Make the combat log useful or just get rid of the thing completely...

[Swimms]

I am sure this topic has been broached many times before but figured I would add my $.02. As I was scrolling through the log looking for something the other day I left the tab active inadvertently and the amount of spam that flies by is truly impressive. It really feels like a huge waste of resources given how utterly impractical it is.

[tralfaz81]

How anyone manages to dig anything useful out of it I'll never know. I gave up ages ago.

[Lynnabel]

I took a solid stab at cleaning up the junk in it a while ago, and intended to do a second pass once the dust has settled. If you'd like, I absolutely do not mind telling certain effects to be quiet. Would you mind letting me know what seems to be the loudest?

What I am looking for is not sections of the log (such as "that thing that happens when you equip conflicting gear") but actual singular effects. For example, Warlock Auras used to let you know every 6 seconds or so when they'd refresh, but now they don't.

[vryxnr]

How anyone manages to dig anything useful out of it I'll never know. I gave up ages ago.

Record all your gameplay, keep the combat log open somewhere on your screen, go frame by frame through the recording after the fact to find specific bits of into?

(I do not do this btw, just saying it's probably the 'best' way... and even then with no real adjustable filter on the combat log, still painful/difficult/impossible to parse)

[Nickodeamous]

It is very convoluted. I would rather see the total damage taken and given by roll vs. Listing every single effect. For example, tell me i did 500 damage vs. 400 hit + 25 good + 53 fire...you get it.

Also, things i never see in combat log:

You hit enemy with vorpal
You hit enemy with neg levs
Enemy stunned by hit for 6 seconds (dont really need this one)

[J1NG]

The Combat Log as it is right now has its uses, but I do agree that is sorely needs improvements, much of which I can't raise on right now as there is so much of it that needs looking into.

But getting rid of it? No. Whilst it may be no use to you, it is of immense wealth to those of us who test the game on a regular basis on weird things we've noticed or something that has caught our attention (another poster posted something that we know we can test quickly as we have it configured and have test subjects that can verify things on the other end). Without which, we woud lose much of the information that we have found out and of course, a real way to test things to see if things are working correctly, or whether someone reporting a supposed bug is reproducable or not.

So improvements? Yes. Remove? No.

J1NG

[LightBear]

It is very convoluted. I would rather see the total damage taken and given by roll vs. Listing every single effect. For example, tell me i did 500 damage vs. 400 hit + 25 good + 53 fire...you get it.

Also, things i never see in combat log:

You hit enemy with vorpal
You hit enemy with neg levs
Enemy stunned by hit for 6 seconds (dont really need this one)

I always like to scroll back to look up what killed me and who/what produced that effect.
Hate it when I see "You were killed by something" or that I somehow killed myself.
Looking this up is a bit of a pain as the combat log gets convoluted with "effect x was removed from you" messages, sometimes even before you actually are dead (according to the log that is).

I find it hard to see differences between what harm is done to me, what effects I produce that is beneficial to me or the rest of my team or when a party member is producing some beneficial effect on me.

And ofc tracking what a summon/familiar/hire does.

[J1NG]

I took a solid stab at cleaning up the junk in it a while ago, and intended to do a second pass once the dust has settled. If you'd like, I absolutely do not mind telling certain effects to be quiet. Would you mind letting me know what seems to be the loudest?

What I am looking for is not sections of the log (such as "that thing that happens when you equip conflicting gear") but actual singular effects. For example, Warlock Auras used to let you know every 6 seconds or so when they'd refresh, but now they don't.

Not sure about others, but something as unimportant as a Critical Confirmation roll seems completely unnecessary. Since if we get a Critical, we know its either more damage + effects, or it fails anyway due to lack of Fortification Bypass. Showing us the Critical Confirmation Roll seems a bit redundant since in most cases we already have enough bonus for that or never enough anyway. So this line I would say players probably don't need rolling in the Combat Log if possible.

J1NG

[AlsoWondering]

Rather than a frame by frame replay, what I think would be a big help would be to automatically dump the log into a standard text file that we could go back into and look at later. Set up something in the options to indicate where we want the file and if we want just one file (with the given name) or if we want a new one each time we log in (using the given name and appending the next sequential number).

[hp1055cm]

Could you add a line in Preferences to let you set the size of the log(s), or at least an option to expand the size so it holds more data?

[ahpook]

Rather than a frame by frame replay, what I think would be a big help would be to automatically dump the log into a standard text file that we could go back into and look at later. Set up something in the options to indicate where we want the file and if we want just one file (with the given name) or if we want a new one each time we log in (using the given name and appending the next sequential number).

Saving it to a log file and making the contents be easily parse-able would be very helpful. If you can go back and look at the contents in an external file and filter the information there that would save the time trying to build it all into the app. I would expect that the community would quickly produce some log analysis tools that would cover most peoples needs if the data made to the log.

[Tentaki]

I feel like it would be nice to have a log - separate if possible - of just the basics. I basically use the combat log to figure out one of three things:

- Seeing how much damage I just did to brag to my friends.
- Verifying my spells/abilities are going off as expected.
- Figuring out what just killed me, and how.

Knowing my lesser death aura did 5 damage every 3 seconds is less useful, or seeing every individual hit of a force missile spell.

The inherent issue with the current log is that, especially at higher levels, by the time I figure out where the line of information I'm looking for is, it's usually too late and it's been purged out of the log. While there are times that having all the detailed information is good, either the current system needs to be improved to handle that level of text, or it should just be pared down to the basics.

[Vorachtin]

I took a solid stab at cleaning up the junk in it a while ago, and intended to do a second pass once the dust has settled. If you'd like, I absolutely do not mind telling certain effects to be quiet. Would you mind letting me know what seems to be the loudest?

What I am looking for is not sections of the log (such as "that thing that happens when you equip conflicting gear") but actual singular effects. For example, Warlock Auras used to let you know every 6 seconds or so when they'd refresh, but now they don't.

brilliance warlock buff, first line says you benefit, then are spammed with 3-4 lines of the same data.

[Seph1roth5]

@ Lynnabel, most of the time what my friends and I want from the combat log is to figure out what killed us. Any way to separate that? Or make it a different incoming text type rather than combat?

[Anuulified]

@ Lynnabel, most of the time what my friends and I want from the combat log is to figure out what killed us. Any way to separate that? Or make it a different incoming text type rather than combat?

This. I have 3.5 to 4k hps in most reapers. I get hit for "200" and die instantly. I check the log and nothing that makes sense.

[Feralthyrtiaq]

After the Hit/Spell/Effect that killed you there are several lines indicating all the buffs you lost before telling you "You were killed by X" Everyone knows (or should know) what buffs are lost on death. It doesn't need to be in the combat log.

Better parsing options for Combat Log would help TONS (along with a larger log to support them)

Being able to toggle on/off the following.

Buffs by Self on Self
Buffs on Self by Party/Npc
Buffs on Party/Npc by Self

Same for healing.

Melee Att/Damage by Self on Single Hard Target
Melee Att/Damage by Self vs All Targets AoE Cleave Type effects

Melee Att/Damage by single Hard Targetted Mob on Self
Melee Att/Damage by All Mob AoE Cleave Type effects

The same for spells INCLUDING
Attacking mob with Spell =>DC the mob rolled against, Spell Pen roll, Damage
Mobs attacking with Spell => Our save roll, Spell Pen roll, Damage taken

[K_9]

For me personally I would like to see the name of the weapon / item / spell that is causing the damage; eg

Longsword (Main hand) hits for 30 slashing damage and 15 fire damage.
Shortsword (Off hand) hits for 10 piercing damage and 5 acid damage.

This helps track of identifying what is actually causing damage that is useful.

Also what would be great is;

Fire ball cast at level 15 hits for 100 damage
Fire ball cast at level 15 crits for 200 damage
Acid arrow cast at level 20 hits for 50 damage

The caster level, with what spell is causing the damage and if it crits would be great.

[kelavas]

> For me personally I would like to see the name of the weapon / item / spell that is causing the damage; eg
Longsword (Main hand) critically hit the target for 30 slashing damage with the following attributes; 15 fire damage, 10 holy damage, 3 evil damage.
Shortsword (Off hand) hit the target for 10 piercing damage, 5 acid damage, 1 evil damage.
> This helps track of identifying what is actually causing damage that is useful.

> Also what would be great is;
Fireball was cast at caster level 15 and lands for 100 fire damage.
Fireball was cast at caster level 15 and landed a critical hit for 200 fire damage.
Melf's Acid Arrow was cast at caster level 20 and lands for 50 acid damage.

> The caster level, with what spell is causing the damage and if it crits would be great.

Made some changes, hope you approve. Also approve the idea for reduced clutter/spam.

[K_9]

Made some changes, hope you approve. Also approve the idea for reduced clutter/spam.

Looks great to me, thanks. Less clutter and actually telling me what is causing the damage with a break down would be cool.

[kelavas]

I'm no developer for Standing Stone Games. But if they have an application, I would be useful for fixing these kinds of things while they focus on the bug kind of things.

This idea proposed is nifty, and would be a nice project.