OddCast

OddCast is a small Ashita v4 addon for explicit, one-command elemental spell selection. It includes a native settings window, while casting remains fully manual: there is no automatic rotation and no packet injection.

Requirements

• Ashita v4
• a supported FFXI client build with the validated Vana'diel-time layout

For a packaged release, verify OddCast-v1.4.0.zip against SHA256SUMS.txt, extract the complete ZIP, and double-click Install-OddCast.cmd. The installer locates Ashita, stages and hash-verifies the exact payload, backs up an existing install, and verifies the installed copy. For a custom location, run Install-OddCast.cmd -AshitaRoot "C:\path\to\Ashita". For a source install, copy the complete addons\oddcast directory to Ashita\addons\oddcast.

The installed directory must contain exactly oddcast.lua, locales.lua, ui_skin.lua, Update-OddCast.ps1, update_checker.lua, weakness_data.lua, weakness_data_manifest.json, README.md, THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md, LICENSE-LUASHITACAST-MIT, and LICENSE-ODDCAST-GPL-3.0. Then run:

/addon load oddcast

Commands

/oddcast day
/oc day
/oddcast day [SERVER_ID]
/oc day [SERVER_ID]
/oc day [t]
/oddcast weakness
/oc weak
/oddcast weakness [SERVER_ID]
/oc weak [SERVER_ID]
/oc weak [t]
/oc settings
/oc target
/oc target <t>
/oc target <bt>
/oc tier
/oc tier day <1-5|I-V|clear>
/oc tier weak <1-5|I-V|clear>
/oc chat
/oc chat <on|off>
/oc language
/oc language <en|fr|de|ja|es|zh>
/oc help

settings opens the OddQ-styled OddCast control center and also prints the current values in chat. First load opens a short setup view in that same window. The control center provides explicit Day and Weakness cast buttons, a manual update check, <t> versus <bt>, the independent Day and Weakness/fallback tier ceilings, routine chat feedback, interface language, and a one-click reset to safe defaults. Changes apply immediately only after OddCast saves, reloads, and verifies the value through Ashita's settings API. A failed read-back reports an error and restores the prior value when Ashita's persistence API remains available. Close the window with its normal X; all text commands remain available as a fallback.

Routine automatic chat is off by default. /oc chat on enables cast submission, confirmation, queue, cast-bar, and load status messages; /oc chat off hides them again. Actionable errors, /oc help, setting queries, and setting-change confirmations remain visible either way. The same setting is available as Show routine chat messages in the settings window and is persisted per character.

/oc language reports the current interface language. Set it to en, fr, de, ja, es, or zh for English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, or Simplified Chinese. The same selector is available in the settings window and is persisted per character. Japanese and Simplified Chinese use installed Windows CJK fonts in the GUI. Because FFXI chat cannot safely represent those scripts, chat and help-command replies fall back to English instead of showing replacement question marks. Spell names remain game-compatible. Spell names, command keywords, target tokens, and player-entered monster names remain unchanged so Ashita commands and target identity checks stay exact.

When an update is available, the settings window shows Install update and reload. The updater downloads only the official GitHub release, verifies its SHA-256 checksum and archive paths, then uses the existing staged installer. The previous installation remains available as a timestamped rollback backup. OddCast reloads itself only after installation succeeds; any failure leaves the current version active and reports the error in the settings window and chat.

To make every receiving character use the sender's selected monster, send the command through MultiSend:

/ms send /oc day [t]
/ms send /oc weak [t]

Direct /oc day [t] and /oc weak [t] capture this client's selected monster immediately. An active subtarget is preferred; otherwise OddCast captures the main target. The capture is converted to a decimal server ID before selection, waiting, submission, or retry, and it does not change the saved <t>/<bt> setting. MultiSend still resolves [t] on the sending character before the receiving client sees the command. In either form, the resolved monster must be visible to the client in the same zone.

day reads the client's current Vana'diel day and queues the highest modeled ready single-target spell of that element. For the six standard tier lines, base power rises with tier, so this selects the highest available tier.

weak looks up the target's normalized mob name in one global CatsEye-derived table, with typical family prefixes as a fallback. It is independent of zone: a Damselfly uses the Fly profile everywhere and an ordinary Goblin uses the Goblin profile everywhere. When source variants disagree, the most common profile wins; the lowest profile ID breaks an exact vote tie. OddCast chooses the available element with the best resistance rank, then the strongest base power * elemental SDT spell within that rank.

When a custom mob has no exact name or family match, weak falls back to the strongest modeled ready spell across the six comparable elemental tier lines. Missing or malformed weakness data still fails closed rather than bypassing the validated catalog.

Ready means all of the following are true: the spell is learned, the current main or subjob can use it at its current level, current MP covers its cost, and its recast is zero.

tier controls independent ceilings for day and weak. Both default to V. For example, /oc tier day III limits only day selection to tiers I-III, while /oc tier weak 4 limits recognized weaknesses and the unknown-target fallback to tiers I-IV. Arabic 1-5 and Roman I-V inputs are accepted case-insensitively. /oc tier, /oc tier day, /oc tier weak, and /oc settings report the persisted values. Use clear in place of a tier to restore that mode's default ceiling of V.

If the player is already casting, OddCast keeps exactly one pending request for up to 15 seconds instead of sending a command that FFXI will reject as busy. It briefly checks that an initially positive cast-bar count is actually moving, so the frozen count left by an interrupted cast is recognized as stale idle within 0.10 seconds. A genuinely moving cast retains the full behavior: OddCast waits for the cast bar to clear plus a 3.1-second post-cast settle, rechecks the same target identity, recalculates the highest ready spell, and submits a normal /ma command. OddCast retains the request until the player's incoming action packet confirms that exact spell started; an unconfirmed submission is retried at most four times inside the same 15-second bound. A newer /oc day or /oc weak replaces the not-yet-submitted intent; any already-submitted attempt remains the sole in-flight cast until it starts or its retry lock ends. A target identity change, a target-setting change for a request that used the setting, expiry, ambiguous cast start, or addon unload cancels it. One-shot server-ID requests remain bound to their captured target even if <t> or <bt> changes. This is bounded completion of an explicit command, not an automatic rotation.

target controls the hostile-target token used by both cast commands. The default is <t>; <bt> selects Ashita's current battle target. /oc target and /oc settings report the current value. The setting is persisted through Ashita's native settings system. Only <t> and <bt> are accepted because deferred subtarget tokens could let the player choose a different monster after OddCast has already selected a spell. An active subtarget cursor makes <t> fail closed; finish or cancel it before using OddCast.

Missing or invalid settings, targets, spell resources, job levels, MP, recast data, Vana time, the weakness index, or the chat command queue all fail closed and submit nothing. OddCast resolves the configured token or one-shot server ID first, then rechecks the same target's zone, index, server ID, and name immediately before either command is submitted. Normal FFXI checks still decide whether the queued command executes; OddCast does not claim the caster remained in range or unsilenced when the client later executes it.

The displayed result is a typical family baseline, not an actual damage prediction. The one generated table records its pinned CatsEye source SHA-256; offline validation checks its hash, schema, names, family prefixes, profiles, and deterministic ambiguity counts. Live INT/MEVA, buffs, gear, day/weather, status, range, and special scripted behavior remain outside this simple model.

Weakness selection remains limited to the six standard single-target INT tier lines. AoE, ancient magic, divine/light, helix damage-over-time, Drain, and differently scaled spell families are not compared. Lightsday uses the strongest ready Dia tier, while Darksday uses the strongest ready Bio tier. Both respect the independent day tier ceiling.

Third-party attribution

OddCast determines the Vana'diel-time location at runtime by scanning FFXiMain.dll for a byte signature and following relative pointer offsets; it does not contain a fixed absolute process address. That read-only signature, pointer chain, epoch offset, and day-length calculation were adapted from LuAshitacast by ThornyFFXI under the MIT License. LuAshitacast is an implementation source, not an OddCast runtime dependency. No affiliation with or endorsement by LuAshitacast or ThornyFFXI is implied. The complete copyright and permission notice is bundled in addons/oddcast/THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md and addons/oddcast/LICENSE-LUASHITACAST-MIT.

OddCast's exact <bt> identity resolver uses a function signature and FFI actor layout adapted from FancyChat's targets.lua, as distributed with the Ashita installation reviewed for this release. That source is copyright (c) 2024 Ashita Development Team and licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later; FancyChat is authored by Arielfy. OddCast is not affiliated with or endorsed by FancyChat, Arielfy, or the Ashita Development Team. Full details and license text are bundled with the addon.

Offline validation

Development checks require Python 3.10 or newer, pytest, and a luajit executable on PATH:

python -m pytest tests -q -p no:cacheprovider
python tools/build_weakness_data.py --validate-output --luajit <path-to-luajit>
luajit -b addons/oddcast/oddcast.lua oddcast.luac

A clean-worktree release is built and then reproduced byte-for-byte with:

python tools/build_release.py --expect-version 1.4.0 --output build/release/v1.4.0
python tools/build_release.py --expect-version 1.4.0 --output build/release/v1.4.0 --check

The builder uses a fixed eight-file allowlist and produces the ZIP, MANIFEST.json, and SHA256SUMS.txt. --allow-dirty exists only for local development tests and records that state in the manifest; do not distribute such an artifact as an official release.

The optional CatsEye source-parity test is skipped when a sibling CatsEye server checkout is unavailable. Set CATSEYE_SERVER_ROOT to run that check against an explicit checkout. Maintainers regenerate and byte-validate the global mob table with:

python tools/build_weakness_data.py --server-root <path-to-catseyexi> --luajit <path-to-luajit>
python tools/build_weakness_data.py --server-root <path-to-catseyexi> --check

The generator joins active spawns to pools, families, and resistance profiles, then selects the typical profile for each normalized mob name and family label. The checked-in manifest binds the source commit, material-input hash, generator hash, table hash, counts, and ambiguity totals. These checks do not install the addon or issue game commands. Personal-use testing can be performed in your own client; distribution remains subject to the server's addon approval policy.

Licensing

addons/oddcast/oddcast.lua is GPL-3.0-or-later because its <bt> resolver adapts GPL-licensed FancyChat code. OddCast's separately authored Python tooling and tests remain MIT licensed under the repository-root LICENSE. The generated weakness_data.lua and weakness_data_manifest.json are derived from the pinned CatsEye server source and are GPL-3.0-or-later. See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md, LICENSE-DATA-GPL-3.0, addons/oddcast/LICENSE-ODDCAST-GPL-3.0, and LICENSE-LUASHITACAST-MIT.