Win a free GPS from Gadling!
Posts with tag ctraid

Reader UI of the Week: AareDub

Posted Nov 5th 2007 3:32PM by Krystalle Voecks
Filed under: AddOns, Features, Reader UI of the Week


Have you missed us? We're sorry for the extended break, but as you now know, we've been slammed under helping to get Massively off the ground. (Speaking of which, if you haven't been over there, you do know we're giving away a Murloc suit, right?) But we're back now with lots of Reader UIs to show you -- so on we go with this week's featured UI, courtesy of AareDub from the guild <Sonic Death Monkey> on Eitrigg.

I have to give credit to Taeo for giving me the inspiration. I saw a very crisp UI and thought, "I can do that." I've always tried to re-arrange my UI to allow for the most viewing space possible, but Taeo's UI just made something click for me. It only took me a few days to complete, but it took a month or so for my server transfer cooldown to get me back in a raid for some screenshots.

Curious? Join me after the break for more from AareDub!

Continue reading Reader UI of the Week: AareDub

  • Permalink
  • Email this
  • Comments [14]

Breakfast Topic: Refreshing addons

Posted Aug 21st 2007 8:00AM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, AddOns, Breakfast topics

I'll admit it-- I'm a lazy addon user. Whenever Blizzard updates the client, I always manage to forget about my addons. I'll log in, realize I have no addons working, and then jump back out and just "enable out-of-date addons." Eventually, those addons will show bugs, so I'll log back out, disable them, and then keep playing without them for a while.

And sooner or later, as happened this past weekend, someone will point out that I'm not running KTM, or that I don't have the latest version of CTRaid up and running, so I'll write down a list of everything I need, go and download them all at once, and refresh them all completely. When I do this, it's a good feeling. It makes the game seem new again to me-- everything works, and everything does what I want it to once again.

Until Blizzard puts out a patch, and then the whole grueling process starts over. I would just download new addons when a new patch drops, but addon authors aren't all on the same schedules. And I know programs like the WowAceUpdater help (by checking for updates for me), but so far I've never gotten around to installing those programs either.

But that's just me, and I've got to deal with my own problems. How often do you refresh your addons completely? Do you have a good system for keeping your addons up to date, or, like me, do you only get around to redownloading everything when something stops working?
  • Permalink
  • Email this
  • Comments [35]

Reader UI of the Week: February 14 - 20

Posted Feb 22nd 2007 5:05PM by Paul Sherrard
Filed under: Druid, Screenshots, Reader UI of the Week

This week, Krool (of the guild Heartless, on Daggerspine US)shows off his pre-TBC UI, so think of this as one of those flashbacks you may see in LOST or Jericho or whatever show is doing flashbacks this week. I remember using Charcoal's unit frames and fonts way back, but could never develop an appreciation for, or understanding of, Discord Unit Frames. I'm really digging the borders around the UI elements, separating them from the rest of the screen. Is there any way to do something like this without Discord?

Anyway, I digress, and here's Krool to tell you about his UI:

Here's a screenshot of my UI. Unfortunately Charcoal isn't working any more and I'm so sad. It was my favorite bar auto-configurator of all time. As far as basic action bar, player and target bar geometry flexibility, Charcoal pwned everyting else I've ever seen. Crash said he's working on it, but it's going to take some time. But having said that, the screenshot enclosed is my UI the way I like it best of all at any time since the original beta when I started playing.

Continue reading Reader UI of the Week: February 14 - 20

  • Read
  • Permalink
  • Email this
  • Comments [6]

Return of the addons to Azeroth

Posted Dec 13th 2006 12:21PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Patches, Tips, Tricks, AddOns, Instances, Quests

My guild headed back to raiding last night (seems a lot of guilds are taking a vacation lately, with the patch and the expansion giving a one-two punch to the PVE game), and while BWL wasn't quite ready for us-- the Razorgore orb was bugged, and our MT couldn't see a pet bar for him-- we finally got back in the groove in MC. We'd been at a loss with new specs and a lack of our usual mods, but tonight, with various means and instruments, we were able to finally down some of our old farm targets and pick up some epic gear.

Decursive, as I said last week, was the big one. Apparently it was number one on the devs' hitlist, and for good reason, because it definitely took a lot of work out of cleansing decurses (like the one Lucifron throws out). But we've found alternatives that are "good enough." One of our mages now swears by Grid, an addon that works with 2.0.1 (I haven't tried it, but it comes highly recommended). And even more people benefited from this macro, posted in the Forums. It seems that if you create a macro that says "/cast [target=mouseover] Remove Lesser Magic" (or whatever decursing spell you want to use), you can then run your mouse over players or their raid icons while spamming the macro button, and you've got a reasonable facsimile of what Decursive used to do. In fact, this is even better-- Shaman (like myself) can create a mouseover Purge macro, run your mouse across a group of enemies in PVP while spamming the button, and never have to put up with a buff or renew spell ever again.

Speaking of my Shaman, when I asked for help last week, you all gracefully answered. I was extremely frustrated with the changes to addons (I lived by all the extra info redHeart gave me), but when I finally tried out and used Clique, I finally felt back at home. It's simple to set up and use, and makes things almost as easy as they were pre-2.0 (the author even has a video up showing how simple it is to use). Finally, the brand new version of CTRaid, 1.621 (I think that's the third version they've released since the patch) finally gets rid of that extremely annoying "clicking" noise the patch added to raids. A few things are still bugged in a few raid instances, but finally, raiding is getting back to normal.
  • Read
  • Permalink
  • Email this
  • Comments [13]

Huge addon changes in the Burning Crusade

Posted Oct 6th 2006 11:30PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Fan stuff, Guilds, Blizzard, News items, AddOns, Instances

A reeeally interesting post has appeared on the UI and Addon forums. There's a little flattery in there to butter up the UI Addon community, but then the bombshell hits: in the Burning Crusade, UI addons will not be capable of casting spells or targeting units.

Ummm yeah. Goodbye Decursive. So long Panza, Benecast, and CastParty. So long one-click heals of any kind. So long almost every UI addon that's required by most guilds for endgame raiding. According to the post, most of the addons you know and love won't be allowed after they run the patch on the expansion.

Now, there might be a little bit of leeway on this. Some "popular and benign UI mods" will be allowed to "take advantage of new functionality" being built into the expansion. So it's possible, depending on your reading, that mods like CT_raid (which really should have been built into the game in the first place, if you ask me) will be allowed to exist. But there's no telling at this point what this "new functionality" does. And since Blizzard doesn't elaborate on which mods cross the line-- is spamming Decursive their idea of cheating? How about clicking off debuffs person by person with CastParty?-- this little post doesn't really do much more than throw things up in the air.

And there's no telling where they will land. Expect an outcry from the UI community over the next week or so, or at least until they can figure out what's happening. If there's a way around it, this may not be as big as it seems. But if Blizzard is really serious about shutting down some of these addons, not only will raiding grow a whole lot harder overnight, but the addon community (which has done a lot of great, hard work for Blizzard, without pay) might be affected irrevocably.

[ Thanks, Owlboy! ]

Update: Blue is answering some questions in this official thread. Basically, any mod that lets you click one button to do different things (Decursive) is out. Whatever you're clicking is not allowed to choose a spell for you. Now, I have zero experience with UI coding, so if someone else can explain it better, please do. But the fact remains that Blizzard is cracking down on a segment of the UI community, and it's likely to change the way almost everybody operates, especially in a raiding environment.
  • Read
  • Permalink
  • Email this
  • Comments [28]

Essential Addons for the Discerning Level 60

Posted Aug 21st 2006 9:10PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Shaman, Tips, How-tos, AddOns


Seeing as my Shaman (Shamanic on Thunderhorn, by the way, in case you want to say hi) is finally about to hit 60 and start raiding, I figured that now might be a good time to sit down and update and refresh my UI addons, something I haven't done for a patch or two now. So I monitored my play habits for a little while, checked in with guildies for their recommendations, and in the end, these are the five addons I decided were necessary to put in my /Interface folder.

-Titan Panel: If I was only going to put one addon in, this would be the one I use. Titan creates an extra bar at the top or bottom of your screen (on my setup, I actually have it in both places) that tracks all kinds of things for you: time played, XP/hour, Durability, stat buffs, FPS, game memory usage-- pretty much everything about your WoW experience you'd ever want to know (it also will tell you the coordinates of your position in the game-- extremely useful for getting around Azeroth). Titan, like the famous CTmod (which I tried but didn't like as much), is so complex there's even addons for the addon. If you've never tried a meta-addon like Titan, definitely give it a try.

Four more after the jump...

Continue reading Essential Addons for the Discerning Level 60

  • Permalink
  • Email this
  • Comments [17]


RESOURCES

Blizzard Events
BlizzCon (190)
Worldwide Invitational (106)
Class Columns
(Druid) Shifting Perspectives (47)
(Hunter) Big Red Kitty (37)
(Hunter) Scattered Shots (21)
(Mage) Arcane Brilliance (43)
(Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It (51)
(Priest) Spiritual Guidance (26)
(Rogue) Encrypted Text (33)
(Shaman) Totem Talk (51)
(Warlock) Blood Pact (31)
(Warrior) The Care and Feeding of Warriors (55)
Gameplay
(Arena PvP) Blood Sport (27)
(BG PvP) The Art of War(craft) (25)
(Casual) WoW, Casually (21)
(Guild Leadership) Officers' Quarters (63)
(Professions) Insider Trader (63)
(Raid Healing) Raid Rx (20)
(Raiding) Raiding 101 (2)
(Raiding) Ready Check (27)
(Roleplaying) All the World's a Stage (44)
Hybrid Theory (20)
New Players' Guide (3)
Tank Talk (6)
AddOns and UI
AddOn Spotlight (89)
Macro Anatomy (14)
Reader UI of the Week (27)
Reader WoWspace of the week (31)
The Creamy GUI Center (14)
Lore and Stories
Around Azeroth (526)
Ask A Lore Nerd (9)
Barrens Chat (9)
Know your Lore (58)
Tales from the Lion's Pride Inn (14)
WoW Moviewatch (518)
Features
15 Minutes of Fame (26)
About the Bloggers (28)
Ask WoW Insider (63)
Azeroth Security Advisor (4)
Breakfast topics (728)
Build Shop (35)
Forum Post of the Day (24)
Gamers on the Street (25)
Guildwatch (82)
He Said She Said (5)
Illusionary Tactics (3)
It came from the Blog (29)
Phat Loot Phriday (92)
The Colosseum (0)
Two Bosses Enter (61)
Well Fed Buff (27)
World of WarCrafts (26)
WoW Crossword (1)
WoW Insider Show (68)
WoW Rookie (41)
[1.Local] (13)
Classes
Death Knight (100)
Druid (320)
Hunter (290)
Mage (182)
Paladin (307)
Priest (256)
Rogue (181)
Shaman (286)
Warlock (198)
Warrior (219)
News
Account Security (25)
AddOns (256)
Analysis / Opinion (3178)
Blizzard (1673)
Bugs (220)
Burning Crusade (378)
Contests (233)
Economy (198)
Events (467)
Expansions (639)
Fan stuff (921)
Features (676)
Forums (289)
Guilds (506)
Hardware (45)
Humor (809)
Interviews (166)
Lore (315)
Mounts (143)
News items (1612)
NPCs (213)
Odds and ends (1724)
Patches (1153)
Podcasting (78)
Ranking (56)
Realm News (298)
Realm Status (247)
RP (177)
Rumors (68)
Virtual selves (685)
WoW Insider Business (307)
WoW Social Conventions (156)
WoW TCG (57)
Wrath of the Lich King (426)
Strategy
Alts (118)
Arena (260)
Battlegrounds (158)
Bosses (362)
Buffs (130)
Cheats (74)
Classes (327)
Enchants (37)
Factions (166)
Guides (407)
How-tos (415)
Instances (685)
Items (884)
Leveling (304)
Making money (194)
PvP (782)
Quests (384)
Raiding (777)
Talents (153)
Tips (588)
Tricks (233)
Walkthroughs (93)
Media
Comics (80)
Fan art (49)
Galleries (196)
Machinima (604)
Podcasts (52)
Polls (67)
Screenshots (676)
Races
Alliance (119)
Draenei (66)
Dwarves (21)
Gnomes (47)
Human (21)
Night Elves (48)
Horde (120)
Blood Elves (72)
Orcs (29)
Tauren (51)
Trolls (27)
Undead (27)
Professions
Alchemy (80)
Blacksmithing (63)
Cooking (76)
Enchanting (77)
Engineering (112)
First Aid (19)
Fishing (63)
Herbalism (51)
Inscription (14)
Jewelcrafting (87)
Leatherworking (66)
Mining (50)
Skinning (31)
Tailoring (71)
Retired
Pimp My Profile (1)
(Engineering) Hoof and Horn Research and Development (17)
Azeroth Interrupted (24)
Back In The Day (3)
World Wide WoW (8)
/silly (14)

RSS NEWSFEEDS

Powered by Blogsmith

    Featured Galleries

    Scarlet Crusade Tabard T-shirt
    Reader UI of the Week 6/29/08
    Worldwide Invitational goodie bag
    WWI08 Costume and Dance Contest
    Worldwide Invitational 2008
    World of WarCrafts: Midsummer magnet
    June 2008 splash screen speculation
    Blizzard splash screen speculation
    Midsummer Fire Festival

     

    Most Commented On (30 days)

    Recent Comments

    Weblogs, Inc. Network

    Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in:

    PS3 Fanboy
    WOW Insider
    Xbox 360 Fanboy
    Nintendo Wii Fanboy
    DS Fanboy
    PSP Fanboy
    Big Download Blog
    AOL Sports Blog