Dynamic macro creation

[vor_lord]

I have been using Mounted to handle all my mounting needs (it works great). Reading the description of how it works, I have a question for people that understand how the UI works.

3. If you enter combat it will change the macro to a combat macro which you can edit in the Blizzard Addon options.

So I assume there is an event you can capture that happens on entering combat, which is where this mod rewrites the macro to your "combat" macro.

Now to my question -- if you can change macros while in combat, wouldn't this allow a whole slew of mods to be written that would circumvent Blizzard's efforts to keep decision making out of mods during combat? Has Blizzard done something where you could do this only triggered on entering combat, and not during combat?

An example: you could write a mod that detects when Kel'Thuzad casts Frost Blast, and then rewrites a macro that does something like:

Code:

/target <name of player that is being blasted>
/cast Greater Heal

This is a trivial example, but if macro rewriting in combat is allowed I'm sure people (in particular botters) can get quite creative in exploiting this loophole.

Does anyone know how this works?

[Taelas]

The only thing Mounted does is create the macro. It doesn't execute it, because it can't.

Mounted recreates its macros due to Dalaran (and Wintergrasp) being "flyable" zones -- that you can't use mounts in. Upon switching zone, Mounted recreates it to fit the zone.

[vor_lord]

The only thing Mounted does is create the macro. It doesn't execute it, because it can't.

Good point. Your implication is that a mod can redefine a macro as much as it wants even during combat (even if it can't execute it). If this is true, I think my point is still valid.

I think for the uses I mentioned spamming a single macro is still a feasible way to approach things for a bot (it's honestly what came to my mind, you could even get a dipping bird a la Homer Simpson to spam it for you). Probably bot software is so much more advanced that they don't need to rely on the UI to do things anyway.

I was just curious.

[Shamago]

Good point. Your implication is that a mod can redefine a macro as much as it wants even during combat (even if it can't execute it). If this is true, I think my point is still valid.

I think for the uses I mentioned spamming a single macro is still a feasible way to approach things for a bot (it's honestly what came to my mind, you could even get a dipping bird a la Homer Simpson to spam it for you). Probably bot software is so much more advanced that they don't need to rely on the UI to do things anyway.

I was just curious.

Also, there is a macro conditional for being in combat.

/cast [nocombat] stealth ; vanish

for instance.

[NiteFox]

The only thing Mounted does is create the macro. It doesn't execute it, because it can't.

Mounted recreates its macros due to Dalaran (and Wintergrasp) being "flyable" zones -- that you can't use mounts in. Upon switching zone, Mounted recreates it to fit the zone.

An interesting, if annoying, aspect of Mounted is that if you're stuck on the rocks floating around Dalaran or the ledge supporting the city (Except possibly the edge near Krasus' Landing), then Mounted will refuse to use its flying mount macro, instead defaulting to its ground mount macro. The solution is to simply manually mount up a flyer.

I was a few seconds away from hurling myself off a floating rock to my death before this thought occurred to me.