BS@H- Boss Strategies @ Hand [Development]

[iSylvir]

Hey, Wowinterface, some of you may know me from my feeble attempt at creating a Borderlands interface, (I actually did make a bit of headway on that before giving up over the winter) and some of you may not know me at all. I'm going to start with some discussion of what I need and what I want to see out of this add-on.

I've started raiding in World of Warcraft, and, to be honest, I'm annoyed at the fact that people limit raids based on achievements. I finally got into an ICC 25, and the leader was distraught by the fact that I didn't know the plague quarter. (Noob comments aside please, I don't spend every waking moment on world of warcraft.) I ,personally, really wanted to be able to access some of the Raid Strategies and tricks, tips, and other things while in game, instead of alt tabbing out, opening 'TankSpot', and searching through their forums for the right video, then spending 10 minutes watching them talk and talk, when I could be speed reading the boss strategy, or reading it during downtime and keeping my speakers clear for vent in case we start again. So I thought about making an addon, BS@H, BSAH, or Boss Strategies At Hand.

The benefits of this addon would be...

1. Raid leaders could look up alternatives to downing a boss in the case that they're unable to down it with one strategy.
2. Raid Members could look up or refresh their knowlege of a boss fight ingame, during downtime, or in their freetime.
3. Users could add their own strategies via the LUA. (I'm trying to avoid making adding the strategies public or spread between the raid to everyone who has the addon sorta' thing because I don't know the slightest thing about coding, so I mideswell keep it simple.)

Now, I've never created an Add-on before, but this is the least ambitions thing I could think of. It creates a frame in the middle of the screen. It's of reasonable size(if it's easy to code, resize-able), and can (if it's not too difficult to code) be moved about the screen appropriately and locked in place. It has an X button on the top right of the frame, obviously to exit out. When the addon is first executed, hopefully via a /command, it starts at a screen with a list of Raids. Clicking on a raid's name replaces the list of raids with a list of bosses. Clicking on that brings up (in example) Lich King 10, Lich King 25, Lich King H 10, Lich King H 25. Clicking on each one would bring up the appropriate text guide. At the bottom of the frame containing all this, regardless which stage of the frame you're in (Whether you're choosing which boss in the instance, which version, or at the actual guide it's self) is an arrow to go back to the previous stage. That's the gist of it, but if anyone thinks of anything else to add, I'd gladly oblige.

Also, I'm using this mostly as a learning experience. What I'm looking for from you guys is 'template' like XML and LUA codes that I can learn from the easiest.
IE:

## Interface: 30000
## Title: My Add On
## Version: 1.0.0
## Notes: A short description of my AddOn
## Author: Your name or memorable descriptor (e.g. LuckyLuke)

See how it keeps fields blank for what I need to fill in?
I hope you guys understand what I'm trying to get at, and, if you need to know any other information or whatnot, I'll reply asap, because this is important to me in trying to learn the basics of LUA and XML, and addon development in general.

Thank you in advance for your time and effort.

PS.

TL;DR:
This isn't that long. Scroll up and read thoroughly or don't bother posting.

[Soulofsin_007]

It's a good idea. The only problem I can see is getting TankSpot or any other site letting you use their guides in your addon.

Edit: I'd also get their permission before I started writing the addon, last thing I'd want to do is get all the code pinned out and have them or any other site say "No." =/

[iSylvir]

I'll cross that pitfall when I come to it.

To elaborate on this a bit more:

I'll work to get in contact with Ciderhelm over at TankSpot, and if all else fails, find another site that has reputable guides and attempt to contact them.

[Seerah]

Just to cover all bases (if you're on the fence about investing the time on the addon)... Did you know that wowwiki has a page for every boss, with descriptions on their abilities, what they do, phases of the fight, and strategies that you can "speed read" through?

[iSylvir]

Originally Posted by Seerah Just to cover all bases (if you're on the fence about investing the time on the addon)... Did you know that wowwiki has a page for every boss, with descriptions on their abilities, what they do, phases of the fight, and strategies that you can "speed read" through?

I use Wowwiki occasionally, but I've never found it as reliable in it's strategies. Just like any other Wiki, I'm moderately sure it can be edited by anyone. That means that a person who downed the boss once could write the strategy.

I see what you're saying, that alt-tabbing out and reading from a site is easier, but I'm trying to make it more 'in-game'.
1. I despise alt-tabbing out. For instance, I've alt tabbed out quickly to change a song in youtube, and been ganked in PvP. (Smart, eh?) You retain reaction with your character by keeping it in game.
2. It allows people to easily alter the strategies based on what their guild has done in the past by simply opening the LUA file once the raid is done and tagging on some quick notes.

[voodoodad]

iSylvir, I really appreciate your comments about inexperienced raiders. Mostly because I am an inexperienced raider. I really don't know how people just somehow become the masters of Boss Strategies without ever have being at the noob stage themselves.

All that aside, this sounds like a great idea for an innovative addon. It's nice to know people still think outside of the box sometimes. It sounds kind of like you're shooting for something like Light-Headed for raids instead of quests.

One idea you might consider for future development; Have the addon auto-detect what raid, how many players and what level (reg or heroic) the player is in. That would allow faster access to the boss strategies themselves, without the time wasted sorting through the raids, number of people and level before getting to the goodies.

Don't give up, it really does sound great.

On a side note, I was following your progress on the Borderlands thing last year... In fact you're one of the reasons I bought the game in the first place!

[iSylvir]

Erm...bump?

@Voodoodad:
That's an excellent idea, and I'll keep that in the mind for the future if I can manage to get enough experience.

[neo2121]

So you're trying to make this:

http://www.wowinterface.com/download...ssTactics.html

right?

[Seerah]

(most recent version here: http://www.wowace.com/addons/boss-tactics/ )