Addon Authors: A Request

Kyt · 07/24/07, 3:44 PM

I have looked high and low, and everywhere I can think of for a mod active or outdated which performs one simple function. I've come to the conclusion that either this function is not so simple, or somehow nobody has thought of doing it.

So, here it goes. (Banhammer inc if my research sucked)

I am looking for someone to author, or at least theorize with me a bit what kind of coding would need to go into, a mod which displays a clickable list of all hostile npc targets within range of a character, Showing their raid icon, if available, would be a huge plus as well. Basically a 'Main assist' mod. Something so that large hitboxes or strange camera angles don't affect your ability to target things for your raid to assist to. (If you've ever tried to target an eye tentacle not in your quadrent on C'thun, you know exactly the kind of frustration I'm talking about.) If this could be expanded to include players of the opposite faction, that would be even better, as trying to click a gnome with nameplates off is a PITA.

I am nearly 100% convinced this mod does not exist, and am interested in the challenges that trying to create such a mod would impose. If I'm mistaken and this mod does exist somewhere, accept my apologies for being clueless. I've spent almost a week looking.

Gwaihir · 07/24/07, 3:51 PM

This used to exist pre-expansion, in the form of a mod called PerfectTargets. I'm not sure if it is still around, because I never used it in the first place, but from what I remember, it had the following functions:

Made a nice box on your screen with a target list, populated with targets with raid icons, or being targetted by tanks. What I'm not sure about were it's limitations. I vaguely recal it only worked to populate the list if at least one person in your raid was targetting a mob, and of course mobs with the same name probably threw it for a loop.

A quick google search turned this page up:
WOWDaily.info * World of Warcraft blog ** POOH.CZ * Add-on tip - Perfect Targets

but, again, this might have been broken totally int he expansion. GL.

Kyt · 07/24/07, 4:08 PM

It appears that Perfect Targets fell off the face of the earth when TBC was released. This is exactly what I'm looking for, however. As I stated earlier, I'm no mod author really, but I've been poking around trying to find a copy of this now that you've posted and I can't even seem to find anywhere to download the (assumedly) broken version.

Edit: It was hosted on wowace.com originally, and used libraries from the original Ace framework. Still no luck finding it though.

Kalman · 07/24/07, 4:24 PM

It's no longer possible to create targetable frames dynamically while in combat, and without that capability, the kind of mod you're looking for would be so limited as to be useless.

Basically: 2.0 changes made what you want impossible.

Baconslicer · 07/24/07, 5:10 PM

PerfectTargets is still around (and is still hosted at wowace) - I use it myself. But as mentioned, the 2.0 changes meant that it's no longer possible to make the list it displays clickable.

It's still somewhat useful as an information display, as when half your raid is targeting star and the other targets only have one person on them each, it's pretty clear what you're supposed to be DPSing.

It can't pick up units that nobody's targeting, though, which makes it not quite the situational awareness addon that you're looking for.

I've been using the RaidTarget display in Pitbull for actually doing assists, personally. It has the downside of not being a nice concise list, as it can't compact raid1target..raidNtarget down into a unique list, but it's clickable at least.

Edit: Unit names.

Gwaihir · 07/24/07, 5:27 PM

Someone could perhaps hack up something like one of the ArenaMaster type mods floating around. As in, you can populate the list by mousing over a group of mobs before you engage them, and then have the list be clickable in combat. It would obviously no work on fights with mid-fight add spawns, but for something relatively static like karathress, or trash mob packs that seems like it would work just fine. Mobs with the same names would always screw it up, but, I don't know any way around that. (Caveat: I am not a mod coder, just an intrepid ametuere.)

Based on all this guessing however, you could concievably tie in the cool useful features of Perfect Targets (The raid numbers targetting each mob, the raid icon parts, etc.) with the pre-fight population and clickability of one of the arena mods.

Dakous · 07/24/07, 11:37 PM

Originally Posted by Kyt

Edit: It was hosted on wowace.com originally, and used libraries from the original Ace framework. Still no luck finding it though.

http://files.wowace.com/PerfectTarge...25931.1049.zip

files.wowace -> ctrl-f...

Kyt · 07/25/07, 12:06 AM

It's not so much a situational awareness mod I'm looking for as a mod that allows me to target things a bit more easily when mobs are clumped up. Tabbing through targets is a bit clunky and can result in someone dotting a sheep, etc. That was really my hope for it.

Feantari · 07/25/07, 8:50 AM

Kyt's original idea would be ideal for me, but it seems that it is no longer possible. How feasible would it be to create something like arena master for general pull targets? Even if you can't target off of it, it would help me as MA just to know that there is a lower health mob of the same type out there for example (I'm usually out of range of the nameplates). Would it be possible to differentiate between 4 mobs of the same name?... I would imagine not, but I don't really know how arena master works (guessing it works from combat log?).

• Slake · 07/25/07, 10:54 AM

In general, the arena mods work such that at the beginning of the arena match (before you get into combat) they watch any possible method of bringing up targets for the enemy they can; usually this means mouseover (it's easy to waggle your mouse at the enemy gates at the beginning of the game) but also targeting before combat, etc. As soon as they pick up a target like that, they create (if you are not in combat) a clickable unit frame for that person based on their name. If you are in combat, they can still create a unit frame, you just won't be able to use it to target. This works in general because everyone you meet in the arena will have a unique name.

From that point on, any time someone mouses over or retargets someone on the list, it will update their health and mana totals. This happens frequently enough in the arena that it seems seamless. Unfortunately, such a method would not generally be useful in a PvE pull of multiple same-named targets.

Ailee · 07/25/07, 11:00 AM

If I'm understanding what you're asking, it's for a mod that is capable of targetting mobs based on their raid icons. I've also looked in to it and it's virtually impossible due to many things. Raid icons are not able to be called via macros (except to mark) and are considered "external" to the game if I remember. They have no coding to allow for such actions. Secondly, since they're mostly used on trash and there are tons of trash with very similar names, it would not be able to determine if it has the correct target.

Kyt · 07/25/07, 11:27 AM

Well, it's unfortunate that this functionality no longer exists, it'd be pretty helpful. I guess I'm stuck with massive clunky healthbars that don't display at a long enough range for my tastes. (41 yard range, I have to be 25 yards away to get a big health bar to click on. joy.) I appreciate the fast replies and explanations. Thanks!

Wodahs · 07/25/07, 11:44 AM

This does not do what you want, at all.

Perfect Targets creates a list of what your group members are targetting. There are no mods, as an api to do this doesnt exist, which create a list of all hostile creatures near you.