Quintessence wrote:I'm not quite sure I understand what this addon does. Could someone please clarify?
Does this addon auto-perform actions for you during a Pet Battle encounter?
It works similar to the way Combat Rotation Guides and One-Button-Macros using GnomeSequencer / GSSE work since people use and made macros using /castsequence,
i.e. /castsequence reset=20/target Tiger Palm, Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab, Jab
There's 2 parts. The script editor, and the parser.
You press a button called "Auto" in the Pet Combat UI during a battle that chooses the 'optimistic' best option to press at that time. The Parser will examine the fight conditions, and the parser decides what it thinks "auto" should do. Each time you press the button, it evaluates the current fight, and maps to the button it should be pressing. So if a fight has 16 rounds, you would end up pressing auto, 16 times.
There's a bit of a hitch when it chooses a new pet to swap to, since this is running a command instead, all of the functionality is done by existing addons already (and arguably better), the difference is in the script that is putting it all together.
You can stop or interrupt the process at any time, or continue by pressing the "Auto" button, which will remap "auto" to whatever command or ability it should be casting. By default, this maps to A. But, you can change this.
Quintessence wrote:does this addon allow you to input a custom script so you receive alerts/notices of when to use abilities as part of a premade strategy?
It's not a 'rotation helper', in the sense that it's predicting/reading an optimal strategy or simcraft rotation guide, and showing you what to choose.
A script parser could be built for people to get a sense of what comes next, i.e. "training wheels" / "GPS", but, the script works with conditions, not steps. if the script looks at enemy health, there's a divide where it won't show you the next option, it will have 3 or 4 different options (out of 7) it decides when it comes to it. if something goes sideways, it only has the script to tell you what happens next.
This would be basically, a visual debugger. it would show what makes the decisions based on the script and the current pet state. For most players, it would be just as confusing as coding the script, as it would show what the script, and the game is looking at during a pet battle.
Making a "flashing button" "pet rotation helper would be obscure, it would have to simulate the fight based on the enemy trainer's scripts and logic that the developers would have implemented. Which is going a bit more "next level" ... but would make for a handheld pet battle app instead of an addon.
But, with a "flashing button" to show what you could press next ...
I suppose the difference, in a metaphorical sense is the difference between GPS and auto-steering as what Markio Kart 8 does. there's plenty of chances for random things to happen (in a pet battle...). It has very limited use out of non-repeatable events like trainers,
i.e. you could probably work out a PvP team to fight other players, or capture pets in the wild. you'd lose a lot though. There's more going on in a PvP battle that the script can't anticipate, that a player can. It's also highly dependent on the team, which is why it's tied to rematch.
in a technical sense, rematch is more automated than the scripts are, but functionally, the scripts are doing the 'end work'
Quintessence wrote:If it's the first, this could be violating the WoW/Blizzard Terms of Service. Blizzard has made it clear in the past that they do not want players using scripts, addons, or bots to auto-perform actions.
it's hard to say. the ToU is intended to be broad so they have discretion on changes. The addon has been around for nearly 6+ months, in china, so the discretion has been around for long enough that Blizzard could crack down now, or later, or at any time. The difficulty is, IMO, that the addon does not reduce the competitive nature, nor does it break existing systems. it is difficult to get it to work on non-trainer battles, it is built to automate repetitive team builds.
If the enemy team does not repeat the sequences, then the script usually does not work. Of all of the pet battles available, this is somewhat of a grey area since it's automating the parts of WoW that often repeat. Like World Quests.
I'm the last person to know where "the line" exists. Truly. I have no idea where the ToS extends because the wording excludes all addons, not just those it permits. ToU also prohibits using game information, i.e. APIs and forums discussing game strategies, etc. It is done so that it has the later discretion to act and not be held liable for the interim period where it did not choose to act.
Unfortunately, it also has the backwards aim, that it forges a "ask for forgiveness rather than permission" attitude when it comes to developing APIs or addons for WoW because they can't give permission, Blizzard have to see how it affects the game.
Blizzard often disables addons silently, so they break,or removes/hobbles an API function entirely, affecting large numbers of addons or causing others to malfunction. Some make sense, some don't.
The most recent "exploit" last year, was addons that use location and map data in instances, raids and scenarios, breaking most maps for instances entirely, like atlas maps and guides, but also any DBM style arrows, group range indicators, or area/mechanic warnings based on damage or locations where damage will spawn, ie operator thogar where you dodge trains on train tracks, etc.
Exorsus, recently built a weakaura script to bring back the range/arrow function indicator, that caused blizzard to disable friendly nameplates in instances so you can't tag people in instances anymore with the skull/cross, etc. like you used to. only enemy mobs.
Hellfire Citadel and Siege of Orgrimmar raid indicators often used location data to point out where damage was incoming for Siege or Blackrock Foundry, etc.
i.e. Case in Point, World Quest Group Finder, also was recently hobbled so that it didn't globally spam the Group Finder with hundreds of group requests/second on each server as you crossed the hidden quest boundaries. It had a spiral-on effect for the servers because they were not built to cache or reduce repeated requests or handle multiple searches/second from simultaneous requests, i.e. people walking into the same zone at server reset, when people leave a quest group on collective completes, etc. It was an unintended consequence of the design.
Similar problems were also found with Very Old addons like GearScore, which used a chat channel to broadcast data about cached character lookups to people in the area that had the option open. It would flood through the servers as a very fast text channel and led to people who weren't running GearScore, to experience FPS drops as their computers were also receiving the hidden chat channel text. In areas like Dalaran (old Dalaran) and capital cities, it was sending thousands of requests for updates, and all the GS clients would listen and send random updates every few minutes.
Quintessence wrote:If it's the second one, this could indeed be a very powerful tool. If scripts are made available for popular strategies, anyone could easily import it and complete a battle (if they have the pets, that is) without having much prior knowledge about the pets, strategy or Pet Battles. All they would have to do is pay attention to any alerts; "Use X ability now!" "Swap to X pet now!" I'm not sure how I feel about it, if this is the case.
Obligatory warning (until there's some clarification on what exactly this addon does): I'd like to remind everyone to be wary of using addons that might breach Blizzard ToS. Also, per the [url=https://www.warcraftpets.com/community/guidelines/]WarcraftPets User Guidelines[/url], we not condone any cheats, hacks, or any advertisement of such.
Understood. I think it comes down to a trust in Blizzard to act on their best interests.
Preferably within a shorter period of time so people get a sense of what Blizzard's best interests actually are.
