Idea For Quickly Casting on Friendlies

[Qndrez]

Do you think it would be possible to place a mini toolbar by your group member portraits? The mini-bars would have a few select spells (like healing or buffs) and would allow for quick accurate spell casting on friendlies during combat.

If I had more time I would try to code it myself, owell. Someone with more experience even think it is possible?

-Qndrez

[sarf]

It is definitely possible, but we're running into problems with minibars.

Basically, it's like this - to remember what each button in each bar contains (spell/ability/macro), you have to assign it a unique ID. If two buttons share the same idea, they share the same contents, if you change one you automatically change the other.
The number of IDs are limited - basically, there is 120 buttons available. To make it even worse, the first 72 are used by the normal action bar, and then stances/shapeshift forms start.

While it would be easy to do for, say, Priests and Mages, it would be hard to do it in a general way, so that all classes could use it. Druids, for example, would probably be the unfortunate losers, since they have loads of shapeshift forms, each "allocated" 12 buttons.

So, we then have a number of questions :
Should the minibars be specialized to each party member, or contain the same spells? Would it be a Priest/Mage exclusive thing, or should we use the normal action bar buttons? While we could use dynamic IDs (assigning buttons IDs depending on the class of the current player, or allowing the user to specify the IDs), then the setup of the buttons become dependent on client-side variables. Is this OK? If we use dynamic IDs, how do we make this so that people can use it easily? How many buttons by each party member?

I submit these questions to you so that you'll understand the issues.
Also, Cosmos has always tried to be equally helpful to people, no matter their class - this AddOn would by necessity be of more use for Priests/other healers/buffers.

When I get some free time (say, Saturday afternoon) I could start coding this PartyMemberBar if you wanted me to - however, I'd like answers to questions above 'til then.

Sarf
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Try to be the best of whatever you are, even if what you are is no good.

[Allanth]

I feel that the funtion keys work good when casting spells on party members. However, the only problem I have with this is that when you Target a friendly with the F2-F6 keys you de-Target the enemy. This becomes a pain because you have to re-Target the enemy. I know that you can self-target yourself without de-Targeting the enemy by holdin gin Alt, but that doesnt do your party members any good. I think that there should be a way to Target your party members without de-targeting the enemy. How? I have no idea. Macros could work so could extra hotkeys, but it might get too cluttered. I have no suggestions for this, but i do think that being able to reagrrange your party members to select funtion keys would be of some help.

[sarf]

Umm...

Well, there is a workaround that might do the trick for you.

Basically, I would code a mod so that when you held control and pressed a spell, it would launch a spell at the currently Ctrl-selected party member.
The Ctrl-selected party member would be selected by pressing Ctrl-F2 through F6.

This would not work if you had yourself or another party member (or another player) currently targeted (in that case, you have to change targets), but it would help.

Would this work for you? It would avoid all the problems with extra bars and buttons and stuff, and it would do what you wanted it to (I think).

I think I could even add some graphical representation of the currently Ctrl-selected group member... but I won't promise anything.

Sarf
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We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?

[Allanth]

I like the way everything is now personally , I just wish that there was a way to have multiple targets , one for healing and the other for attacking -- which isnt possible. I think the best way to perform this action is to toughen it out and simply use the funtion keys to target party members and the Target Nearest Enemy hotkey(tab) to quickly go back to the enemy. No big deal, but still a good initial suggestion Qndrez, altohugh its really only neccesary for healing classes.


BTW thanks sarf for the TellTarget Request. I got the zip and it works awsome. Also the send message on the who list works. Much appreciation

Now all i need is the autocomplete key terms...... (ill hold my breath...remember im undead) If you need help gathering key terms for the autocomplete list i could help you get as many as i can find for the next 4 days of playing. :)

[sarf]

I like the way everything is now personally , I just wish that there was a way to have multiple targets , one for healing and the other for attacking -- which isnt possible.
Well, there is... kinda, which is why AltSelfCast works the way it does.
Basically, if you have an enemy targeted and cast a healing spell, you'll get the "Cast spell on who?" cursor, and you can use a lua function to target the spell. Should you, however, be targeting a "friendly" target, the healing spell will go off immediately. AltSelfCast solves this by changing the target in the last case.

I think the best way to perform this action is to toughen it out and simply use the funtion keys to target party members and the Target Nearest Enemy hotkey(tab) to quickly go back to the enemy. No big deal, but still a good initial suggestion Qndrez, although its really only neccesary for healing classes.
Yeah... and, in a small way, buff your team members (Paladin seals?).
My offer to code a CtrlPartyCast AddOn still stands (since I can base the code on the AltSelfCast mod... and probably would build both into one AddOn).

BTW thanks sarf for the TellTarget Request. I got the zip and it works awsome. Also the send message on the who list works. Much appreciation
You're welcome - it feels good when you code something and it works immediately the way you want it to (TellTarget). The credit for send message on Who list should go to geowar though. :)

Now all i need is the autocomplete key terms...... (ill hold my breath...remember im undead) If you need help gathering key terms for the autocomplete list i could help you get as many as i can find for the next 4 days of playing. :)
Well, sure, I'd like that as a base - of course, I think I would allow the user to specify their own autocomplete terms. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll have time to code it until late Saturday/Sunday. :(

Sarf
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Stability itself is nothing else than a more sluggish motion.

[sarf]

Check out this post (http://www.cosmosui.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=278) for a (working?) version of the CtrlGroupCast AddOn.

Sarf
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I got out of bed for this?

[Kierstad]

A little late in response, being the 15th and all, but couldn't you just incorporate TargetLastEnemy()?

I believe I used something similar while I was in STB, and it worked just fine. I.E. would allow you to use one of the many snippets posted on the UI Customization board. Example:

/script if ( UnitName("target") ~=nil and UnitInParty("target") ) then CastSpellByName("spell name here") else TargetUnit("player") CastSpellByName("spell name here") TargetLastEnemy(); end

[/code]

[sarf]

Yes, you can, however, you don't want to switch targets at all if possible (which it is :) ).

Sarf
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The sky is falling... No, I'm tipping over backwards.

[Kierstad]

Yes, you can, however, you don't want to switch targets at all if possible (which it is :) ).

Sarf
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The sky is falling... No, I'm tipping over backwards.
Hmm so this actually allows you to ctrl cast something on someone or thing else while still having a combat target?

[sarf]

Yes... as long as your target does not interfere with the casting of the spell. I think the way WoW works is that you can't cast a healing spell (or any beneficial spell) on an enemy, and if you try, the cursor turns into the spell targeting one. What the CtrlGroupCast does is to "autotarget" the spell to the correct (hopefully) party member. If you should have another target selected that is a possible target for the spell, it will switch targets and try to switch back after it is done casting.

Sarf
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