Ogre Travel Mesh
Preamble
This is a project I've been working on for at least a year, probably a couple of them. It's just always been low priority, so it gets shelved a lot.
I've made it have some basic functionality, enough to make it usable for a few, very specific situations. Being realistic, this project is probably not really going forward, other than meeting the needs of these, very specific things. I'll write some more at the bottom about the (lack of) future of this project, and why.
What is Ogre Travel Mesh?
It is a system, that understands some basic concepts about traveling through out Norrath. The concept is to automate some movement between zones that is EXTREMELY basic. Such as:
Using the Scars of Destruction Friends and Family Portal to get to Solo/Heroic instances.
Having the rest of the group use fast travel to get into the same zone, so the group leader who used the FF portal can zone in.
Some concepts of lets have everyone not do everything at the same time, and realizing we have to wait for people to do tasks (such as zoning at various intervals).
Clicking objects (such as zone doors) and selecting proper entries to zone you into where you want to go.
Basic physical movement of your character. For example, when you use the FF portal, it takes you "near by" to the zone in. This will run directly to the zone in portal. There is no paths, no flight, nothing smart about this. Point and run. These are all VERY short movements (less than the range of an ability).
What is Ogre Travel Mesh NOT?
I want to be very clear about what this is not. There is no movement (other than the very short, direct movement I mentioned above).
There is no flying.
There are no "paths".
Is this amazing new feature free?!?!
Of course not. Nothing in life is ever free... well.. sort of. Will this cost you extra money to use? Probably, but it's not to me/Ogre.
If you didn't catch on the primary use of this, is to use the friends and family portal. Now you may ask, what the heck is that?
It is the "Friends and Family" expansion option, that is insanely expensive. $249.99 USD.
You can see it here: https://www.everquest2.com/expansion-content
Under Friends and Family, the item I am talking about, is the "Southern Scar Draconic Teleporter".
BIG NOTE: Only the account that PURCHASES the Friends and family expansion, can use it. No one else in your guild can (unless they also paid the $250). Even the person you give the "extra" expansion too, can't even use it.
There may be other requirements to using this teleporter that I am unaware of. Such as having to finish a sig line, or side quests etc. I already completed those.
Don't go running out and buying this $250 upgrade until you've read through this, understood everything, and probably double checked discord to make sure it's actually working.
Just as a reminder, it's not me you're paying for this, it's daybrea... darkpaw? Whoever is running Everquest 2 this week. Pretty sure they won't do refunds because the bot you're using isn't working on the portal you paid for.
The "intended" uses
1) In Instance Controller, use the [x] Call to GH between zones, and using the Friends and Family teleporter (the $250 expansion), will allow you to "queue" up multiple zones. Since you can use the teleporter from the GH to go to the entrance of a zone, then zone your group in. When done the instance, you call back to guild hall, then repeat, all automated!
2) This has the capabilities to zone into all the SOD solo/heroic zones. So in theory, you could zone out from a door, and have it zone back into the same door to a different instance. I haven't tested this, but it should work. The good news is, you can test this for free! No special expansion required. Obviously, since there's no movement, you can only run zones that have an entrance at the same location.
The "gotchas"
The teleporter doesn't work properly, and is obviously limited to in-game bugs. No seriously, this thing came out with the expansion launch, and still doesn't work properly. They have 1 zone that if you use it, it takes you to the wrong door. I think it's Return to whateverzonename. So it can't be used for that until Darkpaw fixes it. The rest of the zones work fine.. ish.
If you do warming fields, you'll probably die outside because there's aggro. This is on my list to resolve. But since you're not afk , you can kill a solo mob by yourself... right?
Who can use this?
Scripters can add it to their IC files. I'll talk to Kordulek and have him test it out to see if he wants to add it to the default IC files. This may take some time if it negative impacts existing functionality.
Here's how scripters can use it. In your IC file, you likely have this line some where.
- Code: Select all
call Obj_OgreIH.ZoneNavigation.GetIntoZone "${sZoneName}"
You can change it to this:
- Code: Select all
call Obj_OgreIH.Handle_Mesh_ZoneIn_Process
If the return is TRUE, you should be in the zone you need to be in. If it returns FALSE, something failed.
It's pretty verbose.. (That means spammy... like.. a lot).
Yes.. yes it is. This is all data fed from JSON files and processing things. While the concept of this is simple, this is one extremely complex routine, so there is a lot of echos into the console for now. Just deal with it. I may remove it at some stage.. but you want it there if you're having problems.
Feature requests for Mesh.
Eh... if it's something minor, like "when I go to warming field, I die before it clicks in the portal", sure. You can start a feature request on discord.
If it's "hey, can you add movement" - the answer is no.
This isn't really a "I'm here to support everyone's idea". It's a quick and dirty method of being able to zone into zones. If you want something more robust, go for it!
Didn't we have this kind of thing a few expansions ago? Where it zoned into zones?
Yes, but I had to hardcode every single aspect of it. It was an absolute disaster that sucked to maintain. This is also why when people asked, I said I wasn't updating it, because I have been working on this. Which is a MUCH better solution. This has the added bonus of being json data, meaning if there is a zone I haven't done and you just can't wait, there is a custom folder that has priority, and you can add it yourself!
The (lack of) future of Ogre Travel Mesh
If you've been around this community for a while, you probably know exactly where I'm headed with this.
Open world botting is not something I've ever supported. I do not want to disrupt real players gaming. I also prefer that botters stay in the shadows. And having a bunch of bots, move automated through open world, looks SO TERRIBLE. We've all seen that guy with this 6 bots on auto follow running around. That doesn't look good dude, not at all.
While movement (like, your character running/flying etc) sounds like a great concept, it goes against this entirely.
Lets backtrack here a moment, to give you an example of what I mean. Lets pretend we didn't have this friends and family portal thing. Lets say there was full movement. How many bot groups are on your server? Lets say, 4 people all queue up an instance at the same time. Each person has 6 characters. If we fly the same path, we now have 24 prople flying the same path. It just looks super bad.
Now, I know someone is going to say, "Don't worry, we'll all make our own paths so they are unique and different." And to that I say... HAHAHA BULLSHIT. Most people won't even update their own cast stacks by clicking abilities in a listbox, do I believe you're going to take the time to make navigation paths? HAHAHA no.
So with all that said, this is likely what Ogre Travel Mesh is. A tool that can be used to do some clicking and zone into zones, and that's about it.
Is there... anymore bad news?
Of course there is!
By supporting (IMO) bad business practices, you are promoting bad business practices, and should expect entirely for them to continue, if you're going to support them. What I mean by this, is these portals are only usable by the account who pays the $250. Previously, these portals were usable by everyone. I leave it up to you, if you wish to support this practice.
Some clarification
I just want to clarify a few things. I keep saying $250 expansion. Technically, it's an "upgrade" fee, of up to $250. For example, if you bought the $35 stand expansion, this is only $215. If you bought $140 premium, this is a $110 more upgrade.
As I have mentioned, like 300 times, only the person who pays the $250 expansion, can use this. This works fine for your group (I would HIGHLY recommend doing it on your tank, as it has to be the person running IC), but what about if you want to run solos? Yea... so, you kind of a few options. Run solos with your tank+1 person, and cycle that 1 person as you get what you want from solos. You could alternative buy the $250 on 3 people. Lets say for sake of an example, you buy the $250 on your tank, DPS1, and Enchanter. You would then group up with your tank and priest1, Enchanter+priest2, your DPS1+whoever is remaining. This way, you can have the solos rolling in pairs.
Alternatively, you can just buy the $250 on all 6 people, so you can run pure solos on everyone at the same time, using the portals. I mean, it's only $1500 in expansions.