Item Assistant

[Qiquan]

Any idea what causes IA:L searches to take 10x as long as IA+ and IA++? I updated from ++ to light some weeks ago in order to take advantage of actively developed tool as well as fix the pattern matcher tab crashing entire program on otherwise stable ++. Some other quirks aside that me and my friends have noticed, the search time is really really bad compared to all previous AOIA gens. If that could somehow be addressed, the tool would be much more popular, I'm certain.

edit: well, it seems that an hour after posting this, there is an update available and that seems to have largely eliminated the most frustrating issue. Item search is actually very fast now.

[MrPete]

Any idea what causes IA:L searches to take 10x as long as IA+ and IA++? I updated from ++ to light some weeks ago in order to take advantage of actively developed tool as well as fix the pattern matcher tab crashing entire program on otherwise stable ++. Some other quirks aside that me and my friends have noticed, the search time is really really bad compared to all previous AOIA gens. If that could somehow be addressed, the tool would be much more popular, I'm certain.

edit: well, it seems that an hour after posting this, there is an update available and that seems to have largely eliminated the most frustrating issue. Item search is actually very fast now.

It's a mix of three things:
* Less optimized library for the database connection
* The move to nhibernate (huge boost in code readability, but quite a performance hit)
* The use of SqlCE

Can expect more performance updates in the near future.

Edit: Initial tests shows a speedup of a factor of ~5x if moving back to SQLite, so the move is pretty much a done deal.

[kemi]

So I finally tried this, installed and imported old aoia++ database.

First think i noticed all BP with default names has been renamed (in the game database already not just IA light) without any confirmation or anything. Rather intrusive imho - but too late now i guess.

Then all imported characters are stored in "Dimension #0" until logged in - they are then moved to the Live dimension. Is this expected behaviour?

The summary tab seems to be filtered by the dimension setting on the items tab (may be the other tabs also - did not test). And if you change dimension, switch tab to summary you will be switched back to items tab once the dimension change finished in the background. I would suggest either move the dimension switch out of the tabbed window or lock tab switching until dimension change finished.

Something similar on the pattern match tab: You can queue up changes to the pattern radio button switch which will asynchronously update the pattern list. I think it would be more intuitive if you disabled the radio buttons as long as the pattern list is updating.

On the identify page some already processed ql300 bio-mats show up as type "Bug xxx" (xxx being different number for different types) - only ql300, other qls are ok.

So far for now...

[MrPete]

So I finally tried this, installed and imported old aoia++ database.

First think i noticed all BP with default names has been renamed (in the game database already not just IA light) without any confirmation or anything. Rather intrusive imho - but too late now i guess.

Can probably find some posts about this already, I've no intention of changing this behavior. It will respect any custom names and never rename a backpack you've named yourself.

Then all imported characters are stored in "Dimension #0" until logged in - they are then moved to the Live dimension. Is this expected behaviour?

Some older versions of AOIA/AOIA++ knows which dimension your characters belong to, but after the multiple dimension support got removed it no longer stores this data, so when importing it into IA:Light the dimension data is lost and will only get updated when your characters log in.

The summary tab seems to be filtered by the dimension setting on the items tab (may be the other tabs also - did not test). And if you change dimension, switch tab to summary you will be switched back to items tab once the dimension change finished in the background. I would suggest either move the dimension switch out of the tabbed window or lock tab switching until dimension change finished.

I'll get this on the TODO list!

Something similar on the pattern match tab: You can queue up changes to the pattern radio button switch which will asynchronously update the pattern list. I think it would be more intuitive if you disabled the radio buttons as long as the pattern list is updating.

I plan on redoing the pattern recognition somewhat, at the very least have it abort any existing request if you change the option.

On the identify page some already processed ql300 bio-mats show up as type "Bug xxx" (xxx being different number for different types) - only ql300, other qls are ok.

Pass me the numbers and I'll get them updated!
I simply don't have enough items stored in my own database[s] to catch all of these.

[MrPete]

I'll be pushing a few more bug fixes in the coming days, as more users are moving to the latest version I'm finding a few corner cases that still needs fixing.
Most of these bugs are due to untested code related to the GMI -- I have no active subscription and any code related to GMI is pure guesswork.

Once this is done I'll get the missing items from identify added, followed by a performance patch

[MrPete]

Once again asking for additional test subjects!

I need beta-testers for versions before releasing them to the general public!

And remember, if you ever run into an error, complain immediately to get it fixed
Nothing short of perfect will do!

Currently planned features are:
* Show the best available symbiants for your characters [that you own, or not]
* Trade history [per user request, does anyone else require this??]
* Reintroduction of /loot
* [Under debate] Spawn timer of mobs that you've killed, or have died near you (only 'unique' mobs like SL dynas)

[muzzz]

I've been trying IA Light occasionally for a while now. One thing I really miss is alphabetical sorting of bags in the treeview.

I'd also really prefer for the close-to-tray on 'X' to be optional. I auto-hide tray icons, and it took me days to figure out that the application not closing was a feature rather than a bug.

The latest version insists on converting the AO database every time it starts.

Backpack renaming seems somewhat unreliable. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding how it's supposed to work. Out of a full bank, it renamed about 19 bags. It also handed out #6 twice. I'd prefer the numbers to be suffixed, rather than prefixed, so that manually named bags still group together when sorted alphabetically.

Last but not least, I've run into some stability issues. Sometimes IA Light seems to stop updating, or the new client becomes more prone to hanging than usual. But nothing that reproduces accurately, or leaves a trace in the logs, unfortunately. I don't suppose you have plans to make the source code available?

[MrPete]

Features implemented in the next (feature) version.
1) Bags are now sorted alphabetically (ignoring the prefix)
2) Bag names can now be set to postfix instead of prefix
3) Close to tray is now optional

Bag renaming I plan to completely rewrite, to keep the bags the same name for people with multiple installs (old/new engine etc), and retain names when reinstalling.

If IA was not closed down properly [via exit] it may not have saved the 'last updated' timestamp, but in the very near future this will all be hidden anyways, There is absolutely no reason the user should have to wait while updating.
The source code is available upon request, just send me your bitbucket user.
If you know any C#, would be great to narrow down any issues you're experiencing.

[MrPete]

Patch notes:
* Performance improvements
* Fixed an issue where identify items could cause a crash
* Better handling of some issues
* Fixed a rare issue with the patcher matcher not working correctly
* Improvements to "Identify"
* Changing the dimension multiple times will now only consider the latest change [in case of changing the dimension faster than the client updates]
* Added the option to manually detect new backpacks that IA is unaware of (eg new christmas bags etc)
* Search now supports wildcards
* Bagnames can now be configured to postfix the # instead of prefix
* Close to tray is now optional
* No longer depends on find.exe
* Identify view now supports rclick => view backpack
* Bags are now sorted alphabetically

[Ophiuchus]

Query: how well does IA Light support more than 1 client install?

With AOIA++ I had 2 installs for the 2 seperate client installs (I run both client installs at the same time, both new engine) so that while both were able to read streaming item movement data from both, the backpack names and the ability to actually select a character in the tree needed the AOIA install to point to that particular client's install folder. It worked reasonably well, but as I suspect AOIA++ wasn't intended to run multiply with multiple AO installs, the slow desynching over time got annoying.

[nanoforcer]

Would it be easy to implement a feature that tells you how much money an item can be sold for in a store? At least that would be a pretty cool feature to have

[MrPete]

Query: how well does IA Light support more than 1 client install?

With AOIA++ I had 2 installs for the 2 seperate client installs (I run both client installs at the same time, both new engine) so that while both were able to read streaming item movement data from both, the backpack names and the ability to actually select a character in the tree needed the AOIA install to point to that particular client's install folder. It worked reasonably well, but as I suspect AOIA++ wasn't intended to run multiply with multiple AO installs, the slow desynching over time got annoying.

It should track items correctly, but container names may swap randomly.. it's unfortunate but no good solution for it.

Would it be easy to implement a feature that tells you how much money an item can be sold for in a store? At least that would be a pretty cool feature to have

Easy? Not really.. but it's feasible.
Remember that the sell value depends on where you sell it, and how much computer literacy you have.

[nanoforcer]

Easy? Not really.. but it's feasible.
Remember that the sell value depends on where you sell it, and how much computer literacy you have.

Sure, that's something i'de happily input manually

[Jihnna]

Quick question; is the "Last Played"-feature done ? If so, it bugs on my cmputer for some reason... every time I log a toon, timer says 4 hours 48 minutes, like.. instead of starting at 0, it always starts at 4h48m...

[MrPete]

Quick question; is the "Last Played"-feature done ? If so, it bugs on my cmputer for some reason... every time I log a toon, timer says 4 hours 48 minutes, like.. instead of starting at 0, it always starts at 4h48m...

Even if you refresh it?

It "should" update when it see you move etc.. "should"...
Has been some reports of it not working properly but so far have not been able to reproduce it.

[Jihnna]

Yeah, even when I refresh it... 4:48 (Maybe I'm haunted by some evil demon)

[MrPete]

Yeah, even when I refresh it... 4:48 (Maybe I'm haunted by some evil demon)

I'll look into the refreshing, got a few more bugfixes i gotta push out when I get the time.

Currently working on another 2 different projects though, so may not be right away.

[Jihnna]

Yeah, it's no biggie, just thought I'd report it in Thanks for looking into it when you have the time

[Qiquan]

I don't really care much for the last-played feature, although it is a fancy thing to have; for me personally 3 major aspects of IAL have been fixed or implemented over the course of a month: the search speed is reasonably fast, and boss/mob loot tracking is back (akin to aoia++, xyphos loot thingy)! I also think that implementing wildcards to the search was a very important improvement.

It does look, however, that IAL struggles somewhat with the tracking of traded items between multiple client instances, but I'd have to test a few things in order to provide better details on this. Like Ophiuchus said, I suspect a similar issue existed with ++, although perhaps in a slightly different or less obvious way.

edit: had to modify post, after some 3 days of use it eventually crashed with out of memory error after some 4 hours of use and 12 or so hours of running.

[kemi]

It does look, however, that IAL struggles somewhat with the tracking of traded items between multiple client instances, but I'd have to test a few things in order to provide better details on this.

Can confirm this. Traded items seems to be listed without backpack/inventory on originating toon for some time (until zoning?) - at least sometimes.

Like Ophiuchus said, I suspect a similar issue existed with ++, although perhaps in a slightly different or less obvious way.

Yeah that too... was one of the reasons why i tried the new IA

Edit: Oh and the tracking of GMI items seems not to work at all for me.