Better combat logs (mostly for combat parsing)

I googled for this, and am surprised it hasn't been brought up. If it has, and I missed it, then I guess google failed me. My apologies if I'm reposting.

Elitism aside, combat parsers are a great tool to analyse a fight and improve as a player. I miss the incredibly detailed analysis that was available to players in Everquest 2. Parser programmers are being incredibly creative in order to obtain the data they need, but even with less than orthodox methods, we can only work with limited data and an incomplete picture of what's going on in the game.

I'm fully aware that if they intend at all to improve the logs, it's a low priority concern, but we should still express our desire for better logs.

I'm not a parser developer, so my knowledge is less than complete. I have a few ideas, but I hope people with more knowledge chime in.

• Damage over time is excluded completely.
• Ground targeted spells such as Fire Arrow or Shadow Flare are impossible to link to a player.
• Lines denoting damage taken by mobs carry no information whatsoever except for the amount of damage and the mob who takes it. It should also include who did the damage, the kind of damage, whether it was a crit, and what skill was used to do the damage.
• Pets are completely unlinked from their owners, resulting in two separate entities, and different pets with the same name being indistinguishable.
• Heals that actually heal something and those who are over heals should be differentiated.
• When a shield absorbs damage, it should be specified.
• Health absorbs should be specified.
• All heals and shields need to be linked to the caster.
• Zone names should be present in the logs, or otherwise accessible.
• Log data should be conserved, as to have a log history available, so one can go and look at parsed data from old fights.

I agree, though fwiw, parser developers have found the memory offsets for a lot of these things, so parser accuracy is considerably higher than it used to be (and they can also probably be considered more than parsers since they're doing a lot more than just parsing the logs).

You can verify this with the newest FFXIV-app by joining a party with a summoner and have him DoT'ing a target dummy. The "parser" will accurately record his damage, and the only way that's possible is by hooking into memory.

I second this. The logs really need to provide more information. I suspect it's a low priority for SE right now, but hopefully they eventually improve them.

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Originally Posted by WutangRZA

I agree, though fwiw, parser developers have found the memory offsets for a lot of these things, so parser accuracy is considerably higher than it used to be (and they can also probably be considered more than parsers since they're doing a lot more than just parsing the logs).

You can verify this with the newest FFXIV-app by joining a party with a summoner and have him DoT'ing a target dummy. The "parser" will accurately record his damage, and the only way that's possible is by hooking into memory.

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Indeed you can ascertain some bits and pieces, often almost complete pictures, by relying on less than orthodox methods. But my point is that we should not have to rely on such methods. Reading from memory is unreliable at best, and perhaps even against the EULA.

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Originally Posted by WutangRZA

I agree, though fwiw, parser developers have found the memory offsets for a lot of these things, so parser accuracy is considerably higher than it used to be (and they can also probably be considered more than parsers since they're doing a lot more than just parsing the logs).

You can verify this with the newest FFXIV-app by joining a party with a summoner and have him DoT'ing a target dummy. The "parser" will accurately record his damage, and the only way that's possible is by hooking into memory.

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This is a slippery slope as a log parser can run offline with the game closed and does not violate the ToS where hooking the client and reading memory probably does.

This would be wonderful.

Adding on to this, something as simple as 'You enter combat' and 'You exit combat' would be absurdly welcome.

I agree ! You need to put more informations into the battle log...

How about making the battle log more legible and easier to read within the game? I think it's silly people feel they must use a parser to understand how a battle went? If a fellow party member is KO'd during battle, it should be easy to find what exactly what happened by looking over the battle log. High-light player names, enemy names, ability names, for example would help see who did what!

Please improve combat logs per mkaito's suggestions.

The sad thing is - judging from the date, the unchanged state of the combat log and the lack of responses - that this will likely never be implemented.

Truth is, the combat log is almost complete useless. Not just for a parser, but also for a human reader. It's the barest minimum you can do and possibly call it a "combat log".

I meant to consult the log on more than one occasion - and in about 4 of 5 cases I have failed to find what I was looking for. The combat log is a slew of imprecise information, to the point where reading through it is a pain - and finding what you want is a matter of luck.

Few examples why the combat log is inadequate:

• I have been unable to add seconds to the time stamp. With that, you're unable to tell what's coming how fast. The minutes you really don't need anyway.
• I noticed a lot of burst damage on the last boss in the manor, wanted to find out what it was from. Good luck with that - without a filter, you have a lot of irrelevant information to read through. Eventually I worked out that the skill was probably Void Fire III - but who knows? Damage and skill aren't linked - the monster will cast some skill (won't tell you on who, though), and then a few lines later you just "take damage". The skills lack details as well. Might as well call them Smurfpunt, because who knows what they do. You have to resort to "non-canon" sources such as Google, because the information just isn't available in the game.
• The colours are all over the place - every time I read the combat log, they actually distract instead of helping me.

• Running the Chimera the first time, we wiped and I wanted to figure out what got me - and I simply couldn't. I found the line saying I was KOed, sure, but there was nothing of note before that. I remember losing a huge chunk of health at once, but couldn't find the ability (nor the numbers) for that. Asked the other group members once we were done, and they failed to find it as well.
• Today someone got one-shot (100% to 0). This was the first time I actually have been able to find the associated log entry in the combat log - because they took like 2.3k damage and it stood out. According to the log, they got hit, and supposedly I casted a heal, the tank slammed the mobs with a skill, and the other DPS indulged in a tea party with an extra helping of cake before the DPS that got hit was actually KOed.

Like Laraul said, it's sad that people pine for parsers (that actually work by accessing memory) just to make sense of something that should really be in the game.

Agree with this, although I don't think it should be part of the log but a separate API that players can turn on in the settings.

This way players who wish to receive that information can do so and players who don't (and PS3/4 owners) have no need for it and it will cut down on server communication.

That being said I feel the best solution would be an official parser (again which can be turned on in the settings), of course the community is pretty divided on that.

I thought parsers were against EULA?

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Originally Posted by Zaero

I thought parsers were against EULA?

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When this thread was originally started, we were basically operating under the belief that SE's standpoint was "We can't endorse it, but we aren't going to say anything." I don't think it was until some months later that people started getting banned; and even now it's more like "don't say anything stupid about it in chat and you won't get in trouble." At this point it's kinda like a black market that the authorities only go investigate when someone reports it.