inconsistant behavior

So after reading the issues below are there any suggestions about what I might be able to do to help make the behavior of things more consistent?

basically I'm seeing regular problems with 1 or more followers not executing an action
unfortunately it's not always the same the followers and it's not happening 100% of the time
it's getting really old seeing 1-4 toons execute an action and the rest standing there with their thumbs up their... doing nothing

I think in part it has to do with the GCD being getting out of sync
and in part it seems that for casters - interact with target - doesn't cause them to face a target whether or not they have a melee weapon equiped
and in part that wow is flaky about figuring out when a toon is actually facing a target or not
and in part that WoW isn't always seeing the modifier key so Isb might think it sent - alt-ctl-F11 but wow just sees alt-F11 and then maybe a ctl key

anyone else having problems with flaky behavior?
anyone have suggestions on how to possibly fix it?

honestly it has a lot of the hallmarks of lag
for example I can often see 3-5 different time sequences when I watch all the screens
master does something
toon1 then sees master and then does something
toon2 out of phase from toon1 sees masters then does something
and so on
sometime 1 or more follower will be in sync with another follower at least

this issue is compounded in phased areas and has the added benefit of things like assist sending a target that is not actually the current target
follow breaking
and even better 4 toons seeing all 5 toons together but 1 toon seeing something standing 100 yards away ...

[lax]

We would need to see your configuration to begin helping you figure out what's happening. http://isboxer.com/wiki/Configuration_Sharing

and in part it seems that for casters - interact with target - doesn't cause them to face a target whether or not they have a melee weapon equiped

IWT on classes that originally had a wand slot will be a little flaky. This is built into the game and not much we can change about it other than to work around the issues. I don't remember all of the specifics, but MiRai and I did some testing specifically on this a few months ago. Something like, if you have a wand equipped IWT will not face the target, but if you have a melee weapon equipped it will work as long as you're in melee range OR outside of ranged casting range. I remember something about the distance to the mob mattering. So anyway if you run up to the mob and your front guy is in melee range and the rest are in casting range, this would mean the toons in the back don't work right.

and in part that wow is flaky about figuring out when a toon is actually facing a target or not

I don't know what to say about that one

and in part that WoW isn't always seeing the modifier key so Isb might think it sent - alt-ctl-F11 but wow just sees alt-F11 and then maybe a ctl key

No, the modifiers will always have consistent behavior. When it sends ctrl+alt+F11 it will always get ctrl+alt+F11 and not sometimes Alt+F11.

Something else you didn't mention is the inherent delay built into /assist. Basically, in order to /assist someone, your client has to know what that person's target is. When you target something new, that data goes from you to the server and then to each of your other clients. Until they get the message that you've targeted the new thing, they will still target your previous target if you use /assist.

This is much more of an issue if you're using auto-assist (building assist into your attack buttons) than if you're using a manual assist key, but can easily explain certain cases where your lead does something and the rest do not. I avoid this issue by manually assisting.

The game can also automatically pick a target for you if you have nothing, or a corpse, targeted, and use a targeted combat ability. This make the above problem even more annoying because you'll run up, attack, and half of your guys shoot something else that you never targeted because their assist picked up either nothing or the corpse from your previous kill! The only way I've found to eliminate this issue is by adding something like "/stopmacro [noexists] [dead] [noharm]" to the top of a WoW Macro that does the ability (or multiple). Again not a big issue if using manual assist.



So I guess to get more consistent behavior one of my suggestions will probably be to drop auto-assist and use a manual assist key.

Other than that, we would definitely need to know more about your configuration, what sort of buttons you're using at the time, etc in order to help decipher what's happening for you.

this issue is compounded in phased areas and has the added benefit of things like assist sending a target that is not actually the current target

There are even phased NPCs where each character has its very own instance of the NPC and /assist is useless for them! But yes, obviously if your characters are in different phases, you're going to have issues with basically everything you're trying to do.

follow breaking

http://isboxer.com/wiki/FAQ#Why_do_my_guys_stop_auto-following_when_I_fight_something.3F

thanks for the response
it's really helpful

I'm not going to bother posting my config.
It's pretty vanilla and you mentioned a couple of things I hadn't thought about that contribute.
Any of the assist issues occur using the default assist+broadcast keymap with no modifications

I think using manual assist is the right way to go.
I have seen the sort of assist delay you are explaining.
Though the issue I'm asking about is a different thing completely

The TLDR version of what is below is that I keep running in to situations where there server is reporting outdated information to anywhere from 1 to 4 of the players; and does so for extended periods of time.



About the assist problem, it's not due to any short delay: it's one that can last for > 60 seconds
a few times when it happened, I then manually tried both of these on a follower
a) /assist LEADERNAME
b) /target LEADERNAME
/assist

both times WoW still gave the follower the old target.
Something that the leader had not had targeted in over a minute


About follow breaking; it's more problems with phasing and not the usual expected design of /follow
follow works well enough for me even in combat actually. Jamba may or may not be helping with that aspect.
But the main problem I have is when moving through areas with phases even when the whole party did all the same quests and are all in the same phase


Also in phased areas I've seen this occur more than just "on a rare occasion"
one party member gets badly out of sync such that
players 1-4 see players 1-5 all standing together
player 5 sees player 3 standing well off in the distance
player 3 cannot trade with player 5
player 5 cannot trade with player 3 even if they do run over to where the game is claiming player 3 is standing

the fix is to hearth or move a long ways away or enter an instance or anything similar

[lax]

About the assist problem, it's not due to any short delay: it's one that can last for > 60 seconds
a few times when it happened, I then manually tried both of these on a follower
a) /assist LEADERNAME
b) /target LEADERNAME
/assist

both times WoW still gave the follower the old target.
Something that the leader had not had targeted in over a minute

I've seen this happen in cases where the toon you're trying to assist has lost control, e.g. due to fear. If you're feared and you change targets, the new target doesn't get sent to everyone else, so regardless of how long they wait to do the assist, they will still pick up the old target. The only way to correct this is to wait until you have control again, target something else (or nothing), and re-select the desired target. Then the new message with the correct target will get sent out.

Also in phased areas I've seen this occur more than just "on a rare occasion"
one party member gets badly out of sync such that
players 1-4 see players 1-5 all standing together
player 5 sees player 3 standing well off in the distance
player 3 cannot trade with player 5
player 5 cannot trade with player 3 even if they do run over to where the game is claiming player 3 is standing

the fix is to hearth or move a long ways away or enter an instance or anything similar

Phasing is indeed a pain. Anyone will tell you about these same issues with the phasing system, hell I don't think it's changed much since wotlk other than adding more phased areas and npcs.

For moving between them you kinda have to learn where the phase lines are and be prepared to manually regroup after moving through depending on how the game decides to treat you. Generally I will go toward the phase line, turn on auto-run on all characters and wait for them all to cross, then turn back on auto-follow. Usually that works okay...