If I have Soandso targeted, is there a way for me to have the target switch to either their pet or their merc? For instance, is there something like '/target %t_merc'? One instance where this would be handy is, buffing a lowbie in the buff pile with single-target buffs. I can target the lowbie with a simple '/target Soandso' and buff him. But for their pet or merc, I have to scan over the crowd to try to visually find a floating label like 'Kitober (Soandso's Pet)'. Pets tend to be pretty close to their owner, but mercs can be pretty far away. Another instance is in raids and large groups. Someone may say that their pet or merc needs a buff. Being able to select that person with '/target Soandso' and then switch to their pet or merc would be more convenient than having to figure out which pet or merc is theirs and then select it.
you know, this was never an issue with auto generated pet names. It olny became an issue when devs decided to use "Soanso's Warder" and Soandso's Familiar. the simple answer to all this is for EQ developers make the apastrophe part of the character string and NOT search pets unless it is included.
I wasn't initially thinking about the problem with "/target Soandso" ending up targeting "Soandso's familiar". That is also a pain that could use some improvement It would be best if "/target Soandso" would only target PCs and not corpses, familiars and warders. If I want those things selected, then I'd have to write it out like "/target Soandso's corpse". My original need was that once I have someone targeted, I want to switch to their pet or merc in some kind of programmatic way. Commands like "/target Soandso's pet" and "/target Soandso's merc" would be one way to solve this issue.
I would prefer if they made buffs auto-scale down, so I can just cast my best group buff on them, and the game scales it to the level of buff which would land on them, and so it could hit the merc and the pet all at the same time. Also saves the buffer the trouble of figuring out which buff will land on said lowbie/merc/pet.
I still use my mouse, while I box. use that group window and target who you want. You can get to pet and merc both . Yeah I know Blasphemy.
I think the OP was talking about people NOT in your group. Mainly, lowbies looking for buffs in PoK/GL/etc.
If you press the f key (f2 to f6) associated with their spot in the group and then press the same f key again, it'll target their pet and alternate between the two.
What made me think of this is when I'm hanging out in the buff pile and see "Any buffs for a lvl 60?", I'll toss them some buffs. Or I may do a who for the lowbies and randomly buff them. I'll buff their pet and merc while I'm at it, but it can be hard to find "Soandso's Mercenary" and "Soandso's Pet" in this mess: I can pretty easily target the person with /target. Even if I get their familiar, the targeting ring and flashing name help me find the person in the crowd. But I don't know of a quick way to target their pet and merc other than spotting the text above their head. I would think this would also be useful in raid situations where someone in the raid channel says they need buffs. The buffer could also check the person's merc and pet while they were at it. But if the person isn't in the buffer's group, I'm not sure the buffer has a way to tell who the person's pet and merc are.
You can target a beastlord's warder by typing /tar soandso`. You can also target a person's corpse this way even if they're nearby their corpse. That's the backtick, not the apostrophe. This won't work for enchanter, magician, or necromancer pets, since their names aren't associated with the owner. It also won't work for warders the beastlord has renamed.
