Been watching the add-on changes blowing up. I don’t really know what to think as I haven’t seen how the new fights operate or look in Midnight. But, what I am actually more worried about is the OTHER add-ons. Things I’m thinking about:
All The Things (I am a collector would HATE to lose this)
Rarity/Silver Dragon/similar
Auctioneer
Plater (and not just the combat notification stuff but just the great UI updates that it provides to bars)
Immersive or other chat box “niceness” add-ons. (with some visual issues, the vanilla current chat boxes are just hard to read)
And, of course, there are many others.
I haven’t been able to find too much information around these. Has anyone seen any responses from the respective developers? Based on alpha being out, do any appear to just break now?
From what I have read, the addon limitations seem to be limited to inside instances and with addons using chat channels to talk among players. They are also backing off on some this already to allow some addons to talk outside of combat.
I do know that Plusmouse (baganator, auctionator, collectionator, chattynator, syndicator, etc…) is updating his addons for the Alpha and quite a few of them are already working on the platform. So other non-combat addons can probably update as well. Some may not function in instances though.
If they decide to rip apart TRP3, or Total Roleplay 3, I will personally send quite the nasty gram to Blizzard and ensure my extended vacation. Perhaps even permanent.
If everything continues on that path, then I suspect Plater may be the only one that might not work how I am used to.
Personally, in combat, I use Plater to show me when I can interrupt (bar goes yellow means I have an interrupt available) and the timing of the interrupt. It’s actively being cast by the mob so it’s not a premonition-type functionality, and it’s something I could actively see if my eyes could find it fast enough, but Plater makes it more obvious.
I suspect (though don’t know) that this may take a hit of functionality. Guess I’ll have to wait and see.
No idea about a direct source, but we know that the type of information that Plater wants to access won’t be accessible. So… it is gone. I would just recommend taking a look at what Blizzard is actually making and how they are improving on it (hell if you are in the Alpha/Beta or when the game is live, tell Blizzard what functionalities you want from the in-game UI).
The simple reality is that they want to change how addons are able to present information and what they can access, due to how certain addons limit design space. I haven’t used Plater as I think it is an entirely pointless addon the way I would use it, and having seen how other people use it … the point of the change is that addons like Plater would be on the chopping block. At least in terms of what it can do, not just how it presents the information.
So do understand that part of the point of this is that some addons are simply too potent, and that’s why some functionalities is being removed. With the best way to do that being to make that information secret and just providing a better default-option instead of an addon.
Understood on functionality vs. just UI display. I’m pretty much using Plater for UI and that one thing I mentioned (interrupts). But, I totally get how the underlying changes to WoW’s API will end the capabilities of Plater in general.
If Blizzard does things right, I’m all about using less add-ons, but for me UI is super crucial. And there are just some things that add-on makers have really done well that I hope Blizzard learns from (or…copies…I wouldn’t mind copies…).
Considering that they absolutely nailed it (albeit with bugs) when they updated the default UI and how we can customize it, I’m not worried. Hell looking at just the Wowhead article it is clear that they are taking it seriously and providing people with virtually everything that people want from it.
People are just stuck on “I need to use my addon that I have used forever” which, was kinda the same response people had with how unnecessary addons like Bartender and Bagnon became. I still see folks running around with ElvUI to this day and when you compare how it looks to someone who have just used the default one to mirror it, ElvUI have more clutter than the base UI.
It will have growing pains as does everything, but the change is good, and what they have already showcased demonstrates that we are going to get something good. The question is just going to be how much growing pain noises people are going to make, and how much folks are going to complain about the inevitable bugs.
For the same reason folks though that WA wouldn’t have to fundamentally change: people use them in creative ways and don’t think about how they are used in “standard” ways.
This is a very normal thing and not strange that people don’t think about it. Happens to people literally every single day in our lives both in-game and out-of-it. For some, more than others but… it is very normal thing.
Then provide feedback and say “It’d be awesome to be able to turn off portraits in the UI.” This is the stuff Blizzard want to know what players care the most about and some stuff is possible, other stuff not, and other stuff is difficult but may be worth it if enough people request it.
Yeah. I don’t use Plater for much in the way of combat. I just have trouble seeing the default UI and I loved what I saw in Plater. Just copied what another person created and have been using that since. Much easier for my vision.
Because if addons can send or read information to or from the chat, then they can circumvent things. The chat was always going to be part, one way or another, of the things restricted.
They also said it would happen gradually and there would be opportunities for both addons and blizzard alternatives to coexist so they could iterate and “Get it right”.
This is scorched earth on an, at most, 6 month deadline.
