the tools would be very lucky to (a) find, and (b) gain booty, from theft candidates. What makes you think that there are less than 4 larger alliances without such tools, or even smaller alliances? Again, the data is released, parsing XML is all that is needed... Is it 'fair' to loot inactive (not suspended) towns before the time that the Illyriad server deems that the player is not returning? I have seen some practice of towns being thieved after less than 20 days' inactivity. At what point can this looting not be overlooked as being 'without aggressive intent'. I can only comment on what Dark Empire does, we go through a vetting process before our members have the 'go ahead' from the organization. Theft has its rewards and punishments - it is all about the incentive... is it worth it to player X? I've only mentioned theft so far. This app also helps the finding of 'capture' candidates, planning resource distribution, finding settle spots from erased towns, detecting town moves, and finding allies who are able to help in a locality -- some of which could be done from Illyriad's own map. Again, this already occurs. You have but to look at the siege page to get a 'feel' for who has access to the data in a manageable manner.