On the Clock

In the October newsletter we introduced some useful improvements to the premium Clock window, in the form of custom command lines that can be set up to repeat at intervals. Late in development we hit upon a method that makes timer countdowns very accurate, where previously the precision of very long timers could slip as they counted down.

The accuracy changes are done, well-tested, and on the update server now. Thanks to Dr. Pepper and chief for their extra help with fine-tuning.

You Name It

But while we were there, some additional improvements were made. You can see from the screenshot that a new Nickname field was added for each definition. Since the countdown timer has become much a more flexible feature, it makes sense that you may want to refer to the configurations as something more descriptive than "1" or "2." Nicknames will appear on the selector tooltip on the timer face. (see above image)

So what are some ways that we can make use of these upgraded timer definitions? The original idea came from Darq Side member Tazz who asked if there was a way to consume a potion or other expendable item that cannot be auto-consumed, at preset intervals. We got that working, but  quickly realized that a single command was not very serviceable, so the request grew into a more robust system that accepts multiple commands on a repeating or one-shot timer.

You can use the timed commands for any purpose, but if you want to issue more than three commands on a timed interval, we have a new simplified Remote modifier for calling up a multiple-command Icon Bar macro with a single line:

show_window Custom.IconBar.Deploy.Remote.1  (e.g. for Icon Bar macro 1)

We can't call up a standard macro by name, but the Icon Bar can be used as a superior substitute in this case and you can also chain together several Icon Bar macros. For other uses, like for example casting multiple spells, you might set up a list of abilities in a loadout and then call it up at the interval you select with the following command:

show_window Custom.Loadouts.Deploy.A  (e.g. for Loadout A)

There's a lot of room for creativity using these new tools alone or in combination, and as always I'd love to hear from you when you come up with new ways to automate tasks.

But what about those potions and painlinks and what not? In most cases those can be applied using the /use_itemvdl command, but neither of the above solutions is exactly right for using more than one of them at a time.

Since the Loadouts window already handles spells and abilities in a sequential way similar to what we need for the potion commands, we're in the process of modifying the Ability List to handle either spells or commands with a simple toggle. With this change the value of Loadouts goes way up and it should resolve the matter of applying a long list of expendables in sequence, either on-demand or on a timer. We'll have more to report on this in the November Waypoints newsletter.

About Face

A while back Darq Side member Meisa had a nice idea to show Earth and Norrathian time on the sun-and-moon clock face. Just a few days ago, new Darq Side member Crystarra asked in Discord if we could come up with a way to make the display more legible. Depending on your font and UI size choices, the digital clock can get a bit washed out.

While we were under the hood of the Clock window, we made two simple but useful adjustments: You can now resize the clock vertically to move the digital clock away from the round clock face, and you can add an extra backdrop that makes the display much easier to read. It's about time!  :)