[Satrina]

The answer to the burning question!

Duke Nukem forever will be released before this mod.

That's not far off. I play wow in 4x4 hour sessions at this time. Log in, raid, log out. Work and other distractions outside of WoW are limiting me to that for the foreseeable future. When this changes, you'll all be the first to know.

[Satrina]

What is CombatMonitor2?

CombatMonitor2 is the successor to CombatMonitor, an addon I wrote for WoW 1.0. Its job is to analyse the damage you take as a tank.

What CombatMonitor, and CombatMonitor2, is not is a measure of anything you do. They do not in any way measure your damage output or your threat. There are plenty of great addons that do those jobs already.

The original CombatMonitor simply recorded attacks (miss, dodge, parry, block, crit, crush, hit, etc.) and the damage taken from them with some analysis of their statistical trends. It also did some basic analysis by damage school (physical vs. elemental) and kept running totals for individual opponents by name.

CombatMonitor2 will be a complete rewrite and reworking of the CombatMonitor idea to create a solid damage intake analysis for tanks. Many new features and greatly increased granularity of data collection are planned. See the next post for a list of planned features.

[Satrina]

CM2 Planned Features
1) Tracking of damage taken
* Breakdown by type (hit, crit, crush, blocked, etc.)
* Breakdown by school (physical, fire, frost, nature, etc.)
* Analysis of damage taken (physical vs. elemental, white damage vs. spells vs. special abilities, etc.)

2) Tracking of attack distribution
* Breakdown by type (miss, dodge, parry, block, partial block, hit, crit, crush)
* Analysis of hit distribution

3) Estimation of damage avoided
* Damage avoided by dodge/parry
* Damage avoided by blocks and partial blocks
* Estimation of mitigation from avoided damage

4) Realtime monitoring
* Incoming DPS tracking via average and 5 second window
* Estimated total damage mitigation via average and 5 second window
* Recording of peak hits
* Clear and unambiguous notification of crushing blows and critical hits when received

5) Data recording
* Cumulative fight data recording by opponent, categorised by gear worn for the fight
* Record a single fight's data in a snapshot when desired
* Snapshot comparisons to compare gear sets for same fight
* Differentiation of normal and heroic versions of opponents

6) Tanking tools
* Calculator (using equipped gear) to show how far from Shield Block uncrushable or Holy Shield uncrushable (as applicable)
* Calculator (using equipped gear) to show how far from passive uncrushable
* Combat table estimation by opponent level
* Summaries of tanking stats (if the gathering and duplication seems worthwhile)
* Others as dreamed up

7) Tie-in with web applications
* Upload snapshots for analysis and sharing
* Functionality to be determined

[Satrina]

Data Display
This is without a doubt the hardest part of creating the addon. Getting the data is easy. Displaying it in a coherent and useful manner is hard. I'm hoping this thread will get me some solid feedback as I iterate through the display design.

Here's the original CombatMonitor:



As people who used it recall, the opponent list was the first window to open, and selecting an opponent in the list caused the detail window to open. (The options window obviously only opened when you clicked the Options button)

For CombatMonitor2, I wanted to go with a single window model to take up less screen area when looking at reports. So far I've decided to go with a window that has a column of buttons down the side to switch between data views. Here's the opponent list and a damage report from Beta 1 of CombatMonitor2:



Note:
1) The monospaced font for lining up numbers in a nice way in the damage report. Right off I decided I hated that, and have since reworked the display to use the variable-width fonts that are used everywhere else in the game.

2) The buttons down the right side of the window to select the different sources of damage that opponent can deal. (A configuration option lets you put them on the left side). This screenshot shows only some very basic analysis of the damage. Things like breaking out what proportion of the total damage the melee damage represents (and proportions for Shadow Nova/SW:P similarly) aren't in yet.

3) The All and Spells buttons are meant to be broad analysis categories. In the case of Prince Malchezzar as pictured, the Spells button would give an analysis that includes both Shadow Nova and SW:P. The All category is a summary of all damage from all sources. Yes, there is supposed to be a category for all Melee attacks (Melee + Sunder Armor in this case); I just hadn't got there yet.



This is where you all come in. Ideas for display and layout are very welcome. Some things I am considering:

1) Replace the big red buttons for the opponent damage sources with a list box that has 10 or 12 buttons in it (and could scroll as necessary). Not sure how that would look just tacked onto the side, but it will be easy to put in to see. The List button would remain at the top to return you to the opponent list, and I'd probably move the Options button up underneath of it.

2) Use of colour highlights to indicate totals. For example, the column for Damage would put the 5835324 number in a colour different from the 303133, 857414 and 4674777 numbers, to highlight it as a total. Doing this, I could put the total at the bottom of the column with a "Total" label to the left, and it wouldn't look as dumb as it does right now.

3) Abbreviate "average" to "avg" - saves space

4) Use of tabs/paging for reports. Some reports, especially the one that summarises all damage taken, will have many line entries. Breaking it down into two pages (Attacks, Damage, Estimates, and so forth) will make each chunk more manageable to take in, and maybe save some space. If you want an example of tabs, look at the options frame for Satrina Buff Frames: http://www.wowinterface.com/download...ffFrames2.html.

[Satrina]

So, here we are
Ultimately, I will be just one user of this thing. My target audience is here, and I'm sure you all have some idea of what should be in there. Hopefully you have some ideas how to communicate the information to you once it's collected.

The size of this thing is something that needs to be considered. The code itself, even with all the planned features, will be miniscule compared to the potential amount of data you can keep stored in it. At one point, I had over 300 million points of damage recorded in the original CombatMonitor. That's a lot of data. Given that data recording in CM2 will at some point include the gear you're wearing when you record it, and then a whole new data set for the same fight in different gear - you can see how it could balloon into a huge memory user. Someone at some point had written a standalone Windows application that took your CombatMonitor logs and stored them in an attached database, so you could clear out your CombatMonitor saved data and still have access to it offline. I definitely can't guarantee I'd write something like that for CM2, but we do have some as-yet-very-vague plans to have some sort of online analysis and comparison tools for people to use on TankSpot with their CM2 data. I'm definitely not so concerned about code bloat for features as much as making sure the recorded data is as compact and brief as possible.

I'm very interested in hearing your ideas for features, so don't be shy. I can't guarantee that every feature proposed will get in, at least right away. My current plan is pretty ambitious, and it will definitely be a multi-stage process to get where I want to go. The order that features go in needs to be prioritised (feedback there welcome!) If someone suggests a whiz-bang, must-be-in feature that I overlooked, it'll get on the list in priority of course.

I'm even more interested in your ideas for layout and displaying data. Obviously I won't end up with an interface that pleases everyone 100%, but the more ideas and opinions I get, the better it will be. I'll keep posting screenshots as the beta versions progress, and we can do the iterative design together.

I'm really looking forward to getting back into this one! =)

[Satrina]

Collected suggestions
- Possible integration with wardrobe type addons
- Tracking of boss dodges/parries + expertise in gear set
- Divide opponent list between bosses and trash
- Calculate effective health of current inventory
- Record lowest health reached for gear set vs. opponent
- Consider where/how to position the button to open the details and opponent list

[Kazeyonoma]

I can't wait for this, this sounds awesome.

I alreayd use CM for a lot of boss fights when wiping to figure out my gear swaps.

[Narshe]

Me too, I even asked for an addon like this days ago in the forum. Im glad you are already working on this.
Keep us informed when you are ready to take betatesters xD

[Fogliadacqua]

One of my favorite addons.

Thanks Satrina


P.s. love that:

Source: Satrina 5) Data recording * Cumulative fight data recording by opponent, categorised by gear worn for the fight

[Bruizer]

Indeed. Does that gear categorization plan to be done by integrating / coordinating with, for example, ClosetGnome or one of the other major gear switching addons?

I've so far not used one of those as I tend to tweak on an item-by-item basis for most fights, rather than having pre-defined "avoidance" and "threat" sets, but could see that if this was categorized against sets, I'd like to start getting used to those addons again.

CombatMonitor took me through MC as MT, so I'd love to get back to using it again.

[Fame]

I think it would be great if it will store the amount of Expertise you had on during the fight in comparison to the % of the Parries / Dodges received. Looking over WWS logs, it is hard to figure out what kind of gear the person had on aswell as get the total % of the avoidance made against you. If CM2 will keep track of all that it would be much simpler to figure out each boss' Parry % and thus prior to engaging in the fight have a readout of expected avoidance (same goes for keeping track of avg boss hits hits ) I think this will be a very useful tool to help a lot of tanks gear themselves accordingly for each fight.

As for the layout, i would have some sort of divider between the boss and trash mobs. I would take advantage of dropdown menus (referring to the second screenshot) to save space on the screen since the user might not be interested in all of the information that CM2 will be providing.

[Satrina]

I'm not sure how accurate integration with a wardrobe addon would remain since the items in gear sets change, enchants and gems can change, and so on. I'm more leaning to tracking a snapshot of the gear worn for the fight.

As long as I've been writing this thing, people have been asking for outgoing measurements for this or that. Tracking the boss' dodges/parries is measuring your outgoing attacks. Obviously I understand the usefulness of it, but if it gets added it'll be very much later and most probably would come as a separate addon that ties in with CM2. We'll see, though - you never know when an oh, it makes sense here moment will happen.

[Ciderhelm]

By no means expected, but some neat additions I'd like would be:

• Calculate Effective Health with current gear;
• Record "Lowest Health" records per fight or per gear set similar to Critline records.

Hope I didn't miss those in the list somewhere.

[Elcolombiano]

can't wait. great stuff

[Mardran]

Looks awesome Satrina! Can't wait for the new features to one of my favorite mods. I've got two questions though.

First, is the new version going to be able to determine your block value automatically though when calculating damage mitigated through block? I know in the current version that it is defaulted to 400 and you have to actually type out a command to set it to something different. Some buffs/debuffs that you gain during encounters though could change that block value though (example, tier 5 2 piece bonus).

Secondly, is there going to be a way to change how you actually access the main portion of the mod (like a minimap button instead of the big bar)?

Thanks!

[Satrina]

In 2.3 I will be able to query for block value directly (it'll show in the tooltip for block as well, in the character window), so I'll store it with the gear set. The average block value calculated at the end from the damage actually will show you how much extra you got from the t5 bonus, etc.

I haven't decided how/where I am going to put the button for CM2 yet. That's cosmetic, will decide later on. I hate minimap buttons; I already have like 10 of them. It won't be a minimap button =) The new Gatherer thingy is pretty cool (slides out from the side of the screen). I'm open to suggestions too!

[Link]

I loved the old one and can't wait for the new one.

Not required but I do love keeping the number of non-Ace mods to a minimum. Will you be trying to use Ace-libs at all so I can wowaceupdater this every 5 minutes?

[Satrina]

Ace doesn't offer anything compelling for CM2 (as opposed to my buff frames addon, which is Ace). I tend to do rigorous beta testing cycles and release much less frequently than most Ace authors, so you won't need to update every 5 minutes

[Mardran]

Source: Satrina I haven't decided how/where I am going to put the button for CM2 yet. That's cosmetic, will decide later on. I hate minimap buttons; I already have like 10 of them. It won't be a minimap button =) The new Gatherer thingy is pretty cool (slides out from the side of the screen). I'm open to suggestions too!

Yea actually, I'm not a big fan of minimap buttons either :P

Reading above, I know you don't want to do Ace2, but would a Fubar plugin be a possibility? Anything but the big bar, or at least having an option to hide it or something would be nice.

[Nez]

Cant wait to try it out! Love the old one and the buff mod as well. The slide out "thing" would be nice, or a fubar plugin would be very nice as well. Lots of fubar users.

Thanks for working up a new addon for us.