Liars

Would it be possible to have an addon which would enable the auction house to have the option to search by specific stats?

 

TheSilverHand

There is no API currently to do such a thing right out of the box.

The only way I can imagine that was possible was a mod that scanned the AH (like Auctioneer) and had a database (notice how much memory we're eating up so far?) that would take all of the items it finds in a particular search and matched it to a WoWHead database or some sort.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that this fantasy mod would be able to "know" what the stats are of an item because it is linked to a database. In order to not take ten minutes everytime you want to search the AH, you would have to have a GUI that had parameters for weapon/armor and armor type and level and color and whatnot. Throw in a parameter like >=5 STR and theoretically you would have what you are looking for.

At that point, however, you've already done most of the work. You've dictated if it's a weapon or armor, you've searched for a specific level and color range, and at that point, there is probably only 1-2 pages max on the AH of results. All of that is already part of the stock UI. That means you're loading a huge mod that has the functionality of Auctioneer combined with a database of every BoE item in the game to save you the scrolling down of searching an AH results page.

 

dinesh

you could probably just hash the various suffices to the stats they affect, that wouldn't be too large a lookup. then get the magnitudes with the bidbanded uniqueID... at least for the new scaled suffices. Pre-BC suffices might be harder/bigger.

ItemString - WoWWiki - Your guide to the World of Warcraft

 

monkorn

On another note, how easy would it be to make a mod that searches the AH for specific items, then tracks what they are worth compared to what can be made of them. While this is pretty easy to do in your head, I'm sure I'm not the only one that is interested in making it easier.

Like it would track all the primal prices, then compare it to the price of a primal might or if mana -> fire/earth->water is better. Or compare adamantite ore to the average blue/green/powder prices. It could ask if you are a transmute spec, or what cuts you have and such to maximize profits.

 

Benegesserit

Could anyone explain to me how VisualThemes brings anything to actually benefit the player? I don't see anything on how it saves screen real-estate, improves processing performance, parses data in a more human friendly manner, help with organization, etc.

I mean mods like Baggins beautify the bag frames if you wish, but would that be the main draw for the development of the mod? It's primary features involve how it actually improves the user experience. Would we not consider mods that make your client look like your toon is wearing max gear with some model swapping as "big thing" as VisualThemes? Not only that, but it really only does one simple thing to windows...a fade and resize transition.

I'm all for tiny addons that implement simple things that are great...like auto-vendoring greys, auto-repairing, removing useless gossip, and the like, but generally an improvement to the blizzard UI that is significant is likely going to require either a full-blown UI mod, or lots of time customizing your UI with many small mods (that don't only run in the background).

 

◊ masanbol

There are entire categories of mods dedicated to visual appeal, such as eePanels, DArt, and every texture and font in SharedMedia. It's not a small thing in UI design these days; people want UIs that are not only functional but pleasing to look at. We are staring at these interfaces the entire time that we're playing WoW, so they should look good.

If all we were after in terms of modding was function, then we'd probably not be very much beyond the UIs of a few years ago that consisted almost entirely of CTMod, Cosmos and the like. As it is, what people go for these days is style as well as substance.

In that sense, I think VisualThemes can very much be classified as part of a series of mods that are revolutionizing how players view their UIs. It's simple, doesn't take up too much memory, blends well with other skinning-type mods, and in my opinion, improves the user experience.


It's the same thing as comparing the visual elements of, say, Apple OSX with a generic UNIX command line. Sure, they have the same framework and are basically equal in function, but OSX looks damn pretty.

 

Benegesserit

Eepanels and media found in sharedmedia, as well as many other visual mods, serve the purpose of meaningful organization of the UI. Fonts, for example, can make the modified UI more readable (some fonts are easier to read at larger/smaller point sizes). Textures are also things people can use to make the UI more readable, or to easily differentiate areas of the UI using our peripheral vision.

Essentially, if I'm looking at a mod that improves the visual aspect of the game, it should primarily be contributing to functionality, with always a focus on good looks. There are plenty of MMOs that function well, but none have the beauty and polish of Blizzard's. Of course, the mods we are blessed to have improve on them even more, but there are plenty out there -- user/party/raid frames, action bars, bag frames, map mods...to name a few -- that BOTH improve the usability AND the looks of the UI. That's where I feel the accolade implied by the topic title should fall.

 

◊ masanbol

I'm going to partially disagree with you in that I think there are plenty of design choices that people make for their UIs that are based solely on the fact that "it looks good." I know when I pick a castbar or unitframes texture I'm deciding pretty much on visual appeal alone. Function and style together are amazing, don't get me wrong, but something doesn't have to be both to qualify for the type of mod I'm looking for in this thread.

 

Bör

It's pretty easy: You don't like it? Then don't use it.

Just because it's your opinion that EVERY addon HAS to have a functionality prupose doesn't mean that everyone else has to think the same way. Some just like to have some "cool" effevts. Thats the functionality they want. Why should anyone use animated menus and stuff in windows xp? It has absolutely no functionality. Why Microsoft even implented it? Well, because some people like it that way. Others are welcome to disable it or like in this case just to not download it.

 

Malan

Well your first statement is somewhat contradictory (improving visuals does not by default mean it improves functionality) and your second statement I think more than a few of us would disagree with. If its so pretty and polished would please explain why one of the very first things that a brand new user does is to seek out an addon that hides most of the UI artwork (ie the big honking griffins on the action bars), followed quickly by completely replacing the action bars and unit frames? Hell I'll argue that large portions of the default UI are barely even functional! The Raid/Group tab is a frequent cause of obscenities as just one example.

Shitting up every single thread on EJ since '06

 

Dollar

How come our characters aren't just black cubes on a white field? Obviously this is an exaggeration but the same thing applies. Looks do in fact matter.

"Oh he's a sad little man? He's thrown a kettle over a pub, what have you done?"

 

aleyro

I would be shocked if more than 2% of players worldwide have even the slightest concept of what a mod is.

 

Inkm

Now, this does *not* take re-downloads into account or anything and for all I know the number can be faked, but Atlas | Downloads has been downloaded 6,406,612 times.

And thats one addon.

Basically, I think you're underestimating the general population playing wow. They're mouthbreathing sillypoops for most intents and purposes, but they are able to pick up on certain things.

 

dinesh

Auctioneer has a "comparables" evaluator which purports to do this, but it is in its infancy still.

 

Kameril

Dock update: I expect to open the closed beta to outside of my guild on Thursday.

 

Benegesserit

And yet the difference between black cubes and the detailed models are huge. All VisualThemes does it a little transition effect. Cool mod but hardly a "mod revolution" or a "next big thing". I stand by that.

 

Noraj

Not to argue your point with this, but unless something's changed then altering the model skins or any of Blizzard's installed files is considered a violation of the terms of service and can result in a permanent ban.

Isn't VT designed such that additional "themes" can be added to extend its current functionality? Would a theme which automatically arranged windows in a tiled or best fit fashion to offer a better overall view of the information they provide be a worthwhile endeavor?

This is excellent news. Excellent news indeed. Do you know yet what kind of feedback you'll be looking for?

"The question is not how far we are going to take it... the question is, do you possess the constitution to go as far as needed?" - Il Duce

 

Kameril

Yeah, themes can be added to VT fairly easily; unfortunately no one took any interest in doing so and I don't have time to work on more themes while I finish other projects + rl.

I'll make a post that details what I'm looking for on Thursday.

 

Sajier

Woohoo!! I can't wait Kameril! Thank you so much for all your hard work.

 

Ferretmonger

Not a constructive post but...

Thank you very much for you efforts Kameril. Your dock looks amazing and I think will force me (and many others) to completely rethink my UI for the better. Keep up the good work.

 

• Emolate

RE: searching the Auction House for items based on stats

Why not run on the local system then?

The database is written out to disk, where it could then be processed and queried, yes?

 

dinesh

I suppose, but what would be the point? I'm guessing that user wanted to search for specific stats because he was interested in buying those items. To do it on the local system, you'd have to log in, do a scan of some sort, log out, process the data externally and search it there, log back in, and then search for the items your external search told you about.

 

Hausnfranz

There was some talk early on about how to capture video from within wow. This site just luanched : wegame.com

Review of it here: WeGame Launches As YouTube For Gamers

Good site design and strong interaction elements from a system level (tackling the issue with DirectX and game performance, auto web formatting, etc)

 

Bluerose

Props for the link. Checked Kaotch's movie on it and busy doing my own to see how easy to use it is, also how the performance and quality compares to Fraps.

 

Dollar

Yeah this looks very cool, thanks.

"Oh he's a sad little man? He's thrown a kettle over a pub, what have you done?"