PetExtend: Beta Thread

PetExtend v.???
By Mpstark

Here's the lowdown on PetExtend as it stands -- I haven't worked on it in a long time. Now, does that mean that I'm giving up on almost a year of work? No, I'm going to be updating this baby later with some serious stuff but later could be a long time from now and I apologize for any injuries due to pining for a PetExtend update (I'm not liable however =P).

Here is what I've been thinking about and what is going to happen:

• Ace2 / Total Rewrite
• Organized into modules like Prat or BigWigs
• Remove dead parts and useless parts
  • PetAttack
  • Calloffs
  • Focus Management (again!)

MODULES:

• MacroMaker Module:
  • Makes macro for your pet. Casts and so forth are in here
• PetFeed Module:
  • Neat-o petfeed button like Zuban's or Feed-o-matic
• PetThreat Module:
  • Based on addon of the same name. Tracks pet aggro against yours. Solo only.
• PetWarn Module:
  • Party/raid messages like pet death and pet tank
• PetInfo Module:
  • Replace StatusFrame; should be much better with more and better tracking information.
• EnhancedPetBar Module:
  • Shaded and just generally better pet bar.
• Anything else...
  • ...is in the air. PLEASE! HELP ME COME UP WITH STUFF!

[Cairenn]

List of slash commands, s'il vous plait. Yes, I know I said it in the comments, but figured I'd post it here as an additional reminder.

[BloodEagle]

You have gained a Beta tester here good sir. I just got done installing it and setting it up, and I am very impressed.

I will post any bugs I see to you, and will look forward to all the things you will be implementing.

Thanks BloodEagle! I'm really glad that you were impressed. Remember though, this is a beta, and there will be bugs. Please post any you see on my portal, and make sure that you also post some feature requests! I can't do this by myself!

Thanks again,
Mpstark

[Shalandar]

I would like to start off saying, I love the thought you have put into this. I would like to mention one thing that I think would go a long way. Myself and another hunter in my guild are trying this out before we recommend this to the entire guild and if you could make the small ui that you have movable, it would be extremely helpful. as of now, I had to turn the display off because it gets in the way of my ability to see buffs and the like.

On the same note, i have played with what chat commands I could find and I can not seem to get it to cast my Hunter's Mark on pet attack, maybe I am doing something wrong, i don't know.

I am assuming the smart button for recalling your pet is the little display, if that's the case, once it is movable, or I have someone give this poor schlum of a hunter instructions on how to do something so meanial, I will be able to test it more throughly.

I love what your doing, and on the upside, the recall when your pet is low life or when you are healing is a godsend. Good thinking.

I don't know if it has been implimented or not, but here is a suggestion, how about an assist. If you could create a button on that display (don't get me wrong, I love a clutter free UI, so the size is very appealing to me) that targets your pet's target and auto assists, I think that would be smokin.

I'm still playing with all the functionality, but it has seen several major instances and come through like a champ. Keep up the good work and I wait to see more.

@Shalandar: You should really visit my portal here as it contains some useful information, including a list of slash commands, some FAQs, and of course, a list of current features. I'll try to answer all of you questions breifly.

if you could make the small ui that you have movable

It is movable. Control-click it to move it as described in the Beta 0.30 patch notes. (Which I forgot to post on wowinterface.com )

I can not seem to get it to cast my Hunter's Mark on pet attack

Try typing "/petextend markonattack". That should activate it.

I am assuming the smart button for recalling your pet is the little display

Nope, that's the Pet Status Frame. The smart button is a huge built in macro described here.

I love what your doing, and on the upside, the recall when your pet is low life or when you are healing is a godsend

Thank you.

If you could create a button on that display (don't get me wrong, I love a clutter free UI, so the size is very appealing to me) that targets your pet's target and auto assists, I think that would be smokin.

Try shift-clicking on the Pet Status frame, that will assist your pet. Also, if you haven't done so, just clicking on the frame will target your pet.

I'm still playing with all the functionality, but it has seen several major instances and come through like a champ. Keep up the good work and I wait to see more.

I'm not sure how to express my gratitude for your testing and all the feedback. I know how much time testing out a new addon takes; it's a daunting task and I thank you for undertaking it. Most of the things you requested were already in the addon itself, but where not documented at all outside of the patch notes, so I applogize for not having written up a help file or something.

[Shalandar]

Okay, everything you mentioned worked except the markonattack command. Mind you I am a 60 Hunter, Hunter's Mark 4 with no improvements. I know that probibly does not have a bearing on the functionality, but I know it's helpful to know what everyone's running who's testing. I can turn it on and off, but either way, it still does not cast my Hunter's Mark when I send my pet to attack. The only UI changes I have is T. King's Elfwood, so I don't think that's the issue. Hope it helps, I will check back.

[clav]

Can you suggest a fix to ZHunterMod so I can use both addons at once? I've found that I basically can't use the pet bar attack button anymore with both enabled. I really like the functionality in both addons, so it's so tough for me to pick which one to run, but ZHunterMod has all the nifty trap/aspect/tracking buttons and gear stripping functions

Keep up the good work! This addon is shaping up really nicely.

Edit: markonattack works fine. Did you enable it by typing /petextend markonattack?

@clav: I have my own version of ZHunterMods that works fine, I'll put it into the next release as a 'bonus'. Thank you for the support that you are giving this addon, it sure gives me alot of hope for future versions.

@Shalandar: Are you using ctrl-1 to attack? I do not think that attacking in this manner calls PetAttack, which makes my addon not do all the things I have hooked onto that particular script. I am experimenting with how to fix this and it should be in the next version.

[clav]

That's cool, Mpstark. I can wait for a new version, but if you can PM me the necessary modifications in the meantime, I'd appreciate it -- although I can't call myself a programmer with a straight face, I'm well versed enough to know how to patch stuff.

Now regarding your CTRL-1 comment, it's entirely relative to what he has bound, I suppose? The default UI's keybinding for "pet attack" is CTRL-T (or SHIFT-T?). Either way, attacking from the pet bar does seem to be hooked too, since I get the error from zhuntermods when I click the button. Funnily enough, it rarely happens if I just use PetExtend's smart button.

I have a few questions of my own now:

What are those other buttons listed in the keybindings for PetExtend? The pet's skills?

What does the clearaggroonattack option actually do?

That's cool, Mpstark. I can wait for a new version, but if you can PM me the necessary modifications in the meantime, I'd appreciate it -- although I can't call myself a programmer with a straight face, I'm well versed enough to know how to patch stuff.

Sure, I'll PM it to you later.

Now regarding your CTRL-1 comment, it's entirely relative to what he has bound, I suppose? The default UI's keybinding for "pet attack" is CTRL-T (or SHIFT-T?). Either way, attacking from the pet bar does seem to be hooked too, since I get the error from zhuntermods when I click the button. Funnily enough, it rarely happens if I just use PetExtend's smart button.

Yes, I said that wrong, the default is something like CTRL-T or something. It should never happen if you use PetExtend's Smart Button because it is not a PetExtend error, it is an miscoding in ZHunterMod that doesn't allow any other addons to hook the same events. As I said later, a fixed version will be in the next PetExtend release as a bonus mod.

What are those other buttons listed in the keybindings for PetExtend? The pet's skills?

They trigger the autocasts of skills on single click and cast it on double click. Note that this will not work with a really radically changed up bar.

What does the clearaggroonattack option actually do?

What it does is it tells your pet to follow BEFORE telling it to attack. This clears the aggrolist of your pet toward other mobs or platers. Now this may not sound like much, it becomes extremly useful in places when you want uber-control over your pet, like instances or tight pulls. I recommend using it.

[simko]

Nice work

Nothing to really add to that except maybe attach the way to control smartbutton in the small pet gui itself or something similar.

@simko: I'll look into doing what you suggested.

[shadowblight]

I've been testing this out with my little hunter. I'm having some of the same issues that the others above have mentioned.

Mark On Attack is not working for me either. I've tried clicking the regular attack button as well as ctrl-1. Neither casts mark with attack. I've confirmed that it is enabled with /petextend current.

I also do not see the smart button. I have a heavily modified Discord based interface. Is there a way to reset the button to the middle of the screen (in case it gets "lost" by the user) or to (as Simko suggested) attach it to the status GUI?

Thanks for all your hard work on this! Hope this feedback helps.

[clav]

Originally Posted by shadowblight I've been testing this out with my little hunter. I'm having some of the same issues that the others above have mentioned. Mark On Attack is not working for me either. I've tried clicking the regular attack button as well as ctrl-1. Neither casts mark with attack. I've confirmed that it is enabled with /petextend current. I also do not see the smart button. I have a heavily modified Discord based interface. Is there a way to reset the button to the middle of the screen (in case it gets "lost" by the user) or to (as Simko suggested) attach it to the status GUI? Thanks for all your hard work on this! Hope this feedback helps.

I don't think the button actually exists graphically. What you have to do to use the Smart Button is to go to the Keybindings and look for the "PetExtend" section and bind a key to it there.

[shadowblight]

Originally Posted by clav I don't think the button actually exists graphically. What you have to do to use the Smart Button is to go to the Keybindings and look for the "PetExtend" section and bind a key to it there.

Oh... heh. I'm an idiot then!

Thanks for the tip.

@shadowblight: I think that this may be a problem with using the PetBar to attack from. Try using the Smart Button to attack with your pet. Does the mark on attack work then? If you don't want to use the smart button, you could use "/script PetAttack()" in a macro. Oh and the SmartButton isn't a graphical thing just as Clav said.

That's right! After way too long, it's finally been released!

[shaktiboi]

I've been using Beta 0.40 for a couple days now. Great work so far, and *very* appreciated. Some feedback and questions:

1. Please add the bit about Ctrl-clicking the status frame to move it and shift-clicking the status frame to assist your pet to the readme.txt file that comes with the download.

2. I have looked at the autofocus code and still cannot figure out what the "refresh" button next to the status frame is supposed to do. Can you please explain why/when we should use that button and what it's purpose in general is?

3. Regarding priorty setting for the focus management, this is also not clear. Lowest number = highest priority? I remember SmartPet would actually prevent firing off any pet skills to ensure that Growl always had enough focus to autocast when it recharged. I've been trying to watch the status of things while I play and it *seems* like your code doesn't actually ensure that I keep enough focus around for Growl even if it's "1" in the priority table. My pet seems to blow through all her focus and there's not enough left for Growl when it recharges. (I have Growl: 1, Claw: 2, Bite: 3 in the focus table). Anyway, some description of how the priority table is supposed to work would be useful.

4. When I use /petextend off, I get a LUA error message. I do this when I switch to my warlock or some other char other than my hunter. I'll see whether I can discern any real pattern to this and post in the bug thread.

[shaktiboi]

A couple more comments/observations after several more days of experimenting:

• Everything works as I would expect except for the auto-focus functionality. I've never noticed anything unusual such as my Hunter's Mark not being applied. Auto-focus still has some bugs/problems, as listed below.
• If I send my pet in with the smartButton and either never attack myself or only use autoattack, then the focus management never de-autos the pet skills listed in the priority table. In other words, if I have 1: Growl, 2: Claw, 3: Bite configured in the priority table, they will all remain enabled for auto-cast through the entire fight even if my pet runs completely out of focus.
• If I use any attack skill of my own, such as Viper's Sting, then and only then is the auto-cast of the listed priority skills checked and reset according to the current amount of focus that my pet has left. For example, if I send my pet in with the smart button and all three listed skills are currently enabled for autocast, and I wait until all my pet's focus is gone and then I use my Viper's Sting, the autocast for Claw and Bite are turned off by your focus management.
• So in other words, your current focus management code seems to work in two distinct modes:
  • You can press the bound focus management reset key at any time to make your code evaluate the remaining pet's focus and enable/disable autocast for the skills in the priority list accordingly, and/or
  • The focus management code *seems* to evaluate the remaining pet's focus and enable/disable autocast every time you use one of your own hunter skills.
  If this is working as intended, it takes a while to wrap your head around and feel as if you are somewhat in control of the process. It certainly bears some better explanation in your readmes and descriptive web pages. I have spent literally days trying to understand how the system seems to be working (and not feel as if it were totally broken and somewhat random in its behavior), and I'm still not sure I fully understand the pattern behind the system.

Please understand that I'm not dissing the functionality. It seems like a creative workaround to the problem of no longer being able to automatically trigger hotbar buttons in LUA code. I'm just thinking that helping users to understand the behavior of the code would be very useful.

Let's see if I have a handle on what is essentially going on here with your focus management code:

• The preferred behavior is that your code uses *any* bound keypress to fake a keypress on the pet bar to evaluate remaining pet focus and accordinly toggle the autocast status of pet skill icons that are identified in the autofocus priority table of your code.
• You also enable users to bind a specific key to the same function so that they can force a reset of the autocast state at any time, during or after battle.

So, your intent is for users to use the following general procedure for a fight:

1. Before the fight, check the status frame's focus management "reset indicator" and press the bound reset key if necessary to toggle all table-listed pet skills to their default autocast-on state.
2. Send your pet in to attack with the "smart button".
3. Don't waste too much time watching for the focus management reset indicator, but instead just fire off your normal attack skills, which should occur often enough to keep the focus management code continually refreshing the autocast state of the table-listed pet skills.
4. If you find yourself doing only some auto-attacking for a long length of time, or kiting or what not, you can then pay attention to your focus management reset indicator and press the bound reset key to force a "manual" reset of the autocast state of pet skills as needed.

Have I essentially got this right? Your intent is for the focus management to be *mostly* automatic, assuming the player regularly fires off his own attack skills, but with the option to manually control the resetting of the focus mgmt autocast state if they player is for some reason not using normal attack skills during combat?