Greetings, folks, I have returned from my vacation, and the hiatus that followed. (Vacation to recover from vacation? Madness!) Today, we're going to take a look at an alternative navigation tool, an addon that provides some of the functionality found in the Cartographer suite. (We've talked about Cartographer before.)TomTom is a mod that provides a few simple features that can supplement your adventures, especially while leveling. Combined with Lightheaded, (We've also talked about Lightheaded before.) TomTom can shave time off your travels between quest objectives.
The primary purpose of TomTom is to facilitate the creation and use of waypoints. Using this feature gives a player the option to have a Crazy Taxi-like arrow displayed that will guide them towards their waypoint. Combined with Lightheaded, which can be used to find coordinates for quest objectives via user comments on Wowhead, this addon can let you bounce between quest objectives with a minimum of wasted time and travel.
Unfortunately, it cannot be used to auto-run your character, so you can forget about grabbing a sandwich on your way to Marshall's Refuge. TomTom will also display a coordinate frame that gives a quick visual reference to your current location.
There is more to see, come back after the break to get your addon fix for the day.So you're back, just when we thought all the drama about Wrath leaks had chased you off. (For the record, some of us here at WoW Insider could care less about leaks and just want to play some World of Warcraft.)
Back to TomTom then! Using the waypoints is pretty intuitive, as the developer has included some thoughtful touches. You can configure the little features by using the following command:
- /tomtom
- /way XX YY
- example: /way 44 58
- /way XX YY Zone
- example: /way 44 58 Nagrand (zone specific waypoint)
- /way XX YY Descripton
- example: /way 44 58 Go here for swine love (waypoint with description)
- /way reset all
- resets waypoints (duh)
- /way reset Zone
- resets waypoints in a specific zone
The first of the thoughtful touches are presented in the "General Options" tab. Here you can adjust the distance at which a waypoint is cleared, and whether or not TomTom should save a waypoint until you remove them. It's the good, old fire-and-forget technology we seem to love. In a nutshell, this means once you reach your waypoint, it will automatically clear. (If you've configured the addon this way)
The next feature I want to point out is the Coordinate Block (having its own tab in the options interface), which shows you your current location. The options here are pretty simple, you can toggle the display of the block, adjust its size and color and how accurate you want your coordinates to be. For the most part, I use one-decimal coordinates, but normally you can get by without the decimal and use the "XX,YY" format. Most Wowhead users provide coordinates in this way.)
You can also configure the Waypoint itself via the "Waypoint Arrow" tab. Here you can adjust features to show estimated time of arrival (kind of handy), lock the arrow, change the "Arrival Distance" and the colors use to determine if you are traveling it the correct direction. (Default: green for good, yellow for medium and red for bad.) Basically it means if you're going in the wrong direction, the arrow turns red, right direction is green and anything in between goes yellow. Regarding the "Arrival Distance"; this distance determines how far you are from your current waypoint before the arrow points down, indicating you have arrived.
Next we have the minimap waypoints, which show your waypoints on your minimap, as well as showing an arrow, akin to the arrows that point towards towns and cities, which points towards your waypoint if it is not actually on the minimap. There is also an option to toggle tooltips on your minimap that display information about your waypoints when you hover over them on your minimap.The "World Map" tab holds options for basically the same features found on your minimap, to include tooltip information for your waypoints. However, this is also where you can enable the display of cursor and player coordinates.
Finally, the feature I have come to love the most; the ability to integrate Lightheaded. Alright, so it may not seem big at first, but there is more. If you're reading through the comments about a particular quest and come across the coordinates for your quest objective, they will be highlighted in blue. Clicking these blue coordinates will automatically create a corresponding waypoint, with the quest name as the name. For those of who not using QuestHelper, this is a great feature. Yes, I had to mention it, a lot of these features are integrated into the King Mukla of leveling addons, but at a fairly hefty memory cost in my opinion.
Thats it for now, check it out, or don't, just spare me the "addon integrity" rhetoric. (I jest, and it you're not sure what that refers to, you're one of the lucky few.) Dismissed!





















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-23-2008 @ 5:50PM
john thorpe said...
i like questhelper better
Reply
5-23-2008 @ 5:55PM
EmperorTuna said...
I don't think QuestHelper quite provides the ability to make your own waypoints though, does it?
Still I doubt there's much point in making your own waypoints most of the time.
5-26-2008 @ 3:22AM
Dan said...
You can make your own objectives in Quest Helper,
for a waypoint:
/qh find loc Zangarmarsh 78.4 62.1
Or shorter:
/find loc Zangarmarsh 78.4 62.1
Or you can add npc/items for objectives (although it won't know all items, and it won't know you can purchase some of them from vendors):
/find Ysiel Windsinger
Although it won't automatically remove the objectives when you reach them.
5-23-2008 @ 5:58PM
JohnC said...
lol after a year of using lightheaded, doublewide and tomtom combination ive never once realised tomtom has arrow head options. ive just set a way point and checked the map to make sure im on track, damm i've always thought of asking for this feature aswell, glad i didn't now.
Reply
5-23-2008 @ 6:03PM
ErsatzPotato said...
The questhelper link goes to lightheaded.
Reply
5-23-2008 @ 6:09PM
Sean Forsgren said...
Fixed. Thanks for pointing that out!
5-23-2008 @ 6:12PM
Aaron said...
Addons like these are great, Cartographer's old, and seriously buggy since it isn't being developed anymore. Plenty of new replacement addons have overtook Cartographer now in the form of Mapster, with Handynotes for map notes and guild member positions, Gathermate for herb/mine/gas nodes with full database included from a data mod, and TomTom for waypoints.
Reply
5-24-2008 @ 2:37PM
RogueJedi86 said...
Cartographer isn't updated anymore? What? In my WowAceUpdater, it was last updated 2 days ago. I don't know what you're talking about.
5-23-2008 @ 6:16PM
Christian Holton said...
Carbonite FTW!!!
Reply
5-23-2008 @ 7:09PM
jbodar said...
Seconded. I've been using it on my newest alt and it's amazing. I still use Cartographer for Gatherer support and Lightheaded to access tips when I need specifics on an encounter, but I've disabled TomTom and nQuestlog -- though I miss the Fubar support on nQuestlog.
I haven't tried QuestHelper, but from its description on Curse.com, it appears inferior to Carbonite or at least not as slickly designed.
5-24-2008 @ 8:44AM
Rabbit said...
Carbonite is definitely made of sweet, sweet win. It is the one for the Rabbit!
5-23-2008 @ 6:27PM
Jp said...
This didn't make me want to download this addon.
All this made me want to do is hook up my dreamcast and play Crazy Taxi.
Curse you, Forsgren!
Reply
5-23-2008 @ 6:32PM
Sean Forsgren said...
My plan is working.. now if only Sega would send me that check they promised..
5-24-2008 @ 10:39PM
ErsatzPotato said...
Crazy Taxi is available on GameTap. woooot!
5-23-2008 @ 6:40PM
Treima said...
It's a cool add-on, but I actually prefer having to find my own quests and what-have-you. I would definitely consider installing this, but I would probably leave it turned off until I found myself totally unable to figure out my next quest step.
Reply
5-23-2008 @ 7:25PM
jbodar said...
You have to supply it with coordinates, either with slash commands or by clicking on them in Lightheaded comments. So it's completely voluntary.
5-23-2008 @ 6:42PM
Angry Joe said...
To create waypoints you type the coordinates without a comma, like this:
/way XX YY ( /way 34 47)
@ Jp
You can turn the arrow off if you want.
Reply
5-23-2008 @ 6:45PM
Sean Forsgren said...
Another fix. Goes to show how often I make my own.. yay for Lightheaded! (and another addon I'll profile next week..) omg the tension
5-23-2008 @ 8:38PM
jd_nin_er@yahoo.com said...
What is the FPS reduction when using these? I know someone turned TomTom and ligthheaded off and their lag went away.
Then I went and turned off cosmo, omen, fishing, buddy, and auctioneer and my game play also improved. I am not sure which or if all was slowing me down.
I'm convinced I kill better in BG now without these things.
Reply
5-23-2008 @ 10:30PM
jbodar said...
Well it depends on your system specs. It also depends on the version of the addon. Outdated addons may still work, but I have had a few that were causing crazy lag - CTMailMod was one. Once I turned them off, it was smooth sailing.