While i might not always post i am hearing your concerns. We have been discussing this new version of trinity for a few months now and the builds have been reasonably well tested by the folks using SVN and Discord and ill be honest that the feedback until now has been excellent with many routines like LoN-Bombardment outperforming the previous release version, so the backlash is a little unexpected.
I'll try give some context here.
Visibility.
The old version still had a routines tab in essence. Its just that you couldn't see it. In the code there were hidden/hard-coded requirements based on the gear and skills you had equipped. It was detecting if it thought you had a certain popular build equipped and then being diverted into a separate area of logic - a different 'routine'. The problem here is that you had no idea if you were using these special logic paths. This is one of the reasons why we always asked for your logs when feedback was given, because it lists your items and skills, so then we could try to figure out which hidden part of the routine the problem would be in. In the new system it straight up tells you which routine is being used and only shows you the settings that are applicable to that build - that is a good thing for both users and for developers in terms of being able to quickly find and fix issues.
Generic Combat Support
One of the things that has always made DB great is the ability to pick any skills you want and have the bot use them. This has not changed, with the default routine i went through every skill in every class and made sure the bot uses them. In some cases the rules or frequency of when they are used has changed. But since most players use the popular/seasonal builds (which will have optimized routines) it was less of a concern.
Ease of Use.
I want non-advanced users to be able to just start up db, and click start and have it work without the hassle. The result of having a huge amount of settings like we did is that new users or people that don't have the time to get a masters degree in DB optimization they either had to follow a guide for how to set things up, or fiddle around with things for a long time. And in most cases, observed by me tracking down and debugging combat issues reported in the last year, are caused by the settings choices users have made. There is a problem when its so easy to make things worse for yourself.
Now i realize that right now there are some missing settings but the intention is to add vastly more control for advanced users than they have had previously, which is now only possible because of the way routines have been improved to be able to control more of how the bot behaves beyond just which power to use.
Development
Why change things if they're not broken! Well in development there is a something called 'code debt' and its is a nice way of saying there's a bunch of code that needs to be replaced. There's an attrition in quality over time from being edited by lots of different authors, building complexity, quick fixes being thrown in when people (often me) feel lazy etc and it builds up. So while it may look fine from the outside, eventually you end up in a place where the code is a horrible place to work, where its hard to follow and becomes fragile so that every time you touch something it has a high probability to break 6 other hidden things. It slows development time and makes fixing issues a nightmare. I won't go into details but many of the changes are positive from my point of view, like routines being separated into different files isolates any changes from breaking other builds.
Future Routines by 3rd Parties.
Its now easy for people with programming knowledge who want to make a new routine to distribute it and have it integrated into Trinity. Just copy-paste one of the existing routines, modify a few things, give it a name and description, add it will show up in the list of routines. If people take advantage of this you could find yourself going into routines and picking from multiple choices for your build - even hot-swap them to compare how good they are on the fly. It has a lot of potential.
TLDR - i am not out to make things worse, there are reasons for the changes and would appreciate constructive feedback on how to tidy up the current issues and continue to push things forward.
First off thanks for taking notice, and responding. it is always appreciated to see developers taking the time to listen and respond to critique. and i apologize for the blunt way my message was type'd due to frustration! I understand making things "worse" is never the idea when you try to improve upon things.
The LoN Crusader ( one of the most widely used bot chars ) is indeed outperforming the older versions of the build in routine.
It not only looks and moves smoother, but the better behavior upon CoE cycle results in faster GR's
I will try to set out the problems i have encountered + the fixes i have found so far, in a more constructive manner.
-first off, i had said things where "hidden"
- most of these "hidden" things are easily fixed, by choosing the "customize" option which will then display a more elaborate set of options. This works for gambling, shrine's, globes, elite settings and many more.
- i understand that with more and more options going in this plugin, such a user interface is the only option since you can't just keep adding tabs, but it was a bit confusing at first ( for me at least )
this was especially the case with the once so simple town run, and trash pack + trash pack cluster radius ( of which the last one i still have not found. )
-After being banned yesterday, i was eager to get going again (^_^) and made a new barb. the routine's are probably just fine for what they where intended to do, which is run a specific setup with specific gear.
The problem arises in getting that gear, as the routines are then not able to use these mechanics properly ( from what i've seen. ) which is going to be a problem in a new season / post ban game play-type situation.
- to fix this i tried the mr robot routine, which clearly outlines all skills, the priority of casting, and many more options. this, however is still in beta mode as displayed below somewhere, no lies there.
- some of the problems encountered there are, but not limited to;
- the char had chalink belt on ( movement boost on war cry cast ) but whatever the routine i choose even mr robot, casting it upon cool down was no success.
- the same can be said for battle rage ferocity. if one works the other won't cast
i was wearing fire walkers with pox faulds and clearing a normal rift to gather quick gr keys would be a matter of simply walking fast but up until now i have not yet been able to do so.
- so in conclusion; the interface take's some getting use to, but when you play around with the options you'll be just fine.
- But botting for me is a 2 chapter thing. chapter one consists of getting the gear required to do chapter 2 which is para up's gem up's and such. and for now it is the getting gear part that is proving challenging.
Greets, Lytylisius
New Trinity is F'd UP. Why the change?