Handling for JA's that return no message at all when failing to take effect

[Schaedelschaden]

I encountered a potential issue while setting up Larceny.

Retail testing shows Larceny printing absolutely no message when the target does not have any status effects to steal.
When the target does have a status effect retail prints out message 453 ("User uses ability. User steals the effect of status from target").

I have set up Larceny to default to message 453 in the database and to set ability:setMsg(xi.msg.basic.NONE) when no effect exists to be stolen. The current core configuration returns message MSGBASIC_USES_JA "User uses ability" as a default for using JA's here:

server/src/map/entities/charentity.cpp

Lines 1444 to 1462 in bcb9e50

	actionList_t& actionList = action.getNewActionList();
	actionList.ActionTargetID = PTarget->id;
	actionTarget_t& actionTarget = actionList.getNewActionTarget();
	actionTarget.reaction = REACTION::NONE;
	actionTarget.speceffect = SPECEFFECT::RECOIL;
	actionTarget.animation = PAbility->getAnimationID();
	actionTarget.param = 0;
	auto prevMsg = actionTarget.messageID;
	int32 value = luautils::OnUseAbility(this, PTarget, PAbility, &action);
	if (prevMsg == actionTarget.messageID)
	{
	actionTarget.messageID = PAbility->getMessage();
	}
	if (actionTarget.messageID == 0)
	{
	actionTarget.messageID = MSGBASIC_USES_JA;
	}

Setting ability:setMsg(xi.msg.basic.NONE) in the script triggers the core to default the message to "User uses ability".

My question is: Should this part of the code be adjusted to allow for returning no messages at all? Or is it acceptable for the ability's default return to show message 100 even if that deviates from retail setup?

[WinterSolstice8]

No, it has a message. The client may not choose to display it. It appears to be the same message as steal failing.

Larceny fails -> Huge� Hornet
{
  actor_id = 43455,
  category = 3,
  param = 328,
  recast = 0,
  target_count = 1,
  targets = { {
      action_count = 1,
      actions = { {
          add_effect_animation = 0,
          add_effect_effect = 0,
          add_effect_message = 0,
          add_effect_param = 0,
          animation = 182,
          effect = 2,
          has_add_effect = false,
          has_spike_effect = false,
          knockback = 0,
          message = 153,
          param = 0,
          reaction = 25,
          spike_effect_animation = 0,
          spike_effect_effect = 0,
          spike_effect_message = 0,
          spike_effect_param = 0,
          stagger = 0,
          unknown = 0
        } },
      id = 17215497
    } },
  unknown = 0
}

[WinterSolstice8]

Here's Steal failing. Only difference is effect = 2 on larceny. (ID changed because I swapped to a different Bee)

Steal fails �¨ Huge�?Hornet
 {
   actor_id = 43455,
   category = 3,
   param = 41,
   recast = 0,
   target_count = 1,
   targets = { {
       action_count = 1,
       actions = { {
           add_effect_animation = 0,
           add_effect_effect = 0,
           add_effect_message = 0,
           add_effect_param = 0,
           animation = 182,
           effect = 0,
           has_add_effect = false,
           has_spike_effect = false,
           knockback = 0,
           message = 153,
           param = 0,
           reaction = 25,
           spike_effect_animation = 0,
           spike_effect_effect = 0,
           spike_effect_message = 0,
           spike_effect_param = 0,
           stagger = 0,
           unknown = 0
         } },
       id = 17215500
     } },
   unknown = 0
 }

[Schaedelschaden]

Do you know if there is currently a way to tell it to not display a message on failure? I can change the charentity.cpp MSGBASIC_USES_JA to MSGBASIC_NONE and it will not print any message, but that affects far more than just this one ability. It seems like retail's method is to use the steal failed message but not display it. So far I haven't been able to find a method of suppressing the messages aside from setting it to MSGBASIC_NONE or xi.msg.basic.NONE.

[WinterSolstice8]

Retail behavior is to set a message in the action packet, see above. If you do not send an action packet, you won't see the animation. My suggestion is to look into this message of 153 + effect = 2 to see if it mimics retail.
EDIT: you won't see the animation

[WinterSolstice8]

So I turned off battlemod and this is what I got:

Is there some special circumstance where Larceny doesn't have a message?

[Schaedelschaden]

Apologies, not sure what happened to give me no message whatsoever when I captured Larceny the first time. My capture suite also seems to be bugging out.

This is what I get out of capture when I use Larceny and fail to steal a buff:

Can't say why it's glitching since it's a fresh download from the Windower capture suite github but I'll continue to set up Larceny with the proper messages. Thank you very much for your help Winter!

[TeoTwawki]

the behavior we use elsewhere is returning zero while the message type is set to one that doesn't expect a zero returned, rather than having no message return at all

[Schaedelschaden]

Do you happen to have an example that I could take a look at?

[TeoTwawki]

not for job ability's onUse function, but for several other functions where the return affects the message we bail out on zero

In all the prep functions function we not only suppress message but halt/skip the skill too. In those cases the return is msg ID itself tho instead of a parameter to it. For mobskills zero'ing the animation and delays will suppress the "readies" and "uses" messages respectively (so multiple ways to silence a mobskill)

[Schaedelschaden]

My retail account and the Windower capture suite wanted to throw me for a loop yesterday I guess. I just went back into retail and retested Larceny again and I got the steal failed message this time. The resolution to this "problem" is to use the steal fails message. Thanks for bearing with me and taking a look Teo!