I have an Addon I would like to make but I have 0 experience with this.
Where are some good places to start? It appears there are a few things I need to possibly learn like Lua and XML maybe. Really not sure. I found a video that showed me how to get some of the in game files and something to visually display the art but that’s where I have stopped.
I heard of a book but then also read its dated.
The information in the books is generally still correct in regards to how to go about creating addons but the information about specific game related APIs and systems may be out of date.
That said, depending on what you are thinking of creating, it can take from a few lines of code up to thousands depending on complexity and the game systems involved. That and usually there is more than one approach that can be taken ie. for the most part XML is not required but can be used depending on preference, design etc.
Lua is a must although WoW uses a tightly controlled sub-set of the lua language.
The code for addons is readable in a text editor so you can look at the code in those, starting with ones you already have installed (at least you know what they do) although many use libraries which may complicate the “getting started” if you don’t understand their purpose. It’s also a reason any idea of a super secret gonna make me rich/famous/uber leet addon jedi is not a reason for trying to keep an idea to yourself. People around these parts and other forums are pretty helpful.
Ask questions and be specific. That will usually get you there quicker than trying to be vague.
For some of the basics, you can start here:
The site has probably the most up-to-date information on all things addon related.
The website addon.bool.no allows you to paste some code to create/download as an addon like you would from any addon site. Good for getting started with some code and to see what talked about in the link above about .toc and code files.
Haha well certainly not trying to get rich. Mainly just for myself but if as I learn more it looks like this is remotely plausible then I have no issue sharing it.
Thank you for responding so quickly and for the direction in getting started. I actually just came back to edit the topic to make it clear I have no programming experience at all but it looks like this website is a good starting point if I pursue this.
I found this video to be particularly helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NbjQdHldew
I will check that out thank you
Basically I noticed some things.
I really do want to read the quests in each zone but its very very time consuming to go through them all reading one at a time etc. I wanted the addon to provide an unlockable experience where you unlock a zones story as you progress through it via the quests and you can then go back using an interface for this ro reread what happened if you were curious. Maybe you cant read the quest until youve done it on one character idk. I imagine the demand for something like this is quite low so I was just gonna do it for myself. It isnt looking like I can just pull the quest info from game files but I could be completely wrong at this point.
This game has a lot of history. Its spread out everywhere including novels and little in game books. The History of Darrowshire book was a quest item that you lose when you turn in… there are or were pre Cataclysm, lore books you could find and read too. Go collect them and they can be permanently read at your leisure at any time.
I was thinking further that this stuff I could include somewhere in the addon interface.
Ive been watching some thread conversations and feel personally that the game really needs a focal point for all of its lore and needs to make it accessible. I would love to be able to read through this stuff for curiosity sake as even if I did read through every quest as I say I will ine day, I wont remember and would eventually want to reread the stuff. In that case I dont want to have to play through zone quests necessarily.
I figure the addon could also include backgrounds of the relevant faction/s in the zones which explains a bit of their history and motivations etc. Other like minded factions they ally with etc.
It started out as a simple idea for myself and maybe a few other ppl I know and as I looked back more at the other aspects. nevermind cinematics and NPC dialogue for some quests, its grown quite excessive.
There is a lot of lore conversations happening where people dont truly know whats going on and the points of reference…well there is plenty of information outside the game but I think it should be in the game unless its a novel but its an opportunity to make people aware of the novels if they wish to purchase and read them. Basically players end up either remembering what was in game or have to go to a website to find stuff if they want to know. The majority of lore is from WoW at this point so imo it should be accessible inside the games interface.
This is probably something that someone who isnt a complete beginner to coding and such would be better suited to do.
Not saying I wont still try it for the sake of the experience but I dont know that Ill ever finish it.
It certainly wont happen until I get to a point of collection of atuff in game that I am happy with.