I just released a new major beta version (0.3) of Auctioning that doesn't have any big new features as most new major versions (0.x versions) do but there were so many bug fixes and small changes that it was fitting. One of the big new things is that when you do a post or cancel scan, before the scanning starts, Auctioning will check to make sure all your groups are valid. Mainly, if you are using a % of something as a threshold / fallback, that all the items in the group evaluate to the exact same amount (ie if you are using % of crafting cost, all the items have the same mats or if you are using % of auctiondb market value, there is only one item per group). If it finds invalid groups, it'll offer to fix them for you automatically. What it will do is just convert the group into a category...and create enough groups inside that category so that they are all valid.
For a full list of changes see the changelog.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Explanation of Destroying Buttons and Modes
See this thread for the context of this post.
Hopefully I can help explain the method behind the madness of the 2 clicks and what the different modes do. I have talked about this a bit in the past (will update with link once I find the thread...). But, here goes a complete explanation using milling as an example (it's the exact same with prospecting and even disenchanting).
There is two parts to milling a set of herbs (by set I mean 5 of an herb - 1 mill's worth). First you have to cast the spell (/cast Milling), and then you have to "use" the item (/use Whiptail). The traditional macro and every addon I've seen works the same way. They do both steps in the same instant. This is definitely the most reliable and easy way to do milling but is definitely not the fastest.
There are a few things to note that effect milling. You can't do the /cast while the loot window is open. However, you can do the /cast before the loot window opens and the highlighted cursor which is waiting for you to /use some herbs won't go away when the loot window does open.
You can do the /use step while the loot window is open. What will happen is that IMMEDIATELY after the looting is complete, the next cast will begin. With the macro, there is some delay after the looting is complete before the next cast will begin. I'm not 100% sure myself what is causing this delay although I have a few theories but either way, it's there. So, this is what normal mode does. The button will enable for the /cast step once Milling is off cd and then once the loot window opens, the button will enable itself again for the /use step. This will give you a definite increase in overall milling speed and will work very consistently.
The "Faster" mode takes advantage of a very short window in which you can do the /cast and it will start casting while the loot window is open rather than just being delayed until the immediately after the loot window closes as normal mode does. This window is a few tenths of a second before the loot window opens. If you are too late, you get the same effect as with normal mode. If you are too early, the spell will get interrupted when the loot window opens. Just right and you will cut a very significant chuck of time off your milling. The button will enable for the /cast step when the cooldown is up just like normal mode. But. it will enable for the /use a arbitrary amount of time after the cast finishes. This amount of time is essentially just a guess on my part and will almost certainly be too early. However, if you can figure out a rhythm where you can get the /use right in that time window, you can train yourself to have a good sense of when to hit it.
In conclusion, I'd recommend using normal mode if you just want to spam the button while watching TV and get through with your milling / prospecting. I'd recommend using "Faster" mode if you'd like to get through the milling as fast as possible even if it takes some practice and requires more of your attention to pull off. Also, I would agree that having a mode that just does the typical old-fashioned macro approach might be a good idea for those who don't want to have to spam their buttons as much and don't care about speed.
Hopefully I can help explain the method behind the madness of the 2 clicks and what the different modes do. I have talked about this a bit in the past (will update with link once I find the thread...). But, here goes a complete explanation using milling as an example (it's the exact same with prospecting and even disenchanting).
There is two parts to milling a set of herbs (by set I mean 5 of an herb - 1 mill's worth). First you have to cast the spell (/cast Milling), and then you have to "use" the item (/use Whiptail). The traditional macro and every addon I've seen works the same way. They do both steps in the same instant. This is definitely the most reliable and easy way to do milling but is definitely not the fastest.
There are a few things to note that effect milling. You can't do the /cast while the loot window is open. However, you can do the /cast before the loot window opens and the highlighted cursor which is waiting for you to /use some herbs won't go away when the loot window does open.
You can do the /use step while the loot window is open. What will happen is that IMMEDIATELY after the looting is complete, the next cast will begin. With the macro, there is some delay after the looting is complete before the next cast will begin. I'm not 100% sure myself what is causing this delay although I have a few theories but either way, it's there. So, this is what normal mode does. The button will enable for the /cast step once Milling is off cd and then once the loot window opens, the button will enable itself again for the /use step. This will give you a definite increase in overall milling speed and will work very consistently.
The "Faster" mode takes advantage of a very short window in which you can do the /cast and it will start casting while the loot window is open rather than just being delayed until the immediately after the loot window closes as normal mode does. This window is a few tenths of a second before the loot window opens. If you are too late, you get the same effect as with normal mode. If you are too early, the spell will get interrupted when the loot window opens. Just right and you will cut a very significant chuck of time off your milling. The button will enable for the /cast step when the cooldown is up just like normal mode. But. it will enable for the /use a arbitrary amount of time after the cast finishes. This amount of time is essentially just a guess on my part and will almost certainly be too early. However, if you can figure out a rhythm where you can get the /use right in that time window, you can train yourself to have a good sense of when to hit it.
In conclusion, I'd recommend using normal mode if you just want to spam the button while watching TV and get through with your milling / prospecting. I'd recommend using "Faster" mode if you'd like to get through the milling as fast as possible even if it takes some practice and requires more of your attention to pull off. Also, I would agree that having a mode that just does the typical old-fashioned macro approach might be a good idea for those who don't want to have to spam their buttons as much and don't care about speed.
Friday, May 20, 2011
New TSM Module Released - Accounting
The newest TSM module, Accounting, just got approved as beta by curse and is now officially released. Accounting tracks auctions you have purchased and sold from the auction house and displays this data in a variety of formats. Accounting is sort of like MySales but MySales only tracked auctions you sold and last time I checked, couldn't track how many items were in an auction. So, go check it out and let me know what you think!
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/tradeskillmaster_accounting.aspx
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/tradeskillmaster_accounting.aspx
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Take the Good with the Bad
So I've been fairly busy over the last week and the time I have had to spend on TSM I've been spending on the new Accounting module. If you haven't already, read the first post in that thread and check it out. This module is the sort of coding I love. It takes one set of data that contains info on what you've sold / purchased recently and shows it in multiple different ways. I have big plans for this module such as being able to track how quickly you sell an item as well as other things. Eventually, Crafting will be able to use this data to allow you (or allow the restock queue) to make a much more informed decision about an item. One other thing is the Destroying module is still progressing towards release.
Now for the "bad". If you use Auctioneer, you may have noticed in the AuctionDB, Shopping, and Auctioning all have a "Block Auctioneer" type setting which basically prevents Auctioneer from doing it's scanning / processing on that module's scans and thus speeding up TSM's scans a ton. This is most important for AuctionDB scans because AuctionDB doesn't care about seller data and Auctioneer does. Seller data takes an extra bit of time to load after all the other data loads for a page of auctions. So, Auctioneer really slows down AuctionDBs scan because of this. Also with GetAll scans, Auctioneer will do its processing after a TSM GetAll scan which will slow down the client for a few min. Now, some people like this because they can do one scan and update both TSM and Auctioneer and that's why this is an option (those people would have the "block auctioneer" option off).
However, in the recent preview version, Auctioneer removed the ability completely for TSM to do queries without it knowing about them. So, after talking a bit with the Auctioneer devs, I found that there is an option in the settings under the "Search" tab of the AH that'll prevent Auctioneer from doing it's processing on non-Auctioneer scans which is a decent solution. The only remaining problem (which will hopefully be addressed by the Auctioneer devs soon), is that this setting doesn't apply to GetAll scans and there's currently no way to stop Auctioneer from doing its processing after a GetAll scan.
So, I have made some changes in the latest alpha versions of Auctioning/Shopping/AuctionDB that, if you have the "Block Auctioneer" option turned on, will turn off Auctioneer's scanning using this option while TSM is scanning and then return the setting to whatever value it was previously set to after the scanning is complete.
So, what does this mean for you? If you don't use Auctioneer or don't use the "block auctioneer" options in TSM, nothing. If you did use this option for AuctionDB to prevent Auctioneer from doing it's processing after TSM's getall scans, that will no longer work. My hope is just to make Auctioneer and TSM work well side by side as I know a lot of people use both.
Now for the "bad". If you use Auctioneer, you may have noticed in the AuctionDB, Shopping, and Auctioning all have a "Block Auctioneer" type setting which basically prevents Auctioneer from doing it's scanning / processing on that module's scans and thus speeding up TSM's scans a ton. This is most important for AuctionDB scans because AuctionDB doesn't care about seller data and Auctioneer does. Seller data takes an extra bit of time to load after all the other data loads for a page of auctions. So, Auctioneer really slows down AuctionDBs scan because of this. Also with GetAll scans, Auctioneer will do its processing after a TSM GetAll scan which will slow down the client for a few min. Now, some people like this because they can do one scan and update both TSM and Auctioneer and that's why this is an option (those people would have the "block auctioneer" option off).
However, in the recent preview version, Auctioneer removed the ability completely for TSM to do queries without it knowing about them. So, after talking a bit with the Auctioneer devs, I found that there is an option in the settings under the "Search" tab of the AH that'll prevent Auctioneer from doing it's processing on non-Auctioneer scans which is a decent solution. The only remaining problem (which will hopefully be addressed by the Auctioneer devs soon), is that this setting doesn't apply to GetAll scans and there's currently no way to stop Auctioneer from doing its processing after a GetAll scan.
So, I have made some changes in the latest alpha versions of Auctioning/Shopping/AuctionDB that, if you have the "Block Auctioneer" option turned on, will turn off Auctioneer's scanning using this option while TSM is scanning and then return the setting to whatever value it was previously set to after the scanning is complete.
So, what does this mean for you? If you don't use Auctioneer or don't use the "block auctioneer" options in TSM, nothing. If you did use this option for AuctionDB to prevent Auctioneer from doing it's processing after TSM's getall scans, that will no longer work. My hope is just to make Auctioneer and TSM work well side by side as I know a lot of people use both.
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