So I think it’s about time I updated this place! The quick and dirty of it is that I’ve quit WoW for the moment and so new posts regarding WoW will not be appearing any time soon.
I”ll definitely be back to MMORPGs somewhere down the line, but I’m not sure it’ll be WoW. Right now, I don’t really have that much time to play a game requiring dedication anywhere near the level of WoW — just thinking of doing those damned dailies makes me feel sick again — but situations change. Will I continue this blog if I do get stuck into another game? I’m not sure, it was meant to be a blog about addons in WoW, but I suppose I might adapt it to some other game or just create a new one when or if that time comes.
In case anyone is interested, at the moment I’m spending most of my time on studies, with the occasional game of League of Legends which a couple of old BRS guildies happen to play.
Posting comments here alerts me, so I will be back to reply should anyone need a hand with an addon or something, but obviously I won’t be trying any new addons.
I’ve done it! I’ve finally done it! I’ve successfully enjoyed a PuG! I shall explain my success in a single word: roleplay. Roleplay the hell out of it. Unless they play along, completely ignore the comments of your group. Just amuse yourself.
If you’re lucky, you might even find a group who engages themselves in your roleplaying, like I did to some extent.
Meathook didn't really understand the whole affair.
Patch day is just about upon us, so I thought it would be the ideal time to write a little overview of how to make a smooth transition with your addons into the new patch without having to worry too much about the game being playable.
Firstly, let’s deal with a couple of common misconceptions. The TOC version number means very little. WoW tries to match this number with that of its own current interface version number, and if the two aren’t equal, reports that the addon is out of date and refuses to load it — thus the actual functionality of the addon is not even evaluated. Some people wrote software to deal with this issue by going through your addons and updating the version number, however this is considered bad practice and is wholly unnecessary. You can get around it by simply checking the “Load out of date Addons” box under your Addons menu on the character select screen. Et voilà, the majority of your addons are probably working just fine now, without updating them.
The magical checkbox
This leads me to my next point. Many addons simply don’t need to be updated if they already work fine. I’ve been using some since 2.x without any issue whatsoever! The hell of a new major patch usually only holds true for those who don’t know about the “load out of date” checkbox. That said, there are cases in which addons will just break. These may slightly change functionality or completely destroy the addon as a whole.
My suggestion to anyone reading this and waiting for their server to pop back up is to go through their addon list and look for updates. Contradictory? A little, but updated addons usually mean updated feature sets and potentially performance improvements. If there’s no reason for you not to grab an updated version, then go ahead. Of course, if you’ve made changes to the code of an addon, you’ll definitely want to hold back on doing this.
Before updating any addons, I strongly recommend making a full backup. This means grabbing the existing following directories and copying them to another folder or archiving them in some other way (zip, tar, etc.):
Interface
WTF
Fonts
This will save not only all of your addons, but also any graphical modifications — such as tooltip border changes — settings and fonts. I would recommend doing this whenever you’re going to be doing some major updating or interface lifting.
If an addon hasn’t been updated in quite some time, there’s a better chance that it might need one on patch day. If you’re shopping around to update your addons anyway, you may as well start from the oldest. To get a quick idea of the last time you updated an addon, open up your file manager and sort by the “modified” tab.
Sorting by last modified
Finally, be sure to update addons like DBM and BigWigs. I usually opt for alpha versions for some time straight after a patch as I feel there’s more chance of having current encounter details, which is far more vital to me than a couple of bugs.
And so ends this short overview. Good luck!
Since we’re all hunting turkeys at the moment, I decided to craft a macro to make it a little easier. Run around spamming this macro to mark every turkey in the area. Behold, and do make sure you can mark things before starting.
/tar Wild Turkey
/run if not GetRaidTargetIndex("target") and not UnitIsDead("target") and UnitName("target") == "Wild Turkey" then if turkey == nil or turkey == 0 then turkey = 8 end SetRaidTarget("target", turkey); turkey = turkey -1 end;
Power Auras Classic is a brilliant addon which allows the user to display textured and stylised alerts based on certain conditions. For example, you might wish to display an obvious warning when you lack a buff, when you gain one, when your enemy has (or has not) a debuff applied, when something comes off cooldown, etc. The possibilities really are endless. Because of its flexibility, however, it presents a rather steeper learning curve than most addons. Setting up new power auras isn’t quite a hard task, but it can be a daunting one. That’s why I’m writing this guide.
First off, grab your copy of the addon here. Install as usual, enter the game and type /powa to open the configuration menu. The options are detailed below.
read more…Honestly, I dislike ads as much as the next guy. I had no plans to integrate ads on this blog until I realised just how much of my time it takes to write these posts. In addition, I’m currently a full-time student who could use any extra pocket money available, so ads became a no-brainer. Don’t get me wrong, the earnings from these ads are very low, but I believe the gain for the small differences it makes to visitors is worth it.
I just wanted to mention this as I haven’t really addressed it before. Apologies if the ads are in the way, but I’ve tried not to overdo it and keep them somewhat integrated in the layout. Hopefully the Infolinks won’t detract too much, but do feel free to give me some feedback on this. I’m giving them a bit of a trial.
OPie menu
Minimap buttons. Unsightly pests thrust upon you by evil addon developers in a quest to uglify your minimap. Most of them can be disabled through the configuration menu for the addon in question, but often you still want quick access to that addon. One in particular I can think of is WebDKP — my guild’s DKP system — where it gets tedious to type a slash command every time loot drops. Luckily, I was struck with an idea.
Creating the ring
OPie is one of those addons with a simple concept and a thousand uses. Virtually anything that can be placed in an action bar can be placed in OPie, but OPie organises it all in a way that stresses selecting one component at a time. This shares a striking resemblance to menus. As such, my idea was to create an OPie ring and add macros for frequently used slash commands. There’s then no excuse for removing minimap buttons, and it compacts any awkward configuration or handy commands into one button.
Give it a try, you might like it.
As anyone who has been reading this blog for more than a week or two (I know you’re out there!), you’ll have noticed how undecided I am with the theme. As I’m looking to set up a separate, completely unrelated blog for Ninoa, I’m looking at themes and have seen some very nice concepts.
I’ll be switching around and breaking the blog up lots! If it’s unavailable, that’ll be why.
This blog has been moved to another server and picked up a domain name change as a result. It’s now located at http://rf.shkm.net. Any old links to valid posts should still work just fine, as will the old domain for the moment.
So far we have focused on the graphical user interface. That is, stuff that you see and interact with immediately on your screen. While certain points like layout apply most particularly to this subset of the UI, it is merely the tip of the iceberg.
The vast majority of my addon collection contributes smaller features with lower profiles. These may be tiny components which improve and further personalise the game to a player’s taste. Then there are the addons which you use only in certain situations, such as in a raid or on an auction house alt. I’ll be going through some of these addons in this part, though some may seem completely useless depending on your needs. read more…