Parser for DDO?

[Rage]

How difficult would it be to create a DPS parser for DDO? In terms of technical hurdles that needs to be overcome?

We’re trying to answer the following key questions:

• Overall DPS for a particular character during and at the end of a raid/quest.

• DPS based on damage type.

• DPS done “on boss” specifically delineated by character names.

•Damage taken by characters.

•Ancillary stats such as number of resurrections doled out, biggest single damage on boss, most boss targetting.

Why is this not or at the least difficult for DDO?

 

[Bracelet]

Are you asking SSG to do this? If not, the most reliable way to get the info you seek would be to analyze the client network traffic. Info gathered per client would need to be consolidated and sorted on a common server. An interface would be needed to view the data.

100% doable. Massive time commitment.

EDIT: and it would require installing software on client machines that is openly inspecting network traffic. It would be severely limited by people’s willingness to do so.

 

[Rage]

Are you asking SSG to do this? If not, the most reliable way to get the info you seek would be to analyze the client network traffic. Info gathered per client would need to be consolidated and sorted on a common server. An interface would be needed to view the data.

100% doable. Massive time commitment.

EDIT: and it would require installing software on client machines that is openly inspecting network traffic. It would be severely limited by people’s willingness to do so.

Heh, so that’s a no go.

Darn, would be incredibly useful for everything from fine-tuning builds to organizing raids.

 

[Macenzie]

EDIT: and it would require installing software on client machines that is openly inspecting network traffic. It would be severely limited by people’s willingness to do so.

Well not necessarily inspecting network traffic, it could grab the text out of the combat window. If you want info for other people they could run it too.

 

[mikarddo]

10ïsh years ago there was infact a piece of software that let you grab the text stream from DDO perfectly. With that you could fairly easily parse the info you wanted - a buddy of mine did that with some rather clever Excel stuff.

The alternative is to grab a video, do OCR on the text, sort out duplicates and parse on that.
Not such an easy task either though - but its completely risk free and not against the EULA.
I tried to make that work with vibe coding but didnt quite make it happen. It does not seem at all impossible to get work reasonably well. Another buddy of mine pretty much had it working on his Linux machine with his own code (not vibe) but never fully got it ported.

 

[Bjond]

IMHO, make sure you're not going to end up with a Sisyphus-style coding effort to keep it working; even if you're not seeking active support and help from SSG, it's wise to at least get a "meh, we don't care".

Data capture will be your hurdle. There are 3 basic methods: grab it from process memory, grab it from packet data, or grab it from the frame buffer. You'll need more than the combat text log -- it's incomplete.

Once you have the data stream, the parsing is very straightforward. It's even already "done" pretty much by ACT if you write a DDO plugin for it.

 

[Yamani]

Heh, so that’s a no go.

Darn, would be incredibly useful for everything from fine-tuning builds to organizing raids.

By organizing raids you mean "must have x% dps to join". Which is the main reason to not do it.

 

[Bjond]

By organizing raids you mean "must have x% dps to join". Which is the main reason to not do it.

DDO does not push other's data to your client. The only way you'd ever know what someone else parsed would be if they told you. Don't want others to know your DPS, don't tell them.

Wasting the time of 11 others who do meet the limit won't sit well. Expect to get punted and blacklisted when you can't perform as well as you say you can.

---

Raid success depends on DPS meeting thresholds. If you can't meet the required "you must be this tall" mark, then you should not be trying to get on that ride. There are plenty of other rides with lower limits.

However, there is a point where it's just silly and folk start demanding certain builds when it's manifestly not required. I recall one story from a guildie where his 3x completionist (an exceptional healer) was flatly told he wasn't enough for a *hard* skele run. They wanted a bard healer, nothing else would do.

If you don't know the raid well enough to understand how little you need, you might end up being FAR more particular than necessary. But so what? Nothing is stopping you from making your own raid.

This is why I want to see FFXIV style limit break encounters added to game. Beating them (solo) would flag your character. That would make it easy to tell if a character had enough DPS to make it possible to complete particular raids.

 

[Ying]

SSG could enable players to create personal DPS/HPS/TPS meters by simply allowing the combat log to be saved to a text file. They either don't want to, or don't care. It's been brought up countless times before without action.

 

[Jeronimo]

My understanding is that SSG officially said a long time ago that they don't want players to be able to measure DPS, so they will in no way support any functionality for exporting the combat log. This is the main reason to why the DH developers refuse to make any such functionality or add any support that might even come close to supporting chat window extraction or manipulation.

 

[Myranna]

I'm not convinced the log even HAS all the information needed. SO many times I've tried to identify things by searching the log and it's just not there.

I would love to have something that can record all MY stuff just so I can get a handle on it all. For improving my own play. I already know I'm not a top player, I don't need something to tell me that, I want something to tell me how to get better and analyzing the damage is a big factor for that, knowing what buffs/debuffs are effective, what damage type works best etc. for MY build.

 

[Ying]

There's a very old library floating around from ~2011 that supposedly will parse your log file in real time. It probably needs to be modified to work with the 64-bit client.

People have been experimenting with AI figuring out DPS by providing a video of the combat log. The OCR isn't up to snuff, yet.

In the mean time, players will continue to use spreadsheets to simulate damage.

 

[GrindFlayer]

My understanding is that SSG officially said a long time ago that they don't want players to be able to measure DPS, so they will in no way support any functionality for exporting the combat log. This is the main reason to why the DH developers refuse to make any such functionality or add any support that might even come close to supporting chat window extraction or manipulation.

Back when I still played LotRO, Combat Analysis was an awesome, very widely used parser of all sorts of combat things, and I guess it still is. I don't recall SSG saying anything bad about CA, and surely they didn't/don't mind people using it. I'm not sure why DDO would be treated differently in that regard.

 

[Rage]

They may think if such a well-functioning and accurate parser were to materialize that it’ll cause too much in-game social division that ultimately will hurt their bottom line.

 

[Ying]

They may think if such a well-functioning and accurate parser were to materialize that it’ll cause too much in-game social division that ultimately will hurt their bottom line.

The thing about DDO's combat log: It only tracks your damage/healing/threat. No one has data for other players. The only way to see other player's damage would be a third-party website that collects player-submitted logs and the build details like Warcraft Logs.

 

[PaleFox]

It prop is easier to get an outroll of stats, feats, enhancements, destinies, items, etc then do the actual calculations.
Though, the community has aggravated to those stats being public in the past because being lapsed, omitted and abandoned for quests and raids in the past.

I've said it before and say it again, any quest and or raid in party should be completable on Elite with ANY kind of group, regardless of what ever one has taken up along the way as build choices.

 

[PainStealer]

It prop is easier to get an outroll of stats, feats, enhancements, destinies, items, etc then do the actual calculations.
Though, the community has aggravated to those stats being public in the past because being lapsed, omitted and abandoned for quests and raids in the past.

I've said it before and say it again, any quest and or raid in party should be completable on Elite with ANY kind of group, regardless of what ever one has taken up along the way as build choices.

What? Lets just give out participation trophies? On Elite? Why not just step in and poof there is your loot and XP? Let's take all the challenge from the game. Let's kill any sense of accomplishment. Then we can all move onto another game and kill it too.

 

[Phoenicis]

I've said it before and say it again, any quest and or raid in party should be completable on Elite with ANY kind of group, regardless of what ever one has taken up along the way as build choices.

This is unreasonable.

Anything that can be completed by 'any group, regardless of ... build choices' would be monumentally boring for a large section of the player base (probably including me, and I don't consider myself part of the 'elite').

The cries of make the game harder would be deafening, briefly, then go silent as people walked away.

Casual I'll give you, Normal too. Past that there should be the possibility of failure if you fail to bring what is required to meet the challenges of the quest.

 

[PaleFox]

What? Lets just give out participation trophies? On Elite? Why not just step in and poof there is your loot and XP? Let's take all the challenge from the game. Let's kill any sense of accomplishment. Then we can all move onto another game and kill it too.

This is unreasonable.

Anything that can be completed by 'any group, regardless of ... build choices' would be monumentally boring for a large section of the player base (probably including me, and I don't consider myself part of the 'elite').

The cries of make the game harder would be deafening, briefly, then go silent as people walked away.

Casual I'll give you, Normal too. Past that there should be the possibility of failure if you fail to bring what is required to meet the challenges of the quest.

Well, within reasons ofc. Not talking about a 8 con sorc that decided to build a dual wielding eldrich knight with pick axes while its highest stat is WIS or other super oddities.

But yeah, a well build Eldrich Knight, Swashbuckler, Pale Master, Arcane Archer, Battle Cleric War Domain, Dragon Disciple or Acolyte of the Skin etc etc totally should.

And I say well there, not these super min maxers with totally decked out sun/moon items and raid sets.

 

[Bjond]

any quest and or raid in party should be completable on Elite with ANY kind of group, regardless of what ever one has taken up

This isn't true in any MMO. FFXIV comes the closest. There are no "builds", just the latest gear. IF you're geared and bringing roughly the right class mix, then your statement mostly holds, but player skill still enters. Wipes and failures are still very common on the harder difficulties.

IMHO, DDO's build flexibility is what makes failure sooo easy and that's a good thing. It's far FAR easier to make a bad build than a mediocre one and especially a good one.