Expanding on the widespread issues with ESI
The non-exhaustive list of problems with ESI
- 2018-05-18 - Chat Channels removed from ESI, while its rebuilt for new chat servers. Not Restored.
- 2019-11-25 - “Temporary Blackout Of ESI Bookmarks”, still not restored
- 2020-12-16 - Removal of Character Stats (those cool year in review videos!)
- 2021-10 - Bulk character affiliation updates now fail on a single biomassed character, without details. Requiring 500 (vs 1) ESI calls.
- 2021-11-01 - SSOv1 Deprecation Timeline, effort was put into moving to V2 at CCPs request. V1 is still active…
- 2022-03-29 - CCP modified the JWT validation of tokens, breaking all apps and requiring rushed fixes. Not communicated, Developers were blamed for following CCPs documentation.
- 2022-04-29 <> 2022-07-11 Corporation and Character Assets and Contracts offline.
- 2022-07-12 - Unauthenticated Search taken offline. Will not be restored. (this is fair)
- 2022-09-26 - ESI Tokens not being revoked upon character sale/transfer. No response from security@ccpgames, fix took a month.
- 2022-11-04 <> 2023-05-09 - Market History taken offline, This endpoint has returned with undocumented rate limiting, leading to many developers still being banned for not respecting limits they dont know exist.
- 2023-01-09 - Character Corporation History taken offline, still not restored.
- 2023-01-24 - CCP begins banning people using ESI Contracts, Bans continue to be applied.
- 2023-05-18 - Developers are blamed for using the old image server, while CCPs own websites and launcher continues to use it
CCP have very nicely asked us to add User-Agent headers with our email addresses, yet strip this information from ESI requests, and cant/wont use them to contact us for issues. Because of this, they are continually banning some of the most popular community apps and Auth platforms for major alliances without even bothering to reach out to resolve the issues
415 Open ESI Issues, 243 of which are untouched for Four Years
47 Open SSO Issues. 35 of which are also untouched for Four Year
security@ccpgames.com email address is unresponsive to critical security issues
FAQ:
Q: Third Party Apps are evil, they are cheating
A: Every feature currently in ESI was approved by Game Design, but if CCP choose to change this, I would support it. Part of maintaining an API is removing features deemed unsafe or too powerful.
I do place a great deal of value in things that are currently available in the game client, and I think not providing them via an API encourages client cache and memory scraping, tools that we used to rely on in a grey area and one of the primary reasons CCP developed ESI, to legitimize approved methods of data access.
Q: I hate killboards, CCP should stop or delay them
A: So, what does this mean for ingame killmails, should killmails just not exist? Be private and remove the Corp being able to see it?
I don’t think so, and ESI is just an approved and safe way to access the data already visible to you.
Q: Having to run a server and have an IT admin for a video game sucks
A: I Agree! While I’ve put a lot of work into making it as easy as possible for players to run their own tools, the amount of time we can dedicate to making this seamless and user friendly is limited by the time we spend under attack by CCP.
Q: ESI puts too much power into the big blocs
A: In my experience as a developer for large and small entities, this isn’t so. Big Blocs have large masses of humanpower to throw at problems like HR, authentication and social access. Small groups have to spend time that could be spent creating content on these issues instead.
Automated tooling levels the playing field for everyone and frees people up to play a video game
Q: What value does ESI bring to EVE and why should CCP care
A: I mentioned that ESI is a force multiplier for CCP developer effort, what I mean by this is for every hour CCP spend on a feature, the Third Party Development community spends hundreds, building and maintaining better tools than ccp could hope to build in their time spent.
Q: What about the Excel Addon
A: An interesting point, the Excel addon is powered by ESI in the backend, as near as I can tell the delays and problems with releasing this was around the massive outstanding issues with ESI, a healthier ESI allows not only Third Party Developers to develop features, but CCP as well.
Also a shoutout to GESI that already exists for Google Sheets, built by a Third Party Developer and is awesome.