SpellCast variables can be used throughout SpellCast in a growing number of places. You can use them in AddToChat actions, command actions, advanced rules, and set definition to name a few. In fact you can even type SpellCast variables into normal FFXI chat input and they will output as parsed!

There will be times you may want to accomplish some task but are unable to do so with the common rules that are available. Well you're options don't have to stop there. Thanks to spellcast's predefined variables you can grab some pretty astonishing information. So here are a few examples to help you get started. Get ready to become familiar with the advanced tag.

<!-- Checking if your action is a command prefix of range with no ammo equipped -->
	<if commandprefix="/range|/ra" advanced='"%EquipAmmo" = "empty"'>
		<addtochat> You are trying to preform a range with no ammo</addtochat>
		<cancelspell />
	</if>
 
<!-- Equip a basic gear set if your Body AND Head slots are empty, OR if your main slot is empty -->
	<if advanced='("%EquipBody"="empty" AND "%EquipHead"="empty") OR "%EquipMain"="empty"'>
		<if mainjob="WAR">
			<equip set="WARBasic" />
		</if>
		<elseif mainjob="BLM">
			<equip set="BLMBasic" />
		</elseif>
	</if>
 
<!-- Equip Twilight Cape for BLM when the casting spell element matches the Day OR Weather Element -->
	<if Advanced='"%SpellElement"="%DayElement" or "%SpellElement"="%WeatherElement"'>
		<equip when="precast|midcast">		
			<back>Twilight Cape</back>
		</equip>
	</if>

Those examples should get you started on making your own checks with spellcasts variables. Just remember that numbers are NOT suppose to be enclosed in double quotes. Double quotes are used for text strings.

Also if you need to use 's, or < less then, or > greater then in your advanced tags be sure to use the escaped forma, &apos; &lt; &gt;

And just in case you haven't caught on, = is equal and != is Not equals.

It is important to remember that spellcast will match variable with the first matched parse. What this means is if you are using similar names for you variables, you may experience unexpected problems.

Lets take this example. Lets say you have to define 11 variables with the same name. Lets say you are bard and you have 11 different instruments you want to use on different occasions. Now lets say you call the instrument independent of your gear sets and you name your 11 instruments something like this.

<variables>	
	<var name="instra1">A</var>
	<var name="instra2">B</var>
	<var name="instra10">J</var>
	<var name="instra11">K</var>
</variables>

Now lets say you want to pull instra K, you would think you would call this with $instra11 and it would work since you have it defined. But this is wrong, when calling $insta11 the result will be A1

This is because [$instra1] is defined and parsed first. So the result is A+1, A1. To fix this we need to use not so similar names.

<variables>	
	<var name="instra01">A</var>
	<var name="instra11">K</var>
</variables>

Now when you call instra11 it will be K since in order to call A you must type instra01.

This is handy when creating multi-layered variables Example:

<!-- $use$daytype%spellelement_set -->
<!-- on a cast of fire with a daytime of night-->
<!-- $useNightFire_set -->
<!-- which then I can have this variable defined as a Fire Type gear set -->
<var name="useNightFire">Night_Fire_gear</var> 
 
<set name = "Night_Fire_gear" >	
	<!-- Fire base gear -->
</set>
 
<equip when="precast" set="$use$daytype%spellelement_set" />

The equip line can then be reused to equip many different types of gear sets based off of the current conditions.

• Time - As of SpellCast 2.15, time related rules are calculated based off the server time and should be within a second of Vana'diel time.
  
• Scholar Storms override any actual weather affecting your character.