wowace
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Blizzard to begin throttling GearScore-like inspect requests
It's no secret that some addons, like GearScore, generate a numerical value for the gear of a player or players by inspecting their gear. Other addons also do inspect requests for other reasons. However, as of patch 3.3.5 it appears that the functionality of addons that automate inspect requests will be limited via server-side implementation during rolling restarts. Nethaera Quote: According to WoWAce, Blizz is going to start throttling inspection requests, thus limiting addons like Gearscore's ability to generate on-the-fly GS of a player's equipment. It's important to understand that the throttling that is being done isn't intended to break any functionality of add-ons, but merely to control the amount of queries that are being sent to the server at any given time. (Thus throttling the queries.) The queries will still occur, it just won't happen as quickly as they currently seem to. You can read the statements that WoW Ace and WoW Interface have up for a bit more information on these changes. We wanted to give mod authors a heads-up prior to making the change so that they could make any adjustments they needed to on their mods. http://wowinterface.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33432 http://www.wowace.com/announcements/blizzard-to-start-throttling-inspect-requests/ source Basically, the idea as presented is not to prevent addons from inspecting players but rather to prevent them from doing so as often as they currently do, reducing server lag by reducing the amount of inspect requests addons can flood them with. It's important to note that this is being implemented via rolling restarts; as a result addons that you have that currently make use of automated inspect requests might not function properly. Since this isn't aimed at crippling addons that use the inspect feature, it's likely most or all of them will be able to weather the change.
WoW Insider speaks with Curse and Wowace
Saturday afternoon I had an opportunity to sit down with Kaelten, known both for his work with Wowace and now Curse.com. We spoke of many of the concerns users had about transitioning from Wowace to Curse for their addons, and the reasoning behind the merger.Kaelten was more than happy to answer any questions I had, and we jumped right in as soon as we found somewhere to sit for lunch. His explanation for the reasoning between the merger was what we had known (and reported) from the first time we heard of it: It was, essentially, necessary for survival. Wowace was not something that could stand on its own very long. The sheer amount of bandwidth they chewed through was unbelievable, especially on patch days. We're talking 350 GB per hour. The average person has less than 350 GB in their PC, and Wowace (and now Curse) chews through it like it's nothing.
Essential addons for Patch 3.0.2 [Updated x6]
Let's take a look at what addons are working for patch 3.0.2. First a simple rule taken from the UI forums post done by Kaydeethree: "Any 'Wrath beta' compatible mod will work in 3.0.2." With that said, there is a long and comprehensive listing of 3.0.2 compatible addons over on WoWWiki. But the fun doesn't end there. The next step is obtaining all those new addons. I've compiled a large set of the essential addons and linked to at least one direct download source after the break. Each download source is either trusted beyond doubt – or tested and confirmed to be virus free. Finally, you'll want to combine the addons into a nice looking UI. Check out our special edition of Reader UI of the Week for a look at five complete 3.0.2 compatible UIs. We're posting this list now, and will continue to update it throughout the day. Begin your addon downloads as quickly as possible to avoid hangups later in the day when download servers become overloaded.
WowAceUpdater goes the way of the dodo
At noon today, Kaelten of WowAce fame posted a thread on the WowAce forums discussing the future of their massively popular project. There's quite a bit of nitty gritty coder lingo that you don't really need to know unless you're involved in WowAce, but there's other important information for us normal folk, too.First, a few obvious things are pointed out. One, WowAce became big. Really, really big, and I imagine much bigger than they had ever imagined. The way WowAce is set up doesn't work so well with that much of a load and that many mods and packages being developed. Additionally, the amount of bandwidth they used monthly is absolutely enormous. To quote: "As it currently stands files.wowace.com pushes out an incredible amount of addon updates. In an average month we're talking about more than thirty terabytes of data! In a busy month clearing sixty is no problem, and I don't even want to talk about what happens on major patch days."
Interview with Antiarc, author of Omen
Even if you don't use Omen, it's likely you've seen it or heard about it here on WoW Insider, in WoW itself, or somewhere else in the WoW community. Patch 2.4 and the redesign of WoW's combat log called for a complete rebuild of many mods, and Omen was far and away the highest in demand.There were certainly some issues with Omen the day 2.4 launched, but the one man army behind the mod worked endlessly to get the addon in working order, while somehow making time for a chat mod, too. I think it's fair to say we know a thing or two about the mods, but what about the modder behind them?Luckily for all of you, Antiarc(aka Adrine) is open to bribes(not really) so I've managed to sucker him into answering a few questions for us, many of which are taken from you, the readers! We'll go through a series of three categories. The Man, in which we delve into Antiarc's personal and professional life. The Mods, wherein we ask a few questions about his experiences in mod-writing. The Miscellaneous, where we ask Antiarc random questions that hold no bearing on absolutely anything! Hooray! Read on!
WoW Ace Updater ad banners may contain trojans, claim some users
While the Incgamers malware problem is fixed, it looks like there's another malware flare up in the world of addons. The WoW Ace Updater, according to many users, may be passing off a trojan from an ad in the guise of an antivirus program. The program, called Winfixer, pops up in a window and (in some cases automatically) installs malware while claiming your computer is compromised and that you need to buy the full retail version to fix it. It can be detected and removed by Spybot Search and Destroy and Vundofix, and Symantec includes instructions on how to manually remove it here. Wowace.com site owner Kaelten has disabled the ads on WoW Ace Updater completely for now, and is talking to his Ad provider to find out what went wrong and which ads might be causing problems. This isn't the first time a popular WoW site has had trouble with trojans in ads, and unfortunately, it is unlikely to be the last. Kaelten seems to be on top of it, though, so hopefully he'll get to the bottom of these claims. Since the ads are currently disabled, the program itself should already be safe to use. If you're feeling a bit skittish, though, you can check out some of Sean's recommendations for other upgrade programs here. I should note that, being a religious user of WoW Ace Updater myself (I run it at least a good 5 times a week), I just made sure to scan my computer with the aforementioned Spybot Search and Destroy as well as AVG Free Edition. According to those programs, It has a clean bill of health.
Chatter changes your chat for the cheddar! Er, better
Prat has been a fan favorite as far as chat mods go for quite awhile now, with the ability to change just about whatever you want with your chat frame plus some added features like item links in custom channels.Now, from the author of Omen comes Chatter. Built with the intent of making a chat mod with less bloat and is lighter on overall system resources, it manages to do that quite well. All I ever used in Prat was the module to allow links in custom channels, so I decided to give Chatter a try. The switch over wouldn't be too hard, right? Just turn off all of the modules I don't want, leave item links on.I was pleasantly surprised with how easily Chatter was configured. I had decent looking, functional chat windows ready to go in about ten minutes. I'll fully admit that most other chat mods probably shouldn't take me much longer than that, but things that drastically alter my UI are my kryptonite. I think that says something about how simple this mod is to configure.
How to fix the Parrot Scrolling Combat Text Addon
If you're an Ace mod fanatic like I am, you may use Parrot for your scrolling combat text needs. If you've used Parrot since 2.4, you've noticed, like I have, that the dang thing just plain doesn't work. Even though the ever handy WoWAceUpdater continues to update it, there's some block of data it's missing. And that means that when I get into combat and look for my scrolling information... nothing happens. There's no pretty numbers to the side of my characters. Hey, that's fair enough. 2.4 was the patch of the great combat log change, and it's understandable that not every addon is quite caught up. That said, I like how I have Parrot set up, and I didn't really want to try to find and install a new mod, or heaven forbid, use Blizzard's base system. So, I went searching, hoping to find some way to bring back my beloved Parrot.
Issues with Omen?
I gave a preview of Omen 2 awhile back before patch 2.4 hit, and we saw just how popular the addon is the other night. It has become almost necessary in the WoW community, and when it isn't working right, it really has an effect.Everyone that has downloaded Omen 2 has noticed that there are some... issues. The author is aware of most of these, so fixes are on the way, but there's only so many hours in a day. Bugs and issues can crop up in strange places though, so it never hurts to report them. There are some minor things you can do yourself to make sure things work smoothly and be confident the problem isn't on your end, so take a look behind the jump for some tips.
BigRedKitty: Patch 2.4 AddOns
Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.The technology wonks in the BRK Copyright-Violation, Trademark-Theft, and Patent-Infringement Squad were let out of their cells and set loose upon several WoW addon developers' servers and code. The reports they've returned are staggering in number, detail, graphic violence, and lewdness. It would seem that, to be a WoW addon developer, one must have a brilliant mind, a single-mindedness of purpose, and a truly disturbing love of cheese and cheese-like products.We'd go into more detail, but this is a family web site. /shudder. But aside from the high-cholesterol levels in the blood tests our spies sent to us, we've also become privy to what those coders have been doing. Golly gee but they have been putting in some really long hours and have come up with some truly fabulous ideas! What great updates can we expect for our favorite addons for Patch 2.4? Holy cow, you're not going to believe it!
A new way to search for WoW mods
You know how it is. One of your favorite addons breaks down completely after a patch, so you go looking for the updated version, but then you realize you don't remember where you downloaded it. You check your favorite mods website, only to find that they only have the out-dated version. You end up having to check several different websites in order to find the update, and you wish there were a better way.KitKatsFTW over in Europe has developed a simple solution: a site called "WoW Mod Search," which uses Google's custom engine to search through the four main WoW mod sites: WoW UI, WoW Interface, Curse, and WoWAce. The site is simple, unobtrusive, and aside from some google text ads, there's absolutely nothing to get in your way.I use Inquisitor on Safari to quickly use shortcuts of any search engine without actually visiting the website itself first. If any of you out there are also using Inquisitor, or any similar search plugin, you should be able to just copy and paste this search url into your plugin preferences as a shortcut for quick access to WoW Mod Search later. (The "%@" in that link represents the space that will be replaced with your searched keywords when you use the plugin.)
AddOn creation site needs your help
WoWAce is a set of libraries heavily used by developers to create many of those nifty AddOns we know and love like FuBar and Grid. Unfortunately, their Wiki site lost its data and the latest usable back up is over two months old. Everything since then has been lost.In an effort to reconstruct the lost pages, they have pulled HTML copies of those pages from Google Cache and now they need your assistance. You can go to their Rebuilding page and help them convert the HTML into Wiki format and repost it on the site.If you have some spare time, head on over and help them get back on their feet so they can continue to help developers create those AddOns we can't live without.
AddOn Spotlight: WoW UI Updater
Here's something I've been looking for for a long time! It's not an addon itself, but it does make the management and upkeep of your addons a lot simpler. Cairnehoof of Dethecus (US) sent this in to Mike, who kindly sent it my way: I read your article on wowinsider (big fan btw) about the addon issue in the upcoming patch. I have come across an great application for windows that updates your addons from all the popular sites. Maybe you could share it on the site. I know many people would love it. It's alot better than the one offered on ui.worldofwar.net because it not just download from one site. It is maintained on sourceforge.net and does not contain any malicious code. (I scanned with 3 different anti-virus programs and a anti-spyware one) heres the link if you want to take a look: http://sourceforge.net/projects/wuu So, armed with that information, I set off to explore WUU.
AddOn Spotlight :CyCircled
I love finding new addons. Let me tell you how I found CyCircled, my favorite new change to my UI. I was looking through some of the excellent submissions we're receiving for Reader UI of the Week (shameless plug), and was inspired to go looking for an update to my own UI. Somewhere along the way, I came across the All Deuce UI. Impressed, but slightly overwhelmed by ADUI, I was about to go back to my old setup. There was, however, one feature of ADUI that I really adored from the get-go. ROUND BUTTONS! I wanted, no I *NEEDED* round buttons. I like consistency in my UI. If I'm going to have a round minimap, and round minimap buttons, then I've got to have round action bar buttons, right?
