Target by ID or Index

Hello,

  I have recently started developing addons and haven't been able to figure something out.  Is there a way to target something in game with its ID or index?  All I have managed to find is for the reverse.  I could cycle targets to find the matching IDs but I was hoping there was a better way.  Also, what is the difference between a character's id or index?

Thank you

windower.ffxi.get_mob_by_id(id)
windower.ffxi.get_mob_by_index(index)

The index is the position of an NPC or PC in the zone's entity array. For mobs and friendly NPCs it's always the same value, for players and pets it differs based on when they spawned into the zone. For mobs and friendly NPCs it's a value between 0x000 and 0x400, for players it's between 0x400 and 0x700 and for pets it's between 0x700 and 0x800.

The ID is a globally constant value for both NPCs and PCs. While NPCs have a constant index as well, the ID is the constant for PCs as well, even across servers. For players it's a value between 0x00000000 and 0x00FFFFFF, for NPCs it's anything above that. The first byte is 0x01 for almost every NPC. If it's 0x01, then the structure is as follows:

0xAABBBCCC

Here AA is 1, BBB is the zone ID and CCC is the NPC's index. For example if we take the ID of Harvetour in West Ronfaure, which is 17187549, and convert it to a hexadecimal value, we get 0x010642DD. If we split it up into the three parts as defined above, we get 0x01 for AA, 0x064 for BBB and 0x2DD for CCC. 0x064 is 100, which is West Ronfaure's zone ID, 0x2DD is 733, which is the Harvetour's index.

This only works for NPCs where the AA part is 1. There are certain mobs that have 2 for the first byte, which are all (to my knowledge) in Meeble Burrows, and there are a few other NPCs (like certain doors) that have 4 for the first byte. They may not follow the same pattern.

Sorry, I should have been more specific.  I was wondering if there is a way to target a character given its ID or index.  For example, while two-boxing if I could pass the index of a monster I have targetted via an ipc message and have the other character target it for a spell.

Thank you for the explanation of those, it makes perfect sense now.

Sorry, you were clear, I just misread based on the title. There currently is no way to do something like that (other than hacking around with /assist), but I'll look into exposing it this weekend. It would help if you submitted a feature request for that on our issue tracker.

It would be great if you could add that.  I have created the request (#1273) in hopefully the correct place.

https://github.com/W...Lua/issues/1273

Thank you again!

As someone who plays six summoners please please pleaaaase add this in.

Sorry, the FFXI update surprised me, and my weekend was spent cleaning up after SE. I'll try to look into it this weekend. I hope there are no surprise updates planned for it

I would like to see this feature implemented as well.

Yes, together with the next Hook update, which will probably coincide with the next FFXI version update, since we will need to recompile all plugins along with it.

sweetness!!!

Was this ever implemented, or is it still being planned?

bump

this would be really incredible to have. Hope you implement it!

Hello, was this feature ever implemented or are there any plans to implement it?

Are there any updates on this? Alternatively, is there a better place to check the status of developing features like this? For example, a feature list with options to vote on most wanted updates?

Are there any updates on this? Alternatively, is there a better place to check the status of developing features like this? For example, a feature list with options to vote on most wanted updates?

I haven't found an ability to target specifically.  However - what are you trying to accomplish? Can be done with an action packet toward the mob by ID/actor.  So while the gui may not simply target - you can issue an action (such as engage, cast spell, use JA etc) against a target based on building a packet and sending it.  This gets quite close to 'bot'ish which is pretty shunned around here though.

I haven't found an ability to target specifically.  However - what are you trying to accomplish? Can be done with an action packet toward the mob by ID/actor.  So while the gui may not simply target - you can issue an action (such as engage, cast spell, use JA etc) against a target based on building a packet and sending it.  This gets quite close to 'bot'ish which is pretty shunned around here though.

Pretty much what every multiboxer wants, which is the ability to pass your primary character's target to your alts. I tend to rely on <bt> a lot for this purpose, so I don't have to actually target anything w/ my second character, but <bt> tends to fail miserably in multi-target situations.  Sometimes it simply fails completely, sometimes it works but targets something other than your primary target, and neither of those are Good Things.  If there is a way to ensure that your non-primary accounts all target your primary's focused target, it would be a grand blessing for many of us. XD

I'd personally prefer this feature to be more on the built-in command side rather than some sort of targeting syntax modification.  Whether it's added to the core program or as a plugin doesn't terribly matter, and that way we could hopefully reduce the "bot-ish" potential down to a bare minimum. I'd imagine that if implemented as an addon, the coding would be quickly adapted to more malevolent intents than only making your alt target your target reliably.

That's already very easy to do. That's exactly what the /assist command is for, to target some other entity's current target. You can even use it on enemies to see who they're targeting.

That's already very easy to do. That's exactly what the /assist command is for, to target some other entity's current target. You can even use it on enemies to see who they're targeting.

I've tried using /assist, and it causes some undesired actions in certain cases. (ie: While on /follow targeting my main, using /assist on my alt will cause my alt to run into melee range locked on to the main's combat target.)  In other words, doesn't work reliably for what I want to do.  <bt> works great for single target combat, but tends to fail miserably in multi-target scenarios (either targeting randomly or simply failing to execute the command.)  Being able to pass a currently targeted mob's ID for targeting purposes should be able to bypass all of the associated issues of currently available methods. 

there is one way to use the /assist still and not have them run into melee range.

you can send the numpad7 key to all your alts to stop the follow and then send the /assist command thats one way to do it.

normally i jus t place my mules in there spots and then pull on my main char/tank char

then send the assist command.