Honorbuddy 2.0 - Navmesh and Questing Release Schedule

Ski Edit: As many of you have asked, the April 26th release had to be delayed due to some stability issues. Stay tuned for more info.

As you all probably noticed, we have been very quiet about the set of upgrades we have called HB2.

A few weeks ago, it looked like we were ready to release a preview. However, the "small" bugs that we needed to fix were not small, the PVP changes in patch 3.3.3a have taken a lot of coding to build in and generally the releases have been delayed.

The four main changes we are working on are:
1. A vastly improved navigation system that doesn't require you to record a navigation mesh.
2. PVP support of random battlegrounds including intelligent Strand of the Ancients and Isle of Conquest logic.
3. An improved plugin system so we can create an app store selling features like Gatherbuddy integrated into Honorbuddy.
4. Questing.

Our current status:
Navigation works most of the time but has some issues on long trips, say from Booty Bay to Light's Hope Chapel. Toons in Northrend that need to move from Dragonblight to Sholazar Basin at level 75 fail to make the journey. Main has worked out how to fix this but it will take some time to implement and test.

Strand of the Ancients, Isle of Conquest and Random Battlegrounds all need a few small changes but are ready.

The paid plugin system is on hold until all the other elements are in and working.

Questing is not working. The bot picks up quests and hands in quests but it needs navigation working perfectly to do the quests correctly.

Our release schedule:
Monday April 19th - PVP release that supports all battlegrounds and supports random battlegrounds. This will use the new navigation system so it will work as a levelbot 99% of the time.

Monday April 26th - full release of navigation. This release will have all the existing Honorbuddy profiles supported and making new profiles will be a cinch.

Monday May 10th - questing. The current design is that if you enable questing, the bot will automatically pick up quests and go do them. Profiles will need to be adapted to list quests you do NOT want it to take.

Monday May 31 - paid plugins.

This is a significant set of changes all of which will have issues. There will likely be lots of releases with bug fixes in between the dates above as we fix the problems that you find. But, its fair to say the bot will be technically great and a pleasure to use by the time we are done. Thanks for your patience and for the future bug reports.

EDIT 1 - pyromess pointed out I had a date wrong :S Fixed.

 

Sounds wonderful, best to luck to you guys with the releases.

Lets hope no one nerd-rages about the dates.

Edit: Any info on what the paid plug-ins will actually be? Things like GB, or a auto reply bot, or a fish bot, or a little Chinese man that reply to all your whispers and makes rice on the side?

 

Cant wait!, only problem is that im on a holiday in the week when questing gets released (if on schedule ofc)

 

Sounds promising, can't wait

 

Thanks for the info! Looking forward to see if everything works out.

 

announcement crits hiddenlol for over 9000!

 

amazing.. can't wait !

 

Thanks for the information.

I have 1 question about the download size of the new HB2.
By the time it gets released I'm on the road again, and will have to work with mobile internet (which is not suitable to download big files).
As I've read trough some sneak preview and developers topics my understanding is that the mesh that comes along is gigantic (around 500 MB) to cover navigation of the whole gameworld.

Is this still valid, or has it changed?

Thanks, Liquid.

 

Sounds AMAZING !
Thanks mates for your work !

 

/nerd rage on!

No we want it now! lol

/nerd rage off

I'd actually rather you not release it til its working right. Where some of us understand beta/test release... Most people just complain, and I hear enough complaining between forums and chat every day already. Keep up the good work.

 

great news! did i understand correctly that we only need to tell the bot which quests NOT to do and he'll do the rest all by him self without us telling him where stuff is he needs to pick up or what mobs to kill? Thats pretty amazing ^^

 

Ski told me it was down to like 312mb. It comes in the install no downloading as you play.

 

Blizz itself tells the bot where to do the Quests i guess.

 

Yeah they do by flagging the npcs with ? and ! lol.

 

Should be intresting to say the least! questing is going to make this awesum! then hopefuly better CC's will be released for Advanced pulling attacking smarter bots would be nice Great work by the developers must say

 

i m fukin excited....

 

hb is def the best bot out right now and i am a former glider botter rlly rlly happy to see i can achieve alot in wow without being a nerd again lol

 

Thanks for the headsup Hawker

 

sounds great ^^

 

The entire mesh is about 500 MB but it will only downloads parts you need. So being on the road ought not be an issue at all.