[Feature Request] Track number of ticks weapon was equipped before attacking

[tyleralbee]

Problem

Equipping a weapon too early before attacking allows the other player to pray reactively. There is no tracking for this.

Solution

Track the number of ticks that a player's weapon is equipped before attacking with it.

Additional Information

Imagine a 5-tick range weapon that you've just attacked with:

0. Server: Attack with range weapon
1. Nothing
2. Nothing
3. Server: Equip melee weapon
4. Nothing
5. Nothing
6. Server: Attack with melee weapon

So, on tick 3, the other player sees your melee switch, and they're able to reactively protect from melee on tick 4, tick 5, or tick 6. If you instead click your melee switch after tick 5 and attack with it on tick 6, you'll attack your opponent on the same tick your weapon is equipped, and they can't reactively protect from melee.

Implementation

I assume that this would require the plugin to poll for more than just attacks. I am guessing (I haven't read the code) that the plugin doesn't poll the game state each tick. The feature I'm suggesting would require the plugin to be polling each tick.

I am willing to get to know the code and implement this feature if the maintainers are open to it. But, if I'm guessing correctly about how the plugin currently works (i.e., that it doesn't poll game state each tick), it'd be closer to a rewrite than a feature. If maintainers are willing to merge a PR that changes the plugin so fundamentally, I'm down to put one together.

[Matsyir]

I like the idea of the feature, but I'd really prefer to not have the fight logs include entries from every tick.

The plugin does already do some "every-tick-polling", in relation to HP tracking & KO chance, but the results are collapsed into the existing Fight Logs (when you attack or get attacked)

If we can track this in a similar way, where the results are only included in the subsequent log(s), rather than introducing some kind of per-tick log, then I'm all for it.

From what I understand this should be possible. On the logs we could add a new field, something like numTicksWepEquipped. This would be equal to 1 if it was a 1tick, or in your example:

• t0: Server: Attack with 5t range weapon
• t1: Nothing
• t2: Nothing
• t3 (numTicksWepEquipped=1): Server: Equip melee weapon
• t4 (numTicksWepEquipped=2): Nothing
• t5 (numTicksWepEquipped=3): Server: Attack with melee weapon => include numTicksWepEquipped = 3 in the attacking log.

Default this value to 0 for existing fights and hide the statistic if all numTicksWepEquipped are <=0

I've removed the before-last line from your example "5.", because the way I was reading it, the player was attacking 6 ticks after their range attack despite using a 5t weapon?

I imagine this info/statistic would only be displayed as a new column in the Fight Log, similar to our recently added "Level Change"/"Brew State" column. We could include a sum of it on the main panel (where you'd aim to keep that number as low as possible, ideally all being 1ticks), but I'm not sure if it's relevant enough for most people to be included there.

Should be possible to track this for both the client player & the opponent, except in cases of animation stalling like ghost barrages (where the entire attack isn't tracked anyways, so it probably makes sense to skip those)

[tyleralbee]

The plugin does already do some "every-tick-polling", in relation to HP tracking & KO chance, but the results are collapsed into the existing Fight Logs (when you attack or get attacked)

If we can track this in a similar way, where the results are only included in the subsequent log(s), rather than introducing some kind of per-tick log, then I'm all for it.

That makes sense to me.

From what I understand this should be possible. On the logs we could add a new field, something like numTicksWepEquipped. This would be equal to 1 if it was a 1tick, or in your example:

Yeah, perfect. And when you put it that way, it becomes clear that there doesn't need to be polling on every game tick - is it possible for the plugin to "subscribe" to weapon changes?

I am unfamiliar with how Runelite plugins work, so bear with me: is it possible for a plugin to add a "side-effect" to a client action? I am guessing that Runelite has a function like switchWeapon() that does the actual communication with the server. Does Runelite's switchWeapon() accept a callback or allow plugins to subscribe to its completion state?

From what I gather, the plugin observes animations to determine game state, so I would imagine that there probably isn't something like this.

We could include a sum of it on the main panel (where you'd aim to keep that number as low as possible, ideally all being 1ticks), but I'm not sure if it's relevant enough for most people to be included there.

There is one exception: most staves provide defensive bonuses. As such, you want to have your staff equipped for every tick that you are not attacking (or bluffing another attack style).

You'd want to optimize for two things:

1. Staff is equipped 100% of ticks in which you are being attacked
2. Melee/range weapon are equipped ONLY on the ticks in which you are attacking

Side note: the plugin already has the data necessary to track 1. I would definitely like to see that stat.

But yeah, the edge case is this: if you're attacking with magic, you should have your weapon equipped the previous ticks. In other words, you only want to minimize numTicksWepEquipped when attacking with melee and range.

[Matsyir]

Yeah fair point about the staff. We've thought about making such a statistic before, definitely would be useful to see.

I guess you wouldn't include the staff ticks in that sum, if we were to include that. But again, I feel like this statistic is best kept only on the fight logs.

I am unfamiliar with how Runelite plugins work, so bear with me: is it possible for a plugin to add a "side-effect" to a client action? I am guessing that Runelite has a function like switchWeapon() that does the actual communication with the server. Does Runelite's switchWeapon() accept a callback or allow plugins to subscribe to its completion state?

From what I gather, the plugin observes animations to determine game state, so I would imagine that there probably isn't something like this.

Well, yeah you can add "side-effects" to client actions, by subscribing to client events. But also you're right, there isn't a simple switchWeapon event. I think maaaybe ItemContainerChanged might include gear changes, but I'm not sure. If not it'd have to be tracked in onGameTick.

[tyleralbee]

Yeah fair point about the staff. We've thought about making such a statistic before, definitely would be useful to see.

Should I put a PR together?

I guess you wouldn't include the staff ticks in that sum, if we were to include that. But again, I feel like this statistic is best kept only on the fight logs.

Sounds good. Second to last column?

[Matsyir]

Should I put a PR together?

Do feel free to if you want! No promises on a quick merge, but if the code is cleanly separate from existing stuff and it works well then it likely wouldn't take long. For such a staff statistic, I think it may even be worth having as its own statistic line, or perhaps it could be combined with robeHits? Maybe it could just show on robeHits tooltip? Or maybe it could append a number onto robeHits to show tanked staff hits?

e.g. existing robeHits: 14 (56%), new proposed with tanked-without-staff hits? 14 (56%) [23/53], where I had staff equipped on 30/53 hits, and failed to tank w/ staff on 23/53 hits. I sort of inverted the staff hits here so it follows the same "negative perspective" as robe hits. Maybe even just 14 (56%) [23] to stay concise, and the tooltip could include more details.

Below fight as example reference, I made up the staff hits. So this could become 14 (56%) [23] on robeHits or whatever

Sounds good. Second to last column?

Yeah that works. After KO Chance and before the special/off-pray etc would work as well I think, It's fairly relevant info, and most of that other stuff to the right of KO chance is basically just checkboxes/icons you can see at a quick glance.

[tyleralbee]

Do feel free to if you want! No promises on a quick merge, but if the code is cleanly separate from existing stuff and it works well then it likely wouldn't take long.

Yeah, totally get it. No promises on a quick PR either - the reason I asked rather than just submitting a PR is because I expect to spend time reading the code. I wanted to be sure the PR would at least be considered.

For such a staff statistic, I think it may even be worth having as its own statistic line, or perhaps it could be combined with robeHits? Maybe it could just show on robeHits tooltip? Or maybe it could append a number onto robeHits to show tanked staff hits?

I think we can make it more robust by collapsing all of that information into something like defenceBonusCaptured, where, when attacked by another player:

1. The other player's attack style (i.e., magic, ranged, stab, slash, crush) is stored in a temporary variable (assume the other player is using Aggressive Weapon Style)
2. "Actual" (equipped) defensive bonuses are stored in an object along with "Potential" (inventory) (e.g., defenceBonus: { equipped: { weapon: { ... } }, inventory: { weapon: { ... } })
3. The defensive bonus corresponding to the other player's attack style (e.g., slash) is read from each equipped gear slot (e.g., defenceBonus.equipped.weapon.slash) and summed: relevantDefenceBonusEquipped
4. The defensive bonus corresponding to the other player's attack style (e.g., slash) is read from each potential gear slot (e.g., defenceBonus.inventory.weapon.slash); the maximum bonus from each gear slot is taken and summed: relevantDefenceBonusUnequipped
5. defenceBonusCaptured = relevantDefenceBonusEquipped - relevantDefenceBonusUnequipped

You would want defenceBonusCaptured to be a positive number. This would allow you to remove robeHits; defenceBonusCaptured is representative of your ability to swap into tank gear when attacked.

[Matsyir]

I dunno, I considered making some sort of "defence score" like this when we initially made robe hits. From a maths perspective, that's probably the most accurate way to display things. The problem with that is, it's hard to quantify where you went wrong, from an improvement perspective, for the average player who won't be reading wiki(s) about how each statistic works.

Something like, "23/53 hits were tanked without staff equipped" is much more digestible and easily understood than "your captured defence score during this fight was 3,578 and could have been up to 4,936" or whatever it'd be.

If we go in this sort of direction, I'd like for this kind of "scoring result" to be kept to either tooltips and the fight logs, rather than how the actual statistic is shown. We sort of have the same dilemma in #117, but I think it's best to keep it simple and avoid putting this kind of "gear score" as a primary statistic value / display.

[tyleralbee]

I dunno, I considered making some sort of "defence score" like this when we initially made robe hits. From a maths perspective, that's probably the most accurate way to display things. The problem with that is, it's hard to quantify where you went wrong, from an improvement perspective, for the average player who won't be reading wiki(s) about how each statistic works.

I understand where you're coming from. I don't think your plugin's users are average players, though. Keep in mind - I am a user of your plugin. I read the available docs and tooltips.

Also, OSRS players love seeing Number Go Up. You don't need to know how "Tank Score" is calculated, you only need to know that higher is better.

If we go in this sort of direction, I'd like for this kind of "scoring result" to be kept to either tooltips and the fight logs, rather than how the actual statistic is shown. We sort of have the same dilemma in #117, but I think it's best to keep it simple and avoid putting this kind of "gear score" as a primary statistic value / display.

That's fine with me. I'll take a look at the code and see what I can put together.

[Matsyir]

I don't think your plugin's users are average players

Not to sound too harsh, but I think you'd be surprised lol. So many people never even peep at the config and just, install tracker, continue playing with the big red "Check config to setup options!" warning (I've even seen many youtubers including Oda playing with this warning enabled - indicating they probably never touched config at all), and just assume everything works perfectly with no assumptions. That's a fair assumption/statement to some extent though, I'd guess most tracker users are probably at least a little more advanced than your average RL user.

Even for more advanced users though, I feel such a simple display would help make things easier to read at a glance. Whichever statistics could be displayed as n/totalAttacks, probably should be - just for consistency if nothing else. Imagine if the brewed stat became a score as well, then this became a score as well - now thats 2 differently calculated/differently weighted scores you have to read and understand rather than just n/totalAttacks which is easily understood from a quick glance.

[tyleralbee]

Even for more advanced users though, I feel such a simple display would help make things easier to read at a glance. Whichever statistics could be displayed as n/totalAttacks, probably should be - just for consistency if nothing else. Imagine if the brewed stat became a score as well, then this became a score as well - now thats 2 differently calculated/differently weighted scores you have to read and understand rather than just n/totalAttacks which is easily understood from a quick glance.

Sounds good. What I'll probably do here is open up a separate issue: "[Feature Request] Track number of attacks tanked with staff equipped". I will leave it up to you whether or not this issue is left open - I would love to see both implemented, but I'll go after the other one first.