Question about spawnlog.txt

[BlueAdept]

Does anyone in the SEQ community use the spawn logs other than for what I do with them?

Instead of the people who want to help me having to run scripts to filter the spawnlogs for what I dont need, I was going to modify the structure of how the spawnlogs are made and get rid of the following:

pets
warders
mounts
PCs
death and removal of killed mobs (denoted by a x: and a -: in the spawnlog)

If other people do use the spawnlogs for stuff, maybe Ill just create a new file called something like filterlog.txt that will be similar to spawnlog, but will not include the above stuff. I would also have to add an option to turn it on and off in the menus and add it in the showeq.conf xml file.

Let me know which way I should go with this.

[fester]

I use it for these:

PCs

death and removal of killed mobs (denoted by a x: and a -: in the spawnlog)

Is there a problem with running the sed script you are trying to avoid?

[BlueAdept]

Well if I do it from the source, I can filter out the pets which I cant really do with my sed script.

The reason why I was going to do this is that I think some people are intimidated by finding the file and running the script. I also had some people concerned that from the logs and by the pc names, I might be able to figure out who they were and put thier account at risk. That is one of the main reasons why I filter out PCs. The death and removal of corpses adds quite a bit of bulk to the spawnlog, that is why that is stripped out.

I guess I can just make it a new file with just the info I need. If I bother to do this, I would like to make sure that it would be included in the cvs. If it is decided that this isnt neccessary and wont be included in the cvs, how about that I only strip out the pets/mounts/warders? Anyone have any objections to that?

[tamasine]

if you remove deaths, you remove the ability to track spawn patterns.
if you remove death attribution, you can't work out who killed stuff.
if you remove pets, you also can't work out who killed stuff.

i've used all the above at various times.. to work out spawn timers, to find out where the hell that quest mob i was about to chat to went.. etc

i would personally say that you should put *more* information in the logfile if any of the things you want to filter are unfilterable at the moment. or make it definable what's logged.


(though i can't give any reasonable argument for horsies over and above that the spawnlog is supposed to log spawns. not what spawns you feel at the moment that you're interested in.)

[BlueAdept]

A definable spawnlog would really mess up what I use it for. No one would have the same fields.

I guess Ill see about implementing a new log to do what I would like it to do. Guess Ill have to brush up on my C skills that I havent used in 17 years.

[tamasine]

well. seems you have two problems:

one is paranoid people - a flag to log PCs or not would be simple. you'd have to check for mob deaths by-PC and replace the name with "A Player"

one is pets - not sure what the problem is here.. but pet names are rule-generated - so you should be able to filter them ok. and if there's player information associated with pets, you could add the extra information (pet of %s) which would be very helpful at times when i'm parsing logs ;)

the death/corpse disappearing stuff is trivially filterable.

what actually is it you're doing btw? because re-writing how seq logs stuff so's it outputs what you need for a specific task seems.. wrong. far better to get the raw data logged, *then* change it.

[Cryonic]

BA uses the spawn logs to isolate rare spawns to create the wonderful zone filter files that lots of people are using. Without the logs from others he would have to go to each zone himself and figure out what the rares were.

[BlueAdept]

It also helps the emu people populate the emu worlds.

Currently I use a SED script to filter out PCs, deaths, removal of corpses, warders, mounts. Unless I know the name of every pet, there isnt a way to filter them out the way it is done now. The spawnlog doesnt generate the owners ID/Name. To me, the pets are kind of useless in the logs since I would have had to have known what my pet name was since it doesnt tell whos pet it is. I dont see how anyone could use the logs to see what their pet killed because they would have to keep track of the name of their pet.

I could add a modification to the source that would remove the pets. If I did that though, I might as well get rid of all the other info that isnt needed by me or the emu crew. So, I guess Ill look into adding a new log.

[Mr. Suspicious]

since it doesnt tell whos pet

But Sir, it does =)

Pattern Help (http://seq.sourceforge.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1244) 4th post. The data is in the stream, SEQ just has to start using it.

[BlueAdept]

Ok, here's the list of perl regexes I use for cleaning up my spawnlog.txt

Horse, warder, familiar, corpse filter:
/s_(Mount|warder|familiar|corpse)$/

Eye of zomm filter:
/^Eye_of_/

Summoned pet filter:
/^[GJKLVXZ]([aeio][bnrsk])+(n|tik)?$/
/^[GJKLVXZ]tik$/


I have tried it, it is pretty good but it sometimes catches spawns it shouldnt and sometimes misses a few. I currently have to go through it by hand an remove the pets.

I also think they have added some new pet names. I have had one the other night that didnt follow that pattern.

If I changed the source, it should be fairly easy to add because there is a PetOwnerID, it just isnt in the spawnlog.

If Im going to be changing the spawnlog, I might as well be pulling out the info I dont need rather than to add stuff that will need to be stripped out with a sed script.

[tamasine]

Gah. i'd love pet owners to be logged.. i had to track back through 20-30 pets once to find out which owner had downed a questmob. (track pets - the one that pops 1-5 seconds after the last died is the same owner, and pet classes cast pets seconds after they enter a hostile zone)


on a general note, the more information you have, the better. as a general rule. if there was a 1-char pet flag in the name, you'd be able to strip it instantly from the logs, and everyone would be happy.

out of interest.. how do you handle the traps? particularly in griegs, they have real-mob names, but simply don't exist until they reach some internal state, *and* someone walks near them.

[Cryonic]

well, I've been working on a slightly updated spawnlog filter script to help out. The script reads in the spawnlog file and strips out things that don't need to be there (pets, corpses, warders, etc...). it also creates a table output, alphabetized by zones, of the mobs it has seen in a zone and the level range that was seen for that mob.

ex:
spawnlog:
+:Master_Glox00(3713):40:-26,140,-33:19.25.22:3:cabeast:08.55.05.01.3178:(0)
+:Half_Elf_Maiden00(3716):25:-26,52,23:19.26.51:3:cabeast:09.25.05.01.3178:(0)
+:a_swamp_leech03(3718):1:-119,72,6:19.27.29:3:cabeast:09.37.05.01.3178:(0)
+:a_mosquito11(3719):1:-107,60,6:19.27.33:3:cabeast:09.39.05.01.3178:(0)
+:Clerk_Doval00(3720):30:-9,109,25:19.27.35:3:cabeast:09.39.05.01.3178:(0)
+:a_pygmy_barracuda02(3721):2:-122,71,-30:19.28.27:3:cabeast:09.57.05.01.3178:(0)
+:a_goblin_warrior22(4126):21:203,-405,160:19.39.36:3:lakeofillomen:13.35.05.01.3178: (0)
+:a_Sarnak_broodling01(4130):7:-464,575,208:19.39.40:3:lakeofillomen:13.36.05.01.3 178:(0)
+:an_Iksar_manslayer00(4132):19:-272,-110,133:19.39.45:3:lakeofillomen:13.38.05.01.3178: (0)
+:a_sarnak_recruit23(4133):24:627,-300,292:19.39.49:3:lakeofillomen:13.39.05.01.3178: (0)

My Table:
burningwood,Gullerback,48,51,
burningwood,Ixiblat_Fer,62,62,
burningwood,Korasal_Klyseer,45,45,
burningwood,Naxot_Deepwater,25,25,
burningwood,Nezekezena,51,51,
burningwood,Skel_Inv_Spawn,61,61,
burningwood,Slixin_Klex,50,50,
burningwood,Telin_Darkforest,55,55,

Should help with the making of zone filters (just combine the various spawnlog files into one large file).

P.S. The script is written in perl, so just ignore the extension.

[Circles]

ok im out on a limb here, but arent all pet names in a string file somewhere? i remember discussing this at one point with EQ devs, that the pet names indicate its level (something like 10 names per level?) if you filtered all the logs over time, you should be able to just exclude the pets by knowing all the names they use ?

[Cryonic]

For the most part we do, the problem is regex out each of the individual names. Each name would equal one loop in my conditional checking, whereas:

^[GJKLVXZ]([aeio][bnrsk])+(n|tik)?[\\d]{2,}
Catches the vast majority of them in one iteration. My current spawnlog file is over 18MB of pure text (264,601 lines of spawns). The output of my script reduces that to just over 9MB of text (112,650 Lines).

So, 10 names/spell, casters get one every 4 or 5 levels (up to 49), then a pet a level afterwards for mages at least. So even just doing the sub 49 would result in 11 pet spells, or 110 names if your estimate is correct. So, one loop vs 110 per line of my spawnfile. Doesn't sound very efficient to me. Same thing if there are 40 names total used over and over again since the pets do have a number tagged onto the end of their name (e.g. Kebartik00). There could be a dozen Kebartik's in the zone and still be unique names, though I don't think I've ever been in a zone with enough pet summoners to cause that to happen.

[Cryonic]

* BUMP *

Wonder if BA still wants spawnlogs for the filters. Better yet... I've been thinking about expanding on my small perl script to try and visualize spawn links. Maybe even finally be able to figure out the Quillmane track, heheh.

[BlueAdept]

I havent gotten any spawnlogs in about a year. I dont even know if I remember how to do it :p

The last update I did was from Allakhazam looking up the named for each zone (which is probably why a lot dont work because they need a # in front of it).

I have asked Zaphod to now include the filters with the maps in the cvs.

My life has gotten complicated in the last several months and has left me little time for anything, including EQ (I think I spent only about 4 hours on it last month). It will probably be several more months before I am able to get more free time.

Ill still accept spawnlogs, but I would need quite a few of them before I can start to make any kind of filters for the GoD and OOW zones.

My chars arent much help right now. They arent elemental flagged nor are they flagged for any of the GoD zones.