BigWigs is a boss alert mod. It consists of many individual "boss modules", mini addons that are designed to trigger alert messages and timer bars for one specific raid boss each. Modules are activated when you target or mouseover a Boss, or if any other BigWigs use in your raid does. In most cases only one module will be running at any given time.
Features
Plugins
- Messages: Can be moved, re-coloured & locked.
- Bars: Can be moved, skinned to different textures(SharedMedia compatible), resized & also have an 'emphasis' feature to flash when they are about to expire.
- RaidIcon: Target painting (put an icon over a player that has been singled out by the boss).
- RaidWarn: Sending alerts to RaidWarning, tells & chat.
- BossBlock: Suppress "spam" sent by other player's bossmods.
- Comm: Syncing via the addon channel (so that the player don't have to be in combat range to trigger a message)
- Target Monitor: For enabling boss modules when you see them, instead of having them constantly enabled.
- Sound: Plays various sounds on different events(SharedMedia compatible).
- FuBar/Minimap: Button for easy access to the configuration menu, resetting running modules, and seeing what modules are active.
- Tranq: For keep track of hunters Tranq cooldowns, vital for some bosses.
- Proximity: For displaying players within a certain range on certain boss encounters.
- Test: Test your bars and warnings, and move them around.
- CustomBar: For 'PizzaTimers', create your own custom bars.
- Version: A query for not only the core BigWigs version, but also the instance version numbers.
- Flash'N'Shake: Shake and/or Flash the screen blue when something important happens that directly affects you, such as a debuff. (Off by default)
Documentation
The creation
BigWigs is a boss timer and warning mod. Tekkub, the original BigWigs1 for Ace1 author, was inspired to write this after his very first raid run. He was horrified by the massive amount of spam his raid leader was creating with his boss mod. He was getting messages all over the place for things he didn't care about (Hunters can't dispell a curse or interrupt a heal). He also found that the "60 seconds until painful doom" timer messages were such a waste. Why not use a nice simple timerbar to show this?
The aim
BigWigs aims to be as efficient as possible (creating a lower memory per second footprint and using a lower amount of CPU than any other boss mod), as effectively as possible. When modules are written every aspect of the encounter is revised. Is syncing required? Is target scanning required? What events are really to be warned for. It also aims to have the latest boss modules out asap, that means that not long after the first few attempts of a brand new boss, it usually has a working boss mod.
Unique
BigWigs has a many things that make it unique to other boss mods, one is the 'Emphasis' feature for bars to grab your attention. Others include SharedMedia support so you can customize the look of your bars and choose different sounds for warnings. BigWigs can identify when you have wiped on a boss and reset the bars and timers. It is also the only addon to keep all events unregistered until you mouse over a boss, instead of registering all the boss events when entering an instance.
Credits
Current Developers: Ammo, Rabbit, Funkydude
Boss Modules: Tekkub (BigWigs 1), Ammo, Rabbit, Funkydude, Shyva, Wiebbe, Lucen, Moonsorrow, Tsigo
Translations: ckknight (Babble), Pettigrow (frFR), Neriak (deDE), Gamefaq (deDE), sayclub (koKR), fenlis (koKR), handdol (koKR), cwdg (zhCN), hk2717 (zhCN) and many others
General Help: Daemona, Saroz & everyone else submitting logs!
See also
First release after WoWAce transition
Installation Guide
- Exit "World of Warcraft" completely
- Download the mod you want to install
- Make a folder on your desktop called "My Mods"
- Save the .zip/.rar files to this folder.
- If, when you try to download the file, it automatically "opens" it... you need to RIGHT click on the link and "save as..." or "Save Target As".
- Extract the file - commonly known as 'unzipping'
Do this ONE FILE AT A TIME!
- Windows
- Windows XP has a built in ZIP extractor. Double click on the file to open it, inside should be the file or folders needed. Copy these outside to the "My Mods" folder.
- WinRAR: Right click the file, select "Extract Here"
- WinZip: You MUST make sure the option to "Use Folder Names" is CHECKED or it will just extract the files and not make the proper folders how the Authors designed
- Mac Users
- StuffitExpander: Double click the archive to extract it to a folder in the current directory.
- Verify your WoW Installation Path
That is where you are running WoW from and THAT is where you need to install your mods.
- Move to the Addon folder
- Open your World of Warcraft folder. (default is C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\)
- Go into the "Interface" folder.
- Go into the "AddOns" folder.
- In a new window, open the "My Mods" folder.
- The "My Mods" folder should have the "Addonname" folder in it.
- Move the "Addonname" folder into the "AddOns" folder
- Start World of Warcraft
- Make sure AddOns are installed
- Log in
- At the Character Select screen, look in lower left corner for the "addons" button.
- If button is there: make sure all the mods you installed are listed and make sure "load out of date addons" is checked.
- If the button is NOT there: means you did not install the addons properly. Look at the above screenshots. Try repeating the steps or getting someone who knows more about computers than you do to help.
Translations
When you download a mod, please be sure that the mod is compatible with your translation of wow. Some mods only work on the US versions, while some only work on some of the various European versions. These variations are called "Localizations".
TOC Numbers (Out of Date Mods)
When Blizzard patches WoW, they change the Interface number. This means that all mods will be "out of date" unless or until the author releases a new version for that interface. Some people go into the .toc files and update the numbers themselves, but this is STRONGLY advised against as it will cause problems locating possible incompatibilities addons. When you log into WoW after a patch, you DO NOT have to delete your interface directory. All you have to do is simply tell WoW to ignore the interface numbers and load all the mods anyway. All you have to do is, while at the "character select" screen, look in the lower left corner and click on the "addons" button. A window will pop up listing all your installed mods.
If you look in the upper left corner of that window there should be a box that says "Load Out of Date AddOns". You want to CHECK this box. Now simply go into WoW normally and all your mods should load. As of the 1.9 patch, you will have to do this after EVERY patch/update that Blizzard posts! If you encounter any problems with a mod after a patch, please be sure to let the author of the mod know so they can fix it.
See also: About "Out Of Date AddOns"
Mac Support
WoW addons are not platformed based. As such, they can be used on either Mac or PC. You can extract both .zip and .rar files on a Mac using StuffitExpander.
Directory Structure
World of Warcraft
|_ Interface
|_AddOns
|_*AddonName*
|_ *AddonName*.toc
|_ *AddonName*.xml
|_ *AddonName*.lua
|_ (possibly others as well)...