ZoneDefense (ZD) is a highly-customizable addon which improves WorldDefense and LocalDefense alarms. At your option, it can:
- Add relevant zone information to alarms (so you know where that obscure subzone that is under attack is!),
- Use hyperlinks in alarms to easily open the world map to the proper zone and ping the location of an alarm,
- Suppress superfluous messages (handling alarm spam),
- Custom-color alarm text,
- Highlight the faction involved ("the Horde" or "the Alliance"),
- Add timestamps,
- Shorten WorldDefense and LocalDefense messages in a variety of ways,
- Customize alarms' text format (as just one example, you might use "Under attack: <Place>" instead of "<Place> is under attack!"),
- Display alarms while in any instance (or optionally, only battlegrounds),
- Display ZD messages in any chat frame(s) of your choice,
- And more!
Quick Reference
Slash commands:
- /zd - Basic settings.
- /zd help - Additional commands (such as ping location scanning - see "SCAN FOR ALL PING LOCATIONS" in readme.txt).
- /zd adv - Advanced settings.
Change which chat frames ZoneDefense messages appear in:
- Right-click on the desired frame's tab and select "Settings" (under the heading "Filters").
- Select the "Other" category.
- Check (or uncheck) the "ZoneDefense Alarms/Chat" option on the bottom of the list on the right-hand side.
What's New?
Here are just a few highlights from recent updates. See the change log for more.
- Options to handle Grizzly Hills PvP quest alarm spam separately from other alarms. (0.80)
- Updated for WoW 3.0. (0.70)
- Share alarms with other ZD users, letting alarms others share be seen by you while you are in an instance (display disabled by default). (0.54)
Use with Intel
Intel is a sister addon to ZoneDefense. It is available for download here (or at WoWI, here). Neither is required for the other to operate, but they do complement each other in a number of ways:
- When ZoneDefense looks for a place to ping on the world map, it checks with Intel to see if one of its icons would work best.
- When ZoneDefense receives shared alarms while you are in an instance, it forwards them to Intel. This allows Intel to continue to update world objective information when it normally would be unable to do so. (ZD does not have to be set to display shared alarms to forward them to Intel; it need only be set to share them.)
- When Intel outputs a "pseudo-alarm," such as when a Wyvern Camp is captured or lost (an event not reported by LocalDefense/WorldDefense and thus not normally output to the chat log), it can have ZoneDefense format the message in the manner of a LocalDefense alarm, as customized by the player.
Localization:
- Functions with English, German, and French clients.
- Collects zone/subzone information as you play. Includes extensive pre-collected data in English and German.
- Interface options text currently in English only.
If you wish to help localize the addon, please contact me.
Read the included readme.txt file for more information.
The change log lists changes of particular note to users, not every change made.
v0.82
- Updated for WoW 3.1.
- Updated subzone data.
- Added new options to handle Wintergrasp alarms, allowing them to be handled in a manner separate from other alarms. (Added to the "World PvP Objectives" panel.)
v0.81
- Added a necessary library.
v0.80
- Added new options to handle alarms from Grizzly Hills PvP quest subzones, allowing them to be handled in a manner separate from other alarms. (Added to the "World PvP Objectives" panel.)
- Converted interface options to use the TjOptions library, making panel contents create-on-demand (among other benefits).
- The Color Clipboard system is now used, replacing the buttons used for copying one specific color option to another specific color option. This system lets you copy colors from any option that uses the standard Color Picker (including those created by Blizzard) to another using a "copy/paste" approach that is accessable while the color selection window is open.
- Alarm Sharing: Fixed an issue where player lists weren't always properly filtered from the chat log.
v0.74
- Added an option to display a tooltip containing the number of pending alarms for a location (if any) when the cursor is over a ZD hyperlink.
- New zone abbreviations added for Northrend (e.g. "Crystalsong" for "Crystalsong Forest").
- Updated subzone data.
- Rewrote much of Zone Log and the ZoneDP library for improved efficiency.
v0.73
- Fixed an issue where the display of ZD Alarms/Chat in a chat frame could not be disabled.
v0.72
- In WoW 3.0, clicking channel labels (e.g. "[1. General]") lets you quickly open chat to that channel or see who is in it. The channel labels at the start of ZD messages now operate the same way, tied to the LocalDefense channel if you are in it.
- Updated subzone and ping location data.
v0.71
- Library updates to properly handle Eastern Plaguelands changes in WoW 3.0.
v0.70
- Updated for WoW 3.0.
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)...