I’ll be honest, it’s a hot mess haha! (Blizz’s API), but that’s no secret. Which is part of why I’m curious about the coding they use for layering.
We’ve been brainstorming ideas, but we’d really like to see a good Guild Calendar for Classic go out. We have a prototype atm; but aren’t finished. So far all those I’ve tried haven’t worked for some reason. We also are trying our hand at threat meters, but are seeing why devs are struggling to code them to work as they did in Vanilla. (Too much to sum up here atm). It’s myself & my ultra nerd roommates haha! We’re a house of network engineers & coders. I never had it as a job, so am still learning as a hobby. Roomies have over 25 years of experience, so it’s been an interesting journey.
Oh! And to answer your question, both I & one roomie has played WoW since Vanilla, & our roomie with the most coding experience only just begun playing since Classic, so it’s been kinda neat to gain insight from each other. We can say well, this is how x worked & code monkey (lol) sees if he can “make it go”. It’s been pretty cool.
Ah yeah, I looked at threat meters a little also. And basically, it seems that everyone needs to have the same addon, same version installed in order to share individual combat log data.
The changes to the API supposedly concerning the spy addon, to something like only detectable within 50 yards or something, may actually be relevant to the accuracy of meters.
Yeah when they adjusted spy that just compounded the issue. But the real issue with threat meters for Classic existed prior to that, was because for some reason, Blizz LOL actually doesn’t have a function for it w/the new API. They could rather easily implement this, but for some reason, won’t. It’s a head scratcher.
The problem with Threat Meters. Oh boy… Where to start?
Blizzard’s classic API is sadly lacking in a great many things at this stage. One of which is an actual threat stat, which we don’t get until a later revision. So! In order to generate an approximate threat value for each player, the scripts must monitor the combat log and query information on attack types, values, buffs, de-buffs, proximity, etc… This isn’t exact. the scripts must garner information from each other in a cross-talk fashion to determine how much threat is being generated by each player and THAT number is thrown in to the calculation, blah blah blah. It’s a mess and difficult to keep up with since with each revision of WOW that is released, the API changes slightly and so do the values in the combat log.
Sadly, the API information out there isn’t always clear as to what version each set of commands and queries are good for, and I often find myself poking around on different reference sites to double verify what queries will work with the version of WOW Classic I’m programming for. Sometimes it’s pure guesswork.
Edit: I’m not sure if there’s an instance where layering would conflict with these scripts, but I imagine that if there is one where the scripts are trying to communicate and the players are on separate layers, this can break the calculations and render false results, ending in wiped raids, wailing and gnashing of teeth, and the breaking of the seventh seal - thus leading to the end of days. But I could be mistaken.
Hi I’m the author of NovaWorldBuffs, the addon is still in testing phase and shows incorrect layers sometimes. Still tweaking things to get this fixed.
Yeah, it seems like the most comprehensive API reference is on Gamepedia (https://wow.gamepedia.com/Global_functions). I had some hopes/plans to spend some time diving in, but instead spent the weekend figuring out how to solo ZF Zombie Runs as a mage, and when from 42 to 49 pretty easily - though I did waste a few hours dying lots at level 42.
Hi! Thanks for commenting on this thread.
Cool. Yeah, I assume this has something to do with NWB.data.layers, though I’m not sure where/how that’s getting set.
I think your addon code is the most time I’ve spent looking at Lua! (so far, maybe 5 minutes, but I may use it as a reference to try figuring some of this out, thanks!)
I am the OP, and perhaps I can help as I just started 8x multiboxing Druids, and I saw what looked like 4 or 5 layers, hence my post.
Perhaps I could test or validate your addon?
NOTE: I would definitely keep your technique and source private before publishing the results, lest you run the chance of your technique being patched. This was done with census addons as Blizzard wanted to block reporting in the past. While I wish this wasn’t necessary, transparency towards decision making doesn’t seem paramount.
It’s pretty difficult to keep software that is developed with interpreted languages from being readable by others, particularly so if you are sharing it with them
That’s not the same as it being open source free (edited: there is also proprietary Open Source software) though. There is proprietary software that requires a license to use, but has visible/readable source.
It would be difficult to enforce on an individual user basis, though. Especially in the form of something such as a WoW AddOn.
As far as I know, there was a function to automate something having to do with the /who API that was disabled.
I don’t think this was done to intentionally prevent it from working (which the changed didn’t/doesn’t do), but it prevented the automation, which (I recall someone claiming somewhere, but don’t have a reference, so take this with a grain of salt) apparently caused a lot of network traffic, and server load, which resulted in lag for players.
I believe that was actually related to the LFG addon, though the concensus addon used the same function call.
If they have servers with layering and without layering, couldn’t you just transfer to a server without layering? Cause that’s the current situation I’m seeing.
Demand full money back for ruining classic this is not what classic is this is not what we were supposed to have. This is called making items worth absolutely nothing and giving bots on big servers even more room to screw us over. Golf Clap now give me my 6 months cash back for this BS you have bestowed upon our once great community. Sorry you guys couldnt get your IQ’s together and didnt allow ppl to server transfer to my already full server Golf Clap real big thinkers over there at the headquarters.
While you’re accurately stating that, it also isn’t that simple. Blizzard was also concerned about the tourist problem - the players that play Retail that also wanted to stop by to see and experience Classic.
I, myself, was a tourist to just see the game for a bit then went back to Retail (since I played Classic when it was just Warcraft).
There was no right or wrong way to do the balancing. If they set population caps of 1750 accounts H and 1750 accounts alliance per server, what happens if I want my friend to come play? We’re at the account cap.
Do you have a dynamic account cap that’s the last 7-28 days? How do you communicate to the players that X realm has X slots available?
Does the account cap count everyone who has even made a character? (So, for example, if I had a bunch of friends that played retail and I played H on a server, could I just have them all make level 1 characters as Alliance on the server to skew the population cap?)
You’re actually getting the most authentic Classic experience, really. The slowly skewing servers (this happened in regular WoW too, look at Cho’gall) it’s just amplified now.
Back in 2005, information just didn’t flow like it does now.
And while I do see the complains about mega servers, they do have servers without layers that you could transfer to, if you were so inclined to have the “more authentic” experience you desire.
I think that’s the best balance Blizzard can strike. Servers with layers (with the option to transfer off of them) to servers without layers.
Yes, i dislike layering, and somewhat dislike the notion of paid transfers at the discretion of the players.
But like I said, there were actually various ways that Blizz could have tried to change some things. (Instead, I think they wanted to watch it all unfold organically and not try to put their hands in it too much. Can’t fault them for hoping social dynamics can influence itself.)
However, they could have had meetings with previous private/pirate server hosters and tried to find out things like:
What did you guys learn? What did we do right? What did we do wrong? How was faction balance/imbalance affecting the gameplay experience on your pservers? What would you have wanted to do differently?
I can’t fathom the notion that a multi-billion dollar company did not think about these things, and/or open talks with the previous hosts of Nost/Northdale/Lights Hope etc.
Either way, here we are. Classic has been very fun in many respects. It has also been very frustrating in a few.
Tbf, the most authentic classic experience is no caps, no faction balance, none of that. Just letting it develop organically and react if things go off the rails too much.
I think a lot of what people’s expectations of classic were to capture the magic of 2005, but 2020 players aren’t like 2005 players and the player base has drifted so much further from God since then.
Still waiting on my refund for breaking classic wow for me. I cant get world buffs i cant see half the people in world im talking to. People are disappearing when i try to kill them in pvp items are dropping to a all time low. Let me know when you wana send me my money back ill give you my credit card. I didnt ask for layers i asked for classic.
This is not a bug it was just implemented by blizzard they changed the original thing they said they were selling. This game is called World of Layers and Sometimes Warcraft.
