LAGWAR | GAMING'S BEST IN TOP NOTCH MEDIOCRITY

Have you ever wondered how to get some scientific data around your combat performance? Well, I stumbled on a Google Code open source project that fits the bill, and the author is an absolute genius. You can use the native LOTRO chat function and turn on logging to get the data parsed out and presented in a nice manner. It generates graphs, and it even has output reports to Excel spreadsheets!

Get this combat log parser project here:  http://code.google.com/p/cstats/ 

To start with, you need to enable your chat log.  First, create a Combat tab.  Next, start the Chat logging function.   All this is achieved through a series of right clicks in LOTRO.  You will need to point the cstats program to your LOTRO directory, and START PARSING!  It will read the file as it changes in real time.

The directory in which my combat log outputs is

C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online\Combat_20091225_1.txt

So, to test the capability for the purpose of the article, I did a level 59 skirmish in Tuckborough with a couple of kin mates.  Under normal game play conditions, you can go back and browse your combat effectiveness and see a string of messages like this:

You wound Dourhand Keg-master with Salt the Wound for 344 points of Common damage.

At the rate the scrolling occurs, you will never get a sense of how well you are doing overall.  The rapid flow of combat action and messages makes reflection and analysis problematic.

However, after the battle concludes, cstats brings you an amazing amount of data that you can shape and display in any way you want with the basic encounter reporting tool:

Additionally, you can use the tool to produce custom XML report files and open in Excel or OpenOffice to conduct analysis on your own:

I am not yet sure how I can use this to help me improve my game, but I sure do like the idea of being able to analyze my game play and perhaps have the ability to do things which will inform my ability to get better at the edge of my already supreme greatness.  When you get to the end game in most MMORPGs, it takes a lot more effort for the next little bit of progression to occur.  Perhaps cstats can be the tool that helps me move that extra step down the end game progression road.