The smob update is a large-scale update designed to standardize loads and increase accessibility to gear. Blah blah blah good things everyone can see. The project itself sucks and is a mind-numbing exercise that involves looking at the same sets of numbers on repeat across over 100 smobs. So why do it? Smobs seemed perfectly fine, right? Wrong! Our poor friend, the Guardian, was being massively overworked.
Every zone has between 100-300 individual commands that trigger zone repops. The Guardian is the being that executes every one of these commands. If you remember, earlier this year, Ely went through an exercise to stagger zone repops. This reduced the number of commands the Guardian would execute at any given time and helped alleviate lag. The secondary goal of the SMOB Project is to continue to reduce further the commands executed through the Guardian.
Huh? What does that even mean? You might be asking yourself. Below is what a smob looks like to me;
24 commands designed to load the master torturer. See lots of numbers that repeat. Why is this problematic?[Command 81] - 0 1 100 1/1/0 /at 1595 /l m 3600
[Command 82] - 1 1 30 1/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 404 grim
[Command 83] - 1 1 30 1/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 473 grim
[Command 84] - 1 1 20 0/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 856 grim
[Command 85] - 1 1 30 1/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 561 grim
[Command 86] - 1 1 30 1/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 551 grim
[Command 87] - 1 1 30 1/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 440 grim
[Command 88] - 1 1 15 1/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 822 grim
[Command 89] - 1 1 15 1/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 1770 grim
[Command 90] - 1 1 15 1/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 336 grim
[Command 91] - 1 1 15 1/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 515 grim
[Command 92] - 1 1 15 1/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 1776 grim
[Command 93] - 1 1 100 1/0/0 /at 1595 /f smob drop all.axe
[Command 94] - 1 1 100 1/0/0 /at 1595 /f smob drop all.plate
[Command 95] - 1 1 100 1/0/0 /at 1595 /purge axe
[Command 96] - 1 1 100 1/0/0 /at 1595 /purge axe
[Command 97] - 1 1 100 1/0/0 /at 1595 /purge axe
[Command 98] - 1 1 100 1/0/0 /at 1595 /purge plate
[Command 99] - 1 1 15 0/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 1780 smob
[Command 100] - 1 1 100 0/0/0 /at 1595 /kit special/smobtoken master
[Command 101] - 1 1 100 0/0/0 /at 1595 /kit smob/mtorturer master
[Command 102] - 1 1 15 0/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 219 master
[Command 103] - 1 1 10 0/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 218 master
[Command 104] - 0 1 100 0/0/0 /at 1595 /f smob put all pouch
Axes, let's look at how axes are loaded.
Each line here is a random roll to see if an axe will load. Each line can succeed independently, and he could load all 5 axes. But why do we never see that, you might ask?[Command 88] - 1 1 15 1/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 822 grim
[Command 89] - 1 1 15 1/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 1770 grim
[Command 90] - 1 1 15 1/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 336 grim
[Command 91] - 1 1 15 1/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 515 grim
[Command 92] - 1 1 15 1/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 1776 grim
The next block;
The smob drops all axes and purges them(3 times!!!). 5 random rolls, 1 drop, and 3 purges to load 1 axe. That's a lot of extra commands. The SMOB Project takes situations like this and condenses the roll into a single line, 1 random roll instead of 5, and eliminates the unnecessary purging, which can also contribute to lag.[Command 93] - 1 1 100 1/0/0 /at 1595 /f smob drop all.axe
[Command 95] - 1 1 100 1/0/0 /at 1595 /purge axe
[Command 96] - 1 1 100 1/0/0 /at 1595 /purge axe
[Command 97] - 1 1 100 1/0/0 /at 1595 /purge axe
The end product and new listing of commands executed through the Guardian look more like the below;
There are around 20 fewer commands to execute every time the MT is killed and it repops. While this does not seem like a lot, consider there are 100 smobs. So total command reduction we are looking to is 1500-2000 across all smobs. So not only will this project lead to gear becoming more easily accessible, but it will also play a hand in reducing the overall lag.[Command 81] - 0 1 100 1/1/0 /at 1595 /l m 3600
[Command 82] - 1 1 15 0/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 1780 smob
[Command 83] - 1 1 15 0/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 219 master
[Command 84] - 1 1 10 0/0/0 /at 1595 /eq 218 master
[Command 85] - 0 1 100 0/0/0 /at 1595 /f smob put all pouch