So I had another hunter yell at me.....

[Lisaara]

I would just like to clarify that SD WILL go off even if you don't mouseover the rare. You need to have your name plates up and be sitting close enough to the rares spawn for it to register the rare's name plate.

I run SilverDragon in combination with _NPCScan for the best possible chance to find a rare.

Ironically tonight, I passed my cursor over Kirrix and SD didn't even give a peep.

Thats because the new rares aren't added yet to SilverDragon.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Thats because the new rares aren't added yet to SilverDragon.

Thank you Jess. I was at work and unable to respond to this.
I know that near the start of Cata, I had to import a new cache in order for it to read/recognize Karoma and Sambas. And importing the cache for SD is very easy; the option is available under one of the settings panels.

[Lisaara]

Thats because the new rares aren't added yet to SilverDragon.

Thank you Jess. I was at work and unable to respond to this.
I know that near the start of Cata, I had to import a new cache in order for it to read/recognize Karoma and Sambas. And importing the cache for SD is very easy; the option is available under one of the settings panels.

Yup. ^^

[Colgaran]

First off I understand where this particular hunter is coming from.

"So I've seen you around the zone a lot and since no one has said anything obviously let me give you some hunter tips."

Pause for a second. I have had my hunter for 2 years or so. I take great pride in knowing the ins and outs of all the characters I play. I do pretty darn good damage, I know some of the more fun thing like the disengage jumping and such. I am confident enough in myself that I can give out info if so needed. The short of it, I don't need tips.

Continue.

Basically they launched out this paragraph to me about running around with Magria in Hyjal and Molten Front. Setting off every hunters NPC scan and this hunter in particulars targeting macro. Saying that I was upsetting a lot of hunters. (Which was interesting since I happen to know most of the good hunters on this server) I named it Magria. I like the name. I did not intentionally do it to upset anyone or grief any hunters. I run BM and it just happens to be my pet of choice so it's almost always out.

Long story short this person who I never heard of before jumps on me about this one thing and calls it a tip. "I shouldn't run around with it out and I should never ever ever ever name it the same name." He actually said never ever ever ever....

I hadnt even thought of it being an issue and I would be more than happy to change things around IF he hadn't immediately told me what I should and shouldn't do without actually talking to me first.

I just laugh about it. While I understand what he says, rude way to go about it.

Actually, I got so many hater whispers from people in the Molten Front after I tamed Kirix, I now make it a point of running around the zone each day with him out just to piss the haters off. =P

[Worba]

Jess / Tyger -

Do you get false positives from _NPCSCAN regardless of the pet name?

I.e. say you're running around Hyjal and come across a hunter with a tamed Magria... who is named "Spirit Beast" (e.g. he hasn't named it yet); since that is the same zone and NPC ID as Magria, will that still set off _NPCSCAN?

[Thwip]

I know that I'm not the one you directed your question at, but...

Yes. NPCscan will ping on a rare regardless of it's name. It doesn't work off nameplates like Silverdragon does. It works off the NPC ID number which stays the same even after taming. It won't just go off in the spawn spots, it will go off anywhere in the zone that the NPC is suppose to be in. I.E Pinging on a tamed Ban'thalos right when you port in to Hyjal rather then being at the sanctuary.

Sadly, with SilverDragon, you have to be close enough for the nameplates to be see for it to work well unless you mouseover it from a distance. I mainly use SilverDragon for it's announce abilities rather then it's rare finding abilities. It's helpful when you got a pack of hunters out looking for a specific rare at different spawn spots and it announces to party when you mouseover. ;3

[Worba]

Ok cool, thanks for the feedback.

[Thwip]

Np! The only other big difference is that SilverDragon doesn't require a manual cache delete like NPCscan does. Small price to pay for a good addon. I usually try to remember to clear my cache before I log on or before I get started on a camp/hunt session. Major cities are your worst enemy for NPCscan, things can get cached and it won't tell you when it happens when it's in town.

[Worba]

Do you know when SD auto-clears its cache (on login or...)? I can look into whether that might be an improvement that could be added to _NPCSCAN.

[Thwip]

I'm not actually sure, I think it works from a cache system is already has. Like, you import a rare list and it alerts you when it picks up one of those rares from the list. Not sure if it actually needs a cache clear.

[Worba]

I know it's doing some form of basic cache searching, at least from looking at the code.

I'll keep digging.

[Worba]

I started testing. I'd been thinking NPCSCAN factored the current zone into account when screening out false positives, but now that I'm actually starting to use it, it looks like it just goes by ~continent~.

E.g. so if you run into a tamed Sambas anywhere on the Eastern Kingdoms - not just in Twilight Highlands, the addon goes off?

Can anyone confirm if this is correct?

[Nubhorns]

I started testing. I'd been thinking NPCSCAN factored the current zone into account when screening out false positives, but now that I'm actually starting to use it, it looks like it just goes by ~continent~.

E.g. so if you run into a tamed Sambas anywhere on the Eastern Kingdoms - not just in Twilight Highlands, the addon goes off?

Can anyone confirm if this is correct?

If you run into Sambas anywhere in the Eastern Kingdoms, in the case of NPCScan it caches it - unless you are in the Twilight Highlands zone, in which it sets off an alert. I've never had it set off an alarm for something not in the zone with the exception of Blazewing when I was in Azshara - and that was due to his AoE.

I believe Silverdragon is much the same way, otherwise I'd have alerts for Sambas every time I set foot in, say, Stormwind.

[Gimlion]

Silver dragon only works on the actual mob. It does not go off for tamed rares. Idk how they managed to code this, but it has something to do with Nameplates.

NPCscan, however, caches the ID of the mob, and goes off if in the right area. If you enter an ID manually, you can only set it to a Continent (BTW, I have NO idea what continent the Spiders/gem beasts are in, any help would be nice.), but the preset ones (they come out with the updates usually) are also given zones, and will not go off if not in that zone. So, with the newest update to NPCscan, whenever it comes out, the 4.2 rares should be added, continent and zone in all.

The problem is: Even pets retain the Mob ID after being tamed. That's why we were able to get the tan Silithid Ant, and why many peoples Blue Tigers became white (until the change was reverted). So, the problem lies within the caching system, which will cache ID's seen, no matter where you are, thus either triggering your NPCscan, or Displaying a warning that the mob was Cached an that it was likely a pet (if you're not in the right zone.)

Unless major tinkering is done to Bliz's caching mechanics (which will have to be done by them for it to be legal), there is no way to prevent false alarms with pets in the same zones with the current NPCscan design. That said, I'd imagine it could be possible for a very dedicated and well armed coding wiz to figure out a way to re-do the current Addon model, we just haven't had anyone do it as of yet.

[Worba]

That's what I'm working on. Although the dedicated coding wiz hasn't come along, so you're stuck with me for the moment (as addon programmers go, I'm sort of the "Flintlocke").

Speaking of which, my test version works - too well. I got it to stop sounding the alert unfortunately it's doing that for everything, so valid sightings just go straight to cache without a heads up.

EDIT: I have the 4.2 version of _NPCSCAN, and the preset list doesn't include the 4.2 rares. However it looks like they can be manually added to _NPCScan.TamableIDs.lua; the zone IDs are...

Mount Hyjal - 616
Molten Front - 5733 (there is no world / continent ID listed for MF, at least I wasn't able to find one on wowhead)

[TygerDarkstorm]

Jess / Tyger -

Do you get false positives from _NPCSCAN regardless of the pet name?

I.e. say you're running around Hyjal and come across a hunter with a tamed Magria... who is named "Spirit Beast" (e.g. he hasn't named it yet); since that is the same zone and NPC ID as Magria, will that still set off _NPCSCAN?

Honestly couldn't tell you. I haven't imported the new rares into _NPCScan yet and I'm very lazy about clearing my cache on a regular basis. From my understanding, _NPCScan just quietly caches hunter pets, including my own when I have them out or look at them in the stable (when I'm not in that pet's zone). I also haven't been playing a max level hunter and paying a lot less attention to the addon. So personally, I've never seen it do its big loud sound off on a hunter pet.

[Gimlion]

Jess / Tyger -

Do you get false positives from _NPCSCAN regardless of the pet name?

I.e. say you're running around Hyjal and come across a hunter with a tamed Magria... who is named "Spirit Beast" (e.g. he hasn't named it yet); since that is the same zone and NPC ID as Magria, will that still set off _NPCSCAN?

Honestly couldn't tell you. I haven't imported the new rares into _NPCScan yet and I'm very lazy about clearing my cache on a regular basis. From my understanding, _NPCScan just quietly caches hunter pets, including my own when I have them out or look at them in the stable (when I'm not in that pet's zone). I also haven't been playing a max level hunter and paying a lot less attention to the addon. So personally, I've never seen it do its big loud sound off on a hunter pet.

I can attest to it setting off the actual Alarm as a pet. Granted, this was back in Wrath while hunting loque. Some guy with a tamed KK was running around, and it set off my NPCscan. I'm not sure if it still does this as of now, but it at least used to.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I've heard of it happening enough to assume it's true. I've just never had it happen since I'm very lazy about keeping my cache cleared.

[Gimlion]

At the very least, it caches the ID, which means you must exit the game and empty the Cache folder (or at least the NPC/creature caches). If there was a way to make the scan only be triggered by the mobs, while still having the large scan area of NPCscan, I'm sure that there wouldn't be a need for cache clearing anymore. Basically, what we need is SilverDragon with the intense power and range of NPCscan. Or even a way to clear the cache in-game would work.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Would be kind of cool if the makers of _NPCScan and SilverDragon could combine forces and make one addon that combines the best of both features. :3

I used SD way before I ever downloaded _NPCScan, and combining it with target macros and my nameplates running has never let me down. /shrug Most of the rares stand out so much in their respective locations anymore that it's not that hard to find them anyway. I don't think my bf ever clears his _NPCScan cache and he finds a lot more rares than I do on his pally and rehomes them. XD