Does this exist?

[Skrototem]

Well, i had a thought. Since Archaeology is a pretty popular new edition to the game, it has it's annoyances (being sent in circles when the fragment is next to you is one) Which can be countered by a little simple trigonometry (getting 2 points on green and lining it up to complete the triangle)

Is anyone aware of an addon in existance or in the process of being made, or is willing to make an addon that marks the position and direction of the previous survey, and the current position and direction of the most recent survey, and draws a "virtual" line in the game to line up the triangle, making it so you don't have to mentally mark a "line" where you're surveying.

I know this exact thing may not be completely possible (because of AVR-E ruining addons drawing in the game) But i'm aware of some addons still capable of interacting with the game world with graphics.

[Aelinn]

I don't think it would be possible to actually draw a line like AVR, but it would be possible to plot a waypoint and have a QuestHelper-like arrow come up to direct you to the point. However, I would think that it would only be possible if the internal survey function returns some kind of bearing or heading that the addon could pick up. It's a cool idea, though.

[TheGallow]

The survey may or may not have a bearing that a mod can pick up, but the player could manually line up with the survey tool and press a button that grabs those bearings.

[Deleted]

I am currently working on an addon like that, you can get the early alphas here.

Usage:
Survey, align your character with the survey tool, do /survey (or /triangulation).
Survey again, re-do /survey (or /triangulation).

Follow the arrow (it's north-relative, not character-relative).

[Skrototem]

I am currently working on an addon like that, you can get the early alphas here.

Usage:
Survey, align your character with the survey tool, do /survey (or /triangulation).
Survey again, re-do /survey (or /triangulation).

Follow the arrow (it's north-relative, not character-relative).

Ok awesome, i'll give it a try. Thanks.

As to the bearing option, even if getting them from the game isn't possible, even something the player can manually input could be useful, something as simple as a line a player can draw with the addon out from the survey site, and then some sort of function to quickly reset and move on.

[Deleted]

It's very inaccurate. Nothing I can do about it, Blizzard's survey tool is simply extremely inaccurate. Green can deviate as much as 10 degrees, yellow has been observed to deviate up to 25 degrees. Red can lock on onto ANY artifact on the entire continent, even one in Tanaris from Winterspring.

[Skrototem]

It's very inaccurate. Nothing I can do about it, Blizzard's survey tool is simply extremely inaccurate. Green can deviate as much as 10 degrees, yellow has been observed to deviate up to 25 degrees. Red can lock on onto ANY artifact on the entire continent, even one in Tanaris from Winterspring.

Yeah i've noticed this, at first i thought i was wrongly mentally marking the direction of the previous survey. I managed to get a red marker in the small zone of Ungoro to point to 5 different locations in a circle of about 20 yards. It's probably a method they've employed to prevent addons like this actually.

[Mordret]

There is similar project to you Treeston:
ArcheoTriangle @ Curse, not tested it though.

[Deleted]

I noticed after uploading mine.

[Deleted]

the thing is that if it´s red, it doesn´t point direct to the thing.
to prove this i´ll tell u what happend to me yesterday: the first survey pointed slightly northwest. i then whent northeast and tried again, and then it pointed slightly northeast.

[Mordret]

I noticed that you can find treasures in exactly same spot, so probably something like gatherer would be better for survey then triangulation. I was digging at one digsite and some other people too an we all met in the same spot to collect treasure. Couple of times treasure spawned in exactly same spot that I was digging before. ArcheoTriange is heading in that direction to create a map of certain archaeological spots and guess which one is most likely.

[Taryble]

Honestly, GatherMate2 treats archaeology just like any other gathering skill - it records where you found the treasures.

[ImNot1337]

It's very inaccurate. Nothing I can do about it, Blizzard's survey tool is simply extremely inaccurate. Green can deviate as much as 10 degrees, yellow has been observed to deviate up to 25 degrees. Red can lock on onto ANY artifact on the entire continent, even one in Tanaris from Winterspring.

Ok, I thought it was just me, but this confirms it. The survey tool is definitely wonky on the accuracy. Is this what they wanted? (I wasn't in beta. If I was I would have griped about it).

Also, why in the blue blazes is there a cooldown for Survey? Maybe I'm missing something, but you'd get nothing out of spamming it anyway. Often I'm just standing in a spot waiting for the cooldown to come off. Not fun.

---------- Post added 2010-12-16 at 03:46 PM ----------

Honestly, GatherMate2 treats archaeology just like any other gathering skill - it records where you found the treasures.

Yep. As far as I know Gatherer (not to be confused with GatherMate/Mate2) doesn't handle archaeology. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

[Skrototem]

Ok, I thought it was just me, but this confirms it. The survey tool is definitely wonky on the accuracy. Is this what they wanted? (I wasn't in beta. If I was I would have griped about it).

Also, why in the blue blazes is there a cooldown for Survey? Maybe I'm missing something, but you'd get nothing out of spamming it anyway. Often I'm just standing in a spot waiting for the cooldown to come off. Not fun.

I think the cooldown is there so you can't just run in a straight line spamming it, meaning you'd inevitably cover a crap tonne of ground and find artifacts much quicker (e.g. travel form + spam)

As to the wonkiness, i'm of the impression that it's an intentional design, probably to discourage the usage of such addons, they don't want players to have a guaranteed method of finding an artifact in 2-3 surveys, since that would defeat the point of the dwarves racial of less surveys. It doesn't completely negate the usefullness of such addons, it just means it's a little more vague than would be ideal, it still points you in a far more accurate direction than the crappy default markers anyway.

[ImNot1337]

I think the cooldown is there so you can't just run in a straight line spamming it, meaning you'd inevitably cover a crap tonne of ground and find artifacts much quicker (e.g. travel form + spam)

As to the wonkiness, i'm of the impression that it's an intentional design, probably to discourage the usage of such addons, they don't want players to have a guaranteed method of finding an artifact in 2-3 surveys, since that would defeat the point of the dwarves racial of less surveys. It doesn't completely negate the usefullness of such addons, it just means it's a little more vague than would be ideal, it still points you in a far more accurate direction than the crappy default markers anyway.

I see. Forgot about the racial for Dwaves because I don't play one. However, it all seems like Blizzard is a victim on their own design. If, as you say, they wanted to discourage the usage of such addons by adding in a bit of inaccuracy, it looks to be failing. I see more an more folks looking for addons because of the wonkiness. I'm sure they notice the trends better than me though.