'New' Vanilla Add-Ons Might Ruin It?

[Orbusg]

I'm sure the usual things like bagnon, gathering trackers and ui modification addons will be a thing like always, but I'd be shocked if they allowed the more egregious ones that essentially play the game for you.

Whine about "but muh 'nilla experience" all you want, but add-ons are third party and have no obligation to keep them functional, and they removed those ones because they didn't want the game on literal autopilot.

[h4rr0d]

The discussion going on here is a clear example of why the people screaming "NOCHANGES" are detrimental to these realms.

What you are NOT getting with Classic is a time machine. You are still going to be playing the game in 2018 and onward. Things have changed about gaming and computers since then, and as such so will the player experience.

I wish some one could take a poll about how many people use the addon Questie, because its got so many fucking downloads that I swear it must be everyone.
Whenever you watch a streamer or see screenshots, you see people with complete UI overhauls, and all kinds of addons tracking dots, buffs, and debuffs.

These things didn't exist in 2005 and they dramatically change the game.

The fact that people develop them for Classic tells you all you need to know. Some people DO WANT CHANGES. Otherwise these addons wouldn't be being used or developed. But there are changes that make sense to the base game, and actually make the game BETTER.

Now, I am totally for breaking some addons. There aren't any that I'm aware of that make the game too crazy, but I do worry about the potential of addons like Weak Auras getting into Classic and out of control. There is already a modified Power Aura that was made for private servers and it works some what the same way that Weak Auras works today but its not nearly as adventurous.

I'm making an assumption, but I would expect once this game is mainstream, addons are going to explode in terms of power and development.

When that happens, they might as well have changed things, because its going to be an entirely different playing experience for people who choose to use them.

Those things did exist in 2005, they just weren't as polished since they were written by dorky (mostly) clueless teenagers instead of people with 10+ years experience in software engineering.
I can't remember the name of it, but there was a unit frame replacement addon. There was also an addon that would remove the gryphons from action bars and let you move them freely. There was also a dot/buff/debuff tracking addon, it was called OmniCC. That one was actually really good for PVP, because it also had bars for DR on CC.

Anyone who was even remotely serious about their healing had to use a raid frame addon at the very least, because the default blizz raidframes didn't have range indicator (that wasn't introduced until Cata prepatch btw)

I also remember having an addon for my hunter, that would automatically change action bar when my target got into melee range.

Right now, there's basically elvUI for vanilla, including the configuration wizard thingy.

[Deleted]

If they're doing vanilla they could just go back to the old addon language that they used before .lua...that should sort things out by itself...

[CosmicGuitars]

But far from all Vanilla players used them - especially at the start; that cluelessness was part of the Vanilla experience and I don't see how it can be recreated.

It can't. WoW players are far smarter and more talented in 2017 than they were in 2004. Things that used to be weird about WoW are now industry standard, people have had ~13 years to get good at the game. You can't replicate the sense of exploration of vanilla WoW, neither mechanically nor in terms of world scale.

[Tekkommo]

I always find it amusing when people demand the authentic vanilla experience in youtube videos on private servers, while running with new addons that weren't available that simplify everything.

From quest helper, to grid that actually manages range, debuffs properly etc.

[Flarelaine]

Blizzard did not police addons during vanilla.
So they wont do it this time round.

I recall reading about them breaking HealBot around the end of Vanilla. Or was it already early BC?

[Super Kami Dende]

I had quite a few addons in Vanilla, don't see why they would remove them.

Though they won't have the one I treasured most back then. Finalfantasylization. Best Music Mod ever.

- - - Updated - - -

I always find it amusing when people demand the authentic vanilla experience in youtube videos on private servers, while running with new addons that weren't available that simplify everything.

From quest helper, to grid that actually manages range, debuffs properly etc.

Questhelper was in Vanilla though.

[Tekkommo]

Questhelper was in Vanilla though.

The questhelper addon came out in TBC.

Questie which is currently available on the private servers, is far superior.

It is not the vanilla experience they demand.

[gtfo_my_internets]

give me cosmos back pls

[Independent voter]

My guess is Blizz will use the new World of Warcraft API along with the new server side software.

This will mean no vanilla decursive addon, but we'll get stuff like weakauras.

I'm not happy with it, but a lot of the real vanilla addons were kind of cheating.

[Cempa]

Good..for you..?



A good example of this is the premade group finder. Regardless of which version of the API they choose to go with an addon that looks and feels exactly like the premade group finder can and probably will get made. Even though people say they love spamming trade for hours waiting for someone to whisper a reply to them the convenience and the "fire and forget" nature of that addon would most likely make it spread across all the servers and become the norm. If you were to be stubborn and still use trade to build your groups you would find that it would be very inefficient, taking 20 times longer than it used to.

The question is then, what should Blizzard do? If they know that such an addon can be made and what the effects will be, do they ship the game with their own version so that nobody is left out? They can't prevent the addon from being made, do they release a "Blizzard quality" addon right from the start and put it up on curse so we get to decide for ourselves?

That is indeed why I created the thread, to answer the question you posed: "What should Blizzard do?"

The add on would clearly affect many players and potentially become almost mandatory AND thus guaranteed to change the inconvenience/social dynamic of WoWv .. It would should get broken ..

[Stacie]

The CT addons, Quest Helper, Decursive were part of the experience back then for me. ^^

[Eurhetemec]

My guess is Blizz will use the new World of Warcraft API along with the new server side software.

This will mean no vanilla decursive addon, but we'll get stuff like weakauras.

I'm not happy with it, but a lot of the real vanilla addons were kind of cheating.

Yeah this seems like the most realistic position to me too.

The Vanilla LUA system was nuts, even after the first big nerf, and they didn't really get LUA under control properly until, what, Wrath? TBC locked down a lot more too.

If they just re-implement the patches "as they were", it'll be an incredibly hilarious "LUA arms race", as people attempt to make the most OTT/excessive/nutso addons before LUA gets nerfed. I mean, kind of cheating? Yes, definitely. Some were so close to cheating it was indistinguishable. People think DBM and WA are bad now? HAH!

[Cempa]

The CT addons, Quest Helper, Decursive were part of the experience back then for me. ^^

Indeed, such add ons should be in the game, but if like what a poster said is true, that to break a 'new' add on that affects inconveniences/social Blizz would break all/most add ons: Then they should figure out a way to address the problem.

[Eurhetemec]

Indeed, such add ons should be in the game, but if like what a poster said is true, that to break a 'new' add on that affects inconveniences/social Blizz would break all/most add ons: Then they should figure out a way to address the problem.

What way would you suggest, though?

I mean, realistically, I can only see three scenarios for Classic servers re addons:

1) No addons. It's doable. It wouldn't be super-popular, but it could be done.

2) Modern LUA setup.

3) Vanilla LUA setup.

In both 2 & 3 you WILL get addons that can create a de-facto LFG, for example. It won't be able to teleport people or the like, but you could have something very similar to the current LFG, just done with add-ons (obvs. only people with the add-on would be in it, but that could quickly become most people).

I can't see a way you could "break" that without breaking essentially all add-ons. At most you might slow it down by, for example, preventing add-ons from issuing group invites (but you could still have an add-on create the string, so you'd just paste it into your chat-bar and press enter).

[Youn]

The thing is with Vanilla Lua you are allowed to do far too much. A modern coder could recreate/make some of the more powerful items that just are too restricted in the Modern Lua. Do, you really want an addon to tell you where things are going to hit on the floor be shading those area pink? Do you want it to also move you out of the fire? If your not fast enough, it could instantly target the guy that needs healing the most. It could probably even choose the correct level of spell based of your mana and what needs to be done out there.

Strangely, it's actually my current interest in the Classic servers. How much can I automate the game-play of the game if completely allowed. And my profession is computer programmer. So, I may just make it a hobby for when I am bored. The question is can automation make non-viable classes viable?

[Delana]

What way would you suggest, though?

I mean, realistically, I can only see three scenarios for Classic servers re addons:

1) No addons. It's doable. It wouldn't be super-popular, but it could be done.

2) Modern LUA setup.

3) Vanilla LUA setup.

In both 2 & 3 you WILL get addons that can create a de-facto LFG, for example. It won't be able to teleport people or the like, but you could have something very similar to the current LFG, just done with add-ons (obvs. only people with the add-on would be in it, but that could quickly become most people).

I can't see a way you could "break" that without breaking essentially all add-ons. At most you might slow it down by, for example, preventing add-ons from issuing group invites (but you could still have an add-on create the string, so you'd just paste it into your chat-bar and press enter).

Good luck with your randomly matched group in actually hard instances.

[Saucerian]

A lot of good arguments for Blizzard simply disallowing UI mods for Classic.

Even with modern LUA, people could recreate many modern UI elements that (1) didn't exist in Classic, (2) Blizzard never envisioned back then, and (3) would ruin the Classic experience. Things like quest helper, dungeon finder (sans teleports), etc.

FFXIV does not support UI mods and I'm sure they learned from WoW's example -- when modders break intended gameplay, the only choices are disallow the mods, or redesign the game around their existence.

In the interest of keeping Classic authentic, I'd rather they not have to make continued tweaks to the game because of mods. I'd be for updating the stock Classic UI to include features from popular mods that were allowed & existed at the time of its last patch, but nothing more.

[Echocho]

A lot of good arguments for Blizzard simply disallowing UI mods for Classic.

Disallow addons?? Vanilla had addons, so should Classic, otherwise we can just start adding LFR and transmog if we're allowed to make changes of that scale to the game.

[Cempa]

Add ons are an integral part of WoW gaming experience, and we all want them! Thing is for WoWv I for one would like Blizzard to recreate Vanilla add ons. I’d imagine Blizzard would open a forum page and an email which developers/players could submit requests and addons ..

Vanilla is in the past, you can recreate the past .. re-experience it .. but not re-write it .. I mean we already know what existed back then, so why not pre coded it into the game as optional and simply ban all new add ons?

- - - Updated - - -

Add ons are an integral part of WoW gaming experience, and we all want them! Thing is for WoWv I for one would like Blizzard to recreate Vanilla add ons. I’d imagine Blizzard would open a forum page and an email which developers/players could submit requests and addons ..

Vanilla is in the past, you can recreate the past .. re-experience it .. but not re-write it .. I mean we already know what existed back then, so why not pre coded it into the game as optional and simply ban all new add ons?