10 replies to this topic

[Weltenfeuer]

(i) Is there any (official) documentation about available APIs?

(ii) Is this API outdated?
https://static.mwome...cw/mapdata.json

[Matt Redburn]

(i) no, except private match data api: https://mwomercs.com/profile/api

(ii) yes

[SpaceWolf42]

I would like to know more.

The private Match data API seems useless if i cant retrieve Game IDs, live for some time or for matches done for my account.

Any hints? I cant find information anywhere...

[TxAce]

I'm trying to pull info from our private lobby matches. Not sure exactly how to do it.

Getting the response:

{
"message": "That Game ID is invalid",
"status": 422
}

The match ID I'm trying to pull is 344380619571716

Any ideas?

[DashFire61]

I love how PGI refuses to produce the most simple of systems ever, I could build an API for MWO in a few hours. But they want me to preorder the new game when they cant even deliver something like a functional API for paying customers who've been asking for it for 5 years. I can understand the "it's not a priority" argument, except they could have spent 30 mins a year on it and had it out by now..

If they released an API for the game there would be tons of 3rd party apps and websites that displayed cool statistical things, did things like tell you that 90% of your missed shots are missed because they are too far to the left and down, or let you track the weapons and items your purchase and where they are, let you make a list of weapons armor and speed you want on a mech and then have an app return the perfect mech for you based on the API. Literally tons of possibilities that they dont have to program, that players will do for fun and want that will greatly improve the playerbases fun and engagement as well as make MWO a game that is viewed as forward thinking instead of playing catch up with the AAA industry.

Edited by DashFire61, 16 April 2019 - 01:03 PM.

[Blackwater Social Media]

MWO is a large code base, and it's been developed for many years now. Contrary to what one might presume, this actually makes it tremendously harder to add more features to the product rather than easier.

This article helps explain the concept of https://en.wikipedia.../Technical_debt but falls short outlining the fact that there is an inherent risk of accruing technical debt involved in the process of developing software (ie technical debt will correlate with duration of development).

It will be interesting what MW5 is like to work with given that this is the first time PGI will be green fielding the development of a MechWarrior title.

Edited by Congress Hating Ur Freedoms, 03 May 2019 - 08:13 AM.

[Daughter of Eris]

An API to expose match data for reporting is a greenfield project. They need to replicate the data to a separate denormalized reporting DB and then create web services to expose the data. From there throttle usage based on application IDs associated with player accounts.

They don't do it because there isn't a direct income from the investment, which is a short sighted understanding of the business model. Exposing match data helps sell cash shop items. Third parties will aggregate the data and do all the work creating sites, which would have statistics on popular and winning mechs and loadouts.

A successful example is the environment of competing websites which take League of Legends data and aggregate it. These sites help competitive players do analysis to gain an edge, then buy more champs etc. They also exposed game balance issues and match making oddities... blah blah.

Third parties do all the hard work. I know I would build a site for my crew at minimum if the data was available.

Edited by t riffix rex, 10 May 2019 - 11:54 AM.

[Blackwater Social Media]

I wouldn't be surprised if the private game code is handled in a totally different way that scouting, faction, qp, etc. If they had the ability to expose the match data, I think they would have by now as that your points are well articulated. The problem is more likely that the way QP games are determined in part by the remote game server based on voting and all that garbage, that there's probably tons of nasty finiky code to weed through that seems to break the second you make a minor improvement to it. Who knows, maybe they just didn't have time to commit effort to a data storage solution that would work out.

In all honesty, I applaud their efforts to expose private game match data. But when I consider doing queries on the data available as-is, it's very hard for me to actually extract insights from the API in it's current form. They would need to invest time increasing the amount of data available (timestamps on component destruction for instance, damage should be exposed in terms of what weapon was fired, when the volley was opened, and list mechs hit, and for how much overall damage). I don't even know what hit detection looks like on the server-side, but it's probably really messy stuff to work with at this time, and that's where the development effort would be involved.

I'll let you know if MW5 analytics are fun to work with when they release the beta. It would be cool to incorporate PVE challenges into a MWO unit's skill vetting process, even if different game mechanics are at play =/

[littledaxter]

TxAce, on 13 April 2019 - 07:11 PM, said:

I'm trying to pull info from our private lobby matches. Not sure exactly how to do it.

Getting the response:

{
"message": "That Game ID is invalid",
"status": 422
}

The match ID I'm trying to pull is 344380619571716

Any ideas?

Hey there! i'm currently working on a 3rd party app that would use this api.

So far i've only got the same response as above (422) but the only game id i<ve teste so far is from a random scoreboard found on google images.

will test this week for:

1. does the api only allows you to get match data where you played personnaly (using the api token to check)
2. does it work for private or public lobbies or both

will try to keep u guys updated on the subject but haven't seen any proof that the api is truly working so far beside the example on the api page.

Edited by littledaxter, 02 July 2019 - 09:57 AM.

[MitchellAvellar]

So, I don't get why this only works for private game lobby games. Lol, i've literally never played a private game lobby game and i'm willing to bet that most players haven't. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me why it would be much more difficult for them to implement this API to allow access to quick play match data. I very much doubt that the quickplay match data is stored any differently from the private lobby match data. Smacks of having more to do with not wanting to allow 3rd parties access to that data on principal or for legal reasons or for security reasons or something rather than anything technical.

Even with the limited data that they provide via this API, i was going to do some interesting things like breaking down my win/loss and kill/death ratios by both mech and map rather than just one or the other like they do on the stats site (which would be much more useful) in order to look for trends so that i can know better which map/mode to select at the beginning of matches. And even do things like maybe look for time of day trends in my wins and losses to maybe avoid playing at certain times or something. Lots of cools stuff you could find even just from the limited data they provide in the API. But it's pretty useless if it is only available for private games.

Have they ever put out any explanation on why the API was only provided for private games? I haven't found anything if they have.

Regardless, cmon man, either enhance your stats site with more insightful data analysis capabilities or open up quickplay match data via the existing API so we can do it for you!