EQEmulator Forums - /assist question

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/assist question

Its been so long since I played on live, I'm not sure I remember accurately how /assist worked on live. I know that when you /assist a mob or player that has a target, you got their target. But what happened when you /assist a mob or player that does not have a target? Currently, the emu sets the target to yourself. This can be misleading since I have more than once thought, "now why does that mob have me targeted?"

What I can't remember is when you /assist someone who doesn't have a target, does your target get cleared or does it just stay with the same target you had before the /assist command? I'd like to create patches to correct this, but I need to know what the proper behavior is before I do.

I seem to think that if the player / npc had no target when assisted, nothing would show on HoTT.

That may be true, but I'm trying to fix the /assist behavior. I hadn't been using HoTT because leadership abilities were not working. Now that group leadership is working, I do use it if the group leader has the ability, but that is not always the case. So I still want to fix /assist.

In my opinion, clearing the target when using /assist on a PC/NPC with nothing targeted is the only logical choice.

Leaving it at the last thing you had targeted on a failed /assist is only going to make you wonder whether your PC/NPC actually had that last thing targeted, too, similar to the problem of targeting oneself upon failure.

The only consistent and unambiguous choice is for /assist to always set your target to that of your target's target, even when that's nothing at all.

The only question I have after that is whether /assist has a maximum range. /target has a maximum range, but once you do have something targeted, you can keep that target as long as you're in the zone and you're both alive.

Can you then /assist something that's across the zone but that you still have targeted? Or, does /assist have a range limit like /target, which is the way I would assume it to work?

- Shendare

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shendare (Post 171992)

I agree, but I want to try to match live, even if it doesn't follow the most logical choice. Although, I could easily make it a rule so the behavior is selectable.

However, I was unable to get the client to clear the target on an /assist so I would need someone to get a packet trace of that happening (if that is the behavior on live) so I know what packet to send the client.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shendare (Post 171992)

The only question I have after that is whether /assist has a maximum range. /target has a maximum range, but once you do have something targeted, you can keep that target as long as you're in the zone and you're both alive.

Can you then /assist something that's across the zone but that you still have targeted? Or, does /assist have a range limit like /target, which is the way I would assume it to work?

- Shendare

The emu code has range limits on /assist already. If you try to /assist beyond that range, you get the same behavior as if your target had no target.

I just checked Live and /assist on an NPC that is not aggro'd does nothing at all. It keeps your target on the NPC you already have targeted.

Thanks Trev. I'll code it and submit it.

Made it a rule so people can choose the existing behavior or one that is more live like.

Code:

Index: common/ruletypes.h

===================================================================

--- common/ruletypes.h  (revision 701)

+++ common/ruletypes.h  (working copy)

@@ -189,6 +189,7 @@

 RULE_REAL ( Combat, AgiHitFactor, 0.01)

 RULE_INT ( Combat, MinRangedAttackDist, 25) //Minimum Distance to use Ranged Attacks

 RULE_REAL ( Combat, ArcheryStationaryPenalty, 1.0)     //Damage Penalty for moving or rooted targets.  1 = 50% penalty (Default), 2 = no penalty, 0 = 100% penalty

+RULE_BOOL ( Combat, AssistNoTargetSelf, true)  //when assisting a target that does not have a target true = target self, false = leave target as was before assist

 RULE_CATEGORY_END()



 RULE_CATEGORY( NPC )

Index: zone/client_packet.cpp

===================================================================

--- zone/client_packet.cpp      (revision 701)

+++ zone/client_packet.cpp      (working copy)

@@ -2058,7 +2058,7 @@



        EQApplicationPacket* outapp = app->Copy();

        eid = (EntityId_Struct*)outapp->pBuffer;

-       eid->entity_id = GetID();

+       if (RuleB(Combat, AssistNoTargetSelf)) eid->entity_id = GetID();

        if(entity && entity->IsMob())

        {

                Mob *assistee = entity->CastToMob();

And the SQL for the rule:

Code:

INSERT INTO `rule_values` VALUES ('1', 'Combat:AssistNoTargetSelf', 'true','When assisting a target without a target: true = target self, false = leave target as was before assist (this is the behavior on live)');

This has been committed to svn.

Question: Why is this a sticky?

It was made a sticky so a dev would remember to commit it. I just recently got access to the SVN so committed it myself. However, I have no way to remove the sticky on this post so I'm waiting on someone else to do it.

If ending up with no target is the Live-like behavior, why isn't that the default rule value?

It's not ending up with no target. You end up with the target you had before the /assist. In any case, I wasn't sure if it would confuse people if the change happened unexpectedly so I took the safer default of the prior behavior. That can easily be changed.