Since the release of version 1.0-beta of the script, the availability of new cards in the database depended on my daily manual updates. As I begun to have less and less time to dedicate to the script and was away many weekends in a row, these updates became quite rare.
You will be happy to hear that from now on the updates to the script are strictly linked to the updates of the Python script runs every hour on my server (in the first minute of each hour) and looks for information on new cards and collections.
Isaac and Pedro also developed scripts (in Perl and /bin/sh & co. respectively) to fetch informations from the wiki and transform them into the cards database format. I would like to thank them both for their dedication to this script (and the tips I found in their scripts :-)).
So if you need to add a card to the database, add it to the Wiki and wait until the next update. If a new card is introduced with a spelling error in the card image’s name, the script will still have problems. Report the misspelled cards (those found in Tools > GreaseMonkey > Commands > Show unknown cards e.g.) on my blog as usual.
Since Facebook decided to totally replace the old layout with the new one, all my scripts need some small changes. You can find the updated versions below:
Download PackRat Helper: version 1.1.1
Download MobWars Helper: version 1.0
Also available at UserScripts.org, where you find a short manual.
For more informations about the installation process please check the FAQ.
[This version of the script is OBSOLETE. For more informations and newer versions check the PackRat Helper category.]
As I mentioned in my previous post the PackRat servers are undergoing a great strain due to the number of people playing the game and (which most concerns me) the number of people that use this script 24 hours a day. The developers of the game has gently asked to make some modifications to the script to limit the abuses. Since their proposal was reasonable enough, I have decided to adopt it (with some changes).
Changelog:
- Stalking works again.
- You can automatically buy only one card of each kind from the new collections every 24 hours (currently “Green Scene”, “High Seas Century” and “Trick or Treat). For the rest of them you’ll get a confirmation pop-up).
- After collecting 2000 credits or discovering 10 pop-ups since your last visit to Your Pack, the script will pause.
- After 2 hours since your last visit to Your Pack, the script will browse the pages at a much slower pace.
- The minimum delay for browsing is 3 seconds, while for market stalking it is 30 seconds.
Download PackRat Helper: version 1.1
Also available at UserScripts.org, where you find a short manual.
For more informations about the installation process please check the FAQ.
The script has reached 700 daily users, which compared with the total number of PackRat players is far from negligible. It’s no surprise that we attracted the attention of the Dev’s, who contacted me in the hope to make the game a better place (for the script users, the others and the servers).
Some of the features of the script (if misused) place a great strain to the game servers and cause a denial of service for everyone. On the other side despite my best intentions there are other features that hurt the non-script users of the game: stalking for newly released cards e.g. makes impossible for a normal user to buy these items.
Thus I am discussing with the Dev’s the limits to put on the script to make it more fair for everyone. As far I am thinking about:
- Putting a limit on how long the script can run unattended (e.g. 2 hours). Afterwards it will just stop and ask for human input.
- The credit module will become inert after a certain amount of money. E.g. if you have more than 20k credits, you surely don’t need more.
- The script will stalk normally for old cards, but when you are looking for newly released items you will have to manually confirm your intention of buying that item (and give a chance to others to buy the card).
I gave the link to this post to PackRat’s Dev’s so that we can discuss the problems together.
[This version of the script is OBSOLETE. For more informations and newer versions check the PackRat Helper category.]
At a popular demand and since it doesn’t seem to provide any valuable data, I removed the pop-up that relayed the error messages when the menu is not available.
Changelog:
- Removed the pop-up with errors.
- Update version 1.0.2: a last bugfix for the market stalking fix.
Download PackRat Helper: version 1.0.1, version 1.0.2
Also available at UserScripts.org, where you find a short manual.
For more informations about the installation process please check the FAQ.
[This version of the script is OBSOLETE. For more informations and newer versions check the PackRat Helper category.]
Since the release of the 1.0-beta version of the script a month ago, the script has improved greatly on the stability and features level. That’s why we are now proud to present the first stable 1.0 release.
The stalking module that was broken a couple of days ago by an update in the PackRat application is working again and some minor features you requested were added.
I’d like to thank Donna for her donation to this project.
Changelog:
- The script takes into account the new changes to buying introduced by the PackRat developers. Market stalking will work again.
- There is an option to browse only through Rats in the Browse section.
- An option to stalk every market (instead of only those were there are known cards from the shopping list) has been added. Use it if you are looking for cards that are not already in the database.
- A fourth shopping list was added: “Empty”. It can be useful if you are looking only for cards that are not in the database.
- There is an option to steal locks even if they are not in the shopping list. It can be useful to free some space in the pack, while not buying any lock from the markets while market stalking.
- A couple of new script commands were introduced: “Show pop-up statistics” and “Show unknown cards”. The second one can be useful to correct some misspelling done by the PackRat Devs. E.g. if the image file for “Any Card” has a name that is different from “any-card” (e.g. “Any%20Card” or ‘any-cadr”, etc.) I must take this into account in the database to correctly detect it.
Download PackRat Helper: version 1.0
Also available at UserScripts.org, where you find a short manual.
For more informations about the installation process please check the FAQ.
[This version of the script is OBSOLETE. For more informations and newer versions check the PackRat Helper category.]
Since I will be away for most of the next weekends, thus being unable to update the database of known cards, I offer you the possibility to pick-up/steal/buy cards from unknown collections or unknown cards from selected collections.
I would like to thank Texy for her donation to this project.
In other news this script has reached 500 daily users from around the globe (based on the daily database downloads).
Changelog:
- You can select “Add unknown collections to current shopping list” in the preferences panel to collect cards from collections that are not already in the database.
- The “Add unknown cards from selected collections to current shopping list” allows you to hunt for newly released cards from your working collections without having to wait for the database update.
Download PackRat Helper: version 1.0-rc2
Also available at UserScripts.org, where you find a short manual.
For more informations about the installation process please check the FAQ.
[This version of the script is OBSOLETE. For more informations and new releases check the Mob Wars Helper category.]
Since the developers rolled back the multiple locations feature and the changes to the game has stopped for a while, it’s time to release a quick bugfix for the problems caused by the game updates.
Changelog:
- The script does not mark as unused the weapons with attack equal to 0.
- A database reset is no more necessary when starting over.
- Other bug fixes
Mob Wars Helper: version 1.0-rc2
Also available at Userscripts.org
For more informations on installation, please read the FAQ.
[This version of the script is OBSOLETE. For more informations and new releases check the Mob Wars Helper category.]
A couple of minor improvements have been sitting on my computer for almost a month. Since I don’t have time to add any major features, I hope you’ll appreciate the small bug fixes from previous versions.
Changelog:
- Captchas are detected now and the script will stop waiting for human input whenever one is encountered.
- The attack and defence values are now computed according to the formula “sum of weapons + mob size * attack/defence points” instead of “sum of weapons + attack/defence points” previously used.
- Some minor bugs in the total city value where fixed.
Mob Wars Helper: version 1.0-rc1
Also available at Userscripts.org
For more informations on installation, please read the FAQ.
On August, 17th there has been a big update in the Mob Wars application. As a consequence the script must be updated to the new “multiple location” version of the game and for now (at least for characters of level over 45) the jobs module doesn’t work.
It shouldn’t take a lot of time to fix it, but I have plenty of real world work, so you’ll have to be patient.
Concerning captchas, I will probably just stop the script whenever one is encountered to let you insert the answer yourself.
