Then why did they not “fix it” then if it was “definitely a mistake in the law of unintended consequences”?
Why allow a “definite mistake” to continue for over 12 years?
Because the mistake was made in February?
I really think you have no understanding of what happened.
12 years? It was only removed at some point in the past few months.
When was the element in question removed?
Was it not intentionally removed over 12 years ago?
We already knew that some things which were possible via macros or add-ons in vanilla would not be possible in Classic due to the changes in the infrastructure that have been made in 14 years.
It sounds like focus is just one of those things.
I may be misunderstanding, but I believe that the element to which the OP refers was the ability to use scripts and add-ons to achieve what was later added baseline in TBC. When they added focus frames in TBC in when that element which allowed the use of scripts and add-ons for focus was removed.
If I am misunderstanding, I have no doubt that the OP will be here to point that out.
I skimmed through this thread, but I’m a little confused about what has actually happened, in part because I haven’t really played for a while.
Was the ability to set a Focus ID removed entirely, or is it just protected LUA? If its just protected, does that mean you can’t set a focus during combat, or just that you can’t call that ID during combat (i.e. Cast on your focus target?)
- The
focusUnit ID is a part of the current Retail API. - It was introduced at 2.0.1 to provide a “like functionality” replacement for using scripts, because they locked all the security down.
- It provides the functionality that the scripts did, in the specific regard of variable retained target capability.
- When they implemented the Classic client the
focusUnit ID was removed from the Classic API fork of the modern Retail API. - This removal was an oversight, because the functionality existed in Vanilla and should exist in Classic. The form has changed, in the same way that the Target frame is not the same Target frame from Classic.
- The
focusunit ID from Retail Wow needs to be reimplemented in Classic to allow us to have the same functionality we did in Vanilla, even though the form is by necessity, using the modern Secure Frames implementation which all unit IDs/unit frames are.
2 Likes
So in the current Classic build, there is zero way to set any kind of focus ID, regardless of combat, party, raid, etc?
Correct.
You can use the party1 unit ID, or the target unit ID etc, but the focus unit ID has been removed for Classic and Classic only.
Well that’s interesting, probably not in a good way.
Out of curiosity, how or were was the focus ID stored in Vanilla? I always remember it requiring an addon? I was under the impression that the addon just setup the /focus command to trigger a script, but the ID value was actually stored in the addon’s .xml file.
The variable was simply a live-runtime LUA variable that was destroyed at logout.
/script focus=UnitName("target")
Where focus was the variable name. Then whenever you wanted to target that thing you’d put:
/script TargetByName(focus); CastSpellByName("Healing Touch(Rank 4)")
Unit IDs are basically just secure LUA variables that can only be changed in combat by secure code snippets.
So what we’re saying with this healer and CC jazz is that people for the removal of focus are wonderful people who are part of Make Classic Hard Again.
MCHA. I Support It, Do You?
1 Like
Wow I had no idea it was saved to the LUA itself, I thought it had to be stored elsewhere. I find it really strange that they would intentionally remove it given that piece of information. I’m not sure how they would accidentally remove it though, unless they somehow removed it when trying to remove the GUI Focus frame, but that seems really unlikely.
This is why I think its an oversight. Some Junior Dev has said “Oh there’s no focus frame in the 1.12 client, so remove all the focus stuff” without understanding what there was in the client in this specific area. Thus why this thread is great for bringing attention to it.
I would like to point out that I think some of the people in the thread don’t recognize that the focus commands and scripting are what you are discussing, where as the focus frame, in the context of the GUI, is not your concern.
To everyone else in this thread,
There was no focus frame (the portrait of your focus target), but there was focus scripting in Vanilla. That scripting got overhauled to be a little more user friendly in TBC in the form of basic /focus commands, at which point they added the focus frames as well.
Eloraell’s argument is that the infrastructure allowed for a focus target to be established in Vanilla, and though they changed the way that was executed in TBC, the end result was still almost exactly the same. The problem in Classic is that neither option exists now.
3 Likes
well you also currently don’t seem to be able to raid with 10 people in Classic Dungeons either and that was something from Vanilla, so I’d believe they could miss somethings
That’s the point of the Beta too. To find the things they missed, and get people’s feedback on what they changed.
NO IT IS NOT! It so I can PLAY…UM Test, ya test stuff
ps. aside from the Streamer hate, I have been sensing a mood shift toward more positivity somewhat lately.
So you want it back because it is too hard to click your alt and press the heal button, rather than being able to set focus and press one button to heal even after changing targets? I dont believe you are going to unsub just because of that. Because if you do unsub your 2nd account then you wont be able to level dual boxing at all.
I won’t be leveling with dual boxing otherwise. First three Vanilla 60s were done without any dual-boxing and I can do that just fine. All it does is takes far more time away from when I could be healing my raid team’s instances, so that I can get a toon who can actually farm to a suitable level.