TH-SJF-NJF-Limo-LoM-Redhill-Tergothen Bay chain quest

[BillDoorNZ]

nice, sounds pretty cool

I'll keep my stuff running and rape the game for all npc info.

[BillDoorNZ]

Just another updated file with a few hundred more in it. Includes a fair chunk of Howling Mountains, Varanas, Obsidian Stronghold, and a bit of Aslan.

[rock5]

Basically we are working on code that will make character move from current position to destination without having to create a WP to do it.
So you could literally call the function and tell it to go to a NPC and it will, hence the need for zone/id/coords in the NPC database.

I din't envision having a database of npcs. I thought maybe we would incorporate the npcs and other points of interest in the map data.

I can see though how it might be easier to maintain a separate list and if you want to go to a specific npc then you just look it up first. But the way I was thinking, would allow you to look fot the nearest merchant or mailbox or housemaid. I don't see how that could be done with a separate list. Unless you incorporated the npc data into the maps when the maps are finally created.

[lisa]

would allow you to look fot the nearest merchant or mailbox or housemaid

Hmm I hadn't thought of finding nearest merchant.

Well I would probably add a tag into the NPC database. Then do a little function which looks for merchant tag and also same zone tag, then does distance check to player. You could assume distance in straight line would also end up closest by following the points. then returns the ID of that merchant and then does travel(ID), wouldn't be hard to do.

[rock5]

You could assume distance in straight line would also end up closest by following the points. then returns the ID of that merchant and then does travel(ID), wouldn't be hard to do.

I think you are making too many assumptions. The closest merchant might be via a teleport and might not be the closest in distance.

There really is no way to know which merchant is closer without actually running the algorithm. What you could do is, in your npc database, add which point it is at. Then when you say something like "travel(type, "merchant")" it adds all the marchants for that zone from the npc list to the database then starts searching.

I think you are under the assumption that you need to know the destination number to find the shortest path to it. You don't. Where it says in the script

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if current point number is the number we are looking for then
  we've reached our destination

You can also say

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elseif current point poi.Type == the type we are looking for eg. "merchant" then
  we've reached our destination

I hope that makes sense.

[BillDoorNZ]

lol, that sounds very familar the stuff I wrote does pretty much the same thing. I ended up precalcing all that as well ,so I'd load all the waypoints in and the npcs, then at each waypoint I'd get it to run an algorithm to work out where the nearest of each type is, and then store that in memory in case it was needed.

[BillDoorNZ]

another version of the xml file:

[lisa]

wow building up nicely, good work.
Even getting a build up of gathering nodes info aswell =)

[BillDoorNZ]

lol, yes, I noticed that, even tho I'm filtering on object type of 4. I just assume that the type is incorrect or something else is going on

[lisa]

it is correct, in their wisdom they made type 4 to be players AND harvest nodes, herb/wood/ore.
So yeah the RoM devs are SMRT

I guess that is because players and harvest nodes can move or dissappear as such.

[BillDoorNZ]

Just a quick not for Lisa and Rock on the whole Travel concept and the use of transporters etc.

One of the issues I've noted with using transporters and snoops etc with moving from point to point, is that the menu that a character sees is dependent upon what areas they have accessed (e.g. Varanas snoop only allows n00bs to transport back to logar to begin with, as that is the only place they have been, but once they have been to Aslan and visited the snoop there, they then get the new destination coming up in the Varanas snoop - I'm pretty sure you can pull the text (speakframe...) from the dialog to and then possibly so a instring search against it for the destination in question - I've been meaning to do this, but am not familiar with how to return data from a call to sendMacro / RoMScript etc.

I was trying to figure it out based off the userfunction_QuestByName stuff that JackBlonder wrote.

I think its definitely do-able but also an issue to be aware of.

[lisa]

Yeah Rock made a search for choice userfunction a while back, not sure if he ever released it or not but it is doable.

Main issue with snoop is knowing if a snoop location is available or not, that is what is currently holding us back from fully utilizing the potential of this project.

[BillDoorNZ]

ahh...yes of course....you don't know if the player have that snoop option until after the dialog has been opened

[lisa]

Haven't posted an update for a while.

At the moment it works great for just 1 map, haven't implemented map to map travel yet.

I have it set up to create a database table of points using an existing WP file, as long as the WP has certain code added to special points. So it is really a case of creating the WP that will be converted to database instead of using existing WP to do it.

I have a function to add more points to an existing database table.

Now for the actual traveling.
You designate where you want to go either by a set of coords or by stating a NPC Id, it then travels to that location.

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travel2(110591,true) 
player:target_NPC("Snoop the Stubborn") 
ChoiceOptionByName("Varanas") 
yrest(1000) 
sendMacro('StaticPopup_OnClick(StaticPopup1, 1);') 
waitForLoadingScreen()

So that code would travel to the NPC 110591 which is Christine (next to snoop).
It then targets snoop and uses snoop to go to Varanas.
It worked perfectly even from inside Hidden Valley Mines.

So as a test run it worked well.

Next step is to make it go to nearest Merchant and such without actually stating a specific NPC.
Then add in map to map travel.

The code itself has been rewritten many times as we try to decide best way to do it lol


So yeah just a bit of an update.

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Command> travel2(110584,true) player:target_NPC(GetIdName(110584))
Destination found
25: points left to go before destination.
24: points left to go before destination.
23: points left to go before destination.
22: points left to go before destination.
21: points left to go before destination.
20: points left to go before destination.
19: points left to go before destination.
18: points left to go before destination.
17: points left to go before destination.
16: points left to go before destination.
15: points left to go before destination.
14: points left to go before destination.
13: points left to go before destination.
12: points left to go before destination.
11: points left to go before destination.
10: points left to go before destination.
9: points left to go before destination.
8: points left to go before destination.
7: points left to go before destination.
6: points left to go before destination.
5: points left to go before destination.
4: points left to go before destination.
3: points left to go before destination.
2: points left to go before destination.
1: points left to go before destination.
Arrived at destination.
We try to find NPC Logar Bulletin Board:
We successfully target NPC Logar Bulletin Board and try to open the dialog window.

This example traveled to the board and opened it's quest dialog.

[kanta]

Wow... I come back from forced downtime from the internet and the forum has exploded. The apartment building I was living in got condemned on Nov 1 and was forced to move (not easy when you have to move everything by car). Wasn't financially stable (and still am not), so I'm slowly getting back on my feet. Just got internet back 2 days ago.

Anyway.

This looks like a very promising project you guys have started up. Great work so far. I'll try to help when I get some free time (not very much of it lately).

[BillDoorNZ]

looking good Lisa and Rock.

A couple of points:

* I found that in general, the co-ordinates are world coordinates - except for a couple of overlapping zones (can't remember which ones atm).
* Often it is quicker to use transporters/snoops to get to the nearest vendor / mailbox / housemaid etc One example is moving from Frontline camp to the nearest housemaid. I found it quicker to go:

Frontline -> Jinners -> Ruins Research -> Varanas -> Heffner -> Housemaid

rather than:

Frontline -> Jinners -> Ruins Research -> Fangers -> Desert -> Lyonside -> Heffner -> Housemaid

which only makes sense I suppose. But in that instance it was quicker to change zones twice via teleporters (Xav->Silverspring->CoO) rather than just going Xav->Coo.

Lastly, how are you determining dynamic nodes? Or do you have a set of known nodes for moving between different locations and you are finding the closest known node?

[rock5]

Frontline -> Jinners -> Ruins Research -> Varanas -> Heffner -> Housemaid

LoL. I never thought to do it that way. I always went to the Class Hall. That's definetely better, especially if you intend to go back to the frontline.

[BillDoorNZ]

Frontline -> Jinners -> Ruins Research -> Varanas -> Heffner -> Housemaid

LoL. I never thought to do it that way. I always went to the Class Hall. That's definetely better, especially if you intend to go back to the frontline.

heh..I didn't actually come up with it myself....my pathing algorithm decided it was the quickest route (I default the length of a transport operation to 100 from memory for purposes of calculating how 'long' a route is).

[kanta]

Just an idea going along a similar line of what you guys have been discussing here where you are making a database of NPCs. Could something similar be done to plot where static objects are? Like fences, rocks... Generally things that the character can get stuck on. These sorts of objects must also have a detectable type like the NPCs. From this, maybe have an avoidance algorithm. Then again, something like this may add too many calculations which will slow down movement. Was just thinking when you set a wider waypoint deviation or a wander area it would help everything seem less botlike because it won't sit there trying to run through an object. Just a thought, don't know how viable it is.

[rock5]

my pathing algorithm decided it was the quickest route

Sounds interresting. What do you mean by that?