I know quite a few who still use old comps due to the length of time you can hunt and not recomp. I loved peagimp. It would split a pea just before I ran out. Now I gotta hunt for it, which can be a pain. If you have 1 red taper but the spell calls for 3, it won't show you are out.


No, this is not for macroing. Pea gimp would never get you out of combat to split a pea, just spam you to do it.


If anyone can make a lone one, or add it to an existing plugin, I and a number of others would be totally grateful

 

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<<How difficult would it be for someone to...>>


Not too difficult. Hmm. I hesitate to duplicate the functionality of old plugins, because I don't want to step on toes if the original author actually wants to rewrite the old plugin. Any idea what's up with the old author?

 

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Long gone I heard.

 

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I too, use old comps on my Opal mage for several good reasons. I used to use the original Combater (pre-Kaltemar) for this.


All we need is a non-GUI plugin that would:


1) allow the player to set a global threshold for comps and how many peas to split via text (i.e., /split 5,1)

2) monitor all comps

3) verify that a pea splitter is on the character

3) give various text warnings: (be cool to have sounds play as well)

a) "ou need to split a pea! Go to peace mode!"

b) "ou do not have a Red Taper pea!"

c) "ou do not have a Splitting Tool!"

d) "ou have finished splitting peas!"

4) queue peas to be split, and split peas the next time the character goes into peace mode.


All this borrowed heavily from Combater by Zyrca.


Now if you really want to be a God to us old-comp users, find a clever way to track a character's comp usage, so that the plugin would automatically fine-tune the amount of each comp we need to keep in inventory. The player would set minimums and maximums perhaps - when a character restocked the amounts would be adjusted up and down. This is the hard/fun part of using old comps. After you've played a while you figure this out the hard way (including what peas to carry). This last part not as necesary and would be an insane amount of work. If you don't use old comps yourself, you'd have to go through the learning curve.


But the pea-splitter idea - yeah that would be sweet. And simple to do I would guess.

 

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Im curious, what good reasons do you use the old-comp system for?

The old comp system takes less space.


The new pris taper system was a ploy by Turbien to entice players into giving up 2-3 packs of 24 slots each, thereby reducing the load on their database server.

I agree it did use less space. I do think they weighed about the same though. I remember having an almost 2 empty packs being able to put stuff I wanted to keep into. The other was for DI's and non drop items. Now I've lost that second pack, keep all my comps in one plus a few DI's and the other pack is filled with stones the rest of my DI's.


Leaves me with 24 slots...if I have no bonded items.

 

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I use the old comps on my war mage for the following reasons:


1) Less space (as ElgarL said) - I can carry all of my comps, including scarabs, peas, and my splitting tool, in four packs.

2) Less weight - My four packs of comps weigh less than four Foci plus Prismatic tapers and scarabs.

3) Less expensive - I can restock after a couple of nights' hunting for very little cost - a handful of peas picked up off monsters will usually take care of it.

4) More flexible - Say I'm out hunting Olthoi, and using Bludgeon attacks, and I'm careless and allow myself to run out of one of the comps for Crushing Shame. I can switch to Pierce, or switch to using Streaks, in order to get myself out of a bad spot and back to town. I can still cast my vitals. With Prismatics, when you're out, you are in a grave position indeed.

5) Last longer – Since you can use peas, you can stay out hunting much longer. It’s too bad they nerfed comps from critter loot, because back then you could stay out indefinitely.

6) The intangible - I like using old comps because it 'feels' old school. It's how the original developers of Asheron's Call wanted it to be!


FAQ:

Q: My God! It looks complicated! How do I know what comps to buy?

A: It is more complicated. Heck, you used to have to research every spell yourself too. All those comps...you learn by trial and error. Lessons learned the hard way are more satisfying. Buy 20 of each comp and watch your usage, and adjust each time you restock until you have it fine tuned. Or get with a mage and ask what mix he or she uses. I could post my comp list if there’s interest. Roughly (can’t login right now) I carry 100 of each taper – 20 of each Talisman – 20 of each scarab except for Diamond, Pyreal and Platinum (100 each of those) – with all other comps I’ll carry 20, 50, or 100 depending on how important they are or how much I use them. I will carry 100 of each taper used in Heal Self, Revitalize Self, Stam-to-Mana, and Stam-to-Health. Then I will carry 100 of the powders, potions, and herbs used in my seven main war spells (bolts/streams etc.). I carry 200 of Red Tapers. Then I carry 5 peas for the above-mentioned important spells.


Q: I’m getting dizzy trying to figure out which comps I need and buying them from the archmage!

A: Umm…you set your desired comp quantities on your character’s Spell Components tab, and type /fillcomps when at the archmage…


Q: Wow! I just restocked and half my main pack is full of comps! It will take me an hour to put them all in side packs!

A: Yes, or you can play like an evolved human and run Decal with Gouru’s SortIt! Set up your packs, go to an archmage, type /fillcomps, and then click one button – Store - on SortIt!, and voila! All your comps go marching off merrily into their correct side packs. It takes 10 seconds to restock.


Q: I’m fighting swarms of Olthoi, I’m so busy playing a mage I can’t even talk, how do I keep track of my comp levels?

A: This takes a bit of work and practice. You’ll need to get in the habit of popping open your Spell Components panel and scanning your comp quantities. You can run a Decal plugin that does this and alerts you. The latest version of ElTank has a very nice feature where you can set up a HUD to show comp levels. The old Combater used to do this (see top of this thread). Make sure you check comps and restock before an important quest or hunt.


Q: What about 3-school characters? Item-only toons?

A: On a four-school mage, the old comps are the hands-down winner in my opinion, for all the reasons expressed above. On a 3-school character, it’s really a wash. You will gain about half a pack of space using Foci on a 3-schooler. But the other advantages remain for old comps. On an Item-only toon, Foci is the way to go, as you only need one-and-a-half packs for comps. But, I do have several toons that have Item-only but only cast portals – for these, old comps are handy because you only need 1 pack for the old comps required for casting your 9 basic portal spells.


Well this reply got a bit out of hand but...the servers are down right now...

 

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There's also the advantage for those of us with early accounts. I think most of, or more of the tapers are red tapers in the spell sequences.

 

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Pea Gimp II was awesome. But I think Elph is long gone. The only thing I wish it did was take you out of combat immediately to split, then return you. It sucked to start your buff, go grab a drink, etc, come back and instead of being fully buffed, it ran out of red tapers.


As for comp curves - I've tuned mine over the years. Ever since /fillcomps came out. But what I find is, its rough tuning, not fine tuning, as you change hunting areas and partners/solo. The real question for me has always been, is 100 enough, or should I get a pea stack.


So, anyone encouraged enough to draw up a simple one ?

 

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