Getting the most out of WoW Web Stats - Page 3

Crepe · 04/26/07, 11:20 AM

Originally Posted by tsigo

/combatlog is entirely external from the game's interface. Nothing you do to the interface will have any effect on what does and doesn't get recorded in the log file. It simply records everything you're in range of.

So, the in-game combat log range modifications that various mods do (SWStats and Deadly Boss Mods come to mind) have no effect on the range of /combatlog? Nor the setting in config.wtf? If this is the case, syncing logs becomes mandatory on fights with long ranges - Gruul, in particular.

How important is time skew? If one person's log is a few seconds off, does this effect things much? How many people do you usually have logging? If their local performance is crappy, are log entries dropped?

The idea with the sentry totem as a marker is a really good idea. I'll have to find something equally obscure to mark my own logs with - underwater breathing probably is a good bet.

How often does the combatlog get flushed to disk? I have this crazy idea to install cygwin and ssh on my WoW computer to feed the combat log to a second machine so I can offload parsing. Even if it's not quite realtime, external scripting tools combined with a marker as described above will make splitting the log much easier.

• Hamlet · 04/26/07, 12:14 PM

Originally Posted by Crepe

So, the in-game combat log range modifications that various mods do (SWStats and Deadly Boss Mods come to mind) have no effect on the range of /combatlog? Nor the setting in config.wtf? If this is the case, syncing logs becomes mandatory on fights with long ranges - Gruul, in particular.

No, range will affect it. But no amount of in-game parsing will change the format of the lines actually recorded by /combatlog.

• Hamlet · 04/26/07, 12:35 PM

Originally Posted by Kas

The local version has some ability to split logs.

On the Logs and Reports Panel, there is a Trim Logs option that when selected gives you a drop down of mobs in the combat log.

Trim logs : Trims the log data, by choosing to start and end the report when a given mob is first seen or last-seen

I haven't expriemented with it much yet so I don't know if it's the same logic as the hosted log version (I believe it's not). It may be good to minimize work on things where you are one shotting. However, for a log that contains multiple attempts on a boss, it sounds like it will lump all attempts into a single report, based on that description. I only briefly messed with this last night (coincidently I am just now starting to set up our Web Stats as well)

I'd really have to test. Has anyone tried this feature and have more detail? I didn't have a log that contained multiple attempts on a boss (or anything that would mirror that in a combat log).

Yes, it works very well when you're one-shotting stuff. Even when you're not, it saves you some trouble--you don't have to find the exact beginning of the kill attempt (or whichever attempt you want to post), just locate the 5-minute gap in the action for rezzing/rebuffing, and chop somewhere in there.

Polleke · 04/26/07, 12:41 PM

Originally Posted by Crepe

How often does the combatlog get flushed to disk? I have this crazy idea to install cygwin and ssh on my WoW computer to feed the combat log to a second machine so I can offload parsing. Even if it's not quite realtime, external scripting tools combined with a marker as described above will make splitting the log much easier.

Only upon logout as far as I know. Cygwin wouldn't be needed, writing a tail like program that even splits upon getting a certain line is trivial.

Cel · 04/26/07, 12:44 PM

Originally Posted by Polleke

Only upon logout as far as I know. Cygwin wouldn't be needed, writing a tail like program that even splits upon getting a certain line is trivial.

I've run parses without logging out like when we're flying from Gruul to Magtheridon I'll get the Gruul parse done.

Scheme · 04/26/07, 1:25 PM

Originally Posted by Polleke

Only upon logout as far as I know. Cygwin wouldn't be needed, writing a tail like program that even splits upon getting a certain line is trivial.

You can force a garbage collection (/script collectgarbage("collect")), which will flush the log to disk. However, it'd be really nice if WoW closed the filehandle when you disabled logging, or allowed a destination argument for /combatlog.

♦ Asgorath · 04/26/07, 1:33 PM

Originally Posted by Scheme

You can force a garbage collection (/script collectgarbage("collect")), which will flush the log to disk. However, it'd be really nice if WoW closed the filehandle when you disabled logging, or allowed a destination argument for /combatlog.

For those that use FuBar, I believe PerformanceFu allows you to force a garbage collection with a left-click.

Kyth · 04/26/07, 1:51 PM

Originally Posted by Crepe

The idea with the sentry totem as a marker is a really good idea. I'll have to find something equally obscure to mark my own logs with - underwater breathing probably is a good bet.

This actually wouldn't work for us -- pathological fear of invisible fish in our guild drives warlock buffing requests.... I think I get asked for underwater breathing at least 3-4 times each raid, regardless of raid zone =).

However if your guild has weirdos like ours, demon armor would also work (I can't think of any time you'd use that on a raid.)

Druids might be able to use travel form if nothing else, etc. Does the portal-tabard produce any effect in the combat log? Any other clicky-reusables like that could work as well.

Docjowles · 04/26/07, 2:50 PM

Originally Posted by Kas

The local version has some ability to split logs.

On the Logs and Reports Panel, there is a Trim Logs option that when selected gives you a drop down of mobs in the combat log.

I just played with this feature today. Basically, for 1-shot boss kills, it's great. For multiple attempts, though, you're gonna have to hack up the logs yourself. For example, last night it took us 3 tries to down the Curator (insert laugh track here). I trimmed the log by setting both To and From to "The Curator". The resulting parse shows me dying twice, not DPSing like 60% of the time, Curator Hateful Bolting everyone, etc. Since the fight is fresh in my mind, I can work through the weirdness and see what happened. But going back to this log in a month would be completely worthless.

I love Tsigo's post about "marking" attempts with a spell you'd never use during a raid. Very clever solution! Here's hoping Blizzard eventually throws us a bone and at least unlocks the file when we're not logging, but for now, that tip makes it doable if tedious.

Crepe · 04/26/07, 3:03 PM

Originally Posted by Arawethion

No, range will affect it. But no amount of in-game parsing will change the format of the lines actually recorded by /combatlog.

Ah, so the log range matters, but things like SimpleCombatLog changing the formating won't. Makes sense. For now I'll use DBM's "maximum" range setting. Does anyone know what the max range is, btw? DBM and SWStats have 150; a thread in this forum suggested 200. Any consensus on how far we can go with this (and have it matter)?

Originally Posted by Polleke

Only upon logout as far as I know. Cygwin wouldn't be needed, writing a tail like program that even splits upon getting a certain line is trivial.

Oh, I know it's trivial. I just want to do it, remotely, in a more familiar programming environment, that of my main Linux workstation. The idea is to open up an SSH session and 'tail -f' the combatlog and feed that into a parser that can more easily split up and archive the logs. I can do this all in Windows, but I don't really want to alt-tab.

Interestingly enough, I think you can also truncate the combatlog while WoW has it locked: I opened it in notepad and summarily deleted all the text, then saved it. Back to file size of zero. However, I think WoW keeps logging at the position it seeked to, leaving a couple of megs of zeros at the start of the file.

Thanks for the tip about garbage collection forcing the log to flush. That'll be handy for "Start Log" and "Stop Log" macros for me.

• Hamlet · 04/26/07, 3:14 PM

Originally Posted by Crepe

Thanks for the tip about garbage collection forcing the log to flush. That'll be handy for "Start Log" and "Stop Log" macros for me.

Yeah, I used to relog to save it. This will be handy. Will a reloadui also work?

Brando · 04/26/07, 6:11 PM

Couldn't you just rename the combat log file after each attempt?? Or would you need to logout/login for a new file to be created by the client? If that's the case would just copy/pasting and then flushing the combat log not work better?

chase · 04/26/07, 6:26 PM

Originally Posted by Brando

Couldn't you just rename the combat log file after each attempt?? Or would you need to logout/login for a new file to be created by the client? If that's the case would just copy/pasting and then flushing the combat log not work better?

The file isn't written until /console reloadui or the garbage collection trick.

I tried /console reloadui and than copying the log file and renaming attempt1BossX. It worked, but really easier to place a start/end mark and parsing it that way. (I use ice armor as a mark)

chrull · 04/27/07, 2:19 AM

Originally Posted by Scheme

You can force a garbage collection (/script collectgarbage("collect")), which will flush the log to disk. However, it'd be really nice if WoW closed the filehandle when you disabled logging, or allowed a destination argument for /combatlog.

That's nice to know.

On my wishlist right now: /combatlog [filename] to allow logging to new files after every attempt/boss.

• Hamlet · 04/27/07, 3:20 AM

If I expect to be one-shotting most things, I'll just make one big log, and then crop out any wipes afterwards by hand and use the built-in "trim" feature. If that sounds like too much of a pain, I'll relog quickly after a fight and rename the file.