AutoHotkey Community

Hey everyone. I am trying to write a script for turn-based web RPG. Just in case - the game's creator has given a go-ahead for 3rd party scripting.

Before I paste the code I have, let me briefly describe the goal. The point is very simple - automate killing monsters. Here is the program logic. I check each attack because I may not have the mana to perform it.

Step 1) Check if monster is alive. If Alive, use IDS attack. If dead, Heal.
Step 2) Check if IDS is available. If yes, use it and GOSUB, Step 1). If no, check if DS attack is available.
Step 3) Check if DS is available. If yes, use it, and GOSUB Step 1). If no, check if regular Attack is available.
Step 4) Check if Attack is available. If yes, use it and GOSUB, Step 1). If no, GOSUB Heal
Step 5) Healing routine. Click Healing. Check if page stopped loading. If yes, click Hunt - if no, wait. Check if page stopped loading after clicking Hunt.

That's it in a nutshell. My problem is that I don't have a loop that's set in stone. The monster may die after the first two attacks or the fight may drag on for a while. I tried using GOSUB to tell the script to jump to specific steps if the monster is still alive and depending on availability of attacks. I put "Step 1" in my main loop, but I receive an Enclosure error when I try to compile: Error: A Goto/Gosub must not jump into a block that doesn't enclose it.

Here is the code I have so far.

I would greatly appreciate if someone could tell me how to best string these steps together for AHK so my script stays flexible. Thank you in advance!

I am looking at the Seek example in AHK Help. Phi (the creator) used Gosub from within a loop, but I guess my problem is that I have a Gosub that references BACK to a loop...

Crap, I might have to rethink the logic behind my script...

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can string the above steps together?

Well I can't see why you can't initiate Monster from SetTimer, which you can use in effect like a loop, then when the script reaches the termination point you can just turn the timer off?

_________________

Try Quick Search for Autohotkey or see the tutorial for newbies.

I understand what you mean, but everything depends on whether the monster is alive or dead - hence why I check its status after each attack.

If the monster is still alive, I need to attack (with progressively weaker attacks as my mana decreases). If the monster is dead then I need to heal+return to battle via the "Heal routine" at the end of the file.

One thing I've tried is making the check on whether the monster is alive a part of each attack by calling the monster check health module after each attack.

To be honest it's very hard to keep on when even something as simple as this...



...fails to work.

I really don't know what the hell.

I have a feeling I know what's wrong with this little script though:



But back to the larger script, did you try just literally writing out everything you'd like to work? I think I made a literal representation of it:

_________________

Try Quick Search for Autohotkey or see the tutorial for newbies.

GREAT SUCCESS! (Although I'm still keeping my fingers crossed).

My biggest problem before was trusting the BMP format too much. Things started falling into place after I included a "*20" so my ImageSearch had some flexibility.

Currently I have a script that is smart - it makes selections depending on whether the monster is alive AND on whether I have the mana to perform a certain action. Furthermore this script can work with any size monitor and any window position (as long as the images are fully viewable).

I would like to make my script better!.

I am playing the game in Firefox and would like each action to take place after the page finishes loading instead of after a set SLEEP amount of time. This is easy enough to accomplish by checking that the little circle in the upper-right corner of Firefox has stopped spinning (via ImageSearch).

I can even intigrate this additional ImageSearch into my Subs (instead of immediatly going to the next Sub, run the FINISHLOADING 'routine').

The problem I face is making this routine somehow continue running until the page stops loading!

Here's a part of my script:


My problem is that I have zero idea of what to put in the "***!!!***!!!***" spot that would keep the ImageSearch going until the page is fully loaded.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions because I don't know any loop-back options. I'm thinking of how I can put a loop there, but it sounds impossible?

P.S. Thank you for your help sinkfaze, it helped me keep going past my first stupid mistakes

I don't know how much your script has changed, but briefly looking at the script in your first post, you may be misunderstanding If and Gosub:
A revised subroutine might look like:
However, merging the subroutines as sinkfaze has done might be better.

You might like to read Blocks, Gosub, and Goto.
Assuming loading.bmp contains the "finished loading" image,

Thank you very much for your post Lexikos, it was a great help! The WaitUntilLoaded sub you propose works flawlessly and speeds up the script a ton. I will be reusing that piece of code many times because it makes life MUCH simpler than relying on Sleep.

There currently is no loop, although I need to make one for when the user wants to execute the script (which by itself represents one completed battle) multiple times - e.g. fight several enemies in a row. I have tried inserting ALL the subs into a loop (AHK forces me to insert all of them into a loop because otherwise I get the dreaded A Goto/Gosub must not jump into a block that doesn't enclose it error) with mixed results. The best I have been able to get is a loop that runs forever (regardless of the "Loop, #" specification) and that for some reason first uses the DS attack instead of IDS the moment it fights a new monster after returning from the Healer. The worst case scenario is one where the scripts gets endlessly stuck in the HEAL sub I have a few ideas I want to explore, but suggestions are really appreciated.

Below I include all of my code as it currently is. I took your advice to heart and added curly braces everywhere as best practice, (for some reason my script worked as intended without them, but better safe than sorry ). I must admit that I have a hard time understanding "Return"... where will the script return to after it sees that command at the end of the sub?

I will also read on the three articles you linked to.

This is my current code:

"Returns from a subroutine to which execution had previously jumped via function-call, Gosub, Hotkey activation, GroupActivate, or other means. " In this case, it returns to the line where you called the subroutine using Gosub.

Assuming ErrorLevel is always either 0 or 1 in the MONSTER subroutine, it will never return. This is bad because each time you use Gosub, information is left on the call stack. There is limited space on the call stack, so eventually the program will crash.

As I tried to point out previously, it is not necessary to explicitly jump back to MONSTER if everything begins and ends there. MONSTER can be in the loop, and everything else can simply return to it.

I tried to show you the loop method because it will be difficult to make a script that will run well by trying to jump back and forth between subroutines using GoSub. In the loop I made of your script whenever a return is encountered it returns to the beginning of the loop, hence in effect back to the "MONSTER" subroutine.

It's a little more burdensome since the code can become a little more difficult to read but ultimately it should what you want it to do better than the method you're currently attempting. You can comment in the script in much the same way that you did before to keep track of things, like this:



Also, I'd like to point out some shorthand I'm using in the code you might find helpful. You'll notice in places where you're using this:



I use just this:



The (ErrorLevel) tells the script to check if ErrorLevel is set to something other than 0, and if it is then it will proceed with some action. Even though you can tell the script to do something if ErrorLevel is 0, in this instance the script will assume by default that if the "if" condition is not met it should break and return to the beginning of the loop (and that's what we want it to do anyway).

Also, in places where you're passing math operations to additional variables:



I do something slightly different:



If you're more comfortable creating a separate variable for those, that's fine, but just know you're not required to. You always add something to a variable and save it to itself:



Or you can use the shorthand addition operator to do the exact same thing:



It won't matter that you do so since the ImageSearch command will reset the value of the variables on the next run anyway. You can find more information about those operators on the Variables and Expressions section of the help manual.

_________________

Try Quick Search for Autohotkey or see the tutorial for newbies.

Thank you for your help Lexikos and sinkfaze. I have also realized that I will need a main loop and that checking whether the monster is alive or dead is the best candidate for said loop.

I have since tried two ways of implementing this loop: the one suggested by sinkfaze (where everything is nested) and the one where checking monster is the main loop and attacks, along with LOADING are called via SUBs.

Nested Version
First I pasted together a version of this script and then I tried the version that sinkfaze presented. Both ran into the problem of stopping after performing one action. If I reloaded the script and hit the hotkey again the script would perform the next logical action, but then stop. Technically I could defeat a monster this way, but the script would also refuse to click the link for a new encounter after finding cg.bmp.

Main Loop that calls SUBs Version
I've had more success with this version of the script (will include the code at the end). The basic premise is that checking if the monster is dead yet (and then healing if it is dead) is part of the main loop. If the main loop detects that the monster is alive, then it calls the IDS SUB. If this SUB fails to find IDS it in turn calls the DS sub and so down the line. The problem I ran into this this script is that it WILL NOT STOP. It's really funny, but regardless of what arguments I include for the loop ("Loop, 2" for eample), this script will continue to cycle FOREVER

Sometimes this script makes a mistake and selects ATTACK while DS is still available (for eample). I have noticed these occurances growing more common. For example, sometimes the script fails to find IDS even though it's available and chooses DS instead. I'm fairly sure that neither page loading nor shade variation in ImageSearch have anything to do with this. I tried to give more Sleep time in the LOAD sub and increased the pixel color variation in ImageSearch with zero changes in behavior. I really can't figure out what can be going wrong - suggestions appreciated.

Issues I've Run Into
1) I flat-out don't understand where the "return" command returns the script to.
---Does it matter if the "return" is outside the last curly bracket of a SUB?
---If the main loop calls a SUB that has a "return" at the end, does the script jump to the BEGINNING of the main loop when it hits return or to the line that follows the GOSUB command that was used?
---If a SUB jumps to another SUB and the second SUB resolves to a "return", does the script jump back to the first SUB or to the beginning of the script?

2) I was unable to understand "(ErrorLevel)". From what I understood, when its used it means the script should perform a certain action on a failure, but continue on a success? Or break on a success?



This is the current version of the code I have. I'm ready to say that I'm satisfied with how it performs, but I need to figure out how to make the loop execute a specific number of times. This is in preparation for writing a simple GUI where I can enter the number of times to execute the script and this number will carry over as a variable to the Loop.



P.S. Sinkfaze - Thank you for your suggestions on how to optimize my script. I changed the way my script performs math operations and that cut down on the mess significantly!

It returns to the caller of the current/most recent subroutine (Gosub, function call, etc.) Perhaps a simple experiment will help:

ErrorLevel has no special behaviour that sets it apart from other variables when used with IF. If ErrorLevel contains a true value, the body if the IF will execute. If it contains a false value, the body of the IF will not execute, but if it has an ELSE, that will execute. Any empty or zero value is considered false, and anything else is considered true.
"Curly brackets" (also known as braces) have no effect for subroutines/labels. Similarly, the braces following ImageSearch have no real effect.

If the "last curly bracket" is the terminating brace of the IF..ELSE, then it does matter: it is probably what causes the script to select a wrong move. For instance:
In most cases, RETURN should be used at the end of the subroutine to return to whatever called the subroutine. Note that this isn't necessary for the ATTACK subroutine since both branches of the IF use RETURN. Also note that if a RETURN is placed below the IF..ELSE, the RETURN at the end of the ELSE is redundant.

I'd say you have two options:

• Put a return at the end of each subroutine to logically define it and ensure execution will return to the caller of the subroutine (the line below Gosub).
• "Invert" the IF's condition and rely on the absence of return, cutting code size as a side-effect. For instance:

Note the placement of braces in the LOADING subroutine. In your code, the Sleep will never be executed because it is inside the IF and below BREAK. In my original example, I omitted the braces so only BREAK is contained by the IF.