Extending the Checkpoint mechanism...

[chinajade]

The developers may have this in their 'to do' list somewhere. But if not, here's some ideas that may make <Checkpoint> more useful...

Checkpoint for faction
You occasionally run across quests that won't be offered until you've achieved a certain faction. This quest is an example of one that is not offered until you reach Friendly with the Cenarion Expedition. Also, the little snobs in Sporeggar require Friendly before most will even glance in your direction.

Expanding checkpoint to deal with this issue could look something like:

<Checkpoint Faction="123" Reputation="Friendly" />​

If the toon doesn't meet the checkpointed faction, Honorbuddy could send it off to the associated SetGrindArea until the reputation is achieved.


Checkpoint for Item Counts
An obvious use for 'item count' checkpointing would be repeatable reputation turnin quests such as Deadwood Headdress Feather, Obsidian Warbeads, or Zaxxis Insignia. The idea is not to grind to exalted in a QuestOrder profile, although that would be possible. Instead, in the QuestOrder profile we want to guarantee a toon can reach whatever reputation is necessary to press on.

<Checkpoint ItemName="Deadwood Headdress Feather" ItemId="123" ItemCount="130" />​

would send the toon to the associated SetGrindArea to procure enough reputation items. The turnins:

<TurnIn QuestName="Feathers for Grazle" QuestId="8466" TurnInName="Grazle" TurnInId="11554" //>
<TurnIn QuestName="Feathers for Grazle" QuestId="8466" TurnInName="Grazle" TurnInId="11554" //>
<TurnIn QuestName="Feathers for Grazle" QuestId="8466" TurnInName="Grazle" TurnInId="11554" //>
<TurnIn QuestName="Feathers for Grazle" QuestId="8466" TurnInName="Grazle" TurnInId="11554" //>
...​

would be crude, but effective once the Profile Writer knows all the items needed are in the backpack.

There is also one other problem this form of Checkpoint would solve...
Many mobs drop quests, but the Profile Writer has no clue when the item arrives in the backpack from killing a mob. With this form of <Checkpoint>, the Profile Writer could arrange for grinding on appropriate mobs until the needed item drops. Examples include:

<Checkpoint ItemName="Grimesilt Outhouse Key" ItemId="11818" ItemCount="1" />
<Checkpoint ItemName="Margol's Horn" ItemId="10000" ItemCount="1" />
<Checkpoint ItemName="Eroded Leather Case" ItemId="23338" ItemCount="1" />
<Checkpoint ItemName="Drain Schematics" ItemId="24330" ItemCount="1" />
and dozens more.​

Each of these items starts a quest that Honorbuddy will automatically accept on the toon's behalf. Once the quest is started, its handled just like quests that come from NPCs or Objects once the toon passes the checkpoint. To date, the problem has been that the Profile Writer didn't know with certainty when an quest-offering Item was procured. This Checkpoint mechanism allows the Profile Writer to obtain the needed certainty.



Conclusion
The HB development team may have other plans for these types of things, and that's great if so. If not, the solution offered here is a straight-forward technique to extend an existing Profile mechanism in a clean fashion. Such an extension allows Profile Writers to address a large number of quests that up until now had to be discarded.

cheers, & thanks for listening!
CJ

 

[MaiN]

Hi,
this is a good idea, but is probably going to be solved a little differently.
Instead, we will probably provide some kind of condition tag. You could then do something like:

<Condition HasNotItemId="11818">
  <Grind />
</Condition>
<condition hasnotitemid="11818"><condition hasnotitemid="11818">

</condition></condition>