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What to do about Thunderstorm

Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 12:37 pm
by rock5
I've noticed some strange behavior when using Thunderstorm.

This happens when using PRIORITY_CASTING and Thunderstorm has the highest priority or Thunderstorm is your only attack skill.

When the bot casts it at a mob and it dies before it has finished casting and there are other mobs within range, then the bot targets the new targets and tries to cast Thunderstorm again while it is still casting. This causes strange behavior. Either it just fails and then it tries again after if finally stops casting or the click that would have cast the skill causes the character to run forward, usually into the middle of a group of mobs that then aggro you.

I see 2 solutions for this.

1. We force the first cast to stop, seeing as the target is already dead anyway, so we can immediately cast it to the new target, or
2. We wait for Thunderstorm to finish casting just in cast it is still damaging other targets if there are any.

I'd go more for the speed of option 1 but it might mean that Thunderstorm gets used a bit more than strictly necessary wasting mana.

This would probably happen with other skills too but at this point I'm not sure which.

Anyway, what are your thought people? And can you think of any other options?

Re: What to do about Thunderstorm

Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 12:51 pm
by leroy
I dont think running into the mobs is a bot problem. I had that also casting TS manually. Happens when time between click the skillbar and click the ground is too big. Your char would run to the place you wanted to cast TS.

Re: What to do about Thunderstorm

Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 2:09 pm
by rock5
You misunderstood. It wasn't running into range to cast the skill, it was running to where it clicked. I'm experimenting with pressing a key to move in onLeaveCombat. It seems to work.

Although, I did notice that behavior too. That's actually causing another problem. I had COMBAT_DISTANCE set to 175 and, because I'm targeting large groups, it was deciding to click a point that was further than the 180 range of Thunderstorm. Like you said, it would move forward until in range to click but because it didn't immediately cast the skill like it's supposed to, it ends up casting the spell where the mouse is instead of where it is aimed at. I'm currently testing having it move in range of that spot before aiming and firing. It's working well so far.

Re: What to do about Thunderstorm

Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 3:02 pm
by Bubi
Vote for #1.
Because I farm KS and TS is 99.9% used. With #2 the G/h would decrease.

Re: What to do about Thunderstorm

Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 11:17 pm
by lisa
Yeah I noticed the same when doing KS, it would cast TS until the single mob was dead and then continue on, tracking all mobs HP could be problematic though as 1 mob may move out of the attack zone before it casts and so won't take damage but any other mobs in that area should die (depending on gear lvl)

So maybe a check for all mob "alive" if all dead then stop otherwise wait for the cast time to finish.

Re: What to do about Thunderstorm

Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 11:35 pm
by rock5
lisa wrote: So maybe a check for all mob "alive" if all dead then stop otherwise wait for the cast time to finish.
Ideally that's what you'd want to do but it's asking a lot. And it may have other issues for instance not all aoe skills are circular so checking mobs within the range may not apply. I'll think about it but I doubt I'll do it.

Now that ks g/h has been mentioned maybe I'll do a few runs with the different options to see the difference.

Re: What to do about Thunderstorm

Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 1:23 am
by Marlb0ro
On lower levels, Thunderstorm alone would suck up way too much mana if it was used too often. Altho at around 55+ (when a better Staff comes around) it seems less of an issue. It's hard to have just 1 right answer for your question I'm afraid. Personally I'd go for option 1.

Re: What to do about Thunderstorm

Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 3:06 am
by rock5
Bubi wrote:Vote for #1.
Because I farm KS and TS is 99.9% used. With #2 the G/h would decrease.
Actually I don't think this applies. If I made it wait, I would make it so it only waits when it goes to use the Ts the second time. So only when casting TS more than once at a time. In ks you usually cast TS once then loot, cast TS once then loot, etc. Or you cast then move, cast then move.