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# Description
This PR aims to refactor the NextAction declaration to achieve two
goals:
## Eliminate C-style sentinel arrays
Currently, a double pointer (`NextAction**`) approach is being used.
This an old pre-C++11 (< 2011) trick before `std::vector<>` became a
thing.
This approach is painful for developers because they constantly need to
declare their `NextAction` arrays as:
```cpp
NextAction::array(0, new NextAction("foo", 1.0f), nullptr)
```
Instead of:
```cpp
{ new NextAction("foo", 1.0f) }
```
The first argument of `NextAction::array` is actually a hack. It is used
to have a named argument so `va_args` can find the remaining arguments.
It is set to 0 everywhere but in fact does nothing. This is very
confusing to people unfamiliar with this antiquated syntax.
The last argument `nullptr` is what we call a sentinel. It's a `nullptr`
because `va_args` is looking for a `nullptr` to stop iterating. It's
also a hack and also leads to confusion.
## Eliminate unnecessary pointers for `NextAction`
Pointers can be used for several reasons, to cite a few:
- Indicate strong, absolute identity.
- Provide strong but transferable ownership (unlike references).
- When a null value is acceptable (`nullptr`).
- When copy is expensive.
`NextAction` meets none of these criteria:
- It has no identity because it is purely behavioural.
- It is never owned by anything as it is passed around and never fetched
from a registry.
- The only situations where it can be `nullptr` are errors that should
in fact throw an `std::invalid_argument` instead.
- They are extremely small objects that embark a single `std::string`
and a single `float`.
Pointers should be avoided when not strictly necessary because they can
quickly lead to undefined behaviour due to unhandled `nullptr`
situations. They also make the syntax heavier due to the necessity to
constantly check for `nullptr`. Finally, they aren't even good for
performance in that situation because shifting a pointer so many times
is likely more expensive than copying such a trivial object.
# End goal
The end goal is to declare `NextAction` arrays this way:
```cpp
{ NextAction("foo", 1.0f) }
```
> [!NOTE]
> Additional note: `NextAction` is nothing but a hacky proxy to an
`Action` constructor. This should eventually be reworked to use handles
instead of strings. This would make copying `NextAction` even cheaper
and remove the need for the extremely heavy stringly typed current
approach. Stringly typed entities are a known anti-pattern so we need to
move on from those.
Hello everyone,
I am on a quest to make bot's pets completely functional, focuses on solving issues #1351 , #1230 , and #1137 . This PR achieves the following:
1. Changes the current "pet" chat command to "tame", which is more intuitive that only hunters can use it. The modes are "tame name (name)", "tame id (id)", "tame family (family)", "tame rename (new name)", and "tame abandon". Tame abandon is new - it simply abandons the current pet. Also, now, if you type in "tame family" by itself, it will list the available families. See pictures below for examples.
2. Added new "pet" chat command, with the following modes: "pet passive", "pet aggressive", "pet defensive", "pet stance" (shows current pet stance), "pet attack", "pet follow", and "pet stay". Previously, the pet's stance was not changeable, and there were some less than desired effects from summonable pets - see the issues above.
3. New config option: AiPlayerbot.DefaultPetStance, which changes the stance that all bot's pets are summoned as. This makes sure when feral spirits or treants are summoned by shamans and druids, they are immediately set to this configured stance. Set as 1 as default, which is defensive. (0 = Passive, 1 = Defensive, 2 = Aggressive)
4. New config option: AiPlayerbot.PetChatCommandDebug, which enables debug messages for the "pet" chat command. By default it is set to 0, which is disabled, but if you would like to see when pet's stances are changed, or when you tell the pet to attack/follow/stay, and when pet spells are auto-toggled, this is an option. I made this for myself mainly to test the command - if anyone notices any wierd pet behavior, this will be an option to help them report it as well.
5. Modified FollowActions to not constantly execute the petfollow action, overriding any stay or attack commands issued.
6. Modified GenericActions to have TogglePetSpellAutoCastAction optionally log when spells are toggled based on AiPlayerbot.PetChatCommandDebug.
7. Modified PetAttackAction to not attack if the pet is set to passive, and not override the pet's stance to passive every time it was executed.
8. Modified CombatStrategy.cpp to not constantly issue the petattack command, respecting the "pet stay" and "pet follow" commands. Pets will still automatically attack the enemy if set to aggressive or defensive.
9. Warlocks, Priests, Hunters, Shamans, Mages, Druids, and DKs (all classes that have summons): Added a "new pet" trigger that executes the "set pet stance" action. The "new pet" trigger happens only once, upon summoning a pet. It sets the pet's stance from AiPlayerbot.DefaultPetStance's value.
