LE Courier Between Steam Friends?

[Traybair]

I thought it would be cool if there was a mod that would allow you to locate a courier in game, and have him send items (gold, etc) to another in-game friend via steam. After hiring the courier, after a certain amount of time, a courier would approach your friend (that also has the mod installed) in their own game delivering the item.

 

I don't know anything about modding, therefore I have no clue if this is even possible. It would be glorious though.

[MostlyMuggie]

I don't think this is possible. It would require some sort of networking to transfer data from one save game to another on a different computer over the internet. Seeing as Skyrim doesn't have any sort of networking or online features, it would not be possible.

[Xander9009]

It would be possible, actually. FISS is a mod/utility used to save and access data to a file other than your save file. This could easily be combined with something simple like AHK for the scripting necessary, and any kind of locally editable database. By locally editable, I don't mean it must be completely editable, just the ability to save a line of data, alter that line of data, and later delete that line of data. That could be doable with anything that could be edited without saving the entire contents and editing the small bit necessary... On second thought, perhaps a better way would be a group of files. You could search files, make them, rename them, and delete them without having to edit the entire folder. Possibly better than a database since it would be easy to work with using AHK (since that's the only scripting I can easily accomplish). Someone else who knows C++ or ANYTHING that's a full scripting language and not something like AHK could do a much better job. Anyway, all that would be left is some kind of hosting. My first thought was Google's Form file used in Google Drive. Unfortunately, those are saved to spreadsheets. Although, those spreadsheets can be made editable by anyone. The only real problem would be that anything we use would be fairly easy to hack. Hacking would mean viruses and stolen passwords so much as deleting all the stuff everyone has queued up, but still.

 

Of course, this would require some kind of utility running in the background, but I used AHK to make a utility to turn quicksaves into hardsaves. So, I already know how to do that. I MIGHT look into this. However, it will require learning out to use FISS, finding a suitable host, setting up the database (if necessary),and making AHK play nicely with both FISS (not difficult), the host (possibly simple, possibly not), and the database (again, possibly simple, possibly not). I'll let you know if I decide to take it up. Keep in mind, this isn't a promise to do it, just a possible solution and a promise to THINK about doing it.

[MostlyMuggie]

Wow, I was not familiar with those tools. It still would be annoying finding a host. The author might have to pay for a host...

 

Thanks for the good input.

[DragonDude1029]

Xander9009 is correct, could be done quite easily too. And google drive isn't a bad idea, I once used it as a database for a p2p chat program, lol. Also, I can program in a lot of languages (and I mean a lot, including C++), so I'd be willing to help with this assuming I can find the free time. Can't make any promises tough. I would do it in a very different method than described above by Xander9009, but I won't go into detail.

 

The only real problem would be that anything we use would be fairly easy to hack.

Actually I've done a lot of work in cryptography and it would be pretty simple to make it secure.

 

Of course, this would require some kind of utility running in the background.

This is probable, though there is the alternative of the user just needing to run an exe to put everything to the network.

[Xander9009]

 

This is probable, though there is the alternative of the user just needing to run an exe to put everything to the network.

 

That got me thinking. I didn't think about the fact that you could potentially set it up so the folder FISS accesses is included in the Google Drive system and shared with the host account, and thus with everyone using the mod. That'd be a possible way of accessing it without a program running besides the actual Google Drive program. I could see that working. Well, assuming FISS can cycle through all the files in a folder or can use variables for the names of files to access.

[DragonDude1029]

I was just thinking it would be simpler to have a little python application going in the background that waited for a script to have a courier message ready, then it would upload it to a database. The python application would also be waiting for courier messages, flagged to belong to it, and download/remove them from the database. This could all be accomplished with SKSE, FISS would not be needed.

 

I can start on making this anytime, just give me a go ahead.

Edited December 23, 2013 by DragonDude1029

[Xander9009]

I knew SKSE could do what FISS could do, because FISS is made with SKSE :) I don't know how to do that, though, so I wouldn't think of doing it without FISS. Let me know how it turns out. I've actually got a friend of my own that I'd possibly send stuff to. So, I'm also interested in using it lol.

[DragonDude1029]

It's going extremely well, I have high expectations of what this mod is going to become! I can't make make any promises on timeframe, but I will be working on this mod actively.

[Traybair]

It's going extremely well, I have high expectations of what this mod is going to become! I can't make make any promises on timeframe, but I will be working on this mod actively

 

That's is very exciting. I posted this expecting to find out it was impossible.