Unit Frame Frustrations

[Xnn]

Currently using the addon Enemy, and there is something that frustrates me to no end. For the most part, opacity and color changes of text when a target is out of range does not occur until AFTER you select the target. I spend a good deal of time clicking on things that I can't currently heal and it makes me inefficient (and then I spend too much time staring at the bars and oh god here comes the blob and I get run over). It's just distracting, and my eyesight is poor, so changes in color/opacity are MUCH easier for me to notice (I don't have to look at it DIRECTLY to notice, which leads to better target selection/efficiency in casts, let alone better awareness in what is going on outside of staring at the bars).

There is one thing that seems to be accurate... when you show distance text, the "Far Text" seems accurate. It won't update the color of the text until after you click on it, which is frustrating and leads to me still clicking on things I can't heal, but the fact that this is accurate means that it should in theory be possible to have opacity/color changes update with targets being out of range, by simply altering them when the conditions for "far text" to show are met.

There HAS to be a better way to tell what is in range and what is not. Right now I'm resorting to increasing the X axis of the text and typing "XXXXXXXXXXXXXX" for the Far Text so I can notice it, but STILL without a change in color or opacity I'm not efficient.

This wouldn't be as much of an issue if my eyesight wasn't so poor, but this is a HUGE problem for me. How do you guys deal with this?

[Uchoo]

Personally I just deal with it and rely on things like Group Icons to tell me if my allies are close. We don't have mouseover macros here so you have to play higher APM as Healer here.

However, if it works, maybe some addon dev can fix it.

[Phantasm]

I dont remember right now, but Enemy can "grey out" party memebers out if range/los.
I stoped playing for like 6 months but i believe it was somewhere in settings.
I remember that function didnt work at start, but in tier 4 it was working ok, i thought that time it was related to my charcter lvl or the type of zone im in.
Maybe try watching some Enemy guides out there.
Last resort is War Triage addon, which is great help for people having problems with targeting and judgement of priority targets.

Edit.
I couldnt find any guides, but I found that doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RDm ... it?tab=t.0

It basically shows in settings HP Bar being color changed with ticked "distant" its settings. Try play with that section.

[Xnn]

It basically shows in settings HP Bar being color changed with ticked "distant" its settings. Try play with that section.

So I checked this out and it didn't solve the issue. I'm using an opacity change to HP based on distance, but the problem is it isn't accurate (nor is color change). It will only update AFTER you select the target.

What IS accurate is the "Far Text" you can type in at the bottom of distance text... it won't change the color properly, but the "Far Text" shows up at the right time. This means in theory it is possible to fix this: whatever conditions are met for the "Far Text" to appear in the code could be used to determine a change in opacity/color.

I can't code and can't figure this out, but this is 100% doable and would make enemy even better for healers!

[Omegus]

Saw this when popping back in to see what changes had been made since leaving.

What you are asking for is mostly impossible (accurate UI updates for group members based on distance and LOS) due to limitations on what information the UI system has access to. Wall of text below, very little proof-reading done.

LOS

This can only be determined by checking whether one of your abilities has LOS to your currently friendly/hostile target. It is impossible to check LOS on an arbitrary player/NPC in the world. This is why LOS does not update until you target someone as the UI system can only query LOS to your main 2 targets.

Range

There are types of range checks the UI can do and all are a bit jank. For group and warband members the UI can query whether the member is within targeting range. This is a yes/no thing (nerd detail: IIRC if the member has a world object ID then it can be targeted, if not then it's too far away). Targeting range is like 300ft or so. This basically lets the UI system filter out members that are miles away or in different zones entirely.

The next is that the UI system has access to the distance from the player to all current map markers/icons. As group and warband members show up on the map as icons, this information can be used to see how far away someone is... except, as it's for the mini-map which is top-down, the distance information provided by the client to the UI system is the top-down two-dimensional distance. This means that you could be standing 1000ft directly above someone and the mini-map marker distance would be reported as 0ft.

In terms of usefulness, the map marker distance lets you work out that the member is at least Xft away. Could be more, definitely not less. If this top-down 2D distance was more than 150ft then you know there is absolutely no way that the member is within 150ft so enemy can safely say the target is too far. If the top-down 2D distance is less than 150ft then a UI addon can't be sure if the member is in heal range as they could be 140ft away top-down but you could also be 1000ft above them which enemy cannot detect. This top-down 2D distance is what enemy uses to show the range and whether someone is too far away (if the top-down 2D distance is bigger than 151 then enemy shows the person as being far).

The final range check functions the same as the LOS check: you can check whether an ability is in range of your current friendly and enemy targets. This is a yes/no answer. This gives you 99.99% accurate information (the other 0.01% is some math errors on the server that don't quite match the client calculations) on whether someone is "in range" of a specific ability. This is used/abused to try and narrow down how far away someone actually is, for example if you have an ability that has a 100ft range and another which has a 150ft range and when you did the tests the 100ft range ability was out of range but the 150ft range ability was in range, then you can assume that the target is >100ft and <=150ft away. You can only check with an ability that you actually have, so a Slayer can't check ranges using Zealot abilities.

Enemy uses abilities (it has a list of which abilities to use per-class) to get accurate in/out of range information for your current target, but it can only calculate this for the current target which is why the colours and ranges shown for other members are inaccurate.

That's it. Those are all the options you have for working out LOS and range.

[Phantasm]

It basically shows in settings HP Bar being color changed with ticked "distant" its settings. Try play with that section.

So I checked this out and it didn't solve the issue. I'm using an opacity change to HP based on distance, but the problem is it isn't accurate (nor is color change). It will only update AFTER you select the target.

What IS accurate is the "Far Text" you can type in at the bottom of distance text... it won't change the color properly, but the "Far Text" shows up at the right time. This means in theory it is possible to fix this: whatever conditions are met for the "Far Text" to appear in the code could be used to determine a change in opacity/color.

I can't code and can't figure this out, but this is 100% doable and would make enemy even better for healers!

If I really wanted solve it i`d use for example
viewtopic.php?f=66&t=53906


(if thats what you looking for - greyed out SL and WL in 2nd party cause of distance/los)
Enemy from that pack, test it on separate game profile, if it works - perfect, if not maybe try out discord link and ask Frisk, i heard hes decent guy, maybe he will know how to make it work.

Last my characters were healers so i understand how frustrating it can be.
Anyway, good luck and let us know how it went!

[Xnn]

Saw this when popping back in to see what changes had been made since leaving...

Hey, I just wanted to thank you for all the detailed information. =)

[Xnn]

If I really wanted solve it i`d use for example...

I have tried that as well and got the same results I have been. I still think that the "Far Text" showing is the most accurate, but it seems that is the best given the limitations of how the game was built from the ground up. I still wonder if the addon could be altered to use this same check and use that to apply opacity and color change, but nothing appears to be 100% accurate and I can't code well enough to figure that out.

The best solution I've found is to increase the X axis of distance text and type into the "Far Text" box: XXXXXXXXXXXX
That way it covers most of the bar. That and making the boxes rather large on my screen in general makes it easier to see.

[xyeppp]

As a side measure, you can add distance bars to your unit frames and color them based on different distance, as seen here above the unit frame.


That way, you can at least easily estimate the distance from the color changes alone without resorting to looking at the text.

[Xnn]

As a side measure, you can add distance bars to your unit frames and color them based on different distance, as seen here above the unit frame.


That way, you can at least easily estimate the distance from the color changes alone without resorting to looking at the text.

This is another option I've been fiddling with. It seems to be more accurate, much like the Distance Text. I honestly wish I could have Opacity settings for each "level" as opposed to one Opacity setting that applies to all of them, that way I could hide it unless I am out of range of a target. I'm basically trying to eliminate clicking on targets that I can't currently heal, because this wastes precious time that could otherwise be spent healing the targets I can.