Addon Rematch

[FuxieDK]

A small request for a future release...

A checkbox saying "Auto-add new pets to level-queue"..

Should be self-explanatory..

Shameless Self-bump here from my post a month ago, just to catch your attention..

Oh yeah I meant to ask about that. Do you mean every pet? Wild pets captured when out doing the safari achievements, pets you cage and learn when you have 3+ of them, etc?

Well... You only capture pets, if you intend on levelling and using them, right?
And even if you were to cage/release a pet in the queue, Rematch can already handle that, can't it?

[Kpb321]

Well... You only capture pets, if you intend on levelling and using them, right?
And even if you were to cage/release a pet in the queue, Rematch can already handle that, can't it?

I can think of lots of reasons why I might capture or learn a pet that I have no immediate plans to level.

I've got 3 p/p rare emp crabs. Why? I ran into them while battling and they are a pretty good pet and for a while it looked like you might need dupes for pet breeding. Only one is level 25 and I have no plans to level the other two right now.

I've also captured duplicate pets that I haven't leveled because they are a "better" breed but either I need to upgrade their quality or they are much lower level so I've never bothered leveling them because I never ran into a situation where having the "better" breed mattered compared to my "worse" breed that is already rare and level 25.

Probably the most common tho is just buying/selling/trading cagable pets. I've done tons of that only leveled a small percentage of all the pets I've bought and sold.

[FuxieDK]

Well... You only capture pets, if you intend on levelling and using them, right?
And even if you were to cage/release a pet in the queue, Rematch can already handle that, can't it?

I can think of lots of reasons why I might capture or learn a pet that I have no immediate plans to level.

I've got 3 p/p rare emp crabs. Why? I ran into them while battling and they are a pretty good pet and for a while it looked like you might need dupes for pet breeding. Only one is level 25 and I have no plans to level the other two right now.

I've also captured duplicate pets that I haven't leveled because they are a "better" breed but either I need to upgrade their quality or they are much lower level so I've never bothered leveling them because I never ran into a situation where having the "better" breed mattered compared to my "worse" breed that is already rare and level 25.

Probably the most common tho is just buying/selling/trading cagable pets. I've done tons of that only leveled a small percentage of all the pets I've bought and sold.

Well..

In stead of a checkbox, it could be a pulldown menu, with the following options..
Title: Add new pets to level queue
1: None (no pets are added to queue, current behaviour)
2: All (all pets are added to queue)
3: All Rare+ (only pets that are rare or better is added to queue - currently nothing is better than rare, but we don't know what the future brings)
4: Unique (regardless of rarity, but only the first of each kind)
5: Unique Rare+ (only the first rare pet)
6: Higher level (if you have e.g. a level 10 in queue and get a level 20, add 20 to queue and remove 10)

But this just gets more complicated...

[Gello]

Yeah it's why I wanted to ask. 90% of wild pets I capture are for an achievement with no intent on leveling them (yet). But then a good chunk of caged pets learned are from the shuffle of having 3/3 of the pet and needing to cage one to fire it off to an alt or a guildmate.

A dropdown with different rules gets kinda messy. How about one option and one or two sub-options:

[ ] Add pets to the queue as they're learned
..[ ] Only pets I don't have
..[ ] Prompt before adding

'Only pets I don't have' will add to the queue if it's a species you don't have already. (I don't know about you guys but this is the only time I would personally automatically add it to the queue.)
'Prompt before adding it' will do a popup for every captured/learned pet asking if you want to add the new pet to the queue.

Something that may be kind of neat would be if Rematch noted the date/time that a pet is learned. Then like you can sort the queue by Time you can sort all of your pets by Time too, listing your pets in the order you learned them. Or you could search "days<7" to see how many you learned in the past week. Though there'd be no way to know when you captured pets before it started tracking them.

[FuxieDK]

Yeah it's why I wanted to ask. 90% of wild pets I capture are for an achievement with no intent on leveling them (yet). But then a good chunk of caged pets learned are from the shuffle of having 3/3 of the pet and needing to cage one to fire it off to an alt or a guildmate.

A dropdown with different rules gets kinda messy. How about one option and one or two sub-options:

[ ] Add pets to the queue as they're learned
..[ ] Only pets I don't have
..[ ] Prompt before adding

'Only pets I don't have' will add to the queue if it's a species you don't have already. (I don't know about you guys but this is the only time I would personally automatically add it to the queue.)
'Prompt before adding it' will do a popup for every captured/learned pet asking if you want to add the new pet to the queue.

Something that may be kind of neat would be if Rematch noted the date/time that a pet is learned. Then like you can sort the queue by Time you can sort all of your pets by Time too, listing your pets in the order you learned them. Or you could search "days<7" to see how many you learned in the past week. Though there'd be no way to know when you captured pets before it started tracking them.

You know the limitations of both LUA and your own coding skills better than me.. I just provide an idea..

"Only pets I don't have" option, should be possible to pair with a rarity.. I might capture a grey for Safari (or super rare, e.g. Minfernal), but I won't level it due to color..
Later, if I capture a blue (but still have the grey), the blue should be added to queue.. Or if I stone the grey pet, it should also be added..

If you learn a pet, you intende to to sell (e.g. Pandaren Spirits, which are BoP, so you need to add/cage them before you can sell them), does it matteranything at all, if they are added to the queue? When you cage it, it's removed from queue anyway..

[Jerebear]

If you learn a pet, you intende to to sell (e.g. Pandaren Spirits, which are BoP, so you need to add/cage them before you can sell them), does it matteranything at all, if they are added to the queue? When you cage it, it's removed from queue anyway..

It does mess things up if you are also levelling using the auto sort feature and selling. The queue might put your "selling" pet in as the next levelling pet, effectively wasting the EXP for that tamer that night.

[FuxieDK]

If you learn a pet, you intende to to sell (e.g. Pandaren Spirits, which are BoP, so you need to add/cage them before you can sell them), does it matteranything at all, if they are added to the queue? When you cage it, it's removed from queue anyway..

It does mess things up if you are also levelling using the auto sort feature and selling. The queue might put your "selling" pet in as the next levelling pet, effectively wasting the EXP for that tamer that night.

Imagine this:
I battle Burning Panda Spirit, and a Panda Earth Spirit drops.. That pet is BoP, so I add it to my collection (and thus automatically to level queue) and cage it, so I can sell it.

Next I battle Curageous Yon.. How is any XP, from either trainer lost???

[Jerebear]

Imagine this:
I battle Burning Panda Spirit, and a Panda Earth Spirit drops.. That pet is BoP, so I add it to my collection (and thus automatically to level queue) and cage it, so I can sell it.

Next I battle Curageous Yon.. How is any XP, from either trainer lost???

I have all level 21+ pets in my levelling queue and the sorting options are set to Median + Full sort. If I am not watching carefully, the Panda Spirit will be the next pet in my levelling queue and eat the EXP meant for my other pets (up to 4 tamer battles if I really am not paying attention...I.E. my toddler is being a beast). I don't tend to cage pets immediately since my selling toon is not the same as my levelling toon...different servers even.

EDIT: That's not to say I am against the option. You had just asked how it could be a problem. Remember every person does things a different way. For me I wouldn't use the auto add method to work around that.

[FuxieDK]

For me I wouldn't use the auto add method to work around that.

I know that we all play the game in diffent ways..
But please notice, in all my versions of this suggestion, it's possible to leave the feature disabled.. I'm not trying to force a feature down the throat of someone; I'm trying to get an optional feature implemented, that I find usefull and hope/think a lot of other people also will..

[Gello]

The option will get added, don't worry! We're just vetting the idea out to see how best to implement it.

The lua/coding part is trivial. The tricky part, which you guys are incredibly helpful, is coming up with how a feature should be implemented to be as useful as possible for as many scenerios as possible, preferrably as simply as possible. Lots of improvements in Rematch are a direct result of vetting the idea out in this thread, like the more natural behavior of the queue (which is also more powerful/flexible than my original concept), the expected damage calculating the min health for preferred pets (I would've had a cludgy "Add 33% health to X type pets" if left to my own devices), even things like how best to group teams and such.

You guys are awesome at that part and I appreciate every one of the "well what about...?" posts that may read like it's shooting down an idea but it's really to help refine the idea to handle more situations, making it more useful and thus making the addon itself more useful.

Anyway, as I said this option will get added. It just needs a bit more thought about how to go about it. Adding all pets as they're learned would be an option some will use. But with some tweaks we can get a lot more use. So to refine the earlier suggested option:

[ ] Add pets to the queue as they're learned
..[ ] Only pets I don't have
..[ ] Only rare quality

You can have all three checked or just the main option and one of the other two or just check the top option to add them all as they're learned.

In retrospect, a popup asking if you want to add a new pet to the queue would get wicked annoying. Or not? It'd take less than a dozen lines of code but I'd like to minimize "option creep" too.

Also for rare pets like Minfernal, is it acceptable that they have to be added manually if you choose to limit what pets get added? It's a rare enough occurance.

[Buruan]

I think Fuxie has a good point, however for me it would be overkill.
I have pondered asking for the same thing, or in a similar fashion, an option to add a list of pets to the leveling queue.

i.e. All lvl 1 rares, All Mechanical Level 5 and below etc etc

However thinking this through in more detail, this would really only apply to a small portion of people ( i think), as you need to have a decent number of pets leveled already for this option to be really useful.

Ultimately, and thinking more about software design here than anything, simplicity wins.
For me having used the addon for a while, all the features make sense, but looking at it from a newcomers perspective, it can get overwhelming with all the features.

Ultimately the decision is, do we want a one stop shop pet addon with all bells and whistles, or an easy to use addon that basically out of the box gives a newbie what it needs.

I think at this current juncture a good balance between the two is found, adding a plethora of additional option may make it overwhelming.

Dont get me wrong, I like Fuxies idea and would use it too, but I am ahead of the curve on pet leveling and can target specific pets now, rather than still building up my pet base.

[Kpb321]

Anyway, as I said this option will get added. It just needs a bit more thought about how to go about it. Adding all pets as they're learned would be an option some will use. But with some tweaks we can get a lot more use. So to refine the earlier suggested option:

[ ] Add pets to the queue as they're learned
..[ ] Only pets I don't have
..[ ] Only rare quality

You can have all three checked or just the main option and one of the other two or just check the top option to add them all as they're learned.

In retrospect, a popup asking if you want to add a new pet to the queue would get wicked annoying. Or not? It'd take less than a dozen lines of code but I'd like to minimize "option creep" too.

I think that is a pretty good set of options. Maybe change the first one to Only pets I don't already have @ lvl 25 or in the queue. If you don't have the pet at all it still behaves the same way. If you've got all three checked and have a poorer quality pet and you capture a new rare quality pet it could automatically add that one to the queue. I don't think we can necessarily get it perfect for everyone for every possible situation but I think that is okay because you can still manually add or remove things from the queue.

Do you think this should also kick in when you stone a pet? Personally, if I'm upgrading a pet to rare I probably want to level it, especially if I don't already have a lvl 25 version.

Buruan,

I don't think that is a problem having lots of feature as long as they are done well and you generally default to off. As far as adding your list of things it is already possible:

http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/rematch
You can also fill the queue from pets in the browser. For instance, search "21-24", filter for Rare and hit Fill Queue to add 21-24 rare pets to the leveling queue.

After filtering the list the way you want it the fill queue should be in the popup menu with the filter options.

[Buruan]

Goes to show how much I know
Thanks.

[Gello]

The Fill Queue is in the queue menu if you can't find it, the same one where you can sort the queue.

As a rule, every new feature is off by default. You have some good points that stuff shouldn't be thrown in just for the sake of being thrown in. But in this case, an option to automatically add pets as you learn them would get tucked away into the options list out of the way, it wouldn't require much work, it wouldn't impact the size/performance of the rest of the addon, and it would require little/no maintenance once added. It's a decent candidate for a new feature, especially if it can be made useful for a wide audience.

Feature creep is something to definitely keep in check too. Everything added has to be supported for the life of the addon, so extra thought goes into what (and especially how) they get added. And if it's any comfort about addon bloat, grab an addon that shows addon resource usage. You may be surprised at how little memory Rematch uses compared to others.

Maybe change the first one to Only pets I don't already have @ lvl 25 or in the queue.

That sounds good. I'll probably have a toast appear when a pet is added to the queue (much like when leveling pet changes after a battle) if the 'Hide toasts' option isn't checked too, so there's less mystery about whether a pet got added or not.

Do you think this should also kick in when you stone a pet? Personally, if I'm upgrading a pet to rare I probably want to level it, especially if I don't already have a lvl 25 version.

I think so yeah. Perhaps with the 'Only rares' option.

[FuxieDK]

Small request:
Can you make Rematch so, if you engage a trainer and have notes/strats entered for him, they are displayed automatically, once the fight starts?

[Gello]

Small request:
Can you make Rematch so, if you engage a trainer and have notes/strats entered for him, they are displayed automatically, once the fight starts?

There's an option under Battle Options: "Show notes in battle" that will automatically display the notes when a battle starts if you have notes for that team.

[FuxieDK]

Small request:
Can you make Rematch so, if you engage a trainer and have notes/strats entered for him, they are displayed automatically, once the fight starts?

There's an option under Battle Options: "Show notes in battle" that will automatically display the notes when a battle starts if you have notes for that team.

Hmm.. Must have another look then...

[Gello]

Just a note that I've posted a big update to wowinterface tonight ([url=http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info22190-Rematch.html]3.4.0[/url]), but won't be posting to curse until tomorrow. Curse users frequently use a client to auto-upgrade their addons, and I want to make sure there are no issues with the team data being converted before a bunch of unsuspecting users get hit.

From the comment I posted on wowinterface:

Today's update (3.4.0) is going to mess around with your team data.

If you'd like to backup your data before upgrading:
- Go to World of Warcraft\WTF\Account\YourAccountName\SavedVariables
- Within that folder, make a copy of Rematch.lua. All teams, queue and settings are stored in that one file.

I'm reasonably confident it will handle any exceptions just fine. But if you're the cautious type that doesn't like to run betas, then feel free to wait and see if any others are having issues before upgrading. (You won't lose out a whole lot by not updating--there are minimal new features in this update. Go to the changelog tab to see what's new.)

If anyone has any issues at all with your team data (or anything!), please post a comment.

I'm also open to suggestions on how to simplify/make more clear when teams save with an npcID or not. The "teams with a white name" vs "teams with a gold name" concept is not as intuitive as I'd like.

You can leave comments here too of course. I'm subscribed to this thread.

And the option to add pets to the queue as they're learned didn't make this update; I wanted to minimize additional features since a lot of existing code has changed. Barring any bugs that require a quick fix, it should be in the next update.

[Jerebear]

On the topic of saved with an NPC ID or not. Perhaps a small icon that appears just left of the team name with a on hover tooltip explaining what the icon means. Or if you don't like to the left of the team name, the far right side (I.E. Right Justified) of the name panel.

Icon ideas:
1. Save disc (smaller than the one you use for the actual save button). This way it is visually intuitive that it is tied to the "save" button
2. Lock Icon. This makes it feel more "locked in", so maybe more intuitive
3. Gold Star. Everyone likes getting a gold star!

[Gello]

I like the idea of an icon to mark teams with an npcID in them and a tooltip for the button. Someone on curse had the same suggestion after you did. I'll browse through the icon/textures to find something likely. We can't infer the name from an npcID without storing that info also, but maybe I'll have it collect that information the next time a user interacts with the npcID since it seems pretty important. Maybe zone too. So if you mouseover a teams's "target" button, if your character was there to save the team with an npc targeted (or revisited after receiving it from an import/another player), it can list the name of the npc and the zone you were in when it was initially saved along with its npcID and a short blurb about what it means.

Anyway, 3.4.1 was just posted to both wowinterface and curse. No issues reported from the scary update which is good.

I added the 'automatically add to leveling queue' bit, but left off the automatically add when using a stone to make a pet rare. I think it'd be useful enough to be a separate option, and it requires a whole new mechanism to detect than when you're learning a new pet.