I'm planning on making a map of vendetta.
Is there any way I can gain access to the information !LEGALLY!?
I don't want to breach the lisence agreement by picking apart files I shouldn't be touching.

(Don't anywone come dragging "Who would know? How would they find out?" around either, because I would know and that's enough for me!)

Specifically I'd want the info for each sector available in the nav screen.

The finished "product" will be a perl script with a MySQL backend where I note trade prices, pirate sightings, storm encounters etc. and then pull statistics.

"Best traderoute, statistically, is betweeen Sol II and Dau. Good prices both ways, few storms and only a few pirate sightings" :D I love useless statistics!

Is it even ok for me to write down all that info and use it in my script?

I'm not planning on releasing it or anything, but I want to stay on the safe side of the lisence agreement just the same.

A lot of the stuff is server-side, so you wouldn't find out much by poking around in the client, anyway. Trade prices are dynamic (and server-side, I believe), so you'd have to constantly update.

Is there any way I can gain access to the information !LEGALLY!?

Sure: Fly to the sectors/station and write it down.
You are not the first with such a database, and we all made it by exploring ourself. It is fun.

Yeah, I've just been compiling a list of what each station sells as I visit them. Prices aren't too important, as the best trade comes from items a station doesn't already have (huge improvement over EV:N's system btw, good job).

"the info... available in the nav screen." If that's really all you want then hit 'n' to pull up the nav screen, then copy down the sector you're in. Then hit the 'zoom to universe' button and pick another system and zoom in on it. Repeat.

Yeah, I'm aware of all the possible ways I can write it all down.
I've even got a second computer with a database client open to enter stuff into.

It'll be alot of work just to get the basics in, like station locations and roid field locations.

After that is in place, half the fun is updating it.
It's just the startup phase that'll take a very long time.

The whole idea is to note trade prices as I fly around and, over time, discover maximums and minimums.
It's the framework that's the boring part.
I was hoping for some way to access this info in some way and build the framework without hovering my mouse over every last sector in the known universe...

Ah well, it'll give me something to do.

Noone has answered the legal part of the question tho'..
If I made such a script, would I be allowed to share it with others in my guild or whatever?

scripting.... ahh...

As long, as you process regulary generated output from the programm without touching the client, it might be legal.
processing the errors.log for example, or catching screenshots.

decompiling/network-sniffing/anything_that_changes_the_client_itself
is clearly not allowed by the software license.

This is at least my codex for this topic. Nothing official...

Devs, please!
The script itself is allmost done.

Do I have to enter it manually or can I dump packets (most likely not) or access files (yeah right) to get at the info?

What about input scripting? (Feeding keyboard/mouse directly to the client) I know it's possible, but is it "allowed"? Don't know how you could get any information from errors.log about a sector, unless the high verbosity levels give some info.

Really, it's all likely to change considerably. Devs will move roids, make new items, etc. The universe is (will be) too dynamic to actively cache the information with any accuracy.

I don't think you could "dump packets" even if you tried, since it's all encrypted. And people have already said that most of the sector contents are kept server side, so "access[ing] files" will only give you *maybe* station/roid/ship geometry (that's probably compressed/encrypted as well...)

Really, check out Vendetta Cartography and Vendetta Gate in the community sites. People have already started projects with this goal in mind. Not sure how up-to-date those projects are..

I guess the difference between my stuff and their stuff is that mine is non-website-related.
I just want the info.

The fact that it's all dynamic is good. I'd like to have to update it. It'll bring exploration to Vendetta in a big way for me.

I've also had this idea: Client/server base it.
I could easily create a server that accepts logins from clients and handles all the information gathered by everyone that uses it.

Anyway: I've decided to NOT have this huge "get-it-going" phase and rather ONLY add information as I go along.
Anyone wanna co-develop this thing?

Demanen: Were you thinking something along these lines?

http://www.homepage.mac.com/flip402/index.html

He probably was, but that contrast makes my eyes ache.

hey devs....

how about letting us at least dump the current station inventory (of the station we are docked at) to some type of log file? This way... we wound not need to have a notepad and pencil just to write everything down...

we could dump the current market for that station and move on. Or has copyright prottection gotten this bad 3000 years in the future?

Isorg

Even a captains logbook built into the game. I have actually started doing a database myself of my good roids and trade routes. Where the loose space babes are etc.

there is already a website that lists all cargo at all stations, and even gives you a comparison between stations in a drop-down menu box where you can see which station lacks which item. i cant remember which website this is, but it is one of the 'trading guild's.

by the way, the most profit is buying stuff from one station and selling it to another station that doesnt have it and doesnt sell it. the price increase, thus profit, in a stiuation can be 2-3x. . . whereas 'normal' stuff that is listed as 'buy' is just gonna give you 1-1.5x normally.

for example buy medical supplies in the SOL II system and sell them somewhere else, big profit because almost nobody else has medical supplies for sale.