Quote Originally Posted by Wolfie View Post
If the function for creating that object has the NOCOMBAT restriction, then you will not have that object to pass it.

If you think creating a target without player input is possible, then you're wrong. Creating a target object would require a function which is restricted from combat use. OnHover and OnClick events do require player input, and are therefore not restricted from in-combat use.

Moreover, WOW has protected classes and 'tainting', which makes your example of LUA comparisons moot, because action calls refuse to run if scripts are ran or it receives any data from a tainted source. It is for this reason that HealBot does not have conditional statements in it, such as canceling a heal action of the target's HP is too low/high.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Secure_Execution_and_Tainting

Maybe you aren't reading my posts thoroughly? I never stated you wouldn't need user input. That is a given and acknowledged by me in every one of my posts. It's what is done after the user input that is the problem hence the Wack-a-Mole comparison. The user simply clicks on the target and THEN the script takes over as with HealBot.

As for protected classes, I'm not sure why these are brought up. Protected classes are simply classes that cannot be called by an unverified source...aka insecure code in this case. None of my examples address this because the calls are being made legitimately to the API from within the application, not through some kind of 3rd party hook.

As for script tainting...I'm starting to wonder if your knowledge is just gathered from reading the Wiki. Script tainting only occurs if you are attempting to manipulate the variables in memory being used by the LUA script via an outside hook. My example in no way requires any of this as it works with in the API, passes the objects and variables to a LUA script that isn't being manipulated externally. This is in fact exactly what HealBot does a lot of at a high level and last time I checked it works just fine in the current version of WoW. Your statement that HealBot has no conditional statements in it is 100% false. It for example performs a conditional on current target HP versus max target HP then chooses a spell from an array list which contains information about how much the spell heals, cast speed and mana cost. It also uses conditionals left and right for its "smart cast" feature.

So we can continue to have this argument but it still fails to address the point when it is a fact that HealBot exists, works and replaces much of the gameplay in WoW exactly as I have described. Somehow it has come down to you to somehow attempt to disprove this reality by bringing up silly things such as script tainting, protected procedures and objects. The real argument is that flexible UIs can bring about things like HealBot and it is questionable if a highly customizable UI with full add-on support is worth it.

I say it is not worth it. Developers are more than capable of making good UIs without the need for add-ons. It is not worth it for a developer to have to maintain API security so people don't break shit with add-ons. It is not worth developers having to worry about if certain add-ons are going to completely trivialize the content they had been working on the past couple months. You simply cannot create both a flexible yet restrictive API like you seem to be suggesting. It's either one or the other. Open it up and accept that there will be add-ons that trivialize your game or lock it down and do your best to take user feedback and implement it yourself.