EQoffline, bots and more..

[Congdar]

Thanks Cavedude!

[gygelly]

Thanks for the update Congdar...the last one was kind of crashy and the group bug was a pain, so my guild and I have just been using a previous version for the time being.

We'll get right to playing with this new version tonight.

Since you are nearly done with the spells, I have a request for your next priority, along the same vein. We need to get the bot info into it's own table, rather than npc_types. Every time I update peq, I have to jump through a bunch of hoops to ensure that player's bots aren't lost...which is a pretty big deal as players put effort into equipping their bots.

Previously, it wasn't THAT bad, I just had to be sure to backup the rows from npc_types that were bots before sourcing in drop_system. But recently, the peq guys have been adding more entries to npc types, the ids of which overlap with the ids of the bots. This means I have to not only assign the bots new ids in npc_types, but also update the botinventory and botowners tables.

Again, thanks for the update!

[Congdar]

Cavedude made a batch file that backs up the bots to a sql file you can source in with a new database. The id's are supposed to be in a range that doesn't conflict with existing or new npc's. Not sure why you are having issues there. The inventory and owners tables are not touched during a drop_system.sql (is that the name?) so only the npc_types needs to be backed up with CD's batch file.
I'm not sure moving them to their own table would work with the spawn code. CD?

[gygelly]

Yeah, like I said, it's just recently I started having trouble.

Basically, I started having problems when npc_type.id 999137 (#Xegony the Quenn of Air) was added into the database, as 999137 was the id of the first bot I made. Obviously, they can't have the same id, so I just changed the id of my bot to 999237 before adding his row back to the npc_types table.

Since then, as npcs have been added, I've had to manually bump the ids of my bots higher. right now, the last one was 999145, Ragrua Protector. Each update, I only have to fix a few bots.

And yeah, the botowners and inventory aren't dropped, that's not the problem. I just have to manually update the ids in those tables to match up with the id change I have to make in npc_types. So again, using my first bot as an example, when I changed his id to 999237 from 999137, I had to update all the entries with the bot.id 999137 to 999237 in the bot inventory table so that he still had his items, and in the botowner table so I could still summon him.

[Congdar]

I wonder who is adding those npc's. They are not following the npc id format for zone id and npc id. Really, those npc's are being incorrectly added to the database as I understand it.

From the wiki:

npc_types table
So, first things first. Since we are working on the tutoriala zone, we are going to add Arias. So with Navicat already running, open up the npc_types table. Now, we are going to assign him an id. To do that, we need to make sure that we give him an id that is not in use. Here is a good way to come up with an id for a npc. I would create a 6 digit id for my npc and break it down as follows:


The first 3 digits, I would use the zone id. That way, if we are working on a zone, we can easily search for what npcs are in a zone by using the begin with filter in Navicat.
The last 3 digits would be there sequential number for the npc.

So, for this example, we know that we are going to add a npc to the tutoriala zone. We know that the id for the zone is 188 so the first three digits of his id would be 188. And since we know that this is the first npc we are going to add, we will number him 001. Therefore the complete id for Arias would be 188001. Now, we need to make sure that this id is not in use, so go ahead and perform a search and see if there is an id of 188001 in the npc_types table. If all is well, you should not get anything to pop up.

[nosfentora]

Recently i've noticed my bots are getting alot of 'tries to slash a <npc> but an <npc> is INVULNERABLE' message.

they're equipped with magic weaps - this has happened in Burning Wood (pretty much every mob fairly consistently), Necropolis (only tried phase spiders), in Sirens Grotto (every single Molkor)

i never got to Sirens or Necropolis in live.... but why would they be invulnerable? giants and skels never were that i can remember in bw.

my current tank is equipped with 80664 (sparkling short sword of magma) and (80674) scimitar of the damned

happens to my wiz too - 15867 (wand of impenitrable force)

my berserker can hit them (69297) steel rod of the knight.

client problem? bot problem? my problem? =)

[cavedude]

Those NPCs were given incorrect IDs. I'm pretty sure the team member who put them in forgot to follow the ID formula and just let the editor assign them the next available ID. I'll have it fixed with the next CVS update. Sorry about that!

[Congdar]

Originally Posted by nosfentora

Recently i've noticed my bots are getting alot of 'tries to slash a <npc> but an <npc> is INVULNERABLE' message.

I could have a typo in the new spell lists... do you have any other data that might suggest what is happening? Is a bot casting invulnerability on the npc? Is the npc casting invulnerability on itself?

[Andrew80k]

Originally Posted by nosfentora

Recently i've noticed my bots are getting alot of 'tries to slash a <npc> but an <npc> is INVULNERABLE' message.

they're equipped with magic weaps - this has happened in Burning Wood (pretty much every mob fairly consistently), Necropolis (only tried phase spiders), in Sirens Grotto (every single Molkor)

i never got to Sirens or Necropolis in live.... but why would they be invulnerable? giants and skels never were that i can remember in bw.

my current tank is equipped with 80664 (sparkling short sword of magma) and (80674) scimitar of the damned

happens to my wiz too - 15867 (wand of impenitrable force)

my berserker can hit them (69297) steel rod of the knight.

client problem? bot problem? my problem? =)

This can happen when the Bot or PC has a weapon that is above its level, but I thought that the bots prevented giving them equipment they couldn't use. Maybe a bug in the equipment stuff?

[nosfentora]

I don't think the bots/npc are casting invul - my pet is able to hit them, the berserker can hit them. it seems to be the warrior and wizard that this happens to when they are meleeing.


Bots were equipped using Georges' Item Editor - which i don't think checks for level when equipping an item.

it could be a level thing as the bots are 52 and the weaps are for 65, and 75. I never thought about a weapon above its level.

i'll try lower lvl weaps and post back.

[gygelly]

Congdar, you are THE MAN.
1. The server is no longer crashing constantly.
2. Bards: Not only is the spell list perfect 60+, but bards now TWIST. That's INCREDIBLE.
3. All casters are using their nukes, roots, and dispells intelligently now. Or at least randomly. Anyway, mages are no longer chain dispelling, and wizards are no longer chain rooting...they actually mostly nuke, only casting the utility spells occasionally.

Bugs:
There's something goofy with groups:
1. if you summon the bots, and then invite a player, there's something wrong with group chat...if you try to use it, it says you aren't in a group.
2. if a player leaves a group, all the bots leave too (or the group disbands, not really sure). The interesting thing is the bots don't die as soon as they leave the group like usuall, so you don't have to respawn them, just reinvite them.

[gygelly]

Another bug:
There is still something wrong with the melee dps of bots. If anything they just seem to miss a LOT.

The best way to check this out:
Make a monk, completely unequipped, level 60, and use setallskills 250.
Make a monkbot (who will also be level 60 and completely unequipped).

#zone chardock, and you'll see 2 equal level sniffers right in front of you. Sick the bot on one of the sniffers, and you attack the other. Youll be able to solo yours no prob, but after you've already killed yours, the bot's sniffer will still be above 80%

[nosfentora]

A thought about bot owners - what about making the account id the owner of the bot - rather than the character id? that way the same account could use the bots across different characters?

[gygelly]

Tested the melee bug for a bit:
Equipping weapons makes the problem less severe, but doesn't really fix it.
In each test, I would equip the player monk and the monk bot with exactly the same weapons.
I tried low end and high end 2hders, as well as dualweilding one handers.

But no matter which weapon configuration I tested, the bot's dps was roughly half of the player monks.

Just observing the combat logs (I haven't gone so far as to damage parse) it seems like the monk is using flying kick as often as it can, so that's not it.

[Congdar]

Originally Posted by gygelly

There's something goofy with groups:
1. if you summon the bots, and then invite a player, there's something wrong with group chat...if you try to use it, it says you aren't in a group.

Bots should be the last group members added after regular PC's

Originally Posted by gygelly

Another bug:
There is still something wrong with the melee dps of bots. If anything they just seem to miss a LOT.

Make a monk, completely unequipped, level 60, and use setallskills 250.

I wonder what the monk bot skills are at

Originally Posted by nosfentora

A thought about bot owners - what about making the account id the owner of the bot - rather than the character id? that way the same account could use the bots across different characters?

I like this idea, would keep the number of bots down. I'll see if it's possible.