Fellow Helper and Fellow Helper Server- 0.9.0.5

PLEASE NOTE!!! FELLOW HELPER USES DECAL 2.0 RC 3

Thank you for trying out Fellow Helper. This plug-in for Decal allows you to further benefit from fellowships in AC. You do NOT have to be in a fellowship, but it is most effective when you are fellowed. For the plugin to work you must connect to a Fellow Helper Server. This can be done in game, and only requires that you know the Host's IP address and Port. This plugin actively displays the Health, Stamina, Mana and Location for all players connected to the Fellow Helper Server. You can have the plugin alert you when a player is below a certain level of Health, Stamina or Mana. You can even have the endangered player automatically selected. You can also chat with members, giving AC players an additional communication channel. Lastly you can query player’s inventories (Only if they have the option enabled). No more fear that a person may, or may not, have an Eviserator Pincer.

Fellow Helper Changes:

• Removed the Host Button. This was causing many problems. L If you want to start a server locally you need to start it outside of AC.
• Changed the chat prefix from /fhc to /h.
• Changed the name of the Options Tab to O1.
• Selecting a player no longer uses the Send Keys command. This now prevents you from getting weird text if you were typing when a player is selected.

Fellow Helper Additions:

• Added the Location Tab. Displays the name and location of everyone connected to the server. Their information will only update if they have the Update Player Location option checked on the O1 tab.
• Clicking on a name on the Fellow tab or the Location tab will now select the player if they are within range.
• If you die, everyone connected will be notified as to the location of your corpse.
• Inventory query results are now preceded with a message stating who requested the query.
• You can now specify the color of the different messages. The different messages are:
• Health Alerts
• Stamina Alerts
• Mana Alerts
• Chat
• Inventory Queries
• Server Messages
• Player Death
• You can specify a Port in addition to the IP of the Host.
• You will only receive an alert if the Vital Stat Decreases. This prevents you from getting spammed as a player regenerates.

Fellow Helper Server Changes:

• Now optionally runs in the System Tray. The server starts in the System Tray by default.
• Host IP field is now selectable.
• Log window is larger.

Fellow Helper Server Additions:

• Can now specify the Port for your server.
• Can now Stop, Start, and Restart a server without shutting down.
• Added two modes of logging.
• Simple – This is the default logging mode. Only critical information is added to the log.
• Verbose – Lots of information is sent to the log window. This is useful if your server is having problems. Don’t use this mode if everything is ok.
• You can now output the log to a file.
• You can name your server.

Other Notes/Known Issues:

• This release includes a number of stability and performance fixes. The server is MUCH happier now.
• On some machines you will receive an error that “mswinsock.ocx” is missing after installing Fellow Helper. I have no idea why these dependant files are not getting installed when the client machine does not have them. If anyone knows the answer please let me know. In the meantime, you can find this file on the Internet very easily.
• If you have been banned from a server you not get notification when you try to connect. It just won’t work.
• You can still sometimes get a message that you connected ok, even if you did not. This is much more rare now.
• Clicking on Disconnect After the server has gone down will make it difficult to re-synch with a new server. You will need to log out and log back in.
• Some people have reported issues with running multiple clients with the same IP. I have not been able to test this. I do however speculate that they might have been encountering one of the server instabilities. If you were encountering this earlier, please try again with the new release and let me know if it is still occurring.
• I did not get the Default chat to the fellow channel option in this release. L
• Follow leader….I have looked at this and the most serious limitation is following a leader that has a lower run speed. What happens when you pass the leader? Do you turn around? Do you stop? Do you become the leader? Looking for input…
• Next release will feature the “Volunteer” option. Ask for a volunteer and the system will randomly select a player from the list, and notify everyone how brave they are going to be. J Great for determining who will stay behind to pull the lever.
• Only make changes to the Banned list and Administrator List when the server is stopped.
• I don’t know how many people the server can handle. Its written in VB, so who knows...If someone encounters a limit please let me know.
• I am currently rewriting the server in Java.

Fellow Helper Instructions:

1. Start up decal's DenAgent. Make sure that Fellow Helper is visible and it is "Checked".

2. Start up AC.

3. Select the Fellow Helper plugin from the Decal Bar.

4. If you want to join a server, go to the Connection tab. Specify the IP and Port of the Host machine and click "Join".

5. Once you have connected you should see your name, health, stamina and mana and that information for any other connected players on the Fellow tab.

6. On the O1 tab you can specify if you want to be alerted if a player other than your self falls below a specified level of Health, Stamina or Mana. You can also specify whether you want to automatically select the player if the stats fall below your specified threshold.

7. On the O1 tab you can also specify whether or not other members are allowed to query you inventory (queries are always performed universally).

8. The final option of the O1 tab is whether or not to transmit location information. You will see the name and location information for anyone with this option selected on the Location tab.

9. On the O2 Tab you can specify the color that text should be displayed for a number of different messages.

10. All options are store between sessions, EXCEPT the query option it will always default to OFF when ever you start AC.

11. If you want to chat with the members of your server type in AC chat field "/h your message" without the quotes.

12. If you want to query the members inventories type in AC chat field "/fhq item name" without the quotes. Item names MUST be exact.

13. If you have administrator privileges (see Server Read me) you can kick or ban players. Type in "/fhk player name" to kick them, and "/fhb player name" to ban them from your server.

14. When you are ready to disconnect, click on the Disconnect button on the Connection tab.

15. Have Fun!

Fellow Helper Server Instructions:

1. Start the server by clicking on its Icon. J

2. There are two files that you might need to edit. Remember; only edit these files while the server is not running, otherwise its possible to lose your changes.

· AdminList.txt - This file contains a list of Administrators. These are players who have the authority to kick or ban players from the server. If you want to be an admin, make sure your player name is entered in the list EXACTLY as it appears in game. Changes to this file will only take place after a server has restarted.

· BannedList.txt - This file contains a list of players that are banned from connecting to this server. To add a player to this list add their name to the file EXACTLY as it would appear in game, or use the plugin "/fhb" command in game. "/fhb" commands take place immediately, but changes to the file directly will only have an effect after the server has been restarted.

Super Thanks:

Reyes for AC Locator. His plugin uses sockets to communicate with a java server. This showed me that it was possible...

Arkayas for the Imp Filter V2. This is one heck of a filter!!!!

S.S. Ahmed for his Client/Server Winsock example.

Everyone who helped me test the first release. You comments and suggested helped enormously with this new release.

Please send all comments, questions, suggestions, help and feedback to:

abutler@seraphimstudios.com

Or post on the forums at www.seraphimstudios.com.

Thanks and happy fellowing,

Brother Dragon