Introducing Character Signatures at EQ2U!

[feldon30]

<p><a href="http://u.eq2wire.com/" target="_blank"><strong>EQ2U</strong></a> is proud to introduce a new feature for all EQ2 players -- <strong>Character Signatures</strong>. This feature is available for free to all players who have opted-in their characters to the Data Feed and wish to have a signature on message boards like the EQ2 Forums.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://u.eq2wire.com/images/sig/eq2u-signature_example_feldon.png" /></p><p>For a detailed guide on how to use EQ2U Signatures, please view the Character Details for a character on EQ2U and click on the "Get my EQ2U Signature" button below the Details panel.</p><p>Dethdlr and I wish you happy hunting!</p><p><strong>NOTE</strong>: <em>Because of how the EQ2 forums cache signature images, you will want to try a hard refresh (Ctrl-F5 and then Ctrl-R) after you have changed your Profile to show your new sig. Until then, it may show your old sig for up to an hour.</em></p>

[Dethdlr]

<p>Enjoy folks!</p>

[Koleg]

<p>Awesome job guys .. well done..</p>

[Katz]

<p>Thanks guys!</p>

[Trennt]

<p>thanks much guys</p>

[Daalilama]

<p>Nice....</p>

[wullailhuit]

<p>Interesting , wonder if there is a way to make it rotate all my characters with a 5 second pause between.</p>

[Luhai]

<p>Nice job, thanks <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Any chance on adding a config option later on to change the displayed information? *ducks*</p>

[feldon30]

<p>This is the first pass. We built it in such a way that we can add different backgrounds, change out the stats, etc.</p><p>If I added a variation with different stats, would this be a good selection of stats?</p><ul><li>Race</li><li>Born date</li><li>Health</li><li>Power</li><li>Main Stat (INT,WIS,STR,AGI based on archetype)</li><li>Crit Chance</li><li>Multiattack (maybe casting speed for mages?)</li><li>Crit Bonus</li><li>Potency</li></ul><p>Then there's other backgrounds, paperdolls, etc.</p>

[Iren]

<p>crit and potency dont show for me , gues this is a test</p>

[feldon30]

<p><cite>Iren@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>crit and potency dont show for me , gues this is a test</p></blockquote><p>It looks like your character data didn't export properly when you last logged out of EQ2. Unless you really have <strong>34</strong> points of <strong>Stamina</strong>. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p><a href="http://u.eq2wire.com/soe/character_detail/867584464406" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://u.eq2wire.com/soe/character_...il/867584464406</a></p><p>Try logging into EQ2 again and then /camp or zone. That should force an update.</p>

[Occisor]

<p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>This is the first pass. We built it in such a way that we can add different backgrounds, change out the stats, etc.</p><p>If I added a variation with different stats, would this be a good selection of stats?</p><ul><li>Race</li><li>Born date</li><li>Health</li><li>Power</li><li>Main Stat (INT,WIS,STR,AGI based on archetype)</li><li>Crit Chance</li><li>Multiattack (maybe casting speed for mages?)</li><li>Crit Bonus</li><li>Potency</li></ul><p>Then there's other backgrounds, paperdolls, etc.</p></blockquote><p>Could you add a PvP template? Number of Kills, Number of Deaths, Killstreak etc?</p>

[feldon30]

<p>Sorry folks but I have to take the signatures offline for a day or two until we can optimize/cache them. They got popular fast. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Dethdlr]

<p>Sorry for the delay folks.  If all goes according to plan, these should be back online sometime today.</p><p>Update: Exsiting sigs are back online.  Sigs for new folks should be back today as well.</p><p><strong><span style="color: #ffff00;">Update: And... we're back!</span></strong></p>

[Caela]

<p>Oooh!  Shiny!</p><p>Edit... Well, I guess my sig needs work <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Mohee]

<p>woot! thanks. I like it.</p>

[Sybaris]

<p>Oh, thank you so very much!</p><p><img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Mysstie]

Might consider a Crafting/Tradeskill/Harvesting centric one for those that are Crafters first and Adventurers second that shows items crafted, harvesting and tradeskill stats, etc. Great work nonetheless! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I'll probably make sure all my adventuring gear is on and appropriate mount/spells active and then save that image and use it as a static image from my own website. Those stats change a lot if I camp with all my crafting/harvesting gear on. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[thepriz]

<p>I was just curious if the completed quests include the completed collections in the total also like the old one used to. I can't tell if it does or not and I can't log in right now.</p>

[thepriz]

<p>Why is it not working? I did the preview signature and it works in My Profile, but I am not seeing it here (only the old version of my signature).</p>

[Tylia]

<p><cite>Deran@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Why is it not working? I did the preview signature and it works in My Profile, but I am not seeing it here (only the old version of my signature).</p></blockquote><p>I am seeing your EQ2U signature.  I was having the same problem you are describing.  I even emptied cookies, browser history, cache, offline website data, etc.  I removed the signature code and saved, and added it back and saved again.  It still showed my old signature on my screen and the new EQ2U one in the profile preview.  I finally got frustrated and clicked the big blue "e" to open IE and test it with that browser.  (I was really frustrated as I ONLY use Firefox and NEVER use IE for anything.)</p><p>The new EQ2U signature showed just fine in IE, so I hurridely closed the hateful program and returned to Firefox.  Lo and behold, there was the shiny, new EQ2U signature!  (Yes, I know it was there all along, but my Firefox just didn't want to let go of the "old" and adapt the "new" on my screen.)  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></p><p>edited because I forgot the U.</p>

[thepriz]

<p>That was my problem, for some reason Firefox had cached it. I had to clear my cache and it worked.</p>

[Karrane1]

I wanted to add my thanks for this !! =)

[Mysstie]

<p>Testing mine out. I saved mine to make a static image and placed it on my website. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Karrane1]

<p>My sig also not showing up for me.. test ))</p>

[Mysstie]

<p><cite>Karrane1 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>My sig also not showing up for me.. test ))</p></blockquote><p>I see it fine. I just think people need to do a force refresh on their browser so it's not using what's stored in the cache.</p>

[Dethdlr]

<p><cite>Tylia@Butcherblock wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Deran@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Why is it not working? I did the preview signature and it works in My Profile, but I am not seeing it here (only the old version of my signature).</p></blockquote><p>I am seeing your EQ2U signature.  I was having the same problem you are describing.  I even emptied cookies, browser history, cache, offline website data, etc.  I removed the signature code and saved, and added it back and saved again.  It still showed my old signature on my screen and the new EQ2U one in the profile preview.  I finally got frustrated and clicked the big blue "e" to open IE and test it with that browser.  (I was really frustrated as I ONLY use Firefox and NEVER use IE for anything.)</p><p>The new EQ2U signature showed just fine in IE, so I hurridely closed the hateful program and returned to Firefox.  Lo and behold, there was the shiny, new EQ2U signature!  (Yes, I know it was there all along, but my Firefox just didn't want to let go of the "old" and adapt the "new" on my screen.)  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></p><p>edited because I forgot the U.</p></blockquote><p>In my experience, it's been the forum software here that's the culprit, not the browser. </p><p>It takes it a little bit for the new signature to make it from your profile out to the actual messages.  It's driven me crazy in the past, even with text based signatures and I KNOW the browser isn't caching the text.</p><p>After a short while, the new one just starts showing up.  Don't know the time frame or why it works that way, but that seems to be how it works here. </p><p>General rule of thumb, if it looks right in the preview, just wait a little bit and it'll eventually show up right in the messages.</p>

[Karrane1]

<p>nods.. it didnt seem to show up when i used "quick reply" but did when i used the other option to post.</p>

[Mogrim]

<p>Why do the sigs show potency for some and crit bonus for others?</p>

[feldon30]

<p><cite>Mogrim wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Why do the sigs show potency for some and crit bonus for others?</p></blockquote><p>That's a bit of logic I put in there. It shows whichever stat is higher for your character.</p><p>Another version of the sigs I am considering would be called 'Specialist' and swap out different stats based on whether you are a Fighter, Mage, Priest, or Scout.</p>

[Cyliena]

<p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Mogrim wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Why do the sigs show potency for some and crit bonus for others?</p></blockquote><p>That's a bit of logic I put in there. It shows whichever stat is higher for your character.</p><p>Another version of the sigs I am considering would be called 'Specialist' and swap out different stats based on whether you are a Fighter, Mage, Priest, or Scout.</p></blockquote><p>zomg you're totally gear scoring me! <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p><a href="http://u.eq2wire.com/soe/character_detail/476742230721" target="_blank"><img src="http://u.eq2wire.com/sig/show/476742230721" border="0" /></a></p><p>I think I'd rather my multi-attack show up.. my CB is pretty embarassing! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/97ada74b88049a6d50a6ed40898a03d7.gif" border="0" /> Will be nice once they're customizable, nice work so far, Feldon and Dethdlr!</p>

[feldon30]

<p><cite>Cyliena wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Mogrim wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Why do the sigs show potency for some and crit bonus for others?</p></blockquote><p>That's a bit of logic I put in there. It shows whichever stat is higher for your character.</p><p>Another version of the sigs I am considering would be called 'Specialist' and swap out different stats based on whether you are a Fighter, Mage, Priest, or Scout.</p></blockquote><p>zomg you're totally gear scoring me! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></p><p><a href="http://u.eq2wire.com/soe/character_detail/476742230721" target="_blank"><img src="http://u.eq2wire.com/sig/show/476742230721" border="0" /></a></p><p>I think I'd rather my multi-attack show up.. my CB is pretty embarassing! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/97ada74b88049a6d50a6ed40898a03d7.gif" border="0" /> Will be nice once they're customizable, nice work so far, Feldon and Dethdlr!</p></blockquote><p>LOL. Since you're a Scout, then Multiattack would definitely show up. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Dethdlr]

<p>Just added some additional optimizations.  Let me know if anyone runs into issues where the sigs aren't showing up in your browser.  Not the forum issue not showing up thing, but not showing up in preview or anywhere at all.  Shouldn't cause any issues but you never know.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Dellmon]

<p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><a href="http://u.eq2wire.com/" target="_blank"><strong>EQ2U</strong></a> is proud to introduce a new feature for all EQ2 players -- <strong>Character Signatures</strong>. This feature is available for free to all players who have opted-in their characters to the Data Feed and wish to have a signature on message boards like the EQ2 Forums.</p></blockquote><p>Hats off to Feldon and Dethdlr for putting this together!  I do find it amazing the tools that these two guys are putting together in thier proverbial basements and the million dollar corporation struggles with making meaningful use of, leveraging, and taking advantage of its own player data.</p>

[Mysstie]

<p>I should probably use your contact form rather than it get lost in the thread, but one thing you might consider is saving (generating) the images as JPG instead of PNG. The JPG version I have in my signature is 28.3KB vs 119KB for the PNG version.  The PNG version is 4 times larger.  It would be easier on your server (bandwidth wise) to use the JPG version.  Not sure which graphics generation/compression method is easier on the server though (CPU/Memory wise).</p><p>Anyway, just a thought. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Keep up the great work!</p>

[Dethdlr]

<p><cite>Mysstie@Oasis wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I should probably use your contact form rather than it get lost in the thread, but one thing you might consider is saving (generating) the images as JPG instead of PNG. The JPG version I have in my signature is 28.3KB vs 119KB for the PNG version.  The PNG version is 4 times larger.  It would be easier on your server (bandwidth wise) to use the JPG version.  Not sure which graphics generation/compression method is easier on the server though (CPU/Memory wise).</p><p>Anyway, just a thought. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p>Keep up the great work!</p></blockquote><p>Good idea.  I'll take a look and see what kind of trade offs we see with it. </p><p>Thanks for the suggestion.  <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p><strong>Update:</strong>  I gave it a try.  It does cut down on file size but also cuts down on quality.  Even ramping up all the quality settings that I could find to the point where the file size was larger than the PNG still resulted in an image that didn't look quite as good as the PNG.  They were pretty close, but if you look at them side by side, you can definitely tell which one looks better and see places where the image has artifacts.  It's possible we might implement this at some point anyway but I suspect Feldon would need to do some tweaking with the graphics to make sure the JPG turns out as good as the PNG.  He's our graphics expert, I'm just the code monkey.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Thanks again!</p>

[Mysstie]

<p>I used IrfanView on my PC at 80 quality with chroma color subsampling turned off.</p><p>What's odd is that my saved image has 4 more quests on it than the current one. Lost a few. Will have to check my Journal and see what it thinks.  Update: checked my Journal and it says 2,885. Hmm.. oh well. LOL.</p><p>Realtime:</p><p><img src="http://u.eq2wire.com/sig/show/863289273747" width="490" height="150" /></p><p>Saved:</p>

[Dethdlr]

<p>I did a bit more fiddling and we'll probably be rolling out jpeg versions at half the size soon.  We're in the middle of a server transfer at the moment, upgrading to a bigger server but once all the dust has settled from that, we'll probably be rolling that out.</p><p>Thanks again!</p>

[Mysstie]

<p>Actually, the PNG images might be fine. I just noticed that when looking at the properties of the image within the browser the PNG image is only 39.66KB in size and the JPG is 28.8KB. I guess Windows 7 is saving the PNG image with a size of 119KB. The JPG is the same size in both.</p><p>Update: I know what's going on. Your server is using a PNG 8bit, 256 color format (well, it is now anyway). Windows/Firefox is saving it in a 32bit color format. I found the actual PNG file in my browser's cache on the disk and it was 39.66 KB.</p><p>So, unless your JPG files are smaller than 40K then I wouldn't bother with it. LOL</p>

[Rijacki]

<p><cite>Dellmon wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><a href="http://u.eq2wire.com/" target="_blank"><strong>EQ2U</strong></a> is proud to introduce a new feature for all EQ2 players -- <strong>Character Signatures</strong>. This feature is available for free to all players who have opted-in their characters to the Data Feed and wish to have a signature on message boards like the EQ2 Forums.</p></blockquote><p>Hats off to Feldon and Dethdlr for putting this together!  I do find it amazing the tools that these two guys are putting together in thier proverbial basements and the million dollar corporation struggles with making meaningful use of, leveraging, and taking advantage of its own player data.</p></blockquote><p>But it's all from the player data SOE leveraged to make available to those proverbial basements. Without that feed, the basement would have no way to get the data. That SOE -finally- got wise and realised the fans would make batter tools when given access to the data is to be applauded and not down played at all.</p><p>I, too, think what Feldon and Dethdlr are doing is amazing and impressive and worthy of many kudos. I wish SOE would have made all this available from day 1 rather than attempting to have a much divided team on their corporate side (web team is not just for one game) craft something meaningful for the players (and, yes, fail to utterly, more likely because of the divided attention and 'elephant mating' than because of the talents of the employees.. who are likely as frustrated as the players about corporate hamstringing them left, right, and centre).</p><p>I also hope a similar data feed to players is built into Planetside 2 and EQNext from the start rather than something added on 7 years later. Fueling the fan sites should be an important part of their plan all the way through development of the games.</p>

[Resstful]

<p><cite>Rijacki wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>But it's all from the player data SOE leveraged to make available to those proverbial basements. Without that feed, the basement would have no way to get the data. That SOE -finally- got wise and realised the fans would make batter tools when given access to the data is to be applauded and not down played at all.</p><p>I, too, think what Feldon and Dethdlr are doing is amazing and impressive and worthy of many kudos. I wish SOE would have made all this available from day 1 rather than attempting to have a much divided team on their corporate side (web team is not just for one game) craft something meaningful for the players (and, yes, fail to utterly, more likely because of the divided attention and 'elephant mating' than because of the talents of the employees.. who are likely as frustrated as the players about corporate hamstringing them left, right, and centre).</p><p>I also hope a similar data feed to players is built into Planetside 2 and EQNext from the start rather than something added on 7 years later. Fueling the fan sites should be an important part of their plan all the way through development of the games.</p></blockquote><p>Remember, Day 1 consisted of the 'dream team' that a number of long-time players and their buddies deify. THEY put those policies in place.  THEY are the cause of much player and fan site division. THEY are no longer with the company.</p><p>The teams that many of the long-time players and their buddies vilify, not necessisarily starting with SJ tho' he is certainly the most vilified, have worked to clean up the data feeds and get the information to folks like Feldon and Dethdlr.</p><p>It's a darn shame many of the long-time players can't stop pouting enough to acknowledge the newer teams have accomplished a lot for the Norrath communities.</p>

[KenCoop]

<p>Love the sigs guys, great work!  Looking forward to the new server so I can set it to show my 900MA <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" />.</p><p>I did have a question about how it pulls the data.  When I was looking earlier my sig said 48k hp, but when I clicked on the link and went to eq2u it showed 57k (which is about right).  Same with CC, which showed 330 something.  When I clicked on the link it was 356 (which is what it was, as we were just raiding em UD last night and I didn't throw any CC gear on, I had my CB gear on that took me to 310 self-buffed, but was only showing as 304 on the sig too).</p><p>Not sure why this is, and not sure if it's taking mounts into account, so thought I would check, as that would explain the CC and CB, but not the HP.</p><p>Thanks again for the hard work!</p>

[Dethdlr]

<p>@KenCoop: It had to do with working the kinks out of the new server.  The software wasn't loaded yet to regenerate the signatures so no matter what stats changed for your character, you would have just seen the last signature that was generated on the old server.  We had new signatures turned off as well. </p><p>I think we've got most of the kinks worked out now (as of a few minutes ago).  Your new sig now shows the stats a bit higher than they did before.   I'm seeing 62k health, 371 CC and 312 CB.</p>

[Gyee]

<p>yea, I too am cominz to zee pardy!</p>

[Medeya_AB]

<p>That is cool looking, when will it be available again?</p>

[Dethdlr]

<p><cite>Medeya_AB wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>That is cool looking, when will it be available again?</p></blockquote><p>They're back online again now.</p>

[Foretold]

<p>I love this... thanks!</p>