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Release Hatchery.mac 2023-04-03

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Overview Updates (7) Reviews (12) History Discussion
I've run this countless times, and one thing I've noticed is that it's common to have 2-3 stragglers that don't show up until very late. If they happen to show up right after the tank aggro and the plee then uses their pbae, it's pretty much insta-death. Perhaps you could make it so the plee is farther from the opening than the tank is? When I do that manually, the late adds never aggro the plee because the tank is closer and the pbae is so low damage. The pbae has a pretty sizable range, more than enough to stay out of melee distance for those adds.
 
I haven't seen that much since v 2.2, but It makes sense sense for the AE caster to be as far as possible from the action while still being able to land the AE. I'll look into it. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
Redbot updated Hatchery.mac with a new update entry:

2.2

Okay - rather than adding a delay, I actually added a check/loop in the Kicktask subroutine, so that the macro will continue the kicktask action until the tank doesn't have the task anymore. Through 5 clears of the instance, it has worked without stopping. Attached the macro with my changes, if anyone is curious.

Okay I believe I've solved the "running around PoK" issue.

I basically changed the "DanZoneIn" subroutine to check the zone of every group member and if one or more group members...
Click to expand...

Read the rest of this update entry...
 
Good evening guys,

Hatchery looks like a very nice macro i’ve made a lot of try and figured out a lot of stuff not mention here by my self but there still must be something I don’t understand.

It is mentioned here that’s Hatchery is designed for a heroic Sk 85 gear with heroic gear and you can get your plee toons to 85 max. I would like to know how this work I have 4 toons level 45 that I want to PL but when I start the macro and enter Hatchery all mobs are 85 and they ripped my heroic SK apart in no time.

Am I missing something??
 
Spykeyqc said:
It is mentioned here that’s Hatchery is designed for a heroic Sk 85 gear with heroic gear and you can get your plee toons to 85 max. I would like to know how this work I have 4 toons level 45 that I want to PL but when I start the macro and enter Hatchery all mobs are 85 and they ripped my heroic SK apart in no time.
Click to expand...

Hello Spykeqc

You have your 85 SK and a merc healer for it.
You have your 4x 45 PLee.

I think you're missing this step:
1 of your 4x 45 PLee, needs to be the group leader, and not the SK.
That 1, is considered the AE character and will have the AE spell loaded ( i believe in slot 8 ). e.g. a Bard could use "Denon's Disruptive Discord".
That 1 AE PLee is mandatory as they do the damage for exp while mobs bounce off the SK damage shield.



Basic flow is this.
  • Your AE PLee leads the group, but the SK runs the macro.
  • The task is picked up from the NPC outside the PoK bank.
  • The group leader zones in first (AE PLee not the SK), this gets mob spawned to the PLee level.
  • The party (including the SK) zones in.
  • The SK leaves the group, stays in zone and runs around to gather the mobs as PLee wait at zone line.
  • SK arrives back with the train, positions and starts aggro management.
  • The AE PLee steps forward and starts nuking.
  • When the mobs are dead, the SK instructs the GL to invite back
  • SK joins group and they all run outside.
  • cycle starts over, with the task getting dropped and a fresh ask.

For the record, I have used the hatchery myself until PLee are ~ level 59.
I haven't used it for the 60+ instance, but others will have gone higher.


Hope this overview helps you, good fortune!



Regards and Best Wishes
 
Thank You BigDorf for that fast response.

I did exactly as you explained, from what I understood and saw when I've watch to macro running looks like:

1- My 45 Wiz is the group leader, SK got the healer merc in group and all the group is standing in front of Destrea.

2- I am on my SK screen and start the macro with /mac hatchery, macro start and go straight into pause mode

3- I then type /mqpause off to unpause the macro and macro gets running. From there things happen pretty fast but I think I see in the MQ window bunch of text scrolling like /tar destrea then everyone goes /say ready all at the same time and they all enter the instance.

So how can I be sure that my wiz start this instead of the SK?

Lol if I can get that macro to run normally and smoothly I think i'll do a complete tutorial :)
 
Hi from what i read on page1 to what the macro is now is completely different. is there a guide on where to put all the names for the new version? Or new instructions for 2.2?
 
I was reviewing a question from someone else, and thought i'd post the observation here for discussion.


On the left, is zone in code I've got in Hatchery from few months ago. On the right is the current live code.
1616883453236.png1616883525828.png

The earlier code, that gives a clear instruction to the group leader (AE nuking PLee ) to zone first, and holds until the leader is out of PoK.
Then the remainder of the group looks to zone in together, the other PLee and the high level SK puller, DS tanker.

On the right, the code has changed, such that all the group will try to zone together from the outset.
I believe this could cause a run time 'race condition' in which the high level SK lands first, and the zone is populated for the SKs level and not the PLees.

Someone can correct me if i'm wrong, but I think the mobs in the Hatchery zone are of the level according to the first character to zone in successfully.
 
@Spykeyqc sorry i've not seen your follow up question.

I've raised a question (here) based on your problem having looked at the code.

i haven't used the macro since perhaps January, and have notced the zone in code has changed.

Not going to discuss indepth here, as it belongs to the hatchery macro thread. Suffice to say, earlier code ensured the group leader zoned first, then the group followed. The current code is a kind of 'race' in which all the group will try to zone together.
I don't believe that should be the case, as I think the zone mobs are spawned to a level of content appropriate to the character that zones in first.


Again, sorry for not seeing your follow up question.
 
When I've ran it, (few months ago), the group leader AE nuker zoned first always.

Lowbies got mobs in the range 23 / 24.
Until the leader gets to level 30.

Then once the leader made level 30, the spawn became 33/34.
Through to the leader being, 39.

This pattern repeats; leader 40-49, gets 43/44 mobs. 50-59, gets 53/54 mobs 60-69 gets 63/64 mobs.

Personally I haven't ran it higher than 60s as moved onto other level activities away from Hatchery.



As I was writing before, i believe its bad juju for a level 85+SK to arrive in the zone first.
It really should be the group leader first, and the SK coming in last.
 
Worked Great. Took a little bit to get it set up after reading the forum, one saying spell in slot one and sk not in group and get the task with the bard to actually reading the macro and moving the spell to slot 8 and putting the sk in the group and requesting the task. All said and done worked like a charm. Thanks.
 
Two things I am noticing after using this for a bit. 1. A few times my SK makes it into the instance first and all the mobs are level 85ish obviously wiping within minutes. 2. Not using the bandolier Wurm after retreating to the corner.

Edit: Quick fixed the SK zoning in first by adding a nav loc away from the quest npc far enough that the others zone in first before he gets to say ready. Still haven't figured out why the /activate bandolier wurm is not working.

Edit: The check for wurm in slot 13 is not working. just changed it to activate since I have the wurm without the check for it in slot 13
 
Last edited:
Cannonballdex said:
Two things I am noticing after using this for a bit. 1. A few times my SK makes it into the instance first and all the mobs are level 85ish obviously wiping within minutes. 2. Not using the bandolier Wurm after retreating to the corner.
Edit: Quick fixed the SK zoning in first by adding a nav loc away from the quest npc far enough that the others zone in first before he gets to say ready. Still haven't figured out why the /activate bandolier wurm is not working.
Click to expand...

I commented on this before, when someone else talked of problems with high level mobs in the hatchery wiping the SK.

The code appears to have been amended in attempt to address some other issue, but in doing so has introduced this one you experience.
Previously, the group leader ( the PLee DPS, bard, wiz etc), is instructed to zone first. This gave the lower level character a head start of a dozen seconds before the remainder of the group follows.

The mobs that spawn in the zone are appropriate content for the first to arrive, which should be the lower level PLee and never the SK.
By sending them all together to zone, it's a race condition, with a chance the SK lands first and spawns them at high level.
 
Yah I worked out the kinks, ran 30 plus without any issues. Also got rid of the nagging error with the /face away or something to that effect. Making the SK nav to a location far enough away from the hail npc worked great giving the rest of the group plenty of time to load the instance before he gets to hail.
 
I've been running this to level some alts for the last few days and it mostly works great! As others have recently mentioned, sometimes (rarely for me) the sk will get into the instance first, Ill notice this because all the mobs on his xtarget are green instead of grey, when I notice this I first hit my hotkey to equip my wurm so the sk doesn't die while pulling, I then run the newbs out and then hit end on the sk and ctrl+f to get him to run out with nav. I notice this happens more when my pc has been running for a long period of time. I've been lucky and only ever died to this once as I normally catch it before the mobs catch up to my sk.

I'm running a 110sk in snowsquall gear with max AA and can safely say I don't need a healer or wurm until my PLee gets to level 70. If I ever ran this for an alt or friend in the future I would just get 2 wurms to keep it smooth. I give the Wurm to my PLee bard as this makes him invincible on those rare occasions that he pulls aggro. Although the sk doesn't 'need' the wurm till PLee's are 70, not having a wurm equipped does add a problem where I get smashed into walls, with the wurm, I don't move at all.

So the first time I ran this I had a full group SK + 5 plee's and I hadn't read Vorpal Chickens guide yet at this point. So all my PLee's were attempting this at level 2. Bard song was resisted so I added a monk to the group. I looked through INI file and looked for the point where the macro calls the Bard in to sing the song and I changed the delay set here to 71s instead of 1s. What this did was allow me to cycle through npc's and Throw stone on the Monk to tag it. At levels 15+ the bard song wasn't being resisted so I changed the ini back to ride the wave. This biggest hurdle for me on this group was 77+ where the exp gets way too slow. This is when I decided to drop all the extra PLee's and just keep the Bard + the toon I was doing this for. Level 80 was my goal as my team is 110 and at 80 I can group with my team to level the rest.

I decided I wanted one more toon on one of my silver accounts to get to max level and aa before the sub runs out so I started the process a second time with a little more experience under my belt. This time to start I used Vorpal Chicken's guide that has you TP to a druids bind to pick up a rock and then turn it in at Crescent reach to instantly hit level 12. I wasn't quite ready to start so I sat in an outdoor zone with bard singing a tune to level his skill equal to his level. I started with an SK WAR BARD +Plee. The warrior was only used for like 2 or 3 clears of hatchery, just enough Throw Stone to get the bard to a level to consistently hit the mobs. Honestly this might not of been necessary as on the second run, I was distracted, forgot to do the throw stone and only realized this when I heard the exp dings in my headset. At this point I removed the war and continued with just SK Bard +PLee. This is much faster then a group of PLee's and cruised to 70 very quickly.

70+ is my problem point, the guides I've read here now group with the 85sk and farm some zones to effectively level from 56 onwards. I don't have level 85 toons to group with my team so I need to get them to 80 for this treatment. I need some suggestions using a range of 110 characters to get a PL'ee from 70 to 80 more efficiently. I see high level characters selling powerleveling to 85 or even 115 I wonder what method they use. This is something I'll have to work on in the future. For now I just decided to bite the bullet and wait for the the hatchery to get me to 80.

When I think of it I also tend to click my either my unity feather or horn for additional DS and quicker clears. I noticed sometimes while everything is dead I might have a mob or 2 at max health, I just kill these with the sk and get a fresh zone faster instead of waiting for them to eventually die.

Thanks for maintaining a great macro, I wish I had experienced this before they nerfed the zone.
 
Can't seem to get this to work anymore I have used it in the past but today I went to go level some new toons and the macro just keeps saying not all group members are in the zone and the toons that are getting PL'd wont zone in but the bard. I'm a little lost if anyone knows what the problem is i could really use some help.
 
could be a few things, out dated hatchery.mac, not all the plugins needed are loaded, most likely the macro isn't set up properly with the toons and or the wrong leader of the group and the wrong toon requesting the quest. In the macro make sure you have the PLee1 string set to TRUE and for each other toon you are adding change the string to TRUE.

Set up your bandolier "wurm" and "noripo" otherwise you probably get your toons past 50 without using a merc on the heroic sk.

Invite the everyone to the group with the bard . Make sure plugins required are loaded (dannet) and autoaccept is on and /autoaccept add yourbardsname then /autoaccept save. Then run /mac hatchery with the SK.

Also, you can add at around line 211
/call kicktask "Hatching a Plan"
/if (${Group.Leader.Level} > 59) {
/echo \ayGroup Leader is over Level 59
/echo \atEnding Macro!
/bcaa //end
/bcaa //camp
}
INI: 
|---------------Start Edit-----------------------------------|
    | FILL IN YOUR TOON NAMES AND CHANGE PLee string TO TRUE     |
    | INVITE ALL TOONS WITH BARD AND RUN /mac hatchery WITH SK   |
    |------------------------------------------------------------|
    /declare Damageshieldcaster string outer YourDSCastersName
    /declare Damageshieldspell  string outer YourDSCastersSpell
    /declare UsePlee1 bool outer TRUE
    /declare PLee1 string outer YOURBARDSNAME
    /declare UsePlee2 bool outer FALSE
    /declare PLee2 string outer SECONDTOONNAME
    /declare UsePlee3 bool outer FALSE
    /declare PLee3 string outer THIRDTOONNAME
    /declare UsePlee4 bool outer FALSE
    /declare PLee4 string outer FOURTHTOONNAME
    /declare UsePlee5 bool outer FALSE
    /declare PLee5 string outer FIFTHTOONNAME
 
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Not Sure but in the Hatchery Updates i did over the year i totally removed the need for those names. and such Canonballdex.

Not sure where its at now but all It required was the First Plee was group leader, Run macro on Sk and Start in group with yer Plteam. only thing to edit in was Outside DS from a Druid or a mage.
 
BigDorf said:
I was reviewing a question from someone else, and thought i'd post the observation here for discussion.


On the left, is zone in code I've got in Hatchery from few months ago. On the right is the current live code.
View attachment 29209View attachment 29210

The earlier code, that gives a clear instruction to the group leader (AE nuking PLee ) to zone first, and holds until the leader is out of PoK.
Then the remainder of the group looks to zone in together, the other PLee and the high level SK puller, DS tanker.

On the right, the code has changed, such that all the group will try to zone together from the outset.
I believe this could cause a run time 'race condition' in which the high level SK lands first, and the zone is populated for the SKs level and not the PLees.

Someone can correct me if i'm wrong, but I think the mobs in the Hatchery zone are of the level according to the first character to zone in successfully.
Click to expand...
As i Wrote the Code on the Left I can Say Yes that was the entire Purpose of that sub, Cause it was A Pain in the but with SK zoning first I Kinda Engineered it to work in that way. to protect for this bug.
 
Not sure where its at now but all It required was the First Plee was group leader, Run macro on Sk and Start in group with yer Plteam. only thing to edit in was Outside DS from a Druid or a mage.
Click to expand...
Makes sense, wasn't sure why the rest were in there. haha I wasn't sure if the macro checked for group members in zone to begin or if it checked the macro for the list.

I just have the sk moving some distance away from the group after getting the task so that when the call to say ready the other 5 members are in before he gets to the quest mob to say ready. Worked 100% of the time so far.
 
Last edited:
Cannonballdex said:
Just noticed I must be working with an old version I got out of a thread. hahaha
Click to expand...

When i read the macro notes last year, it was a little confusing as what I was seeing didn't tie up with the macro itself.


Some time later I'm not sure where I read it, but it became clear that using the hatchery macro does not require any edits to it to use. The macro as downloaded can be used "out of the box" so to speak.

Make your PLee group, the AE nuker PLee is the group leader with spell in slot 8, and the SK tank runs the macro.


The version of Hatchery mac I've used few months ago is file size 60786 and cksum 3310966817.
I haven't used Hatchery this side of the suspension wave in February, my last runs, between December and January I think.
 
From my lessons learned with the hatchery.

  • You do not require to have a heroic SK. I have ran with a regular, bronze f2p SK at 85.
  • Ensure you have 12 spell slots, buy up to the AA rank 4 of Mnemonic Retention. (8 + 4 = 12 )
  • Get a cloak item that has clicky damage shield on it.
  • If not sure on weapons, go scrounge up a couple Fire Beetle Eye, and set bandolier for those two equipped "noripo".
  • Buy spells as used by the macro (these are base spells for 85, higher lvl toon, get higher lvl spell!)
    • Shroud of the Blightborn (82)
    • Mindshear Horror (81)
    • Drape of Korafax (84)
    • Banshee Aura (54)
    • Remorseless Demeanor (75)
    • Steely Stance (84)
    • Malarian Skin (85)
    • Terror of Jelvalak (81)
    • Terror of the Soulbleeder (76)
    • Terror of Vergalid (71)
    • Burst of Spite (84)
    • Revile (79)

If you try and run the macro without the extra spell slots, without the aoe aggros of Revile & Burst of Spite, it can get painful for the PLee very quickly.
Based on the above, supported by cleric apprentice II merc, I've ran hatchery to level 59 without much drama.

As with most hunts, I often get the Righteousness buff from high level cleric, to make life a bit safer!



Regards and Best Wishes
 
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I'm about to restart my comp. Hatchery was running fine and then all of a sudden it wont click the yes button to kickp task...

So I rebooted to no avail. Ended up unloading and reloading mq2say and it fixed it.

Only issue I have is once in a while when the mobs get up around 60 they push the SK right out the zoneline, leaving the group to pretty much toast.
 
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So this mac runs flawlessly so far. But my PLee's are not getting any xp at all.

I tried using a new lvl 4 bard as the PBAE and he cannot seem to hit anything. In 5 straight runs has not gotten any xp at all in my tests.

What level do toons need to be to start using this effectively?
 
Wraith6911 said:
So this mac runs flawlessly so far. But my PLee's are not getting any xp at all.

I tried using a new lvl 4 bard as the PBAE and he cannot seem to hit anything. In 5 straight runs has not gotten any xp at all in my tests.

What level do toons need to be to start using this effectively?
Click to expand...
I did the same thing jfrazi - About level 12-15 it starts working and the levels just fly.
 
Thank you for that... will finish the tutorial on the lil guys first.
 
Robban said:
yeah, sometimes the sk gets in first and mobs are to high.

Or pickup and handin
everquest.allakhazam.com

Shattered Krithgor Keystone

Everquest Item Information for Shattered Krithgor Keystone
everquest.allakhazam.com everquest.allakhazam.com
Boom lvl 12
Click to expand...
Yes! This. If you can do this quest - do it. Saves a lot of wasted time (as you're trying to PL anyway). Also, have the SK get some Fire Beatle eyes and make sure you create the two bandoliers per the instructions on the hatchery.mac. GL and HF! I loved that script.
 
So it worked great for like 20 straight levels - then my toons kept trying to run off to what seemed like random places in PoK? One went to get some aug that wasnt there. Another one ran into a wall endlessly.. lol Any ideas?

edit - also yes I had forgotten about the keystone quest - knocked that out on the bard and worlds of difference.
 
jfrazi,

It's been a bit since I used the Hatchery macro, but I believe when I had that issue it was related to either pausing the macro or ending the macro before zoning out of the instance. I cannot remember the specifics, but the couple of times I had it occur I believe I had paused the macro intending to take a break, then zoned out. I believe the SK [the character running the macro] remained in place, but the rest of the group started hopping up on the walls of the bank there, etc. Not sure if that relates to your troubles, but I believe that was the only time I witnessed something like you describe.

Edit: I seem to remember being able to call them all to me and stop the behavior by clicking the Come to Me button in the group window. Then I re-ran the macro and everything went back to normal.
 
too faded to try it again tonight... but will give a whirl again tomorrow after the kiddo is in bed
 
A couple of things (as I'm currently powerleveling another crew ATM:

One, if you find your guys wandering PoK - what happens is the SK gets a bit off the corner of the room and the mobs push him out of the zone. I never AFK this thing for that reason, I have to readjust once in a while. Keep them in the corner and try to keep it so mobs are behind you, so you can't dodge attacks (meaning the baddies die quicker). I also move the SK away from the quest giver during the "Waiting for instance" phase so they have to run to her, ensuring you don't accidentally get the SK in there first. That may be the other reason everyone is wandering PoK - and that is everyone probably died. Those are the times I've had that happen.

And yes, there's something odd going on with Next and MQ2Nav - I have had instances where /endmacro and /nav stop will not stop a character from trying to run to some point. I have to unload MQ2Next and reinject. Not sure what does that, but it's only happened a few times, so I just live with it. Not sure if you're using Next or Live, but it's something to know.

If you can get a Mage/Druid high-level Damage shield on the SK once your Bard is about 40, things will go much smoother. However, you'll need to modify the script, otherwise, it will try and cast the SK's self Damage Shield over and over and over because it can't land over the higher DS by your outside buffer. This causes some issues regarding aggro because it's busy casing DS that won't work instead of aggro spells. However, I'll repeat, it makes things A LOT better to have a real damage shield on the SK at higher levels.
 
Wraith6911 said:
So it worked great for like 20 straight levels - then my toons kept trying to run off to what seemed like random places in PoK? One went to get some aug that wasnt there. Another one ran into a wall endlessly.. lol Any ideas?

edit - also yes I had forgotten about the keystone quest - knocked that out on the bard and worlds of difference.
Click to expand...
Sometimes I find my group running in PoK also. It is some weird stuff going on with the group, looks like noone is grouped and no-one gets in the instance, but the script continues and the SK tries to find the locs in PoK instead. The weird thing is if I press disband, it shows the members leaving the group (even though I dont see any of them in the group window)
 
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