Bot Discussion

[Criimson]

While I appreciate the offer, I suggest running up through level 65, grouping with multiple classes to get a better feel for how the classes interact, and what spells are cast when. You mentioned being level 15. At that level ( and through the 50s probably) you will be OOM a lot, since you have little to no mana regen. For the past year, on and off, I have been going through all spells, trying to get bots to level 75+, as well as add in any spells that can be with the current code, or for ideas as to what can be added in the future. While I know much more about the spells than I did before, until I grouped certain classes together running through Vex Thal or PoFire, I didn't really see how to better manage my groups to be more efficient.

I played live to 80. The only classes I didn't play were healers because they felt boring.

This does bring to mind though that roles should be a cornerstone of the AI. Especially since grouping and raiding are vastly different. In raids there are more than one of any given class and so the idea of roles grows stronger. I am primarily going to stick with group AI at the moment for two reasons. 1) I mainly group and as you say I won't be extensively testing and tweaking the code if I am not utilizing it. 2) If a bot can't act correctly in a small setting than it will almost certainly fail in a larger setting. Most of my code thus far has come from playing and noting issues that I am having.

For instance enchanter AI. One of my main characters was a chanter and so it is driving me crazy that it isnt playing like I would. That is when I noticed that the priority column in the DB is a waste on them. I keep getting distracted to other things but I have mez at highest priority and even have a simple check that it should run before casting anything but it seems to cast mezzes at random times. Sometimes Im proud of it and other times I want to just kick it from the group.

EDIT:
Also the code for healers is good to have in the code because it helps the people that can't code. With no check in place clerics were DDing till oom. Perhaps I set the % too high for some, but most of the threads I read on clerics and mana were complaining about oom issues. FOr those that have been around and can compile their own code they can change it easily and until we add a #bot commands for in game settings I think it helps.

[bad_captain]

Originally Posted by Criimson

I played live to 80. The only classes I didn't play were healers because they felt boring.

I didn't mean to question our EQ acumen, just that as you have noticed, bots behave differently than a player would, and their interaction at different levels are something you need to experience before you can truly understand how changing code can affect their behavior. Fixing something at one level may significantly impact another level in a completely different way.

Originally Posted by Criimson

EDIT:
Also the code for healers is good to have in the code because it helps the people that can't code. With no check in place clerics were DDing till oom. Perhaps I set the % too high for some, but most of the threads I read on clerics and mana were complaining about oom issues. FOr those that have been around and can compile their own code they can change it easily and until we add a #bot commands for in game settings I think it helps.

The only one I remember seeing having OOM issues since I made the healing changes was from pfyon, but I may have missed others. I think a 50% baseline would be appropriate, with the ability to adjust from there would be ideal.

Regardless, I just wanted to point out that you have to extra careful when making any DB schema changes, as some are reluctant to approve code that does so. I found out the hard way when I spend a month working on pet code allowing them to equip all equipment slots, as well as pet focus code that preequipped equipment on pets summoned with a pet focus. Since these changes required changes to the player profile in the database, they were never implemented. I'm still waiting for the required changed to the player profile for proper pet focus handling (and saving when zoning/suspending). I just wanted to point it out and help you be aware of some of the potential issues you may encounter. Plus, I just wanted feedback on my thoughts and get your (and everyone else's) view of what priorities should be.

[Criimson]

The only one I remember seeing having OOM issues since I made the healing changes was from pfyon, but I may have missed others. I think a 50% baseline would be appropriate, with the ability to adjust from there would be ideal.

Yea I read the AXClassic forums as well and I think it was mentioned there the most. Seems that people that use bots prefer his repack because it has bots at a more functional level and repacks make a new persons life so much eaiser.