Natural Beastlord Hunter v1.1.9 (Updated 2004-07-11)

Terramantian · Post by **Terramantian** » Sun Jul 11, 2004 12:04 am

Yeah, the problem is that you don't finish backing up before you start casting, then it gets caught in spellcast.inc cause it keeps getting interupted. Sorry if I didn't explain it well enough. Looking forward to the next release hehe. And does anyone know a good place to run this for a long time with mostly lb or blue mobs to a 51 beastlord? Trying to run an extended test with semi-tough but defeatable mobs. I've been doing hornets in BW, but they're still a bit too hard and I have to end the mac and run away too much to be a good run. I'm going to try DL next, even though it can be crowded... but if anyone else has any idea I'd love to hear it.

Terramantian · Post by **Terramantian** » Sun Jul 11, 2004 12:43 am

Oh, there is one bug I forgot to mention. it's small, but easy to fix I think. If you have PULL_TO_HOMEPOINT on, and start the macro without a pet, it will not do anything til you manually summon a pet. summoning a pet if one is not up before doing the first few lines of MainSub should work.

wolf5 · Post by **wolf5** » Sun Jul 11, 2004 7:12 am

Try Seafury Cyclops in Ocean of Tears. Should be LB and DB at 51.

-Wolf5

Terramantian · Post by **Terramantian** » Sun Jul 11, 2004 9:12 am

Thanks for the suggestion. I've tried that already though. It'd be good except for one thing. The camp is still fairly popular (meaning, one or two people will usually be there) which isn't a problem cause I can just go on the other side of the island, but I'm not high enough level yet to kill the corrupted giant or that named bard giant. The other groups never do either, so the bard one is usually always up and at least one corrupted is. And they wander so much I'm bound to get one eventually, even if I'm pulling to the beach with a huge add radius. Oh well, I'll try again in a few levels hehe. BW is going fine now using the pull option and a safe point by the zone. A few bugs though...

1. Sometimes it'll cast the pullspell twice. I'm not sure if this is by design or not, but since I'm pulling with slow, which has a 5sec recast time, I get beat on a few times before I can cast again. If this is how it's supposed to be just let me know and I'll use a different spell.

2. It doesn't wait long enough for mobs. This might be because hornets move relatively slow even when aggroed. Not sure how you'd fix this though. Maybe, as we run back to home, it could measure the speed of the mob and make sure it's facing us, then try to match that speed or keep the mob within a certain distance, and wait if it's too far?

other than those minor things it's worked very well. Still looking for a perfect hunting place, if anyone has any ideas hehe. DSP was so nice, tons of blue non-aggro mobs all around. Wish there was some place like that for 50s.

vladk · Post by **vladk** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 10:09 am

I got lots of bugs :)

1. My slow is off and I pull with drowsy but randomly it would cast drowsy twice.
2. When char backs off and lets pet tank if there is a wall behind he just keeps backing into it and nothing happens, it would be better if there is an obsticle to sit down (if mob is not hitting us).
3. Sometimes char would just stand there not doing anything, he just says pet health wquals back to action and just stands there waiting for pet to die. This also happens on mob low health, he just stands there while pet finishes off the mob.
4. If critical buffs array is [0] char just stands there doing nothing.

The worst bugs are of course the ones that kill me and those are 2 and 3 when pet gets raped and char just stands there and looks at it. It might have something to do with how char moves in close quarters.
There is more but those are major.

P.S. The #3 bug wasn't an issue in 1.1.2 but as soon as I updated to the newest version I have to pretty much watch the screen nonstop because it happens every other fight, char just stands there and does nothing until pet dies.

Terramantian · Post by **Terramantian** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 10:46 am

I'm getting the first bug he mentioned, but none of the others... but then #2 and 4 I really haven't tried. Used to have problems with 3 but haven't since 1.1.7 or so. there are a few other ones I saw though:

1. It hasn't happened yet with 1.1.9 but was with the previous version so I'll mention it. Sometimes, usually after dealing with an add, the bst would run home, and say there's no targets up. It would keep looping like this and effectively stopped the macro. Doing a /who I saw that there were at least 5 targets up in range, and from the distances I don't think all of them could've met the pc or add radii...

2. Pulling to homepoint... several issues here. First like I said before it doesn't seem to wait long enough. So this is what happens: 1.) Pulls some mob 2.) waits a few seconds, mob is still coming but macro says he's not 3.) Go out to pull another mob 4.) by the time we're back at camp, the first mob has gotten there, it attacks and pet starts attacking back 5.) Second mob gets to camp, I start attacking it normally 6.) If I kill my mob first, it will go out and pull another before assisting/looting the other mob. This isn't so bad, as I'm in an area where I can handle two at a time. But sometimes steps 1-3 have happened several times before the rest and I've ended up with lots of mobs in camp (even more due to some running and only one following to kill it)

3. Kinda along the same lines as 2, but a little bit different. 1.) Go out and pull 2.) While we're casting pullspell the mob aggros and attacks us 3.) Run back home, when we get there pet engages mob. 4.) Macro again says it's not coming. 5.) Now one of two things happens: Either the bst assists the pet, but does not go in and kill it (similar to vladk's bug 3), it just stands there and waits for pet to kill it, or it goes out and pulls another mob without assisting pet at all.

None of these are that common and it still runs great otherwise, just thought I'd mention them.

wolf5 · Post by **wolf5** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 1:08 pm

I will look into the issues. The least tested bit is the pull to homepoint as it runs a separate attack pattern than the normal hunting.

I have also moved my char out of Rathe Mnts to gnolls in Jagged Pine, so now I am testing stuff in cramped hallways.

I will release next version when I feel its ready.

What's done so far in 1.2.0 is:

Fixed: Stuckness on strafe. We should now stop trying to strafe if something is blocking us.
Fixed: (pull to homepoint)Removed a check that often resulted in casting the pull spell several times. Added new check "Target not moving(Target.Speed==0) AND outside attack range(Target.Distance>Target.MaxRange)" -> try again.
Fixed: (pull to homepoint)Halved the distance to wait for mobs on pulling.Should prevent outrunning them.
Fixed: The macro should tolerate missing arrayitems (spelllists). It will display a warning on DEBUG_2 instead of neverending loop (newtarget, done downtimework) - It should fix that one bug mentioned with critical spells array = 0.
Fixed: Strafing around the target should work more properly now (not strafing around and around as i've seen happen - and allways one direction).
Fixed: When pulling, we check if the target is out of sight or out of range. If so, add to ignore list. (the ignore list will clear about every 2 minutes.)
Changed: SEND_PET_BEFORE_SLOW. If False, you will cast slow, then WAIT for the mob. True you will send pet, cast slow, run into battle.
Added: PULL_TARGET_ANGLE. If PULL_TO_HOMEPOINT is true, this one can be set to what degree we wish to pull from. 90 degrees = straight from in front of us and 45 degrees to each side. 360degrees = everyting. Can be usefull when pulling hallways, or when we want to ignore stuff behind us...

New feature added: - "Select spawnpoints to hunt".
You can now call the macro with this:
"/macro nbh SELECT_SPAWNS"
Then add spawnpoints by targetting each spawn at the spawnpoints and writing "/echo SPAWN ${Target.ID}".
When done selecting the spawn(points) write "/echo DONE". You will then start hunting only these spawn(points).
You can also add more points during the running macro ( just do the /echo SPAWN ${Target.ID} ).
Add a hotkey for the spawn adding as it's easier than to write it each time.
(Go invis, start the macro. Add all the spawns, run back to startup point, issue DONE)

Things I'm working on:
Dont do stuckfix when mobs nearby as it probably means running around getting adds...
Will look into and stop backing off if we have a wall in our back (where i'm now i'm sure to get that one tested out).
Thinking on a way to add pathing nodes for close spaces. That way you can add pathing nodes on the intersections in caves and such that the character can use to navigate instead of running blindly in the direction of the mob.

I really like the spawn selector as it is a more controlled pulling way. Working on testing it properly (worked nicely in open areas).

-Wolf5

Terramantian · Post by **Terramantian** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 1:42 pm

Oh one more thing if you're looking into it... If somehow pet aquires a target that is not attacking you or your pet (and maybe is on the ignore list?) you will get stuck in and endless loop of assisting pet. I think this happens when the mob really isn't coming, cause you've outrun it or whatever. You said you were looking to fix that already, but I found it interesting that you'd assist, but never go attack. Dunno why that is.

vladk · Post by **vladk** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 2:34 pm

wolf5 wrote:
I have also moved my char out of Rathe Mnts to gnolls in Jagged Pine, so now I am testing stuff in cramped hallways.

Thank you!

My hunting was happening in Nedaria's Landing in a bear cave, there are 4 bears in a small space, pretty much perfect setting for the script but it was screwing up all the time there because of walls and rocks and such.

Kambic · Post by **Kambic** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 4:34 pm

Another request:

This I think would be rather easy to implement, and to be honest as I'm gaining levels isn't as much of an issue anymore, but how about:

|-- Should we avoid mobs which con red to us?
AVOID_REDS True
|-- How far away should we stay from said mobs?
AVOID_REDS_RADIUS 100
|-- Should we remember mobs we have conned that were dubious or greater, and remove them from the avoid list?
REMEMBER_FRIENDLY_REDS True

I've moved to Stone Brunt Mountains (I'm only 40 now) and not really an issue there, but something I would have liked when I was 30 and hunting in OverThere :)

EDIT: Some other, minor observations:

1. There should be a check to see if your buff isn't landing because you have a better buff on. Say you have a Druid skin on, Turtle Skin will of course not land, and it will loop.

2. Can we have the option to heal ourselves before looting? If it's been a close fight, and you're under a designated percentage, would be nice to heal up a bit before looting.

3. Are there checks to see if you are strafing / spinning needlessly?

4. Occasionally won't loot the corpse - not sure if the macro is having trouble targetting the corpse or what. But maybe look for the "too far away to loot" text or the "must target corpse" text, and have another attempt?

Will try to think of anything more. Noneof that stuff is really pertinent, just things I had noticed.

Terramantian · Post by **Terramantian** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 6:25 pm

The avoid red cons thing reminded me of a feature I wanted to mention. If you get around to it, and AVOID_MOBS array would be nice. Where you could put nameds, or just tough mobs and the script would make sure to stay a specified distance away from them. Not really necesary, just an idea I though would be nice.

wolf5 · Post by **wolf5** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 6:35 pm

There is no way to clear the pets target but to kill the target or ask it to attack another target as far as I know.

Terramantian · Post by **Terramantian** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 6:40 pm

killing the pet works :p

That's what I've been doing manually... for a quick fix might want to add a line that does that if you get stuck in the target loop too long. I believe also that /pet hold followed by /pet back will clear its target. But obviously not a lot of people will have that hehe.

vladk · Post by **vladk** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 9:23 am

I was thinking, at 39 my pet is a much better tank than me, maybe we should have a possibility to switch roles and let pet tank the fight and just heal him with our massive heal. This is a lot more optimal for me, I can heal 580HP a pop comparing to my 100hp plus my equipment kinda sucks so pet is preferred anyways. This would be like a total pet class except we would probably go into the fight when mob is low health or just stick a DD on the mob.

wolf5 · Post by **wolf5** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 11:33 am

vladk wrote:I was thinking, at 39 my pet is a much better tank than me, maybe we should have a possibility to switch roles and let pet tank the fight and just heal him with our massive heal. This is a lot more optimal for me, I can heal 580HP a pop comparing to my 100hp plus my equipment kinda sucks so pet is preferred anyways. This would be like a total pet class except we would probably go into the fight when mob is low health or just stick a DD on the mob.

You could play with

Code: Select all

|-- If the PCT of your pet and yourself differs from this number, let pet tank 
#define LET_PET_TANK_IF_DIFFERENCE 8

|-- How low on health should the pet be before we heal it (noncombat)
#define HEAL_PET_BELOW_PCT 50

|-- Prevent nuking when mana below % to not waste mana
#define NUKE_ABOVE_MANA_PCT 80

|-- We dont want to stay back when the mob is fleeing, now do we :-)
#define FORCE_ATTACK_WHEN_MOB_BELOW 30

and set LET_PET_TANK_IF_DIFFERENCE to -1 for instance. I think you will initialize the attack, then back off straight away, and heal the pet when the pet gets below HEAL_PET_BELOW_PCT. Then set the FORCE_ATTACK_WHEN_MOB_BELOW lower (0?) so you only run after the mob hitting. when its fleeing.
The NUKE_ABOVE_MANA_PCT will let you nuke the target while pet is tanking if your mana is above the setting.

-Wolf5