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Overview -
Ease of Use -
Features -
Performance
- Support
- Review
Score
 Overview:
Einstein
(created by
MT_Gouru)
is a buffing utility designed to easily change configurations yet retain
the ability to save predefined profiles. It can be used to buff either
yourself or a friend. As the name would suggest, Einstein will attempt
to intelligently handle many of the required tasks for you.
Requirements:
*
Decal
2.6.0.3
*
Spell Filter (1.4.0.0 or higher)
*
Latest
Imp Filter
V2
*
 Latest
MSXML
Ease of use:
Most of the buffing interface is displayed on a single page which allows
you faster access to the settings most frequently adjusted. Just about
everything was arranged neatly such that it was easy to locate anything
I was looking for. Another smart thing is that all the rarely changed
settings are moved out of the way and appear under the settings tab, and
these settings are saved separately for each character. I found the
self/other buttons on the individual spells to be handy as well.
Sometimes I just need to buff one thing or cast a specific spell on a
friend and Einstein makes this process extremely simple. There was one
change I felt could aid players to configure their settings more quickly
- removing the clothing option would allow easier access to the weapons
buff option. Most people would likely use the buff self option anyway,
and the ones who didn't would normally use the same banes on their
underclothes as they do for the rest of their armor. I believe this
could be replaced with a simple "cast banes on clothing" option under
the settings tab.
A feature I liked quite a bit was the context-sensitive help. You
can click almost any text on the interface and it provides some
information about that selection in the chat window. The author could
have gone a step further with this by removing the question marks on the
settings tab and instead allow players to click the text on each item
for the help information so it's consistent with the rest of the
application. Better descriptions on the context-sensitive help would be
welcome and seeing something say "offensive buffs" really doesn't do a
good job telling me which buffs will actually be cast.
Einstein uses a unique feature to organize buffs into categories
much like a buff-bot would. This is done to simplify the interface,
allow users to make buff selections more quickly, and help players avoid
missing an important buff spell. Overall it's very successful with this
and the program will intelligently cast buffs from the profile based on
what it knows about your character. For example on my sword guy the
"offensive" category would cast coord, strength, and sword mastery on
me. Unfortunately this still needs to be tweaked a bit because the same
selection additionally cast creature, life, mana c, focus, and
willpower. If I wanted those I would have selected the "magics"
category. I noticed the "defensive" category also threw in all these
magic buffs too for some reason. I thought the only magic buffs it
should have added were focus, self, and magic defense. Another oddity is
that archers who have trade skills (such as alchemy or cooking) are
forced to buff all of their trade skills every time even when they just
wanted to do fletching so they could hunt. I feel the easiest way to
remedy this would be to add fletching to the list of creature spells
available in the right-hand scroll list. Come to think of it I feel all
the beneficial creature spells should show up in that list to provide
the application greater flexibility. Overall I feel that the buff
profiles are a real asset to this application and with a little tweaking
they could become even smarter at handling the needs of various
character templates. Figuring out how the categories affect your
individual character could be really easy if the status page showed what
spells were selected before you click the buff button.
The program is smart in other ways too. It casts spell levels
appropriate to your casting skill. It manages mana regeneration. It knew
to cast banes on equipped armor pieces, hermetic link on casters,
bd/def/sk on bows, and bd/def/sk/hs on melee weapons. When you select
another person it will cast on their equipped shield and weapons. When
they show you equipment in the trade window it will cast the appropriate
spells on those items.
Getting some help files onto the author's web page would be
awesome. For example, it took me a bit to figure out that you could tell
Einstein which render weapons you use for each element and then get them
all buffed. This task is accomplished by going to the settings tab,
clicking edit weapons, assigning the weapon you want for each element,
going back to the buffing tab, scrolling the first window down to
display weapons, and then putting dots in boxes for each resistance
render weapon you wish to buff. Banes are handled quite a bit different
than other programs as well. There's not anything necessarily wrong with
this approach but the help files would have been a blessing.
Features:
Regaining Mana: Einstein uses life magic to cast
stamina to mana and revitalize. It also has limited support for Ulgrim's
Stein (won't use mana charges on it when needed, requires you to have
life magic trained or have [precisely->] stamina elixers in your
inventory). It doesn't support using Elysa's Wonderous Orb, laying down
to regain stamina, using healing kits, using health/stamina/mana foods,
or using other types of elixers or potions.
Saving Settings: Einstein can automatically save
settings for each individual character or use pre-saved configurations
whichever you prefer.
Equipment Changes: Prebuff item equipping is
supported and Einstein can restore what you were wearing once the buff
cycle is complete. It doesn't have the ability to change equipment
during the buff cycle nor can you specify different items to be equipped
after the buff cycle. Note: Einstein cannot buff any items you do not
have equipped other than up to 8 weapons. This means you will not be
able to wear mage armor to aid in buffing and then equip a different set
of armor afterwards.
New Game Features: Einstein supports casting
hermetic link/mystics blessing on wands. It also supports casting banes
on your paper doll. It does not yet support casting defender on wands or
any of the new fellowship spells.
Buffing Other Players: Full support for life and
creature buffs. Includes support for casting item spells on wielded
items as well as items seen in a trade window.
Output Options: Einstein can suppress the casting
output making it easier to chat. It displays the names of the spells
remaining in the buffing queue and even allows you to remove a spell
from the queue without aborting the buff cycle. While casting it
displays the percentage complete as well as a counter keeping track of
the total casting time. Once it completes it displays a summary of
pyreals spent, number of fizzles, time it took, number of spells,
average time for each spell, mana used, average mana consumption, and
number of stat juggling cycles.
Other Features: Configurable hotkey support for
various functions.
Performance:
The program seemed very stable although there were a couple quirks (for
example the top scroll bar on the buffing tab works but you can't
visibly see the bar move). Buff times were nothing short of amazing. My
mage's hunting buffs normally consist of 38 spells but Einstein
lengthened it out to 46 (it snuck in quickness, run, etc somehow) yet
still completed in only 2:30! There were no annoying thumping noises
while it was buffing either
The ability to choose spell levels is pretty limited - you can
disable casting level 7's to keep from burning plats but beyond that the
only thing you can do is modify all the individual spell curves. This
isn't something you'd do on the fly just to get off some run buffs. Also
unfortunate is that Einstein would attempt to cast on unenchantable
items such as my Aerfalle's Pallium and that it would cast hermetic link
on casters that cannot benefit from it (such as a Buadren). Einstein
also had an inefficient spell casting order which didn't prioritize
hermetic link, mana conversion, or even buffing focus, willpower, or
magic schools before skills like crossbow mastery. I found a workaround
by forcing it to cast prebuffs.
Support: This
program is still supported by the author. He has many improvements and
new features in mind so if you like it already you'll love it even more
pretty soon. Support is not available on his web site. You'll find no
FAQ, no forum, no information about what version of Decal is even
required. Your best bet if you have problems is to contact
MT_Gouru at
VNBoards. He posts
there quite often and he seems to be a kindly person. I found him to be
helpful and very approachable.
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