Revision12.000
Revision 12.000 is upon us. Here are the changes, and how to "fix" your bot.
- Where computers need data from humans, it is always prone to human error (yous of course, not me.. :) ). I'm not a fan of human error, to help remove this, I will be removing the need for ALL SPELL LISTS. With the change to spell names (Kick, Kick II, Kick III) there is no need for a list that tells the bot that "Kick" is in the same spell line. While spell lists are going away, just a note, that SpellExports are NOT going away. In fact, they are extremely important. They hold all the information about your spells - and is completely automated (no human error!).
- Renaming of save files (your character configuration files located in the /save/ folder. Files were previously named toonname_eq2config.xml. They are now named servername_toonname_eq2config.xml. (see below for reasons why - a lot of these compound each other).
- Names, to IDs, back to Names! Originally, back in the day (when none of you used the bot :P) the save files saved the name of the spell. Up until now, it has been saving the ID of the spell. I am now changing it back to the base spell. That means it went from Kick IV, to 2309234234, and now Kick (no roman numerals).
- Since the saves now work off of base names (like Kick), FRIENDLY LEVEL UP IS ENABLED! This means if you have Kick IV in CA slot #2, then you level and get Kick V. When you reload the bot, Kick V will magically (well.. not really magically) appear in slot #2.
While that may not sound like much, that was thousands (yes, thousands) of lines of code to add/change. The good news is, I tested it and it works great. Now for the bad news... I mentioned that the new saves were renamed. You could rename your current save, but the saves were changed. The bot can't load an ID from a save file anymore. Originally this meant ALL profiles, for every toon had to be re-done from scratch. This one time pain for all of you was worth it to me for these upgrades (and what it allows in the future)... However, I run a full group and have alts etc etc, and I'll be damned if I have any plans of going through every single character redoing profiles.
Unfortunately, there is some pain. I wrote a script that will convert your old saves (toonname_eq2config.xml with ID's) to (servername_toonname_eq2config.xml with base names). That's the good news, the bad news is, this script has to be run while the toon is logged in. Script only takes approximately 4 seconds.
What YOU have to do
- Update from the SVN. This will get you version 12 and a new file called UpdateSaves.iss.
- Load a fresh EQ2 session. Log in without loading the bot ( run ogre login toonname ) for example.
- With no scripts running, type "Run UpdateSaves"
- This leaves your old toonname_eq2config.xml file alone. This will be a "safe" backup for now.
- Now load the bot by typing "Run Ogre".
- Check your bot - it shouldn't be any different than what it was before.
Pros
The positives of why this was done.
- Removal of Spell list - less errors, was no reason to having 2 "lists" (spell list and spell export).
- Allows for friendly leveling up of spells.
- You can once again look at a save file and see spell names if need be.
- Bot no longer uses old innerspace code that Lax could disable at any time (it hasn't been supported for 4 or 5 years)
- Having the same name of toons on different servers works with the servername addition :)
Cons
The negatives/limitations
- The one-time pain of having to fix your saves (the UpdateSaves)
- No choice (or very limited) of choosing a tier of spell to use. This will probably only be a concern with the next level increase (1-2 years?). Because we use the SpellExport only, if it has level 91-100 spells in it, you will use them. We'll deal with this next level increase if it's an issue.
