Ready for a Change?
MurlocGuide started out as an add-on review site. Unfortunately, this was before the big patch that broke everything. Once everything broke, I felt like all the work was for nothing. Not that big of a deal, really, but for several weeks, there were very few add-ons available to review. This left me in a slump that drug on for a long time.
Now that most add-ons have updates available (and many have been determined to be completely dead), I think it is time to move it on to something else. Unfortunately, after a while, installing every add-on known to man starts to break your client (huh? whoda thought? heh). So.. here’s what I am going to do with MurlocGuide. Seeing as the informational pages are popular, I plan on adding to those, as well as sharing tips and tricks here.
See, tonight, I got tired of seeing every last ’buy my gold’ link around, and as such, decided that I would experiment with different methods to actually make money within the game. I even saw one site that is selling these ’secrets’ for a one time fee of $37!! I can’t believe people actually buy this stuff. So.. now.. I’ll do what I can to make it free. So.. from here on out, there will be several tips.. many aimed at making money, others aimed at other things. If you have some secret tip of any sort to share, by all means, send me a message by clicking on the ’suggest an add-on]’ link to the right. This will change soon to do away with add-ons… but the old stuff will remain.
-J
Workaround for Add-ons not working
Hi everyone. Been a while since I posted, but with the new patch release, you all found that your add-ons no longer work.
Don’t fret. I have been testing some of them, and you CAN get some of them to work with a simple work around. Go into your c:\program files\world of warcraft\interface\addons\ directory. Under that directory, all of your addons are installed. Go into each directory, and find the TOC file. It will be the only file in there that has the extension of .toc . Edit that file with notepad or wordpad, and on the line that says “Interface: ####” replace the number that is currently there with 20000. This works on a lot of addons, but not all of them.
It is not a GUARANTEED fix for your mods, but it certainly seems to work for a lot of them. I did it with EquipCompare, and it works perfectly. I have several others that I am trying now, and will post, in the comments, if they work or not.
Sadly, Benecast is dead. I don’t expect it will be back because Blizzard took out the ability to make spell decisions for you.
So far, I know that FastQuest and Equipcompare work with this workaround. I am trying many others, including auctioneer and the likes. I will let you know what I find.
World of Warcraft TCG
I have to drop a rant here since I have a place to do it. I hope you guys will endulge me for a second.
I, like many others, have purchased the WoW TCG (Trading Card Game) and find that the game itself is pretty fun. Brings back the memories of my Magic the Gathering days when that game first hit store shelves. It’s fun, entertaining and completely enjoyable. Part of the fun of this type of game, however, is the hunt for cards. More often than not, these things tend to sell by the box instead of by the pack. As such, the hunt is on for boxes right now. I bought a booster box the day it was released. The price was $89. Higher than my initial MtG investment at the time, but still reasonable.
Today, just a few days later (and a few days after release!) I find some comic shops that are GOUGING their customers at $150 per booster box. The sad thing is that they’ll get it. Not from me, for sure, but someone will walk in and buy the things. It’s freaking insane.
I understand supply and demand. I really do. But these comic shops that so desperately need our business to stay operating need to understand that if they gouge us, we don’t buy from them, and they lose business. This shop I went to today has lost my business forever. Not only did she try to give me a story about how this is her third shipment (it most certainly wasn’t…), but that she only had one full box, and one empty box. She neglected to realize that, right there, on the floor next to her, were TWO full boxes, as well as the box on her shelf! Sorry.. you lie to me about crap like this, I just don’t buy anything from you…. ever.
So this post is really for those of you that play this card game, and don’t like that the price of the game is going up DRAMATICALLY, and only a few days after release. Do me a favor.. if the prices are way too high, don’t buy them. Let the owners have themselves a huge stock of cards at ridiculously high prices. Upper Deck wasn’t intending the new retail product being this expensive only a few days after release. This is the quickest way to kill the game… The only thing we can do about it is not to buy them.
If you find a place that ISN’T gouging customers, and are still selling their booster boxes for 90-100 bucks, let us know. Those places will get my business. I understand raising the price a little if you know you are the only place in town to get the product.. but raise it too high, and with any luck, we will all just walk away…..
PlayerRating
How many times have you partied with someone only to find out that they were absolutely horrendous? Maybe they perform a Leeroy Jenkins. Maybe they ninja all of the good loot. Maybe they scam people using one of the scams listed here at MurlocGuide. No matter what, they are horrible people, and you desperately want to scream out in the LFG or Trade channels telling everyone about your experience.
The problem is, noone cares about your personal experience, until AFTER they experience the same thing. The LFG and Trade channels are so full of spam now, your message would either be ignored, lost or you would be yelled at for not using the right channel. (What is the correct channel for announcing that someone is an idiot?)
Up steps PlayerRating. A clever idea that is much needed in the game. An add-on that introduces the ability to rate a player, and discreetly let everyone else know how they are rated. This does, however, open up the system to abuse, though the author is obviously interested in taking steps to keep that from happening.
Let’s start off with the options. By typing /pro, you get a small options dialog that allow you to set what you want to see and do with the ratings.
If you select to show the ratings in a tooltip, then any time you hover over a player, their tag will also display the current rating. This rating is server-wide, not just a personal rating. If you show ratings in the chat window, then, anytime someone sends a chat message, next to their name is a numeric representation of their rating. This is VERY useful if you are looking to buy something some scammer has for sale.
You can also elect to share your rating with others. This automatically joins you to a hidden channel that the add-on monitors for other ratings. Every time you rate someone, a broadcast is sent on this channel, and anyone else with the add-on receives the rating as well. The add-on ignores users with ratings below 0. While this helps to fight against abuse, it can still be abused. If one of the idiots gets ahold of the add-on, and starts rating everyone at 0, then they will control the ratings for everyone. I think this safety system needs some work in order to be a bit more trusted. Maybe examine a user’s ratings, and if the majority of their ratings are zero or below, ignore their ratings until they raise the ratings they give. Unfortunately, most people will only use this to rate poor players. Very few will give positive ratings.
You rate players on a scale of -100 to +100. This is fairly straight-forward using a sliding bar control.
When you right click a targetted player, a new RATING option is added. Simply drag the slider to the rating you want to give, and viola. It is done. You have rated someone.
Finding the rating felt obvious, which means it is designed to fit right into the UI without interfering. I liked that. In fact, it takes no screen real estate at all when it is running. Again, another nice addition.
I should stress now that the two users highlighted in this review were not aware they were being rated. In fact, no indication goes to the user that they were rated. I also rated them at 0 when I was finished so as not to tarnish or unfairly change anyone’s reputation. As you can see, when you hover over the person, their tag shows their rating with a graphical bar. The higher the rating, the further to the right, and more green their bar will be. Heran, here, was rated at 100 for this test.
Cinderfella didn’t fare as well. I gave him a -61 rating just to see how a negatively player looks. This is it. Not quite -100, but obviously not a good guy.
Again, I need to stress that Cinderfella and Heran had NO IDEA I was rating them, and I wasn’t basing the rating on anything at all except a test. They have been reset to 0, and this will not hurt their reputation. Please don’t look down on them due to this review test rating.
All in all, I think this is a great idea, but has some more work to be done. For instance, I would like to be able to rate a person based on different factors, such as their rule following ability, their looting experience, their playability experience, their smacktardedness, their item sales reputation, etc. Having a single rating for a player can be misleading. You might very well play with someone that you enjoy playing with, but would never trade with if your life depended on it. This doesn’t truly reflect that. This add-on smashes everything together into one single number and relies very heavily on that number.
Also, as a side-note, I noticed that the value bar in the tool-tip for a positive play was pushed slightly too far to the right. (You can see this in the picture above). While this didn’t detract from play at all, it was just a slight annoyance.
I also think that the author will need to work on more methods to improve the integrity of the rating. This is a GREAT idea, but can very easily be abused by those we are trying to avoid. If any of you have ideas on how to do this, post them here, and I can make sure the author gets them.
In the end, it’s a great add-on with a ton of potential, and has some work to be done. It does require that everyone start to use it right away in order to obtain some great ratings on other players, so be sure to grab it, and follow it through development. It really is one of the smartes add-ons I have seen in quite a while.
You can get it here.
I give it 3 and a half murlocs.
Where’s Juices?
I know that many have wondered if I have abandoned this site. I have not. What has happened is that I recently turned 60, and have been grinding my tail off saving for an epic mount. Finally got that epic mount, and now have other demands on my time, but will continue to be updating the site here, and adding more reviews. I have several lined up to do.. I just have to reconfigure my existing setup to do some of them. So, expect some more reviews soon, I promise!
I also have to collect info regarding the new expansion.. where to get ore, where to get cloth, types, etc. So any help you guys can offer would be appreciated!
cMinimapCoordinates
Today, Piklok wrote to me and said, “Hope you are okay, the guide was fib….hope you can update soon.”
First, I have no idea what ‘fib’ means, but I assume that it is something good! Second, I’m ok. I apologize for not updating sooner, but, see…. Juices has been hovering around 60 for a long, long time. I was close enough that I finally got it together and pushed him to 60. Damn, is turning 60 expensive! The spells I had to learn… the riding skill I will soon have to buy… How the hell do you people do it? So I started grinding for cash. Experimenting, really, on the best ways to make money. I had made money on and off for a while, but this time, i really set my mind to it. Come to find out, it isn’t really that bad. With an hour or two worth of work, I pull in about 25-50 gold per day now. Not much, I know, but enough to get my epic before the expansion comes out.
Anyway, Piklok also wrote “Addon to recommend: Any one that gives coordinates.”
Ok Piklok, this one is for you.
I did a search for ‘coordinates’ and came up with 3 stand alone add-ons. One was Location Coordinates, the second was LocationCoordinates (sounds the same, but isn’t) and the third was cMinimapCoordinates. I haven’t reviewed the other two yet, and will probably do so here soon for comparison, but let me say straight out, cMinimapCoordinates was the best of the three. Location Coordinates had a seperate window that you could locate wherever you want. Nice, but it’s an extra window taking up valuable eye-candy real estate. LocationCoordinates, while it’s demo screenshot showed the coords near the mini-map, I was unable to make them move anywhere but the upper left corner of the screen. Fine, except I use a bar up there that covers them up. So.. I dutifully tried out cMinimapCoordinates. Guess what? It rocks.
cminimapCoordinates does exactly what it sounds like. It gives you coordinates. That’s it. Nothing fancy. The unique thing about it, though, is that, while exploring the world, the coordinates will show up above the minimap display, alongside the name of the location you are exploring. It doesn’t take any extra real estate! Nice work.
So, while I was tooling around Booty Bay, right there, above my minimap were the coordinates I needed to help me get around. Now you can make sense of all those Thottbot comments with those mystic number sets like 22,47 or 54,72.
Naturally, this is helpful for anyone in the World of Warcraft, and I suspect that more than 70% of the players out there have some sort of coordinates system. Unfortunately, having these coordinates, changing live, as you run around the world isn’t enough. You need more. You need to be able to FIND a location on the full map before you go out searching for it, right? Well, cMinimapCoordinates does this for you as well.
Using this add-on, each time you bring the main map up, the coordinates you desire will be displayed in the upper left hand side of the screen. It tells you where you are, and the coordinates of the cursor. Go ahead, run your cursor around and find that spot referenced on some walk-thru website… Nice, huh?
That’s it. It doesn’t do anything else. I like that. Focus on one thing, and do it well. cMinimapCoordinates does exactly that.
And just for the record, I don’t actually use it myself. I use TitanPanel, and it happens to have a coordinate system built in. One day, I will review TitanPanel, but until I do… get cMinimapCoordinates.
I give it 4.5 Murlocs.
I still don’t know what ‘fib’ means.
Interesting Places to Visit
I’ve added a page of screenshot/coordinates of interesting locations to visit in World of Warcraft. Take a look down the menu on the right side of the page and navigate your way over to ‘Interesting Locations to Visit’.
If you have a good place that is either overlooked by most, or completely hidden, or difficult to get to, please, let me know, and I’ll get a screen of it, or, you can submit your screen of it and I’ll post it.
-Juices
Mining Farming Locations
Just another small update to let you know that I have added Mining Farming Locations to the site. Check the links down the right side of the page. The page also tells you what gems are found in each type of mining deposit.
If I have missed anything (and it is possible with Dark Iron especially), let me know.
WoW Scams to Avoid - Updated
Just a quick note to let you all know that I have updated the WoW Scams to Avoid page (link on the right) with a few more scams to avoid.
Thanks to those that suggested these, and if anyone else has something to add, please, let me know.
-Juices
PetFeeder
The biggest pain in the ass for a hunter with a pet is cleaning up the poop. The NEXT biggest pain is feeding the pet. The clicking that you must do for a single feeding is enough to induce a repetative motion injury. PetFeeder comes to the rescue by automatically feeding your pet and keeping them at a threshold you set based on the pet’s happiness.
The icon that you see most of the time is a small one. It contains a lot of info, however. From left to right: A pet icon that contains the level of your pet, as well as a level bar (which you can’t see in the pic because my pet had so little XP into it’s current level). The current happiness level of your pet, with a loyalty bar, and finally, a food button that shows the next food your pet will eat, and the total number of food items you have allocated for your pet. In the example pic, I have 63 food items, NOT necessarily 63 apples.
By clicking on the mini-bar, you can bring up the main PetFeeder window, and this is where the configuration can begin. One nice thing this add-on offers is the ability to turn itself off. That way, you can choose to feed your pet on your own terms, if the need arises.
The FOODS tab is where you get a list of all consumables in your bags, and are then able to approve, or ‘dislike’ a particular food for your pet. By clicking on a consumable item, it will ask you if it is approved or not, and you can then approve it. Don’t worry, if your pet doesn’t like a particular food, it will move it to the ‘unliked foods’ tab automatically for you.
You can also set your happiness threshold that you want your pet to maintain as well as tell it to not use your food that provides you with buffs, a nice extra.
The approved foods tab is exactly that, your list of approved foods. To remove a food from the approved list, just click it, and it moves to the ‘unliked’ list.
Finally, there is the unliked foods tab, which is simply a list of all of the consumables that your pet won’t eat, including the one’s you approved, but your pet chose not to eat.
It’s a pretty basic add-on with a lot of power. When you press the FEED PET button, it will feed your pet up to the threshold that you had set. Pretty nifty. No more multiple clicks for hours on end.
All in all, I found this to be a very useful add-on. There wasn’t any documentation with it, and the description on the download site left a lot to be desired. For instance, when you get a new pet, it starts going through your consumables as little icons on the screen, that you must click through to approve or disapprove. It took a minute to figure that out, and is still somewhat confusing, considering I end up coming into these screens to reconfigure everything anyway. Perhaps just a simple ‘You have a new pet, configure PetFeeder?’ dialog would be better.
You can grab it here.
I give it 3 and a half Murlocs. It’s a basic add-on that is slightly confusing, yet still very helpful. It would benefit from a help text, or readme file included within the zip.