yes im quite sure hes aware of that lol. i think he means within the game itself

Hey Orbit, why would external tools be pointless? Don't they both get the job done? And imo I use silenz.org so often, too me its pretty much internal =P

As with all the updates (needed/suggested for IC), seeing an external site already provides the tool/sollution you want and Elro has a million things to do, I think (although it is a very good suggestion) for the time being it is not something Developers will give such a high priority too as you would like

If this should be converted into an ingame tool, they also should get the other tools from silenz integrated with IC

Sol, External tools are proving how lazy our developers are,  that other guys are having to make tools and put them on another crappy website.  It's a needless hassle having to do all the SIMPLE things anywhere other than IC.  The new cost calculations are a great addition which should of been done years ago,  keep going.

Agreed - to an extent.

External Tools are great.  If it's not done within IC, and there's a way to do it outside of it, it's great that players can get involved with making their own tools.  This isn't just an IC thing, it's a game thing.

Most games online, have the player-base making their tools and stuff.  Even WoW, people make their own mods and interfaces and then people patch them to the game.  Similarly other online web-based games, allow the use of Greasemonkey tools to modify the game to suit how the player wants to play.  And help them.

Yes, if  a tool is being used enough - then it's a nice idea to bring that into the game.  WoW does this too.  If something becomes such a requirement by the player-base, that it is practically a necissity - then Blizzard brings it into the game.

Even IC does it.  Examples are:
- Linkifier (existed as a tool first, which someone brought into the game).
- Unit/Build Cost Calculation (albeit very late, but awesome that's its here now)

So yea, Orbit's idea is nice, to bring in some tools that are most used or made convenient.  Otherwise though, I see the need for tools to exist and players will always want to make things easier for themselves by developing their own little things.

Missing the x key?

I try to diversify my work. Aside from bug fixing, I work on bigger projects as well as smaller projects (such as these tools). So I will add more stuff like this along the way. Reason to do it internally would be because it would be an official tool and less prone to be bugged and or at least someone can be held responsible. Also much of the tools are just extractions of already existing game code. Why use some insane tool to retrieve data, data that I already have at my disposal.