Spotter
Version: 0.9.7
Spotter is a support addon for all gathering professions that rotates your gathering spells automatically in a short period of time. You can activate the rotation automatically while your mounted, flying or even shapeshifted. Increase your farming efficiency and search for ore, herbs and fish in one overflight.
You can customize a blacklist and a whitelist to automatically stop the rotation in cities or just areas of cities. If you get aggro while farming, no problem. Spotter stops the rotation on its own if you'll be attacked and restart on aggro loss.
Ping on your minimap to mark farm spots for a short time.
How to use Spotter
Installation
Unzip the Spotter-archive to your Addon-directory. Make sure you don't create any folders in the AddOn-directory and unzip Spotter there. WoW won't find Spotter then. More informations about installing AddOns can be found on the Spotter-page unter the menu-button "Install":
http://my.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/spotter.aspx
Configuration
Before running, you should set Spotter up correctly, otherwise, Spotter won't run. You can configure all settings over the chatframe, the minimap-button or the FuBar-Plugin of Spotter. To make Spotter running, you need at least to set up when Spotter should start and what you are looking for. Spotter has to be active too. Read the following instructions to configure Spotter.
Configuration over chatframe:
To configure Spotter over the chatframe, you have to use the so called "slash-commands". If you type "/spotter" in the inputfield of the chatframe, you get a list of all possible settings.
You can configure the settings by typing them in like described in the chatframe. If you want to delete all entries of the personal blacklist for example, you have to type:
"/spotter area blacklist deleteall"
The configuration over the minimap-button or the FuBar-Plugin is barely the same. Right-clicking on the minimap-button or the FuBar-Plugin of Spotter brings up a graphical menu with all settings.
The following description uses the graphical method to configure Spotter.
Activation-settings
Clicking on the "active" entry starts and stops Spotter. The entry "active while" contains settings to start Spotter while you are mounted, flying or shapeshifted, if you are a druid. You can also make Spotter always running.
Interval-settings
Here you can configure the interval Spotter uses to change the search spells. You can define an interval between 1.4 and 20 seconds, I personally prefer a setting between 1.5 and 1.6 seconds. This works for me to get all spots while flying with an epic flying mount. This is also pretty much the lowest interval you can use with a regular connection to the servers because of the global-cooldown of 1.5 seconds and the accuracy of the timer which depends on your current ingame-framerate.
Area-settings
Spotter contains an internal blacklist which contains several areas where Spotter shouldn't run. These areas are actually the capital cities of Azeroth and all cities of Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. The reason is, there are no resources in cities normally and Spotter would bother you. All battlegrounds are blacklisted too, because if you are using Spotter with an change-interval near global-cooldown, you can't attack another player.
If you enter a blacklisted area, Spotter stops automatically and starts itself when you enter a non-blacklisted zone.
Additional to the general blacklist which is the same for all characters, you can define personal black- and whitelists for every player.
Personal blacklist
The personal blacklist is meant to extend the general blacklist. You can add a zone or subzone by typing the name in the textfield of "Append user blacklist". Clicking the entry "Append current location" adds the current subzone your character is in to the personal blacklist.
To delete an entry of the blacklist, just click on the zone-name under "Remove zone/area" or if you want to reset the blacklist, click on "Reset Blacklist".
Personal whitelist
The personal whitelist allows you to activate Spotter in zones which would normally be blocked by the general blacklist. This means, if you want to enable Spotter while you are in Shattrath, just type the name in the textfield. The configuration is the same as the personal blacklist.
Minimap
Here you can enable and customize the minimap ping feature. The idea was, if you fly over an area and Spotter runs really fast, you may can't remember of all spots you saw and you don't want to wait untill the rotations show the spots next time. The minimap ping feature allow you to draw a little icon on the minimap just on the place you clicked on it. So you can fly over and mark all seen spots and can start gathering without checking the minimap all the time. The icons you set fade out after a short time. You can set this up in this menu and you can choose an icon shape you like.
Sadly, this feature is not stable at the moment. The first icon you set after log in, relog or looting something is set at the wrong place. All further icons will be set right.
Logging
Spotter has a simple logging-mechanic you can configure here. You can select several message types to show or hide. Spotter has the following categories at the moment:
- Info -- General infomations, nothing important
- Warning -- System warning, errors the system can handle
- Error -- Errors the system can't handle
Debugging
This entry contains several debugging options. Normally, you can totally ignore them. Debug-messages may give you a hint if something goes wrong.
Usage
Activation
You can activate Spotter over the chatframe, the minimap-button, the FuBar-Plugin or a key-binding.
Chatframe
Type "/spotter active on" in the input line of the chatframe
You can rightclick the button or the plugin to view the menu and click on "active" or you left-
click on the minimap-button or the FuBar-Plugin to start or stop Spotter.
Key-binding
Open the key-bindings of your WoW-Client. There should be a section named "Spotter" where you can define a keystroke to start or stop Spotter.
Automatic activation/deactivation of Spotter
Additionally to the blacklist, there are some other events that causes Spotter to start or stop.
Aggro
If you gain aggro, Spotter stops immediately to give you the chance to defend yourself. After you lose aggro, Spotter restarts automatically.
Looting
Spotter stops automatically if you open a loot-window. This also happens if you gather herbs or minerals. After to loot-window is closed, Spotter restarts automatically.
Casting
If you begin to cast, Spotter stops untill you have finished or abort casting.
Disclaimer
Please check my disclaimer-page under http://wow.curseforge.com/projects/spotter/pages/disclaimer/
Spotter Changelog
=====================================================================
v0.9.7.3 WoW 3.1 Hotfix
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- Disabled any minimap ping functionality because of changes in the
astrolabe library.
=====================================================================
v0.9.7.2
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- Opening a loot window causes Spotter to stop now. Closing the loot
window reactivates Spotter.
- Localization issue fixed
- Casting a spell or gathering matierial causes Spotter to stop now.
After the cast, Spotter restarts
- Fixed a bug in the timer interval management
- Fixed a bug in the combat-log event handler that causes Spotter to
interpret the spellcounter incorrectly sometimes.
- Fixed a bug in the spellcounter that might reset the spellcount
incorrectly
- Fixed a bug in the black- and whitelist append function.
If the player tried to add his current location to the
blacklist without being in a valid subzone, Spotter saved
a 0-length string in the saved variables. The FuBar-menu
can't handle this and didn't open anymore.
- Fixed a bug with the aggro detection which caused Spotter
to start on aggro loss, even in blacklisted areas.
- Left-clicking the fubar-icon or minimap-icon activates and
deactivates Spotter now.
- It's possible now to define a key-binding for activating and
deactivating Spotter.
- Ace2-Libs are embedded now and Ace2 is an optional depency from
now on.
- Added missing capital cities in Azeroth to blacklist
- Changed author-tags to my current main-character
- Added license-information to source file
- Added several files:
- GPLv3.txt
- Disclaimer.txt
- ChangeLog.txt
- KnownBugs.txt
=====================================================================
v0.9.7.1
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rudimental russian localization. Only the spellnames were
translated to make Spotter runable with russian wow clients
=====================================================================
v0.9.7
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- Invisible frame added to grab OnUpdate-event. Spotter needs no
FuBar-Plugin to work anymore.
- Fixed Localization-issue, interval-change told "Spotter needs to
be restarted". This is no longer necessary.
=====================================================================
v0.9.6
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- Fixed Bug in fubar menu. The State of "Show Text" and "Show Icon"
survive relog now.
- Minimap ping feature nearly completed
- New Minimap-icon "circle" added
- Hopefully all cities of wotlk added
=====================================================================
v0.9.6 pre (Beta)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- New system for drawing icons on the minimap by ping.
- Translation issues fixed
=====================================================================
v0.9.5.1
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- Fixed a bug that causes Spotter to make the wrong decision about
running or not, depending on user settings
- Fixed some translation-bugs for the english localization
=====================================================================
v0.9.5
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- First public release
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)...
