What about addons?

[LazarusLong]

Since people are so vocal about "pure" vanilla experience, what should we do about addons? Should we allow Decursive and other add-ons that basically allow you to automate already simple game?

For example, see a API changes in the patch notes here: https://wow.gamepedia.com/Patch_2.0.1/API_changes


The main change was to restrict interacting with player frames and a lot of variables in combat.

[Heathy]

they were allowed for a while, i remember using decursive until they made it so it didn't just dispell on single clicks. but then tbc happened and healbot eventually let you click heal one person while targeting someone else entirely. kinda made what decursive could do irrelevant by that point. most healing addons can be setup to dispel on click if you want them to. there was no healbot like addon that i know of during classic only had a simple button addon myself.

think i'd be happy with just a good raidframe tbh, the pace is different and there were / are generally more healers so, you can have like 1 healer per group in a 40 man and 2 on the tanks. plus spares

[elmoe420]

The secure context changes added in patch 2.0 (BC pre-patch) are a must in my opinion. This was already a big enough problem in the original game that Blizzard had to take very invasive action to fix things. Having sanctioned combat bots in the game seems largely accepted as having a very negative impact. Certainly, the current state of the WoW API in live is the most restrictive it has ever been and the general trend from Blizzard seems to be towards more constraints not fewer.

Players today have a wealth of information that is at their finger tips in ways we did not have during WoW Classic. Remember, when WoW Classic came out there was no Youtube, no Twitch, no Wowhead, etc. These various platforms serve as powerful mechanisms to disseminate knowledge to the wider player base. In Classic, you didn't go to Youtube and watch a video on 'How to be a good healer' and then just download CastParty and 1-button-spam your way to a win. Nowadays, I believe players would easily discover just how permissive the WoW Classic API was and install add-ons that would render challenging gameplay, particularly in raiding, rather moot.

[Deleted]

In my opinion addons are not that necessary for WoW:Classic. This only holds true if nameplates and party-/raidframes are not as abominable as in Vanilla.

Most of my addons are just QoL things (OneBag3, Selljunk, OrderhallCommander, Autolootplus).
DBM is not needed in Vanilla due to the simplicity of Mechanics. Same goes for WeakAuras. Recount/skada is also not TRULY necessary, though it would save a lot of time for raiders.

Again, just my opinion.

[LazarusLong]

If you don't remember, in Vanilla API allowed you to change the state of frames in combat. So practically total automation could happen - it's just we didn't know how to make complex scripts in LUA at the time.

- - - Updated - - -

The secure context changes added in patch 2.0 (BC pre-patch) are a must in my opinion. This was already a big enough problem in the original game that Blizzard had to take very invasive action to fix things. Having sanctioned combat bots in the game seems largely accepted as having a very negative impact. Certainly, the current state of the WoW API in live is the most restrictive it has ever been and the general trend from Blizzard seems to be towards more constraints not fewer.

Players today have a wealth of information that is at their finger tips in ways we did not have during WoW Classic. Remember, when WoW Classic came out there was no Youtube, no Twitch, no Wowhead, etc. These various platforms serve as powerful mechanisms to disseminate knowledge to the wider player base. In Classic, you didn't go to Youtube and watch a video on 'How to be a good healer' and then just download CastParty and 1-button-spam your way to a win. Nowadays, I believe players would easily discover just how permissive the WoW Classic API was and install add-ons that would render challenging gameplay, particularly in raiding, rather moot.

But that's not a pure vanilla

[anon5123]

In my opinion addons are not that necessary for WoW:Classic. This only holds true if nameplates and party-/raidframes are not as abominable as in Vanilla.

Most of my addons are just QoL things (OneBag3, Selljunk, OrderhallCommander, Autolootplus).
DBM is not needed in Vanilla due to the simplicity of Mechanics. Same goes for WeakAuras. Recount/skada is also not TRULY necessary, though it would save a lot of time for raiders.

Again, just my opinion.

It's not necessary to use keybinds for WoW:Classic, you can get by just fine clicking your abilities on your bar.

Does that mean you should do that? Fuck no.

[LazarusLong]

In my opinion addons are not that necessary for WoW:Classic. This only holds true if nameplates and party-/raidframes are not as abominable as in Vanilla.

Most of my addons are just QoL things (OneBag3, Selljunk, OrderhallCommander, Autolootplus).
DBM is not needed in Vanilla due to the simplicity of Mechanics. Same goes for WeakAuras. Recount/skada is also not TRULY necessary, though it would save a lot of time for raiders.

Again, just my opinion.

it seems you do not realise that in Vanilla addons allowed you to do MORE than now, not less.

[elmoe420]

If you don't remember, in Vanilla API allowed you to change the state of frames in combat. So practically total automation could happen - it's just we didn't know how to make complex scripts in LUA at the time.

To be clear, it wasn't that we didn't know how to make the add-ons. We did, and plenty of them were made and used to 'exploit' the game in a way that was totally sanctioned by Blizzard at the time. The difference was that there was more friction in the discoverability of such add-ons which led to lower adoption rates.

Even an add-on like Decursive, which was widely used during WoW Classic raids due to the ridiculous amount of dispelling you had to do, was not really well understood by players. Anecdotally, most people I knew just used the list of debuffed players and still clicked their names. They didn't realize that Decursive could pick the actual player to dispel for you and you really just needed to spam 1-button the entire time.

[Polybius]

Seeing that Classic will run on their modern servers, they'll just allow whatever they can. I recall easier scripting for spells as compared to now.

[Azerate]

Honestly, I'd just prefer no addons at all. Make it as pure as possible

[Yuyn]

They'll probably use the modern UI and API, with most features that weren't available in Classic disabled and hidden (calendar, dungeon finder, etc.). I'd still expect to see some of the more modern changes stay though, primarily stuff that was already possible at the time via addons (such as the improved raid frames) and stuff that improves accessibility for impaired people (readable fonts, colorblind mode, high-res support, etc.).

And the API would almost certainly be just as restrictive as it is now or people will just do all the same trivializing stuff that makes the modern game 'too easy' in their view, except in a game that was objectively much easier in terms of gameplay and mechanics (with the vaunted difficulty of end game mostly coming from organizational challenges of 40-man, people just not knowing what to do, and much more restrictive gear checks/gear gating).

[LazarusLong]

Honestly, I'd just prefer no addons at all. Make it as pure as possible

Huh? Addons was integral part of vanilla game experience. I mean you want me to remove all Luciferon curses manually? Fuck no.

[elmoe420]

They'll probably use the modern UI and API, with most features that weren't available in Classic disabled and hidden (calendar, dungeon finder, etc.). I'd still expect to see some of the more modern changes stay though, primarily stuff that was already possible at the time via addons (such as the improved raid frames) and stuff that improves accessibility for impaired people (readable fonts, colorblind mode, high-res support, etc.).

And the API would almost certainly be just as restrictive as it is now or people will just do all the same trivializing stuff that makes the modern game 'too easy' in their view, except in a game that was objectively much easier in terms of gameplay and mechanics (with the vaunted difficulty of end game mostly coming from organizational challenges of 40-man, people just not knowing what to do, and much more restrictive gear checks/gear gating).

Yes, this is my prediction as well. There are a ton of other features in the modern client around fraud and abuse detection that I'm sure they will want in place as well. When they were talking about WoW Classic with "Blizzard quality" at Blizzcon, I believe this is exactly the sort of stuff they meant.

[Deleted]

Just google 1.12 addons pack.


Addons were used by everybody so cut off the dumbo "ME WANNA PURE VANILLA" because you are just a dumb liar.

[elmoe420]

Since people are so vocal about "pure" vanilla experience, what should we do about addons? Should we allow Decursive and other add-ons that basically allow you to automate already simple game?

You may want to update your OP to include the following just so people remember exactly what the add-on situations was in WoW Classic.

See the patch notes here: https://wow.gamepedia.com/Patch_2.0.1/API_changes

I know this can be hard to understand for those not familiar with add-on development but in particularly pay attention to the section 'Protected Code'. Look at 'The following function types are restricted for AddOns' and it will give you a good picture of what was allowed before patch 2.x and just how broken add-ons were in vanilla.

[iamthedevil]

Cosmos for extra action bar! I think that's what it was called at least, been a while...

[LazarusLong]

You may want to update your OP to include the following just so people remember exactly what the add-on situations was in WoW Classic.

See the patch notes here: https://wow.gamepedia.com/Patch_2.0.1/API_changes

I know this can be hard to understand for those not familiar with add-on development but in particularly pay attention to the section 'Protected Code'. Look at 'The following function types are restricted for AddOns' and it will give you a good picture of what was allowed before patch 2.x and just how broken add-ons were in vanilla.

Thanks! i will.

[Everwake]

Huh? Addons was integral part of vanilla game experience. I mean you want me to remove all Luciferon curses manually? Fuck no.

Exactly, while my rogue guesses his threat on Vael lol. *Stab, Stab, Dragon turns, Breath, Wipe*

[iamthedevil]

Huh? Addons was integral part of vanilla game experience. I mean you want me to remove all Luciferon curses manually? Fuck no.

Absolutely was.

[LazarusLong]

Exactly, while my rogue guesses his threat on Vael lol. *Stab, Stab, Dragon turns, Breath, Wipe*

Or Broodlord Lashlayer where even healers (on horde) used threat meters