Combat Log Parser on Mr. Robot
Merging is automatic. That’s right… aut-o-matic. Why? Because robots like to make things as easy for humans as possible. However, Mr. Robot knows that us humans do non-robot things, like go questing before a raid and upload a log with all sorts of junk in it. He tried to account for all of these cases, but sometimes he has a hard time relating to us squishies.
We wanted to share the logic behind this aut-o-magical merging to help everyone understand what’s going on, and perhaps give insight into what might be causing something to break.
If you’re here to ask Mr. Robot for his personal help with your logs, you’re in the right place. Jump down to ‘report bugs’ and tell us what’s going on. Mr. Robot is loaded up on coffee and kit-kats, ready to help every single person who asks.
Table of contents:
A couple of things can cause problems:
- Someone selected the wrong time zone when uploading a log (it should be your computer’s time zone, not the server’s time zone)
- Someone has ‘junk’ at the beginning of a log, like they were questing. We try to account for that and roll it into ‘trash,’ but certain cases are confusing our favorite little robot. We’re working on a better way to handle this.
How to minimize problems:
- Start with a clean log. When your raid starts, have everyone uncheck ‘enable combat logging’ in the in-game preferences menu. Click ‘apply.’ Then re-check that option and click apply. This starts a new log.
- Get your healers (who’ve interacted with everyone) to upload logs right away. Those healers act as the ‘glue’ when Mr. Robot searches for logs (we explain more later)
Step 1 & 2: Uploading your log
- If you are uploading 1 log, Mr. Robot needs to know your time zone (in step 2). He grabs the date automatically from the name of the original combat file. However, if you changed the name of the file, Mr. Robot will ask you for the date as well (like you see in the image below).
- If you are uploading multiple logs at the same time, Mr. Robot needs to know the timezone of ONE of the logs (in step 2). He can then figure out the timezones of the rest. He does this by looking at the start time for each fight (+/- 5 seconds), until he finds one that matches. He then looks at the time stamps, if one log is at 16:02 and the other is at 19:02, Mr. Robot will apply -3 hours to the second one.
- If you happen to have all of the logs from your raid members, upload them at the SAME time, not one at a time. Why? Because if you upload them one at a time, Mr. Robot needs to know the time zone of each one. If you upload them all at once, he can apply the time offset described in the previous bullet point.
- Pro Tip: To get clean logs in the future, have everyone uncheck ‘enable combat logging’ in the game. Click ‘apply.’ Then re-check ‘enable combat logging’ and click apply. This forces a new log to start.
Step 3 – More Info: In step 3, you’ll be asked for your region and realm (guild is optional). Mr. Robot will also ask you for the difficulty of the flashpoint he found, as well as the difficulty and size for operations.
Why does Mr. Robot need this information? He uses it to find related logs, and to keep someone from merging a log that doesn’t belong (he is trying to idiot proof it). For example, he won’t let someone from the server Juyo merge with your log on your server. He also won’t let your guildmate merge the karagga’s palace raid with the explosive conflict raid.
Merging Logs:
This is where Mr. Robot does a search for related logs. How does he do this? He look through your log to find other players that show up. Not everyone shows up, only people who interacted with you, like they healed you or you healed them. He then takes this list of players and looks through every log on your server, with the raid/operations you did, on the same date. When he finds a match, he’ll tell you!
What could go wrong? A few things:
- If you are the first person to upload a log, he won’t find matches. Tell your friends to hurry up and upload their logs.
- Some people might not appear in your log, but they uploaded their file already. If this happens, Mr. Robot gives you the option to type another player’s name in a box and he’ll search for them too. Why would this happen? Let’s say you’re a DPS’er and you get healed by HealzorJoe, but no one else shows up in your log. You know that TankySteve uploaded his log though, so when you type in his name, Mr. Robot will let you merge them. Now let’s say HealzorJoe uploads his log, and he’s healed every single person. Mr. Robot will know to join everyone that HealzorJoe has healed… your healers should always upload logs, they act like the glue to these logs
- If someone already uploaded their log and selected the wrong time zone (/facepalm), Mr. Robot won’t think they are related, or if he does, it could mess up the boss fights.
- If someone has a lot of junk in their log, like if they were questing before the raid, Mr. Robot will add that to the ‘trash’ fight list. However, we’ve seen some cases where junk is messing up the merges. If you have this happen to you, send us the logs and a link to your report. We want to fix it!
- If someone leaves early or joins late, Mr. Robot is programmed to handle this. But, if you see something funky, tell us!
Below are some images of the merging process. The first screenshot shows you that no related logs were found. The second one shows you that Mr. Robot found a related log, and asks you to confirm before merging.
FAQ
- Q: My log didn’t merge with someone else, and I KNOW they uploaded it.
A: Mr. Robot requires that a few things match so people can’t merge unrelated logs. Did one of you input the wrong information? It could be that someone put in the wrong time zone for their log, or the wrong date. Also, the server and zones (flashpoint / operation) have to match. The guild does NOT have to match, since you could have puggers in the group. See this post with detailed information about the merge process. - Q: Can I upload more than one log at a time?
A: YES (and no!). You can upload multiple logs if they are from the same group. For instance, I can upload my log and 3 of my friend’s logs (which they emailed to me) from a flashpoint. Just select multiple files during the upload process. Do NOT upload multiple logs from different runs, Mr. Robot will think they are supposed to match and his head might light on fire. - Q: Can I merge PVP logs?
A: You can upload and analyze PVP logs, but you cannot merge them. The reason is that people’s server names and other info isn’t in the log. A log might also have 5 different PVP matches in it, with a ton of different players. So merging wouldn’t work unless the same 10 people fought against the same other 10 people match after match. - Q: Help, I can’t find the link to my log, where did it go?
A: If you are logged in, Mr. Robot will keep a list of all previous logs (and related logs) that you’ve uploaded (see example). You can get back to that view by clicking the “Home” link in the blue breadcrumb trail. If you do not have an account, you’ll want to bookmark your reports to find them again. If you didn’t bookmark it and you’re desperate (I’ve been there!), try typing swtor.askmrrobot.com/combatlog/ into your address bar on the same computer you viewed it on before. It will populate some previous urls, one should be your report. - Q: I uploaded a log and picked the wrong date, how can I merge with my guild now?
A: Re-upload your log and pick the right settings. Viola! - Q: I merged a log with another one that I didn’t want merged, can I fix it?
A: You can upload the log again, just pick a different date. - Q: I think I found a bug.
A: Send us the info! If it’s something wrong with your report, it’s helpful to give us the log(s) in question as well.
Reporting Bugs:
So you’ve done everything right and the logs are still not working. Send us the logs and a link to the report on our site. Give us as much information about what you’re expecting to see as you can. Email us (feedback@askmrrobot.com), leave a comment, or stop by our forums. We want to fix it (it’s in Mr. Robot’s nature).