Addon Request

Vaengence · 03-13-13, 07:41 PM

I am looking for someone to create an addon for me that will take a bit of dicussion and time to organise and test and consequently I am happy wherever possible to make recompense for your time (maybe codes for in game items etc).

It needs to have separate functionality for raid leaders and raid members, 25 man raids primarily, be able to communicate between those people with the addon (much like EPGP Loot Master) and if possible go so far as to react to certain events during the raid (not boss mechanics like a boss mod addon).

The details are quite long, and personalised for our guild so I do not want to post the entire request in this message, however if anyone has some patience and the time free and has such experience with making addons similar to the ones above, could you message me and I will send through exactly what it is I want it to do.

In the end, I am more than happy for you to release it as a mod for others to do as well, I just specifically want it tailored to our guild requirements is all. I have spent some time searching and have not been able to find a mod that does what we want.

Any help is appreciated.

Phanx · 03-13-13, 08:47 PM

If you're serious about finding someone to help you, you should really just describe what you want the addon to do. Otherwise, if anyone even PMs you at all, you're going to end up just copying and pasting the same description to each of them. You're much more likely to generate interest if you actually say what you want, instead of asking people do this annoying dance of "my idea is too secret/complicated/special/whatever to say in public, please PM me if you're interested in my MYSTERY PROJECT!".

Vaengence · 03-13-13, 08:59 PM

The thing is, I have always been the kind of person who is happy to pay for a service. I am not really looking just for generosity of time. It is also, and it relates to the above, something that I cam going to have to communicate a lot with the person doing it because I want it to be very specific in how I want it designed.

I have not requested this kind of service before, however I have never required to be exact in the request as it has always been only those interested or available that required those details. Consequently I did not think it either appropriate or necessary to include them in seeking the interest of a person.

I put in the general ideas of what kind of mod I need it to do to give an indication of what experience is necessary and I am not looking to message a person just so they can see what it is - the idea is if someone is available and wants to design a mod, for whatever recompense is agreeable, then I open a dialogue with them directly as to what I want the mod to do. I will also need to have a discussion about what may or may not be possible in relation to the design of the mod. I do not wish to have this conversation, in posts on a generic forum, so sorry if that offends you. Clearly you are not interested in the request - I am curious as to why the desire to respond to the post if you have no interest in it.

Phanx · 03-13-13, 10:18 PM

Well, as it stands, nobody has any interest in it, because all you've said is that you want it to do "something" differently for raid leaders vs raid members, and you want it to do "something" in response to "some events". That's about as vague and meaningless as you can be without being Deepak Chopra Jr.

This is a hobby community, not a freelance job board. You can't just post "I want to hire a programmer" here, because nobody is here looking to get hired for a $50 freelance project, and most people here are not professional programmers. It really does matter whether your project is something an amateur addon author can put together over the weekend, or something that will take a professional programmer weeks of coding and testing.

What would you say to someone who PMed you saying "I'm a programmer, I want to start on your project, tell me what I'm coding?" Why not just say it on the forums so nobody has to waste their time PMing you to get the same answer? Why are you willing to have this conversation via PM or email, but not on a "generic forum"? The whole point of a community forum like this is that everyone can participate and contribute. Maybe you mistook this site for Monster.com or whatever the big-name job site is these days?

Finally, 99% of the time when someone posts a vague "I have an awesome idea, please PM me to find out what it is", it turns out to be something that isn't even possible in the first place.

Dridzt · 03-13-13, 10:37 PM

I don't think that's the case here.

OP is not being secretive in fear of someone stealing his addon idea.

He's after a guild or raid management related addon from what I can guess and needs one tailored to a specific set of rules.
There's a bunch of addons (more on Curse than here) that are variants of suicide kings, zero-sum, loot council, epgp etc and more are popping up all the time

It seems even with the multitude of options there's still communities that want one tailored "just so".

That said, I will agree with Phanx that you'll have more chance of getting some meaningful response if you post at least a few more details on purpose / scope / research into existing addons you've already done and what they're missing.

If my guess is correct and you're after a loot management addon I'd suggest taking a look at the (GuildLaunch adopted) DKPMon addon and plugins.

Requesting a plugin for it will probably be alot less work than writing something from scratch (and honestly if you don't have a coder in your guild / alliance it's unlikely for an author to take upon themselves a big project they have no vested interest in, incentives or not

)

Vaengence · 03-13-13, 10:41 PM

The thing is I made it clear in the first post I am intending to pay for the time of the services. I do not want to advertise how much - I was intentionally making the post vague to reduce the potential for people trying to scam me knowing that I am going to be paying money.

I do not know exactly how much that will be because it will depend on how much is actually involved and how much can be done.

You seem to be under the mistake impression - probably because you do this for free - that I am seeking interest from people solely on the basis of volunteer interest for a mod they might like to do. That is not the intention. I do not give a flying monkey if it is something that you may like to develop yourself =- because I am paying you to do so. It is a job advert for the addon and one where interest from people simply because they like the idea is inconsequential and has no place in this request. I do not CARE if you do not like the idea, I will be paying you to do it.

As I said previously, clearly you have no interest in taking the job on, which is fine, but your posts are neither helpful nor informative. If you have no interest in taking the job on then ignoring the thread is a more appropriate response than jumping in and posting how much you do not like my post. Yay for you.

And I specifically do not want to have this discussion on the a public forum. I have no interest in your community, or the community here. I was offering a paid opportunity to develop a mod - after which to comply with the UI policy you can make it freely available - and considering there must be some peopel here with skills who may be short on money this alone should make it an interesting proposition.

As for your suggestion of a $50 freelance project that was considerably less than I was willing to pay. The last job I had someone do WoW related I paid $500.00 and to be frank, I am happy to go that high again if it is complicated.

And yes it may well be that part of what I want to do is not possible. I have already found out that most of what I want to do is. If no one is interested here, I will simply go somewhere else, this site seemed like a logical place to find an appropriate person, but it certainly isn't the last.

Incidentally, the original request and my response were not rude in any way. Your responses however, seem to suggest that this "community" you speak of here is not the kind of community that would be friendly or open in any way and to be honest, I think I would prefer taking it elsewhere anyway if the only people wanting to respond, do so with the intention of being *******s. Great community representation.

Vaengence · 03-13-13, 10:44 PM

Originally Posted by Dridzt

I don't think that's the case here.

OP is not being secretive in fear of someone stealing his addon idea.

He's after a guild or raid management related addon from what I can guess and needs one tailored to a specific set of rules.
There's a bunch of addons (more on Curse than here) that are variants of suicide kings, zero-sum, loot council, epgp etc and more are popping up all the time

It seems even with the multitude of options there's still communities that want one tailored "just so".

That said, I will agree with Phanx that you'll have more chance of getting some meaningful response if you post at least a few more details on purpose / scope / research into existing addons you've already done and what they're missing.

If my guess is correct and you're after a loot management addon I'd suggest taking a look at the (GuildLaunch adopted) DKPMon addon and plugins.

Requesting a plugin for it will probably be alot less work than writing something from scratch (and honestly if you don't have a coder in your guild / alliance it's unlikely for an author to take upon themselves a big project they have no vested interest in, incentives or not

)

My post above was made before I saw yours. And in a sense yes but not exactly. We have 40+ people that we need to slot in raiding slots in a single raid. I need a mod that will make the arrangements of sitting, including, notifying people of kills, requesting responses to available slots, notifications for sitting when required, inviting people from the list, organising raid frames (if possible I am not sure) as well as developing the UI itself which will have differing behaviour dependant on which position you are using it on.

***Cairenn*** · 03-13-13, 10:53 PM

Originally Posted by Vaengence

Incidentally, the original request and my response were not rude in any way. Your responses however, seem to suggest that this "community" you speak of here is not the kind of community that would be friendly or open in any way and to be honest, I think I would prefer taking it elsewhere anyway if the only people wanting to respond, do so with the intention of being *******s. Great community representation.

Please do not mistake the comments of a single user on the site as being representative of the entire user community or of the actual staff and volunteers. I am sorry that you haven't had more responses to your thread as of yet, and that a couple of the ones you have received have been so negative.

Dridzt · 03-13-13, 10:55 PM

Yes that's along the lines of my second guess (guild / raid management instead of loot).

Would that be a fully in-game solution or web-solution / hybrid?

Note: I'm not interested in getting involved personally other than I might be able to suggest a combination of existing addon(s) with small or bigger modifications if I get a better idea of the concept.
I have a rather good database of addons in my head

Just trying to help the discussion along

Vaengence · 03-13-13, 11:16 PM

Originally Posted by Dridzt

Yes that's along the lines of my second guess (guild / raid management instead of loot).

Would that be a fully in-game solution or web-solution / hybrid?

Note: I'm not interested in getting involved personally other than I might be able to suggest a combination of existing addon(s) with small or bigger modifications if I get a better idea of the concept.
I have a rather good database of addons in my head

Just trying to help the discussion along

Ok, to be specific, and this post is going to be long which was partly why I didn't want it all here.

At present, one of the more irritating aspects of running a roster with the numbers we have, and virtually must do in order to maintain a regularly running 25 man, is the organisational aspect of rotating people in and out of the live raid. As a Chrtistmas Present, I had intended on gifting (I am the raid leader however not the one responsible for that aspect of the raid) a mod that would make that headache significantly easier.

The idea of the mod is mainly as follows in point form:

1. That a specific person, who has control of the "master addon" (possibly just a seperate addon in the same way EPGP LM comes with differing addons) has the ability to denote which bosses for a particular raid night we are intending to do.

2. This can be accessed by way of UI in game, and can be done before raid time commences.

3. Once selected and submitted, all members of guild with certain rank and higher, are pushed the notification which is received by the "general member" addon part of this dual process that detects which bosses are intended to be killed.

4. On receipt, window pops up stating that this is the planned bosses, which tick boxes. The tick boxes will be along the lines of 1. Need 2. "Happy to sit" 3. Role (tank healer dps) with the third box box able to have multiple selections if possible.

5. Upon completeing this little mini form, the results are then pushed back to the person with the master mod which then stores that information (including for possible future retrieval - web interaction may be an idea, have no idea)

6. Once that information stored back with the master mod, they then can have the option to pull up boss 1 (say Jin'rokh) and have the mod arrange groups (is this possible?) so that the groups from position 1 have the people who need the boss and the position from 40 backwards the ones stating they can sit (on a loot basis).

7. If possible allow the options for this to also mark particular roles as such in the generic UI (not sure if this is possible or not).

8. Once this has been sorted for the first boss, I want it to store a record of the people who were present seperately (again this can be web based in some shape) and if possible, detect the combat log trigger of the bosses death and be able to recognise that boss is done.

9. If possible I want it to be able to detect, as above that the boss is complete and upon doing so, be able ll that there is a new intended boss. A box comes up asking the raid leader to "start next boss" and when ticked/pressed, performs the following actions:

a) A notification is sent to all standby players stating that such and such boss is dead.

b) A window appears with the next set of players for the raid leader, with roles, (good organisational layout if possible) for those that need the boss. Raid leader then selects the required people then:

b) Notification is sent to the players on standby including including either that they are about to be invited for raid, or alternatively a notice that they have been selected as standby for that particular boss.

I then would like the following added depending on whether they are possible to do:

1. If possible to perform the autoinvites on command (I assume yes as other mods do) for the selected people.

2. If possible to keep track of the assigned loot on a per person per boss basis which is then retrievable (again here web integration is probably best)

3. Take a "master list" of people present at the beginning of the raid night as actual attendance (who was present)

4. << Whatever I realise as addon is being tested would be good to fit in.

As you can probably see, there is a lot I want it to do and I was under no illusion it would take a fair bit of effort to do, though I was hoping someone with experience and past addons may be able to accomplish it without too much extra effort, however I do not like asking this kind of request without paying for services. It is to me rude. Most people's time is valuable to them and most people here probably would have little use of this mod.

Dridzt · 03-13-13, 11:53 PM

Well the good news is all of what you described is possible as a fully in-game addon.
The various bits and parts can already be found in a number of addons.

The bad news is that it's a hefty project and no amount of experience will make this go 'faster than x' because even for someone that has the whole thing in their head and the proficiency to code it, that's alot of lines of code to be writing.

But like I said all of what you described is both possible and parts of it done by different addons (that you can't simply add together to get your full specification however

)

Have to leave for work now but I might be able to point out some of the addons that do parts of what you described later.

As a quick example this addon can be used to communicate loot preferences to the guild.

10leej · 03-14-13, 12:02 AM

Few general questions (though my .lua knowledge isn't really all that great so I'm probably not gonna be the one to write this)

Would you prefer the notification to show in chat or do you want the notifications to show in a window that also provides the options need, sit, role?

How do you want the mod to determine the "master addon?" or do you want two seperate mods one for leader rest for group?

You want the Addon's UI to show via minimap button/slash command (example "/addon") or show in addons tab of interface settings?

Do you want invites fully automatic (based on notification selection) with a priority list determined by the "leader" or do you want presented with a list of the people who selected need/role?

How do you want the encounter detected, manually (such as target mob and hit a butto to send notification) or automatic? Regardless either way the leader is gonna have to press a button or type a command.

Anyways this addon sounds like it could be very useful accrossed the board for people outside your guild from what you described.

Vaengence · 03-14-13, 12:34 AM

Ok:

Would you prefer the notification to show in chat or do you want the notifications to show in a window that also provides the options need, sit, role?

Preferably as a window not in chat, to make the ease of use better. What I would like is something that while complicated under the hood would hopefully on the user end be friendly and easy to understand and I want to avoid chat relates requests and responses wherever possible.

How do you want the mod to determine the "master addon?" or do you want two seperate mods one for leader rest for group?

What I "thought" might be the easiest is to have this functionality separated, for example EPGP LM has seperate addons, one of which you do not need to install if you are not the raid leader, however I do not know how complicated this may make the coding. If it is simpler and still works it can be combined in one, and just have the option to make the leader adjustments, invites etc only to the person marked as raid leader and/or promoted people in raid.

You want the Addon's UI to show via minimap button/slash command (example "/addon") or show in addons tab of interface settings?

I think most addons now come with both. If it a simple matter in the coding, both would be good.

Do you want invites fully automatic (based on notification selection) with a priority list determined by the "leader" or do you want presented with a list of the people who selected need/role?

In this regard I think the most effective would be that the "leader" has the list of people who selected what displayed, can "remove" or "Add" people from the list (a bit like group calendar can sort people into roles and select people to be on standby) and then when the leader is happy, it then goes to work inviting people. At this point, chat message notification to accompany the invite would probably be appropriate ("you are being invited to join raid for "such and such" boss).

This functionality may find a better way to operate however after some testing and seeing how it goes.

How do you want the encounter detected, manually (such as target mob and hit a butto to send notification) or automatic? Regardless either way the leader is gonna have to press a button or type a command.

This is one aspect I am not sure of. Most bosses as far as I am aware contain the line in the combat log "boss name dies", which is usually enough for most other addons to detect a death, however I seem to recall some bosses that have unusual endings (like Ragnaros normal) where technically the mob doesn't die causing an issue.

An alternative, at least during a raid, is a detection on the mini area you are in. I note Gara'jal assist mod detects and asks the question when it notices you enter Gara'jals room. This could be a better option for after a boss death if it set to detect you have entered a particular part of the instance - "you have entered Tortos's chamber, begin group selection?" - kind of thing.

This could be the easier option for future additions of new bosses and new zones, particularly when not linear so it cannot forsee which boss which actually be next on the list.

Anyways this addon sounds like it could be very useful accrossed the board for people outside your guild from what you described.

I am hoping so. One of the jobs that gets done each and every night is the constant requests on vent and in game along the lines of "who does not need this boss?", "who needs this boss who is sitting?" and these two questions, while inocuous sounding, can make life complicated when there are a lot of raiders.

Additionally, we have a healing team that chooses specific healers for each boss as well, so the possibility at some stage that a person with assist can be assigned by the leader in the mod options as "heal leader" and can then take management of the players marked as healers in the roles. In fact, to make that possibility even more complicated, a window that has options as to whom is managing certain aspects:

1. Healers [Me] - [someone else] <insert name>
2. Tanks [Me] - [someone else] <insert name>
3. Melee [Me] - [someone else] <insert name>
4. Ranged [Me] - [someone else] <insert name>

We personally would only need two of those, "Healers" and "Everyone else" however for the sake of other guilds, you could have the ability to essentially dole out the choosing of roles so that the officers can assist in this regard. Then, each person will have the list of boxes, with the one they are responsible for lit up and active and then once they organise who is sitting and staying, click a "confirm" box which send the information back to leader and they can see the choices made.

To work in with this concept, in the initial settings there could be a page for "Bosses" and have boxes allowing you to select (if you choose) the number of each role you use as a guild, then when selection occurs it shows that many "available slots" to fit people into.

Of course this is all spitballing "oh hey maybe this" things that are coming to my head literally as I write so you will have to excuse me if I ramble on. There is also that fine line that could be crossed where the mod simply has so much complexity it takes more effort to do it this way than the old fashioned way, but it is the kind of thing that would probably have to be tested and played with.

10leej · 03-14-13, 02:00 AM

This is one aspect I am not sure of. Most bosses as far as I am aware contain the line in the combat log "boss name dies", which is usually enough for most other addons to detect a death, however I seem to recall some bosses that have unusual endings (like Ragnaros normal) where technically the mob doesn't die causing an issue.

An alternative, at least during a raid, is a detection on the mini area you are in. I note Gara'jal assist mod detects and asks the question when it notices you enter Gara'jals room. This could be a better option for after a boss death if it set to detect you have entered a particular part of the instance - "you have entered Tortos's chamber, begin group selection?" - kind of thing.

This could be the easier option for future additions of new bosses and new zones, particularly when not linear so it cannot forsee which boss which actually be next on the list.

Would be nice, I've no idea how to go about it myself. But, I figure it would be best for a more of a manual method maybe type in a message for the notification.

So say for example you reach a boss
1. hit button to start notification
2. windows prompts you for a "Message" this is where you type in boss name
3. notification is sent

Probably be the best way to go about it I think

Spiderkeg · 03-14-13, 02:55 PM

Originally Posted by Phanx

Well, as it stands, nobody has any interest in it, because all you've said is that you want it to do "something" differently for raid leaders vs raid members, and you want it to do "something" in response to "some events". That's about as vague and meaningless as you can be without being Deepak Chopra Jr.

This is a hobby community, not a freelance job board. You can't just post "I want to hire a programmer" here, because nobody is here looking to get hired for a $50 freelance project, and most people here are not professional programmers. It really does matter whether your project is something an amateur addon author can put together over the weekend, or something that will take a professional programmer weeks of coding and testing.

What would you say to someone who PMed you saying "I'm a programmer, I want to start on your project, tell me what I'm coding?" Why not just say it on the forums so nobody has to waste their time PMing you to get the same answer? Why are you willing to have this conversation via PM or email, but not on a "generic forum"? The whole point of a community forum like this is that everyone can participate and contribute. Maybe you mistook this site for Monster.com or whatever the big-name job site is these days?

Finally, 99% of the time when someone posts a vague "I have an awesome idea, please PM me to find out what it is", it turns out to be something that isn't even possible in the first place.

I couldn't help but notice this post is brimming with negativity and is hardly "helpful" for a community of participation. I don't see anything useful, here.

Try going to: http://www.freelancer.com

If you're willing to pay someone to write an addon you might get lucky and find someone on that site who will do the work.

10leej · 03-14-13, 04:28 PM

Originally Posted by Spiderkeg

If you're willing to pay someone to write an addon you might get lucky and find someone on that site who will do the work.

The problem with hiring a professional programming is that you would have to continue to pay him to keep the addon maintained unless he doesn't put a restrictive license to it. Unless of course you get lucky and the programming is an avid WoW player/fan.

***Cairenn*** · 03-14-13, 06:01 PM

Originally Posted by Spiderkeg

I couldn't help but notice this post is brimming with negativity and is hardly "helpful" for a community of participation. I don't see anything useful, here.

Try going to: http://www.freelancer.com

If you're willing to pay someone to write an addon you might get lucky and find someone on that site who will do the work.

And again I say (although to a different person this time), please do not mistake the comments of a single user on the site as being representative of the entire user community or of the actual staff and volunteers.

Phanx · 03-14-13, 08:14 PM

I'm not sure why there seems to be this need to repeatedly clarify that I'm an individual, and not an official representative of WoWInterface. Do I need to include a disclaimer in all of my posts explaining that I am an individual with my own opinions, that other individuals who post here can (and probably do) have different opinions, and that I'm not any more an official representative of the site than any of the hundreds of other individuals who post here? I'd think that was pretty obvious, as I'm posting on a public internet forum where hundreds of people post, I'm not marked as an admin, moderator, or any other kind of staff member, and I've never claimed or implied that I was an admin, moderator, or any other kind of staff member.

SDPhantom · 03-20-13, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by Phanx

Do I need to include a disclaimer in all of my posts explaining that I am an individual with my own opinions, that other individuals who post here can (and probably do) have different opinions, and that I'm not any more an official representative of the site than any of the hundreds of other individuals who post here?

Might help to put that in your sig. Then again, who really reads anything posted there?