POB Change Suggestions

[dr lameos]

---

Suggestion
Type: POB Plugin
Title: Provide more base information through API

Specifics

• Provide a base API (like the players API)
  
• Be able to query the base API for base status and inventory
  
• This would need some level of authentication so that people can only see their private base inventory if they have the shop password
  
• To promote trade and activity, items which are available to buy from the shop should not need authentication to view
  

Potential Problems

• Players would no longer need to log in to the base in game in order to see their base inventory and what supplies may be needed. Decrease in this type of activity.
  
  Example of Effect
  A player can perform the monitoring of their base through a discord monitoring bot (pobbot). However this is currently limited to information from the 'Player Base Status' page on the forums. Currently the bot is having to scrape the page and take the values from it in order to calculate the current base status (repairing, degrading, under attack) when we know from in game that this information already exists, it just isn't presented to us. If this information was given more regularly then it may promote more player interaction (base attacked - more instant response) as there is currently a lag of up to 15 minutes.
  
  If a base is not repairing, or a player wants to make a supply run to a base, currently need to log in and go to the base just to check what supplies may be needed. It can be frustrating to take a load of supplies just to discover that the base is already full or has those supplies already.
  
  I've seen lots of threads where base owners are saying they will buy and sell certain commodities, but this is almost always out of date/not accurate. I have flown to bases with a load of ore, and not been able to sell it, or gone to buy goods for an onward journey and this leads to logging off in order to wait until the base has those goods. With this information miners/traders and pirates can plan their routes more efficiently and this may create bottlenecks for activity. For example traders see that a base is currently stocked with ore and so would be a good one to visit, pirates see that a base is stocked with ore and so know that traders will be likely to visit and have valuable goods also.
  
  Further Discussion
  Since the discord pob monitoring bot was first made I've been asked several times to be able to report on the base inventory - which I've always declined as there is no current way to obtain this information.

---