Progress

To cut to the chase - progress on the new harvest/hunter bot is going very slow. Obviously I can't work on it while at work - sort of a conflict of interest when I'm supposed to be working on work stuff while at work - so my availability is limited. Weekends are limited as well, since because I work a 'real job' I only get to really see the kids during the weekends, and because the last thing I want to do during my days off is work...

More technically, I'm blocked on a couple issues. Since I'm merging a harvest bot and a hunter bot together, there are some technical difficulties to work out - they have to share targeting systems, navigation systems, and some settings which, from a UI perspective, will have to be separated yet united somehow... As far as the engine itself goes - well, because I'm using my workflow system, it's actually not going to be as hard as it seems.

I've been using the workflows as logical separations between the various systems involved. One workflow for hunter, one for harvester, and one for navigation. Targeting is too simple a process for an entire workflow - a single workitem will be sufficient. Finally, to tie everything together, a master workflow responsible for coordinating the efforts of these disparate (yet united) tasks.

The master workflow will be responsible for invoking the navigation sub-workflow, as well as the harvester and hunter workflows. All workitems for these sub-workflows are yielded to the workflow runner, so the entire hierarchy of workflows is flattened to a sequential list as its run - as it should be.

Where I'm being held up is in how to handle tasks that should be shared by all these workflows, but must happen separately in each of them. For example, stuck checking / handling. This sounds like a navigation concern, and it is, but it's also a concern for harvesting and hunting - in particular, moving from the walkpath to a node / mob, and moving back to the walkpath. Both of those tasks are prone to dealing with the stuck issue, so I'll need to have stuck checking there as well. Should I create another workflow - a stuck check workflow - that's responsible for detecting and dealing with the issue? If so, how do I invoke it while ensuring the harvest, hunter, and navigation workflows are ignorant of it? That's one of the goals for workflows - keeping the sub-workflows ignorant to each other and letting the master workflow do the coordination.

Maybe that is the answer. I can inspect the workitems given to me from the Hunter and Harvest workflows before I yield them - maybe I can check the specifics, and if they're in their navigation phases I can interleave the stuck checking in there with them. Hah - yes, I'll do it. =) Sometimes just talking through a problem can lead you to a solution - I'll give it a try when I get home.

Well, anyway - I need to get back to work. Lunch break only lasts so long...